Tired lights lingered outside the iron-colored rock walls, and heavy-duty trains rolled over the railway bridge, causing soot to fall into the air.
This soot was floating on its own, and the whirlwind stirred up by the dome's exhaust fan was calling to it and tearing at it, but this soot only wanted to fall into the mute light.
So it fell, fell, and the viaduct extending from the cave was intricately connected to the other end like a spider spinning a web. The moment it crossed the mesh, the blazing upward heat instantly ignited it into a spark.
It dragged the fireworks past the buildings of factories that seemed to be shrouded in frost and mist, and the worker ants busy around their nests, illuminating the dust on the worker ants' bodies to every detail.
It was burning, burning away all its mass.
This soot naturally turned into a plume of smoke and dissipated into the still throbbing updrafts.
"call out!!!"
The whistle sounded sharply, suddenly penetrating the icy air and the long queue of people on the road surrounding the mountain.
Three whistles sounded, and the shouts from the front of the crowd spread to the back of the line.
"Traffic control! Rest where you are!"
The motorcade on the mountain side of the highway was still rumbling forward. The poor-quality fuel caused the diesel engines to spew out thick, black and smelly exhaust gas, which floated like wisps of ink-colored phosphorus fire across the crowd, whether they were childish and elegant, young and old, or scarred. Qiujie's face.
They sat cross-legged but kept their chests straight, staring intently at the back brim of the previous comrade's cap, or at most wiggling their nostrils dully.
When phosphorus and fire join together, they become a dragon.
"Ahem~" Shen Rusong covered his fists and coughed a few times, which slightly relieved the sticky and sticky feeling in his throat.
He took off the water bottle at his waist, unscrewed it and drank some water to moisten his throat. He took out a crumpled half-pack of White Bird cigarettes from his trouser pocket, tapped the back of his comrade in front, handed him one, and opened it again. Lighter, two cigarettes lit up with a cluster of flames.
The cigarette butt glowed brightly, and his face looked very pale due to the long-term lack of sunlight. It was even more depressed when it was smoked by the white smoke.
Shen Rusong held the extremely red-burning cigarette butt between his two fingers. As he lowered his head, a piece of hair slid down the bridge of his nose with sparse chloasma and fell onto the small notebook he had just taken out of his breast pocket.
Shen Rusong opened the cap of the pen with his fingernails and flipped through dozens of pages. The tip of the pen touched the paper and wrote the number "2", but the pen suddenly stopped and he flipped through more than half of the page. page, he did not write on the back, but started a new page and carefully wrote a line of words——
"Monday, February 22nd, 103rd year of the Renaissance."
The sound of horns from far to near continues to circle in the valley. A new convoy is approaching the corner of the road. The frozen soil and mud that has not yet melted indicate that this is a descending convoy. The crowds who are about to step into the surface all turn their heads in silence. Looking at the khaki-uniformed personnel crowded in the back of the truck, the truck was covered with shadows on the inner mountain wall, and their eyes were gloomy under their helmets.
People going up and down passed each other without a single greeting.
Shen Rusong bit his pen, leaned over and asked, "Are these the infrastructure soldiers who have reached the rotation period?"
Before the comrades in front could speak, across the one-meter-wide walking path, a veteran with a beard with a few strands of silver replied in a deep voice: "These people are infrastructure soldiers suffering from radiation sickness."
The veteran turned his head and looked at Shen Rusong, who had a hesitant look on his face. The ravines were like mountains and his eyes were cloudy. The veteran said: "The base on the surface cannot cure their diseases, so we have to come down to treat them."
"Hey, kid." The veteran continued, looking at Shen Rusong coldly with his angular eyes.
"How old are you? Where will you serve?"
Shen Rusong subconsciously glanced at the identification tag in his collar. Under the gear shield emblem of the Renaissance Army, these three lines were engraved: "Shen Rusong; Worker 106684398A;".
Seeing Shen Rusong's actions, the veteran just smiled slowly. He glanced at the military policeman who was walking by with a gun on his back. His mouth was open and closed with jagged teeth.
"Ah, engineer, engineer is good."
The "click" sound of the military police's leather boots when they hit the ground rhythmically sounded and fell briefly, and the rustling words mixed with the distant rumble of the wheels, settling in this narrow world. The discolored green of Shen Rusong's blouse is distinct from the earthy yellow one meter away.
Shen Rusong smoked another cigarette and said nothing. The pen circled the paper a few meaningless times and finally wrote: "Today is a big day, leaving the surface of the earth..."
The tip of the pen rests on the paper for a long time, and the pen oil smudges.
