Chu Tian sat inside the vehicle, his dark eyes silently observing everything outside the window.
“Our lives have been far too comfortable,” Bai Mingxi murmured, also gazing out the window.
Apart from the crisis during the first few days of the apocalypse, he seemed to have been protected under someone else’s wings ever since. Although he had encountered danger, he had never truly suffered.
Quan Xiaoyu, on the other hand, neither agreed nor disagreed. He had experienced that kind of life before—in his previous life, when he went hungry every day and constantly worried about where his next meal would come from.
Now, things were good. He had his spatial space, his family, the people who loved him, and the people he loved.
He treasured everything deeply. And the more he treasured it, the less willing he was to let anyone lay a finger on it.
“Xiaobai, perhaps we can change things like this,” Chu Tian said to Bai Mingxi. He knew Bai Mingxi understood what he meant.
Once they returned to the capital, they could rely on their families’ influence to accomplish far more and change far more than ordinary people could.
Bai Mingxi smiled bitterly.
He and Chu Tian were different. They had been different since childhood. He had always loved following Chu Tian around, and Chu Tian had always been able to resolve every problem perfectly. Truthfully, Bai Mingxi liked things that way. He only needed to follow Chu Tian and didn’t have to think about so many things himself.
After returning home, the joy of seeing his family would eventually give way to something else: the fear brought on by responsibility.
That was why he had remained at Dawn Base for so long without going home. He wanted his family to be safe, yet he was also afraid of returning to a home that, to him, represented responsibility.
He had often thought that it would be wonderful if Chu Tian were his biological brother. Alternatively, if only their backgrounds could be switched, he could become the youngest son in Chu Tian’s family, with far fewer responsibilities. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?
Unfortunately, those were nothing more than idle fantasies. He had already decided to go back…
Bai Mingxi remained silent for a long time. Chu Tian glanced back at him and seemed to understand what he was thinking. He couldn’t help sighing, and didn’t pursue the subject any further.
Meanwhile, a new development was unfolding outside the vehicle.
In the distance, another convoy seemed to be approaching.
The men gathered around the pot hurriedly looked over. Fourth Brother then returned with a delighted expression and announced, “It’s Captain Qiao! He’s here to collect the goods!”
As soon as the boss heard this, he immediately told Third Brother to gather all the children. The women had already finished fighting over the food and now gathered over as well.
The convoy arrived quickly. Calling it a convoy was perhaps a little generous: there were several battered old pickup trucks swaying and rattling along the road, along with a vehicle that appeared to have been converted from a motorcycle. Someone had attached a dump bed to it, turning it into a rather makeshift motorized tricycle.
A few sacks of something were loaded onto the pickups. There weren’t many, and it was impossible to tell what they contained.
Soon, several people climbed out of the vehicles. The four burly men greeted them with smiles.
“Captain Qiao, you’re here!”
The man addressed as Captain Qiao was in his early forties. His dark, weather-beaten face bore the familiar marks of life in the apocalypse, but he looked sturdy and strong, with sharp, alert eyes.
Since Chu Tian and his companions’ vehicle was impossible to overlook, Captain Qiao kept his gaze fixed on it even while exchanging greetings with the four men.
Second Brother was quick to read the situation. He immediately stepped forward and quietly explained, “They’re just passing through. They don’t look like ordinary people, but they don’t seem to have any ill intentions either.”
Captain Qiao gave a slight nod, apparently pleased with Second Brother’s perceptiveness. Only then did he finally turn his eyes away from the vehicle and explain the purpose of his visit.
“Same as usual. Let me inspect the goods first.”
The four men nodded and stepped aside, revealing the children standing in a neat row behind them. There were exactly eight.
The children were well accustomed to this. None of them seemed reluctant. In fact, their eyes held a hint of anticipation, as though they were eager to be selected.
Captain Qiao studied them for a while before frowning.
“The quality of your goods has been getting worse lately. It’s hard to find anyone worth picking.”
The boss smiled ingratiatingly, apparently aware that he was in the wrong.
“There’s nothing we can do. Things keep getting worse, and now we’ve got heavy snow on top of everything else. Another batch of people died out there. It’s getting harder to find children these days.”
Captain Qiao still wore a frown, but he seemed to accept the explanation. After thinking for a moment, he selected four children and handed the boss a package.
The boss squeezed the package and smiled bitterly. He was just about to speak when Captain Qiao cut him off.
“That’s all you’re getting. Nobody has it easy in this world. Your current batch isn’t much good, but I’ll take these four. At the very least, it’ll give everyone a way to survive.”
The boss fell silent. His other brothers didn’t say anything either.
After a moment, the boss tried again. “How about taking two more? I’ll give you half off.”
The children who hadn’t been selected had looked utterly disappointed. Hearing this, they lifted their eyes again, their expressions full of hope.
Captain Qiao seemed equally helpless. In the end, he reluctantly picked one more child.
“I really can’t take any more than this.”
That settled the matter.
Next came the five women. Captain Qiao looked them over for a long time but couldn’t bring himself to choose any of them. Their appearance and condition were simply too poor.
“Please, at least take one,” the boss pleaded with a sigh. “Forget selling them. Even if you just let one stay with your men to keep them warm, that would be something. I’m not asking for anything else. Just give her a mouthful of food and let her have a chance to live. I really can’t find anyone willing to take these women off my hands. If nobody wants them, they’ll probably have to fend for themselves.”
