Vol·21 [Odoru Pompokolin · Everybody Dance!]
The old galvanized water pipes have been replaced with stainless steel and PP polypropylene pipes.
All valves and pumps were overhauled and replaced inside and out; the sealing rings and motor wiring were all replaced.
The pile of yellowed, sandblasted frosted glass was removed and replaced with new, wire-reinforced rolled glass, which can last a very long time.
The side of the building facing the UV light has been repainted, while on the shaded side, you can see many comic strips, which are a gift for the children of Yingying Kindergarten.
The goods in the warehouse were categorized, and supplies for each room's residents were prepared to last at least four years. However, things like vegetarian dishes in the kitchen could not be guaranteed to be available in a long time, and these issues had to be handled by Commander Jessica.
"This list is for you, Aunt Li Xiangyun." Jiang Xueming handed a new oil paper ledger to the cleaning lady. "Is the warehouse manager still in this building?"
"That's my husband," the cleaning lady said with a smile as she took the ledger. "He passed away a long, long time ago."
"Oh, I'm sorry." Jiang Xueming pursed her lips, looking rather embarrassed. "I shouldn't have brought this up."
"They probably died during the earthquake. They didn't have time to run and were crushed by the shelves. The situation was chaotic. When the rescue team came in, they couldn't find the work badges on many of the bodies. They said it was a Spirit Calamity and buried the victims on the spot." Aunt Li Xiangyun didn't care at all. She turned her head away, looking at the rows of shelves and the large, crowded warehouse. The black oil in her eyes fluctuated, her pupils turning black and then back to brown. She seemed very emotionally unstable.
Jiang Xueming casually handed over A Xing's large tape recorder. "Auntie, I'd like to give this to you."
"What kind of foreign gadget is this?" Li Xiangyun didn't understand, but she could guess its purpose from the two loudspeakers and the cassette tape cassette. "Is it for playing songs?"
"Yes." Jiang Xueming rummaged through his backpack again and pulled out two cassette tapes.
It is a recording of the China National Opera & Dance Drama Theater Choir, which includes "On the Taihang Mountains" and "My Motherland".
A Xing popped his head out from behind Ming Ge: "Right, right, right! I even asked 9527 to find someone to record Li Guyi's 'Liuyang River,' and Guo Lanying's version of 'My Motherland.' Auntie, what else would you like to hear?"
"I don't know anything about this foreign trick." Aunt Li Xiangyun tossed her hair, her eyes dry, and nervously rubbed her hands together, as if she wanted to grab the handle of the tape recorder but was afraid of breaking it.
Jiang Xueming: "A Xing, teach Aunt Li how to use it."
After a few minutes, Aunt Li Xiangyun finally figured out how to insert the cassette tape, how to demagnetize and re-record, how to pause, and how to use the fast forward and rewind buttons.
When she pressed play, the intro to the strings came in, and she immediately followed the rhythm.
Aunt Li waved her hand, and her body swayed gently along with it.
She grabbed Jiang Xueming's shoulders and hummed a tune.
A great river, its waves wide.
"The wind blows through the rice paddies, filling both banks with fragrance."
The busy female laborer in the warehouse sang along with Aunt Li while fiddling with rags and disinfectant.
"I've grown accustomed to the boatmen's calls and the white sails on the boats."
A Xing took out a new cassette tape from his bundle and put it in a large cardboard box. There were many songs from different eras. Xue Ming also put a cassette tape in, which was Jiang Bailu's treasured collection. It was <Jay>, released in 2000 before the two siblings were born. Although they didn't know if Aunt Li would like it, Bailu and Xue Ming both liked it very much.
They stopped disturbing the people inside the warehouse and simply waited quietly, standing at the gate looking into the distance.
Beside the oval track in the large stadium, people of different races set up different stages based on their different hometowns.
Tennis referees Polechev and Goncharov set up a projection screen and watched the Victory Day Parade on May 9, 1990, together with six engineers and thirty-three other team members.
After "Long Live Our Mighty Motherland" was played, "The Sacred War" and "Farewell of the Slavic Woman" followed, as if we were back at the Crim, beating drums and blowing horns with the military band.
