Embers Ad Infinitum

Chapter 5 “Stars” (recommendation ticket)

Long Yuehong opened his mouth and seemed to want to persuade:

“… “

Shang Jianyao sits for a while, puts on the dinner plate, walks to the exit, and hands all the things in his hands to the cafeteria staff on duty there.

Outside the “material supply market”, rays of light are scattered from the ceiling in orderly intervals by fluorescent lamps, illuminating the road leading to the rest of the floor. Employees of different ages and genders are in small Gather together in groups, or go to the “activity center”, or return home with a group, or watch the children running and playing endlessly.

Shang Jianyao walked between them, and quickly left Area C, passed through a street with walls filled with graffiti, and entered Area B where the rooms are more dense.

In the vast majority of the “living area” of this underground building, there is no concept of architecture. The employees only live in rooms, not houses. Many people who work in the “inner ecological zone” and have seen real beehives often compare themselves with this.

However, the aisles in the rows of rooms are very spacious, paved with milk-white smooth stone bricks, which can accommodate at least five or six people side by side.

This is mandatory by the company, and it is said to deal with certain emergency situations and avoid congestion at critical moments.

Shang Jianyao walked for a while and saw his own room.

It has no difference in appearance from the left, right and opposite rooms. The walls are pure black and have a certain degree of reflection. It seems that it has several points of deep, and the wooden door is red and brown. It is a small four-panel window.

The only thing that allows Shang Jianyao to confirm that this room belongs to him is the white number on the door:

“No. 196”.

No. 196, Area B, Floor 495.

Shang Jianyao put his hand into his trouser pocket, took out a brass-colored key, inserted it into the lock of the same color, and twisted it gently.

In the clicking sound, Shang Jianyao pressed the doorknob with his other hand and pushed forward to open the door.

The door only opened halfway and then stopped because the back of it was against Shang Jianyao’s stove.

This is a two-meter-wide, three-meter-deep, and four-meter-high room. A wooden bed that barely allows Shang Jianyao to straighten his legs when sleeping is placed horizontally on the innermost side, the foot of the bed and the wall Only a gap of less than 10 cm was left. Of course, no furniture can be placed here, but expansion screws are embedded on the wall, and two sets of monotonous and simple clothes are hung.

Next to them, there is a separate sink with half a piece of plastic film. On the other side of the sink is a stove with a fume pipe on the top and a cabinet below it.

For the existence of these two supporting facilities, Shang Jianyao has always been very satisfied, because not all rooms will have them.

This underground building really has too many floors and too many people live. No matter the elevator, the ventilation system, the drainage system, the energy supply system, they all face the test of terrifying, so not only There are many parts of the elevator, which are divided into different areas and can only lead to the corresponding certain floors. Moreover, the ventilation system and the drainage system are also divided into sub-systems. Every 15 floors or specific number of floors share a sub-system. .

In this way, even if there is a failure, it will only affect a part of the area and will not cause the overall collapse.

Among them, in order to stabilize the drainage system, only a small part of the large number of rooms built by the company are connected to pipelines.

Many employees have to line up to wash outside the public toilets in their “blocks”. At night and early in the morning, when the energy supply is insufficient, many floors in the living area are very cold.

It is the dream of many employees to finish washing without going out, wrapped in a quilt.

On the other side of the door, under the four-panel windows, there is a fairly solid red lacquered wooden table on which is piled many books, a black absorbent pen and a bottle of the same color ink.

At this time, the “street lamp” rays of light on the ceiling of the street passed through the window and sprinkled on the table, making the text on the surface of the book barely visible.

If it is not right between the two fluorescent lamps and the lighting effect is not good, Shang Jianyao can complete the reading without wasting energy quotas.

The wooden table has its own cabinet, and behind it is a back chair painted with brown-red paint and mottled traces. Behind the back chair are two stools that are about to fall apart. They seem to be supporting the so-called “living room”.

Behind this “living room” is the horizontal wooden bed.

Shang Jianyao didn’t turn on the lights in the room because he didn’t have much energy rationing, so he had to save a bit.

After removing the key and closing the door, Shang Jianyao walked through the area illuminated by the street light and walked to the dark bedside.

He picked up the pillow stuffed with cereal shells, put it upright against the wall, then leaned on it, lying half-sit down.

In this position, Shang Jianyao saw the electric wok and rice cooker on the stove at a glance.

They are rusty on the surface and seem to have been used for many, many years.

Since Shang Jianyao has the memory, they have been in his own home: one was brought back from the remains of a certain city in the old world when the father participated in the external operation of the “Ministry of Security”. He wanted this item , Gave up other spoils of war allocated by the company, and the other is that after Shang Jianyao’s mother got married, she saved a contribution point for a long time, and exchanged it from the small market-the new products of the “material supply market” will be a lot more expensive, and There is always insufficient supply.

This room is not the home in Shang Jianyao’s memory. He remembers that his original home was at No. 28 in Area A on this floor. There were two rooms, one large and one small, and a very narrow bathroom. .

This allows Shang Jianyao to avoid queuing in public toilets when he was young, and to smell the strong smell.

However, the suite was taken back by the company after his father disappeared and his mother died, and was re-allocated to qualified employees. Now this suite is newly assigned to him when he was admitted to the university and left the orphanage. of.

In order to save energy, these rooms that were separated later were not equipped with electronic locks. Instead, they used various ordinary locks removed from the remains of the old world city. In addition, the internal factory also produced some.

Shang Jianyao moved his gaze randomly, looking at the wooden table by the window.

He heard his mother say that this was the meeting when she and father just got married. Father bought back wood from the “material supply market” and made it by himself.

The wooden table and the clothes made by Shang Jianyao mother in the cabinet below it, together with the two electrical appliances, were returned to him after being managed by the orphanage for three years.

However, Shang Jianyao can no longer wear those clothes in the cabinet.

Shang Jianyao closed his eyes, raised his right hand, and squeezed his left and right temples.

He immediately put down his palm and maintained his current posture, without any further movement.

The whole room became extremely quiet, and the feeling of darkness seemed to grow deeper.

Shang Jianyao lay there, as if he had fallen asleep.

…………

Shang Jianyao eyes opened, not surprisingly, I saw a wide and empty hall.

This is bigger than the entire “material supply market”.

The hall all around is a black wall shimmering with metallic luster, giving people a cold feeling, the upper part is dim, and the top is not visible, I don’t know how high it is.

In this dimness, there are countless bright spots of light. They slowly turn, seem to form a dreamy river sprinkled with diamonds.

Shang Jianyao was once again shocked by this scene, unable to describe the situation in words.

He can only think of the Starry-Sky Diagram that Teacher used the display to show everyone when he first entered university.

That was the first time he saw the stars.

And now, he seems to be among the stars.

In the center of the hall, the “starlight” is scattered and condensed into a fuzzy silhouette.

This silhouette has two hands spread out, maintaining strict symmetry, as if imitating a balance.

The voice of “he” resounded hollowly and echoed throughout the hall, as if conveying the enlightenment given by the “stars”:

“One price, three gifts.”

“One price, three gifts…”

PS: Ask for a recommendation ticket~

(End of this chapter)