Gongsun Jing reciprocates1 by telling Hou Ying of their situation.
Jiang Tao, who is the oldest and the most stable, is unexpectedly a fire-powered person. Qiao Daye on the roof has speed powers and enhanced five senses, hearing and vision. Li Xuanyuan, according to Hou Ying’s impression, has a very bad temper but is a wood-type ability. And Gongsun Jing herself was a medic in the army before, and her ability was also a water system with healing ability.
After speaking, Gongsun Jing paused and said, “Liu Zhan should be awakening the power, I hope nothing goes wrong with him.”
Liu Zhan, the special soldier in a coma, Hou Ying observed after getting in the car had a high fever and his face flushed red.
Looking at Gongsun Jing’s expression, Hou Ying vaguely realized that this team must have suffered a lot before, at least… their original team must have more than five people.
Before they could say anything, there was a gunshot outside.
Then Gongsun Jing said to them, “We are almost there. Xiaohai, you stay in the car and help look after this uncle. Don’t worry, we tied him up, he won’t be able to attack you even if he wakes up. Remember not to make any sound, and don’t come out to make trouble, do you understand?”
Hou Ying also heard the news from Bluetooth that they were approaching the service area. At this time, the car is tilting down and should be crossing the ramp.
Similarly, Hou Ying also realized that in the course of their conversation, the other party revealed too little information about themselves, but now is not the right time to pursue this. After a while, the car slowed down after it stabilized, and there were several gunshots from time to time.
Hou Ying was surprise, “Are there still so many zombies here?”
Meng Hanghai heard it and hugged Hou Ying’s arm in fear. Gongsun Jing laughed, “You didn’t know anything about the zombies before, and it’s normal if you couldn’t figure out their situation.”
When the car stopped, only Jiang Tao and Li Xuanyuan got out and went to the service area to clean up the zombies.
Hou Ying noticed that Qiao Daye on the car roof had not moved, so he should be guarding them. About fifteen shots later, Jiang Tao and Li Xuanyuan returned. When Gongsun Jing received the message from the earpiece, she was somewhat surprised by their swift movement.
When they’re getting off the car, Jiang Tao said with a smile, “Just like what Hou Ying said, these zombies have little attack power, they are ordinary zombies without abilities.”
Gongsun Jing was relieved.
Hou Ying heard this and breathed a sigh of relief, he didn’t expect that he would be able to muddle his way out of there.
Qiao Daye was in charge of guarding and put down the materials belonging to Hou Ying on the car, and the weapons and equipment were moved to the front cab of the car. While Meng Hanghai stayed in the car, Hou Ying, Gongsun Jing, Jiang Tao, and Li Xuanyuan moved the materials together.
The four of them did not move separately. Based on the vague impression that night, Hou Ying took them to the convenience store to find the carts for unloading and transportation. There were two carts in total.
They first raided the warehouse of the convenience store. Fortunately, the inventory here is also quite abundant. Hou Ying, who knows about the remaining gasoline at the gas station, did a little calculation. In this way, if gasoline is loaded, the space on the armored off-road vehicle is not enough. So he informed the three of them to move the whole box of things first, and wait to see if there’s still any space left to move the gasoline.
Several people picked high caloric foods that can be stored for a long time and drinking water to deliver to the car first.
Next are the daily necessities like tissues that will definitely be used, and of course the feminine products that Gongsun Jing thanked God for.
Meng Hanghai was probably afraid that these adults would not want him, and he worked very hard to help carry and deliver things as much as he could.
After the car was filled with one-third the space for food and water, they began to move gasoline. The gasoline in the gas station should have been replenished. Except for the five boxes that Hou Ying moved, there are still fifteen full boxes left, enough for driving tens of thousands of kilometers. However, armored vehicles consume more gas. Just in case, they also want to pump out the fuel from the fuel supply unit.
Hou Ying hesitated and stopped them, “Leave some for the survivors behind.”
Gasoline is also a life-saving thing at this time. If someone rushes here to find that all the food here is expired-you can still swallow when you are hungry, but if they can’t find any gasoline, he’s afraid they will really collapse. Besides, he knows that this section of the road is an old national highway. The service areas are far apart, an almost three hours’ drive. In this apocalyptic crisis, this distance is full of countless fatal accidents.
Hou Ying is a calculating man, but because from a very young age, he forced himself to mature and take care of his younger nephew, he is not as selfish as ordinary adults and will subconsciously consider others.
