Chapter 66: Returning Fully Loaded
In the end, Cheng Qi led a group to find a forklift. Everyone worked together to dismantle the massive assembly line equipment, loading all of it—along with every bit of raw material they could find—onto a heavy container truck. As for the finished solar panels, they were all loaded onto a military truck, and the soldiers who had originally been riding in that vehicle squeezed into the other three military trucks instead.
The mission was successfully completed, and they had also harvested a large number of crystal cores. Li Ming felt even more grateful toward Zhan Yun and Su Ruizhe. Thanks to them this time, otherwise—even if they hadn’t fallen victim to a scheme—they would likely have suffered heavy losses at the claws and fangs of high-level zombies and zombie dogs. Li Ming had already made up his mind that, once they returned, he would make sure to put in a good word for them in his report and help them secure more benefits.
After picking up the injured soldiers who had been temporarily settled in the small building, the convoy set off again.
Those injured soldiers were actually quite lucky. All of them managed to withstand the virus and successfully awakened abilities. Among them was a relatively young soldier who awakened an extremely rare space-type ability. His storage space was as large as five cubic meters, capable of holding quite a lot of items. This kid, named Guo An, instantly became a prized asset in the team—whether it was collecting supplies or transporting goods, having a space-type ability user made everything much easier.
Three days later, the convoy returned fully loaded. They had only been gone for six or seven days, but the base had already changed dramatically. Perhaps because so many survivors had signed up to help build the base’s walls, construction had progressed very quickly. From the outside, the towering walls and gate towers now looked comparable to those seen in historical costume dramas.
There was an additional city gate. The gate on the left was specifically for newly arrived survivors to enter the city. Over the past few days, many survivors who had heard the broadcasts had arrived at the base one after another, all lining up obediently at the gate to register before entering. The gate on the right was for those who already held temporary residence permits or official identity cards for the base; they only needed to show their ID to go in and out, which was very convenient and efficient.
Su Ruizhe happened to see a convoy leaving the city. Judging by their appearance, they were probably members of the city guard, who had to go out daily to clear nearby zombies.
The four military trucks and one heavy container truck drew the attention of people entering and leaving the gates. The soldiers guarding the gate immediately reported the situation to their superiors and opened the gates wide to let the convoy pass.
However, Zhan Yun and the others’ temporary residence permits had expired. They needed to go to the registration office to re-register and receive official identity cards.
They had no choice but to park the vehicles at the city gate first and go get their ID cards.
Li Ming and his team were in a hurry to hand in the solar power equipment and complete their mission. After exchanging a few words with Zhan Yun and the others, they left ahead of them.
After entering the city, Su Ruizhe and the others noticed that many tents had sprung up on the open ground near the city gate. They asked a soldier about it and learned that most of the people living there were survivors who either couldn’t afford or were unwilling to pay rent.
“Why don’t they work? Are there no more jobs in the city?” Zheng Jiahe asked in confusion.
He saw that those people were either lying motionless in their tents or crawling out to beg for food from passersby. Although the majority were elderly, weak, women, and children, there were also quite a few able-bodied men among them.
“How could that be?” the soldier said with a dismissive curl of his lip. “The base is still in the early stages of construction—people are needed everywhere. These folks just think the work is too hard and don’t want to do it.”
In his view, the base’s system was already very humane. Even for the elderly, the weak, or the disabled, the base tried its best to arrange suitable light work for them.
The elderly were assigned tasks like watering plants or sweeping, those in poor health helped organize documents, and the sick were given medicine by the base. Once they recovered, they just had to work to repay the cost of the medicine. Even people with impaired limbs were given the simplest jobs.
For example, Wang Ergou, who was currently responsible for registering newly arrived survivors at the city gate, had suffered from polio as a child and had severe atrophy in his left leg—but he could still write perfectly well, couldn’t he?
“Su Ruizhe!” someone suddenly called out his name.