Next door were friendly Latino neighbors who were singing and dancing on stage, and a bricklayer named Crisiandiano was embracing his friends.
Because he brought out a family heirloom, a Maradona jersey—the stage was playing a replay of Maradona's final match in 1990, when he single-handedly destroyed Juventus.
Friends from Europe gathered around a U-shaped dining table and sang loudly together.
Italian chef Enrique can handle meat and also play the trombone.
The kitchen helper, carrying a bass guitar, had just handed the electric guitar to foreman Eric.
The construction assistant sat down at the piano and began playing Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody".
In 1990, Queen frontman Freddie Mercury held his last birthday party before passing away from AIDS in November 1991.
The rednecks in North America didn't set up a stage; they just wandered around, occasionally trying to sneak into other people's places to get Fries. But there was one black man who wore a Stars and Stripes cape, sunglasses, and an electric guitar, with his assistant playing the saxophone. Surrounded by a group of listeners, he sang gospels and BBKing jazz.
The older brothers and sisters from the East Asian cultural sphere are setting up the main stage. They asked Brother Qi to get them a Teresa Teng gold record award-winning work called "The Condition of Tears".
But Sister Qi still didn't dare to sign up—she originally wanted to go up and sing a song, "I Only Care About You," for her employer.
She later discovered that the mixing console contained a VCD of the 1991 Red and White Song Festival, in which Teresa Teng sang "I Only Care About You" -- she later passed away in 1995 due to illness.
She figured that these nice older brothers from Guangdong had all heard the original singer, so there was no need for her to embarrass herself by going up there and making this adult who had traveled through time look foolish.
The movie "My Motherland" is almost over—after the line "When friends come, we welcome them with good wine."
Aunt Li Xiangyun was stunned for a moment--
--Because she saw a clever old man emerge from under the burlap blanket in the storeroom, open the partition door to the basement, and hold a bare wooden stick in his hand, like a Type 56 assault rifle rotten to the point of being reduced to just a handle. The old man's eyes shone brightly, and he shouted with great vigor.
"If the jackal comes, we'll have hunting rifles to meet it!"
That old man was Li Xiangyun's husband, and also the warehouse manager.
Aunt Li Xiangyun has figured it out.
--My husband fought many battles when he was young, how could he possibly be defeated by an earthquake?
No one bothered to tidy up the storeroom, no one moved the heavy iron frame, and no one noticed that this clever old man was hiding in the basement.
I thought you were dead.
"A long, long time ago."
On the other side--
--Commander Jessica stood on the stage with her hands on her hips.
She changed into a red and white stage outfit, looking incredibly energetic and happy—this was her first time performing on stage, and it certainly wouldn't be her last.
Looking at the stage setup, I felt like something was missing—
"--Setting up! OK!"
"--Band! OK!"
"--Stage manager! OK!"
"The lighting! It's really not OK!"
The UV lights shining on the stadium gave it a listless feel; it needed a more lively atmosphere!
After all, the songs she's about to sing, the stories she's about to tell, and the passion she's about to express require an even more vibrant and joyful light.
She ran off the stage and bumped into A Xing and Xue Ming, who were putting on makeup.
A Xing put on a fake beard, sunglasses, and a feathered hat, dressed in Elvis Presley's clothes, and wore a mini electric guitar around his neck, looking all flashy.
Xue Ming was much more conventional; he didn't change anything. To be honest, if it weren't for Officer Jessica asking him to help with the harmonies on stage, he really wouldn't want to do the job.
"Please! Jiang Xueming! Please! Is there any! Bling☆Bling light? Like a disco ball!" Jessica spoke much more fluently in Chinese.
Jiang Xueming asked in confusion, "The club doesn't seem to have one of these. Let me think of something."
"It's okay if I don't have it, never mind," Jessica said, her spirits dampened.
While attaching his own mustache, Bu Liuxing used his other hand to put sunglasses on Officer Jessica: "Officer, your Chinese is getting better and better. Who taught you?"
"Young Teacher Ke! I taught him shogi, and he taught me Chinese," Jessica replied.
The two were chatting idly.
