Chapter 321: You Two Seem Pretty Familiar?

"You're wearing just that?"

Zhang Su touched the thin down jacket on Su Xiaoya's body, frowned, and shook his head.

"I only have these—aren't they enough…?"

Su Xiaoya looked at Zhang Su curiously; she had been inside a heated room and had no idea what was happening outside!

"I've got some bad news—it's dropped again. The temperature this morning was minus thirty degrees. I'll find you some proper clothes."

If Su Xiaoya understood their current situation, Zhang Su wouldn't make things hard for her.

Once Zhang Su and Su Xiaoya were in position, the convoy set off—over a dozen vehicles in all—even Zero Zero Three was moved out of its cargo box to lie exposed, since as long as the generator supplied a weak current, it would stay quiet; that big cargo box could haul back plenty of corpses, so it couldn't sit idle.

Zhang Su drove the FJ Cruiser at the front, with Su Xiaoya in the passenger seat; Zheng Xinyu guessed the atmosphere would be awkwardly strange, so she wisely chose not to ride with Zhang Su but went with Tan Huajun instead.

Along the way, Su Xiaoya sat quietly, gazing out the window; the familiar yet alien scenery made her feel as if she had crossed lifetimes.

"We're approaching the intersection—vehicles assigned to Kuangzhuang should go there. If one trip isn't enough, make multiple trips."

As they neared the fork, Zhang Su picked up the radio and gave orders; right behind him, four vehicles turned onto a side road, heading toward Kuangzhuang.

"I really want to go back and see it—I want to pack up my room and my sister's."

This was the first time Su Xiaoya had spoken since getting in the car; she gazed longingly toward Kuangzhuang. She hadn't gone to school elsewhere—she'd attended junior high right in town.

After the disaster, she'd been through a lot, moved out of her own courtyard, but still stayed within the village—nothing felt truly foreign. The small house held all the bittersweet memories of her and her sister over the past two or three months.

"No problem—I'll take you to see it when I have time. Though someone might've already cleaned it up for you."

Zhang Su answered calmly, not refusing her small request; even if she didn't go, he planned to visit Kuangzhuang himself sometime to check on the material transport—but today was unlikely to have time; today's main mission was to bring the tank back!

After saying that, silence returned along the road.

There's a strange phenomenon: when you first go somewhere, traveling unfamiliar roads, it always feels incredibly far—but once you get familiar with it, the distance seems to shrink.

Zhang Su felt barely any time had passed after crossing the sea of flowers and the church before arriving at the place where they'd met the people from Daqiaobao Township yesterday.

The street looked exactly as it had yesterday—corpses of zombies piled on both sides. No need to load them now; the western wall of the barracks was overflowing with them—easy to fill up. Better to prioritize more valuable supplies. We can always come back again; the vehicles still had plenty of fuel.

"Bo, head northwest. Lao Tan, go northeast. Xiao Shuai, head southeast—check on the zombies we lured away yesterday."

"Boss Zhang, are you looking for the venom zombies?"

Lu Yubo asked.

Zhang Su raised his eyebrows slightly—this little brother was finally growing up, learning to pay attention. He picked up the radio and said: "No need to search specifically—just take a look along the way. Prioritize your own safety!"

"Understood."

After three responses, three vehicles left the convoy and sped off in three different directions.

"Ha! Boss Zhang, you're late today!"

At the warehouse entrance, Meng Changwei was bundled up like a ball, his neck wrapped in several scarves, a cigarette dangling high from his lips as he stood beside his vehicle. Seeing Zhang Su's FJ Cruiser lead the convoy past the parade ground, he waved enthusiastically.

"These are the other group from yesterday. The guy waving is Meng Changwei—their leader. Lei Youliang wanted to team up with them to take us down."

Zhang Su didn't respond to Meng Changwei right away; instead, he quietly introduced him to Su Xiaoya.

"Looks like you two are pretty close?"

Su Xiaoya asked curiously.

