Chapter 397 - 346: You Can’t Keep Going Back on Your Word!
Chapter 397 - 346: You Can’t Keep Going Back on Your Word!
A group of seven or eight people started loading supplies into the cars simultaneously. Just when there wasn’t enough space in the two cars, Ju Mumio took out a car key from the room.
"Brother Zhang, Xiaojuzi said she hid a car in the yard over there."
Yi Xiaoling translated, looking at Ju Mumio with some surprise, as she was completely unaware of this.
"Luezi, go with Ju Mumio to bring the car back."
Zhang Su, however, didn’t find it strange. Ju Mumio had managed to make her way from the Mountain and Sea District to Qing County, so her abilities in various aspects were undoubtedly good.
"Eh, me? Alright..."
Wu Lue, who was carrying two large barrels of pure grain alcohol, froze, forced a smile, handed the alcohol to Chen Hanzhou, and reluctantly followed Ju Mumio out of the yard.
After the time it took to smoke a cigarette, a cleanly washed Toyota Sienna stopped at the gate of the courtyard. Inside the car were ten five-liter containers of mineral water, which had frozen into solid blocks, bursting four or five bottle caps due to expansion, along with some canned food and snacks.
"The supplies are quite sufficient. Is this preparation for a quick escape?"
Zhang Su leaned into the car to take a look and teased.
"Xiaojuzi said... this was prepared before the severe cold hit. The original plan was to head for Qin City once I recovered a bit."
Yi Xiaoling translated for Ju Mumio.
"Alright, your car has been requisitioned by the organization. The alcohol you’re taking from here isn’t going into the storage, you’re in charge of it."
Zhang Su generously patted the car.
Upon hearing Zhang Su’s words, Ju Mumio was startled and quickly spoke a string of words.
"Xiaojuzi is asking... the rest of the supplies aren’t under our management?"
Yi Xiaoling said with an awkward smile, seemingly already knowing the answer.
"Time is short, and I haven’t had the chance to clearly explain our camp’s rules. Supplies are subject to unified management and distribution to ensure that no member goes cold or hungry. You can take ten percent of the supplies you find as a commission, and the rest goes to the camp storage."
"You don’t need to worry about any tricks or privileges I might have. To tell you the truth, I can’t even use all of the supplies from my commission, let alone the quota. Our camp’s living standards are quite good. Finding an organization like ours means you two are really lucky!"
After hearing this, Ju Mumio said a few more things to Yi Xiaoling. Zhang Su could tell she still had questions, so he waved his hand before Yi Xiaoling could translate and said, "I understand you have doubts about how things work since you’ve not joined any group since the outbreak, but living here for a while will answer all your questions. Our camp now has about a hundred people living harmoniously, which proves our rules have no major flaws."
"Brother Zhang is right, Xiaojuzi, maybe some of our worries are unnecessary! Even a little girl like that is willing to help them, they can’t be too bad."
Seeing Su Xiaoya diligently helping out, Yi Xiaoling spoke with feeling. She recalled wanting to flee with villagers, but got targeted by thugs. If she hadn’t overheard their plan and escaped early, she would have ended up like other young women, abused.
If being abused meant survival, that was one thing, but when she snuck back to the village for supplies after those people left, she found many women dead in abandoned yards, of all ages. Some had even turned into zombies, a miserable sight.
This experience made her later choose to live on her own. Sadly, she had the idea but lacked the skills. Later, while searching for supplies, she was targeted again. If Ju Mumio hadn’t appeared in time, she wouldn’t have met a good end...
Su Xiaoya heard Yi Xiaoling’s words and responded with a faint smile. She couldn’t objectively judge Celestial Horse Island, as it killed her sister, yet it saved the remaining folks of Kuanzhuang. She harbored no hate for Zhang Su in her heart.
Ju Mumio wasn’t concerned with Zhang Su’s assurances but was focused on confirming the commission on found supplies. After receiving a positive answer, she felt relieved; she trusted in her abilities as a last resort.
With another car on hand, they quickly loaded the remaining supplies with space to spare.
Three cars lined up outside the courtyard gate. Ju Mumio and Yi Xiaoling didn’t drive. Yi Xiaoling sat in the second row of the Sienna, with Wang Xin driving and Chen Hanzhou in the passenger seat, while Ju Mumio sat in the second row of the Big Dog, Lu Yubo driving with a dark face, and Wu Lue awkwardly in the passenger seat. The car was eerily quiet.
The FJ Cruiser started first as the lead car, followed by the Big Dog, with the Sienna falling in line behind. Despite Ju Mumio and Yi Xiaoling not riding in the same car, they both instinctively turned back to look at the yard they once lived in, trying to etch the memory in their minds, until the cars rounded the corner and they returned their gaze forward.