Jiang Xueming got a few people from the foreman and made an opaque colored ball out of hot-bent glass, but it didn't have a strong light source, and the construction lights weren't bright enough.
He pulled out his Magic Wand, shoved it into the lamp stand, and the motor started the platform rotating.
The Magic Wand wouldn't obey him—it wouldn't light up for a long time, as if it felt insulted.
So Jiang Xueming said, "Please, friend, do me this favor. The steelworkers at the Shiliu Fan Zhitiesuo are all incredibly professional. Even their youngest master blacksmith has fifty years of experience. Besides heat treatment, I'd also like to learn about die casting and cold forging from them, and hear their secretive discussions about developing a Soviet-era black technology steelmaking process using ultra-high-pressure sonic waves to remove impurities. If you..."
Before the words had even finished --
--Vibrant colored light bursts forth from the various colored patches of the hot-bent glass.
The beams of light pierced through the thick fog above, illuminating the cave ceiling hundreds of meters high.
The glitter from the lampshade resembled tiny stars, falling upon everyone in the stadium. In that instant, people in the distance all turned to look.
Jessica, adjusting her sunglasses, stumbled onto the stage, acting as both host and singer, striking a cool pose.
She introduced herself in Chinese, Japanese, and English.
"Dead Puppet Agency Castle Armed Forces, Unit Number 900113, Member Number 10007714, Rank not yet available, but definitely Sergeant or higher, incredibly skilled fighter. I wonder how long this kind of life will last, but I really crave Chinese food, especially freshly fried rice that's never leftover. Seventeen years old this year, who knows how many months... Sailor Moon—Asaka Jessica!"
Bu Liuxing, carrying his electric guitar, jogged onto the stage and sidled up to the lead singer, striking a knight-transformation pose.
"I am..."
"Alright, that's enough, let's skip this part." Jiang Xueming snatched the microphone back and shoved it into Jessica's hand. "If he were to give you a long monologue, he'd ramble on for at least half an hour, scaring away half the audience. The other half would be the ones he grabs to ask about their horoscopes."
Out of politeness, Jessica turned and pointed towards the drum kit.
"Thank you, Mrs. Enrique from Naples!"
People followed the lead singer's gaze and saw, under the lights, Mrs. Enrique's tube top was still stained with oil, over which was a bright red work vest. Her orange-red hair seemed to be burning like flames, and the way she handled the drumsticks was like handling kitchen knives—perhaps this lady had always harbored a musical dream while doing housework, able to glean some music theory and rhythm from the way she gestured with the knife to her child.
In an instant, whistles and cheers erupted.
Thunderous applause erupted.
"Thank you, Miss Bai Ziqing from Shanwei!"
Jessica then pointed to the main effects panel of the keyboard synthesizer.
Seventh Brother smiled awkwardly, stretched out his hand and scratched like a cat's paw, making a "hello" gesture.
Jessica: "BBQueens! Everyone, let's dance!"
The announcement ended—that was the theme song for Chibi Maruko-chan from the 1990 Kohaku Uta Gassen (Red and White Song Battle).
Mrs. Enrique struck her drumsticks together, followed by the sound of cymbals, much like the starting gun fired by a referee in a running race.
All the misfortune of Sventura has been transformed into a piping hot "LuckyDA☆ZE!" that I just learned from Commander Jessica.
She used the drumbeats to remind her fellow performers on stage to unleash their passion.
Four heavy, deep drumbeats, accompanied by an intro keyboard track, are about to ignite the entire stadium.
Jessica stood in front of the microphone stand, a little nervous and stage-frightened—she was afraid of going in too fast, and also afraid of going in too slow.
There was no rehearsal, no preview.
For the family quarters of the Shiliu Fan Zhitiesuo, every day is new, every day is old, and every day is a live broadcast.
She swayed stiffly, her shoulders and waist twisting, her hair swinging back and forth. She couldn't see her own expression, only that hundreds of eyes were staring at her.
After singing the first line of the song.
"なんでもかんでもみんな"
[Do whatever you have, everyone come together!]
That shyness made her want to disappear into the ground.
But--
--The ending note wasn't finished yet.
Bu Liuxing immediately let out a dry, rough, smoky howl.
