Chapter 176: Entrustment
“President Zhuang…” Shen Xing began, but then fell silent.
“Don’t worry. Li Qing and the others will look after you,” Zhuang Mingxu patted their shoulders. “If things don’t go well or something happens, you can still come to us. If not in the Capital, it’s likely at Yue Ban Wan. Shen Xing knows the location.”
“Thank you, President Zhuang,” Chen Zhong said.
“No need to be so polite. You two organize your things and tomorrow I’ll take you to Li Qing. You can go ahead and get used to it, and rest early after a long day,” Zhuang Mingxu said, then hurried back to his room, his heart filled with joy.
Early the next morning, Lin Yimu took the initiative to find Li Qing and entrusted the people to him.
“Our army has a lot of people, and things can get complicated. You’re carrying so many supplies. While the soldiers won’t take them, it’s better for you to be cautious. There’s a shortage of resources everywhere now, and people are restless. There have already been cases of sneaky killings in the past few days,” Li Qing said, explaining the situation. “Would you consider placing your supplies with the military, and take them when needed? Of course, I won’t steal your things.”
“That works,” Lin Yimu replied. Since they had no good place to keep the supplies separately, they agreed immediately.
“Alright, I’ll have them separate it a bit,” Li Qing instructed the few people who came with him to move the supplies.
“Do you two want to join the military?” Lu Weiyi asked Guan Tong and her daughter, who had been keeping a low profile since they returned the day before. “Our journey isn’t really suitable for having you both with us.”
“Ms. Guan is a national-level orthopedic surgeon, and her medical skills are excellent,” Lu Weiyi introduced them to Li Qing. We are heading to the Capital, where there would definitely be better doctors. Since the journey wasn’t suitable for two women, the best solution would be to arrange a separate place for them.
“Then we’ll trouble you all in the future,” Guan Tong said with understanding.
“Welcome,” Li Qing said, though he hadn’t received any updates yet. He glanced around at the team, hoping to catch any new information, but no one paid attention to him.
“Xiao Yi, leave 100 kilograms of rice and some clothing and daily supplies for Mrs. Guan,” Zhuang Mingxu volunteered. It was hard enough for two ordinary people with nothing.
Lu Weiyi nodded and threw in a few more items.
“Thank you, Mr. Zhuang,” Guan Tong bowed in gratitude.
“…Thank you,” Yun Lu also quietly said, then added, “I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine. Don’t let others fool you. Your mother has it tough with you,” Zhuang Mingxu said with a magnanimous air. His attitude reminded Li Qing of a noble lady from ancient times telling a concubine to serve her husband well.
Li Qing shivered, not daring to think further. He turned his attention back to the task at hand and said to Lu Weiyi, “I came to ask for your help.”
“Now, the new base is set on a small hill a few miles away. The earth-type ability users have already built a wall around the base, and the major factions have divided up the areas, getting ready to build houses. But we don’t have steel or bricks, so we’re asking earth-type ability users to separate out the materials from the existing buildings.”
“Your team has high-level abilities. Can the earth-type ability users help, and can you use your space ability to transport the materials? The sooner we get the base set up, the sooner we can start gathering supplies.”
“Why not just use earth walls to build houses?” Li Zhuang asked. His ability was strong enough to build an airtight “room” anytime, so he didn’t quite understand why they needed bricks.
“Bro, not everyone has your ability. They can’t do it. Besides, we worry that the earth walls won’t be sturdy enough,” Li Qing explained.
“Alright, so I’ll help separate the bricks and steel?” Li Zhuang asked.
“Yes,” Li Qing replied, looking around. “The other earth-type users will need to help too.” Since Team Only didn’t cooperate with other teams, no one knew who had what abilities.
“Antonio, you need to help us get some steel. Metal-type ability users are really hard to find, especially the higher-level ones,” Li Qing said to Antonio.
Antonio made an “OK” gesture and then turned to continue whispering with Dean.
Among Only Team, there were three earth-type ability users, two of whom were above B-level. They worked much faster than others. With Antonio handling the metal, it didn’t take long for the steel bars to be ready. By noon, Li Qing had a large pile of materials in front of him.
Before coming here, Lu Weiyi had taken some of his supplies out and cleared some space. He then packed everything into his space and transported it to the small hill.
After the flood, cars had become useless, and walking was the only option. The entire base had united temporarily to smooth out the road surface, so it was no longer full of potholes.
Li Qing, Lei Jun, and Zhang Peng “escorted” Lu Weiyi up the mountain and introduced the area to him as they entered the “encirclement” at the foot of the mountain. “The whole mountain is not very large, but there are few people alive right now, so it’s enough for now.”
“Is the base still controlled by the Li and Gu families? Did they survive the flood?” Lu Weiyi asked.
