Bai Zemin did not feel intimidated at all even though he was being stared at by a gaze as penetrating as that of a person who had been in the political world all his life and whose presence alone had the ability to intimidate others. After all, Bai Zemin was no longer that college student who spent the rest of his time working in a repair shop; the current him was the proud leader of over 30,000 survivors and an armed and evolved army composed of thousands!
"Yes… Of course." Sun Ling nodded a little surprised at first as she did not expect to receive a request so soon. But shortly she regained her composure and calmly said, "Tell me what you need, and as long as it's within our power and isn't something too excessive, we'll help you achieve it."
"Since that's the case, then I won't waste everyone's time here." Bai Zemin nodded and tried to remain as calm as possible as he slowly said, "To be honest, during our journey there were many of our companions who died sacrificing themselves for us or for different circumstances got separated from us. However, dying in this chaotic world is as normal as breathing and precisely for that reason we were all very clear that it was simply impossible for each and every one of us to make it through an entire district alive."
Wu Keqian slowly released Wu Yijun from his embrace when he heard the words of Bai Zemin and nodded silently. The words of the young man in front of him made a lot of sense since even he, a Second Order existence, was not confident at all when it came to crossing an entire district; let alone a group of young people wearing rather battered equipment who had not broken the threshold from the First Order to the Second Order.
"However, when we all gradually gathered together we made a promise." Bai Zemin said in a serious voice and his eyes even turned a bit red. "That promise was that if any of us managed to survive and make it to Changping District, we would search for the families of the others. The survivors, the seven of us, carry the hopes of many who sacrificed themselves, and thanks to them we are here. Therefore, I would like to ask Uncle Wu and Aunt Sun, if it is not too much trouble, to help us find some people."
The eyes of Zhong De and Chen He widened as they looked at Bai Zemin as if they were looking at a monster. On the other hand, Nangong Lingxin kept her serious expression but she bit her lip so hard that it began to bleed and her body even trembled slightly as if she was holding back the urge to cry…. But she was actually holding back the urge to laugh!
Meanwhile, Cai Jingyi actually started crying! She was even muttering under her breath things like "Friends, we will never forget you" or things like "We will keep our word no matter what". It was as if the story that Bai Zemin told was true instead of pure lies that he casually blurted out!
Shangguan Bing Xue's little mouth opened and closed like a small drowning fish as she looked at Bai Zemin in shock.
My god! Who the hell was the person in front of them? And to think that he could lie without blinking!
"You… You're getting good at this." Lilith said in his head as she stared at him dumbfounded.
Of course, Sun Ling and Wu Keqian were clueless and since Wu Yijun didn't deny the words of Bai Zemin along with his red eyes that looked like they were about to burst into tears, the two of them fell roundly into the game of the little fox with the surname Bai.
Sun Ling sighed and her eyes flashed with complex light as she whispered, "You are all so young but you have been through so much…"
Bai Zemin honestly felt embarrassed as he could feel that the words of the woman in front of him were sincere and spoken from the bottom of her heart. However, his expression on the surface remained steady and calm like a well of stagnant water.
"Young Zemin, don't worry." Wu Keqian suddenly said in a deep voice, "There may be many things beyond my reach. But if it comes to finding a human being within these walls, there is none that can hide even if they wanted to nor go unnoticed if I decide to look for them. Give me those names and I'll find them for you in a day!"
Sun Ling nodded in agreement and said in a soft but firm voice, "You have the names of those people you need to find? As long as they are survivors of this establishment we will definitely find them for you."
Bai Zemin nodded and took out a notebook from his backpack. He took a few steps forward and handed it over respectfully with both hands extended straight ahead.
Sun Ling, who was closest to him, took the notebook seriously and while opening it to see the contents said calmly, "Don't worry. I will personally take care of-"
Suddenly, her words paused and Bai Zemin couldn't help but ask in an anxious voice, "Aunt Sun, is something wrong?"
"… No… It's nothing…" Sun Ling looked like a chicken that had been caught by the throat as her words had difficulty coming out of her mouth. She turned several pages of the notebook in her hand and after several seconds asked somewhat stiffly, "By the way, little brother Bai…. Do you have any idea how large a number of people are written here…?"
"Oh, about that." Bai Zemin waved his hand and said easily, "Of course, I know. It's around two thousand three hundred and fifty-two."
"Two thousand three hundred and fifty-two…" Sun Ling whispered as she looked at Bai Zemin with wide eyes.
Cough! Cough! Cough!
Wu Keqian seemed to be stricken with some kind of sudden illness as he began to cough furiously while looking at his wife with wide eyes and said in between coughs, "S- Sun- Sun Ling…. Wha- What- What did you say?"
