Chapter 202: We Are Not Bad People

Under what circumstances would delivering warmth to people be considered an act of an enemy?

Liu Mu could not figure it out, so she had Ma Si step forward to communicate with them.

"Fellow countrymen, we are not bad people. This is my work ID. We really are an official grain delivery team," Ma Si, as a promising youth within the system, had always believed in the credibility of the group he belonged to, and also believed in the weight of his work ID.

He held up his work ID, took a step forward, and handed it to the person in the lead, "Comrade, I am Ma Si. This officer here just now is the Captain of the military special operations team, responsible for transport security. Everyone, please don't be impulsive. Our weapons are for safety along the road, not for harming our own people."

Due to the natural disaster, the ID cards for Barrier personnel had all been changed to metal, using laser engraving technology to carve names, positions, and identification numbers onto the plates.

Of course, they were also engraved with the official seal of the Haicheng Barrier, as well as an encrypted identity-reading QR code. Under normal circumstances, the information read from the QR code included the engraved information one could see, but there would be one extra thing: the signature of the top leader of the Southeast Military Region.

This could be considered a triple guarantee.

Ma Si was confident that once the other party saw his ID, they would certainly no longer be suspicious, until he was grabbed by the back of his collar by Liu Mu behind him and tossed aside.

The sound of gunfire broke the silence of the wind and snow, and also left a shallow dent on Liu Mu's blade.

"Are you rebelling?"

Her tone was cold; she could not fathom the motive for these people to still attempt to open fire and kill after confirming Ma Si's identity.

"You are the subordinates of the man-eating monster. You are not allowed to enter our Base, otherwise..."

The man in the lead could not finish his sentence; several gun barrels from the Sea Soul Team suppressed his words.

"Man-eating monster?" Ma Si climbed up from the not-so-thick snow pile, rubbing his injured backside with one hand while waving his other hand repeatedly in the cold wind.

"Comrade, did you misunderstand something? The information on my ID is all real. What man-eating monster? We are from the Barrier!"

As he spoke, interspersed with a few cries of pain, the youth complained in his heart that Liu Mu had used too much force; clearly, she only needed to push him away gently.

But he still could not hide his urgency, "Colonel, don't take action, there must be some misunderstanding here!"

Zheng Tian, who could not stand seeing his Boss suffer a loss, leveled his gun and shouted, "What misunderstanding? I think they are just trying to rebel. We braved the bitter cold for several hours to deliver supplies, and we're in the wrong? What man-eating monster? They couldn't even find a better excuse! Boss, you don't need to do anything, we few can suppress them!"

"What kind of trouble are you stirring up!" Ma Si had the urge to pour hot water into the brains of these soldiers. If they started fighting right away, how were they supposed to carry out their workday?

"Let's talk this over properly, let's talk this over properly. Everyone listen to me, if there's a misunderstanding, let's sit down and talk, but please, absolutely do not..."

"Awoo! Woof woof woof woof!"

A massive sound wave swept away the dull wind and snow, and also suppressed everyone present.

Liu Mu sheathed her blade, and a huge black shadow rushed directly from the rear, scattering the dozen or so people who had been stunned, until it arrived in front of her, obediently lowering its head to accept her pinching its furry ears.

"Woo woo, Master, am I, Doggy, impressive? They were all so scared they wet their pants."

"Good!" Liu Mu's lips curled into a smile, her triumphant gaze sweeping over Ma Si, before she stepped forward and kicked away the gun dropped by the lead man, "If I remember correctly, the signature on the new version of the work ID is not Yang Shuo, but Liu Mu. So, the man-eating monster you speak of refers to..."

Liu Mu pinched the fallen work ID with her fingers; the other party had just used a device similar to a phone watch to read its contents, which was also when the fear had appeared.

These changes were hidden behind the mask; others might not have noticed, but Liu Mu's senses were sharp, and she could easily capture those subtle changes.

She rotated her fingers, pointing at her own face, "Me? Who told you that I, Liu Mu, am a man-eating monster?"

"Woof woof woof, leniency for those who confess, woof woo~"

Gouzi's big head stretched over as if to join in the fun, baring its big fangs that could pierce a human body.

Of course, these people could not understand Gouzi's words, and Liu Mu was afraid that everyone would have an unfriendly impression of Gouzi, so she didn't let it add more, "My dog doesn't eat people either, only delicious, high-temperature sterilized dog food."