[The day I officially entered service. 】
[When I left the Underground City Sergeant Academy yesterday, I thought it would only take an afternoon at most to reach the entrance elevator. After all, the Chang'an District Underground City is only 1,600 meters straight from the surface, and the nearest direct road is about 11 kilometers long. 】
[When we reached Huining District, the rotating soldiers together did not stop and continued walking, while we cadets went to the warehouse to pick up a lot of additional chemical protection equipment, including composite lead-lined smocks, gloves, vests, and riding boots. , and what should be the recently installed Type 30 gas masks, a few life-sustaining kits of unknown models, and a functional watch. 】
Shen Rusong held a cigarette in his mouth, and while writing, he reached into the inner pocket of his smock. Behind the thick radiation-proof lead lining, he pinched a dusty pill from the small open paper bag.
After blowing out a smoke ring, Shen Rusong looked back at the team. Countless soldiers sitting on the ground were whispering. Wherever the military police wearing silver breastplates walked, there was sudden silence.
Shen Rusong shook his head, picked up the cigarette with his fingers, threw the pills into his mouth, and bit them into pieces. A powdery and greasy taste rose in his mouth. He was very familiar with this taste.
The taste of vitamin tablets.
In the sunless underground, tens of millions of Alliance citizens depended on a small, inferior vitamin tablet.
The team stopped for a long time, long enough for Shen Rusong to light another cigarette and continue writing his diary.
[These equipments, I don’t know if this is a sign of love for the cadets or something else. Listening to the chat between the instructor and the warehouse chief, if you are a serious military cadet, your equipment will need to be upgraded a few levels. To be honest, I'm not jealous. The weight I carry on my back is already heavy enough. The more I wear it, the higher the radiation. 】
[After turning off the lights yesterday, Gao Datou asked me how high the surface radiation value was. I said, 'It makes no sense to ask this. You should ask what the 'radiation level' and 'quarterly absorbed radiation' are. Then he really asked me that. It made me laugh, it must be a little less than the 1500 millisieverts prescribed for radiation protection. 】
[When talking about radiation, I think of the past. One hundred and three years ago, in 1981, before all-out nuclear war began, was there really almost no radiation on the earth's surface? Can you eat and drink as much as you want without getting radiation sickness? I have talked with my classmates countless times about what the golden age was like in the past. But how can you imagine something you have never experienced? 】
[Originally, we agreed not to talk about such unlucky things about radiation on the last day, so Da Tou started talking about where those female classmates were. I knew what he wanted to say, it was just that he couldn’t bear to leave his sweetheart. 】
[So I advised him not to think about women and go to bed quickly. After all, even if it happened, you have to be 25 before you are allowed to get married. This is not before the war, nor is it 1981, it is 2083, and you have to be 10 years old. The saying that you can get married at eight years old]
Shen Rusong dusted off the cigarette ashes and glanced outside the highway railing. It was pitch black and there was nothing there.
He climbed up quickly and stuck his head out. A few steps away, there was a cliff. A hundred meters down, he saw the dim lights dotted in Jinping District, just like the age spots on the face of the veteran just now.
Shen Rusong held on to the railing and looked at the Jinping District below him. Somewhere in this city where four million people lived, there was his home. Deep in the crowded buildings, there is the home and family that he has longed for.
Looking down at the lights like this for the first time, Shen Rusong suddenly thought of the starry sky in the movie and the oil painting called "Starry Sky"... But this is the starry sky inverted, with the stars below and the sky above.
There was a crisp echo from the long mountain road, as if someone was tapping on the railing made of pig iron, "ding~ding~ding" in the distance. Shen Rusong shook his head, placed his diary on the slope of the railing, and started writing.
[When I left Huining District in the morning, the boundary marker was 650 meters underground. I walked for almost two hours, almost ten kilometers away, and I still couldn’t see the top. It was either a tunnel bridge or a track bridge above. I was very surprised what the road was like. Those who cultivate can get around like this. 】
[Maybe this repair will help air circulation? Probably yes, the air here is indeed much cleaner than that in Chang'an District. Is it because the exhaust system is nearby? 】
[I think it won’t be long before I smell the air on the surface and the natural wind. What does it smell like? What does it feel like? 】
Shen Rusong chuckled crookedly, what does it feel like? Maybe remember the feeling for a lifetime?
Loose cigarette ash fell into the binding line of the diary. Shen Rusong stopped writing and brushed the paper, slightly relaxing his wrist that was sore from sketching. The handwriting on the notebook was so scrawled that only he could understand what ghost symbols he had written.
[But, what I want to know most is the ground, the surface! What's left? what else? What would I do if I went to the deserted surface? 】
He looked deeply in the direction of his home, which was actually not too far away. He even saw the high and flashing lights of the Central Broadcasting Tower. He closed his diary and opened it, looking up at the dome where the artificial sun hung. The dim light Falling in his deep black eyes.
How could he not know the answer?