He was a little nervous about this proposal. After all, they even remember to take the gasoline out of the scrapped business car, but he didn’t expect the three of them to give up after being reminded, and because of that they all gave Hou Ying two points in their heart.
After the gas was loaded, they returned to the convenience store and put the whole box of food and water in the remaining one-fifth of the car space for easy access. When they couldn’t fit any more food, whole boxes of instant noodles, biscuits, and drinking water will be disassembled one by one and put in any available compartments.
The entire carriage was packed to the brim, only leaving a passage wide enough for one person to walk on the left and right sides, which was convenient for Liu Zhan to recuperate and also allowed a few people to walk around.
The end of February is still hanging on the tail of winter, and the night comes quickly. Whether it’s Hou Ying who is eager to return to Yecheng or the others who don’t know the destination, they all choose to stay here for the night.
After a warm dinner, Hou Ying found the strongest car among the other vehicles in the parking lot of the service area, and it seems very greedy to fill the car with your own gasoline and food as much as possible.
He had already planned to return to Yecheng at dawn tomorrow, because from the news they sporadically revealed during the meal, Hou Ying found that what he thought was too naïve.
According to Jiang Tao’s personal experience, Hucheng has a population of nearly 6 million. Except for the earthquake refugees who were initially picked up by the army by plane, and among the soldiers who came to the rescue, only five of them escaped from Hucheng after the end of the world.
They did not specify whether the remaining millions died in the earthquake or became zombies, but he already understood that human resistance is completely ineffective against zombie viruses. The more populous and modern cities are, on the contrary, more dangerous.
Yecheng is on the edge of Kangcheng, the third most populous city in China. You can just imagine how perilous the situation there should be. He wished to fly back now, and didn’t want to stay here for even a second, but it’s clearly unrealistic, so he could only find something to do to distract him.
When he was so busy that he’s sweating, Jiang Tao and Li Xuanyuan drove a van to the construction site not far away.
Hearing the gunshots, Hou Ying knew that there were zombies there. Thinking of their “saving consciousness” of dismantling his business car to pieces, he doesn’t know whether to admire them or what. But after they brought back the high-power industrial generators from the construction site, Hou Ying was left with admiration.
In the end, he’s not as good as these special forces. The concept of materials still stays at the food and clothing needed for survival. He is not so comprehensive and does not have this vision.
The Jianghai Service Area is a small service station. Fortunately, because the flow of people is gradually being diverted to the new national highway, so there’s not many people here. There are also public sector roads blocked in front, so the number of zombies does not exceed one hundred.
There is no hotel here, only a convenient store of 70-80 square meters, toilets, and gas station. The packaged food to satisfy hunger and thirst in the convenience store is quite complete, but things like clothes, oil, salt, and other condiments that would not be patronized by the passing car owners are not available.
Gongsun Jing searched the kitchens used by convenience store and gas station employees very clean, especially the salt—they must ensure that the salt is replenished when they exercise a lot.
Unfortunately, the amount of condiments stored in households and individuals will not be too large, and all the collected salt will only last a few people about two months. Only five bags of 25kg rice were found, of which two had been used up and there’s not much left. She also found scattered cooking oil, and it filled up three 5-liter barrels in total.
Hou Ying was thinking about the safety of Wang Hehe and Ji Yao. After seeing the things Gongsun Jing had collected, he also had worries in this regard, and at a loss as to how he should live in the future.
But now he has no ability or energy to collect things like firewood, rice, oil, and salt; he’s self-aware and can distinguish his priorities.
Under the anxiety of difficult survival, he went to the convenience store to get more bulk sealed food and mineral water. This hamster activity only stopped when there was no more space in the car—the co driver’s seat was empty at first and he’ll put a bag of food on it to eat tomorrow, so as to avoid being trapped by materials in case of emergency. The loss is not worth the gain.
He parked the car next to the armored off-road vehicle. Because of Liu Zhan’s situation, they would stay in the car to rest, and there would definitely be someone responsible for the night watch, and it would be much safer next to them.
Jiang Tao and Qiao Daye are still eating in the convenience store with the lights on, they said they would pick up the rice dumplings that aren’t spoiled yet, but in truth, they couldn’t stand eating Gongsun Jing’s food. Hou Ying couldn’t say anything good after dinner, and felt that the rice dumplings, which he didn’t know when and how long he could eat afterwards, was especially precious.
