Chapter 210: Trading for Livestock
The village chief and Zhuzi also looked at Xu Sa, clearly wanting to learn from their experience. Xu Sa waved his hand and said, “We just killed them.”
“You killed all those mutant rats?” Zhuzi asked.
“Not all. Our captain killed the rat king, and the rest scattered,” Xu Sa replied. “When faced with things like that, it’s kill or be killed. We had no choice but to fight.”
Seeing there wasn’t much more to exchange, the group fell silent. Ten minutes later, they arrived at last night’s lodging. Waiting at the door was a young and pretty girl, chattering away with Gu Qingji, who—surprisingly for someone so attached to his brother—was being quite friendly.
“Brother, village chief,” the girl called out and eagerly introduced Gu Qingji, “This is my idol.”
“Oh?” Zhuzi responded and asked, “The singer?”
“Yes! That’s him—Gu Qingji. He’s handsome, sings beautifully, and is also a great dancer,” she praised him without reservation.
“I’m not that amazing, just a regular person,” Gu Qingji said, a little embarrassed, especially since everyone inside had returned first and was now blatantly peeking out with a row of heads “spying” on them.
“My sister really likes you. She can even sing your songs,” Zhuzi, who was cold with everyone else, instantly turned into a softhearted big brother in front of his sister. He turned to Xu Sa and introduced her, “This is my sister Juan’er. She used to work at a big city hospital and is now the village doctor.”
Then he told Juan’er, “This is the guy who passed by last night and wants to trade with us. His name is…”
“I’m Xu Sa. Hello, beautiful,” Xu Sa said with a smiling greeting.
“Hello, handsome,” Juan’er replied, then got down to business. “I heard you want to buy our village’s livestock. We’re short on a lot of medicines. Here’s a list—see if you have any,” she said, handing over a prepared sheet of paper.
“Let’s go inside and talk,” Xu Sa said, accepting the paper and inviting the others into the courtyard. Gu Qingji made an excuse to leave his little “fan” and headed inside. With the show over, the rest dispersed.
Inside, Xu Sa handed the paper to Gu Qingyue and introduced him, “This is Gu Qingyue, Gu Qingji’s older brother, and also a doctor. When it comes to assessing the value of medicines, it’s better to leave it to you two professionals.”
Gu Qingyue gave the list a quick scan, nodded, and pointed to a small tea table in the corner of the room, “Shall we talk over there?”
“Sure,” Juan’er said, glancing at her brother and the village chief before switching seats.
“Let the professionals sort out the medicine values. Let’s discuss the pricing for salt and crystal cores,” Xu Sa said, sitting on one side of the sofa, with their negotiation expert Ning Yuan beside him.
While the main group was talking business in the living room, Zhuang Mingxu sat in a corner teaching Zhuang Ai Yi to read. Xi Shi was busy cooking more food, and the ordinary people who didn’t need to absorb crystal cores were helping out.
In the yard, Lu Weiyi was looking at the sky, holding a B-grade crystal core that he was continuously absorbing.
It was still from the batch they got from Liu Dali. These days, Lu Weiyi absorbed only those, and their quantity was limited. If others wanted to absorb too, it would be tight.
Li Zhuang walked over and flicked Lu Weiyi on the forehead, then quickly dodged to the side. Lu Weiyi looked at him expressionlessly, not even trying to fight back, which made Li Zhuang’s dodge look silly.
“What’s up, kid? Why so gloomy lately?”
“Come on, talk to your big brother,” Li Zhuang reached out to flick his forehead again, but Lu Weiyi swatted him away, making Li Zhuang burst out laughing. He straightened up and said seriously, “If something’s bothering you, say it. We’ll solve it together.”
“…We need higher-level crystal cores. Low-level ones won’t be very effective for future improvements.” But they were in a hurry to travel and didn’t have time to hunt zombies.
This was a contradictory choice between two options, each with its pros and cons.
In truth, whether they hurried on their journey or delayed to hunt zombies, both options offered the ability users a chance to fight. The difficult part was protecting the ordinary people, as they had to be safeguarded during combat, which introduced countless uncertainties.
“Then let’s make time for it,” Li Zhuang immediately understood what he meant. He nodded toward the living room, signaling Lu Weiyi to take a look. “They’re still negotiating in there, there’s no way we’re leaving today. If we head out now, we might be able to get a decent haul.”
Lu Weiyi looked around at Li Zhuang and everyone else, then stood up and walked inside.
“Antonio, Liu Rui, Ning Yuan, Gu Qingji—come with me.” They had all five elemental attributes, making travel convenient.
“I was just—”
“Go ahead, I’ve got it,” Zhuang Mingxu cut off Ning Yuan.
The others, though confused, followed along in silent understanding.
Since Lu Weiyi had made up his mind, he was essentially issuing orders. After quickly explaining the situation, he had Ning Yuan and Gu Qingji go gather intel, while the remaining four waited to depart.
