Chapter 247 - 238: Turtle
Gu Xi subconsciously looked at the man beside her. She had never heard Ye Junhan mention this before.
Ye Junhan had already regained his cool, detached composure. He looked up, his gaze meeting Gu Xi’s. "I don’t know."
When he woke up back then, he was in a hospital, and the first person he saw was Li Ming. He had no memory of the Hibernation Chamber at all. He hadn’t even known about the sixteen infected people until Li Ming told him a while ago.
Gu Xi looked up pensively at Li Ming on the Light Screen. "So, those sixteen infected people from back then are all still alive?"
Li Ming nodded. "They’re all alive."
"Then they...?" Gu Xi asked again.
"They’re all my people," Li Ming said.
Gu Xi clearly understood the implication and asked no more.
Li Ming looked at her and sighed. "However, Jun Han and Qi Xiang’s situations are rather special..."
’Special?’
’Does he mean because they drank the water steeped with that little pebble?’
Gu Xi looked at Li Ming, her right hand quickly making a sign before clenching into a fist.
Li Ming gave an almost imperceptible nod.
After the call ended, Gu Xi silently leaned against the other side of the rock, staring down at the stream by her feet as she digested the information Li Ming had just revealed.
’So Qi Xiang has such a secret background. No wonder Dr. Qi adopted her back then, and no wonder she acted so unusually friendly toward me the moment we met.’
’And no wonder... Li Ming allowed her to stay by my side, even though he knew she was Dr. Qi’s adopted daughter.’
’The clues were there all along.’
Gu Xi’s emotions were a complicated mix.
Ye Junhan suddenly turned to look at her. "That thing..."
Gu Xi knew what he was asking about. "It’s still nearby."
Since arguing with that thing on the way back, Gu Xi had unilaterally cut off communication with it, but it was still within the range of her perception.
She looked down, stroking the curved blade in her hand. "Don’t worry, I’ll keep an eye on it."
Ye Junhan noticed something was off with her tone. His gaze fell to the blade in her hand, and he frowned almost imperceptibly.
He had intended to ask about the crooked-neck tree, but he saw the pale cast of her face and the faint exhaustion in her eyes. After a moment’s thought, he stood up. "I’m going to check the surroundings."
Yang Liu’s drones had discovered several traces of campsites in the nearby mountains. From the looks of those traces, the group hadn’t gone far and was likely still lurking nearby.
Ye Junhan planned to take a look around the nearby mountain forests himself.
Gu Xi looked up at the somewhat gloomy sky and suddenly said, "It’s going to rain."
In the wild, especially in a place with high mountains, dense forests, and complex terrain, rain was a huge hassle.
Because of the terrifying growth rate and destructive power of mutant plants, the surrounding mountain environment could change at any moment during a rainstorm: sinkholes, mudslides, suddenly appearing dense forests, completely blocked paths...
Therefore, unless it was absolutely necessary, no one would travel on a rainy day.
Ye Junhan’s steps faltered slightly. "Go back and rest."
...
When Gu Xi returned to the tent, Qi Xiang and the other two were already awake from their nap. Even Shen Yue and Wei Heng were there.
"You’re back?" Shen Yue was leaning against one side of the tent. He saw Gu Xi enter and lazily raised his eyes to look at her, his gaze sweeping over her from top to bottom before he impassively looked away.
Gu Xi walked over, raised her hand to open her personal terminal, and brought up the local map. She expanded the Light Screen to its maximum size and projected it in front of everyone. "Since everyone’s here, let’s discuss the next leg of our journey..."
Everyone gathered around.
City A’s territory was vast. Before the apocalypse, its urban center was situated in a basin surrounded by mountain forests. But in the decades since the apocalypse began, natural disasters had been frequent, and City A had been hit by several earthquakes, completely changing its topography.
Even the former main urban district had now become a vast, primeval forest on satellite maps.
The new A City Base was now located over a hundred *li* from the original city center.
The map in Gu Xi’s hand was one surveyed by the military in recent years during their clearing operations, but compared to the pre-apocalypse maps, it was far too simplistic.
After a moment’s thought, she pulled out a pre-apocalypse map of City A from her space. Placing the two maps side-by-side for comparison... you couldn’t say they were identical, only that they were completely unrelated. Even the courses of major mountain ranges and rivers were different.
