Chapter 109: Return to the Safe Zone

“Thank you.”

After hearing Assistant Liu’s opinion, Xia Qing skewered a cicada with a bamboo stick and popped it into her mouth. Caution had its place, but when it came to good food, sometimes it was worth taking a little risk.

There were plenty of these things in Xia Qing’s territory. She’d dug up quite a few while clearing the fields, but she never bothered to test each one, nor was she willing to waste the precious oil needed for frying, so most of them ended up as food for her fish, birds and snakes.

Now, savoring the hot, crispy fried cicada, Xia Qing decided this taste was worth the extra effort and oil after all.

After Xia Qing took a bite, Tang Huai shot a triumphant glance at Wei Chengdong, then passed the fried cicadas around to everyone on the truck—except Wei Chengdong. Suddenly the mood turned cheerful and lively.

Xia Qing understood Tang Huai’s intentions. He wanted to use this moment to shift the attitudes of nearby lords—bringing them closer to the Azure Dragon Unit and away from the Tang Family’s rivals.

As everyone chatted and asked Tang Huai for tips on digging up cicada larvae, more lords climbed onto the truck.

By the time they reached Territory Twenty-Eight, sixteen lords had come aboard. Anyone who could come had arrived, while the others had either cut off all contact—like the lord of Plot Eight—or their territories had been completely abandoned.

The lords naturally split into three small groups according to their walkie-talkie channels. The representatives from Territory Twelve squeezed in next to Tang Huai, so the subgroup from Territories One through Ten actually had more people than the other two groups combined.

When Tan Junjie and the two soldiers entered the rear compartment, the truck picked up speed, heading toward Territories Twenty-Nine through Fifty on the edge of the Safe Zone. Following the schedule posted earlier, Tan Junjie’s team began inspecting the types and quantities of produce that each lord brought, tagging them with the Land Management Department’s labels. Once sealed, they handed each bag back to its owner.

Only produce that passed official inspection could be taken into the Safe Zone for trade or barter.

To protect the lords’ safety, all inspections took place in a partitioned-off section of the truck. The entire process was conducted in silence, so even those with enhanced hearing had no way of knowing what each lord or representative was bringing.

Carrying her pack and basket, Xia Qing stepped out of the inspection area and returned to her seat, closing her eyes to rest—or so it seemed. In reality, her senses were on full alert, listening to every sound inside and outside the truck.

Judging by the bumps in the road and the swish of the wind, the calls of birds, Xia Qing could tell they were driving through the ruins of an old city.

Ten years ago, this place had been a bustling, beautiful city. Now it stood empty and lifeless, and the wind howling through the ruins only made it seem more desolate.

Suddenly, Xia Qing picked up a different sound riding the wind. After a month of tough training under Luo Pei’s strict supervision, her mental fortitude was on a whole new level. She kept her eyes closed and stayed perfectly still.

Xia Qing didn’t move, but Tang Huai did. “Did you hear that crying? Sounds like a kid out there.”

It wasn’t just possible—it was definitely a child’s cry. The sound was so faint that no ordinary person on the truck could have heard it. The wailing brought back memories for Xia Qing of something that happened half a month ago, when Zhong Tao and Zheng Kui had driven through these same ruins and were ambushed by a woman carrying a child.

Tall Zhao Ze chimed in, just as eager to please as always. “Didn’t hear a thing, Huai-ge. You’ve got some sharp ears to catch cicadas squirming underground.”

Kuang Qingwei piped up too. “There’s no way a real kid is here. Probably just a wild cat making noise.”

“Like hell I’d mistake it!” Tang Huai shot Kuang Qingwei a glare, taking his comment as an insult to his abilities.

With just one look from Tang Huai, Kuang Qingwei immediately shrank back and tried to smooth things over with a nervous grin. Qi Fu quickly jumped in, “Maybe it’s the kid from one of the other lords’ families—lots of people brought their whole households to farm.”

The group fell silent again. Xia Qing quietly wondered just what circumstances could force a woman to leave the Safe Zone and risk survival in the ruins with a child.

After another two hours of rough riding, the truck finally slowed down as lords from Territories Twenty-Nine to Fifty joined the group.

When the lord of Territory Forty-Eight, Sun Zhe, boarded, his gaze instantly landed on Xia Qing sitting in the back. There were a handful of women on the truck, but none stood out quite like Xia Qing with her distinctive rosy cheeks.

Xia Qing noticed Sun Zhe too, and nodded at him in greeting.

When the truck stopped outside the Safe Zone, Xia Qing pulled out her old phone to check the time. She’d left her territory at six in the morning and reached the Safe Zone by nine-thirty. The drive was still bumpy, but she’d made the trip in nearly half the time it took getting to her territory from the Safe Zone.

Seems like the radio’s claims that the Base had “spent real effort” repairing the roads were actually true.

Tan Junjie called for everyone to get off. Xia Qing followed the crowd, shouldering her huge backpack, and hopped off the truck with ease.

The Hui San Base had clearly spared no effort for this trade fair. Four military trucks—one from each direction—arrived at the main gate almost simultaneously. Lords stood at the roadside, each with their own bags, baskets, or sacks, eyeing one another warily.

Xia Qing did a quick headcount and estimated about a hundred people.

Last year, the base had parceled out two hundred plots. All were claimed by February, but now—just five months later—only a hundred lords had returned to take part in the produce fair.

As for the other hundred plots, it was safe to assume they’d been abandoned. With such a high casualty rate, it was no wonder most people in the Safe Zone wanted nothing to do with farming outside its walls.

The heavy iron gates of the Safe Zone were already open, a big red banner hanging overhead: WELCOME HOME, LORDS.

A crowd of Safe Zone workers stood just beneath the banner. Xia Qing even spotted someone with a camera on their shoulder filming the entrance. She calmly shifted her gaze from the banner and the crowd to the swathes of dark, dried blood on the Safe Zone wall.

That wall had been stained by her father’s blood.

A balding, middle-aged man in a black suit strode over with a beaming smile, shaking hands with the lords. “Welcome back, everyone, to the Hui San Base farmer’s fair! I’m Jiang Quan, from the Land Management Department. Please, follow me into the Safe Zone.”

Xia Qing hugged her backpack to her chest, showed her ID Card to the guards at the gate for inspection, and followed the crowd into the Safe Zone.

The street on both sides was packed with gaunt, hungry-looking residents. The way they stared at the lords was like a pack of starving wolves, ready to snatch up any scrap of produce and swallow it whole.

Clutching his backpack, Kuang Qingwei complained loudly, oblivious to the crowd, “Why does the Safe Zone stink so much? It doesn’t compare to life on our territory at all.”

“So many people packed together, who never shower or change their clothes—what do you expect?” Zhao Ze replied in a low, self-satisfied voice. “We used to live like this too. Can’t imagine how we ever managed.”

It wasn’t just the crowd—the entire Safe Zone was suffused with a suffocating stench. After ten years of disaster, most humans clung to the inside of the Safe Zone in fear of everything outside. As long as they could survive here, they had no desire to risk stepping out.

Xia Qing walked forward in silence, her face blank. For ten years, she’d never stopped moving forward. When the disasters began, her parents had told her again and again: “No matter how hard the road ahead, it’s still closer to happiness than standing still.”

They’d made a promise to each other—to do their best to chase after happiness.

So even if Xia Qing was alone now, she would keep that promise to her parents, and keep running toward happiness anyway.