Chapter 1482: Chapter 905: Familiar
Hearing this, Chen Nang was also taken aback, not understanding how this girl seemed to suddenly become a different person, ignited without any warning. Had she watched too many hot-blooded anime?
But there was no denying that this scene indeed dissipated much of the gloom weighing on his heart, and his spirits were lifted.
Chen Nang didn’t understand, but Yang Xiao saw clearly. After all, he was the one who prepared the notes. He knew that what Munan held in her hand was the short stick.
According to the agreement, the one who drew the short stick would go, meaning that no matter what, today Munan would bear this responsibility and danger.
Munan surely knew this too. Since that was the case, she might as well go grandly, and possibly teach this depressed guy Chen Nang a lesson.
Munan liked a reliable teammate like Chen Nang. He was capable, courageous, and intelligent, but he lacked one thing.
He had no hope. His fearless attitude was built on a mindset of ’break it and be done with it’, just as he said, if there was no freedom, he’d rather die in this world; he wasn’t responsible for himself.
This meant that Chen Nang had a high upper limit, but equally, at the moment hope was utterly extinguished, his lower limit was very low as well.
Munan didn’t want to gamble her life on a guy with this kind of mindset; that would also be irresponsible to herself and the entire team.
The path, ultimately, needs to be walked by oneself to feel at ease. She wasn’t sure if she would survive, but she would do her utmost.
Drawing the short stick was exactly what she hoped for.
"Mr. Zhou, may your spirit in heaven protect us," Munan pushed open the glass door in front of her and walked in with large strides.
...
An hour later, a red taxi stopped by a dirt road, and four people got out of the car.
Yang Xiao, Jiang Qingluan, Chen Nang, and Munan, the latter wearing a baseball cap, with a black crossbody bag slung over her shoulder, containing an old DV camera.
They were already very close to the edge of the city, and the road was in disrepair, clearly not maintained for a long time.
The four looked into the distance against the light, where there was a cluster of abandoned factories.
"This is the place," Yang Xiao was the first to step towards the factory buildings.
As the four approached, a sense of decline forgotten by time hit them, in front of them was a large rusty iron gate, with anti-climbing spikes embedded at the top, and an arc-shaped sliding track on the ground; forcing the gate open would require pushing it hard to both sides.
The gate was 7 or 8 meters wide, wide enough for a truck to pass through; at present, the iron gate was locked, but a bar had been removed from the middle of the iron fence, leaving a gap wide enough to squeeze an adult through.
A wooden board tied to the iron fence was inscribed with large red letters: Dangerous Building! Do Not Approach!
Peering through the iron gate into the factory yard, the path beyond was overgrown with weeds, and signboards lined both sides of the path.
Back in the day, these signboards must have been pasted with motivational slogans about production targets, but now only a few yellowed, brittle scraps of paper remained on them.
The writing on the scraps had long faded under years of wind and sun, and even the signboards were rusty and mottled.
Standing outside the factory gate and taking a deep breath, one could smell the scent of rust eroded by years.
"Is the DV camera responding?" Jiang Qingluan suddenly asked, standing in front of the fence.
"No," Munan shook her head, she had been keeping an eye on the activity in the crossbody bag.
"For now, let’s not go inside; let’s find someone nearby to ask about what’s been going on at this factory," Yang Xiao turned and looked southwest of the factory, about 200 meters away, there was a cluster of low houses.
In the northeast, there were many such places; first, a factory was built, and then the area gradually developed and attracted people.
Especially those larger state-run factories, the surrounding areas would develop rapidly, with schools, hospitals, supermarkets, and restaurants springing up like mushrooms after the rain, eventually forming a small city centered around the factory.
But there are advantages and disadvantages; once the core factory declined, this micro-city would meet its end, as people gathered because of the factory and would eventually leave because of its closure.
Approaching the cluster of houses not far from the factory, the decay was apparent, with about dozens of houses, many of which were long unoccupied, some with broken doors and windows, making a wailing sound as the wind passed through the glass holes.
It had just rained here; the dirt road was a bit muddy, but the clear tire tracks of motorcycles on it proved that someone still lived in the village.
The four followed the tire tracks inward, quickly arriving at the entrance to a courtyard, the gate of which was open, and behind it was parked a dark red motorcycle.
The courtyard was quite large, piled with old furniture and miscellaneous items like plastic bottles and old cardboard, appearing to be a recycling center.
"Hello, is anybody home?" Yang Xiao stepped forward but didn’t rashly enter the courtyard, instead standing outside and calling out, worried there might be a dog inside.
Sure enough, in the next moment, the sound of barking came from deep within the yard, sounding ferocious.
Before long, accompanied by scolding sounds to calm the dog, an elderly man emerged from behind the piles of discarded items, dragging a burlap sack behind him.
"What are you selling?" The old man looked at them suspiciously, his speech heavily accented, missing several of his front teeth.
