It's none of my business. I'm just a lunch box seller.

"Leader! You must believe me!"

Boss Cheng, however, looked unhappy and asked Zhou Zhezhi: "Is it that serious? Is it that serious? I have never sung in front of you. Do you need to do that?"

Zhou Zhe pointed at Boss Cheng and said seriously, "Don't think I don't know. Rogers told me that even though you were singing "The Most Dazzling National Style", except for the three words 'stay', you didn't sing a single word in tune! If it weren't for the fact that the pickup device on your power armor was broken by your singing, otherwise everyone would have heard the injuries that day!"

"Steve Rogers, you bastard!"

"A-choo!" The captain, who was playing Landlord in the apartment, picked up the air conditioner remote control and raised the room temperature by two degrees.

The team leader also understood Zhou Zhezhi's character and knew that he would never joke about such things. So, he asked Boss Cheng to sing a few lines without any technological assistance.

then……

"A big river with wide waves, the wind blowing the fragrance of rice flowers..."

"Stop! Stop it!"

The team leader who had just asked Boss Cheng to sing a few lines of the song now looked distressed and rubbed his temples, trying his best to suppress his brain nerves that were about to go out of control.

"Stop singing, really stop singing! If you continue singing we won't be able to remember the original tune!"

The other staff officer shook his head vigorously, as if trying to get rid of Boss Cheng's evil voice from his head. Then he walked to Zhou Zhezhi and patted him on the shoulder.

"I'm sorry. Xiao Zhou, you're right."

The team leader, who had successfully suppressed his nerves, came to the unhappy boss Cheng and kindly and earnestly advised him, "Comrade Cheng, no one is perfect. Some talent defects cannot be improved through hard work. Although your singing voice... in other areas, you have reached a height that others cannot reach."

After hearing the heartwarming words of comfort, Boss Cheng finally felt a little better.

The team's chief of staff placed the important task of "using singing as encrypted communication" on Zhou Zhezhi's shoulders.

"But Boss, I'm not very good at singing..."

At this time, a staff officer who was slightly older than Boss Cheng immediately spoke up for Zhou Zhezhi, saying that Zhou's singing skills were not much better than Boss Cheng's.

How to describe it?

In this small bridge, you can harvest both the dragon and the phoenix at the same time...

Sin!

Finally, after discussion, the staff unanimously decided that in order to ensure that the radio signals sent out could be identified as "songs", they would adopt a chorus approach to equalize the singing levels among individuals and prove that they had a lot of people on their side.

But even if they sing together, Boss Cheng and Zhou Zhezhi will not be included.

"Haha, you deserve it, you deserve it!"

A few minutes later, in the communications center of the underground city of New Chang'an, west of the former Ordos.

The night shift's communicators and communications monitors were as relaxed and leisurely handling communications information between New Chang'an and other underground cities as usual.

"Hey!" One of the correspondents stretched his waist, "The night shift is more relaxed, not as busy as the day shift."

"But I still like the day shift," said another correspondent as he turned a pencil. "The day shift is only six hours, with two shifts in the morning and afternoon. Isn't it better than the night shift, where you have to sit and work for 6 hours?"

"The night shift is easy! There's still time for small talk."

"Although the day shift is tiring, the rest time is also long."

Just when the communicators were arguing fiercely about "Which is better, the day shift or the night shift", a green light representing "signal access" suddenly lit up on a dedicated communication channel monitoring device located in the corner of the communication office hall, which had not received any messages for more than 200 years!

The next second, the red warning light on the ceiling of the office lobby began to flash, and the ancient recording of "Attention! Level 200 combat readiness message" was activated again after more than years!

"A big river with wide waves, the wind blows the fragrance of rice flowers on both sides. My home is on the bank, I am used to hearing the boatman's horn and seeing the white sails on the boats."

The singing that suddenly switched to the public broadcast mode in the office hall did not make everyone feel that the chorus' singing was unpleasant. Because everyone here knew that once the monitor made a sound, everyone who heard the singing must immediately report to their respective direct leaders!

