The four men’s expressions changed.
At first, they were delighted to see the food tossed down in front of them. Judging by how generous these young men were, the food was probably meant for them.
But then they immediately realized something else: this young man had just carried a mutated beast the size of a leopard with one hand. They had hunted before and considered themselves strong, well-built men, yet even one of them would have needed to carry such an animal on his shoulder. How could this young man carry one with a single hand as easily as if he were holding a chicken?
The second brother recalled the murderous glint in the young man’s eyes earlier and could not help shrinking his neck.
“Cook these and let them…” Chu Tian glanced at the women and children watching them eagerly. “Let them all eat their fill. Whether they’ll be able to survive after today or not, at least let them have a full meal today.”
After saying that, he sighed as well.
The four men hurriedly nodded in agreement. They did not dare entertain any thoughts of keeping some of the food for themselves. As ordinary people without supernatural abilities, they had survived in the apocalypse for so long by relying on their physical strength. They understood all too well that a person must not be too greedy.
They called over several men who were doing odd jobs in the distance and had them drag the two mutated beasts away for processing.
At that moment, Li Nan also came out with the two little ones who had been let out of the vehicle, along with Xie Mingxuan. The three little rascals were playful by nature. The moment they came out, they immediately chased one another off into the distance, disappearing from sight before Li Nan could stop them, no matter how much he shouted.
“Don’t worry about them. They’ll come back on their own in a little while.”
Looking at the youngsters, Quan Xiaoyu finally smiled.
“Mm.” Li Nan nodded and walked toward Quan Xiaoyu.
Not far away, the third brother saw Li Nan, and his eyes immediately lit up.
Their business was all about procuring people. How long had it been since he had seen such a clean, pretty child?
There were certainly children like that around the powerful men in the city. But those with peculiar tastes dressed the children up in all sorts of strange ways. They no longer looked like ordinary children at all.
As for those outside the city, there was no need to mention them. Most were filthy, sallow, and emaciated…
Noticing the third brother’s gaze, the second brother kicked him viciously in the backside, sending him sprawling face-first into the dirt.
Look, look, look! Was this the kind of person he could afford to stare at carelessly? Didn’t he know who he was looking at?
Of course, the second brother did not dare curse at him outright, afraid of attracting Chu Tian and the others’ attention. All he could do was glare at the third brother with a deeply warning look.
The eldest brother, Zhou, also looked at him as though he was beyond saving. He angrily added another kick to his backside without saying a word.
The third brother was not truly stupid. It was simply a professional habit. Only after being beaten did he remember what kind of people these young men were.
The eldest brother and the second brother exchanged glances, and both saw the same apprehension in each other’s eyes.
What had just come out of the vehicle? Two tigers?
These people were keeping tigers as pets!
And the person who had run off with the tigers was unbelievably fast. He was undoubtedly a supernatural ability user!
In this day and age, ability users ranked above ordinary people like them. What could they do about it?
The expressions of the four men shifted rapidly in the space of a few short moments. Chu Tian noticed everything and smiled faintly. After exchanging a few words with them, he returned to the vehicle.
Bai Mingxi and Quan Xiaoyu also began setting up the stove.
They were in poor moods, so they had no intention of continuing their journey that day. Their impressions of these so-called three major bases had soured, and they were no longer in such a hurry to visit them.
They might as well spend the night here.
Chu Tian had more or less guessed what the two of them were thinking, but he did not say much. Once the fire was burning, he sat beside it to warm himself. He had become extremely sensitive to the cold lately.
Seeing him rubbing his hands together as he sat down beside the fire, Quan Xiaoyu realized that he was cold. He sat beside him as well, took his hands, and held them between his own palms to warm them.
Taking advantage of the situation, Chu Tian pulled him into his arms. Quan Xiaoyu felt warm all over, and holding him was wonderfully comfortable.
Seeing this, Quan Xiaoyu smiled and said, “Little Bai says you’re in postpartum confinement. Honestly, I think he might be right.”
Chu Tian retaliated by biting his earlobe.
“You’ve learned some bad habits from them.”
“Do you think what they said was true?” Quan Xiaoyu asked casually as he rubbed Chu Tian’s hands to warm them.
“Seventy percent of it is true,” Chu Tian replied.
Then he buried his face in Quan Xiaoyu’s neck again, taking the opportunity to kiss him several times without caring that there were still strangers nearby.
“The background they described is real. It’s also true that the children and women weren’t stolen or forcibly taken. And whether they volunteered or not, it’s true that those people were close to being unable to survive.”
Chu Tian’s tone was full of compassion, but his sympathy was not directed toward those women and children specifically. Rather, it was for the state of the world and the people who were still struggling to stay alive in it.
Quan Xiaoyu hesitated before asking another question.
“What about them…?”
“They’re not good people, but they’re not utterly vicious monsters, either. They’re just trying to survive.”
Chu Tian let out a sigh.
Quan Xiaoyu nodded.
“Now that I think about it, those people who occupy positions of authority without doing their jobs are even more despicable.”
In his previous life, three years after the apocalypse, the country’s three major survivor bases had been the Capital Base, Qiguang Base, and Dawn Base.
There had been no such thing as黎明基地—Dawn Base as it was called here—at all.
And the headquarters of that damn “Spiritual Healing Center” was located in Dawn Base.
“So I’m going back to the capital,” Chu Tian said gently. “Perhaps that’s the only way I can change some things.”
Quan Xiaoyu gave a soft “Mm.” He thought for a while before asking, “Are we going straight to the capital?”
