"Thank you," Liao Yu said softly.
He had been here before; this was the granary he had visited several times, and it was clear that there weren't these supplies today. Although he didn't know how Ji Xiaoxiao had done it, she had sacrificed her own interests to save 300,000 people at Hope Base, and as the base's commander, he should sincerely express his gratitude.
Ji Xiaoxiao waved her hand weakly, turned over, and left in a gloomy mood.
On the way back, the sun was setting, the sky was getting dark, and it was so dark you couldn't see your hand in front of your face.
Traveling at night is unwise. Most of the strange beasts from the era of cataclysmic changes and massacres are kings of the night, lurking in the shadows, waiting for their chance to strike.
Liao Yu found a factory and ordered his men to rest there. Most of the city guards shouted "Long live the city!" and jumped and skipped towards the cooking squad, while Liao Yu stayed close to the truck.
"Would you like something to eat?" Ji Xiaoxiao asked Liao Yu.
Liao Yu thought for a moment and said, "Then just make whatever you need."
Ji Xiaoxiao said "Oh" and walked over to the cooking squad area.
Thirty minutes later, Ji Xiaoxiao hurriedly returned, carrying a bowl of braised pork rice box and pork bone soup.
Here you go, take this.
Handing the bowl to Liao Yu, Ji Xiaoxiao sighed with relief as she pinched her cold earlobe.
Liao Yu took a simple bite of the braised pork rice and pouted in grievance.
"What’s wrong with you?"
Before Liao Yu could answer, Ji Xiaoxiao drifted off to sleep.
Looking at Ji Xiaoxiao's slender back, Liao Yu thought with distress, "How could it be useless? As soon as Xiao Bao uses this move, Xiao Qiong will surely surrender."
Liao Yu set out the nearly complete dinner, looked up at himself in the rearview mirror, and practiced his pouting skills.
"Like this? Or like this?"
Upon receiving the supplies, everyone was excited and could chat about anything and everything, including Hu Tianhai.
The moon was high in the sky, and all was deathly silent.
Liao Yu rested with his eyes closed, while his ears diligently performed their duties.
"Rustle, rustle..."
A strange yet familiar sound came from the truck bed.
Liao Yu suddenly opened his eyes, opened the car door, got out, and went to check the carriage.
Opening the large iron door of the carriage, a huge bunch of rats came out chattering, their green eyes gleaming – a scene that was utterly terrifying.
That was the Hope Base's "lifesaving money"!
Liao Yu shouted, startling the rats and waking the sleeping city guards.
When the city guards arrived, they saw the scene and their eyes turned red with rage.
"You guys kill those rats, but be careful not to soil the still-edible food. Go check the other carriages; if there are rats, execute them on the spot. If there aren't any rats, strengthen the guard. We must not let the losses be any greater."
Liao Yu calmly assigned the tasks, and the city guards were eager to get started and obeyed the orders.
Two hours later, the rats were completely eradicated. The estimated losses were one-fifth of the grain, with only one-third remaining edible.
Only those who have experienced hunger know the value of food. The men watched helplessly as the food was burned; some wept silently, while others sobbed softly.
Those wretched rats!
From then on, the most hated beast among the people of Hope Base was the rat. Like a rat crossing the street, everyone wanted to kill it. The rats at Hope Base were spontaneously killed by the people there, and for a long time, there was no trace of rats at Hope Base.
That's a story for later.
It was still dark when Liao Yu told the city guards, who had been working all night, to rest. But they were as stubborn as oxen and insisted on guarding the precious grain.
The grain couldn't be lost any more, so Liao Yu offered a few words of advice and then let them be. They were all grown men; staying up all night wasn't a big deal.
Hundreds of people surrounded the truck and guarded it all night. As dawn broke, the truck started up with a whirring sound.
Ji Xiaoxiao, enjoying the discount, stretched lazily in her chair.
The car was driving very fast, yet very smoothly. With only seventeen or eighteen kilometers left to Hope Base, we were going full speed ahead; it would only take less than half an hour to get home.
As they drew closer to home, the city guards' despondency and sadness vanished. Their eyes and hearts were filled only with excitement and ecstatic joy.
"This is not good!" Ji Xiaoxiao said lightly, but her face was extremely serious.
Liao Yu, with his eyes and ears open, nodded.
They hadn't seen a single strange beast along the way. It was astonishing that they had emerged from a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood.
Liao Yu swallowed hard, picked up the radio, and told the city guards to be on high alert.
A gentle breeze stirred, causing the withered grass on the ground to sway. Dust billowed into the sky, colliding and merging with the dark clouds, obscuring the last ray of sunlight from the already gloomy sky.
Liao Yu and Ji Xiaoxiao had a clear division of labor: he focused on driving, while she paid close attention to her surroundings.
Above and below, in front and behind, left and right, yes, in front.
"Liao Yu, stop the car! There's a large pack of hunting dogs ahead!" Every word Ji Xiaoxiao spoke seemed to be shouted out with all her might, piercing and terrifying.
"What did you say?" Liao Yu asked tremblingly.
"It's hunting dogs, hundreds of hunting dogs are attacking us."
Hunting dogs evolved from ordinary dogs, but are larger, able to swallow more fresh meat, have sharper teeth capable of tearing through hard bones, and longer limbs to hunt prey that relies on speed. They lack the gentleness of their former pet dogs; each one is bloodthirsty and brutal.
A single hunting dog isn't scary; they've evolved to be far more perfect. But no one is perfect, and they all have flaws, one of which is insufficient stamina. If you encounter a single hunting dog, and there are many of you, you're almost guaranteed to survive, as long as you're not afraid of getting hurt. However, hunting dogs love to fight in packs. Can more than three hundred people withstand a hundred or so hunting dogs?
Ji Xiaoxiao didn't know that if she turned around and ran now, she should be able to escape this disaster.
Liao Yu and Ji Xiaoxiao shared the same idea and ordered everyone to retreat at full speed.
But at that moment, the radio in Liao Yu's car broke down.
"What is this?"
“Someone must have framed us. The hounds usually roam the plains, rarely venturing into the small jungle area of Hope Base. Someone must have deliberately lured them here. And the radio breaking down at that time—who would believe it wasn't sabotage by someone in the shadows?”
After calmly analyzing the situation, Ji Xiaoxiao got out of the car on her own.
"Where are you going?" Liao Yu asked anxiously.
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