Chapter 61: He’s Lying
“We’re heading to City G on an urgent mission, so it’s not convenient to take you along. All major military districts have already established survivor bases. Your relatives may have already gone to a base with a rescue team. If you head straight to the southern base now, you should be able to reach it in a day or two. Once you’re there, you can slowly look for your family,” Li Ming said frankly. Although letting these survivors travel on their own might involve some risk, City G had evolved zombies and would be far more dangerous.
“My parents live in the outskirts of City G. They’re old, their legs aren’t good, and they’re timid. If I don’t go get them, they definitely won’t leave,” the chubby man insisted. “Officer, my parents didn’t have it easy raising me. I can’t just abandon them! Look, if you don’t like us following you, then we’ll go ahead of you. The road’s wide open—we can each go our own way. How about that?”
“The road ahead is dangerous. We’ll clear the way. You can follow from a distance,” Li Ming said. Since the man had pressed the issue this far, Li Ming had no choice but to accept their traveling together. After all, where they wanted to go was their own business, and there was no reason to stop them.
“Alright, alright! Thank you, officer, thank you!” The chubby man was overjoyed and thanked him repeatedly.
“Heh, that guy’s pretty filial,” Zheng Jiahe remarked from inside the vehicle, having heard the exchange. His own parents were overseas; if they were in the country, he’d want to go look for them too.
Sitting in the back seat, Su Ruizhe casually glanced in the chubby man’s direction. The man was just getting ready to get back into his car, and under the bright illumination of the off-road vehicle’s high beams, Su Ruizhe could clearly see his profile.
Su Ruizhe suddenly straightened up, his gaze turning several degrees colder.
“What’s wrong?” Zhan Yun noticed the change immediately and asked in a low voice. “You know him?”
How could he not? In his previous life, this chubby man had been a big-name figure in the Lincheng Base. His name was Lu Yang, nicknamed “Lu Zhishen.” Don’t be fooled by his chubby build and ever-present smile that made him look especially kind—he was actually vicious and scheming, an expert at laying traps for others. Every time he left the base, he returned with a huge haul. As long as someone in the base could pay the price, Lu Yang could get his hands on whatever they wanted.
Although Lu Yang appeared to be just a strength-type ability user, he not only controlled an entire team of ability users but also possessed a large amount of weapons and military equipment, rumored to have been seized through raids on the military.
At this thought, Su Ruizhe narrowed his eyes slightly, his gaze toward the vehicle ahead growing ever colder. Lu Yang held an extremely high status in the Lincheng Base—even the base commander spoke to him politely. It was said that he had made enormous contributions to the base. If Su Ruizhe remembered correctly, when he had gone to Lincheng Base in his previous life, the base’s power supply had been excellent, with solar power installations everywhere. Otherwise, there would have been no way to sustain the operation of such a large research institute.
Su Ruizhe remembered Lu Yang because he had once seen him deliver research equipment to the institute. Lu Yang had even boasted that no matter how sophisticated the instrument, he had a way to get his hands on it.
Connecting this to their current mission, Su Ruizhe couldn’t help but suspect that Lu Yang’s so-called “great contribution” to the Lincheng Base might have been those solar power facilities.
Although the new energy plant in City G wasn’t the only one of its kind, Lincheng Base was located in the south and wasn’t too far from City G. This was only a guess, but now that Lu Yang was involved, Su Ruizhe couldn’t help thinking along those lines. Perhaps in his previous life, Li Ming’s team had also carried out the same mission and encountered Lu Yang as well—only to have their entire team wiped out by him, along with the loss of City G’s solar power equipment…
The more he thought about it, the more terrifying it became.
Su Ruizhe immediately leaned over to Zhan Yun’s ear and quietly told him everything he had deduced.
Zhan Yun’s expression darkened at once. He didn’t doubt Su Ruizhe’s words in the slightest—he’d found that chubby man suspicious from the very beginning. Now, after hearing about the man’s background in Su Ruizhe’s previous life, he became even more suspicious of the man’s insistence on following them.
Whether the chubby man was planning to rob military supplies or had his sights set on the batch of solar equipment in City G, one thing was certain—his intentions were definitely not as simple as picking up his parents!
Zhan Yun picked up the walkie-talkie and contacted Li Ming. He didn’t say much, only that he still had doubts about the chubby man’s identity and that, for safety’s sake, it would be better to let the chubby man’s vehicle go in front while his own followed behind, in case the man tried anything underhanded.
Li Ming had also found the sudden appearance of this chubby man a bit suspicious, but he had no grounds to refuse his company. Without evidence, he could only treat him as an ordinary survivor. He readily accepted Zhan Yun’s suggestion and adjusted the convoy’s formation. The chubby man raised no objections either.
The vehicles set off again. Li Ming’s trucks continued to lead the way, while Zhan Yun’s vehicle brought up the rear, sandwiching Lu Yang’s car in the middle.
