Chapter 51: This

"Were they imprisoned?"

Liu Mu had almost forgotten that ordinary people could not carry firearms at will at this time, let alone those guns were the standard equipment for the soldiers at the base over there. "Didn't you explain clearly that the base was besieged by mutated creatures at the time?"

"Woof woof woof, I ran away, I don't know, that pervert looked at me and drooled, so I just ran home!" As soon as Niu Boyi recalled Xing Tianyang's appearance, the fur on his neck stood up instantly.

"Alright, as long as you're fine, I'll go take a look tomorrow." Liu Mu hugged the dog's head and rubbed it over and over. Before she could even go downstairs, Xu Xiaofeng and Zhang Xiaoyong came up carrying ingredients.

"Eat on the second floor, the bathroom upstairs is ready too," Xu Xiaofeng said, holding a large basin filled with fermented flour. "You eat two hot steamed buns first, we're making meat-stuffed flatbreads tonight."

Liu Mu reached out to take a bun that Zhang Xiaoyong was holding, but the little guy dodged and disapproved, "Second Sister, go wash your hands first. I just saw you touching Niu Boyi. Go quickly, they're still hot, and there are tea eggs too."

"Alright," Liu Mu had been eating instant food for days and really missed this home-cooked meal. However, before going to wash her hands, she pinched Zhang Xiaoyong's round face, which made the little guy very dissatisfied and he insisted on watching her wash her hands clean.

After eating four chive and egg-stuffed buns and three tea eggs, Liu Mu went upstairs to take a comfortable bath.

She never confirmed her return time whenever she went out, so Xu Xiaofeng would make a lot of buns, steamed buns, and dumplings to freeze in the freezer. Seeing her truck from afar, she would take them out to prepare, so they would be ready just as she arrived home.

Xu Xiaofeng had known about Liu Mu's large appetite for a long time, so she would always prepare extra, just in case she didn't get enough to eat.

When Liu Mu came out, there was already a basket of pancakes on the table on the second floor, each one round and puffed up, looking hot and soft.

Xu Xiaofeng prepared a large bowl of braised pork, various shredded vegetables, and finally boiled a pot of black rice porridge.

"Sister, although you can't cook, your eye for buying ingredients is really good," Xu Xiaofeng said, wrapping a thick, oily meat-stuffed flatbread for Liu Mu. "Eat quickly, look at how thin you've gotten from hunger these past few days. The weather is muggy, so drink more porridge. If there's anything, we'll talk after you've rested."

Liu Mu took a big bite of the braised pork flatbread. If nothing else, Xu Xiaofeng was truly worthy of having run a breakfast shop; her culinary skills were beyond reproach. This one bite made her soul feel sublimated; no matter how tired she was outside, it was all worth it.

"Sister, did you put medicinal herbs in the porridge?"

With a faint scent, Liu Mu tasted it in one mouthful.

"This," Xu Xiaofeng was afraid that Liu Mu would say they were disobedient for going out on their own, so she hesitated. Zhang Xiaoyong, who was also slurping porridge, looked up, "It's the Gastrodia elata buried in the shop's cellar. Big Sister said that after it had been hot for a while, it probably wouldn't sprout anyway, so we might as well eat it."

"We didn't go far," Xu Xiaofeng explained hurriedly, seeing that her younger brother had already spoken. "It was after Niu Boyi came back that we went together. We just wanted to see if there was anything left in the shop that could be used. We didn't expect to dig up some Gastrodia elata and sweet potatoes."

"It's fine as long as Niu Boyi is with you," Liu Mu said, her cheeks bulging as she ate happily, nodding repeatedly. "It's delicious. It's a pity I don't know about traditional Chinese medicine, so I didn't buy any. Mm, still, save some to see if there's a chance to plant them later."

Xu Xiaofeng had already wrapped two more, both filled with ingredients and placed in front of Liu Mu. "I dug up some soil from the cellar. Later, I'll bury some in the vegetable baskets. If they can sprout, we'll have seeds in the future. It's just that with this Black Rain falling, I'm afraid the land outside won't be usable for a few years."

"Mm, you handle it, let me know if you need help," Liu Mu swallowed the pancake and waved her hand. "Eat, you eat too."

"Eat slowly, eat slowly, don't choke. After so many years, you still can't slow down when you eat," Xu Xiaofeng said, then knocked on Zhang Xiaoyong's head again. "You eat slowly too. If you choke again, I'm not patting your back for you."

Zhang Xiaoyong took the hit and slowed down a bit, but soon regained his speed. He was a man who would do great things for his Second Sister in the future, so of course, he had to learn everything from her; he wasn't going to listen to his Big Sister about such trivial matters.

