Chapter 11: Welcome Home
The steam engine sped along. Although the dashboard wasn't visible, Xu Le estimated from the wind speed that the vehicle was moving quite fast.
Leaning against the window, Xu Le saw some abandoned towns.
Various buildings lined both sides of the road. Around the towns were some dilapidated stone furnaces and wooden windmills.
From these two features, it was clear that this town once had some basic forging and metallurgy technology.
By the river, there was even a stone bridge railway, which must have been a transport channel in the past.
However, this railway didn't match the steam train railways in the original's memories, so it probably wasn't from this era.
Looking at these buildings of various styles, Xu Le couldn't even judge which era they were from.
"An abandoned era, perhaps..."
"Hey, Xu Le, want some water?"
Bai Jing handed over a bottle of water, interrupting Xu Le's thoughts. After a moment's hesitation, Xu Le accepted the water bottle.
Before Xu Le could take more than a few sips, Bai Jing's gaze suddenly turned mysterious.
"Burning that person's corpse, did it make you feel relieved?"
"Uh, cough cough cough!"
Xu Le choked on a large mouthful of water and coughed several times before recovering.
Of course, this was partly to buy some time. He needed a moment to think about how to respond to Bai Jing's question.
"I actually..."
"You don't need to explain to me, Xu Le. Life is very long.
We'll encounter many, many things and make many choices. Some choices are correct, and some are wrong.
No matter what choices we make, we have to keep moving forward.
We should pursue the light, shouldn't we?"
Xu Le's eyes flickered slightly. He wasn't sure why Bai Jing had suddenly become a life coach, mumbling all this to him.
Was she threatening him? The power gap between them was too great; it didn't seem necessary.
Since it was unlikely to be a threat, what did she mean?
Considering the previous situation, was it recruitment?
Was there a need to be so obscure?
"I don't quite understand what the captain means."
"Hehe!"
Bai Jing chuckled, her finger like an old scallion tracing Xu Le's collar, finally stopping on his chest.
This gesture wasn't flirtatious, but truly pressuring.
Bai Jing's finger pressed on Xu Le's wound.
Xu Le immediately recoiled in pain, nearly falling to the ground.
"This wound is from a firearm. Anomalies don't use guns, do you understand, Mr. Xu Le?
And the wound on the back of the deceased's heart is clearly a stab wound from a dagger.
These wound patterns wouldn't change even if they turned into zombies.
The murder weapon should be this dagger, right?"
Bai Jing took out Xu Le's dagger, waved it in front of him, then put it away again:
"This item will need to be confiscated when we return. As for the rest, do I need to continue?"
"No need." Xu Le shook his head helplessly.
Explain that he didn't kill Old Zhou? How could he explain? Should he say there was another Xu Le?
Moreover, the information, strength, background, and status between them were unequal.
Such questioning had no meaning.
"Don't be nervous, Xu Le. For an ordinary person to survive alone in the night,
And even kill an anomaly alone, that's quite remarkable.
No, actually, from the moment you could clearly see Ancient Sound's pollution, you were no longer an ordinary person."
"What exactly does Captain Bai want to tell me?"
"As someone who's been through it, isn't it right to give some advice to a young person on how to proceed?"
So she's giving him a pep talk? When it comes to writing essays, who does Xu Le fear?
He pondered for a moment, his gaze gradually moving towards the window, his eyes becoming vacant:
"Captain Bai, do you know? A scholar once said this.
We should never invest unrealistic expectations or attach groundless values to the things we care about.
Because the only certainty in life is its uncertainty."
As expected, these words did have some impact on Bai Jing. She nodded slowly.
"The scholar you mentioned must have been a remarkable person."
"I think so too."
Bai Jing stared at Xu Le for a while, while Xu Le looked out the window.
Saying a couple of motivational phrases to pretend, that should be enough. He didn't dare to make eye contact with a powerful Night Watcher.
"Alright, we're about to return to the Lighthouse. Prepare yourself for the inspection."
Seeing Bai Jing withdraw her gaze, Xu Le finally turned to look ahead.
A massive tower appeared in view.
The tower reached into the clouds, and the buildings around it were arranged in circular layers, expanding outwards.
The inner city area was very prosperous, with a main color scheme of gold and blue classical Central Asian-style houses.
Among the gilded roofs visible everywhere, some buildings even exceeded 20 stories, which was very rare in the Fourth Age.
This prosperity continued all the way to the central moat.
The area inside the moat was collectively known as the Upper City.
Outside the moat, as the urban circles expanded outward, the style and form of the buildings deteriorated.
The areas close to the moat were still decent, but further out, it was hard to describe.
Not only did the buildings get shorter, but besides East Asian, Gothic, and classical styles,
There were also increasingly many strange buildings with indescribable styles.
Xu Le couldn't see any beauty in those buildings deliberately designed to look like toilets or feces.
All kinds of graffiti covered most of the buildings. Some of this graffiti was advertising and slogans.
Another part was simply mocking, cursing, debt collection, and the most terrifying gang blood writings.
At the outermost layer of the city, most of the buildings were small earthen or wooden huts.
This was the Lower City area of the Lighthouse where Xu Le lived.
But this wasn't the very outskirts of the city. Further out, there was another layer of high walls.
This wall was quite far from the human residential area, and its purpose was very simple: to block most of the wandering low-level anomalies.
The city wall had four main gates in the east, south, west, and north, used to check residents entering and leaving the city daily.
It also served to release Black Tide pressure on Black Tide nights.
The wall was far from the human area, so even though it was very dark here normally, it wouldn't naturally produce more anomalies.
The Lighthouse, as one of humanity's four major safe strongholds,
Had the most ridiculous resource allocation, the most rigid promotion channels, and the most straightforward area division.
The gap between the Upper City and Lower City was like a chasm.
But even so, it was one of the few lights in this dark age.
Looking at this city that was both familiar from memory and somewhat unreal, Xu Le murmured:
"What an incredible city."
"Yes, it's our home."
"What do I need to prepare after we get back?"
Bai Jing turned her head and then revealed a mischievous smile.
"Grit your teeth, and survive."
"Huh?"
The steam car stopped at the outskirts of the city wall.
Here was another system of the Lighthouse Night Watchers, the Lighthouse Guards.
Although they were one system in different departments, there wasn't much competition between the two.
So there weren't usually any dramatic conflicts or the like.
Upon seeing Bai Jing's team, guards immediately came forward to salute.
Bai Jing also stepped forward and returned a Lighthouse palm salute to the guards.
"6th Squad, Bai Jing, all members returning."
"Welcome home, Captain Bai Jing."
(End of Chapter)
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