I really didn't expect that a few hours ago, I just got the Scout ID of Qingshan, and now I volunteered to go to Wanxiang City with the scavengers; In a way, is this a betrayal?

I leaned against the cold wall and thought that Liu Yijing was discussing something unknown to me with one of her fellow scavengers, while another scavenger was smoking a cigarette that was presumably damp; This man has a homemade firearm in his hand, and he keeps an eye on my every move from time to time, presumably to prevent me from sneaking away. The three of us waited for a long time in the alley in front of No. 3 Middle School, and they didn't allow me to walk around freely, and I couldn't tell what was happening outside the alley. Confused, I waited with my "new partner" in this dark and cold alley for more than an hour, and only after the sound of the engine outside the alley had faded away, the faces of these people relaxed.

After a while, another middle-aged man wearing a cotton jacket and a black plaid scarf walked into the alley and brought a captive, to my surprise, this captive turned out to be Zhang Xiaoying! The man rudely pushed Zhang Xiaoying and dragged her very unfriendly in front of us, he was still holding Zhang Xiaoying's recurve bow and saber in his hand, and when he saw Liu Yijing, he showed a smile of farewell reunion.

"Sister Liu, I've kept you waiting!" The man pointed at Zhang Xiaoying with the snatched saber and said, "This little slut was bumped into when I left school, good guy, he almost killed me." I took advantage of the situation to glance at the man, the bruises on his face had begun to turn red and purple, which was definitely due to Zhang Xiaoying.

"You're lucky." Liu Yijing also knew Zhang Xiaoying's ability, tilted her head to look, and found that her hands were tied behind her back, so she said, "Let her go." ”

"Sister Liu......"

"Even if you tie her up, it won't be long before she finds a way to get her away."

The man had no choice but to follow Liu Yijing's order to let go of the rope tied to Zhang Xiaoying's hand, and returned Zhang Xiaoying's weapon at Liu Yijing's request. Zhang Xiaoying was also polite, but she just glanced at the other party angrily and didn't make a move.

"Don't think you'll be able to settle with me." Zhang Xiaoying rubbed her wrist, glanced at me standing among the scavengers, and said, "Sister Liu, I knew that you were not simple, but I didn't expect it to be someone from Wanxiang City, let Huang Weizheng go, we can all talk." ”

"Let him go? Ahaha! Who told you I didn't let him go? ”

When Zhang Xiaoying heard this, she seemed to understand something, and frowned and asked me, "Are you also one of theirs?" ”

"No, you listen to my explanation......"

Zhang Xiaoying shook her head with a smile, turned her head self-deprecatingly, she didn't leave, just stood in place. Even though I only looked at her back, I could still see her disappointed expression.

"Zhang ......"

"I don't want to hear your explanation!" Zhang Xiaoying suddenly turned to glare at me, which gave me the first taste of being hostile to her.

"Huang Weizheng wants to go with me to save Du Yuheng, whether you believe it or not, that's the way it is." Liu Yijing can be regarded as helping me speak, which temporarily eases the sudden tense atmosphere.

"What do you mean?"

"Okay, so tell me first, what are the results of your tests?" When Liu Yijing said this, Zhang Xiaoying's expressions and I couldn't help but change, and she could roughly confirm her judgment, "It doesn't seem to be optimistic." ”

Zhang Xiaoying covered up her true feelings in time, stared sideways at Liu Yijing and said, "This has nothing to do with you now." ”

"Well, I know, you don't and don't believe me. Then you should always believe Huang Weizheng. With Liu Yijing's words, I became the focus of the conversation again, "Isn't he the most rational and trustworthy person in your group of children?" Even he is willing to go to Wanxiang City with me, what doubts do you have? ”

"Is it true?"

Zhang Xiaoying locked on to me with her sharp gaze, and for some reason, I didn't dare to say a word at this time, not because I didn't believe what Liu Yijing said to me before, but no matter what, I couldn't look directly at Zhang Xiaoying's eyes with clear love and hate. So I held my breath and nodded seemingly firmly.

