Chapter 391: Unrest
Worried about Tang Bo, she used hand gestures to try to ask Lu Weiyi something.
Unfortunately, Lu Weiyi didn’t understand sign language. Their conversation was completely disjointed. After a bit of awkward back-and-forth, Lu Weiyi left the space.
Besides Tang Bo, their second selected target was a woman named Zhou Xue, wife of Zhang Tong—the captain of the Blizzard Squad.
Unlike those hiding family members, Zhou Xue and Zhang Tong had a blood feud over the death of their child.
They were married before the apocalypse. After it hit, they both awakened powers around the same time and supported each other as they climbed up. Zhang Tong even named his squad after her.
Later, with a few survivors, they reached Pingjin Base. But due to Jiang Ning’s rules, ordinary people couldn’t integrate into the base.
At first, everyone lived outside the base, but that was the peak of mutations—nearly every day, someone would turn into a zombie or mutate into a powered being. If they weren’t discovered in time, they’d injure or infect others. Living in constant fear, Zhang Tong eventually snapped.
Their team had already lost many ordinary people on the way from the surrounding counties to Pingjin. He quietly assigned away those who might object and, along with a few wavering teammates, allowed one of the ordinary members to become infected and turn into a zombie.
When those around them mutated, there was almost no way to avoid it. All the ordinary people were injured, including his own biological son. By the time Zhou Xue, who had been sent away, returned, all she saw were the corpses of those who had been infected—and Zhang Tong crying in grief.
Afterward, they successfully entered the base. Zhou Xue blamed Jiang Ning for her son’s death, resenting him for setting such a policy. She repeatedly risked her life to level up, hoping that one day she could take revenge on Jiang Ning.
However, the plant-type crystal nuclei that could allow safe level-ups in their team were limited. Zhang Tong repeatedly persuaded her to think of the bigger picture, and none of the crystal nuclei were ever used on her. But she eventually discovered the truth by accident.
With such a gap in power between ability levels, it was impossible for her to kill them and avenge her son. Zhou Xue could only grit her teeth, pretend she knew nothing, and patiently wait for an opportunity.
The olive branch extended by the Only Squad came at just the right moment.
Ning Yuan merely passed along a quiet message, and Zhou Xue accepted it without hesitation.
“She didn’t make any demands. She just said that as long as they die, she’s willing to pay any price,” Ning Yuan said with a sigh.
“Are you sure we don’t need to control her? Women can be soft-hearted—don’t let her mess it up,” Wu Yue asked.
“Zhang Tong schemed to kill their son, and after entering the base, played the role of the grieving husband to suppress her. Once he advanced to A-rank and their power levels diverged, he started living it up—surrounded by women, even bringing them home in front of Zhou Xue multiple times without any regard for her feelings.”
Ning Yuan had thoroughly investigated the details. “In this situation, if she can still be soft-hearted, then frankly, she deserves everything she gets.”
“As long as you’re clear on that. Any word from Ming Xu?”
“Yes. He told us he’s returning with the team this time. He set up multiple checkpoints in the area between here and the Pingjin base, creating a communication route using walkie-talkies. Once we give the channel frequency to our cooperating contacts, the rest won’t need our involvement for now.”
Ning Yuan responded while seeing his own breath in the cold. “Is the temperature below freezing already? Why does it feel so cold?”
“The night before last it hit minus twelve. Yesterday it was minus eight. Today the daytime drop wasn’t as obvious, only two or three degrees, but I heard that quite a few ordinary people outside the base didn’t wake up this morning. It’s probably about to plunge sharply—just like last year when the temperature suddenly crashed.”
“This damn weather…”
Ning Yuan cursed a bit. When he turned around, he saw Lu Weiyi getting out of bed and was immediately speechless. “Young Master, could you wear more clothes? Did you forget how hard it was for you to recover from your cold?”
“I’ll wear thick clothes!” Lu Weiyi was annoyed at having that incident brought up again.
“The instructor made new padded jackets from fresh cotton—super thick and warm,” Li Qing said as he handed over his own military coat.
Grinding his teeth, Lu Weiyi finally snatched it and dashed toward the bathroom, leaving behind the muffled laughter of Wu Yue and the others.
While they hadn’t even left yet, on the other side, Tang Bai’s friend Xu Wen had already quietly organized everyone in the team and began heading toward Yueban Bay.
Tang Bai had secretly helped him gather a large batch of winter supplies. To those unaware, it looked like he was planning to settle there permanently.
Xu Sa and Liu Rui wasted no time. After returning, they immediately brought seafood and salt. With Tang Bai and Zhou Xue’s cooperation this time, they not only traded for a good amount of food but also acquired a large number of crystal nuclei—including several A-rank ones.
Their goodwill was so obvious that Lu Weiyi responded in kind, handing over a handwritten letter from Liu Wan.
After hurriedly trading away the goods they’d brought, Lu Weiyi and the group set out on their return journey overnight. Despite traveling non-stop, by the time they made it back to the base, daytime temperatures had already dropped to minus seven or eight degrees—and were still plummeting rapidly every day.
