Chapter 136: Little White Face Zhou?

Xu Xiaoxia slowly puffed out her chest; truth be told, she had indeed not betrayed Liu Mu.

After all, the two of them were, when it came down to it, merely in a cooperative relationship. She helped her gather information, and she gave her some benefits; there was no need to speak of loyalty.

Moreover, seeking a future for oneself was nothing to be ashamed of.

"The Commercial Minister says Chief Yang wants to see me," Liu Mu repeated slowly, not believing a single word of it, "Where is he?"

Such an obvious trap—did they think she was that stupid? Or was it that Xu Xiaoxia had made a faulty contribution to the other side in this?

"You agreed?" Xu Xiaoxia still wanted to call her Sister Xiao Mu, but as the words reached her lips, she felt a bit of reluctance in her heart, so she simply changed the form of address, "Boss Liu, if it's okay, we can set off now."

Liu Mu's brows twitched slightly, her figure and expression hidden within her oversized black raincoat, "Alright, let's go."

Hearing this, Xu Xiaoxia's face showed joy, but then she thought of something and persuaded, "The Chief is just a few kilometers away; why don't we just go over, the two of us? The rain is getting heavier, no need to bring too many people or, dogs."

Not exposing her little trick, Liu Mu nodded slightly and got into the back seat of the military vehicle.

Seeing her get into the car obediently, Xu Xiaoxia hurriedly closed the door, as if afraid the person might run away, then sat in the front seat and drove the car out.

This was a Military Jeep, a standard-issue vehicle for the Barrier Army, coming from some hidden command post in the north.

Its performance and the driving technique were similar to the off-road vehicles Xu Xiaoxia sold before the disaster; even though the road conditions were not as good as before, she drove it effortlessly.

The jeep drove steadily on the road for over twenty minutes, and after moving away from the Scrap Station and Food Street area, it stopped at the foot of a hill in a locally well-known wild park.

The small hill, left bare after the Burning, had grown quite a few Mutated Plants with strange shapes after months of being drenched in black water.

Liu Mu got out of the car, and a bright green vine at her feet crawled onto her boot, but it did not extend any sharp thorns; she understood then—this was Xu Xiaofeng, worried about her, having followed her all the way here.

The corners of her mouth relaxed slightly; Liu Mu admired the growth range of the Great Master Flower more and more. It was just a pity that it had chosen the wrong target for assimilation.

She looked up at the mountain path, and the window on the driver's side of the military vehicle rolled down, revealing Xu Xiaoxia's apologetic face.

"Boss Liu, the Chief is at the first rest station up the mountain path. For his safety, there are people patrolling the path, so I can't take you up."

The implication was that Liu Mu had to go up by herself.

Liu Mu didn't force her when she heard this, but she sighed inexplicably and strode away, her voice drifting back through the rain,

"I've been reflecting on myself lately; I've been too low-key." Otherwise, it wouldn't be the turn of small characters like you to scheme against me like this.

Xu Xiaoxia only vaguely heard "reflecting" and "low-key," thinking Liu Mu intended to admit her mistakes before the Chief because the mission had not gone smoothly.

But, as her hand moved to turn the ignition key, she gripped the steering wheel tightly; should she do as Jiang Hanzhong said and leave once the person was delivered?

If Chief Yang really held her accountable, would something happen to Liu Mu? And why was it the Commercial Minister who conveyed this kind of thing to her?

Admittedly, in the Barrier, the high-ranking official she dealt with most often was this Jiang Hanzhong... Even now, Xu Xiaoxia did not regret striving for her own future, but if something happened to Liu Mu, could she still rise safely in the Barrier? Would she be silenced?

These hesitations lasted no more than half a minute before Xu Xiaoxia pushed open the car door and hurried to chase after Liu Mu, who was about to walk onto the mountain path.

"Boss Liu, I'd better go with you; the mountain road is hard to walk."

Liu Mu didn't reply; she didn't know what kind of thoughts Xu Xiaoxia was having again, but it didn't matter.

Having lived through days of killing for so long, her feelings and trust toward ordinary people had become increasingly indifferent; just as she thought before, small characters—if they died, they died.

Furthermore, she could conclude that the person wanting to see her this time was absolutely not Yang Shuo, but that Commercial Minister surnamed Jiang.

If nothing else, this surname alone was enough for her to raise her guard.