"Look, you believe it." The proud Liu Yijing fanned the flames and said with a smile, "Actually, Sister Xiaoying, if you say something unpleasant, you don't have any choice." If I let you go back to Aoyama like this, then these things that happened today will soon be known to the people of Aoyama. If that's the case, let's not say if we can return to Wanxiang City, your classmate Huang Weizheng will also be really regarded as a traitor, and I don't think you will have a good time. ”

In fact, the confrontation lasted for a few minutes, and Zhang Xiaoying finally decided to go to Wanxiang City with us. Today's accident seems to have been planned for a long time, and they hid a small van in an abandoned vehicle across the street from the school. From the outside, the car looks like a normal van, and they have carefully aged the car, making it difficult to distinguish it from the abandoned cars, but on the inside, the car has been remodeled, including the windshield, all windows of the van are equipped with security nets of the anti-theft net, in addition to the installation of radio receivers.

"Not bad, right? In fact, this car has been following us ever since we boarded the Wandering Ship of the River People. Liu Yijing said to Zhang Xiaoying and me in a show-off tone, "But I still want to emphasize that we are not as terrible as those people in Qingshan advertise, everything will be known when you arrive in Wanxiang City." ”

Sitting in the middle row of the car, Zhang Xiaoying and I didn't speak, in fact, I don't think Zhang Xiaoying is too willing to talk to me, so I can only keep my mouth shut. After reconfirming that the surroundings were safe, the van began to start and headed for Wanxiang City. The scavengers had their own safe routes, and due to congestion on some sections of the road and scouts to avoid the scouts in the green mountains, we had twice as many distances as normal, and the time it took increased.

While secretly memorizing this twisting and turning route, I was looking for a way to break the barrier with Zhang Xiaoying. The scavengers didn't let their guard down on us, and along the way, I always felt that the men sitting in the back row and the front row of us kept an eye on Zhang Xiaoying and me. Although Sister Liu and the driver, who sat in the front row; That is, the man who arrested Zhang Xiaoying just now was talking and laughing, and he accosted us from time to time, but I knew that once something was wrong with the two of us, the two men behind us who were guarding us would definitely subdue us as quickly as possible.

It seemed that there was still some distance from Wanxiang City, and after thinking about it, I decided to find out the details of Liu Yijing, but just as I was about to speak, a question arose. After all that has happened, what am I supposed to call her? Is it still called "Sister Liu"? But the nature she now reveals and the deception she has shown to us make it impossible for me to easily call out that affectionate title...... At this moment, Liu Yijing suddenly turned her head to me and said, "Hey, classmate Huang Weizheng, although you don't usually like to talk, aren't you curious about how I get in touch with my companions?" ”

Thankfully, I didn't have to open the conversation, I pointed to the radio next to the front cab shift with my chin, and guessed, "Is that the one you use?" ”

Liu Yijing looked back at the radio station I was referring to, took out a walkie-talkie, shook it in front of me, and said with a smile: "That's right, we have been using this to keep in touch." ”

"So how do you solve the charging problem?"

"That's a good question, for some walkie-talkies with No. 5 batteries, this problem is not too big, as long as there are enough batteries. Devices that usually need to be plugged in and charged are more troublesome, as for how to solve it, you will know later. Liu Yijing looked around triumphantly at us, and I think she was sure of the section we were walking.

"I'm more curious about why you appeared near the university at that time, seeing that you are like this, you should be moving around Wanxiang City." Zhang Xiaoying looked at the street scene outside the car window and interjected intentionally or unintentionally.

"Ah, I almost forgot, I saved you and Du Yuheng and that little fat classmate at that time." Liu Yijing didn't care about Zhang Xiaoying's indifference, and replied unabashedly, "It's okay to tell you, in fact, I was preparing to negotiate with the biker party there with a few people at that time, because we had planned to form an alliance at that time, but I didn't expect Li Sicai's ghost fox to have other plans." ”

"So you guys quarreled?" Yu Heng also told me about the biker party and the leader of the biker party known as the king of heaven, Li Sicai. I heard that this man was insidious and cunning, and it seems that this is indeed the case.

"That's right, and he's got an inside line on our team to lead us into a trap...... Only I ran out......"

"I didn't expect a woman as scheming as you to fall for it." Zhang Xiaoying's cynicism made Liu Yijing's fellow driver feel unhappy, but Liu Yijing herself didn't care too much, but she didn't seem to be willing to continue talking about what happened at that time, so she changed the topic, pointed to the dense woods at the other end of a main street we passed by, and said, "See the dead city forest over there?" Isn't it amazing that most of the city is now forested. ”

"It seems that the virus is an environmentalist."

