Longmen Memoirs

April 1

Gantry/morning

10:15 minutes

"Is there a result?"

Chen let go of the hand he held. Xing Xiong was walking from outside the alley. When he heard Chen's words, Xing Xiong raised his hand, revealing the note sandwiched between his fingertips and shook it.

Chen reached out and took it.

On the note was a string of addresses, located on a street in the [-]th District of Longmen. The [-]th District was also the so-called slum. It was also the place where Chen Huijie had been trying his best to promote the establishment of the Office of the Guards Bureau, which had not made any progress so far.

She was silent for a few seconds and put the note into her coat pocket.

"Where did you get the address?"

"Zhong Shui knows an old friend who is quite knowledgeable about information." Xing Xiong replied casually.

"Your informant?"

"Not really, but that guy does have a few criminal records. You know that most of the people in this business are not very clean."

Chen did not continue to ask. In fact, it was not that she did not know how to adapt, but that she did not allow herself to avoid certain things. Of course, if such things happened too many times, she would gradually become harsh or even harsh in the eyes of others. Somewhat rigid and stubborn.

"In that case, let's set off."

"...Wait?" Xing Xiong said.

Chen looked at her.

"What's the problem?"

"There was no problem in the past, but what reason do we use, Chief Chen? If we say that we are police officers, I am afraid that it will easily cause conflicts as soon as we open our mouths."

"In your opinion?"

"There are rules on the road. You may not know much about this business. Leave it to me?"

"No problem." Chen nodded: "But I can't guarantee that if the other party takes dangerous actions, I will take action immediately."

"certainly."

Longmen does not define the concept of slums, but by default, Longmen Districts [-] to [-], which are far away from the core city and located in the lower city with old facilities, have become Longmen's slums.

This is usually where residents from the lowest level of Longmen gather, or most of the people who have criminal records and cannot normally enter and exit the upper city area.

For example, infected people, but compared to the latter, there are more of the former.

Countless people live in various industries in Longmen, and Longmen supports many people. However, not every one of these people can live the life they want in this prosperous city.

Longmen has its own law on infected people, but the cold law on paper cannot prohibit people from entering this kind of city, nor can it prohibit ordinary people living in this city from becoming infected.

Compared with the outside world, Longmen's treatment of infected people is relatively relaxed, but only compared to the outside world. If the infected people want to live peacefully in this city, they also face numerous difficulties, because most of the infected people are actually Ordinary people do not have the ability or strength to live peacefully after being infected with Originium Disease.

After all, there are only a few people who have the ability to live safely after being infected with Originium Disease.

A disease changes everything about a person. His original life and everything he is familiar with suddenly undergoes earth-shaking changes.

Suddenly, there was a gap between him and the world he knew, a chasm that was difficult to cross and unchangeable.

Many things have gone away because of this, and many things that we usually take for granted have become out of reach.

The infected people in Longmen cannot enjoy the normal treatment enjoyed by Longmen citizens. They live a difficult life in this city and are even discriminated against. Even so, they cannot leave, because at least they can still live in Longmen, and in the outside world, they Know nothing about the outside world.

Infected persons registered in Longmen are subject to supervision by Longmen at any time. Although it is supervision, it does not mean that this is a good thing, because Longmen has the power to expel them from the city at any time.

There will never be a shortage of infected people. If the city does not stop moving, and if the development of the city requires the use of Source Stone, then the infected will never die, they will not decrease, never. They are the victims of this era. They could be anyone, and they could be anyone.

The car parked at the foot of a small ramp near the port in District [-]. In the center of the ramp, the door of the house was tightly closed, and there were brand-new Spring Festival couplets posted on the door. It looked like they had been posted not long ago.

The winter sky in Longmen is gloomy, and high-rise buildings in the city can be seen in the distance, but the prosperity there and the poverty here seem to be as far apart as a century.

You can't hear the busy traffic and bustle of the city here. There is only silence here. Next to the silence is a narrow ditch covered with green moss, so the air is filled with a slight smell of decay.

They got out of the car and walked up the steps, Xingxiong walked in front, and Chen was half a body behind him.

None of them were wearing police uniforms, just dressed normally, and they did not carry weapons. However, Xingxiong noticed that there was an extra silver ring on the ring finger of Chen's left hand.

"Is Chief Chen already married?"

Xingxiong asked casually, and his voice rang in Chen's ears. Chen was stunned for a moment, as if he didn't hear clearly.

"Um?"

"I'm a little curious. I saw you were wearing a ring on your finger today." Xing Xiong turned around slightly to explain.

"I have a daughter," Chen said.

"That should be a long time."

"It's been a long time." Chen replied, as if he had thought of something and added: "But my husband is a bastard, he is unreliable, and I have to support the family."

"Ah?" Xingxiong was a little surprised.

"It's nothing."

Chen said, skipping this topic, and they stood at the door. Xingxiong wanted to raise her hand to knock on the door, but her hand fell down. The door opened from the inside. A middle-aged Kuranta man, holding a young Felin, Behind him were several children of different ages.

Star Bear's raised hand fell in mid-air.

Several pairs of eyes inside looked at the two women who appeared at the door with confusion or curiosity.

"You are?"

Although there was doubt in his words, after meeting Xing Xiong's eyes, the middle-aged man seemed to suddenly understand something.

But before the middle-aged man could say anything, the little girl in his arms turned around and asked.

"Are these two sisters here to see you? Uncle Cass, why have you never mentioned them?"

"Wow, look at this sister, she's so tall, she's so big."