Zhang Su waved at Meng Changwei from inside the car, then gave a strange smile and whispered to Su Xiaoya: "We worked together with them to lure away every last zombie left in the barracks—tens of thousands of them. We spent the entire damn morning doing it. Then Lei Youliang sneaked in from the north, trying to team up with them to take us down. What do you think…? Lei Youliang got smart for a few months, then pulled the biggest dumb move yet!"

Su Xiaoya shook her head in pain. Since meeting Lei Youliang, he'd always left her with a decent impression—she never imagined he'd end up like this.

The car stopped, and everyone got out.

"Boss Meng, how's your camp's heating system holding up?"

Zhang Su stepped out and offered Meng Changwei a cigarette, chatting casually.

Meng Changwei had just extinguished his cigarette, but that didn't stop him from lighting another. He pulled back his scarves, revealing more of his face, and grimaced: "Don't even mention it—this damn weather's getting colder and colder, it's not even livable anymore. But hey, Boss Zhang, the method you shared? Totally awesome!"

"What method?"

Zhang Su was stunned—what had he shared?

"Yesterday! You said to take zombie corpses back and burn them. I didn't believe you at first, but I tried it last night—honestly, the combustion efficiency is insane! Better than coal!"

Meng Changwei spoke with bright enthusiasm—this one solution had solved their heating fuel problem, and he felt genuine gratitude toward Zhang Su.

Zhang Su suddenly understood. "Oh, you mean that? No big deal—just shared experience. We all benefit."

"Sigh, pity we don't have your exploratory spirit—we never figured out anything useful, can't share any info with you…"

Meng Changwei shook his hands in frustration, then changed the subject: "By the way… Boss Zhang, why didn't you bring the tank back to camp? Disgusted by it?"

He tilted his chin toward the western wall, his expression saying: You don't want it? I'll take it.

"Disgusted? What the hell? That thing runs on diesel. In the north during winter, finding diesel is hell. No fuel, how do you drive it? Push it?"

"No fuel? That's tough. That thing uses three or four hundred liters per hundred kilometers even on regular roads. How about trading it to me? I'll swap you grain or coal. What do you say?"

Meng Changwei made a sharp turn—almost pulled Zhang Su into the ditch.

"Heh, sorry to disappoint you—diesel is hard to find, but we still got a few hundred liters. We brought it today!"

"You've got fuel? That's great! You should've said so earlier—I've got over a hundred liters too…" Meng Changwei didn't dwell on it, his expression turning serious. "By the way, last night I tried contacting you over the radio—did you hear anything?"

Zhang Su thought back—the radio linked to Daqiaobao Township had made no sound at all, not even static. "No. Probably still too far."

"I studied the map—our camps are only twelve or thirteen kilometers apart in a straight line. The main problem is the mountain blocking the signal. On flat land, it'd be fine. Looks like communication's still too inconvenient. Too bad all the radio equipment from Qinglong Corps got destroyed."

Meng Changwei looked frustrated.

Zhang Su glanced at Meng Changwei thoughtfully and probed: "Communicating across mountains and rivers is indeed hard. And if something urgent happens, it's tough to send reinforcements. Are there any other factions near you?"

"Yes." Meng Changwei answered without hesitation. "There used to be quite a few—six or seven survivor groups I knew of. But one by one, they merged or got wiped out. Now, besides us, there's only one other group, near the Haihai region—also far away!"

"Actually, it's fine. Everyone's got wide influence zones, more resources, fewer chances of conflict. I'd rather fight zombies than other people!"

"Yeah. We're barely keeping up with zombies—why the hell would anyone fight each other?"

Zhang Su had gotten the information he wanted. He was already formulating plans in his mind, crushed his cigarette on the ground—then heard Meng Changwei speak again.

"Boss Zhang, how'd things go with the survivors who tried to trick you yesterday? Did you reach an agreement?"

As soon as he said this, Meng Changwei noticed the girl beside Zhang Su stiffen.

"Uh, let's not talk about that now. You got here early—you're probably almost done. We've got heavy tasks today. Let's get to work! Don't forget to leave us twenty percent of the grain!"

Zhang Su didn't want to continue discussing yesterday's events. He waved his hand, ordered men to move to another warehouse, then turned to Su Xiaoya, who was quietly following him with her head down. "Come with me."

(End of Chapter)