Chapter 100: The Poor Stay-Behind
Once inside the room, Lu Weiyi finally understood what the woman meant by “room only.” It was a simple triple room with nothing but three beds and two small bedside tables. Not only were there no bedding of any kind, but the bathroom also smelled of stale urine from previous users.
“Just make do,” Li Zhuang saw Lu Weiyi’s expression and knew the young master probably hadn’t suffered this kind of hardship. He put the bags down on the floor and comforted him, “We’ll leave tomorrow at dawn.”
Lu Weiyi also knew this wasn’t the time to be picky. He pursed his lips and nodded, then walked to the window and opened it.
Before long, Ning Yuan came up after parking the car.
He looked at the situation without any expression and said to Lu Weiyi, “Take out some food, I’m starving.”
“What do you want to eat?” Lu Weiyi asked.
In this environment, even the best food felt a bit unappetizing. Ning Yuan just wanted a few meat sandwiches. Lu Weiyi thoughtfully took out a few bowls of porridge. The three of them slurped down their food, and then Ning Yuan prepared to go find Wu Yue.
“Let’s go together, it’s better to have backup in case of any accidents,” Li Zhuang said to Ning Yuan. “There are windows on both sides of the corridor. It’s best to go directly from the window and try not to be seen leaving.”
Ning Yuan thought Li Zhuang’s skills were good and had no objections, but what about Lu Weiyi? “Can you sneak over there?”
Lu Weiyi nodded.
Li Zhuang signaled for Lu Weiyi to put away all the supplies. The three of them took advantage of the night cover and jumped out of the window.
The streets at night were quiet and deserted, with hardly any pedestrians. Relying on the occasional faint light from the sides of the road, the three quietly approached the Dragon Gate Villas.
Before the apocalypse, the Dragon Gate Villa area was very large, and those who lived here were either rich or noble. The security facilities in the community were excellent. Now, even though it was the apocalypse, those living inside were still the top echelon of this base, and there were even guards stationed at the community entrance at night.
“The screening of people entering and leaving here is particularly strict. Only people inside can enter and exit. Others can only enter with the owner’s permission,” Ning Yuan lowered his voice and told the two what he had found out. “We’ll go directly over the wall. The wall is a bit high, can you do it?” He mainly asked Lu Weiyi.
Lu Weiyi was really not good at climbing high places. He thought for a moment and said, “I’ll go directly through the main gate. You don’t have to worry about me. Let’s meet directly at the villa door. West District 60… 1, right?”
“…Right.” With Li Zhuang here, Ning Yuan couldn’t directly ask how he would get in. Seeing that he was certain, he could only agree. “Before I left, Mingxu, Wu Yue, Zhang Zun, Zheng Xin, and the two brothers from the Li family lived in 601. I don’t know what the situation is now. Don’t act rashly when you get there.”
“Got it,” Lu Weiyi nodded, used his mental power to scout around, and walked towards the gate himself. Li Zhuang and Ning Yuan didn’t hesitate and turned towards the place Ning Yuan had scouted earlier.
The entrance of the community wasn’t much different from before the apocalypse, except that the original two barriers had become three. The originally burly security guards at the gate had now been replaced by people from an unknown faction, wearing uniform security guard outfits that didn’t quite fit them. They looked listless and unprofessional, and were huddled in the guardhouse playing cards.
Lu Weiyi covered his whole body with mental power and directly entered the community. After a short distance, he only used his mental power to scan his surroundings and walked towards his own villa.
Although every household in the villa area had lighting, the villas weren’t very close to each other, and a person walking along the road wasn’t very conspicuous. Occasionally, they would even encounter one or two other pedestrians. No one living here wanted to offend others. Seeing a “woman” outside so late at night, they would at most take a second glance, but there was no inappropriate behavior.
Before the apocalypse, each villa in the Dragon Gate Villa area was over a thousand square meters. Most of them were bought by wealthy people as occasional party venues, complete with swimming pools and gardens, making direct entry almost impossible.
Lu Weiyi stood at the gate and looked inside. It was still as he remembered. The people inside hadn’t slept yet. Besides the lights on the first floor, there was also a light on in a room on the second floor. Lu Weiyi thought about the location, unsure if it was the room Lin Yimu usually stayed in.
He wanted to send the small green branch in to see the situation inside, but the distance from the gate to the interior exceeded the branch’s detection range, so he had to give up. He looked around and didn’t see Ning Yuan and Li Zhuang, deciding to approach and scout the situation himself first. He assessed the layout and went around to the side wall of the villa.
Jumping in from here would directly lead to the inner hall. Lu Weiyi hid himself in the darkness and sent the small green branch in. There were three men sitting in the living room on the first floor. Lu Weiyi looked carefully and didn’t recognize any of them. The nearby room was empty, but the bedding was neatly arranged, indicating that someone lived there.
Lu Weiyi had the small green branch follow the wall up to the second floor. There was someone sleeping in the room closest to him. Next door was the room with the light on, and Wu Yue was inside, sitting alone on the bed in a daze, looking quite rough with his unshaven face. Further up, their master bedroom on the third floor was now empty.
