Chapter 470 Sudden Change
We left the central town at 2:30 pm. The day before yesterday at this time, we had just left the research institute.
So, judging by the speed at which they get back, if they keep traveling, they should arrive back at the research institute in the middle of the night or early morning.
If we take a break halfway, we won't arrive at the research institute until around tomorrow.
After much deliberation, we decided to take a break.
Anyway, we're not in a rush, so there's no harm in taking a night's rest.
Although we've been in the central town for the past two days, we haven't learned much. Zhang Lincai and Ye Qian deliberately didn't mention anything about the central town to us, and Song Muyuan didn't find out any useful information while wandering around the town.
Zhang Lincai and the others seem to have a pretty good impression of me, which is a small gain. As for how to develop this central town, we can only wait and see.
Three or four hours later, as evening approached, we found a quiet place to stop and planned to rest there for the night before setting off again the next day.
We are currently at a demolition site. Many of the houses here have a red "拆" (demolish) sign on them, which clearly indicates that these houses were slated for demolition. I imagine the residents who are being relocated will receive a considerable amount of money.
However, all of that is in the past. Only half of the houses here have been demolished, and the other half is intact. Moreover, because this is a demolition site, no one came here when the zombie outbreak occurred, so there are very few zombies here, and they are almost nowhere to be seen.
We decided to stay here for one night precisely because there are few zombies.
I slept for a while in the car earlier, but I can't sleep now. I'm helping Sister Jing prepare dinner. I asked Song Muyuan to keep an eye on my little sister and make sure she doesn't run around.
Sister Jing said, "There's something I forgot to tell you."
"What's up?"
Jingjie looked at her younger sister, who was standing not far away in a daze, and said, "Your sister was talking in her sleep last night, but she spoke very indistinctly, and I couldn't understand what she was saying."
"Really?" I glanced at my younger sister, who was staring at the sunset, seemingly waiting for it to go down.
"Um, are you sure she's really okay doing this?"
I said, "There shouldn't be any problems now. Let's give her some more time. She must still be feeling bad right now. After some time, once she gets over this emotional hurdle, she should feel better."
Sister Jing said, "I'll keep an eye on things for you."
"Um."
Jingjie said, "I'll keep watch tonight. You didn't sleep at all last night. You were dozing off in the car just now."
"Uh, really?" I said, slightly embarrassed.
Jingjie said, "Then it's settled. I'll keep watch tonight, so you can get a good night's sleep."
"Okay, then I'll get a good rest tonight."
I didn't refuse Sister Jing's suggestion, mainly because I was really too tired. My sleep has been irregular these past two days, and I've been thinking too much, so both my body and mind are exhausted.
My biggest wish right now is to get a good night's sleep.
...
After dinner, it was completely dark, and then a light drizzle began to fall, which left us feeling a bit helpless.
Fortunately, the roof of the demolished house hadn't been removed yet, so we could take shelter from the rain inside.
More than an hour later, around nine o'clock, the drizzle outside turned into a downpour, pattering incessantly.
My little sister stood under the eaves at the door, stretching her hand out to let the rain soak her palm. We didn't stop her; we just let her stay quietly at the door. It was clear that she liked the rain.
Looking at the sky outside, Song Muyuan said, "I think it's going to rain all night, Brother Lu. It's not good for us to sleep on the first floor. If the floodwaters outside come in, we'll be in big trouble."
I shone my flashlight outside and found that the water outside was indeed severely accumulated. It seemed that the sewers were no longer working. If the rain continued tonight, the water on the ground outside might very well seep into the house.
I said, "Let's go upstairs to sleep, little sister, let's go upstairs."
We rolled up our straw mats and went straight upstairs.
It's getting late, so the three of us went straight to sleep after coming up, while Jing-jie stayed on the first floor to keep watch.
...
I don't know how long I slept. In my drowsy state, I felt the rain outside the window blowing in with the wind. When I opened my eyes, everything was pitch black and I couldn't see anything.
I glanced at my watch and vaguely saw that it showed 2:30 a.m.
Just as I was about to go back to sleep, a dark figure suddenly appeared from the stairwell entrance.
At first, I thought it was Sister Jing and was about to speak, but when the cold blade touched my neck, I instantly woke up and tried to move, but the shadowy figure suddenly said, "Don't move. If you move, your neck will be slashed open, and then no one will be able to save you."
I frowned, afraid to move, and asked, "Who are you?"
The shadowy figure stared at me, and with a click, a flashlight shone behind him. At that moment, I saw that besides the shadowy figure in front of me, there were quite a few other people behind him.
Besides that, I also saw that they had captured Sister Jing. At this moment, Sister Jing had been knocked unconscious by them. One of them carried Sister Jing upstairs and placed her next to me.
The shadowy figure then said, "I don't want to kill anyone. I just want to ask you something. If your answer satisfies me, we will leave."
I know that resisting at this moment is tantamount to suicide, and if these people really wanted to kill us, they would have done it already, instead of beating around the bush and wasting time talking to me.
"Go ahead and ask, but if I don't know, there's nothing I can do."
The shadowy figure asked, "Did you come from the central town?"
I nodded and said, "Yes, I just came out of the central town this afternoon."
"Are you a raider?"
"no."
"Huh? No? Then why are you going to the central town?"
I said, "I just wanted to figure some things out, so I went."
The shadowy figure continued, "Then let me ask you, have you seen anyone in Central Town? Someone with very fair skin, about 1.85 meters tall, and wearing tattered clothes."
I frowned, a little confused, and said, "You mean... Jiang Bai?"
"You know him?"
I nodded and said, "Yes, I've met him once. You must be Yao Chengjie, right?"
"How do you know him? What else do you know?" The shadowy figure didn't answer me.
I said, "I only know that Jiang Bai is still alive and should be locked up somewhere in the central town, but I don't know exactly where. As for why I know him, I ran into him the night before I went to the central town. He even borrowed a flashlight from me, saying he was going to find Yao Chengjie and Lu Changkong."
(End of this chapter)
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