Seeing that Liu Mu did not pause and was not willing to pay her any mind, Xu Xiaoxia felt it was not easy to back down now that she had already followed, so she gritted her teeth and chased closely behind.

The mountain path was harder to walk than it had been two months ago, mainly because the rain had washed it out, causing the stone slabs to shift, and quite a bit of slippery black moss had grown.

Liu Mu walked in front, her gait steady and light, unaffected in the slightest. On the contrary, Xu Xiaoxia, who was following behind her, walked with great difficulty, slipping from time to time and ending up covered in mud.

"Boss Liu, it's just ahead, the first rest station, very close."

Xu Xiaoxia didn't know if she was pointing the way for Liu Mu or cheering herself on; she even suspected that she and Liu Mu were not walking on the same mountain path.

Liu Mu still did not look back; when it came to familiarity with the terrain, she was much better than the young woman behind her. The other mountain connected to this one was exactly where she had hidden the Oil Tanker.

After walking no more than three hundred meters, Liu Mu looked up at the half-collapsed concrete hut of the rest station, where three men were indeed standing.

Two were standing guard holding weapons, while another, older one was sitting in a makeshift rain shelter, actually drinking tea.

At the same time, the other party saw Liu Mu, and as she continued to move forward, they raised their guns and fired in front of her toes, questioning sharply, "Who goes there? Stop!"

Dutiful, or just putting on a show.

Liu Mu spoke, her voice not loud, yet it successfully pierced through the curtain of rain, "Liu Mu."

Hearing the name, a look of obvious disdain flashed across the faces of the two soldiers, and they did not lower the rifles in their hands, "Only you are allowed to come up; anyone else who approaches will be killed without mercy!"

At this distance, perhaps others would be unable to see their expressions clearly, but Liu Mu saw them clearly, and it confirmed her guess, "You heard that; others cannot approach."

These words were directed at Xu Xiaoxia, who was following with difficulty. Upon hearing this, the latter seemed to heave a sigh of relief and hurriedly said, "Then I'll wait for you below." She then shouted upward, "Soldier, don't shoot, I'm heading down the mountain now."

She had already followed, which could be considered showing Liu Mu that she didn't know the situation either; if something went wrong, it really would have nothing to do with her, the messenger.

Liu Mu continued upward, not looking at the departing Xu Xiaoxia. As the steps rose, she discovered that besides the Commercial Minister and his guards, there was another person standing behind them. Their figure was obscured by a raincoat, tall and thin, and their face could not be seen.

"Leader, long time no see," upon entering the rain shelter, Liu Mu pulled down the hood of her raincoat, revealing a mercenary smile, "If you had a matter, you could have just sent word and I would have gone to pay a visit at the Barrier; how could I trouble you to make the trip yourself?"

Jiang Hanzhong held a large tea mug, the fragrance of tea dispersing with the steam; seemingly wanting to use this to manifest his status, he took a sip with a very bureaucratic air before looking at Liu Mu, "You come to the Barrier? Little Liu, you've been back for several days now; if I hadn't come, were you planning to act as if nothing had happened?"

"There were just too many things to do," fawning was impossible; Liu Mu was a person who could smile at others, but the other party had to bring her enough benefits, or have value for her to exploit, "The trip out didn't go smoothly, and then something happened at the Scrap Station when I got back. I'm covered in injuries; I almost couldn't climb up just now. In a couple of days, when I'm feeling better, I will definitely go to the Barrier to report."

The system scan results showed there were no humans nearby other than these few. Xu Xiaoxia and the man before her were indeed treating her like an idiot, and they were even using Yang Shuo's name. Didn't this just hand the evidence right into her hands?

Seeing that Liu Mu kept talking in circles and wouldn't proactively mention the main point, Jiang Hanzhong wasn't in a hurry; he just feigned concern for a moment before immediately switching to a different way of persuasion,

"Little Liu, I heard that before the disaster you were almost able to marry the person you liked, but heaven didn't cooperate, keeping you apart for so long. Little Zhou, hurry up and come over; it just so happens you can go back with Little Liu today."

The person who had been cowering behind the others was pulled over by a guard. The raincoat was pulled open, revealing a pale, sharp-chinned face.

Liu Mu saw the person clearly and was startled... "Little White Face Zhou?"

This Little White Face Zhou Chunwang was actually still alive?!