This time I chose Paladin.

Chapter 25 Langcheng Today
"You have to meet them." This voice fell into Nie Weiyang's mind, and his usually calm heart suddenly skipped a beat.

People die every day in the New World. Not to mention around the world, even outside Lang City, and even inside Lang City, people die almost every day for various reasons.

Most of them were elderly people and children who were too young and weak. Some were still in incubators in the obstetrics and gynecology department when they were teleported. Even with the protection of novices, they were still lying on the cold ground. Some children were even harmed by the zombies that existed in the city before they were found.

Nie Weiyang knew all of these things. He'd witnessed them unfold in his previous life. He'd once seen an obstetrics nurse cradling a dead baby, its cries overflowing like a spring, and even with all her efforts to suppress them, it was still heartbreaking. Back then, he'd stood helplessly nearby, clutching a white dagger. He had no idea why the child's parents were gone, but the sound of the cry and the baby's grayish-gray face were etched into his memory, still occasionally resurfacing in his dreams twenty years later.

They say regret medicine is the hardest to find in this world, but now he has the chance to start over again...

Nie Weiyang looked at the scene in the city. He saw a group of people who were obviously strong and physically fit building the city wall, and another group of people pushing wheelbarrows to transport supplies.

The more you work, the more you get; the less you work, the less you get. It's as if the social structure has been rewound to a certain point in time. Nie Weiyang's memory also flashed back to the past. For him, twenty years ago, he was once one of those people.

Later they all died.

He had seen the corpses scattered all over the ground in Langcheng, so compared to those seven busy days when he had difficulty thinking too much, he now actually had a subtle sense of homesickness towards the people of Langcheng.

"Want to take a walk?" Xiang Feng asked, "Relax a little and go to the hospital..."

"There's no need to go to the hospital." Nie Weiyang shook his head, but still walked into the city gate.

……

When you step into the city gate, the first thing you hear is shouting.

The workers at the foot of the wall were throwing bricks, "Three, two, one, hey!" and then they threw a brick up, "Three, two, one, hey!" and then they threw another brick up.

In addition to the people moving bricks and plastering the walls, there seemed to be a group of people in the distance who were thinking about making paper. Long-handled wooden spoons were stirring in the paper pulp, emitting the scent of grass and trees. Among the people holding the spoons and lifting the baskets were two young men. Nie Weiyang couldn't help but look at them.

"That's a handicraft blogger and a traditional culture blogger..." Xiang Feng introduced.

A group of aunts and grandmothers were sewing clothes for the workers. There were a few young girls among them, and their skills were no worse than those of the middle-aged and elderly people.

"We are all sewing bloggers." A girl looked at Nie Weiyang curiously. "Some of us crochet, some do tailoring. I make baby clothes, and now I'm just enlarging the sizes... We are all 'tailors' by profession, and we are assigned to the logistics department."

Nie Weiyang didn't know what to say, so he just nodded.

He really didn't know that there were actually 'bloggers' in Lang City... The Internet age is still a bit too comprehensive.

Several greenhouses had been built near the former urban area. A power generator sat nearby, its batteries powering the greenhouse's spotlights. A group of elderly farmers worked the fields, while a few agricultural students studied rare plant seeds nearby. Nie Weiyang spotted a petite girl sitting on a stool, reaching directly into a box filled with rotten apples infested with maggots. She deftly twisted out a few seeds. Nearby, a man and a woman walked by, chatting and laughing, carrying two sealed boxes. A rustling sound could be heard from within. The labels on the lids read "cockroach" and "centipede," respectively.

Nie Weiyang took it well, but a few ordinary people passing by nearby almost vomited and quickly ran away. The agricultural student didn't even look up and continued with his work.

"...This might be someone who studies agriculture." Xiang Feng muttered, "The one catching...catching apples is Gong Yunfei, a doctor of agronomy. He and several of his junior students followed their advisor to Langcheng for practical work.

"Speaking of which, I have to thank you. The seeds and generators you gave us were really important."

"Agronomy PhD supervisor? Where is he?" Nie Weiyang asked subconsciously, skipping the topic of seeds. He actually had some separately stored agronomy papers, which could certainly be of greater value if given to the right person.

Xiang Feng shook his head: "Dead."

……pity.

Nie Weiyang sighed and walked towards Gong Yunfei.

At this time, a doctoral supervisor may represent an entire new system, but...

When a person dies, everything becomes empty.

Xiang Feng followed him to Gong Yunfei. As soon as they got close, they smelled a pungent stench mixed with a smell similar to alcohol.

"This is what happens when fruit rots," Gong Yunfei said. "These apples were already rotten when they were found. There's nothing we can do about it."

She stood up from the mat and wiped her hands with a towel, but hesitated for a moment and still did not shake hands with the two men: "My hands are dirty."

"My hands are even dirtier." Nie Weiyang said. Xiang Feng also smiled and stretched out his hand.

Gong Yunfei smiled. Her skin was a bit dark, and her plain face had a steady and bright look. After shaking hands with the two men, she asked, "What's going on?"

Xiang Feng looked at Nie Weiyang, and Nie Weiyang took out a hard drive.

"Here are some agricultural materials and papers," he said. "Do you know how to read them?"

Gong Yunfei was stunned. She was obviously puzzled as to why someone would prepare such a thing, but her clever mind allowed her to immediately play dumb. She reached out her hand sleekly, "Yes! The army previously gave us a laptop computer to monitor greenhouse safety and keep ecological records..."

As she spoke, her eyes widened, staring at the hard drive as if it were a gem. Nie Weiyang handed it to her and watched her take off and rush into the wooden security room next door.

"...It's quite fast." he said.

Xiang Feng shook his head and laughed. The two of them followed him into the security room and saw Gong Yunfei had already expertly connected the external hard drive and opened the folder. She was fascinated by the list of papers and checked the file size, then shouted, "Liu Zi! Ah Yu!"

Two young people, a man and a woman, who had just delivered two boxes of worms, ran in quickly: "Sister Feifei?"

"Electronic instruments are unreliable. Take out the paper and pens we were given earlier. You two will be responsible for copying during this time..." Gong Yunfei scrolled through the screen, her voice suddenly paused, and her tone changed. She stared at the familiar signatures on the row of papers. After a long silence, she spoke again, her voice filled with a muffled cry: "...copy the papers, starting with, starting with Teacher Lin's."

Nie Weiyang was the first to leave the security room, and Xiang Feng also slipped out quietly and closed the door considerately.

The two of them stared at each other in silence before leaving. Not long after, two familiar female voices rang out from not far away: "Brother Nie? Captain Xiang?"

(End of this chapter)