Ten minutes later, the head of the communications department hurried to the old machine with a green light on. He sat down in front of the machine and began to look for the password list at the beginning of "A Great River" in a file book.

"Yes! That's it!"

Then, the person in charge turned on the transmitter, adjusted the microphone, and began to sing without caring whether his voice would be lost: "How warm, how kind, it lights up our hearts."

Ten seconds later, almost everyone heard the cheers of "Connected, connected" coming from the other end of the line. However, the cheers were quickly suppressed by a "silence".

Then, after a sound of “one, two, sing”…

"We must abide by the three major disciplines and never forget the eight points of attention. First, we must speak in a friendly manner, respect the masses and not be arrogant. Second, the transaction price must be fair, and we must not be overbearing in public transactions."

"What's going on? How dare you sing this song out of tune?"

"No, don't think about it! I just had a mouthful of phlegm stuck in my throat."

The communications manager of the New Chang'an Underground City couldn't help laughing after hearing the shouting on the other end of the communicator. But the other party obviously heard his laughter as well, and quickly shut up. The manager on this side also continued to sing:

"In the dense forest, there are campsites for comrades everywhere. On the high hills, there are countless good brothers of ours."

"We have crossed the mountains and plains, and crossed the surging Yellow and Yangtze Rivers. This vast and beautiful land is our dear homeland. The heroic people have stood up, and we are united and strong as steel!"

"You are... from the Capital General Staff? But this is impossible!"

"Yes, it is indeed impossible. We are the UNSC Supreme General Staff Headquarters Wasteland World Visiting Group, and we have been ordered to escort the surviving crew members of the Central XXXXX Navy Nuclear Submarine Force and the North Sea Fleet's Changjiangdong No. 31 Strategic Nuclear Submarine back to the motherland!"

The North Sea Fleet's Changjiangdong No. 3 strategic nuclear submarine?

Yangtze River-class strategic nuclear submarine!

"It's the nuclear strategic force before the war!" The person in charge, who suddenly realized that something big was going to happen, immediately ordered his subordinates: "Quick! Go and find the person in charge of the Navy Archives! Also, ask him to bring the information about the Yangtze River-class ships!"

However, when this employee went, he brought back more than one person in charge of the naval archives. All the generals and officers who were currently in the underground city of New Chang'an basically came. This even included the naval commander who had no navy!

The person who was talking to the other end of the line this time was none other than the naval commander who was over 70 years old.

"Report to the commander! Zhao Weiguo, captain of the strategic nuclear submarine No. 31 of the Changjiangdong of the North Sea Fleet, the nuclear submarine force of the Chinese XXXXX Navy!"

"First mate Cheng Guodong!"

"Chief Engineer Wang Kangmei!"

"Maintenance by Mechanic King!"

"Radar operator Zhao Dezhu!"

"Sonar operator Hong Guosheng!"

"Cook Feng Baolai!"

"All seven surviving crew members, request to return to the team!"

Navy Commander: "Agree to join the team."

"Welcome back to your motherland."

0210 Level in the late 70s

As we all know, cities with depleted resources and bankrupt heavy industries have basically no strategic value, let alone wasting nuclear bombs on such places. This is the case with Ordos, Jixi, Liaoyuan, Hualin, and Fushun. If you have the money to waste nuclear bombs in these places, why not save them and throw them in big cities like Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou?

Are you very angry?

But this is nuclear war.

The more value a city generates, the more value it has to be destroyed by a nuclear bomb. If you only have one nuclear bomb, would you rather destroy Manhattan in New York or drop it on Beckley in West Virginia?

Why are Vault 76 and Vault 79 both located in the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia? Because there used to be a lot of coal mines there, and after the coal mines were mined out, there were a lot of empty mines. And West Virginia was so poor that it was not worth wasting too many nuclear bombs on that land!