Catching the keyword 'dog food', Gouzi closed its big mouth and nodded frantically, its big tail behind it almost shaking into a fan, blowing the snow off everyone nearby.

The caught-off-guard Ma Si fell over in the strong wind, his face, which hadn't hit the ground, looking resentfully at the Sea Soul Team members who had long since retreated ten meters away... Good dog!

The people on the ground didn't know if it was because they were too scared, but they lay there without moving, their eyes filled with a mix of terror and confusion.

Liu Mu was getting a bit impatient; this hellish weather was enough to freeze someone to death, "I'm asking, do you understand what I'm saying? If you don't want the quota of supplies, I'll just take them to the next base to sell; I can make a huge sum of money."

What kind of leader could say such shameless words in front of the masses?

Very well, they had witnessed it today.

Another person who also dared not move whispered, "Xiao Feng, Xiao Feng, don't refuse it, Xiao Feng."

The voice held a hint of weakness; heaven knows how hungry they were.

Although the Barrier had notified them earlier that the temperature would drop, no one expected the temperature in the subtropical region to plummet like this. They hadn't collected enough food, and after just a few days, everyone could only eat one meal a day.

If the temperature drop continued for another week, their more than one thousand people would starve to death.

"Xiao Feng, right?" Liu Mu took off her thick gloves, her calloused yet slender fingers tapping the forehead of the man in the lead, "Get up quickly, the ground is cold."

If a few people really froze to death in a while, Ma Si behind her would surely nag endlessly.

Qi Fengxia, who was the man in the lead, thought about it for a moment; actually, he had wanted to get up long ago, but he found his legs were weak and he couldn't stand up at all. In order not to lose too much face, he secretly moved his numb, frozen toes, hoping they would return to normal quickly.

Alas, his lower leg, which had been bitten by a dog in his village when he was a child, was becoming increasingly numb, and it looked like he was about to be saddled with the infamous name of 'rebel'.

He did wish his subordinates beside him could give him a hand, but since he didn't speak or move, the others followed his lead and maintained their fallen posture. In the freezing cold weather, it made him break out in a cold sweat.

Just as he was in a dilemma and his hidden trouble was acting up, fortunately, the person opposite, who seemed to be the rumored man-eating monster, pulled him up.

"I said the ground was cold, why didn't you listen, kid," Liu Mu was truly out of patience, and she had never expected these people to be so easily frightened.

She was puzzled; even if they hadn't seen a dog as big as Niu Boyi, hadn't they seen Mutated Animals before? Was it necessary to be so scared they couldn't move for so long?

Fortunately, she was observant enough, otherwise she wouldn't have known how to give them a way out. Being a good person was truly difficult, and being a good leader was even harder.

For Liu Mu to be a good-hearted leader was simply against her nature.

"How about it, shall we go inside to talk, or should we just drop off the supplies and leave?"

Liu Mu patted Gouzi, signaling it not to get too close, lest it scare this group of people into a bad state.

"You, you really, are you really just delivering supplies?"

Qi Fengxia was having a hard time; he wanted to display the aura of a descendant of the Qi Army, but he couldn't help his teeth chattering in the cold wind.

"Really, truer than real gold," Liu Mu looked at his somewhat cloudy eyes and sighed in her heart, "We brought a doctor with the team. Is there anyone here who needs a consultation? We don't know when we'll be able to come again next time."

"Xiao Feng, Xiao Feng," the person behind called out in a low voice again, as if Liu Mu couldn't hear them from so close, and it carried a hint of urgency.

"Fine then," Liu Mu understood, "Leave a few people to count and move the supplies with my people, and the rest of you take us inside."

Without waiting for Qi Fengxia to answer, she turned back to call out to Ma Si, who was still slipping and unable to get up from the ground, "Little Ma, get ready to unload the supplies. Zheng Tian, go carry Grandma Xiuchun over. Li Fei, arrange for a perimeter guard, and tell everyone to pay attention to keeping warm."

While Qi Fengxia hesitated, Liu Mu had already arranged everything clearly, and he suddenly felt like he was riding a tiger and unable to get off.

But hearing there was a doctor, he could not refuse; their Base was actually a village, and after the disaster, Survivors from several nearby villages gathered together, everyone helping each other to survive until today.

"Surviving" was enough to explain the difficulty of their existence, not to mention that most people in the village now had a strange illness, and even the children had not been spared. For the sake of everyone, he could not act on impulse, but he did not let the village lower its guard because of this.