The last vertical line of the stroke passed through the bottom of the word "Zou" and crossed most of the diary paper. He pursed his lips tightly, and the answer he had read, read, and firmly remembered echoed repeatedly in his heart.
revival! reconstruction!
The crowd at the front seemed to be moving, but the road was embedded in the mountains. In the mountains underground, although Shen Rusong could see the road through the mist, only two-quarters of an hour had passed by his time.
Military vehicles passed by one after another, setting off a gust of wind that blew away the unburned cigarette butts, passing over the burning soot and falling into the endless darkness.
In this hollowed-out mountain, home to countless citizens, with a gentle breeze, sparks can spread throughout the underground city, throughout the seven underground cities in Dalong Mountain, and throughout the glorious capital of the Alliance.
[Black soil, gray snow, ruins, aliens, bandits, beasts... I trained in the military academy for three years in order to survive on the surface, defeat all enemies, clean up the country, and rebuild the motherland. 】
[From textbooks to posters and radio broadcasts, everyone says that eternal spring flourished on the surface of the earth. Will that be our home in the past? 】
[It’s been 101 years, so counting, it should be my great-grandpa’s home. 】
The tip of the pen penetrated the page, leaving traces, and Shen Rusong wrote furiously.
[This land has always been visited by generations of people, our ancestors, our fathers, and ours! One day, we will return to the beautiful world before the war. One day, our descendants will not have to be born in darkness, but will be born in light! Born to bathe in the sunshine! 】
The street lights were dim, and the young man raised his head, tilted his head, pursed his thin lips, and had a firm gaze, even though he was surrounded by signs with peeling paint, murals that were no longer bright, and undecorated buildings in the small station. Cement stool.
Groups of young people formed a long queue and walked through the road that Shen Rusong was going to walk at this time.
He didn't even blink.
[I have enjoyed my rights for twenty years, and now it is my turn to fulfill my obligations. Although the world on earth is dilapidated and full of dangers, it is always our land, the land that our ancestors worked hard to pass on to us, and we still want to leave it to us. The next generation, and the next, and forever. 】
[I hope that when the sun rises, the cold earth of our motherland will be scalded with the passion of our generation. 】
The whistle finally sounded, still sharp and loud.
"Stand up!" the officers in front of the queue shouted, and the crowd stood up like a rising sea without moving their gaze.
After the second whistle, Shen Rusong stood in the queue, with a pair of black and white eyes under his helmet. Behind him and before him, there were all soldiers walking in place.
After the whistle blew three times, the sound of footsteps echoed heavily in the valley. The crowd rose and fell like waves, moving forward. They walked towards the place where the sun really rises!
I wish that when the sun rises, the cold earth of our motherland will be scalded with the passion of our generation!
"The control is over, let's move forward again!"
When the shouting reached its peak, Shen Rusong stuffed the diary back into his breast pocket, stood upright with his feet together.
When he raised his head, the divine light in his light brown almond-shaped eyes merged with the dazzling beam of light that hit him, drowning out the outline of his face, and then passing by thousands of people who were also walking behind him. Winding road, people moving forward.
"Our home is in the sunny land
There, the land is vast and the sky is endless
Lush water and grass
And the endless
Civilization treasure
Our home is on the sunny land
There are my ancestors and compatriots there
And the roaring river. "
Humming a familiar tune from an old song in a low voice, Shen Rusong continued to move forward in unison with the silent team.
The ascending tunnel passed through it, and when the team followed the last railway bridge that was stained by soot to the end, everything suddenly became clear.
Under the nine main ring-shaped support columns is a vast dispatching yard. When anyone looks up at the support columns, they are all shocked to think of what the "Optical Jade Pillar" is. A huge and dense railway network surrounds each support column, forming a The vast capital traffic dispatch center.
The steam emitted by dozens or hundreds of trains rose high together with the accumulated moisture, turning into water droplets, moistening people's cheeks. The artificial light pouring down from the dome made the rain curtain shine brightly and beautifully, unlike the human world.
Tianmen!
Countless soldiers, workers, and clerks were walking along the planned route to the final lifting platform.
Shen Rusong did not look around in amazement like the others. His eyes followed the mecha airborne troops as they passed by, past the huge snow mining winch, and looked towards the farthest distance.
He raised his head, the light went away, and Shen Rusong's entire field of vision was occupied by the lifting platforms that slowly rose and fell, taking away the underground and bringing them to the surface.
That is the only path to the surface.
The cold rain streaked across the helmet brim as heavy as pine, and the headlights of the flatbed trailers next to the team pierced the pattering rain, illuminating everyone's faces.
The statues of great men between the circular supporting pillars have deep eyes and look down with their hands waving. The water vapor on the dome mixes with the guiding red light outside the stone slogans.
So, there is a rainbow.
An underground rainbow hanging in the sky.