Both superpowers understand that dropping nuclear bombs is to destroy the enemy's industrial system and industrial potential, and thereby destroy the enemy's fighting will and confidence in war, rather than for the sole purpose of killing.

Therefore, the hollowed-out mining areas in Ordos were hardly affected by any nuclear strikes.

The largest underground city system happens to be located in this plateau basin where there is no earthquake risk and a super large mine has been dug underground!

"Forward! Forward! Forward! Our troops are facing the sun, with our feet on the land of the motherland. Carrying the hope of the nation, we are an invincible force. We are the children of workers and peasants, and we are the armed forces of the people. We will never fear, never surrender, and fight bravely until the reactionaries are completely wiped out..."

When the "Military Song" sounded on the broadcasting system of the above-ground part of the New Chang'an Underground City, almost everyone looked up at the same time and looked at the nuclear-proof concrete dome above their heads. Because the same song was passing through the concrete dome and reaching everyone's ears!

Comrades, march in unison, toward the battlefield of liberation. Comrades, march in unison, toward the frontiers of the motherland. Forward! Forward! Our team is heading toward the sun, toward the final victory, toward the liberation of the whole country!

"They're back!"

"So fast!"

"Hurry, hurry, hurry! Organize people to go outside the dungeon and welcome the heroes back!"

Is it fast?

Of course it’s fast!

Nine cars moving into three, how can it not be fast?

(Explanation: Nine vehicles represent nine main engines, two for the Chunlan class and one for the Dreadnought class. Three forward represents full speed sailing.)

As for why Boss Cheng didn't order "Forward Four" or "Forward Five". Because Forward Four can fly out of the atmosphere, and Forward Five can directly fly out of the solar system. Even if it was Forward Three, Sweet Cheese didn't have time to slow down, so the battleship flew over Qinghai, and even almost vomited everyone on the ship.

Captain Zhao never thought that he, an old captain who had been trapped on a submarine for more than 200 years, would actually get seasick!

When the warship arrived at the coordinates sent by the New Chang'an Underground City, Boss Cheng felt that the coordinates given to them by the Underground City were off again. After all, it was pitch black directly below the Underground City, but more than 20 kilometers to the southeast, the symbol of modern civilization appeared - lights.

In addition, Boss Cheng had experienced the mis-positioning incident from the Starlight Auto Cinema to the Glowing Sea, so he suspected that the data given to the warship by the other party might have come from before the war. Only this possibility could lead to such a degree of error when using the star-pulling technique to determine longitude and latitude.

But in reality, it’s not that far off, only about ten or twenty kilometers.

The welcoming ceremony prepared by the new Chang'an underground city was not grand either. After all, there was singing, waiting, and signal exchange beforehand, and then the warship drove too far. When the warship slowed down and "glided" for several hundred kilometers, it was almost 9 o'clock in the evening when it arrived outside the underground city.

Although Boss Cheng has never figured out whether there is a concept of weekends in the wasteland world, and he doesn't know what day of the week it is, it is extremely difficult to organize a grand welcome ceremony in a short time after 8 pm in any world regardless of what day of the week it is.

But Captain Zhao and his team were eager to return home, and the UNSC staff were eager to get in touch with the organization in the other world as soon as possible. Boss Cheng was curious about why the underground city of New Chang'an was also designed to look like a tomb. So they didn't care whether there was a welcome ceremony or not.

The crowd in Xinchang'an who were preparing to receive the warship were shocked by the warship in the sky from a distance. However, it was not the warship over 500 meters that shocked them, after all, it was dark and they could not see clearly. What really shocked them was the music that was being played on the warship.

Just imagine how loud the sound would be if it could penetrate the concrete dome three or four meters away.

Fortunately, Boss Cheng’s IQ was still online. When he found that the music used to prove his identity was too loud, he turned off the music.

Then, when the battleship's searchlight cast a huge spot of light, indicating the landing site for the Quinjet that was preparing to land, the team that came out to greet the triumphant heroes noticed how terrifying the behemoth floating above their heads was!