“No. I want to visit Dawn Base first and see what those people are actually doing.”
Chu Tian’s expression grew somewhat cold.
“And besides…” He looked into the distance, his expression becoming complicated again. “With so many children there, has anything occurred to you?”
Children?
Quan Xiaoyu froze for a moment, then immediately thought of the children at Dawn Base.
“You mean…”
Chu Tian nodded gently.
“It’s only a guess for now. We’ll have to go and see for ourselves.”
Quan Xiaoyu nodded to show that he understood.
A little later, Bai Mingxi took out some compressed vegetables and tossed them into a pot to boil. Conditions here were so harsh that they could not afford to take out anything too conspicuous.
Originally, he had intended to cook a few packets of instant noodles. But judging from what the eldest brother Zhou had said earlier, instant noodles were now considered valuable commodities.
Fortunately, they were not hungry, so they could make do with some vegetable soup.
Meanwhile, the four Zhou brothers had finished cleaning the mutated beast meat. They even cut off some of the cleanest, most tender portions and brought them over as an offering.
Chu Tian smiled and politely declined, telling them to give everything to the children instead. Only then did the four men respectfully return to their own side.
That night, everyone had their own thoughts.
However, the women and children slept with deep satisfaction. It had been an extraordinarily long time since they had eaten their fill like that.
The next day.
Chu Tian and the others put their thoughts aside and prepared to set off for Dawn Base. It was already quite close, and at the speed they drove, they would arrive in the afternoon.
When the eldest brother Zhou learned that they were heading to Dawn Base, he and his brothers came over again and helpfully explained some basic information about the base. Only after that did they respectfully see the group off.
Once Chu Tian and the others had driven far enough away, the four men finally let out a long breath of relief, as though the blade hanging over their heads had at last disappeared.
None of them had dared sleep that night. They had kept thinking about the murderous intent in the cold-eyed young man’s gaze, fearing he might deal with them in the middle of the night.
Fortunately, nothing had happened.
The eldest brother Zhou felt the two packs of cigarettes in his arms and thought that he had really struck it rich this time. He could exchange those cigarettes for quite a lot of decent food.
He turned around and looked at the women and children huddled off to one side, watching him furtively. With a cold laugh, he said, “You’re lucky you met some benefactors. People like you wouldn’t have been worth anything if we tried to sell you. We would’ve had no choice but to abandon you. But…” 
For some reason, his cold laugh turned into a sigh.
“We came away with some good stuff this time, so we can afford to feed you for a few more days.”
Hearing this, the women and children shrank their necks even further.
“Come on.” The eldest brother Zhou turned to his brothers. “We’ve got our own lives to get on with.”
That afternoon, outside Dawn Base.
The eldest brother Zhou had described the route in great detail, and Chu Tian and the others encountered no significant difficulties along the way. They arrived at Dawn Base smoothly before dusk.
Like every other base in the apocalypse, Dawn Base had built tall, thick city walls to divide the inside from the outside.
Likewise, there were people who could not enter the city, so quite a few settlements had sprung up along the walls.
However, unlike Dawn Base as Chu Tian and the others knew it, this place was nowhere near as orderly. At Dawn Base, security patrols also operated outside the city walls, keeping the area under supervision. Here, the residential areas outside the walls consisted of only a few shabby tents. Some people did not even have tents; they simply spread something on the ground and called it home.
“This place is even worse than the area outside J City back then,” Bai Mingxi remarked with a frown as he looked at the scene before them.
As far as the eye could see, hardly anyone looked clean or well-groomed.
As a result, the arrival of their off-road vehicle stood out conspicuously.
Dawn Base had rules for entering the city, but they were completely different from those at Dawn Base in their own experience.
The latter primarily evaluated a person’s abilities, character, skills, and so on. Everything was based on the premise of ensuring the base’s stable development. Once someone was approved for entry, the base would provide them with work and benefits.
At this Dawn Base, however, anyone could obtain an identity card and become a resident simply by paying enough supplies.
The entry requirements varied depending on the circumstances.
For example, if someone only wanted to stay temporarily or visit relatives and friends, they could pay one packet of instant noodles, or an equivalent amount of supplies, to receive an orange card. After that, the duration of their stay inside the city would be calculated at a rate of one packet of instant noodles per day. The base would provide them with no supplies or assistance, and this arrangement would remain in effect until they left.
For long-term residence, each person had to pay ten jin of grain or an equivalent amount of supplies. In exchange, they would receive a green card and be entitled to a daily ration of free water. Everything else was their own responsibility.
For example, accommodation and food required additional payment. These arrangements could be made after entering the city through the “New Residents Committee.”
Of course, supernatural ability users only needed to provide proof of their abilities to qualify for a fifty percent discount.
There were several other detailed rules, but there was no need to elaborate on every one of them.
“Their rules and regulations are much clearer and more organized than ours,” Bai Mingxi commented.
The group did not hurry to get out of the vehicle. They simply parked and observed the surrounding environment.
“Of course. The Capital Base isn’t far away, and this place is right under the Emperor’s nose. They have established procedures. They may lack people with other talents, but they certainly don’t lack people who know how to draw up rules and regulations. We were just an unsystematic bunch, feeling our way forward and figuring everything out by ourselves.”
Chu Tian spoke in an even tone, making it difficult to tell whether his words were praise or criticism of Dawn Base.
“So what?” Quan Xiaoyu said calmly. “Dawn Base has a far brighter future than they do.”
He was not making this claim out of sheer emotion. According to his memories of his previous life, Dawn Base had not appeared among the three major bases at all.