Li Qing was a little speechless from Lu Weiyi’s direct question but patiently explained, “Most of the people living in the Longmen Villa are fine. After all, the quality of those villas is solid. Many of their subordinates died, and their teams shrank, but the structure hasn’t changed. Now that more people from the military survived, they need our help to build the base. At least we have a say in things, but resources are still scarce…”
Li Qing felt a headache thinking about how to feed so many people.
“Didn’t they give you any supplies for the construction?” Lu Weiyi asked. “When people work, they should get something in return.”
“They gave us something, but a lot of supplies were destroyed. What we have left is very limited, and we can barely get enough food,” Li Qing replied helplessly. “Our job is to get the walls up and divide the areas. After that, each faction will handle its own construction.”
Lu Weiyi nodded and kept walking with him until they reached the top of the mountain, where they entered another area surrounded by a wall.
“The area from the top of the mountain down to 5 kilometers is divided into four parts: one for the military, one for the Gu family, one for the Li family, and the remaining small section is for others with enough supplies. For now, it’s under our construction. Once the houses are built, the residents’ materials will count as ours,” Li Qing continued, pointing to the ability users inside the wall, who were busy building houses. “This is the military’s residential area. We just finished building one house here.”
Lu Weiyi threw the supplies he had brought aside and looked around. He nodded. For now, it was sufficient for living, but the area was too small, and there was no room for farming. The resources were not renewable, and if another flood came, everything would be wiped out.
He told Li Qing this, and Li Qing fell silent for a moment before saying helplessly, “I know. I actually thought about leaving with you, but many people don’t want to leave the familiar place. The internal vote didn’t pass, and my father didn’t want the army under him to disband just like that, so I had to compromise.”
Everyone has their own path. Lu Weiyi didn’t say anything more and helped them for the whole day. In the end, Li Qing generously arranged a room for the people entrusted to him by Lu Weiyi in the military accommodation building.
That evening, when they returned, Zhuang Mingxu had already planned the route with the ability users from their team.
“We’ll head directly towards Shangyang City after leaving the base. The terrain here is a bit higher, and the road gets better as we move, so we can drive after we get out. The main route will pass through Anjiang City, then onto Pingjin City. From there, we can check if the location near Yuebanwan is suitable for future settlement. Once we confirm, we’ll turn towards the Capital to make the next plan.”
“Let’s visit the base in Xiangning City first,” Lu Weiyi still wanted to see if he could find Xu Yi. Zhuang Mingxu’s leg would heal as soon as possible, he thought, giving Dean a frustrated look. If Dean had awakened, it wouldn’t be so troublesome.
Dean received the look for no apparent reason and immediately smiled like a golden sunflower, which made Lu Weiyi feel even more frustrated.
“The flood came from the direction of Xiangning City’s base. If we go through here, we’ll probably need to walk the whole way,” Li Zhuang said.
Lu Weiyi nodded.
When the others saw he didn’t change his mind, they didn’t say anything more.
“Alright, after we pass through Xiangning City’s base, we’ll detour around Shangyang City,” Zhuang Mingxu said.
After confirming the route, the group went off to rest and recharge. When Lu Weiyi returned to his room, he saw Lu Xi sitting by the window, listlessly swinging his legs, holding Zhuang Ai Yi’s Rubik’s cube and occasionally turning it. He looked downhearted.
“What’s wrong?” Lu Weiyi asked Zhuang Mingxu.
Zhuang Mingxu smiled. “He heard Li Muzi talking about the research institute the other day, and wanted to check if there were any research equipment he could use. Today, he went with a few people to look around, but most of the equipment was damaged by the water. Even the usable ones are mostly for research on the zombie virus. He came back like this.”
“There must be professional weapon research equipment in the Capital. We’ll be there soon,” Lu Weiyi reassured Lu Xi.
“Brother, I just wanted to see their research progress,” Lu Xi knew that Lu Weiyi was already very busy. The whole team relied on him, and he didn’t want to add to his burdens. But after the apocalypse, his ability didn’t improve quickly, and he lacked practical places to experiment, leaving only theoretical ideas.
“I remember there used to be a branch of the underground military industrial research institute in Pingjin City. I once went there on a mission. They specialized in developing secret weapons, and their equipment was advanced. If we pass by, we can stop and get the equipment. Our little scientist will have his own research lab in the future,” Zhuang Mingxu said.
“Really? Really? Brother Mingxu, are you serious?” Lu Xi said, pretending not to care but jumping up in excitement.
“Of course it’s true. Most of the major bases are focusing their research on zombies right now, and military weapons aren’t a priority. With abilities involved, no one is going to touch that equipment. Who knows, maybe you’ll be the first in the country,” Zhuang Mingxu said.