Fortunately, everyone understood that the big guy in the sky was one of their own, so even if they were frightened, they were not afraid. The only thing they were worried about was whether such a big ship flying in the sky would suddenly fall down.

The Quinjet landed, and the heroes in the Yangtze 031 submarine were the first to walk out of the cabin. When everyone saw that the seven heroes who walked out of the plane were actually ghouls, they were stunned at first, but soon realized that if the crew had not turned into ghouls, they would not have been able to survive from before the nuclear war broke out to now.

In the eyes of UNSC staff who had experienced various grand welcoming ceremonies, tonight's welcoming ceremony was very simple, but no one thought it was perfunctory. Xin Chang'an had already used the best lineup and process they could put together to welcome the heroes' triumphant return.

There were no fragrant flowers, no false “welcome, welcome, warm welcome”, and no endless speeches that no one wanted to listen to.

There were only constant hugs, and repeated “Welcome back” and “Welcome home”, as well as seven men over 7 years old crying like children.

As for the staff officers, they did not need a welcome ceremony. They all followed Boss Cheng silently, observing the cement dome on top of the underground city illuminated by the battleship's searchlight from the outside.

"The diameter of this dome must be two or three kilometers long, right?"

"More than that. From what I saw from the battleship just now, it may be more than three kilometers."

"The nuclear dome alone is so exaggerated. How big do you think the underground of New Chang'an is?"

"It's probably not smaller than the 816 in Fuling." Staff Officer Zhang pointed to the ground and explained, "This used to be a mining area. I remember there should have been an oversized mine where we are standing. If the underground city of New Chang'an was really built in a mine, then places like Daye and Fushun, which have mines and rivers nearby, must also have underground cities!"

"Haha, this old comrade guessed right." An official from the New Chang'an Underground City came over to the UNSC staff and explained to everyone: "The New Chang'an Underground City was indeed expanded on the basis of the open-pit mine in Ordos. In addition, just as this comrade said, there are also giant underground cities in Fushun in the northeast and Daye in central China that are as large as the New Chang'an."

"Building an underground city in the mine!" Boss Cheng nodded and sighed: "Just listening to it, it feels more reliable than the shelter over there."

Some staff members who have personally visited the 111 shelter echoed, saying: "If the shelters built by Shelter-Tec are all of the same size as 111, it is indeed too unreliable."

"That kind of place only has the functions of shelter, life support and experiment. With a nuclear defense facility of that scale, it is difficult to effectively resume production after a nuclear war."

"I agree. Only when we have scale can we concentrate our efforts to make big moves."

"But small-scale shelters can more easily solve the problem of food and supplies."

At this time, the officials of the underground city actually told everyone: "If we only consider food production, the current national grain production can basically meet the food needs of various underground cities. The Heilongjiang and Songhuajiang River basins in the northeast, as well as the Horqin grassland area, still retain a considerable agricultural production capacity.

In addition, the atmospheric circulation was also greatly affected by the nuclear war. Now the Guanzhong region, the southern foot of the Qilian Mountains and the Qaidam Basin have become precipitation-rich areas, and the Gobi Desert has become fertile farmland. "

"So..." Boss Cheng asked the other party: "The living conditions here are pretty good?"

"It was OK, with enough food and clothing, but there wasn't much food supply. It was nowhere near the pre-war standard of living in records. If you want to compare it to a certain period in history, it would be the living standard of the late 20s."

Living standards in the late 70s.

If we look at the 20s from the perspective of the living standards of the residents of the Boston wasteland after the destruction of the world, even if the life at that time did not reach the level of heaven, it was at least thousands or tens of thousands times better than their current life where they may really go to heaven to see God at any time!

If we look at the late 2024s from the perspective of 20, no one can deny that in that special period when order had just been restored, conditions were backward, materials were scarce, and life was not satisfactory.

But that era was one of reconstruction, prosperity and hope.