While they were eating, Niu Boyi also had his large basin filled with food downstairs. Xu Xiaofeng, knowing he ate a lot, had made several large buckets of dog food, all made of ground large bones mixed with various meats and eggs. At every mealtime, she would first make some with fresh ingredients available for that meal, while simultaneously heating half a basin of high-calorie, high-protein dog food, so she wouldn't be too busy to handle it all alone.

Liu Mu had bought so many eggs before that even with preservation, they couldn't be kept for too long. Xu Xiaofeng calculated the ingredients and decided to use the ones that spoiled easily first.

Thinking that she didn't know how long it would be before they could have eggs again, she and Zhang Xiaoyong used yellow clay, quicklime, and plant ash to make two hundred preserved eggs. After waiting a few dozen days, they would have golden, shiny preserved eggs to eat. They also made hundreds of salted duck eggs; it was just that goose eggs were hard to process, so they could only eat them every day.

While eating, Xu Xiaofeng told Liu Mu about these things. It wasn't a report, but she just wanted her to know what they had done at home and what food they had prepared, so that Liu Mu could eat them whenever she thought of it in the future.

"I was thinking of pickling some kimchi, but it's a pity the weather is bad, otherwise we could make some mustard greens and pickles. You know, not many of the earthenware jars for pickling in the breakfast shop were broken; they can still be used after being washed clean."

Seeing the light in Xu Xiaofeng's eyes when she talked about these things, Liu Mu felt comforted. It seemed better for the siblings to find something they could do than to stay underground in fear.

Putting down her chopsticks, Liu Mu said that they could do whatever they had ideas about regarding the house in the future, and if there were any equipment they didn't understand, they could just ask her.

Zhang Xiaoyong was young, but his ambition was not small. "Second Sister, I want to go out with you. I don't want to just stay at home pickling kimchi."

Children shouldn't be discouraged. Liu Mu just perfunctorily said she would take him when it was convenient. The little boy was instantly happy and took the initiative to clean up the bowls and chopsticks on the table to wash them, even saying they weren't allowed to help.

After the meal, Xu Xiaofeng let Liu Mu go to rest, and the latter nodded in agreement.

Even with an evolved body, after staying up for nearly a week like this, Liu Mu couldn't take it anymore. It was mainly psychological; it was nothing for a person to stay up late, but the moment she thought about not getting enough sleep, she would feel very unhealthy, as if she were about to die suddenly at any minute.

She returned to the constant-temperature room, lay on her bed, and let the system sort through the gains from this trip, while also calculating to go to Yang Shuo's base—the future Haicheng Barrier—to make a profit.

Because of the continuous heavy rain, the organized activities of going out to find supplies at the base had to be suspended. Food was being consumed day by day; not only was Yang Shuo worried, but even ordinary Survivors were very anxious, always afraid that one day they would wake up and the Rescue Team would say the supplies were gone.

The feeling of hunger was truly unbearable.

In the first two days, some people went out in the rain, but after returning, they either had fevers and illnesses or their skin festered. The base immediately issued an announcement that no one should go out without Rain Gear.

Tens of thousands of people were crowded together, with constant friction, but they were all trapped, and no one could do anything.

Some people wanted to get Rain Gear from the military, but the military's own equipment was insufficient. Even the repairs for the leaking parts of the shopping mall were done with the tarpaulins Liu Mu had brought earlier.

Yang Shuo had already sent two groups of people to the Scrap Station to find Liu Mu, but the news they brought back was that she had gone to other bases to trade for supplies and didn't know when she would be back. Even Liu Fugui and the others who had come to seek refuge at this base said she had gone to another base to collect scrap and trade for supplies.

At first, the interrogators didn't quite believe it, but Liu Fugui said that Liu Mu was going to deliver Rain Gear to other bases, and upon hearing this, Yang Shuo believed it first.

That was Liu Mu, a silly child who traded her own good things to others for almost nothing. Having just escaped a wave of Mutated Animal attacks at the Urban Base, she was already thinking about going to other places to deliver Rain Gear; no one else would be so fearless except her.

So when Yang Shuo heard the Guard say that Liu Mu had driven a Truck to the base, he stood up from behind his desk in excitement. "Let's go, take me to see her."

The Guard was stunned for a moment, thinking, isn't it usually bringing her to see the Chief? Did he get it backwards?

But the Chief had already strode away, and the Guard followed immediately.

A two-meter-high wall had already been built outside the shopping mall, using cement from previously burned-down buildings as an adhesive, though it wasn't as good as the original after the high temperatures.

