017's gaze as he stares at food is no better than 003's.
After cooking a pot of food, Zuo Ling first served a bowl to 003 and 017, letting them eat first.
The host hadn't touched his chopsticks, so the two of them felt too embarrassed to start eating first.
Pei Nansheng smiled and said, "Eat up, there's more."
Already hungry, the aroma of instant noodles wafted into his nose, making his stomach rumble loudly. A flush rose on his dark, sallow face as he awkwardly rubbed his stomach.
"Then...then we won't stand on ceremony."
017 was a man of few words, but seeing 003 eating, he also lowered his head and started shoveling food into his mouth.
After the first bite of soup noodles, tears welled up in their eyes, and they buried their heads in the bowl, afraid that Zuo Ling and her brother would see them crying.
The two ate very slowly, savoring each bite as if it were a work of art.
The steam made their vision blurry, and the aromas of vinegar, chili, scallions, and meat lingered on their tongues. Heaven knows how long it had been since they had tasted anything other than salt.
One pot can't cook much noodles. After two bowls were scooped out, only a little soup was left. Pei Nansheng and Xiao Hao each ladled out a bowl of soup and drank it slowly.
Zuo Ling cooked a compressed biscuit. Seeing that 003 and 017's attention was entirely on the instant noodles, she took out a jar of meat sauce and scooped out two large spoonfuls, mixing it into the soup pot.
The water was just starting to boil when I poured in a handful of greens. Feeling that the color wasn't vibrant enough, I took out a tomato, used my hand as a cutting board, and sliced it into thin slices.
Turning around, 003 met his fixed gaze. Startled, 003 stammered like a child caught doing something wrong:
"You...you still have tomatoes?"
The official base in Shuzhou also sells leafy greens, but they are very expensive. As for fruit vegetables, I haven't heard of them being sold anywhere for many years.
"It's been a long time since you've been back to the base. The base now has not only tomatoes, but also vegetables like cucumbers, eggplants, and green beans. You can exchange them with contribution points."
003 had never been to the base; to be precise, he was among the first spies sent to Sichuan.
After the apocalypse, China is still officially one country, but it has been subtly divided into three major powers.
There are four families: Bai, Mei, Lin, and Li, with the Bai family being the leader.
The Ding family formed an alliance with the Zhao and Jin families.
The Ning family's attitude was ambiguous, neither offending either side nor becoming overly intimate.
Of the three forces, the Bai family-led group is the most stable.
The Ding, Zhao, and Jin families formed an alliance based on mutual benefit, with the Jin family being the strongest and the Zhao family the weakest.
The Ding family was weak, but they had a reclusive elder with unfathomable strength in charge. The Jin family was the strongest, so they naturally refused to put the Ding family in charge, but because they were afraid of the reclusive elder, they dared not make things too tense with the Ding family.
Both sides acted independently, resulting in a loose structure. On the surface, they were evenly matched with the Bai family, but they were the least reliable.
The Ning family is a distinct faction. Before the apocalypse, they controlled the most prosperous region in China, accounting for more than 60% of the country's total economic output. They possessed wealth that few other families could match, and their strength was unfathomable.
Each of the three parties established its own base. The Bai family's base was touted as a state-owned base, but the other two parties did not recognize it.
To expand one's influence, the most important thing is people.
Just as the situation began to stabilize, a three-way battle to recruit talent began.
Zuo Ling and her brother arrived at just the right time, allowing them to obtain the promotional leaflets for the Bai family's base.
In order to keep track of the movements of the other four families, the Bai family sent many spies to the Ding and Ning family bases.
003 and 017 were two of them. 017 arrived in Shu a little later than 003, and neither of them knew what the base looked like.
003 was envious: "The base is so nice, I really want to go and see it."
There was also a look of longing in 017's eyes.
Zuo Ling smiled and said:
"Once this matter is over, you'll have done a good job, right? You can apply to the higher-ups and maybe get transferred back."
A strong sense of hope flashed in the eyes of both 003 and 017. 003 asked, "Are you... confident?"
The higher-ups only told them to cooperate with Zuo Ling and her brother, but they had no idea how exactly they should cooperate.
"No, that person is very difficult to deal with, and we are not confident."
The light in 003 and 017's eyes gradually faded.
Yes, the fact that they requested so many uncommon heavy weapons indicates that the enemy is very powerful and not so easy to deal with.
What do you need us to do?
"I see you're quite good at concealing your identities, why don't you help us with our makeup?"
"Are you trying to infiltrate the official base in Shu Prefecture?"
003 reacts very quickly.
According to the intelligence obtained by 003 and his team, a large number of people have gone missing from the Shuzhou official base in the past month or so.
The missing persons are all connected to a food processing plant at the Shuzhou official base.
Zuo Ling and her group wanted to infiltrate and see if they could sabotage things from the inside.
"We sent in three scouts, but none of them came back. I'm afraid..."
003 was not optimistic about the plan to infiltrate the food factory.
"What are the names of those three scouts? Do you have any photos?"
“The names of the people who entered the food factory were Xue Shan, Liao Jie, and Jiang Ya. We had special identities, so we didn’t have any photos.”
017 said, "I can draw, I'll draw for you."
"Let's eat first, and then we can draw."
Three pots of instant noodles and two pots of compressed biscuits were nothing to Zuo Ling and her brother, and 003 and 017 ate with great happiness.
After the meal, the two visibly relaxed and became more talkative.
017's sketches are very well done; in no time at all, three figure sketches were completed.
Three faces that are completely unremarkable; you can't remember them without careful attention.
"Is this how they look after makeup, or how they actually look?"
"After you've done the makeup, I'll paint their original appearance for you."
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