The diesel generator roared loudly as Sifang Square was rarely lit up.
Old Qiu and Sister Li were waiting at the gate with their people. From a distance, they saw a group of people approaching with flashlights. Sister Li’s tense face couldn’t help but break into a smile, and Old Qiu laughed out loud.
Everyone rushed forward and saw three mutated donkeys, each as large as a Shire horse, carrying supplies, along with more than ten men carrying protruding backpacks. Their joy was boundless.
The donkeys and supplies were taken away, and Shouzi, carried by a strength ability user on a stretcher, was brought along. In front of Chen Lian and the others, Xiang Yuyang told Sister Li, “Make sure the doctor saves Shouzi’s life.”
Sister Li agreed, subtly observing the ten or so people who had arrived. When her gaze met Ding Wei’s raised head, she turned her eyes away lightly.
Chen Lian and the others watched helplessly as the supplies they had collected were taken away, feeling uneasy, but Xiang Yuyang’s attitude made it slightly easier to accept.
The square was packed with people, one to two hundred in total. Everyone had been murmuring, but Xiang Yuyang stepped forward two paces, and Old Qiu immediately shouted, “Quiet!”
Everyone fell silent. Xiang Yuyang looked very satisfied. Chen Lian and the others felt a shiver of respect, just a few days in, and these people could command two to three hundred people with ease.
Chen Lian and his companions exchanged glances, their expressions serious.
Unexpectedly, Xiang Yuyang clapped Chen Lian on the shoulder and loudly announced, “This is our newly joined brother, Brother Lian. The supplies you just saw were collected by him and his team. Although there are only about ten of them, almost all are ability users and capable people. From now on, everyone should respect Brother Lian as you respect us.”
“Understood, boss.”
“Hello, Brother Lian.”
“Consider this place your home, Brother Lian.”
As Xiang Yuyang finished speaking, the men in the crowd echoed in agreement. Old Qiu and Sister Li also stepped forward to greet him. Xiang Yuyang introduced everyone to each other, creating a harmonious atmosphere.
Ding Wei, seeing Sister Li’s unexpectedly high status here, was both surprised and disdainful.
Xiang Yuyang and his team had prepared thoroughly. To welcome Chen Lian and his group, they had specially prepared a hearty meal. Although Chen Lian and his companions’ meals were not bad, Xiang Yuyang’s attitude impressed them.
After all, coming with all their possessions, the biggest worry was being betrayed after the work was done. Now, Xiang Yuyang seemed trustworthy.
After eating and drinking, Xiang Yuyang arranged for Chen Lian and his group to stay together. Zhang Jun, Cai Xin, and the others, who had been uneasy, finally relaxed completely.
As night approached, Xiang Yuyang was about to have someone take them to rest when Ding Wei suddenly said, “Wasn’t that Wen girl supposed to be here? Call her out now. We still have unfinished business with her.”
Old Qiu and Sister Li were slightly surprised. Xiang Yuyang explained, “There must be some misunderstanding between Wen Xian and them. Let’s call her first; if it’s really a misunderstanding, we can just clarify it.”
Chen Lian and the others had all interacted with Xiang Yuyang before. Although their abilities weren’t weak, none of them were second-level ability users. Even all of them together might not be a match for Wen Xian. Still, they were a solid fighting force, so Xiang Yuyang didn’t want the two sides to fall out.
He had planned carefully, but the person sent to call Wen Xian hurried back, panicked: “Boss, she’s gone. She had a rope made from a bedsheet tied to the window, looks like she ran off from there.”
The gentle smile on Xiang Yuyang’s face immediately vanished, replaced by a cold, grim expression that sent chills down the spine. He sneered, “Ran off? Miss Wen is really something. I saved her out of kindness, took her in, and yet she turns around and runs. Does she think my place is some kind of tiger’s den?”
Ding Wei snorted, “I told you already, she’s ungrateful. If we hadn’t taken her in back then, she’d already be food for those mutated things outside. Shouzi just liked her a little, got a bit close, and she acted all wronged and helpless. She used our distraction to nearly get Shouzi killed. Now she’s run off, probably because she heard we came and doesn’t want trouble.”
Chen Lian had been skeptical of the claim that Wen Xian had harmed Shouzi and had wanted to confirm it, but now that she had run off, it was basically a confession.
Thinking of Shouzi, who was still clinging to life, he threw down his cigarette, rested his tattooed, muscular arms on the chair, and said with a grim expression, “Boss Xiang, we have to find her. I have to avenge my brother.”
Xiang Yuyang, caught off guard in front of everyone, no longer had any thought of keeping Wen Xian close. He could barely contain his anger, but he smiled wryly: “We’re brothers now, so your matter is my matter. Don’t worry, I’ll tell everyone what’s going on. The whole old town is almost under our control now. She’s just a woman, it’s already dark, she can’t get far tonight. Tomorrow, we’ll send people to find her.”
