Why it never ends

Chapter 104 Office

When Valenti got the news, it was already the evening of September 9rd.

At that time, she was taking a slow train from the outskirts of the city to return to her residence in the city.

Outside the carriage was a large piece of bare farmland. When she passed by here two months ago, there was still a large piece of golden wheat waves in this area. It was mature spring wheat, which had just been harvested in July and August.

But the wheat has been sown this winter, and the green shoots in the ridges of the field are silent. They will not grow until next March after a long late autumn and midwinter.

She took out the camera and planned to take a few photos to record, but when the scene in front of her came into the camera, the signal towers near and far seemed particularly dazzling.

There are a total of 47 habitable places in the vast third area, and they are concentrated in the north-central and southern parts, forming two prosperous residential areas.If there is such a person who has tirelessly walked through the various roads in the habitable area of ​​​​the third district for the past eight years, then the biggest change he has discovered is probably the signal tower erected by the roadside.

These signal towers are all silver and white, independent of each other. Their bases are square steel frames. Layers of herringbone-shaped metal frames are stacked up along the central iron rod. Each signal tower is at least five meters high and three meters wide.

They were originally distributed in the isolation zone, that is, in the no-man's land between the habitable land and the wilderness, but in recent years, AHgAs has taken precautions and started to introduce them into the habitable land to build a more complete monitoring network.

Because these big guys are incompatible with the architectural style in the habitable area, when the signal tower first appeared in the habitable area, many residents made a special trip outside the city to take photos with the signal tower.Architectural critics in newspapers lamented that these strange-looking things either belonged to the distant past or the future that has yet to come, in short, they do not belong to the present.

Those architectural critics were at least a third right.

Through these signal towers, AHgAs can not only accurately locate the coordinates of each mercury needle, but also identify all high-speed moving things: if chelate passes through it, the nearby mercury needle workstations can quickly identify and respond.

Compared with the time when we tremblingly faced the tide of chelates in the wasteland eight years ago, the armor that humans use to resist chelates is also stronger.Although all this points to a bad possibility-sooner or later, the battlefield for annihilating chelates will extend to the habitable area.

Because of this, whenever Valenti sees people taking pictures under these signal towers with great interest, she inevitably feels a subtle conflict.When these behemoths suddenly entered people's daily life, no one in the crowd seemed to think about what it meant, and everyone was already watching happily.

"drop--"

Valenti's reverie was interrupted by the notification tone of her mobile phone. She lowered her head and found that she had received an emergency notification email.

Sender: Office No. 004[email protected] centrum.org>
Date: 23/09/4631
Recipient: Valenti

Email title: Notice on investigation of social relations related to mercury needles in the province of Niah
text:

Dear Ms. Valenti Viking,

We regret to inform you that a horrific murder occurred in the province of Niah late last night. In order to find out the truth as soon as possible, please go to the "Lager Workstation" or " Dylan Workstation", our screening team will ask some questions about your past social relationships, please answer truthfully.

If you cannot arrive on time, please contact your immediate supervisor and let us know your convenient time and place.

Note: Do not reply to this email.

Office AHgAs004
After reading the entire text, Valenti frowned—office 004 is mainly responsible for the internal discipline of Mercury Needle, and the emails from them are usually some abstract-themed study documents or internal disciplinary announcements, and there are few such specific notices.

Almost at the same time, she received a new text message from her colleague Ava.

Ava: @valentine darling did you get the email from 004?
Valenti: Got it!
Ava: Are you out of town today, in time?
Valenti: Yes, I am on the train right now... This train should arrive at the station at 6:12. If there is no accident, I should be able to arrive at the Rag station before 6:40. Although I will be late, it is not There will be a long delay.

Ava: Do you want me to give you a ride along the way?I just drove past Bruno Nord Station - did you get off there?
Valenti immediately responded with a series of thank you expressions, and gave her specific train information.

At 6:17, Valenti got into Ava's car, and the two drove to the Lager workstation together.

Ava is the first colleague Valenti met in the province of Nia, and she is currently her best partner here.

Ava, who turns 72 next month, did not officially retire from the front line until she was 56, turning to civilian work at the rear.

For most retired Mercury Needles, the battlefield full of blood and tears on the front line is cruel, but the life in the habitable area is not so enviable.

Here is another kind of war, and the "enemies" in the rear hold the blade of mediocrity-redundant bureaucracy, complicated and unspoken rules of doing things, intricate and intricate interpersonal relationships... Faced with these situations, many first-time veterans often feel as if they are tied to a chopping block and beaten by someone.

But these problems are obviously not worth mentioning to Ava. Her life here should be very good.

Valenti had this intuition when she first met Ava—that for most people, aging muddles their brains and makes them a little more kind and kind in their daily lives temperament.

But for Ava, it's the exact opposite.

Aging has thinned her cheeks, covered the corners of her eyes and lips with cobweb-like wrinkles, and made the lines of her face completely lose the plumpness of her youth and become severe and tough.

On her wide and full forehead, the light V-shaped silver hair is combed very neatly, they are always tilted to one side at a fixed angle, and the pair of light blue eyes are often half-opened, as if they are indifferent to many things .

But once someone aroused her interest, those eyes would suddenly open. At that time, her stretched shoulders, straight back and slightly raised jaw formed a solemn and cautious posture, making her look like A shrewd falcon.

In Valenti's mind, the encounter with Ava was like a precious gift, which she never mentioned to Ava—she would always remember the morning of her 28th birthday, when she was washing in the mirror, she suddenly found that There is a wrinkle at the corner of the eye.

It was the first time Valenti realized he was growing old, and it felt like a sap that had been hit without warning.

But within less than three months of getting to know Aiwa, this anxiety was quietly untied.Valenti loved Ava's wrinkles, her aggressive and often upturned mouth, and even her meanness and sternness were an unspoken part of her charm.

There are people like Ava in the world, which shows that aging is not always a one-sided massacre. In addition to feeling sorry for the loss of youth, people can use another upward outlook to move towards her middle age and old age. .

Ten thousand verbal self-comforts are nothing compared to having a real example around you.

(End of this chapter)