Chapter 417: Negotiation
He glanced toward the courtyard at the two cheerful girls. “Just your women alone would be enough to drive them to wipe this place out—let alone your weapons and food stores.”
“Aren’t you robbing weapons too? What’s the difference?” the political officer beside Qin Xing scoffed.
“There’s a difference,” Ning Yuan said seriously. “You haven’t seen the worst of it.”
He looked toward Lu Weiyi, who remained still in the courtyard. “At many bases now, ordinary people and ability users are strictly divided into classes—first- and second-class citizens. But our commander doesn’t care much about status or power. Our base is almost like it was before the apocalypse.”
“But as far as I know, that’s the only one like it in the whole country.”
Qin Xing said nothing more. He looked down at the photos on the phone. “I need time to think.”
“That’s fine, but we’re on a tight schedule. The latest we can stay is until tomorrow morning,” Ning Yuan replied.
Qin Xing nodded, summoned Wang Qing to host them, and then left with the political officer to return to headquarters.
The remaining soldiers quickly started chatting with Li Qing’s group, asking questions about the outside world.
Meanwhile, outside, Antonio and Dean were already laughing and talking with the two village girls. After two years, the once language-barriered little foreigner could now joke fluently and even toss out a few idioms. It didn’t take long for him to fish out all the information they wanted.
On the other side, Lu Weiyi had spread his mental power across the area, and the scenes from the four villages unfolded before him. What surprised him wasn’t just how the people lived—but the number of infants.
At dinner, Wang Qing took them to the mess hall. Two meat dishes, six vegetables, and as many steamed buns as they wanted.
There weren’t many live animals, but the military and civilians grew their own food. Being well-fed wasn’t an issue.
That night, they were arranged in the dormitory building. Lu Weiyi let the others sleep while he took the night watch.
Li Zhuang came to sit beside him. “Did you see all the children?”
“Not just that. There are pregnant women too. I saw at least a dozen,” Lu Weiyi replied. He hadn’t planned on getting involved here, but what he saw gave him second thoughts.
Pregnant women and children…
Since the apocalypse, their base had only seen two pregnancies: one was Yin Jin, who was intersex; the other was Dong Hongyuan’s wife.
The two newborns at the base were treated like royalty. At first, Yin Jin was constantly alert and anxious about his son’s safety. Later, when Qin Nian’s powers showed problems, Lu Weiyi even stopped making him wear a collar.
Now, Yin Jin had become half an assistant to Zhuang Mingxu, helping manage the base, and Qin Nian was being looked after full-time by Zhuang Aiyi and Taotao.
Li Zhuang kept glancing at Lu Weiyi.
“I haven’t decided what to do yet,” Lu Weiyi said. The moment he discovered the situation, he had used the spatial peach tree to send a message to Zhuang Mingxu. So far, no reply.
“We don’t have any researchers at our base. If we tell other bases about this place, it could bring disaster to them,” Lu Weiyi said. As he spoke, he sensed someone nearby. His spiritual energy quietly swept around and found Wang Qing holding his breath, standing at the side of the building.
Li Zhuang glanced at him from the corner of his eye—he clearly noticed it too but didn’t react.
“What if we brought them to our base instead?”
“No one can say for sure why this place has remained unaffected by the apocalypse. How can we guarantee that the moment they’re exposed to the outside world, their bodies won’t start to change?”
No matter how they approached it, it wasn’t a good idea.
To put it plainly, this was still a result of greed. Lu Weiyi wanted to find out why this area had escaped the apocalypse—and he also wanted to understand how they still had pregnant women and newborns.
He didn’t want to give this place up, but right now Half Moon Bay Base didn’t have the manpower or energy to spare for it either.
If other bases found out…
Lu Weiyi couldn’t guarantee they’d be treated as human beings.
He had seen what Zhu?ng Mòbái did to people in his lab—those weren’t humans anymore, at most just test subjects.
Perhaps because he was surrounded by soldiers, he still felt some pity for these people in uniform.
“We’re leaving tomorrow morning?”
“Yes. We’ve got other things to take care of. We can’t afford to linger here. Whether they live or die… it’s their fate,” Lu Weiyi sighed.
Li Zhuang sat with him for a while longer before returning to sleep.
—
The next morning, just before dawn, Qin Xing arrived at the courtyard with the political officer they had met the day before. He got straight to the point. “I can give you two-thirds of the transport equipment here. That’s the most I can offer. But there’s one condition.”
Lu Weiyi gestured for him to continue.
“I want you to take a group of our people with you—let them train and study at your base for a while.”
“Our helicopter can’t carry too many people.”
“We have a Z-8 here, but the fuel was lost during the earthquake.”
Qin Xing had clearly thought this through. Seeing Lu Weiyi silent, he raised the stakes: “Eighty percent of our equipment is still intact. Two-thirds of that is a massive amount.”
Lu Weiyi’s gaze shifted to the people Qin Xing brought along. They were all in full combat gear—helmets, guns, backpacks—clearly prepared for combat at any time.
