"...What do you mean, smoking can shorten your life by a few years?"
"Yes," the middle-aged man nodded calmly, "My ideal life span is 82 years old."
Immediately afterwards, the middle-aged man began to talk about her great-grandmother, and how an old man managed 260 hectares of fertile land by himself with the help of farming machines left over from the golden age... However, Hesta had no intention of listening.
She bowed down and held her forehead with some tiredness.
Just a few dozen minutes ago, Hestad was quite fond of this woman he met by chance in the exhibition hall. At that time, her conversation and behavior were so elegant and mysterious, as if she was a dangerous visitor from another world... And Not as annoying as it is now.
But the whole thing makes a lot of sense when you think about it a little bit: What normal person would suddenly talk loudly in a quiet exhibition hall? Perhaps everything can be attributed to the dim lights in the exhibition hall, the sound of wind, the chirping of insects, and the reflection of the giant silver banyan tree... They all together form a poetic and heavy filter.
"Your feet..." Hesta ruthlessly interrupted the middle-aged man's chatter, "What's going on?"
The middle-aged woman raised her eyebrows lightly, as if Hesta's question opened up another topic that fascinated her. She smiled and put her hands on her knees, "Oh, this is for motorcycle wrestling. I was planning to Leaping over a twenty-meter broken bridge, the result was—"
"...I mean your electronic shackles," Hesta interrupted the middle-aged man's ramblings again. She was a little unsure whether this person was deliberately rambling or really didn't understand the question just now - after all At this moment, the middle-aged man's face is full of enthusiasm and sincerity.
"You don't seem to be surprised at all that chelates and mercury needles appear here," Hesta whispered, "Who are you?"
"...I really want to tell you, with nothing to hide," the middle-aged man also lowered his voice, "but to be honest, I don't seem to have the right to talk about this - otherwise my sentence will not be reduced."
"You are also a passenger on the Shengming, right?"
"Yes, I have wanted to ride on this ship for many years," she looked at the dock where the Shengming was located in the distance. "I never expected to be able to catch up with its last voyage. It is such a wonderful fate... Don't you think so?" "
"Did you also receive the 'Instructions for Boarding'?"
"Of course, but there is no need to pay attention to such inexplicable rules——"
"Can I see your original 'Instructions'?" Hesta asked. "Do you have it with you?"
"Take it with you." The middle-aged man casually took out an envelope from his big pocket and handed it to Hesta. Just as Hesta was about to reach out, a ship card fell out of the envelope.
Hesta tried to catch it in the air, but his movement was still a beat slow. The ship's card fell to the ground with a "snap", causing a burst of dust.
Hesta immediately picked it up and handed it back to the middle-aged man, "You should put this thing away."
"Thank you." The middle-aged man accepted the boat card with a smile, "A warm-hearted little girl."
Hesta pretended to accidentally open the original copy of the middle-aged man's "Instructions" - there was nothing on the back of the piece of paper, with no writing at all.
Hesta's eyes officially fell on the title in the upper left corner of the letter.
"Anna Sokolova...is that your name?"
"Yes."
"Are you from District 14?"
"Yes, North Fourteenth District." Anna looked at Hesta, "To a certain extent...should we be considered fellow villagers?"
Hesta smiled softly, and she quickly read through Anna's instructions - their rules were exactly the same, there were no differences.
"...I have never been to District 14," Hestad put the instructions back into the envelope, "and I have never met another Hestad."
"There are very few Hestads in the third district, at least I have never seen them. But when you get to the fourteenth district, you can disembark from the Vyborg port and go all the way west into the hinterland of the Blanck Plain... There are still people there... There are many Hestads in the diaspora - if you want to meet them."
"Okay thank you, I'll note it down."
"The port of Vyborg is very good. When I was a child, I liked to go there with my mother to unload cargo. It is about forty kilometers south. There is a garrison war monument at the southernmost end of the protruding land. Many people used to specialize in it. The person running there is a well-known scenic spot." Anna's voice slowed down, as if she was lost in memories, but soon her tone became brisk again, "No one in your generation knows about it."
"Viluchinsky Wasteland...the wasteland over there...is called that, isn't it?"
"It's a very retro name," Anna shrugged her left shoulder lightly, "Vyborg is the Vilyuchinsky Wasteland. It seems you have heard of it?"
"I've heard of it," Hesta murmured in a low voice, "I also know that there is a very famous saying on that monument..."
"Haha, it's not that famous."
A few seagulls flew noisily over their heads, and their chirping stopped the conversation for the time being. Both of them looked at the huge top of the Shengming in the distance, on the steel plank that stretched from the port hall to the ship. no one.
Several nearby escape passages began to become noisy. Passengers who had previously been stranded on the seabed were carrying their luggage and walking out of the stairs quickly. Everyone looked panicked and walked quickly.
Hesta's nerves were tense again. She looked nervously at the nearest exits. There was an endless stream of passengers, and there was no sign that the crowd would loosen up.
Suddenly, there was a dull loud noise underground, and the ground in the entire port shook slightly. Countless people screamed and started running towards the land.
Hesta tried to contact Chiba and Rico again, but the call was still not connected. She stood up and looked back at Anna, "Can you walk, Ms. Anna?"
"cannot."
Hesta pressed her suitcase into Anna's arms, "Help me take a look."
"Where are you going?"
Hesta did not answer. She staggered toward the store with a cane, and came back after a while pulling a blue iron trailer.
Hesta parked the trailer in front of Anna, "Come up, let's... board the ship."
Anna didn't ask any questions. She reached out and hugged Hestad's neck in cooperation, allowing the other party to half drag and half hug her onto the trailer's bed - which was also thoughtfully padded with some cardboard.
Hesta walked and rested, stopping every thirty or forty meters to take a breath. Halfway through, they passed a bulletin board. Hesta sat down in the shadow of the bulletin board with some exhaustion. Just for a while. , her close-fitting clothes were soaked.
Anna looked into the distance. The dock where the Shengming was located was indeed getting closer step by step. She could already see several crew members standing on the edge of the deck.
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