Chapter 62: Luring the Snake Out of Its Hole
This fat man really was Lu Yang. Not a single word he’d said earlier to Li Ming had been true! No one knew what they’d tampered with in the drinks. Zhan Yun thought it was most likely some kind of drug that could cause unconsciousness, though he couldn’t rule out the possibility that they’d been ruthless enough to use poison.
Either way, Zhan Yun wasn’t about to gamble the lives of so many soldiers on luck.
He planned to wait until the fat man stepped away before telling Li Ming about it. But the fat man was like a chatterbox, squatting by Li Ming’s side and talking nonstop. Afraid that if this dragged on, a soldier might accidentally drink one of the tampered beverages, Zhan Yun walked straight over.
The fat man kept asking about the situation at the southern base. As a survivor, it was normal to be curious about survivor bases. Although Li Ming felt the man was a bit overly enthusiastic, he didn’t chase him away and patiently answered his questions.
Seeing Zhan Yun approach, Li Ming finally paused and asked, “Captain Zhan, do you need something?”
“Yes—about the mission,” Zhan Yun said, deliberately glancing at the fat man before continuing. “Let’s talk outside.”
Li Ming had no suspicions and followed him out.
The fat man kept smiling and turned to strike up a conversation with another soldier, getting chummy again, though he subtly shot a look at his ‘wife.’
The ordinary-looking middle-aged woman clutched her stomach and said, “Oh dear, honey, my stomach suddenly hurts. I’m going to the bathroom.”
“Go, go—women are such a hassle!” the fat man waved her off impatiently.
The woman bent over, holding her stomach, and slowly headed for the door.
“Perfect timing—I need to use the restroom too. Jiaojiao, let’s go together?” Wu Jing said with a smile to Cheng Jiao.
“Sure! I’ve been holding it in all this time,” Cheng Jiao replied, deliberately winking at Wu Jing. The two beauties chatted and laughed as they headed toward the door as well.
“Auntie, your stomach hurts? Do you want us to help you to the restroom?” Wu Jing asked ‘kindly’ as they passed the middle-aged woman.
“N-no need… I can walk myself,” the woman’s expression changed as she quickened her pace toward the restroom.
Fortunately, the service area restroom was fairly large, with several stalls, so there was no need to worry about fighting over space. It smelled a bit, but it was tolerable.
The middle-aged woman quickly entered the first stall, locked the door, and then there was no sound.
“Jiaojiao, my stomach hurts too. If you’re done first, go on ahead,” Wu Jing said.
“Okay.”
In fact, as soon as Wu Jing finished speaking, her body had already turned into a wisp of thin mist. She drifted out of the stall and floated above the first one, peering inside. Sure enough, there was no one there—only a pile of clothes on the floor. She hurriedly chased after her, but there was no one outside either.
Could that middle-aged woman’s ability be invisibility?
Wu Jing immediately grew anxious. Just as she was about to go find Zhan Yun to think of a way to warn him, she suddenly caught sight of a gecko on the ground out of the corner of her eye, scurrying quickly along the wall. But its color was strange—not the dark green she’d seen before, but an odd dark red.
A mutated gecko?
A subtle suspicion rose in Wu Jing’s mind, and she hurried after it. The gecko was fast, but it was still no match for the speed at which mist could spread.
The gecko crawled all the way to the parking lot outside the service area building, where Zhan Yun and Li Ming were speaking in low voices. It quietly slipped under a car and slowly crept closer to the two of them.
Wu Jing sneered inwardly—this gecko really was that middle-aged woman!
Zhan Yun noticed a thin layer of mist suddenly appear on a nearby car window. Then four characters slowly emerged—
Someone is eavesdropping.
“All right, let’s head back,” Zhan Yun said, withdrawing his gaze. “There are evolved zombies in G City, so we need to be extra careful.” As he spoke, he made several hand signals to Li Ming.
“Okay,” Li Ming paused in surprise, then nodded.