"Oh!~~~~~Yeah!~~"
Jessica caught it immediately. "--おどりをおどっているよ!~"
Let's dance together!
"おなべのからボワっと!"
[A popping sound from the pot]
Bu Liuxing immediately harmonized with the Romanized pronunciation. "Bowato!"
[With a soft "poof" sound!]
Jessica immediately broke into a super happy smile, mixing up the first and second verses of the lyrics—her arms, as thin as bamboo poles, were showing off A Xing.
"おいappears!"
[Comedians appear!]
Xue Ming worked hard on stage, following Jessica's lead as if she were performing in a stage play, imitating Jessica's hand-waving dance.
Jessica decided to go with the flow and finish singing the second verse first.
"いつだってわない!"
Never be confused.
"キヨスクはの!"
[Small shops inside the station]
"そんなのfamous!"
[They are that famous]
"タッタタラリラ!"
[Da da da la li la!]
He could occasionally glimpse Seventh Brother fiddling back and forth between the keyboard and the synthesizer, his head bobbing excitedly.
And then there's A Xing, who keeps shouting "GotGotGotNow! Baby!~" like he's going crazy.
Xue Ming thought to herself— Lu Xun wrote more than just "Wild Grass" and "Hot Wind".
The gentleman also said that people's feelings are not mutually understood, but Xue Ming did not find them noisy.
Because Mr. Lu Xun also said something similar, like the second thing you prepare when answering a teacher's roll call—
--The boundless distance, the countless people, are all connected to me.
It was a grand New Year's Eve party, lavishly decorated and extravagantly entertaining.
Before the performance, Brother Qi looked timid, but after two eight-beat counts, he began to reveal his true nature, winking and blowing kisses to the audience.
It was a chaotic and disastrous New Year's Eve party.
Two Korean diesel engineers from the East Asian cultural sphere threw two eggs onto the stage—saying they were a fat man and a little boy. Seven immediately transformed into a professional [Killer], ready to drive a dump truck to deliver these two sticks to another world to begin a new adventure.
It was an unforgettable New Year's Eve party that is very difficult to describe in a few words.
Jiang Xueming picked up the two eggs and, when they were half-dead and had recovered, used them to make a fried rice dish.
Then, watching the sentimental Commander Jessica open the [Paintoast - Pain Ahead, But Cheers!] briefcase, she spooned the contents to Nanami's lips.
Jessica cried as she fed the baby, ate, and thought.
"Isn't this still from the previous day!?"
Nanami, inside the box, didn't complain much. Without cardiovascular support, she didn't have to think about anything too complicated. She would eat and then vomit, then watch her best friend open the latest comic book for her.
And that's it, just like that--
--After the party ended, the New Year's bells rang.
Even though life will never turn again, the teachers at Yingying Kindergarten took the little ones on a brand new carousel.
The three femme fatales still have a few things to do.
They arrived at the large water tower in Block B15, climbed the hilly path to the high platform, and tried to find out the source of the water for the residential buildings and what these black, greasy substances actually were.
However, during the ascent, their Inspiration was frantically alarming. Neither Xue Ming nor Liu Xing, nor even 9527 who had undergone three transformations, could withstand the Inspiration Pressure —on Volga's dashboard, the Spirit Calamity concentration index soared to 90%.
On the winding mountain path, they were drenched in cold sweat and had splitting headaches. Even with the protection of their spirit suits, they probably couldn't take another step up.
On the hilly slopes, the water tower appears to have been rebuilt by [Outlaw] after the disaster. Different colored bricks and paint chips can be seen.
It's just that the distance is too far, so you can't see any details.
A Xing mustered his strength, clutching the brilliance stone to his chest, and charged forward, but was instantly knocked unconscious by the nerve pain brought on by the Inspiration.
Normally, the brightening and dimming of the pyroxene is very regular, like breathing, gradually brightening and dimming. But just now, while A Xing was trying to climb the mountain, the life-saving amulet on his chest maintained its highest brightness, and then went out the moment he lost consciousness. It's like an electrical component having to overclock when dealing with extremely high voltage.
Ultimately, it all comes down to this—they should go home; this isn't a place for them.