In contrast to the awkward-to-the-core atmosphere in the Big Dog, the mood inside the Sienna was relatively light.
"Um, I’m not trying to gossip, haha." Wang Xin smiled at the rearview mirror and said, "Xiaoling, were you always into girls?"
"Starting with ’I’m not trying to gossip,’ you must be gossiping..."
Yi Xiaoling rarely responded humorously, then sighed and said, "I wasn’t like this before the disaster, but some experiences after the disaster made me... I’m sorry, I don’t want to paint all men with the same brush, but I’m really afraid of men hurting me."
"Don’t worry, Xiaochen and I both have partners, such things as bullying men or women don’t happen in our camp!"
Wang Xin comforted her.
Chen Hanzhou saw the timing was right and spoke up: "Uh, I wanted to ask, Sister Ling, what exactly is Ju Mumio’s identity, how is she so powerful?"
After losing an arm, Chen Hanzhou’s pursuit of combat strength surpassed what it was before, especially after installing a prosthetic arm. He longed to find his own fighting style, and when he saw Ju Mumio’s never-before-seen combat techniques, he couldn’t help but be exhilarated.
"I’m also quite curious, what happened to make you fall into her trap? I saw she had her weapons confiscated, or are your firearms just that much more powerful?"
Yi Xiaoling said with a faint smile, her tone purely curious, as she was well aware of Ju Mumio’s prowess. If it weren’t for the firearms, Ju Mumio facing three or four opponents alone wouldn’t have been difficult.
"We didn’t have a direct confrontation with her. At that time, we were flying drones to find zombies, Ju Mumio discovered the drone and specifically found us, hoping we could save you. Brother Su saw how powerful she was and naturally had her hand over her weapons."
Chen Hanzhou spread his hands.
"You might not know about the Ju Clan from Japan; actually, I didn’t know before either, it was Xiaojuzi who told me. The Ju Clan is a very ancient family in Japan, with a history of over a thousand years. Previously, it had a period where it ruled the entire country, but later lost to various competitions in different fields, gradually declining. The outside world thought the Ju Clan had become extinct, but actually, the Ju Clan just hid in a dense forest and has continued to pass down the lineage."
"Whoa... really, are you sure this isn’t a story? Can this be considered descendants of a royal family?"
Wang Xin’s expression was odd, finding it very dramatic.
Chen Hanzhou didn’t have as exaggerated an expression as Wang Xin, harboring other doubts in his heart, he asked: "Does Yuan Yuan’s family lineage have anything to do with her strength?"
"She told me her Martial Arts are a family inheritance, the rest I don’t know. Actually, I’m not very interested, so I didn’t ask much, and she didn’t tell me, sorry..."
Yi Xiaoling smiled awkwardly, thinking it odd to inquire too deeply into someone’s ancestry, so she listened to as much as Ju Mumio was willing to share.
"An isolated family, Martial Arts inheritance..." Chen Hanzhou whispered, his eyes shining with contemplation.
Big Dog was awkwardly silent the entire time, having a pleasant conversation in the Senna car, while the two people in the FJ Cruiser were quarreling...
"You promised me, promised twice, why are you going back on your word? You can’t do this!"
Just now, Zhang Su had suggested returning directly to Celestial Horse Island, causing Su Xiaoya to be unable to hold back any longer, thinking, is a leader’s words this unreliable?
Zhang Su glanced at Su Xiaoya and said, "Didn’t you see the car is almost full? There’s nothing else to bring back from Kuanzhuang, why waste time, right? Tomorrow, tomorrow I’ll really take you there, no breaking my word!"
"I’m not taking anything, just want to look around, at most one or two small bags, they don’t take up space, please."
Su Xiaoya pleaded, hands clasped and bowing repeatedly. She knew being forceful wouldn’t work as he wouldn’t cave to that, so she had to resort to soft persuasion.
"Hmm... click."
Zhang Su clicked his tongue, though there was actually still space in the car, he mainly didn’t want to be involved with anything related to Su Lei, but continually breaking promises to a little girl wasn’t right either. He finally nodded and said: "Okay, okay, I’ll take you there, but I can’t give you much time, when I say go, you go, is that okay?"
"Okay!"
Su Xiaoya agreed very readily, leaning back into the seat without saying anything more.
"Hmm?"
However, just as they quieted down for less than a minute, Zhang Su let out a sound of surprise, and then the car slowly pulled over to the side of the road.
"Brother Su, Brother Su, the zombie horde in the western field looks off!"
At the same time, Lu Yubo’s voice came through the intercom.
Everyone in the car looked westward, where they could see a large group of zombies slowly moving south. It might not be as exaggerated as connecting heaven and earth, but the number definitely wouldn’t be less than five thousand!
OBS