With things put so plainly, Captain Qiao had little choice. He cursed the damn world, selected one woman, and told her to get into the vehicle with the children.
The chosen woman was overjoyed, as though she had just escaped certain death. She happily climbed into the battered pickup.
The four women left behind looked at one another, their faces filled with despair.
“All right, that’ll do for today.” Captain Qiao rubbed his cold hands together. “Next time, find me some better stock. People who look good. They’re still very popular up there—” He pointed toward the sky. “And they’ll have a good life once they get there.”
The boss smiled bitterly but still nodded without saying anything.
Of course he wanted to find better stock! But in this world, how many decent people were still wandering around out here? The better ones had long since been taken in and kept by the wealthy and powerful. The rest were those capable of looking after themselves, like the people inside that vehicle nearby.
How could someone like him ever get his hands on them?
Captain Qiao seemed to be in a hurry. He didn’t stay long, merely leaving his instructions before departing. Even as he left, however, he couldn’t help glancing repeatedly at Chu Tian and the others’ vehicle. He ultimately refrained from approaching them.
Inside the vehicle, Bai Mingxi and Quan Xiaoyu exchanged bewildered looks. Only Chu Tian continued staring motionlessly at the scene outside.
“Human trafficking?” Bai Mingxi asked, looking confused. Even he sounded uncertain as he said it.
After all, the women and children being traded hadn’t shown the slightest reluctance or unwillingness. On the contrary, those who were selected had been delighted, while those who weren’t looked utterly devastated.
“I’m afraid it’s not that simple,” Chu Tian said with a deep sigh.
He reached over, took Quan Xiaoyu’s hand, and gave it a gentle squeeze, as though offering both comfort and encouragement. Then he opened the car door and stepped outside.
Bai Mingxi and Quan Xiaoyu exchanged another glance. Bai Mingxi followed him out. Quan Xiaoyu quickly brought the two little ones into his spatial space, then instructed Li Nan to keep an eye on Xie Mingxuan before getting out of the vehicle himself.
This time, Chu Tian walked straight toward the four men.
The men immediately grew wary. Fourth Brother clutched the package he had just received tightly against his chest, glaring at Chu Tian with a murderous look.
Without saying a word, Chu Tian casually tossed two items toward them.
The boss caught them and took a closer look. His eyes nearly bulged out of his head.
They were two unopened packs of Chunghwa cigarettes.
Even before the apocalypse, these had been considered premium cigarettes. After so long in the apocalypse, let alone Chunghwa cigarettes, even ordinary tobacco had become damn near impossible to find.
The boss immediately smacked Fourth Brother hard.
Those two packs were worth a hundred times more than the lousy package Fourth Brother was clutching. What was he holding on to it for?!
At the same time, the boss couldn’t help feeling uneasy. Who exactly were these two young men? Even the most powerful figures in the local base couldn’t casually hand out something like this.
As he pondered their origins, his attitude grew more respectful, and he made no attempt to stop Chu Tian from approaching.
When Chu Tian reached them, he smiled and spoke first.
“Gentlemen, there’s no need to be nervous. We’re from the south, and we’re new around here. We haven’t quite figured out how things work in this area, so we thought we’d come over and ask you to enlighten us.”
His words were polite, but his tone was indifferent. Faced with Chu Tian’s bearing, the four men hardly dared to adopt an attitude of someone doing the enlightening.
What truly astonished them, however, was his claim that they had come from the south.
These days, T Province lay between the north and south. It was now covered in dense jungle filled with mutated plants. At the same time, ferocious mutated beasts lurked within the vegetation. People who entered never seemed to come back out.
A single T Province had effectively severed the connection between north and south.
During the early days of the apocalypse, large numbers of people had fled north from the south. After that, however, the number of people arriving from the south had dwindled steadily. Over the past few months, they hadn’t heard of anyone coming from the south at all.
Yet Chu Tian looked completely unruffled.
The boss sniffed the unopened cigarettes in his hand, then exchanged a glance with Second Brother. Even so, he knew better than to ask too many questions. He simply said respectfully, “What would you like to know? Please, ask whatever you want.”
Those two packs of cigarettes were clearly payment for information.
“Let’s sit down and talk,” Chu Tian said with a smile, trying to ease the tension. It wasn’t very practical to keep talking while everyone stood there stiffly.
He found a clean spot and sat down first.
Only then did the four men seem to relax. They sat cross-legged beside him.
Chu Tian didn’t appear to mind the damp, cold ground. His relaxed, unrestrained demeanor only made the four men wonder about his background even more. He looked every bit like a sheltered young master who knew nothing about the world, yet his mannerisms somehow suggested otherwise.
Bai Mingxi squeezed in beside Chu Tian. His face remained expressionless as he tossed two packets of biscuits and two bottles of water in front of the men.
“A small token of our appreciation,” he said indifferently.
The meaning was clear: the food and water were for them.
Once again, the men’s eyes nearly popped out of their heads.
Water was one thing. Ever since people with water-based abilities had appeared, there had generally been enough water to drink. Food, however, was another matter entirely. People were still starving to death every day.
And sealed packets of biscuits? How long had it been since they’d seen those?
The last time had been at a birthday banquet thrown by one of the powerful figures in a local base for his daughter. There had been only a few plates, carefully arranged on exquisite dishes…
He had only been able to watch from a distance. He hadn’t even been qualified to approach them.
The boss was momentarily dazed.
It wasn’t until Second Brother quietly nudged him that he finally came back to his senses.