Wu Yijun's mother said nothing and while still looking at Bai Zemin in a daze stretched her hand back with the hardcover notebook open.
Wu Keqian took it hurriedly and began to turn the pages while sucking in a breath of cold air.
"Father, is something wrong?" Wu Yijun asked in a worried voice as she tried to hold back the urge to laugh and give Bai Zemin a thumbs up.
This was the first time she had seen her father so embarrassed and it had been provoked by the man she loved and wanted to spend her whole life with. It seemed that Bai Zemin was the one after all.
If Wu Keqian knew what his daughter was thinking he would probably spit out three liters of old blood and die on the spot or he might as well choke Wu Yijun to death. He had carefully raised his daughter and treated her like a princess but here she was, enjoying his misfortunes and rejoicing that her loved one was the cause of them!
"This… Young Bai…" Wu Keqian looked at Bai Zemin and said a little embarrassed, "This establishment has around 230,000 survivors…. I'm afraid finding these people might take some time after all…"
He had just boasted that he would find these people in a day but now he had no choice but to bite his tongue and retract it! But this wasn't his fault either; who would have thought that Bai Zemin would directly give him a notebook with so many people's names written in it!
"Oh, Uncle Wu doesn't need to worry about that." Bai Zemin smiled slightly and said gratefully, "We are in no hurry as long as we can find those who are still alive so that we, fellow brothers-in-arms, can help them."
"That's good… That's good…" Wu Keqian sighed in relief and nodded several times.
Shangguan Bing Xue suddenly stepped forward and remarked, "Uncle Wu. If possible we would like you to focus on finding the people marked with red color. Those are the names of some of the relatives of some of us here after all."
Wu Keqian nodded and returned to the first sheet, where indeed, at the top of the whole, there were several names written in deep red as if highlighting their importance: "Leave it to me. Probably in two days at most I will have information on all the people with this name. Then it will be easy to identify them depending on you."
"Uh?" Suddenly, Wu Keqian stopped dead in his tracks at the sight of a name.
This naturally did not go unnoticed by anyone inside the room and Wu Yijun hurriedly asked what was going on.
However, Wu Keqian shook his head gently and said slowly, "No, it's nothing. It's just that there is a name here that I identified because this person is considered to be a bit important within the base… but it's probably someone else."
Before anyone had time to ask anything else, Wu Keqian closed the notebook and put it away in his body bag before saying with a friendly smile, "Okay. You all are definitely tired from so much traveling. Since we're all friends now, let me invite you to rest in my villa for today and I'll take care of finding a place for you tomorrow. How about it?"
Everyone nodded in agreement and acted as if they were really excited to be able to sleep in a comfortable bed after camping adrift for so long. Honestly, Bai Zemin was incredibly satisfied with the performance of the people he chose for this operation as even the most awkward of them all, Zhong De, and the most sincere of them, Chen He, acted as if they had practiced for years.
* * *
The villa where Wu Keqian was staying was naturally in the most luxurious area of the entire base.
This area was like a world apart as it was surrounded by another wall about 150 meters high which was surrounded by a strange-looking magic circle that caught Bai Zemin's attention but for obvious reasons he did not have time to explore due to the current circumstances.
Behind the wall that separated the privileged area from the rest were luxurious buildings that to the surprise of Bai Zemin's group actually preserved the architecture of the past. Most surprising of all was that judging by the materials, it was clear that all these luxurious buildings had actually been built at least a few years ago; this meant that even when the world expanded these buildings did not collapse!
Although Bai Zemin was full of curiosity about it, he knew better not to ask certain things to avoid drawing attention to himself; instead, he would leave that task to Wu Yijun later depending on how things developed. After all, unfortunate or not, Wu Yijun was still not among the existences that Bai Zemin trusted completely; even less so when the matter at hand involved her family and after seeing how close she was to her parents.
Within the privileged area, there were patrols dressed as police officers at least once per intersection as proof of how important the people who resided there were. The lawns were neatly mowed, the plants delicately trimmed, and the houses in perfect condition.
Extravagantly dressed young men strolled through the streets holding a variety of beauties, riding bicycles, chatting with each other while drinking alcohol, and so on. Bai Zemin and his group even saw a woman dressed very luxuriously and wearing a lot of jewelry walking a small dog whose fur was perfectly white on the sidewalk.
In here, behind these walls, it seemed as if the world had never changed. Everyone lived their lives without worrying about anything and if it weren't for the high walls they might have remembered that out there people often died to build the peaceful life they led…. No, in fact, most of them might have forgotten that fact.
* * * * * * *
Really thank you very much to all those who send gifts to the novel and support with valuable Golden Tickets. I hope we can all keep it up <3