After that, Zhan Yun and Li Ming returned to the service building. Wu Jing and Cheng Jiao also came back soon after finishing in the restroom. Only the middle-aged woman returned last.
Everyone went back to their respective groups and began preparing to rest.
Seeing this, the fat man couldn’t linger any longer and had no choice but to return to his ‘family,’ though his gaze kept drifting toward the soldiers. Finally, when he saw Li Ming and the others twist open the caps of the Nutritional Express bottles and drink the beverages inside, he relaxed and lay down.
He and his family occupied another small corner of the room. With only a single bedsheet, the fat man and his two ‘daughters’ lay on it, while the others lay fully clothed on the floor. Fortunately, the weather was hot, and after the floor had been swept clean, it wasn’t cold to lie on.
Unfortunately for Lu Yang, he didn’t know that someone else had been quietly watching him all along, observing every single move he made.
At present, Lu Yang was still not the Lu Zhishen of his past life—the man who could swagger through the Lincheng Base without fear. Without long years of tempering, he was nowhere near as calculating or far-sighted as he would later become, and his methods of scheming against others were far cruder and more inferior than they had been back then.
The glass doors of the service area lobby had been shut. To prevent direct sunlight, the soldiers had deliberately hung cloth over them, allowing only a little light to seep in through the edges. Inside, it was basically pitch-black.
In the darkness, several groups whispered among themselves, and it took a long while before everything finally quieted down.
No one knew exactly how Li Ming had explained things to the soldiers. In any case, only two people were left on watch, while everyone else went to sleep. Zhan Yun’s group didn’t leave anyone on guard either—all of them fell fast asleep. Some of them, like Zheng Jiahe and the others, even snored loudly and exaggeratedly.
No one knew how long passed before a cloyingly sweet fragrance drifted through the darkness. The two soldiers on watch soon felt their eyelids grow heavy and slowly closed their eyes.
Only in the corner where Zhan Yun and his people lay was there a faint, almost imperceptible breeze that dispersed the greasy sweetness lingering around their noses.
After that, however, there was no movement at all. The people on Lu Yang’s side also seemed to be sleeping like the dead, without the slightest stir.
The surroundings were too quiet. Apart from shallow breathing, there was no other sound.
After an unknown length of time—so long that Zhan Yun and the others had lain there until their bodies began to stiffen—there was finally the faint sound of fabric rustling.
It was Lu Yang’s younger ‘daughter’ sitting up.
The girl rubbed her eyes, shook the middle-aged woman beside her awake, and said in a clear, crisp voice, “Mom, I’m thirsty. I want some water.”
“All right, Mom will get it for you,” the middle-aged woman whispered as she sat up.
After the girl finished drinking, she lay back down.
The room fell silent once more.
Zheng Jiahe was starting to find it unbearable to lie still. He wanted to move his arms and legs, but the person beside him pressed down hard with a hand. He could only grit his teeth and endure the discomfort, continuing to lie there.
Cursing inwardly—Why aren’t they making a move yet? This is driving me crazy!
Suddenly, a loud, sharp crash rang out, like the sound of glass shattering.
“Ahhhhhhh!” A piercing female scream followed.
Under normal circumstances, being jolted awake by such a commotion would have sent anyone leaping out of bed in fright. But whether it was the soldiers or Zhan Yun’s group, everyone lay perfectly still, breathing evenly, as if they were all sound asleep.
In the corner of the room, Lu Yang finally sat up slowly. He swept his gaze around the room, and an eerie smile crept onto his face.
Their group of seven rose to their feet one by one, silently, each of them gripping an extremely sharp dagger in their hand.
“Are we really going to do this?” the young girl asked, a little uncertain.
“If we don’t act now, it’ll be too late. They said there are evolved zombies in G City!” Lu Yang whispered.
In truth, he hadn’t wanted to make a move so early. It was far too hasty. He still wanted to find out exactly what mission this team was on, and there were many things about the southern base he hadn’t yet asked clearly. But he hadn’t expected there to be evolved zombies in G City—that was simply too dangerous.
Now, they could only take the risk and strike ahead of time.
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