A boy behind the man looked at the star bear that he could only see clearly by raising his head, and exclaimed, as if he had discovered something surprising.

Xingxiong was a little embarrassed. He didn't mind being called that. It would be better to say that she was used to being called that.

"Really, she still has a horn."

"Don't say such things to guests, Ah Fu, apologize quickly." The middle-aged man scolded hurriedly.

The boy who called Star Bear Big Guy lowered his head in anger.

"I didn't expect guests to come today. It seems I can only take you to the amusement park next time." The man put down the child in his arms, so comforting him, then looked at Xing Xiong and Chen, and turned sideways.

"If you have any questions, please come in first. Ah Fu, go make tea."

Although several children were a little disappointed, they did not refute. The child named Ah Fu, after Xing Xiong followed him into the door, turned his head and made a face at Xing Xiong.

Star Bear raised his eyebrows.

It can be seen that their life is not rich. Perhaps the only thing in the dilapidated self-built house that can be considered valuable is the color TV set in the room.

Some children's toys could be seen randomly placed everywhere, including the cheap sofa where Xingxiong was sitting. She had just put a marble ball aside.

The layout is low and narrow, and you can even reach out and touch the ceiling. You can see some weird and colorful graffiti, as well as picture stickers affixed to the corner of the furniture.

Although it is simple, it still feels warm.

There were several cartoon cups of different shapes placed on the dining table in the room. I don’t know if it was intentional, but the one placed in front of Star Bear was pink.

"My family is in a tight situation and I didn't expect guests to come, so I didn't prepare a special cup. I hope you don't mind."

The middle-aged man spoke, and the noise of several children could be heard outside. They made a dance house in the small yard, but it was still unavoidable that some children stuck their heads out of the window to look in curiously, and at the sound of the middle-aged man's voice Retract your head.

"It doesn't matter. After all, we came uninvited and we didn't inform you in advance."

Xing Xiong said, and the man shook his head slightly.

"You two are police officers from the Guards Bureau," the middle-aged man said suddenly. He looked at Xing Xiong and said, "The momentum of these two is not that of ordinary people, and few ordinary people would go out of their way to find this place."

Xingxiong was stunned for a moment, thinking that the other party would be so direct.But he didn't deny it immediately. Instead, he glanced at Chen and said,

"...Since you know, why are you so calm?"

"Am I still going to attack the police?" the other party asked.

"You can still escape?" Chen said.

The middle-aged man looked at her and then turned his gaze to the window.

"You're right. I can still escape, but they can't. In fact, I should have known that when I accepted their invitation, I would definitely be found by the police or someone else."

He looked back.

"But having said that, I'm not ready to be arrested, at least not yet."

"But you violated Longmen's laws, you should be clear about that." Chen said.

The atmosphere suddenly froze.

"Chen..." Xingxiong reminded in a low voice.

"It doesn't matter. The police officer is right. I broke the laws of Longmen." Surprisingly, the middle-aged man was very calm: "I broke the law in this city. These are undeniable facts, but police officer, Longmen The law stipulates what people should not do, but it does not stipulate or teach people how to live and how to live. "

"What's the meaning?"

"If I start a fight with you two, I dare not say that I can keep you two, but there will definitely be casualties on both sides of us."

"Are you threatening me?"

"I'm just telling a fact, a fact within the legal framework of Longmen." He said: "When I first fled to this city from Casimir, I had nothing and no fixed place to live, but now, like the two From what I can see, I have a temporary stable place. I will undoubtedly have any conflicts with the two of them, not to mention that they are the law enforcers of this city."

"But I am an infected person, police officer. You should know what an infected person means, and you know better than me how this city treats infected people. And those children outside, their parents are also infected, for this city ..." He paused and corrected: "Maybe you think it's too high-sounding to say this. In order to live in this city, they were abandoned, some were born, and some lost their parents."

"So you saved them?" Star Bear asked.

"No, on the contrary, they saved me." He shook his head and looked around the room: "Including this room you see, including everything here."

It's not a long story, but it's a very realistic experience.

A group of children who were abandoned by the Dragon Gate met a frustrated infected knight who came from a foreign country. No one knew what he had gone through before.

It was just a gloomy and gray slum street. It was not raining heavily that day. Among a group of children who were hugging each other to keep warm, there was a middle-aged man who was also hugging each other to keep warm.

Someone pushed his body.

He looked up and saw several figures of different sizes standing in front of him in the narrow and gray sky above his head.

In his hand was a piece of bread that was already cold and had no temperature at all.

"Are you hungry?"

They handed the bread to them carefully, keeping a distance, as if they were afraid of being hurt.The dirty appearance naturally makes people think of the identity of these children.

When I looked at the piece of bread again, I felt a little reluctant to let go.

"give me?"

"Give you."

"...Why? Because I look pitiful?"

"What is pity?" the child asked in confusion, with fear hidden deep in his eyes.

"Pity is..." He thought for a moment, looked at himself, and then at them: "People like us."

After saying this, they suddenly felt funny and felt that they had done something meaningless, just like he was often said like this when he was in Casimir.

Times have changed. The current era is no longer the era of knights. Glory, no, glory is just a commodity.

"Not pitiful."

He didn't expect that the child would answer like this. Even though he looked so miserable and embarrassed, the child shook his head and looked back at the other people.

"Not pitiful." He said: "Because we are all still alive."

He couldn't answer.

He didn't know how to answer.

So he remained silent, and the child was also silent, but did not take back his hand. After a while, he reached out and took the piece of bread.