Su Ruizhe instinctively looked over and saw a somewhat familiar-looking young woman. She was wearing a dull gray gauze dress, and her hair was tangled like straw. However, when she brushed it aside, her revealed features were delicate—pretty and charming.
“Who are you?” he asked.
The girl clearly hadn’t expected him to say that. Her face instantly turned pale.
“I’m Xu Jiani!”
The name and the face did seem faintly familiar, yet Su Ruizhe still couldn’t recall who she was.
“What do you want?” Since he couldn’t remember, Su Ruizhe didn’t force it and asked her directly what she wanted.
The girl’s lips trembled, her eyes filling with tears, looking as if she had suffered a tremendous blow.
What did she want? What else could she want? She had arrived at this survivor base two days ago, and tomorrow would be the last day of free food and lodging. After that, she would have to take on dirty, exhausting work—something a young lady who had grown up being pampered could hardly endure.
She had accompanied her father to the task hall and registered for a brick-carrying job. It paid only five work points a day. After paying for lodging for the two of them, only three points were left, and the food they could exchange for that would likely only be enough for the two of them to eat until they were half full.
Before arriving at the survivor base, she had gone many days without ever eating her fill. She truly didn’t want to go back to that kind of life—half-starved one day, barely full the next.
She had seen Su Ruizhe and his group enter the city through the other gate just now. They had vehicles and guns—clearly a team. They were even able to speak with those cold, unapproachable soldiers, which meant they must hold a very high status.
Back in school, Su Ruizhe’s seat had been only an aisle away from hers. They were all at that age when feelings were just beginning to blossom. While chatting idly with classmates, she had once heard them mention that Su Ruizhe had said she was very pretty. But she knew his family circumstances weren’t good, so she had never pursued any further contact with him.
Maybe—just maybe—he still liked her now? If he were willing to lend her a hand…
Xu Jiani’s heart felt like a kitten was scratching at it. Seeing Su Ruizhe about to enter the registration office, she couldn’t help calling out to stop him.
Only… he didn’t recognize her anymore…
It had only been a single summer vacation—how could he already not recognize her?!
What she didn’t know was that the short summer she thought of was, for Su Ruizhe, like a lifetime apart. Having been reborn, his entire heart and mind were filled with Zhan Yun alone. How could he possibly remember a classmate he hadn’t even been close to?
“I… I…” Xu Jiani stammered, unable to get her words out.
Su Ruizhe, however, was growing impatient. From his perspective, he had simply been walking along when a stranger called out to him, then hesitated and said nothing for ages, leaving him utterly confused.
“What exactly do you want? If there’s nothing, I’m leaving.”
“Y-you…” Xu Jiani’s eyes instantly reddened with grievance.
“Hahaha, Little Zhe, I didn’t expect you to be so utterly clueless about romance,” Cheng Jiao laughed as she came over and draped an arm over Su Ruizhe’s shoulder. “That girl clearly has a crush on you!”
“I don’t even know her!” Su Ruizhe quickly denied it, especially when he noticed Zhan Yun standing to the side, watching him with a half-smile.
By now, quite a few people had gathered to watch. Hearing this, they all began pointing and whispering at Xu Jiani. How could a young girl endure that? She stomped her foot in anger, then ran off crying.
All that was left behind was Su Ruizhe, standing there with a head full of question marks.
“Alright, alright, stop talking nonsense. Hurry up and go register—people are waiting,” Zhan Yun said irritably as he pulled Cheng Jiao aside. He then grabbed Su Ruizhe by the wrist and dragged him toward the registration office.
Jiang Xuzhou had long since instructed people to prepare their official identity cards. They completed some simple registration procedures and added fingerprint records, then successfully received their IDs. With these cards, whether eating meals or exchanging supplies, all they needed to do was swipe the card—simple and convenient.
As for the girl who had appeared out of nowhere and then run off just as inexplicably, she left little impression on them at all.
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