Seventh Brother and Xue Ming, one holding his head and the other his legs, carried the unconscious A Xing down the mountain.
On the way down the mountain, Xue Ming took many more photos, including the strange sediment in the water source, the overall outline of the water tower hill, the bare mountain ridge, and many flowering plants. Finally, there was the video of the entire party, as well as the safety guidelines for each [Outlaw].
Twenty-eight hours later, Bu Liuxing woke up to find Xue Ming living in the canteen, exchanging ideas with several steelworkers—it was a pity there was no furnace, otherwise Xue Ming would have drained these [Outlaw] dry.
After spending seven days in the family dormitory building and finishing up the remaining work, they packed their bags and prepared to go home.
In the end, Xue Ming still couldn't make it to A Xing's birthday, and the coffee shop wasn't ready either.
Just like that mysterious water tower, they weren't ready either. As Teacher Victor said, to explore deeper, both body and mind need to "transform from a cocoon into a butterfly."
On the way back.
Jiang Xueming and Seventh Brother talked about the water tower.
"Seventh Brother, you should be much better than us, right?"
"You could say that."
"What could possibly be in a place you can't even go to?"
"Actually, I feel like I can go in alone," Seventh Brother explained, "But the BOSS confiscated my life-saving charm, and I don't have any stones, so I'm not confident."
"No joke, don't try to fool me, Seventh Brother. With a life-saving talisman, you think you can go to that place?"
"Yes!" Xiao Qi's tone was firm. "I'm brave enough to go in, but whether I can come out is another matter."
Jiang Xueming opened his phone's notes app and wrote in his electronic journal, "Can you sense what's inside that water tower?"
"It should be a waterway connecting to the inland river's water circulation system," Seventh Brother analyzed carefully, having seen the city's basic layout. "As for what's in the water tower, I have no idea."
"Professor Victor once gleaned some information from me. He said he was going to investigate a [main body], and many very difficult [subordinates]—could these [subordinates] have already escaped from the high-risk area? That's why we felt such intense Inspiration Pressure." At this point, Jiang Xueming was very worried. What if the community he had painstakingly repaired was destroyed by some inexplicable monster—what a tragic story this would be like for a Japanese riddle master!
"It shouldn't be." 9527 analyzed logically, "I've seen many, many monsters. The one that can create this much mental pressure for me is most likely a [giant], or at least related to a [giant]."
What is a giant object?
"It's a long story, and I can't explain it all in a short time. Go back to the station and find a chance to visit the main library; you'll understand then."
"Oh!" Bu Liuxing suddenly popped his head out, took out his phone, "This is the last photo I took before I lost consciousness! Take a look!"
The three of them looked over at the same time.
That was a photo A Xing took from the foot of the low hill, looking up at the water tower.
The main subject of the photo is the water tower, but under such high pressure, A Xing's hand was shaking so badly that the photo was out of focus and blurry, only showing a rough outline, although the entire low hillside was captured in the photo.
9527 scratched his head. "This... doesn't it look a lot like it?"
Jiang Xueming opened the drawing tool and used red lines to mark the edges of the hills and low slopes in the photo.
"The outline here, and the exposed wrinkles of the stone skin, resemble several fingers."
Bu Liuxing asked nervously, "Could it be the large bronze sculpture in the fountain square? Could it be those giants?"
"The dimensions are very close. Using the height of the Council of Five Kings building as a reference, those bronze giant sculptures, in a crouching position, are about 120 meters tall, about the height of a 30-40 story building," Jiang Xueming explained. "If we consider the bare rock at the edge of this low slope as its fingers, it would be at least 200-300 meters tall if it stood up."
Bu Liuxing became curious. "Should we go back and take a look?"
"Let's come back and explore again when our spirits are stronger." Jiang Xueming turned off his phone light. "Commander Jessica, how much do you know about these things?"
Jessica was still immersed in the grief of saying goodbye to her friends and hadn't come to her senses.
"Oh, oh, oh! That water tower, the foreman said, has been there for many, many years. As for the rest, I don't know."
Even after pressing for details, no valuable information was obtained.
The three of them felt that just thinking about it was pointless.
So I stopped thinking about it.