Chen Lian nodded, “Thanks, then.”
In fact, Wen Xian hadn’t really left the old town. She didn’t escape by climbing out the window with a bedsheet. After dark, the vine returned and carried her out of Sifang Square, with the bedsheet merely as a cover. She couldn’t let anyone know how many contingencies she actually had.
Once outside, the vine led the way. They ran into Chen Lian and the others on the way, but she avoided them. Using the moonlight, the vine guided her to an uninhabited spot.
In the dark, she explored a two-story building, found a bedroom on the second floor, pulled out her phone and turned on the flashlight to check the room, it was similar to others she had seen. She didn’t linger, didn’t want to waste power, quickly found clothes, took a cold shower, changed into pajamas, and crawled into bed.
She didn’t want to waste electricity. Glancing at the time, it was not yet nine o’clock, so she turned off the flashlight. Darkness immediately swallowed the room. The silence pressed in, making her feel uneasy, but the vine was still with her. Slowly, moonlight filtered through the window, casting faint shadows.
She couldn’t sleep at this hour either. She had always had a flipped schedule: one or two in the morning was normal, four or five was not unusual. Surprisingly, in this apocalypse, her schedule was starting to normalize.
It was almost laughable.
Wen Xian gave a dry, silent smile.
She thought about what to do next.
Logically, in the apocalypse, humans should help each other. Staying at Sifang Square might have been the safest choice.
But Wen Xian was introverted and had never liked interacting with people. Moreover, in the apocalypse, neither of the two groups she had encountered made her feel safe or reliable. In that case, being alone was better.
And she had to go to Hanshi to find her family.
Hanshi was densely populated, but there was no official safe zone there. The nearest safe zone was the Zhehai Safe Zone. To find people, she would have to go to Hanshi first, and only if she couldn’t find anyone there would she go to Zhehai.
In just five days in the old town, Wen Xian had already witnessed the corruption and cruelty of human nature in the apocalypse. Although she had an ability, it wasn’t solid, indeed, it was still weak. Along the way, she faced threats not only from mutated plants and animals but also from humans.
So, her first priority was to improve her ability, while also trying to find weapons for self-defense.
She thought of the old-fashioned guns that Chen Lian and Xiang Yuyang had.
The old town was a gathering place for ethnic minorities and had historically relied on hunting for survival. Even during times of national turmoil, when horse bandits roamed, old guns weren’t uncommon here. The question was whether she would be lucky enough to find one.
Next, she needed to collect knives.
Then, lighting tools. Her power bank could charge her phone about four times; she had already used one, leaving three. Her phone was now only for illumination, with each charge lasting roughly three days. She needed to gather more power banks, but most importantly flashlights, lighters, candles, and fuel.
The more she thought, the more alert she became. Wen Xian couldn’t sleep, so she sat up, took out her notebook and pen, turned on her phone light, and used the vine as a stand to hold the phone steady. She began listing everything she would need.
The lighting tools she considered were the ones likely available in the old town. After all, it was remote and commercially underdeveloped; these were probably the only options.
Next was storing food.
She wasn’t picky about food, and she had a space to store whatever she could find. The critical concern was water. While showering earlier, she had noticed the water supply had already dwindled significantly and might stop soon. She needed to store enough.
Then came other necessities: clothes and bedding. Winter was approaching, and she had only brought a single thick coat for her trip, nowhere near enough to survive the cold. Furthermore, if she couldn’t find shelter while traveling, she would need a tent, sleeping bag, and thermal blanket. Outdoor stores might carry these items, but they would be hard to find in the old town, she would probably have to go to Lishi…
At that thought, Wen Xian paused her pen. Supplies in the old town were too scarce, and even at Sifang Square, she couldn’t hope to get much…
Her slightly cold eyes blinked in the dim light, and she quickly made a decision: tomorrow she would go out. She would take whatever she could find, and most importantly, practice using her ability. Mutated plants didn’t scare her, it was the mutated animals that concerned her.
So far, she hadn’t confronted any mutated animals. She had no idea how strong they had become, nor how her own strength matched up against them. This was a dangerous unknown.
Having made her decision, Wen Xian no longer hesitated. She packed away her notebook and pen, saw that it was already past ten, turned off the light, touched the vine’s little bud, whispered a thank you, and quickly fell asleep with it by her side.
Sleeping early meant she woke early the next day. After a quick wash, she looked in the mirror at her increasingly bright and fair skin, feeling it was a sweet kind of burden.
She tore open a box of “Three Plus Two” biscuits and, while eating, opened the window to glance outside. Just that one glance left her completely stunned.