It was somewhat ironic that their firearms were also sent by people from the Barrier; although there were only a dozen or so, it was precisely this that allowed them to kill Mutated Animals and passing bandits several times, maintaining peace.

The Barrier had notified them to migrate to Haicheng, but on one hand, everyone was in poor health, and on the other, the Barrier was simply too far away; in these times without four-wheeled transportation, walking there while braving the Black Rain was basically suicide.

But fortunately, every month or two, someone would come from the Barrier, bringing a small amount of necessary supplies while also conveying news. As for why they didn't send more supplies, forget it; who told them their Base was small.

For example, the news about the temperature drop was sent two months ago, telling them to dig caves and store supplies.

But the people who came didn't explain it very clearly, and they thought it was just to dig cellars to store supplies.

They had few supplies, so naturally, they dug few caves; now everyone could only hide in their houses, sealing the doors and windows and lighting fires, but it was still unbearably cold.

Liu Mu asked questions along the way, and Qi Fengxia, with a hoarse voice, answered most of the situation.

When they arrived at the village clinic where the most people were, two fires were burning inside, allowing the indoor temperature to barely stay above zero.

Several people took off their hats and masks, and the faces revealed were unexpectedly young to Liu Mu, and the reason for their "uniform" hoarse voices was also found.

Chilblains went without saying, and almost everyone's neck was particularly thick; from the chin down, it was so swollen that they could hardly lower their heads, which reminded Liu Mu of the "Toad Technique" from a certain martial arts drama she had once watched.

But she did not find it funny at all; instead, she frowned and asked Lin Xiuchun to help with the diagnosis.

"You should have reported this situation to the Barrier earlier; now it is a natural disaster that has occurred, it is not that the country has stopped caring about everyone."

Even if she did not believe in collectivism and had no spirit of self-sacrifice, seeing this situation, Liu Mu still could not help but reprimand Qi Fengxia a few times.

The young man looked to be only in his twenties, his beard unkempt and his eyelids drooping, like a student being scolded. Perhaps he wanted to lower his head, but he just couldn't.

Liu Mu stepped aside to maintain order with the Sea Soul Team members, having the people waiting for a diagnosis form a line to speed things up as much as possible.

As for Lin Xiuchun, Liu Mu believed that such a precious Awakened healer was naturally safest by her side. If she had people deliberately arranged to protect her or took her to the Headquarters, it would be too deliberate and would instead attract attention.

Lin Xiuchun was not like Hong and Xing Tianyang; the latter two were public researchers, and it was enough to just protect them well. Grandma Xiuchun had no particularly outstanding performance other than her identity as a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner before; if she were suddenly protected, the secret agents of other forces within the Barrier would definitely investigate her life and abilities thoroughly.

As for bringing her out, in this weather, recruiting one or two doctors to carry out a mission was not a good thing for the doctors, but rather a life-risking act.

Besides Lin Xiuchun, there was also a young doctor accompanying the team, who combined Chinese and Western medicine, which just happened to cover up the unreasonableness of the matter.

The diagnosis results kept coming out, and Liu Mu also breathed a sigh of relief: hyperthyroidism, caused by long-term severe iodine deficiency.

According to Lin Xiuchun, this disease had broken out on a large scale in the early days of the founding of the country, and for a long time afterward, the national table salt standard required the addition of iodine.

Because of this, in human settlements that had lost most of their elderly, few people knew about this symptom and its cause, which was why they had been sick for so long and why everyone was panicked.

Traditional Chinese medicine required means like color ultrasound, but Lin Xiuchun could conclude it based on her many years of medical experience; after discussing it with the young Dr. Hu, they prescribed medicine.

This was where the importance of professionalism was shown; before the team set off, Liu Mu let Lin Xiuchun and Dr. Hu choose the medicine, and this old traditional Chinese medicine practitioner specifically asked for iodine tablets.

"It really has to be you who considers things thoroughly; if we had just brought some cold medicine at random, even if we had identified the cause, we would have been helpless."

Liu Mu praised Lin Xiuchun at a very timely moment, letting the old lady dispel some of the resentment of working out in the cold weather, and also preventing the other party from discovering that she had Awakened an ability.

As long as Lin Xiuchun herself did not notice, then others would not speculate too much.

In China, the three words "old traditional Chinese medicine practitioner" were more convincing than any expert appointment.