pertwk Chapter 013 Yesterday's Me
Chapter 013 Yesterday's Me
Lu Chen would never forget that iron gate.
Because in a sense, that iron gate was Lu Chen's birth point in this world—in the City of Time.
Miner No. 2 exclaimed in surprise, and Lu Chen looked in the direction of the sound.
However, they did not find any of their "kin" outside the iron gate.
There was a man, just like Yu from yesterday, leaning against the wall beside the iron gate.
"Scavenger".
With just one glance, Lu Chen saw through the man's identity.
—A robust physique, and neat short hair;
It has a healthy wheat color and is fairly clean skin.
And, just like yesterday's jade, the lower half of her face was covered by the stand-up collar of her trench coat.
"The scavengers..."
"—Do they all have enemies?"
"Why does everyone keep covering their faces?"
Thinking this, Lu Chen stopped and cautiously observed the man outside the iron gate across the street.
Two figures suddenly stopped on the bustling street.
The man noticed immediately.
However, he turned his head subtly, glancing at Lu Chen and the other person out of the corner of his eye.
Seeing that the two men were completely blackened and stained by coal, he calmly looked away.
He raised his hand, brought the cigarette butt between his fingertips to his lips, and took a leisurely puff.
What seemed like a perfectly normal action to Lu Chen caused the No. 2 miner next to him to inexplicably become excited and start panting heavily.
"Cigarettes!"
Lu Chen was surprised: "Very expensive?"
At this moment, miner number 2's face turned red, and his chest heaved violently.
Like a prisoner just released from jail who sees a naked woman outside the prison, his gaze is fixed on the man across the street.
They didn't even want to blink, and would occasionally smack their lips or swallow.
How expensive?
...
"Um?"
Lu Chen asked again, and seeing that the second miner did not respond, he nudged him with his elbow.
But it took quite a while before miner number 2 responded.
"have no idea."
"Only scavengers can exchange supplies they find outside the city for cigarettes from the military camp."
"Sometimes, cigarettes that scavengers trade for also appear on the black market."
"But the terms of the transaction won't be [time], but rather something specific and rare."
"Some things that parasites could never have, or have never even heard of."
As he spoke, Miner No. 2's gaze remained fixed on the other side of the street.
She never took the small piece of cigarette off the man's fingertips for even a moment.
After saying that, she unconsciously started walking slowly across the street.
The unusual behavior was naturally noticed by the man once again.
But he didn't pay much attention to it.
He casually tossed the cigarette butt aside, then leisurely put his hands in his pockets, watching as miner number 2 lunged at the cigarette butt.
At the same time, the iron gate opened, emitting the distinctive, piercing buzzing sound of a rusty bolt.
Miner No. 2 fell to the ground, hurriedly picked up the cigarette butt, and carefully and reverently put it to his lips.
The man had no time to 'admire' the scene and hurriedly walked to the iron gate.
...
Looking at the scene unfolding across the street, Lu Chen felt a strange feeling welling up inside him.
It's like observing "yourself" from a third-person perspective or from the perspective of an observer while you're asleep.
Before long, the black robot inside the iron gate escorted a young man out of the house.
"I was the same way yesterday..."
Looking at the young man's blank and dazed expression, still unaware of what had happened, Lu Chen thought to himself.
"Get out of here!!"
Just moments later, a roar suddenly rang out from across the street!
Lu Chen hurriedly ran across the street, but did not approach the iron gate.
Instead, he pretended to squat down next to miner number 2, making a gesture as if to say, "Please leave me a bite."
Yu Guang, however, mustered all his strength and looked at the two people outside the iron gate.
"Ho! Ho..."
The young man looked anxious, but like Lu Chen yesterday, he couldn't say a word.
She held onto the man's arms with both hands, making "hoho" sounds.
The man, looking impatient, abruptly swung his arm and glared fiercely at the young man: "Try touching me again?!"
With another roar, a cold glint flashed from the man's sleeve—it was clearly a folding knife!
Seeing the man brandish his knife, the young man was finally frightened and stopped trying to harass him.
However, there was still a hint of pleading in her gaze as she looked at the man.
"Heh, heh~"
"Hmm..."
Observing from the shadows, Lu Chen keenly noticed that the scavenger's knife was not fully "revealed".
Instead, only a chilling blade tip protruded from the sleeve, concealed by the scavenger's hand.
Lu Chen raised his head slightly and glanced around.
Looking at the police drones flying slowly back and forth nearly 100 meters in the air, Lu Chen seemed to be deep in thought.
"Signed!"
Another roar rang out, and Lu Chen turned his gaze back to the iron gate.
Then the young man timidly stepped forward and took the document handed to him by the scavenger.
After a moment's hesitation, he picked up the pen and signed.
He then handed over the signed document with both hands, but held it tightly, refusing to give it to the scavenger.
The brief standoff made the scavengers increasingly agitated, and for some reason, they dared not take any more drastic actions.
The young rehabilitator had a sorrowful expression and her eyes were red.
Finally, the scavenger suddenly let go, and the young man who was holding the other end of the document fell to the ground with a thud.
Immediately afterwards, that cold glint reappeared in the scavenger's sleeve.
"Give me."
Perhaps out of extreme anger, the scavenger's face no longer showed much rage.
And it stopped roaring.
Instead, he uttered the words "Give me" in an extremely cold tone.
The young rehabilitator collapsed to the ground, clutching the documents tightly in his hands, tears streaming down his face, shaking his head at the scavenger with muffled cries.
Nearby, miner number 2 finally managed to extinguish the remaining cigarette butt.
Still not satisfied, as if he had found a treasure, he held the burnt filter tip horizontally to his nose and smelled it greedily again and again.
After smelling it enough, he smacked his lips, put the filter in his pocket, and finally remembered Lu Chen beside him.
She looked up and found that Lu Chen beside her was not paying attention to the cigarette butt.
He had his hands on his back, but his gaze was fixed intently on the scavenger outside the iron gate, his expression shifting rapidly.
"you……"
"Would you like to smell it?"
As he spoke, miner number 2 reached into his pocket, reluctantly took out the filter, and handed it over.
Lu Chen did not react.
At this moment, Lu Chen was rapidly processing the information he had gathered over the past day, quickly integrating and listing it in his mind.
After arriving at the final plan, I went through it carefully again.
Only after confirming that there were no problems did he take a deep breath and slowly stand up.
Looking at the scavenger threatening the young man with a knife not far away, Lu Chen gritted his teeth.
His expression suddenly changed—he raised his hand and pointed at the scavenger, letting out a horrified exclamation.
"knife!"
"He has a knife!"
"Murder! He's going to kill someone!!"
"He's going to kill the resurrected!!!"