Secret 1

Chapter 17
After finishing speaking, they took their daughter back to the building, while Qian Mozheng stood there blankly.When Yang Mou and Yu Ling passed by him, they said softly: "It's probably a couple quarreling again, right?"

The first group returned to the room on the second floor. When the left behind saw the tired expressions of the four people, they knew that they had returned empty-handed.Only Elena asked with American innocence: "Have you found the satellite equipment?"

Qian Mozheng's face was stern: "Don't mention it!"

Tang Xiaotian threw herself into Yang Mou's arms again, seeing that his whole body was soaked, she hurriedly dragged him to the bathroom to change clothes.The Frenchman Henry couldn't understand what they said, so he could only continue to sit in the room in a daze.The established couple watched their daughter closely, and couldn't let Qiuqiu run around anymore.

A few minutes later, the team of Sun Zichu, Lin Junru and Li Shu came back.

The expressions of the three of them were very natural, as if they were quite successful, which ignited Yi Lianna's enthusiasm: "What did you find?"

Before Sun Tzuchu had time to drink his saliva, he took out a large map from his bag and spread it on the spacious coffee table in the living room.

"Map of Nanming!"

Qian Mozheng was the first to call out, and Tong Jianguo and Yuling, who had changed their clothes from the next room, also moved their heads over.In a blink of an eye, the coffee table was crowded with people, and even Henry, who didn't understand Chinese, looked at it seriously.

This is the urban traffic map of the entire Nanming, surrounded by a circle of green mountains, surrounded by an irregular circular basin, and the urban buildings are unfolded in this basin.The map is full of dense streets, buildings are marked with red squares, urban green spaces and parks are light green, and the surrounding dark green is the natural forest.The text on the map is in traditional Chinese, marking almost every street, as well as some major buildings and places.

The north-south direction is marked in the upper right corner of the map, and the lower end of the map is the entrance they entered the city yesterday.Sun Tzuchu's finger went up the street and turned to the right at the first crossroads. After moving only two centimeters, he took out a red pen and drew a dot: "This is where we are now!"

Qian Mo, who often lives in the wild, nodded frequently: "Great! This map is very important to us, it can prevent us from getting lost outside, and it can also help us fully understand the city."

"I found the TV station building!"

Tong Jianguo knelt on one leg in front of the coffee table, scribbling on the map with his fingers, like a soldier looking at a battle map. He almost didn’t put a sand table model on it—at the top of the map, which is just north of the entire city, there is a The three Chinese characters "TV station" are printed in the red square.

"Usually I don't feel the function of the map when I travel, but now it has become our treasure!"

Now it is Li Shu who is talking, and he often travels abroad, and he starts to regret why he didn't collect more maps, maybe he can have more fun.

Sun Tzuchu said proudly: "Our group has gained the most. There are only seven maps of Nanming in the bookstore. I packed them all in my bag and brought them back. Everyone should keep these maps carefully, and don't give them away. It’s broken, and it must not be lost!”

Then he glanced back again: "Hey, why hasn't Ye Xiao's group come back yet?"

Six o'clock in the evening.

Ye Xiao, Ding Ding, and Tu Nan from the second group have not yet returned.

The "base camp" couldn't wait any longer. Although Sun Tzuchu repeatedly objected, they still started dinner lively.Huang Wanran was still the head chef, with Tang Xiaotian and Lin Junru as the assistants.

After a few 10 minutes, the food was ready. Although it was not as sumptuous as in the restaurant, it made people who had been on tenterhooks for the past few days temporarily forget the dangers all around them.Huang Wanran heard praises again, but under her husband's gloomy gaze, she lowered her head and dared not say a word.

The first group and the third group exchanged their experiences in the afternoon, especially when Yang Mou mentioned that the thunder, which destroyed the TV tower and satellite receiver and almost killed them, everyone couldn't help being shocked. In a cold sweat.

Lin Junru patted her heart and said, "It seems that our team is still very lucky."

After the candlelight dinner, everyone counted the number of people, and now there are thirteen people in the room.Sun Tzuchu didn't eat well at all, he said anxiously: "Three of us haven't come back yet, how lucky are you to still be able to eat?"

Tong Jianguo patted him on the shoulder: "We are all in a hurry, but we must be full before we can think of a way."

But Sun Tzuchu pushed his hand away: "I think you are the most sure! An old guy of unknown origin."

"Well, I'm the oldest in the tour group, so it's not your turn to decide."

"What did you say?" Sun Tzu Chu immediately stood up angrily, "What if Ye Xiao and the others have any troubles? You will lead us out of the encirclement logically?"