Just as Liu Mu parked the truck, she saw Yang Shuo waving at her under an umbrella held by a Guard. She immediately jumped off the truck and went to meet him. "Uncle Yang, long time no see. How are you?"

"Good. Where did you run off to, girl? Haven't seen you for days," Yang Shuo looked at her in her black Raincoat and noticed that her face looked thinner than the last time he saw her. "How many bases did you run to this time?"

"None. I originally wanted to go to Chaoxian, but the truck broke down halfway, which delayed the time, so I had no choice but to come find you."

Liu Mu didn't want to waste time and pointed to the truck. "I still have some Rain Gear, so I thought I'd just trade it to you, Uncle, and it would be faster for you to distribute it to other bases."

Yang Shuo glanced at the obviously fully loaded truck and nodded. "Let's go to my office to talk first."

The Rain Gear was only secondary; he had more important things to ask Liu Mu.

After entering the office, Liu Mu took off her Raincoat and hung it on the wall. "Uncle, with the Black Rain falling like this, it's bound to get colder. Have you prepared any energy sources?"

Having just talked about the Rain Gear, she immediately brought up the cooling and energy sources, and Yang Shuo became serious at once. "It can currently be confirmed that vegetation loss in areas below 43.5° north latitude is close to eighty percent. Among them, our country only has some primitive forests in the southwest, deep mountains in the Southeast Hills, and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau region that still have vegetation and glacier cover. According to estimates by scientists in meteorology, geology, and other fields, the melting speed of glaciers is still accelerating, especially in the Arctic. The melting water will inevitably bring a major drop in temperature."

Liu Mu sat on the wooden and stainless steel sofa in the reception area at his gesture, and the Guard immediately brought her a cup of coffee. "With the massive melting of glaciers and no vegetation cover, the nearby power plants and gas stations are basically destroyed, and we are still relying on the sea... Uncle Yang, if there's a major drop in temperature, it'll be difficult."

Hearing Liu Mu say this, several Confidential Clerks who were busy in the office also shook their heads one after another. The information in Yang Shuo's hands basically had to be sorted and summarized by them, so the people in this room knew more than anyone else.

Yang Shuo drank his coffee somewhat cherishably and sighed. "There are priorities in everything; let's solve the immediate problems first. I'll have someone unload the truck with the Rain Gear you mentioned in a while. This time, you must be wanting food and water, right?"

With the Black Rain falling like this, the pollution of groundwater had already spread, and he believed these two things were what Liu Mu needed. Of course, at this time, even if supplies were scarce, he was willing to give a portion to Liu Mu.

Who knew that his certainty would be met with Liu Mu shaking her head. "I still have these. I previously hauled several trucks of seawater home to filter, and I still have some food."

"Then what do you want to trade for this truckload of Rain Gear? It can't be more scrap, can it?" Yang Shuo suddenly felt that as a Base leader of such a large size, he didn't seem to have anything he could trade to Liu Mu. After thinking for a moment, he asked, "How about I take charge and give you some weapons, and I can also send people to do some defensive work for your Scrap Station, how about that?"

"A truckload of Rain Gear can trade for all these good things?" Liu Mu was surprised instead, "I originally thought it would be good enough to trade for some Contribution Value."

Contribution Value was used in the early days of the Base to record work for everyone; come to think of it, it was actually a bit like the work points used for collective labor in the last century.

Yang Shuo immediately asked her if she wanted Contribution Value or weapons and defensive works.

Liu Mu, who had been frowning at the bitterness of the coffee, suddenly pulled out a smiling face, "I want all three. Uncle Yang, please don't think I'm greedy; I say this naturally because I still have several more truckloads of Rain Gear."

"Ah?" Several Confidential Clerks listening to the conversation here couldn't help themselves, and silently categorized Liu Mu as a 'superhuman' in their hearts, inevitably curious about where this girl got so many things?

"You girl, so you went to the pier again these past few days?"

Having heard Liu Mu talk about the situation at the pier last time, Yang Shuo immediately assumed she had gone to transport the supplies there again.

Originally, he had also wanted to send a team to take a look, but one reason was the fear of encountering that organization, and the other was that there were simply too many things going on at the Base, and he really didn't have enough men.

Regarding this misunderstanding, Liu Mu didn't deny it either, just saying that it was a pity to see things just sitting there rotting, so she couldn't help but go again.

Speaking of the pier, Yang Shuo remembered that urgent matter and immediately had a Confidential Clerk find Tan Ziyan, telling him to take a convoy to transport the Rain Gear from Liu Mu's Scrap Station. As for how much the Contribution Value would be, that would have to wait until the items were transported and tallied.