The instructor who led the team strode to the front of the team, the leather brim of the military cap was gleaming with cold light, the assembly sentry was sharp, and he shouted:
"Everyone has it!"
"stand at attention!"
The heels were pressed together, the leather boots clattered together, and the rain dyed the color-changing camouflage uniforms of the cadets dark green. At the highest point of the dome, the magnificent stone carvings across everyone's field of vision, the line of words carved on the Tianmen, resounded.
"Keep fighting, strengthen production, unite as one, and rejuvenate the motherland."
The instructor shouted: "Look to the right~Qi!"
The team all turned their heads. As their heads shook, water droplets suddenly flew away along the stubble. With a "snap", Shen Rusong's eyes were hidden under the ink, leaving only the divine light.
The tires and tracks beside him were passing by loudly, but he still held his head high, looking where he saw the giant statue with arms spread out that had stood for countless years.
"Look forward!"
The water flowed over the uppers of the boots, and the water dropped like water and never stopped.
Shen Rusong held the gun belt with one hand, and his elbow touched the folding engineer shovel on his waist. Heavy backpacks filled with combat engineer equipment, fight, rebuild!
The instructor glanced at the 500 graduates from the First Sergeant Academy of the Engineer Corps of the Renaissance Army in the audience. This is the new blood of the Renaissance Army and the future backbone of the Renaissance Army.
They lubricate the huge, sophisticated, and complicated war machine of the Ba'ath Army. They are the operators of nails, screws, bullets, rifles, tanks, and fighter planes, and even part of it.
Many of them will be sacrificed on the surface and buried on the ground. They will have no light when they are born, but they will have light when they die.
The moon is the brightness of my hometown. This is not a great fate and luck.
"Have a moment and report the count!"
When the sound of the count passed through the end of the team, the first-ranked cadet strode forward: "Report to the instructor, there should be 500 people, but there are actually 500 people. Please give instructions!"
The rain also made the instructor's helmet jingle. Behind him, a two-thousand-ton lift platform broke through the water curtain and crashed out like a dragon. Although it is insignificant compared to the large freight platform, in the deepest secrets of Longshan, the magnificent machinery and fusion reactor are like the mythical blue dragon, which has not yet awakened and has not been seen by anyone.
Just like compared to Kunlun, Longshan is not worth mentioning.
But don’t worry about the sky, and cover the soles of your boots with mud!
In the mist, the instructor's shouts trembled and fell into people's ears without any loss.
"Everyone is covered, wear chemical protective clothing!"
The backpack hit the side of his boots. Shen Rusong untied the smock that wrapped the life-sustaining components, put on the vest, gloves, crotch protectors and boot covers with anti-radiation effect. He took out the medicine box he carried with him, swallowed a piece of potassium iodide, and put on the smock. Above, a rifle without a magazine was hidden between his ribs.
He tied the rope collar, and finally connected the gas mask to the already heavy helmet. Through the grille of the sight glass, the world became darker and darker, and the sound of his own heartbeat could be heard clearly.
Water splashed across the black blouse.
On his walkie-talkie, the distant voice of the instructor came:
"Comrades! From now on, I will no longer call you classmates. When you ascend to the Heavenly Gate and step onto the surface of the earth, you will be soldiers! Like-minded Renaissance Army soldiers who fight and build side by side!"
The gear-shaped wheat-ear flags fluttered in the heavy rain, not losing any of their purple color.
"Many of you will remain on the surface forever in the future and be buried with honor! But remember! The cause of rejuvenation of the motherland is due to your achievements. Your names will be remembered by others and will be engraved on stone tablets and praised forever!"
"Perseverance!"
"fighting!"
"Fearless!"
"revival!"
The lift platform lowered, and the next group of tracked all-terrain vehicles drove in, loaded with heavy machine guns, mortars, mines, and high explosives. Mountain soldiers in snow-white cloaks guarded the wheels, with their thumbs on the triggers, watching silently. New recruits about to ascend to the surface.
The no longer young instructor held the signboard tightly and raised it. The gear shield and sword emblem on the front alternated with the personal number on the back. The line of motto was also engraved on it, surrounding the center.
"Keep fighting and revive the motherland!" At first one person shouted, and after a heartbeat, thousands of people shouted.
The green light on the lift platform flashed brightly, signaling the personnel to board.
"Everyone is here, let's go together!"
The thin layer of water was stepped on by pairs of military boots before it flowed to the sink, and the loud rumbles had already resounded in every corner of this century-old underground city.
Loyalty, only loyalty.
When the gate fell, Shen Rusong, who was standing on the lifting platform, was level with the stone carvings that he could only see when he looked up. Shen Rusong saw the craftsmen carving new names. Never before had this moment, the surface, the light, the white snow, and the fallen. The heroic spirit is so close to him.
He looked at the sky, only the black torrential rain curtain never cleared.