Li Shu immediately grabbed his arm and said with a wry smile: "At this critical moment, the dozen of us have to help each other. Instead of blaming each other and fighting in the nest, why don't we sit down and think of a solution together."

Only then did Sun Zichu sit down angrily, and Lin Junru handed him a cup of hot water knowingly.

"Okay, although Ye Xiao, Ding Ding and Tu Nan haven't come back yet, we can't just wait and waste time." Yi Lianna then said it again in English, as if it was specifically for Henry, and finally used Chinese said, "Let's think about the current situation first."

The American girl's words made the room quiet, and everyone seemed to be bowing their heads in thought, why did they come here?Why did all this happen?Is this my destiny?Or an episode in life?

Suddenly, Qian Mozheng said loudly: "We are indeed trapped, trapped in an empty city. This city is called Nanming. It is located in the mountains of northern Thailand, surrounded by deep mountains and jungles on all sides. We have lost our comrades. All connections outside, forced to live in houses where the owner is not at home, living on food left over from a year ago. We don't know what else is hiding here, maybe in the countless buildings in this city, every room is Each has its own story, each had or still has its own owner. Now, the first question I want to know is, why is this city empty?"

After the last sentence rang, the entire tour group fell silent.This question is both too important and too difficult to answer.All eyes were on Qian Mozheng. He tied up his long hair at the back of his head, and changed from Qi Qin to a power train.

"Let me tell you what I think!" The establishment suddenly said, which surprised everyone, "It's very simple, everyone in this city is dead."

After he finished speaking, he let out a long sigh of relief, and held his wife's hand tightly, while Huang Wanran's complexion became even uglier.

"This is the simplest and most stupid idea!" Qian Mozheng competed with him, "They all died? How did they die? Who did it? You must know that according to the size of this city, at least 10,000+ people have lived here. People! Is there any demon with such a great ability to kill 10,000+ casually?"

"Could it be a neutron bomb? When I walked through the streets of this city in the afternoon, I had this feeling faintly. It seems that this place has experienced a special nuclear war. For example, a neutron bomb can keep buildings intact, but All life will be wiped out in an instant."

Sun Zichu also joined the battle group, it seems that he is always restless.

"At least there are cats! Have you forgotten our experience in the hospital at noon?"

It was Lin Junru who spoke, and when she thought of the corpses she saw in the mortuary, she felt so sick in her stomach that she wanted to vomit.

"It's not the plague, is it?"

The American girl Elena stood up again, and then she read out the names of a large list of viruses and bacteria in English, and finally the famous SARS in 2003.

Everyone was silent for a long time. Yang Mou was holding a DV to record this important discussion from beginning to end. He finally couldn't help but interjected: "Continue to discuss!"

"This possibility cannot be ruled out!" Li Shu agreed with Elena's opinion, "The destruction of many famous ancient civilizations in history was actually due to the attack of the plague, which killed most of its residents, and the city has since become ruins. "

Established but interrupted him rudely: "It's already the 21st century, how is it possible?"

"I used to be a doctor, and indeed there are still many unknown viruses and bacteria, which may bring mankind into an instant catastrophe."

Huang Wanran said it calmly, as if slapping her husband.Cheng Cheng looked back in surprise, only to get his wife's indifferent eyes.

"Wait a minute, have you ever watched an American TV series when you were young, it seems to be called "The Lion King", it said that there is a world underground in New York, and many people live in the underground space."

Sun Tzuchu came up with his second reasoning.

Secretary Li mentioned the American TV series, and raised his glasses in surprise: "You mean that the residents of Nanming City have all turned to live underground?"

"It's possible, maybe they're right under our feet—" Sun Tzuchu made a silent gesture, pointed to the ground with an exaggerated expression, and said quietly, "Eavesdrop on our conversation?"

"Nonsense!"

Established and cursed contemptuously.

However, Sun Tzuchu still said to himself: "There is another possibility that the residents of Nanming City have collectively become invisible. They all drank the invisibility potion so that we cannot see them. In fact, they live next to us."

"Ah?" Lin Junru looked into his eyes in fear, as if there was a local resident standing behind him, holding a cup of coffee and smirking at her, "Go to hell!"

Li Shu felt that Sun Zichu was simply making trouble, or that he had read too many science fiction novels.Li Shu recently edited and published a set of Asimov's complete works, so he simply imagined: "Could it be encounters of the third kind?"

"Aliens? I will."

"Well, all the residents of the city were attacked by life forms from alien planets, and they were all hijacked into outer space by aliens."