My cold exclamation made the people in the car laugh, and Liu Yijing continued: "You are right, the genes of most plants in this forest have mutated, and the genetic structure is somewhat similar to HTS89, we estimate that it is because the mutant virus of HTS89 has affected the growth of plants." You've probably seen the zombies that have become one with the plants. ”

"When I saw it in Tianyang, it seems to emit some kind of poisonous smoke."

"That's a virus spores, and the HTS89 variant is spread in plants by this, and if a person inhales it, although he is alive, he will be fine, but when he dies, he will become a zombie."

"You mean, this virus is not only a catastrophe for humans but also a catastrophe for plants?"

"The same can be said, but for now, the virus has not done much harm to plants except for making them grow and flourish, but instead uses humans as fertilizer for plants."

Zhang Xiaoying suddenly interrupted the conversation between me and Liu Yijing and said, "Where do you know so much? Even frontline research teams that specialize in this virus may not know this. ”

"Most of the research groups focused on humans and paid less attention to plant growth anomalies. What I just said is not exactly the conclusion I have reached, there are other masters in Wanxiang City. Liu Yijing sold it again; To be honest, it's a bit awkward to listen to the lukewarm conversation between these two women.

"Someone else?"

"Virology expert Dr. Lu Huaxiong and his medical team have been in Wanxiang City, and we have been able to provide them with research equipment, and they are constantly studying this virus. I heard that a while ago, they had made new progress, maybe there was a way to cure Du Yuheng. Liu Yijing looked back into my eyes and further introduced, "Dr. Lu Huaxiong was an expert in the support virus research team in Nanning at the time, and during the big evacuation, his convoy was surrounded by zombies, and we saved him. ”

"It seems that you have a lot of confidence in this Dr. Lu Huaxiong."

"Then do you think he is more professional or Dr. Liao Yuan from Qingshan is more professional?" Liu Yijing's rhetorical question hit the nail on the head, but I do have to admit that judging from the information I have so far, Wanxiang City is indeed more likely to have Yu Heng's illness.

"We're coming." The scavenger who was driving the car excitedly said as if success was close at hand, "Damn, after so many days, I'm finally back!" ”

I looked at the streets on the left and right, although the street scene was still as deserted as ever, but there were a lot of barricades made of barbed wire with oil drums on the road, Liu Yijing told me and Zhang Xiaoying, when we arrived in this neighborhood, we were basically within the monitoring range of the Wanxiang scavengers, but at night, it would be occupied by mutants again.

Directly in front of us, Wanxiang City, once a luxury commercial shopping mall, lies quietly in the distance like a doomsday bunker by the intersection that used to be full of traffic. Not far from it there is a tower of a high-voltage transmission line; I remember that the transmission line seemed to be the main power line in the neighborhood, but nowadays, the tower seems to have changed a little. The wires connecting it to the nearby tower were gone, replaced by several wires that connected to Universal City. With a lot of solar panels installed on the tower, I finally understood how the waste pickers could ensure the power supply to their Universal City. Not only on the tower, but also on the surface of this mega shopping mall building, large and small panels are installed, and from a distance it looks like the armor of an ancient samurai.

Wanxiang City used to be one of the city's most high-end commercial centers, and part of the façade of this fashionable shopping mall is designed with glass walls, but now most of it is equipped with composite panels and other panels, I think this is both to prevent the light from being detected by mutants at night, and to prevent human attacks. Due to its location at the crossroads and surrounded by high-rise buildings, Wanxiang City does not enclose a large safe block like Castle Mountain, but it is also surrounded by large vehicles as a small circle of walls; Large tires were placed on the toppled vehicles, like battlements on the city walls, which served as protective guards.

At this time, the call of the guards of Wanxiang City was also heard on the radio: "Stowaway 4, Stowaway 4, here is the watchman." You have entered the control area, please stop and report the security code. ”

It also smelled of entering a secret military base, the driver picked up the walkie-talkie and replied: "Understood, Watchman, this is Stowaway No. 4, security code: Hidden 2018, please confirm, Hidden 2018." ”

"Roger, yes, welcome home, Stowaway No. 4."