Gongsun Jing is nice enough to help them cook the rice dumplings using the induction cooker, and conveniently boiling hot water.
And Li Xuanyuan is sitting in the passenger’s seat with his eyes closed. Hou Ying greeted him, but after getting a cold eye, he simply didn’t bother.
He probably knew that it was because he was confused by his “beauty” when he met him, and he was offended. He didn’t intend to apologize, nor did he get close to them, because they probably won’t get along with each other for long. So Hou Ying, who always values interpersonal relationships, did not force it.
Meng Hanghai has been following him like a little tail. After Hou Ying refused his help, he still followed along. Now that he is finished, Hou Ying plans to sleep in the car for one night, but Meng Hanghai stopped him and pleaded in a low voice, “Uncle Hou, I want to go with you.”
Hou Ying was startled, a little surprised at his thoughts.
Turning back, he patiently explained, “Xiaohai, you have also seen them. They have guns in their hands, powerful weapons, and abilities and they can protect you. I can’t beat four hands with two fists alone, moreover, we don’t know what’s the situation in Yecheng. I really can’t take you on an adventure with me when I can’t guarantee even my life. If I save you, I must be responsible for you and handing you over to someone who can better protect you is the only thing I can do for you right now. Besides, they are all soldiers, and they will not leave you alone.”
Meng Hanghai grasped his sleeve, he understood what he meant but was unwilling to obey.
Hou Ying persuaded a few more words. Seeing that the child was so anxious that he shed tears but did not dare to speak out, he felt very sorry.
He and his nephew have lived together for so many years. When the family accident happened, he was about the same age as Meng Hanghai. He had not graduated from elementary school and Wang Hehe was still a kid with a runny nose in the kindergarten.
Once, he was sent by the school to participate in a competition. After spending a night out, he came back to find Wang Hehe’s entire face pale and his stomach was shrinking from hunger. It turned out that he didn’t dare to go to the neighbor’s house to borrow food, and the neighbor he had entrusted Xiaohe to didn’t care what happened to the child.
Since then, he has not only developed good cooking skills, but also understood the great responsibility of taking care of a child’s life.
Seeing that Meng Hanghai, just like Xiaohe at the time, tried to resist crying, Hou Ying couldn’t help but feel so cruel. After thinking about it, he brought the child to talk to Jiang Tao and others, “I don’t know where you are going next?”
Jiang Tao looked at Meng Hanghai and said knowingly, “We plan to stay here for two days to make a plan. To be honest, we currently have only one general route. The first step is to go to the base of our 24th Division and if the situation there is bad, use the helicopters from the base to go to the Imperial Capital. Anyway, it is also the capital, there must be a relatively complete emergency response procedure and management.”
They are soldiers, even if the mission fails and they lose contact with the outside world, they still want to return to the base to report. Moreover, Jiang Tao and the others hope that the comrades in the army can resist this disaster and survive. They will not give up without seeing the situation there, let alone be deserters.
Hou Ying tentatively asked the address of the 24th Division, a secret information before the end of the world, but there is nothing to hide at this moment.
Jiang Tao willingly told him which made Hou Ying happy after hearing it. “If it’s there, walking from Yecheng is a short-cut, and it can bypass several densely populated towns.”
Yecheng’s route is also one of Jiang Tao’s choices but they didn’t immediately confirm, just only said that they needed to compare other routes to make a decision.
Meng Hanghai understood Hou Ying’s plan. If they go to Yecheng together, he doesn’t need to be separated from his Uncle Hou Ying, so he said anxiously, “Why wait for tomorrow, isn’t it ok now? So we can wake up tomorrow and go together.”
Hou Ying listened to his anxious tone, and the way he asked was not polite, but did not stop him.
He is also nervous, if these people still have to spend another day to make a decision, then he must go ahead first.
Jiang Tao weighed the pros and cons, and tapped on the Bluetooth. Li Xuanyuan made an unhappy “tsk” sound over there, and then Qiao Daye got up and replaced him in guard duties. Hou Ying knew that he had disrupted their original vigil plan.
Li Xuanyuan sat down but did not eat the steaming rice dumplings. He just took out a piece of paper from the pocket of his army coat and drew an imperfect route on it.
Translator’s Note:
- 投桃报李 (Toss a peach, give back a plum) or scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.
There’s another update after this!! 2/3
Yaoi Wonderland 