The most depressing one was the Frenchman Henry. He stared blankly at the conversations of these people, and Elena could only translate to him word for word.When he heard Sun Tzuchu's final deduction, he couldn't help but think of another great Frenchman: Jules Verne.

Seeing that this debate about everyone's life and death has gradually evolved into a science fiction creation seminar, Tong Jianguo interrupted their nonsense loudly: "Okay, let me tell you the biggest possibility—we never came to the Nan Ming has not experienced all the things that have happened. At this moment, we are sitting in a mental hospital, imagining all this in our heads!"

Tong Jianguo’s conclusion is: the world does not exist, or the world exists in people’s hearts. By the same token, empty cities do not exist, or empty cities only exist in the hearts of tour group members.

In a nutshell: The entire tour group went crazy on their own.

crazy?

Maybe everyone is crazy.

According to normal logic and possibility, everything that happened here would not exist, but it is presented in an extremely real way.Then the only logic is that the observers themselves are crazy. What they observe is not the real existence, but the fantasy in their own minds.

Everyone in the silence looked at each other, the room seemed to be a lunatic asylum.

Suddenly, a hasty knock on the door broke the silence.

"Who?"

Sun Tzu Chu immediately shivered, remembering a novel known as the shortest in the world——

"When there was only one person left in the world, he heard someone knocking on the door outside the house."

Just when everyone was wondering and hesitating, Qian Mozheng carefully grabbed a stick and slowly opened the door.

A man in ragged clothes and mud was standing outside the door.

"Ghost!"

Some girl called softly, and everyone shrank nervously, Qian Mozheng also tried to calm down and said, "Hey, who are you?"

The person at the door was tall and his clothes had been torn to pieces, revealing his belly and thighs, like a beggar.Sun Tzuchu was thinking to himself, did the owner of this room come back?

Unexpectedly, the man wiped the mud off his face, revealing a pair of black eye circles, and everyone recognized him - Tu Nan!
He walked in trembling all over, and then the soles of his feet limp on the ground.

Qian Mozheng quickly grabbed him, Yuling poured him a cup of hot water, and Lin Junru wiped his face with a catty.Everyone was in a hurry for a while, and Tu Nan finally recovered.

He sat down on the sofa and panted heavily, staring at everyone with dull eyes, and then became extremely frightened again, as if he had just been tortured by SM from a BT person.

"Why did you come back alone?" Sun Zichu grabbed his shoulder and asked loudly, "Where are Ye Xiao and Ding Ding?"

Tu Nan's eyes shrank straight back, as if facing a fire-breathing dinosaur, the corners of his mouth trembled and he couldn't make a sound.

"Forget it." Elena said sympathetically, "He is already like this, he must have been overly frightened, don't provoke him any more."

Li Shu suddenly thought: "Ye Xiao and the others are outside?"

After that, he rushed out of the room quickly, with a terrible premonition that Ye Xiao and Ding Ding might have suffered more injuries, and Tu Nan, who was less injured, came back to ask for help.Sun Tzuchu also ran out with him. The two of them took flashlights to shine in the corridor, and then rushed out to the street outside.

It was past seven o'clock in the evening, and a new moon flickered among the clouds.The empty street was silent, and their BMW was still parked by the side of the road. Where was Ye Xiao?

I searched the vicinity carefully again, and finally had to return empty-handed in disappointment.

After returning to the room on the second floor, I realized that Tu Nan was able to speak: "I'm sorry... I... Ye Xiao and I... got separated..."

Yang Mou put down the DV and asked patiently, "Why did you get separated?"

"Found a girl...and a dog..."

"What? A girl and a dog?" Lin Junru also asked anxiously, "Are you a resident of this city?"

Tu Nan took another sip of water: "I don't know... But it must be a real person... She is holding a black umbrella... There is also a big wolf dog... The dog took us to the stadium..."

"stadium?"

Sun Zichu quickly spread out the map of Nanming and searched carefully, and sure enough, he found the marking of the stadium in the northwest corner of the city.

"Yes...it's a big stadium...Ye Xiao and Ding Ding ran in first...I ran too slowly...and fell into a ditch..."

Although these words were intermittent, everyone basically understood them.Especially when I heard about the existence of that mysterious girl, at least it proved that this place was not an absolute "empty city".Several people asked in unison: "And then?"

"Then--"

Tu Nan frowned and narrowed his eyes, as if he was looking at something in the distance. Tong Jianguo looked back carefully, and it was the shadow of a tree shaking outside the window.

"Speak quickly!"

"Then, I don't remember anything."

(End of this chapter)