After putting down the walkie-talkie, the driver stepped on the accelerator again, and we slowly drove towards the improvised fence. There were many more barricades on both sides, and our route had to turn around with the position of the barricades, like a poisonous snake crawling back to its lair. The temporary gate of the construction site was transformed into a thickened gate, and I finally came to this familiar shopping center. The main entrance of the building has been sealed, leaving only a small door for the guards to enter and exit, and the fountain square has become a battlefield front-line position, full of tents and board houses, large and small, and the fountain has become a cistern, and there are scavenger guards with meaty faces coming and going, and occasionally a few women in thick jackets, they are armed and look like they are not easy to mess with.

The road leading to the mall's underground parking lot has been blocked by a fence made up of scrapped cars. We can only enter the underground parking lot of the mall by following the path that the survivors of Wanxiang City have booked now. Since there were not many vehicles available, only the first floor of the original five-story underground garage was open for use, and I don't know what the other basement floors were used for. There is also a checkpoint at the entrance and exit of the parking lot, and a steel gate has been installed here. After passing through this sentry, we really entered Wanxiang City.

The parking lot is full of all kinds of vehicles, some of which are placed next to the wall, and the chairs, engines and other equipment in the cars have been removed, and they are probably of no use. The other part of the car is parked in the middle of the garage, and I counted about a dozen of them, most of them are tool vehicles such as pickup trucks and vans, and some of them have been modified and equipped with protective equipment such as iron plates and iron fences, as well as lighting equipment such as strong lights and searchlights.

After stopping the car, Liu Yijing asked the three waste pickers to prepare the vehicles, and she led us into the shopping mall. There is a security check area in the access between the car park and the shopping mall. Liu Yijing can naturally pass smoothly, but as strangers, Zhang Xiaoying and I may not. The guards asked us to hand over our weapons, which was not a good proposal, and Zhang Xiaoying naturally decisively refused. Seeing that the conflict was about to appear, Liu Yijing spoke out in time to stop it, she vouched for her reputation to allow the two of us to bring weapons in, and her identity in Wanxiang City seemed to be a bit special, and the guards acquiesced without any protest.

"Again, this bit of hypocrisy of yours is useless to me." Zhang Xiaoying glanced at Liu Yijing, checked the weapon on her body as if she was deliberately showing off, and passed through the security check area as if no one was around.

Liu Yijing and I followed closely behind, and from now on, Liu Yijing has always been unimpressed by Zhang Xiaoying's hostility, and I don't know where she got her confidence, so I believe that Zhang Xiaoying and I will honestly join Wanxiang City in the future.

I remember that the last time I came to Wanxiang City was to celebrate Liang Minxuan's birthday with Yuheng and them, and now that I am walking here, I don't feel that this is a high-end shopping mall at all. The once shiny floor is now full of stained footprints; It's daytime, but the once bright shopping area is now a little dark; The shops of all kinds seem to have become the dwellings of some of the survivors, draped up with tarpaulins or covered with a few pieces of cardboard; Some of the shops have been converted into shops like we saw on the Wanderer, and they sell the same things as we saw at the time, but I did find a few butcher shops that sold real pork and chicken, and the interesting thing is that these meats were not sold by the pound but by the portion, and the amount of a serving was probably not even half a catty, and I didn't look closely at their prices.

"The first basement floor is the combat readiness area, most of the area on the first and second floors are residents' residences and shops, the third floor is the war department and material reserve area, the fourth floor is the experimental area and some important equipment placement area, and the fifth floor is livestock breeding, and the roof is some vegetable planting area and solar panels. You can't go above the second floor for a while, but you can walk around the first and second floors. I'll go and report the situation to the lord for the time being, and I'll meet in the theater on the first floor in an hour. Liu Yijing pointed to the stage set up on the first floor of the shopping mall and said, "There should be a performance there later, you can go there and have a look." ”

"By the lord of the city...... The leader of the scavengers? ”

"Oh, you can't call it that here." Liu Yijing shook her finger in front of me and said, "But I don't mind too much." Yes, maybe he'll want to meet you. ”

Without waiting for us to ask in detail, Liu Yijing called out to the driver companion who caught up after us at some point: "Liu Yong!" ”

When the scavenger named Liu Yong heard Liu Yijing's call, he stopped and stretched his head to look. Liu Yijing made a few gestures to him, and he turned around and walked into the bustling crowd with understanding.