The small green branch had a limited detection range, and Lu Weiyi couldn’t reach the further rooms, so he had to retract it. It had been a while, and the other two hadn’t arrived yet. Lu Weiyi wanted to go directly inside, but he wasn’t familiar with Wu Yue. After thinking about it, he decided to wait, but—
Lu Weiyi took out a piece of paper from his space and, using the dim light, wrote: [I am Lu Weiyi. Zhuang Mingxu was schemed against, and he sent Ning Yuan and me to find you. We’ll go up later, draw the curtains so you’re not exposed.]
After writing, he wrapped the note around the small green branch and returned to Wu Yue’s room again.
A roll of paper suddenly appearing in front of him clearly startled Wu Yue. He quickly grabbed a dark knife from the bedside, his eyes sharp. “Wh…” Before he could finish speaking, Lu Weiyi had manipulated the small green branch to unfold the paper, and the words were exposed to his eyes.
The question in Wu Yue’s mouth was abruptly swallowed back. He carefully leaned closer and barely saw an extremely thin thing tied to the paper. He took the paper down and said in a low voice, “Lu Weiyi?”
The tip of the small green branch bent, as if nodding.
Just as Wu Yue was about to ask something else, there was a knock on the door outside, followed by a question, “Brother Wu, I heard you talking. Who’s in your room?”
Wu Yue mouthed “hide,” and worried that Lu Weiyi wouldn’t understand, he also waved his hand outwards, saying loudly, “A moth flew into the light and cast a shadow, scared me.” He saw the small green branch sticking to the window, not clearly visible unless one looked closely. He walked over and opened the door. “San’er, it’s your turn to patrol again?”
A tall, thin man stood at the door, smiling brightly with a hint of gloom in his eyes. He stood at the door and looked around the room, not finding anything strange. He chuckled, “Yeah, I heard some noise coming from your place, Brother. I thought someone had broken into your room. These past few days, other factions in the base have been losing supplies. Brother Li told us all to be vigilant.”
“It should be. I don’t know who’s so immoral, not collecting their own things and running to steal from others. If I catch them, I’ll beat them half to death,” Wu Yue said, looking resentful. The man smiled and glanced inside again. “Since everything’s okay, I’ll go check other places. Get some sleep early, Brother.”
“I was woken up from a good sleep. I don’t know if I can fall back asleep. You should also patrol a couple of rounds and then sleep. All the ability users are on the first floor here, others can’t easily sneak in. Don’t be too honest.”
“Alright, I’ll go first then, Brother Wu.”
Wu Yue waved his hand and closed the door after he left. After the footsteps outside had indeed faded away, he turned back and asked again, “Where’s Lin Yimu?” He remembered Zhuang Mingxu saying before the earthquake that he had sent Lin Yimu to protect Lu Weiyi.
The small green branch looked around, not knowing how to answer him. It suddenly retracted, and Wu Yue leaned back against the wall, alert to his surroundings. After a moment, he saw a tablet tied to the small green branch squeeze in through the crack in the window. Only then did Wu Yue realize that it had come in this way before. It placed the tablet on the ground, turned on the screen, and a twig held a stylus, tapping on the screen to type: [Brother Mu is outside the base taking care of Mingxu, waiting for our news.]
After this series of manipulations by the small green branch, Wu Yue’s vigilance had decreased somewhat, but he still asked, “Where are you now?”
[Outside the wall on the side of the villa]
Wu Yue immediately got up, wanting to peek out, but was afraid of being noticed. Just as he was about to continue asking something normally, the small green branch wrote again: [Ning arrived.]
Ning Yuan and Li Zhuang also arrived at the side of the villa as soon as they came over. The main gate was too far from the villa, and going in and then into the villa was too troublesome. After going around, they finally found Lu Weiyi, who said he was “talking” with Wu Yue.
[Go up later,] Lu Weiyi wrote again, planning to retract it and discuss with them how to get in.
He heard Wu Yue say anxiously, “Wait.” The small green branch, which was about to pick up the tablet and leave, paused and looked at Wu Yue. “There are six ability users in this villa, and their abilities are quite strong. Don’t come in. Leave an address, and I’ll go find you later.”
Lu Weiyi turned his head and told Ning Yuan and Li Zhuang the situation. After they both agreed, he left the room number of where they were staying and retracted.
Wu Yue lay on the bed for a while, then got up and left the room. The three people downstairs saw him come down and immediately looked over.
“Why aren’t you asleep yet?” The one sitting on the sofa was the strongest of the three, his body full of bulging muscles comparable to a bodybuilder, but compared to the deliberately sculpted contours, his muscle form looked natural and more ferocious. This was Li Ji, who had directly crippled Zhuang Mingxu’s legs with one blow back then.
“Woken up,” Wu Yue said, taking a can of beer from the refrigerator and taking a swig. “Why aren’t you asleep yet?”
“It’s still early, we can’t sleep. Brother Li was just showing us some of the tasks the military has posted,” a man beside Li Ji interjected. “Brother Wu, I heard you’ve been leading teams out to find supplies. Take the two of us with you tomorrow, will you? We just got here and aren’t familiar with the area.”
