After waiting for a long time without receiving a reply from the other side, Zhao Junru stood there, feeling anxious and uneasy. She looked completely at a loss.
Gu Yicheng, however, acted as if he had not seen her at all. He showed no intention of responding. Instead, Ruan Ning, who was sitting beside him, felt a little uncomfortable being stared at by another girl for so long. She covered her mouth and gave a light cough, reminding the person beside her not to ignore the other party too much.
Even if he did not want to deal with her, he should at least say something and let her leave earlier, so she would not keep wasting time here.
In fact, this was not the first time they had encountered a small team coming over to ask for protection. It was just that the experience had not been very pleasant. Even Ruan Ning had started to become rather wary of this kind of thing.
Sometimes, you kindly helped someone without asking for anything in return, but not everyone would feel grateful.
Although they had not added even a single new person to the team during this period, they had saved quite a few people. There were already hundreds, if not over a thousand, survivors they had helped.
For various reasons, after being rescued, quite a few of these people had ended up harbouring malicious intentions. It was just that the Morning Light Squad’s composition and strength were enough to make ninety percent of them shrink back in fear.
As for the remaining ten percent who actually took action, they were either weak themselves and ignorant enough to think the Morning Light Squad was nothing special, treating them like fat sheep to be robbed, or they believed their own teams were powerful enough to swallow them whole and seize their supplies after defeating them.
Of course, all of these people met only one outcome—they lost completely and ultimately suffered the consequences of their own actions.
Even so, these unpleasant experiences had still left Ruan Ning and the others feeling somewhat fed up. So after that, they could save people in passing, but they would not bring any team along with them.
The Morning Light Squad did not lack supplies. Along the way, they had passed through more than a dozen, perhaps even twenty, large and small cities. They had collected plenty of supplies in those places. It would not even be an exaggeration to say that all the supplies they currently had were enough to support a small base for several years.
So to them, there was absolutely no need to bring along a team they knew nothing about just for the sake of some supplies. Even when these people had been secretly following behind them earlier, they had not taken the initiative to drive them away. But agreeing to their request and pretending not to see them were two completely different attitudes. The responsibility involved was also different. They had no intention of doing something thankless and troublesome.
Seeing Ruan Ning look curiously toward the other party, Gu Yicheng finally lifted his eyelids as if he had only just noticed the woman. His brows and eyes were cold as he said, “Go tell your captain that I’m not interested in what you’re proposing. We also do not provide protection for any team.”
His voice was somewhat cold. It was not the gentle tone he used when speaking to the young girl beside him. Zhao Junru clearly remembered that when he had looked at that young girl just now, his gaze had been very gentle. Even though she knew that look was not directed at her, it had still made her heart beat uncontrollably.
But now, Zhao Junru was frightened still by his cold and forceful aura. She stood frozen in place for quite a while. The little bit of envy she had felt toward Ruan Ning earlier disappeared in an instant.
A person like this would never give his tenderness to her.
“I-I’ll leave right away. I’m sorry for disturbing you.” Zhao Junru felt as if her secret crush had ended before it could even begin. She did not dare remain there any longer and fled at a hurried jog, leaving the Morning Light Squad’s line of sight.
Seeing that the girl, who actually seemed quite kind-looking, had left as though there were a ferocious beast chasing after her, Ruan Ning wondered whether she should have been the one to persuade her to leave instead. Perhaps then her words could have been a little more tactful.
Look at how badly she had frightened her.
Gu Yicheng looked at the young girl who still had the leisure to worry about someone else. His thin lips curled slightly, and he brought back the topic they had not finished before the outsider arrived. “Ningning, now that she’s gone, shouldn’t you finish eating your food?”
Seeing that he still remembered this matter, Ruan Ning looked as if she wanted to cry but had no tears. “But I really can’t eat anymore QAQ.”
Yes, that was right… when Ruan Ning had reminded Gu Yicheng that someone had come over, she had actually been trying to divert his attention and change the subject.
The man beside her had been trying all kinds of ways to make her eat more during this period. He even insisted on things like balanced nutrition and would not let her be picky. Ruan Ning could clearly feel that she had recently gained several pounds.
Sigh. If this continued, what if she became so fat in the future that she could not run anymore? How would she outrun zombies then?!
Although she thought this, under his faintly smiling gaze, Ruan Ning still ate all the food Gu Yicheng handed to her.
It was not that Ruan Ning was too cowardly. It was really because whenever the person beside her looked at her like this, his gaze felt far too gentle. It always made her feel especially strange, causing a certain guess that had flashed through her mind before to resurface. She could only use the action of eating to hide the ripples in her heart.