I don't know what these two surnamed Liu want to do, to be honest, I'm too lazy to think about it. Liu Yijing refocused her attention on me and Zhang Xiaoying, and after saying a few more irrelevant words, she left us in the "block" of Wanxiang City, where people came and went. After Liu Yijing left, a few seconds later, in the noisy voice, I suddenly realized the embarrassment between me and Zhang Xiaoying, and was about to say something casually, but I didn't expect her to turn around and leave, leaving me behind.

"Alas, wait." I trotted to catch up with her, looking at her as I walked and looking straight ahead and saying, "I think it's better for the two of us to stay together." ”

Zhang Xiaoying continued to walk, indifferent to my words, so I put aside my seriousness as if I had nothing to do, and said with a smile: "I didn't expect Wanxiang City to be like this, it is indeed different from what Qingshan advertised." ”

Zhang Xiaoying still didn't speak, two or three people passed between me and her, and after walking side by side again, I asked her, "Uh, where are you going?" How about we go find something to eat? But we ...... "Before I finished my sentence, the crowded crowd around me suddenly pushed Zhang Xiaoying towards me, and the two of us almost collided together, and at a distance of only a few centimeters from her, her charming eyes glared at me with anger, so frightened that I stammered the rest of the words," ...... You have to go first...... Exchange bullets for merchant vouchers......"

"You want to leave us without saying a word!"

"Huh?"

Zhang Xiaoying's sudden dissatisfaction doesn't sound like anger, but it's also different from the previous gentleness or calmness: "Don't you want to think about what we will think?" Don't think about my feelings? ”

I didn't grasp the point of what Zhang Xiaoying just said, and asked, "'How do I feel'?" ”

"How we feel! Don't change the subject! I didn't think much about it, but Zhang Xiaoying's reckless change made me realize that the relationship with her had not become so bad, and she deliberately brushed aside her blushing cheeks, as if avoiding my gaze.

"Oh." I didn't want to go any further, lest I have nothing to do, "I'm sorry, I was wrong." ”

"Do you know how dangerous it can be for one person to come to Wanxiang?" In fact, Zhang Xiaoying babbled a lot later, but my attention was always unconsciously focused on her serious but concealed expression, as well as her hurried and sometimes paused words at that time.

But then again, I really didn't think about how dangerous it would be to come to Wanxiang, but since there was hope of curing Yuheng's illness, why not take the risk? Thinking about it, I knew that the most important thing to do at the moment was to honestly "confess", so I pretended to be serious and replied: "I didn't think about it so much at the time, it was my fault." ”

"Haven't you always thought it through? Why didn't you even think of any of this? ”

"I didn't know, it was a hot head. Besides, aren't you like me? ”

"What's the same?"

"Leave the team without saying a word. So you and I made the same mistake. ”

"I ......"

Zhang Xiaoying couldn't find anything to refute me for a while, so I hurriedly didn't say a word when I turned the right time. "Alright! I'm guessing you're thinking the same as me, we're all trying to find a way to cure Yuheng. ”

Zhang Xiaoying, who got under the steps, immediately followed my words and said, "Yes...... That's right! However, I was arrested for you, unlike you who took the initiative to come here with others! ”

"Well, it's different."

"Well, I'll apologize."

"Then what should I do......" I shrugged my shoulders helplessly, one thing I must admit, this kind of thing to make girls happy should probably be Du Yuheng's forte, I didn't care too much about it in the past, and now it seems that this skill really comes in handy.

Zhang Xiaoying looked at me who was standing stupidly in front of her, a smile appeared at the corner of her mouth, and her angry eyes were also sunny at this time, she bit her lower lip lightly, tilted her head, put her hands in her jacket pockets, and pointed behind me with her chin disdainfully. I looked back and saw a small restaurant with an enticing aroma behind me. Although I don't know what is sold inside, I have already guessed what the "punishment" Zhang Xiaoying gave me is.

"You have to go and exchange the voucher first." Girls are really not easy to serve, especially a unique girl like Zhang Xiaoying. Either way, I can be considered to have her understanding.