Everyone fell silent.
Qin Yi squatted to one side, looking down at the paper map spread on the ground, then up at the map on the Light Screen. "This is the pre-apocalypse map? It’s probably useless, right?"
"It’s still useful," Shen Yue said, leaning casually to the side. After a moment’s thought, he added, "That shipment was probably brought to City A in the early days of the apocalypse. Back then, City A’s topography would have been much closer to the pre-apocalypse version..."
So the pre-apocalypse map still had some reference value.
Of course, that was assuming... no one had moved the shipment in all these years.
Shen Yue looked at Gu Xi.
Gu Xi was thinking about the same problem.
The items should be in Yun Ye’s hands by now. And Yun Ye... ’The man in her memory was as gentle as a scholar, good-tempered, and granted her every request.’
’But in Li Ming’s eyes, that man was extremely cunning and skilled at deception...’
"Based on what you know of him, where would he hide the items?" Wei Heng asked, tilting his head toward Gu Xi.
Seeing everyone’s eyes on her, Gu Xi thought for a moment, then raised her hand and tapped a spot on the map. "Here."
Qi Xiang followed her finger. "Why there?" ’Looking at the map, that place should have been a large reservoir before the apocalypse, right?’
From the side, Qin Shi produced a pen from somewhere and silently drew a circle around the spot.
Wei Heng stared intently at the circled area, then looked up at the map on the Light Screen. After a careful comparison, he frowned slightly. "According to the military’s latest map, that area is now completely covered by mutant plants..."
As for whether the original reservoir still existed beneath the dense vegetation, no one could say for sure.
Gu Xi looked up at Shen Yue thoughtfully. "The military’s clearing operations..."
Shen Yue understood what she was getting at and slowly shook his head. "That whole area is now dense, old-growth forest. There are no safe encampments nearby..."
City A was somewhat unique. It was surrounded by deep mountains and old forests, teeming with mutant plants. Who knew how many ferocious mutant animals were hidden among them?
The area the military was responsible for clearing was also far too large, and they were short on both manpower and weapons. At times, they were inevitably stretched thin.
Under these circumstances, the military’s clearing operations naturally had to be prioritized.
Their first priority was to ensure the safety of A City Base and the nearby safe encampments. As for the areas far from human settlements, they could only be temporarily abandoned.
And the area Gu Xi had pointed to...
"This place is a little strange," Shen Yue said, staring at the spot with a frown. "Military records show that a squad took on a mission near here a few years ago, but whenever reconnaissance drones get close to the area, they fall out of the sky for no reason..."
Gu Xi raised an eyebrow. "Didn’t they send anyone to check it out?"
"They did," Shen Yue replied, looking at her. "But the ones responsible for this area are from the Liu Family."
As soon as he finished speaking, Qin Shi silently wrote "Liu" next to the circle.
Gu Xi understood. She studied the two maps for another moment, took the pen from Qin Shi, and drew another circle on the map.
Qi Xiang, squatting beside her, glanced at the spot and blurted out, "No way it’s there, right?"
"Why not?" Qin Yi asked curiously.
Qi Xiang said, "Just a feeling..."
Qin Yi fell silent.
Gu Xi, however, gave Qi Xiang a thoughtful look before drawing another circle on the map.
"What about here?" she asked Qi Xiang, tilting her head.
Qi Xiang stared at the circle, propping her chin on one hand as she thought. "This one... I can’t say for sure."
Gu Xi glanced at her, then drew another circle nearby.
And so it went, one drawing circles, the other going by feel.
Half an hour later—
Shen Yue and Wei Heng stared at the paper map on the ground, now covered in a bunch of circles. Comparing it with the map on the Light Screen, they both raised their eyebrows in surprise.
’If you connected these circles with lines and then overlaid them on the current map, it looked like a route that perfectly bypassed the Liu Family’s main forces, allowing them to circle directly around to the location of the original reservoir.’
Shen Yue took the pen from Gu Xi’s hand. He was just about to trace the new route while comparing it to the Light Screen map when Qi Xiang, who was staring down at the map, suddenly let out a surprised "Huh?" Propping her chin on her hand, she mused, "Why does this look like a turtle?"
Everyone: "..."