Chapter 99: The Scouting Trio
The three of them set off, in a hurry. Li Zhuang drove recklessly, the car bumping along the damaged highway. The three people inside, wearing seat belts, also held tightly to the handles to ensure they wouldn’t suddenly hit their heads. Although they were dizzy from the bumps, they had to admit the speed was much faster. After more than an hour, they saw the gate of the Qingyuan City Safe Zone.
The Qingyuan base was formed by a high-end villa area and the surrounding residential areas before the apocalypse. After being cleared by the military, high walls were built, forming a safe zone.
With the military stationed there for a month, the base had already taken initial shape. A two-person-high city wall, a row of soldiers carrying guns blocked the main gate. Several people were queuing to enter in an orderly manner, without any hint of troublemaking.
Outside the base was still a refugee area, a certain distance from the gate. Under the dim light, the bustling crowd was blurry. Just listening to the sound from afar didn’t sound so lifeless.
As soon as the car stopped, Ning Yuan in the back seat opened the door and dry-heaved a couple of times. He took a bottle of water from his bag and drank some, finally relieving his discomfort. He turned to Li Zhuang and gave him a thumbs-up. “Even when I was learning to fly and sat in a spinning chair, it wasn’t this exaggerated.”
Li Zhuang nodded, accepting his praise, and raised his chin towards the base gate, indicating, “Go inquire about information.”
Ning Yuan nodded and said to Lu Weiyi in the passenger seat, “You quickly cover yourself up. Even if they can’t see clearly, you being so clean is too obvious.”
“I know, I know,” Lu Weiyi waved his hand impatiently at him.
After the others walked away, Lu Weiyi, under Li Zhuang’s questioning gaze, calmly took out a shoulder-length wig and neatly put it on his head as Li Zhuang stared in astonishment.
“You…” Li Zhuang was momentarily speechless, then chuckled and gave him a thumbs-up, indicating his admiration.
Lu Weiyi was naturally good-looking. If he entered the base with short, clean hair, it would be hard not to attract attention. But now, the thick bangs covered his forehead, and the shoulder-length hairstyle gave him a somewhat dull appearance. Adding a pair of black-rimmed glasses that hid his beautiful eyes, he now looked like a very ordinary woman.
In the current apocalypse, it seemed plausible for a woman to be traveling with two men, and being clean might even be considered normal.
“Who did you learn this from?” Li Zhuang sized Lu Weiyi up and down, thinking his disguise was quite good.
“Self-taught,” Lu Weiyi said with a bit of smugness.
Of course, that was a lie. This was a look Zhuang Mingxu had helped him put together when they had to go to other bases together in his previous life, saying it could completely conceal his striking features. When he went to the mall to collect supplies after the apocalypse, he had even remembered seeing a wig shop. He hadn’t expected to use it so quickly.
Before long, Ning Yuan returned. Seeing a woman sitting in the car from afar, he was a bit stunned. It wasn’t until he got closer that he realized it was Lu Weiyi. For a moment, he didn’t know what to say. But Lu Weiyi, without waiting for him to adjust, directly asked, “Did you find out?”
“Yeah,” Ning Yuan nodded, putting aside other thoughts and getting down to business. “The base has now set up some kind of ID card system, issued to the people living inside in exchange for supplies. It costs two hundred pounds of flour or rice for one person to enter, or ten pounds of water. The weight requirement for other foods varies. After entering, vehicles have to pay a temporary parking fee, just like parking spaces before the apocalypse, two pounds of rice per night, guaranteeing no one will steal it, but not guaranteeing the safety of gasoline.”
“What do we have to exchange?” Ning Yuan asked Lu Weiyi, because apart from their three backpacks, the trunk was actually empty. The supplies all depended on what Lu Weiyi took out.
“Water, of course.” Using something that came for free to replace rice and flour was incredibly cost-effective.
As Lu Weiyi spoke, he put a large bucket and a case of mineral water in the trunk, and also added some instant noodles, bread, and snacks, throwing some in the empty back seat.
After Ning Yuan got in the car, the three of them drove towards the base gate. The base gate had two entrances. One of them constantly had trucks carrying goods driving in. Ning Yuan pointed to another truck entering over there and said, “Those entering over there are residents of the base, all going out to look for supplies.”
“These are all newcomers.” The base regulations stated that the gates were open for entry and exit from five in the morning to nine at night. It was now close to closing time, and there weren’t many people waiting. After three or four minutes, it was their turn.
Two people in military uniforms came to the car, holding a notebook. “Register, just the three of you? Ordinary people or ability users? What will you use to pay?”
“All ordinary people, we’ll pay with water,” Li Zhuang replied.
“Water?” A look of disbelief flashed across one person’s face, but it quickly returned to normal. Water was obviously scarce now. Although the regulations allowed payment with water, no one had done so recently.
“That’s right, we happened to get three buckets when we came. Paying with it will also prevent others from eyeing it,” Ning Yuan said with a grin, showing his white teeth.
The three of them had no power or influence now. Bringing a few buckets of water in, who knew how many people would notice? Handing it over was the best choice. The two nodded, took out some kind of instrument, tapped it a few times, and asked, “Names.”
“Li Zhuang.”
“Xu Sa,” Lu Weiyi said in a low voice. The other two simultaneously looked at him, their eyes showing surprise. Lu Weiyi calmly adjusted his glasses, showing no reaction to tricking his friends.