Two Confidential Clerks set off with Tan Ziyan's team, and Yang Shuo gestured for Liu Mu to leave the office with him.

All the way down to the first basement level, just as Liu Mu was feeling curious, Yang Shuo stopped in front of a row of cabinets on the first floor. The air here was chilly, giving one the feeling of having entered a freezer, only Liu Mu felt it was more like a morgue.

"Girl, are you afraid of corpses?" Yang Shuo asked this, and Liu Mu thought for a moment and shook her head, "I'm not very afraid of ordinary ones; I've already fought with Mutated Animals a few times, so my courage has grown."

"That's good," Yang Shuo said as he pulled open a cabinet, inside which was a small black plastic bag, and he reached out to untie it.

Seeing the thing in the bag, Liu Mu's pupils constricted, and her brain experienced a brief moment of shock—how could Song Yulin's head be here? Did that Base send it over to avoid taking responsibility?

She stared at the head and forgot to look away for a moment. Seeing her like this, Yang Shuo just assumed she was a bit scared from seeing a human head for the first time, "This is..."

"This is Leader Song!?" As soon as Liu Mu heard his voice, she immediately reacted and said in great shock, "Was she attacked by a Mutated Animal? When I left, hadn't their Base already beaten those things back?"

Song Yulin was afraid that Liu Mu would come back here and speak ill of her, so she didn't take the initiative to mention what Liu Mu had done over there in her daily reports, only simply saying that a Peddler named Liu Mu had come by. Regardless of what relationship Liu Mu had with Yang Shuo, for her as a leader to mention it like that already showed enough importance; there was no need to say more.

"Did you happen to encounter a Mutated Animal attack on that Base when you went?"

It was no wonder Yang Shuo asked directly; he had been kept in the dark about too much information, and he originally trusted Liu Mu's character, so he had no defenses up.

But to Liu Mu, this revealed a lot of information, and she immediately said, "Yes, come to think of it, I even saved a few Survivors in the attack. They should have been sent here by Niu Boyi, right?"

"They were sent," Yang Shuo didn't let those few people affect the center of the topic and continued, "Little Song wasn't killed by a Mutated Animal; after examination, it was man-made."

Liu Mu was startled, "You mean people from their Base—no, that's not necessarily true either—anyway, someone murdered her?"

"That person is indeed not from the Urban Base," Yang Shuo's expression was as grave as his tone, and deep furrows were wrinkled between his brows.

Just when Liu Mu thought this old guy had really discovered something and felt a bit nervous inside, he pulled up the hair on one side of Song Yulin's head, "Look at this mark, have you seen it before?"

Liu Mu looked upon hearing this, and her heart skipped a beat, "This... no, Uncle Yang, I don't quite understand. Does her death have something to do with this tattoo? It's not like one of those evil cults in the movies, right? Who would tattoo something like this on their scalp?"

Putting on the appearance of not daring to continue guessing, Liu Mu's heart was already in turmoil. That tattoo looked like it had been there for a long time, so the 'organization' Song Yulin mentioned before she died wasn't what she had thought, but this Sky Viper that Li Gang told her not to even mention.

Liu Mu rubbed her chin, striking a thoughtful pose, as if seeing it for the first time.

Seeing her like this, Yang Shuo said, "Don't hide it. Liu Gang already told me; you saw a ship with this mark at the pier, right?"

"No, absolutely not, I didn't see anything," Liu Mu hurriedly waved her hands, "Li Gang won't let me talk about it, I don't dare provoke them."

"Don't be nervous, I just want you to see if it's that mark," Yang Shuo pulled the hair higher. The black tattoo on the pale scalp was only the size of a thumb, yet it was very clear, and there were even fine lines on the triangle.

It must have been that when Li Gang was secretly asking people about it, he was overheard by Yang Shuo, and then when he was called in, he confessed everything. This kid, how could he not keep his word?

Liu Mu made a zipping motion over her mouth with her thumb and index finger, then nodded.

She didn't say it out loud, but her actions had already confirmed it.

Yang Shuo smiled helplessly when he saw her like this, then closed the cabinet, "Currently, only a few people in the Base know about the Sky Viper. As for you having seen that ship, no more people will know."

"I have also heard of that organization; a few years ago, there was even a special cleanup meeting held against it. I just didn't expect that after so many years, they would still have forces within the territory."

He strode in front, and Liu Mu followed along tactfully, but she didn't answer a single word the whole time, as if that mark were a switch that had turned off her ability to speak.

Since she refused to say more, Yang Shuo didn't continue the topic, turning instead to ask, "Do you think there is any possibility that the Mutated Animal problem could extend to humans?"