Along the way, Lu Yang behaved himself and made no suspicious moves. It wasn’t until dawn was approaching that they finally stopped at a small service area. When the rescue teams had previously gone to City G, they had likely cleared this place out once already, so there weren’t many zombies left. After a quick sweep, they prepared to rest there during the day.
At that point, the chubby man and his so-called “family” all got out of the vehicle. Carrying quite a bit of food and water in their hands, the chubby man and his “wife” walked toward Li Ming with smiles plastered on their faces. “Officer, you’ve had a hard trip. We don’t really have anything else—this is all we’ve got in the car. If you don’t mind, please accept it…”
Li Ming tried to refuse for quite a while, but in the end, under their persistent insistence, he accepted the items.
Zhan Yun’s group occupied a corner of the building. Wu Jing and Zhang Shuoliang were spreading blankets on the floor. Su Ruizhe and Zhan Yun leaned against the wall, watching coldly as the chubby man put on his convincing little performance.
At this moment, the chubby man’s two fair, pretty “daughters” swayed over gracefully. The two girls weren’t very old—the older one looked about twenty, the younger only seventeen or eighteen. In terms of looks, they couldn’t compare to Wu Jing or Cheng Jiao; at best, they were merely fresh and pleasant. But youth was their advantage—young, tender, and vibrant. In the current apocalypse, girls who were both innocent-looking and full of vitality were already a rare sight.
The older girl fixed her eyes firmly on Zhan Yun, unable to look away. She walked straight up to him, shyly trying to strike up a conversation.
However, Zhan Yun didn’t spare her even a glance, continuing to chat with Su Ruizhe instead, which left the girl thoroughly annoyed.
The younger girl, on the other hand, set her sights on Cheng Qi. She went over and sweetly called him “big brother” a couple of times, and soon the two were chatting happily.
After hitting a wall with Zhan Yun, the older girl clenched her teeth and went to find Song Chengshu instead. Song Chengshu was clearly not interested either, giving her another polite brush-off. Seeing the girl on the verge of tears, Zheng Jiahe finally softened and talked with her for a while.
Seeing how lively things were on that side, the other young men couldn’t sit still either. They came over, hoping to strike up conversations with the two great beauties, Wu Jing and Cheng Jiao. But neither woman showed the slightest interest, leaving the men thoroughly rebuffed.
Later, the two girls went back to the van and brought over bread and water for them, looking extremely attentive toward Cheng Qi and Zheng Jiahe. As they left, they kept calling them “big brother” this and “big brother” that—overly affectionate to an almost ridiculous degree.
Anyone who didn’t know better might have thought the chubby man’s whole family made their living selling flesh…
“Hey, boss, those two girls are pretty nice! The drink they gave me is even Nutritional Express—I haven’t had this in ages!” Zheng Jiahe came over cheerfully to show off after accepting the items.
“Heh.” Cheng Qi walked over with a fake smile and snatched the bottle Zheng Jiahe was about to open. “I got one too.”
“Hey! You already have one—why are you stealing mine?!”
Cheng Qi turned sideways, using his back to block the doorway and keep those people out of sight. He tilted the bottle in his hand, peeled back part of the label, shone a flashlight on the side, and lowered his voice. “Look carefully.”
Zheng Jiahe had decent eyesight. With Cheng Qi’s reminder, he quickly spotted a tiny pinhole on the bottle—clearly, something had been added to the drink.
“This is…?”
“Heh. When someone curries favor for no reason, they’re either up to something dirty or plotting theft. Tricks like this are long outdated.” Cheng Qi might look carefree and unreliable on the surface, but in fact, he was extremely clear-headed—otherwise, Zhan Yun wouldn’t have become such good friends with him. They’d only just met, yet these people were already handing out food and drinks. This wasn’t the pre-apocalypse anymore; food and water were the most precious things there were. These people gave them away without the slightest hesitation, and the chubby man saw it all and didn’t stop them. If they were truly as kind and generous as they pretended to be, they would never have survived this long.
If it had been a less cautious man, he might well have been lulled into lowering his guard by the young girl’s sweet words. But Cheng Qi wasn’t that kind of person. He deliberately bantered with her, mixing truth with falsehood and leaking a few insignificant bits of information. After getting the drink from her, he remained vigilant and checked the bottle—sure enough, he found something fishy.
“A-Qi, do you know that chubby man’s name?” Zhan Yun asked lightly.
“Seems like his surname is Lu. Earlier I only asked the girl’s name.”
“Go confirm it.” Zhan Yun tilted his chin toward the direction of the girl from earlier.
Cheng Qi didn’t ask any questions. With his hands in his pockets and a casual swagger, he walked over, joked around with the girl for a bit, and then came back.
“Lu Yang.”
So it really was him.
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