The base entrance guards were all bundled in standard-issue thick coats, dressed so heavily they looked like walking balls, with only their eyes visible—making them completely unrecognizable.
After verifying personnel, the convoy entered quickly.
On the square in front of the government building, a crowd had gathered, shivering in line to receive supplies. All base service staff were being issued one cotton quilt and one padded jacket—so-called “public servant benefits.”
“Young Master, if you hadn’t come back now, Ming Xu was about to send someone to look for you,” said Lin Yimu, wearing a Lei Feng hat and cotton jacket, his breath white in the cold. “How was the trip?”
“Instructor, everything went smoothly,” Li Qing answered before Lu Weiyi could speak.
He leapt off the vehicle so fast that one would think he had a tail wagging with excitement.
Lu Weiyi gritted his teeth. “Big Brother Mu, it’s too cold—have the ability users in the team come help. Don’t stay out here.”
“Alright. Are you tired? Ming Xu’s informed all the base collection teams—there’s a meeting at eleven in the government building.”
“Then I’ll go report in.” Speaking of official business, Lu Weiyi didn’t delay. He instructed Xu Sa to take the visible supplies into the warehouse, then he and Wu Yue headed toward the government building.
In the base, it was easy to tell ordinary people and ability users apart—those shivering constantly were definitely regular folks. Ability users, on the other hand, were just wearing sweaters or down jackets. Some who didn’t care much were even just in windbreakers.
Lu Weiyi glanced over curiously—and was surprised to see a familiar face. He changed direction and walked over.
“Director Lu,” Cheng Chuan greeted him.
Next to him was a very tall man who smiled sheepishly, “Leader.”
Sandwiched between the two was a person bundled up like a ball. Her large, pretty almond-shaped eyes looked up at him, and her voice, clear despite the scarf, rang out: “Director Lu.”
“Hello to you all. How’s life at the base been treating you?” Since returning, Lu Weiyi had been so busy he hadn’t had a chance to check in with these people. He wasn’t sure how they were doing.
“It’s been good. Director Zhuang arranged for Xia Xia to work in the greenhouse with Captain Bai as her assistant. Erwa and I, along with others from our village, have been going out to sea to hunt. We’re not lacking any supplies,” Cheng Chuan replied.
“Where’s the old village chief? Is he still in good health?”
“He’s doing well, it’s just that…” Cheng Chuan paused for a moment before continuing, “Can we use more crystal cores to exchange for another set of supplies?”
Cheng Chuan was a half-zombie and could control some low-level zombies. He occasionally went out to hunt for crystal cores, so their life was relatively easy. However, the winter supplies were strictly controlled—no matter how many materials they had, it was still hard to get them.
“After distribution, there should be some surplus allocated to each team. Just have someone register and collect them then,” Lu Weiyi replied. After all, not every ordinary person served the base, so Zhuang Mingxu had reserved spots for non-ability users in each team.
“You… You’re not experiencing any issues, are you?” Lu Weiyi asked with intent.
Cheng Chuan didn’t respond.
“If you feel even the slightest discomfort, report it immediately. Most of the people around you are ordinary. If something happens and you just let it go, you know the consequences yourselves. I hope you won’t let down the trust I’ve placed in you.”
“…I’ve been feeling increasingly restless,” Cheng Chuan admitted after a long silence.
“Right now… Come find me at Central Island around 3 PM this afternoon. I’ll have someone run a check-up on you,” Lu Weiyi said after checking the time—it wasn’t a good moment to leave now.
Considering Cheng Chuan’s special situation, he wasn’t comfortable handing it off to anyone else, especially in case news of it leaked.
After confirming the time, Lu Weiyi finally left with Wu Yue.
Passing through the crowds waiting for supplies, they reached the government building, which was bustling with people—mostly team members from various collection squads. Captains and deputy captains from previous encounters had all gathered there.
Lu Weiyi greeted everyone. The deputy captain of Frost Squad, Yu Mengchu, known for being outgoing, offered him a cigarette. Lu Weiyi accepted it politely but didn’t smoke.
“Base Leader, there’s a rumor going around that this winter the island bridge will be dismantled, isolating our entire base at sea. Is it true?” Yu Mengchu lowered her voice, but many of the surrounding ability users subtly turned their attention toward them.
“Where did you hear that from?” Lu Weiyi asked, uncertain if there really were such rumors.
“People are talking about it privately,” Yu Mengchu glanced at the team leaders standing behind her.
“We’ve heard similar rumors lately too,” Du Ping, captain of the Peace Squad, chimed in.
“Right, Base Leader, we’ve got over a hundred mouths to feed in our squad. You see…” added Chen Xing from the Zhongliang Squad.
“There’s no such plan at the moment. But if an attack happens during winter, our defenses won’t hold up well. To protect the base residents, we may take some appropriate measures. The base will notify everyone in advance, so there’s no need to panic,” Lu Weiyi explained calmly.
Just then, Zhuang Mingxu’s assistant walked over through the crowd. “Base Leader Lu, Vice Base Leader Zhuang has something to discuss with you. Is now a good time?”
“If you have any concerns, bring them up during the meeting later. We’ll work together to resolve everything,” Lu Weiyi reassured them before following the assistant away.