No way.
She must be overthinking it.
They were siblings.
That’s right. They could only be siblings. It definitely was not like what she was imagining!
Meanwhile, on the other side.
“Xiao Zhao, how did it go? Did those people agree to our request?” Seeing Zhao Junru return from negotiations, someone from the thirty-plus-person team quickly walked over and asked.
Zhao Junru shook her head, looking somewhat dispirited. She repeated what the man had said to the captain. “Captain, that team isn’t interested in what we proposed, and they don’t want to provide protection for anyone.”
This team from A City was led by a middle-aged man in his forties with stubble on his face. The past half month of travelling had worn him down, leaving him haggard and exhausted. His dark skin carried traces of fatigue. Hearing her words, he sighed.
“Ah! If that’s the case, it seems we can only think of another way.”
Although he said this, where could they find another choice now?
When they passed through the previous city, they had encountered a large-scale zombie horde and suffered heavy losses. Nearly half their people had died, and only a few ability users remained. Although there were still more than thirty people in the team now, ability users did not even make up a third of them. Among those ability users were also types with weak attack power, such as Zhao Junru’s water ability. Other than that, the rest were ordinary people without abilities. When killing zombies, their usefulness could not compare to ability users at all.
And if they wanted to reach Yancheng Base, they had no choice but to pass through this urban area. Now zombies were evolving faster and becoming more powerful. A few days ago, they had almost run into a level-three zombie in the suburbs. Fortunately, they had run quickly at the time and escaped disaster.
Now, when passing through the city centre, he could already imagine how many zombies their team would encounter. This was not something they could simply run away from.
If they could not find a powerful team to protect them and travel with them, then with their current situation, reaching Yancheng Base would be extremely difficult. They were clearly not far from Yancheng Base now. It was like the journey to the West with its eighty-one trials: they had gone through untold hardships to pass the first eighty trials, and now only the final one remained. Asking him to give up on a large base with more stable development and instead go stay in a small base where each day was uncertain—he really could not accept that.
He had also wondered whether that group had thought the supplies offered were too few. To show their greatest sincerity in seeking protection, he had already taken out the maximum amount of supplies their team could bear. If they gave any more, they would really have to start gnawing tree bark by the roadside.
“Captain, we can’t just give up like this. I wonder if Xiao Zhao didn’t express herself clearly when she went over, or perhaps said or did something that displeased that team. That’s why they didn’t even want the supplies and rejected us outright,” a rather glamorous-looking woman said meaningfully from the side.
Zhou Yu was also an ability user. In fact, she had originally wanted to volunteer for the task of negotiating with that team.
That team had managed to break out of a zombie horde, so their strength was definitely extraordinary. Before the apocalypse, Zhou Yu had dated many men and had seen all kinds. Even though they had been far away at the time and she could not clearly see those people’s faces, she knew that most of them had good figures. Even if making friends with people like that brought her no benefit, she would still be willing to have a one-night stand with them.
Zhou Yu did not hide her little schemes at all. In the apocalypse, finding a powerful ability user to seek protection from was also a survival method.
Her previous lover had been one of the strongest fire-type ability users in A City’s base. Unfortunately, his life had been short. He had failed to escape from the base in time and had eventually died among the zombies. If he were still alive, he should already have broken through to level three by now, and her life would not have become so difficult.
Zhou Yu’s little plan had failed earlier because the middle-aged man felt that Zhao Junru’s appearance was more likely to make people lower their guard, and that sending her to negotiate would be more suitable.
Zhou Yu did not agree. How could a little inexperienced girl like Zhao Junru understand men’s thoughts? If it had been her, she definitely would not have been chased back in disgrace after only a few minutes.
After listening to Zhou Yu’s words, Zhao Junru widened her eyes and hurriedly explained, “I didn’t! I said everything according to what the captain told me before. I didn’t say a single extra word.”
Zhou Yu shrugged, indicating that she had only voiced her guess and meant nothing else.
The middle-aged man considered Zhou Yu’s suggestion, his brows tightly furrowed. In the end, thinking of the team’s future, he still made up his mind to try again.
He patted her shoulder and said, “Zhou Yu, you should go over again. Remember to have a better attitude this time. Whether our team can reach Yancheng Base will depend on you.”
Zhou Yu smiled pleasantly. “Captain, don’t worry. I’ll definitely bring you back good news.”
When Zhou Yu went over, she deliberately took off her outer coat, leaving only the innermost layer of clothing. After thinking for a moment, she unbuttoned one of the buttons too.
Zhao Junru watched this series of actions from the side, her face full of shock. Her eyes were stunned still.
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