“…” Ning Yuan also wanted to say Lin Yimu’s name like he had, but thinking that Lin Yimu’s name might be known, he immediately changed his mind. “Liu Rui.”
This time, both Lu Weiyi and Li Zhuang turned back to look at him. After all, Lu Weiyi had said Xu Sa’s name because their figures and heights were similar, but the difference between Ning Yuan and Liu Rui was quite large. Ning Yuan looked clearly like an adult, while Liu Rui looked like he hadn’t fully grown yet.
The two soldiers didn’t care. They casually took a picture of their faces, found it wasn’t clear, and directly put away the instrument. They handed three newly printed thin nameplates to the three of them and said, “The photos aren’t clear. Tomorrow during the day, take the nameplates to the base’s population registration office to get them reissued. Where do you want to park the car? Centralized management or your own choice?”
“Centralized,” Ning Yuan said, taking out two pounds of rice from beside him and getting out of the car to open the trunk for them to take the water.
As soon as the two saw the three buckets of water, they didn’t even weigh the rice to see if it was enough. They just hefted it and directly put it away. One of them issued the vehicle permit, and the other took out a testing instrument, took some water from the bucket, and after three beeps, he nodded to the other person and waved to the person blocking the gate to raise the barrier for them to enter.
“Go in,” the man said, clearly happy, carrying the bucket of water. “There are people inside who specialize in introducing the base’s situation. You can exchange supplies with them to get everything sorted out.”
“Alright, thank you.”
As the barrier rose, Li Zhuang floored the accelerator, and they entered the base. Unlike small bases where everything was dark at night, this large base had the military stationed, and the basic living infrastructure was relatively complete. Many places had lights on at night. Although it wasn’t like before the apocalypse where there were lights everywhere, there was no shortage of household electricity.
The residents along the roads also had various lighting facilities, including oil lamps, candles, and torches. At a glance, they could roughly see the main roads.
“Turn right,” As soon as they entered the base, Ning Yuan ignored the people who came up to them and directly gave directions.
“Looking for a place to stay?” Li Zhuang asked, turning the steering wheel.
“Yeah, there should be temporary residences. Let’s drive towards the Dragon Gate Villa area first. Staying near the villas will make it easier to sneak out to find Wu Yue at night.” After going through so much hardship to finally return to Qingyuan, Ning Yuan’s heart had settled. Looking at the familiar scenery around him, he was clearly a bit excited. “See that area with the most lights? That’s the Dragon Gate Villas. We’ll live there in the future.”
The villas here were only occasionally used for gatherings or weekend getaways for relaxation, and were mostly empty at other times. In the later part of his previous life, they had always lived in the Capital, so Lu Weiyi’s memory of this place wasn’t very clear. Hearing Ning Yuan’s words, he looked up and saw that in the surrounding darkness, that area was clearly brightly lit everywhere, indicating that the people living inside were doing quite well.
The car drove for more than ten minutes, and Ning Yuan pointed to a place by the roadside with the word “Hotel” written on it, saying, “Let’s settle down here for tonight first.”
This place must have been a hotel before the apocalypse, a few stories high. Getting closer, they could see the vertically written sign “Orange Hotel.” It probably had neon lights, but they weren’t lit now due to the lack of electricity.
Li Zhuang looked around and didn’t see a centralized parking lot, so he parked the car in front of the hotel first.
In the first floor lobby, there was a solar-powered lamp. A man and a woman were at the front desk, not dressed very cleanly. Compared to the dusty travelers outside, they were many times more tidy. Seeing someone come in, the woman said with a faint expression, “Checking in? How many rooms?”
“One room,” Ning Yuan said.
The woman looked up at the three of them. “Registration nameplates.”
Li Zhuang handed over the nameplates they had just received. The other man’s gaze, however, had been fixed on the three of them, especially lingering on Lu Weiyi, with a clearly malicious look on his face.
Seeing this, Lu Weiyi lowered his head and hid behind Li Zhuang. Li Zhuang directly met the man’s gaze, smiled, and at the same time, casually moved the triangular knife in his hand, which was stained with dark blood. The man’s expression slightly changed, and he turned his head to look at the woman’s registration form.
After registering, the woman handed back the nameplates. “Five packs of instant noodles per night, room only, other things are extra. Check-out is at twelve o’clock, extensions must be done beforehand.”
“Is there hot water?” Although they had brought meat buns, after running around all day, Ning Yuan felt that being able to have a bowl of instant noodles would be good.
“Tch,” the man scoffed. Only then did Ning Yuan realize how precious water was now.
“Sleeping gets you a big meal,” the man said sarcastically. Ning Yuan didn’t care and took the nameplate and the key with the room number 304 that the woman handed him.
“Third floor, turn right,” the woman said.
“Thank you. Excuse me, where is the centralized parking lot nearby?” Ning Yuan took out a piece of chocolate from his pocket and handed it to the woman.
The faint expression on the woman’s face softened a lot. “Turn right after going out, the outer area of the Dragon Gate Villas, you need a parking permit.”
“Okay, thank you, beautiful,” Ning Yuan said, looking at Li Zhuang. “Let’s put down our supplies first. I’ll go park the car. You go back to the room with him and rest.”
Ning Yuan was more familiar with the area, so Li Zhuang didn’t say anything. He gave him the parking permit, went out, put all the things from the car into two snakeskin bags, carried them in, and went up to the third floor with Lu Weiyi.