“I won’t be heading back for a few more days. I can’t guarantee their safety in the meantime.”
“Don’t worry, Commander Lu,” the lead man, who looked to be in his thirties, replied crisply. “We don’t need any protection. If we die, that’s our own choice.”
“We won’t hold you back,” another said.
“They’re prepared to sacrifice themselves at any moment,” Qin Xing added.
Lu Weiyi glanced at Ning Yuan. Ning Yuan looked around, then sighed and nodded. “We’re all comrades and soldiers. I don’t want you stuck here either. The outside is dangerous. No one knows when it’ll reach this place. I hope you’ll find what you’re looking for and become a steel wall protecting this land.”
Since Ning Yuan had agreed, Lu Weiyi didn’t argue. Truthfully, if he weren’t worried about how these people might impact this place, he would’ve taken them all back to Half Moon Bay—especially with so many women and children here.
“Where do you want them to be assigned?” Lu Weiyi asked Qin Xing.
“Let them decide,” Qin Xing said, looking toward the towering cliffs in the distance.
It was like they were trapped in a cage here. If they could send out a few sparks of hope, it would give this place some future security.
After Lu Weiyi agreed, Qin Xing added, “I also want a bit of fuel—so if something goes wrong, we’ll have a working helicopter to evacuate people.”
“I don’t have much—only 20 liters,” Lu Weiyi replied.
“Fuel is extremely precious these days. Our refining capabilities are limited. What we use now all comes from old storage. Supplies are tight,” Ning Yuan added.
“Alright,” Qin Xing said. He wasn’t in a strong negotiating position. The fact they weren’t forcing him to give everything was already a courtesy, so he didn’t push.
Besides that, he also asked for some seeds, which sealed the deal. Without delay, he led Lu Weiyi toward the military zone.
The entire surrounding area had been cultivated—wheat and rice swayed in the wind. Many men were in the fields weeding. When they saw Qin Xing bringing others, they stood up to look curiously.
Beyond the vast farmland were rows of warehouse-like buildings, each sealed shut with heavy iron doors.
Qin Xing took out a key, unlocked one of the doors, and opened it to reveal pristine helicopters inside—various models, all well preserved.
“You’ve done a great job keeping them in shape,” Ning Yuan said softly.
“I have people come by regularly for maintenance,” Qin Xing said, stroking one of the helicopters. “If it weren’t for the lack of fuel, I’d have flown one out myself.”
“Good thing you didn’t. We were attacked by a bunch of mutated birds on our way here. If we didn’t have abilities, we might not have survived a crash,” Li Qing said with a bitter smile.
Lu Weiyi couldn’t tell the specific models apart beyond the most obvious differences, so he signaled for Ning Yuan and Li Qing to pick the aircraft, and sent Li Zhuang to check if there was any usable equipment buried by the earthquake nearby.
In an instant, dozens of helicopters were taken into Lu Weiyi’s space, leaving Qin Xing and his soldiers dumbfounded.
“Is this that rumored ‘space ability’?” a younger soldier asked.
“Yes, our base commander’s spatial ability is quite advanced, so his space is large,” Ning Yuan explained for Lu Weiyi.
Lu Weiyi remained silent and simply followed Qin Xing to collect the equipment that had been allocated to them.
Iveco tactical SUVs, military trucks, all-terrain heavy haulers, large tank transport vehicles…
As they continued through the depot, Lu Weiyi grew quieter.
Because Qin Xing wasn’t hiding a thing—but his expression and eyes were full of reluctance.
“Is there anything else you want? I brought plenty of supplies,” Lu Weiyi asked, finally feeling a bit guilty as he looked at the hundreds of vehicles stored in his space.
Qin Xing laughed heartily, then thought seriously for a moment. “I heard from Ning Yuan that communications have now been restored, but maybe due to the low terrain here, our contact with the outside world hasn’t resumed. If you go out, could you leave behind a passage?”
“I want to build an outpost near the edge of the land, so we can at least try to receive some information from the outside.”
Lu Weiyi looked at Li Zhuang.
“I’ll try,” Li Zhuang responded, tilting his head up to examine the heights, occasionally whispering with Antonio. In the end, the two of them disappeared from sight.
It didn’t take long for Lu Weiyi to collect two-thirds of the equipment from the area, and he also retrieved all the buried underground gear.
“Your powers are really useful,” Qin Xing said with envy.
“Don’t you want to say something to the villagers here?” Ning Yuan asked.
“No need. I’ll inform them about the outside world first to prepare them mentally,” Qin Xing replied. Then his gaze turned toward the group of fully armed soldiers. “Du Quan, Liu Zhuo, Wang Aiguo—these are the team leaders of three squads. From now on, they’ll be under your command.”
“For the sake of our shared background as soldiers, please take care of them,” Qin Xing’s eyes reddened slightly as he spoke to Ning Yuan and the others.
“Don’t worry, we’ll do our best to keep them safe,” Ning Yuan replied.