Ning Yuan went straight to find Zhuzi. When Zhuzi heard they wanted to hunt powerful zombies, his expression looked as if he were staring at lunatics. But the old village chief reacted quickly, his face full of kindliness as he said to Zhuzi, “Tell them about it.” After all, fewer zombies nearby was a gain for the village.
Zhuzi, being one of the village’s main fighters, knew a lot. Since the apocalypse, they had ventured most often to the surrounding counties. The most powerful zombies were the ones that had awakened the earliest—typically those found in hospitals. Small places without organized teams to clear them were bound to be overrun with powerful undead.
“Once you head out this way, there are three roads. The left and right ones each split further ahead, leading to different counties. But you’d best avoid the middle road—it leads straight to Anjiang City, and there are bandits along the way,” Zhuzi said.
Ning Yuan zoomed in on the map in his notebook, tracing the routes as he asked, “What do the bandits rob? Supplies?”
“Not just supplies—they kidnap people too. They’re backed by a large base. If they see someone good-looking, they’ll take them. If not, they’ll kill them. Even those they can’t afford to provoke still have to pay a toll,” Zhuzi replied through gritted teeth.
“They even tried attacking our village before, but we have guns, so they didn’t gain anything. But…” His voice dropped, “Now that more people are awakening stronger abilities, I fear guns won’t be enough to intimidate them much longer.”
That was the way of the world. Ning Yuan didn’t say much more but changed the topic, asking about the other counties.
After gathering enough intel and having Zhuzi redraw the map, Ning Yuan’s group got ready to depart.
“Just six of you?” Zhuzi glanced over the team, seemingly thinking they were overestimating themselves. He warned, “There are a lot of zombies.”
“Yeah, we understand. Thanks, Brother Zhuzi.”
“Take this—be careful,” Lu Weiyi said, pulling out a crate of firearms from his space right in front of the village chief and dropping it to the ground. He was speaking to Zhuang Mingxu.
In truth, Zhuang Mingxu still had a few weapons in his own space, used for self-defense. This move was mostly to show force and deter the villagers from getting any ideas about taking advantage of them after the trades.
Zhuzi and Dajun’s eyes lit up when they saw the guns, though the village chief’s expression remained unreadable.
“Got it. Come back soon,” Zhuang Mingxu said as he took the box and gave them a reminder.
“Little Daddy, I’ll wait for you. Don’t get hurt, okay?” Zhuang Ai Yi hugged Lu Weiyi’s leg and gave him a kiss on the cheek as he crouched down to hug the child.
“Stay with Big Daddy. If you want to go out, ask your Godfather to go with you. Don’t run around, okay?” Lu Weiyi gently instructed.
“Got it. Ai Yi will be good,” Zhuang Ai Yi replied obediently.
“Leave some security behind—I’ll look after things here,” Xu Sa said, taking Zhuang Ai Yi into his arms.
“Our village is heading to Jixian County today to gather supplies. Why don’t you go with them? They’ve been there a few times and know which routes are safer. It’ll be easier with them guiding you,” the old village chief offered. He didn’t say they would protect them—only guide them. Ning Yuan looked at Lu Weiyi and nodded. “Thanks for the help, then.”
“Go ahead, no need to worry about the villagers here. Our place is quite harmonious,” the village chief said with a smile. Whether or not he had seen through Lu Weiyi’s caution was unclear.
The six of them took one off-road vehicle. When Dajun led them to the village exit, there were already seven vehicles waiting—five were private cars, including roomy SUVs and small two-seaters. The other two were three-wheeled vehicles with reinforced metal fronts forming enclosed driver cabins, making for a group of around thirty people.
“They’ve got a metal-ability user,” Antonio observed, squinting slightly.
Dajun went to talk to a middle-aged man of about forty. When he noticed the man looking over, Ning Yuan nodded in greeting, and the man came over directly.
“I’m the team leader, Fang Dazhuang. I heard from Dajun you’re tagging along?” Fang Dazhuang looked into their vehicle as he asked.
“Yeah, we won’t trouble you—just need someone to lead the way,” Ning Yuan replied, handing him a cigarette.
Fang Dazhuang accepted it and lit it with a small flame from his hand. After taking a puff, he said, “Sure, we’ll help if there’s danger, but…” He paused, “You can’t take our supplies.”
“Uh…” Ning Yuan considered for a moment before asking, “Could you clarify? What exactly counts as your supplies? Things you’ve already collected? Things you see first? Or everything in the city?” After all, if they were going to the hospital, they definitely intended to take things from it.
“Anything we’ve cleared is ours,” Fang Dazhuang said. He wasn’t an unreasonable person. Their village was relatively peaceful, and since the chief had spoken up, he was willing to give them that respect. But when it came to supplies, things had to be made clear. “We’re heading to a market in Jixian today. All the shops inside are our targets. If possible, it’d be best if you look elsewhere.”
“No problem.” The request was reasonable, and Ning Yuan wasn’t the type to fight over it.
“Alright, we’re just waiting on one person, then we’ll head out immediately,” Fang Dazhuang said, then turned and walked back to his team.
A few minutes later, the person they were waiting for arrived, and the two teams set out from the village in a mighty convoy.
