132: Chapter 132 Seven iron plates welded onto the car wall! The dead follow the living.

10:00 AM.

When Zhou Yuan's voice came through the communicator, Lu Chen was at the main entrance of the first level, watching the third wave of the migration team walk in.

"City Lord Lu Chen."

"Speak."

"The sixth sonic tapping test still received no response."

"It has been over sixty hours since the collapse."

Lu Chen's fingers paused on the doorframe.

"Confirm them as casualties."

"Notify the families."

"They have already been notified."

Zhou Yuan's voice sank on the last word.

"City Lord Lin Xiao wishes to hold a funeral."

"When?"

"This afternoon at 3:00 PM, at the open space on the east side of the snow-free zone on the Polaris."

"He asked if you could attend."

Lu Chen watched the crowd walking in.

A seven or eight-year-old girl gripped her father's coat hem, looking up at the ten-meter-high ceiling.

"I can."

3:00 PM.

The snow-free zone on the east side of the Polaris.

Within the two-hundred-meter radius of the snow-free zone, a patch of rust-colored muddy ground had been shoveled flat and packed solid.

Seven temporarily welded iron plates stood on the ground; each plate was half a meter high and thirty centimeters wide.

Seven names were engraved on the seven iron plates respectively.

Three were the remains found in the ruins yesterday morning, and four were the missing persons finally confirmed as having perished.

Seven people.

Adding in the previously confirmed casualty data, the final statistics for the battle of the Ice Thorn self-detonation were seven dead, thirty-seven seriously injured, and one hundred sixty-two lightly injured.

Lin Xiao stood in front of the iron plates, facing two thousand people.

These people were residents who had already moved into the Polaris and family members who had come down from the fourth level of The City-State to attend the funeral.

They stood in the above-zero snow-free zone, wearing gray-blue work uniforms.

There was no wind.

"Seven people."

Lin Xiao's booming voice echoed in the air of the snow-free zone.

"The first, ID number 1032, boiler worker Zhang Dahai, forty-seven years old, worked in the power zone at the bottom of The City-State for twenty-three years."

"He was patrolling next to the No. 1 boiler when the Ice Thorn self-detonated."

"He didn't run."

"He had to stay behind to manually close the boiler's emergency valve; after he closed the valve, the collapsed ceiling came crashing down."

"If he hadn't closed that valve, the boiler would have exploded a second time. Right next to the No. 1 boiler is the evacuation passage for the first level, where more than sixty people were running upward at the time."

Lin Xiao's voice lowered by half a degree.

"He saved over sixty lives."

The crowd was so quiet that only breathing could be heard.

"The second, ID number 1763, boiler worker Zhao Ming, forty-one years old."

He read them out one by one.

Seven names, seven stories.

There was the welder who turned back during the evacuation to carry an injured colleague, and the mother who shielded her child with her body at the moment of the collapse.

Lu Chen stood at the very back of the crowd.

He did not speak.

When Lin Xiao finished reading the last name, a woman in her sixties walked out from the crowd, went to the fourth iron plate, squatted down, and traced the engraved characters on the plate with her finger.

She didn't cry.

Her finger traced over that name repeatedly several times.

"Old Four."

Her voice was very soft.

"Mom has found you a new home."

"It's warm."

"Twenty degrees."

She stood up and turned to walk back into the crowd.

After walking two steps, her legs went weak, and a young man nearby hurriedly steadied her.

"Ma'am, let me help you."

"No need."

She pushed the young man's hand away.

"I can walk."

The funeral lasted twenty minutes.

Lin Xiao said one last thing.

"The iron plates for the seven people will be welded onto the outer wall of the Polaris."

"As long as this train is still moving, they will move with it."

"They won't be left behind."

He turned his head to look at Lu Chen.

Lu Chen nodded.

"Weld them onto the wall on the right side of the first-level entrance."

"Everyone who walks into the Polaris will be able to see them."

Lin Xiao slapped the iron plate with his palm.

"It's settled."

The crowd slowly dispersed.

Some returned inside the Polaris, others walked back to the exit platform of The City-State.

Lu Chen stood where he was, unmoving.

Lin Wan walked up from behind him.

"City Lord."

"What is it?"

"Do the iron plates need welding? I'll go find some tools."

"You don't need to."

Lu Chen looked at the seven iron plates.

"Use the Mechanical Arm to weld them; the precision will be higher."

"The lettering on the iron plates cannot be deformed during the welding process."

"Understood."

Lin Wan looked down at the seven plates.

"City Lord, when I was in The City-State, people died every year during the Ice Storm season."

"One year, more than forty died."

"Back then, there were no iron plates; the bodies were just pushed off the city wall and left to be buried by the wind and snow."

She paused.

"You having them welded onto the wall is better than pushing them off."

Lu Chen did not respond.

He walked toward the airlock door of the Polaris, preparing to operate the Mechanical Arm to complete the welding work.

He walked five steps and stopped.

"Lin Wan."

"Yes."

"Were the watermelon seedlings in the greenhouse watered today?"

"Yes, the nutrient solution concentration was adjusted to 0.3."

"How is the growth rate?"

"It's 8% faster than yesterday; at this rate, the maturation time can be advanced by another two to three days."

"Good."

Lu Chen continued walking.

"Take care of the living first, then deal with the dead."

"But the dead cannot be ignored, either."