Chapter 109: Re-entering the Safe Zone

"Thank you."

After hearing Assistant Xiao Liu's review, Xia Qing also skewered one with a bamboo stick and popped it into her mouth. Caution is wise, but for good food, a little risk is worth it.

There were plenty of these things in Xia Qing's territory too—she'd dug up quite a few while clearing the fields—but she was too lazy to test them one by one, and couldn't bear to waste the oil on cicadas, so she fed them all to the fish, birds, and snakes.

At this moment, eating the still-warm, crispy fried golden cicadas, Xia Qing felt that for this bite, she could spare a little effort and oil.

After Xia Qing ate one, Tang Huai shot a smug glance at Wei Chengdong, then distributed the fried golden cicadas to everyone on the vehicle except Wei Chengdong. The atmosphere immediately livened up.

Xia Qing understood that Tang Huai wanted to use this opportunity to reverse the unfavorable situation where nearby lords were getting close to the Azure Dragon Squad and drifting away from the Tang family.

Just as everyone was enthusiastically asking Tang Huai for tips on digging up cicada nymphs, more lords boarded the vehicle one after another.

A total of sixteen lords boarded at Territories One through Twenty-Eight—probably everyone who could come had come. Those who hadn't either severed contact with the outside like the Lord of Territory Eight, or their territories were already empty and abandoned.

The lords naturally split into three small groups according to their walkie-talkie channels. The representative from Territory Twelve squeezed up next to Tang Huai, so the group of Lords One through Ten was larger than the other two combined.

After Tan Junjie and the other two soldiers entered the rear compartment, the vehicle sped up, heading toward Territories Twenty-Nine through Fifty near the Safe Zone. The three men followed the pre-announced agricultural trade fair procedures, beginning to inspect the types and quantities of agricultural products each lord had brought, affixing Territory Management Department labels, sealing the bags, and returning them to the lords.

Only after a lord's agricultural products passed official inspection could they be brought back into the Safe Zone for trade or exchange.

To protect the lords' safety, the inspection was conducted in an area partitioned off with dividers inside the compartment. There was no verbal communication throughout the inspection, so even auditory-evolved ability users didn't know what each lord or representative had brought.

Xia Qing emerged from the inspection area carrying her backpack and back basket, returned to her original seat, and appeared to be resting with her eyes closed—but in reality, her hearing was fully open, monitoring activity both inside and outside the vehicle.

Based on the degree of road bumpiness and the sounds of wind and birds, Xia Qing judged the vehicle was passing through a ruined town.

Ten years ago, this had been a prosperous, beautiful city, but now it was completely empty. The howling of wind through the ruins sounded especially desolate.

Suddenly, a different sound came on the wind. After being harshly drilled by Luo Pei for over a month, Xia Qing's composure was far beyond what it used to be—she kept her eyes closed and didn't move a muscle.

Xia Qing didn't move, but Tang Huai did. "Did you guys hear that crying? Sounds like a kid crying outside."

It wasn't possible—it was definitely a child's crying. But the sound was extremely faint; ordinary people in the vehicle definitely couldn't hear it. This crying reminded Xia Qing of how Zhong Tao and Zheng Kui had been injured half a month ago when driving through these ruins and walking into an ambush by a woman holding a child.

Tall guy Zhao Ze, still the same bootlicker as on the lord channel: "I didn't hear nothin'. Brother Huai's hearing is really somethin'—no wonder you can hear bugs movin' in the dirt."

Kuang Qingwei also chimed in: "There can't be any kids in this place. Probably just a stray cat yowling."

"How could I possibly mishear that!" Tang Huai felt Kuang Qingwei was insulting his ability.

Glared at by Tang Huai, Kuang Qingwei immediately cowered into a fawning smile. Qi Fu quickly changed the subject: "Might be some lord's kid from a nearby territory. Lots of folks drag their whole families out to farm."

Everyone fell quiet again. Xia Qing silently wondered what kind of circumstances would drive a woman to leave the Safe Zone and risk raising a child among the ruins.

After two hours of jolting along in the military truck, the vehicle slowed, and the lords from Territories Twenty-Nine through Fifty boarded one after another.

When Sun Zhe, Lord of Territory Forty-Eight, came aboard, he spotted Xia Qing sitting at the very back in one glance—although there were several women on the vehicle, Xia Qing's red face was too distinctive.

Xia Qing also saw Sun Zhe and gave him a nod.

When the military truck stopped outside the Safe Zone, Xia Qing pulled out her old phone and checked the time. She'd left her territory at six in the morning and arrived at the Safe Zone at half past nine. Although the road was still extremely bumpy, the trip had taken nearly half the time of her journey from the Safe Zone to her territory.

It seemed the broadcast's claim that the base was "putting in serious effort" to repair the roads was genuine.

Tan Junjie called everyone to disembark. Xia Qing went with the flow, carrying her enormous backpack, and hopped lightly off the vehicle.

Hui-Three Base had gone to great lengths for this trade fair. Four military trucks from the east, south, west, and north arrived at the Safe Zone's main gate at nearly the same time. The lords, some carrying large packs or baskets, others hauling big baskets or sacks, stood by the vehicles sizing each other up.

Xia Qing did a quick count—roughly a hundred people.

Hui-Three Base had opened up two hundred territories last year. All were claimed in February, but five months later, only a hundred people had returned to the Safe Zone for the agricultural trade fair.

The remaining hundred territories were most likely empty. Faced with such a high casualty rate, it was understandable that ordinary residents in the Safe Zone were unwilling to go out and farm.

The Safe Zone's heavy iron gate had been thrown open, with a striking red banner hung above it: Welcome Home, Lords.

Beneath the banner stood a large group of Safe Zone staff. Xia Qing even spotted someone with a camera on their shoulder filming. Her calm gaze moved away from the banner, the crowd, and the camera, and settled on the large, dark stains of blood covering the Safe Zone's walls.

Among the blood staining these walls was her father's.

A bald middle-aged man in a black suit strode over with a broad smile, warmly shaking hands with the lords. "Welcome back, everyone, to Hui-Three Base's agricultural trade fair. I'm Jiang Quan from the Territory Management Department. Please follow me into the Safe Zone."

Xia Qing held her backpack in front of her to protect it. After showing her ID card to the Safe Zone guards and being inspected, she followed the stream of people inside.

Both sides of the road were packed with gaunt, sallow residents. Their gazes fixed on the lords like hooks, as if they wanted to grab the agricultural products the lords carried and swallow them into their bellies.

Kuang Qingwei, clutching his backpack, complained loudly without a care for who heard: "Why does the Safe Zone stink so bad? Can't even compare to the territories."

"So many people who don't bathe or change clothes crammed together—how could it smell good?" Zhao Ze replied in a low voice, with a note of pride. "We used to be like this too. Don't know how we endured it."

Not just the crowd—the entire Safe Zone exuded a suffocating stench. After ten years of natural disasters, most humans harbored enormous fear of everything outside the Safe Zone. As long as they could survive inside, they didn't dare take that step outside.

Xia Qing said nothing, face expressionless, walking forward. These ten years she had never stopped moving. Because after the disasters began, her father and mother had told her countless times: no matter how bitter the road ahead, it brings you closer to happiness than standing still.

They had promised each other to strive toward happiness.

So even though Xia Qing was now the only one left, she would keep running toward happiness, as she had promised her father and mother.