Chapter 148 - 147: Agent

Chapter 148: Chapter 147: Agent

She only needed to activate her ability at the apex of her jump, giving herself a slight "push" diagonally upward.

This allowed her to defy physics, gaining a second burst of height mid-air and tracing graceful parabolic arcs.

With Chu Zhaozhao’s physical conditioning, she could easily leap, glide, and traverse between buildings, and she could keep it up for a long time without using much energy.

Compared to the unknown situation on the ground, advancing across the rooftops was obviously much safer.

This was the method she and Su Qing had devised after Su Qing had accompanied her today and fully understood her abilities.

When the massive explosion occurred, the two RVs were already packed and ready to leave at a moment’s notice.

Su Qing’s group of four and Liu Bin’s people were gathered at the supermarket, loading supplies onto the trucks.

When they couldn’t reach Lin Fan on the walkie-talkie, they had a quick discussion, and Chu Zhaozhao volunteered to go scout ahead.

"Give me the walkie-talkie."

She took the walkie-talkie from Chu Zhaotian’s hand, brandished her long spear, and, to everyone’s amazement, leaped onto the roof. Using the method she had worked out with Su Qing, she began jumping toward the eastern intersection...

The sounds of vehicles and people below couldn’t be hidden from those in the apartments upstairs. Moreover, the blaze was so brilliant against the pitch-black, power-out night sky that even those who were asleep were jolted awake by the light. When they saw the people loading the trucks below, they all came downstairs.

But with just a brief explanation, these people immediately joined the lines to help move supplies.

"Brother Liu, what are you all doing...?"

A middle-aged man who had just climbed out of a first-floor window asked quizzically as he watched Liu Bin and the others loading rice, flour, grain, and oil onto the truck.

"You guys were tired after a long day. We wanted to let you rest a bit longer. Is that a problem?"

Liu Bin wasn’t offended by the question. He chuckled and walked over to the man, giving his shoulder a light punch.

"What kind of question is that? Your group leaders are all here, go ask them... Actually, it’s good you’re awake. After you get the briefing, get to work!"

For easier management, Liu Bin had organized all the survivors into groups of seven to ten to coordinate and help one another.

Each group had a leader to pass along information at a moment’s notice.

Those group leaders had been summoned by knocking on their doors at the first opportunity and were already hard at work.

Once the various groups found their leaders and had their quick meetings, they all learned that something had happened to the south. They might have to leave at any moment, and "Brother Lin" and the little girl who did acrobatics had already gone to the front line.

Liu Bin had even arranged for the big newcomer to take the combat team members and two survivors who knew how to fix cars, grab their tools, and head to a nearby bus station to "steal" some vehicles.

Loading all the core supplies onto the trucks was just to ensure a quick response.

"I promised Brother Lin that if we have to leave, we won’t abandon a single one of us!"

Liu Bin declared, patting his chest to reassure everyone.

And so, more and more people threw themselves into the task of moving and organizing the supplies.

The distant sky was an ominous orange-red, but here on the street in front of the supermarket, it was a different scene entirely.

Beams of light from flashlights crisscrossed and danced through the crowd. People kept their voices deliberately low. Only the clatter and scraping of supplies being moved echoed in the night.

The air was thick with the smell of dust, sweat, and smoke drifting from the distance, mixing into a unique aroma.

These survivors were no longer the disorganized mob they had been when the warehouse was first opened. After a few days of working together and filling their bellies, they were now more like a united crew. As long as any misunderstandings were cleared up, they would immediately band together.

Before long, both trucks were full, and the remaining supplies were still being carried out continuously from the first floors of the various apartment buildings.

"Ding Qiao! Stop what you’re doing!"

Liu Bin shouted to a woman in the crowd who was organizing supplies. She was one of the women Lin Fan always saw cooking whenever he passed the supermarket.

"Get the logistics team together! Start the stoves, get the fires going, and make all the remaining flour into flatbreads. Hurry up!"

"Oh, okay, on it!"

The woman dusted her hands on her clothes and pulled a few people out of the crowd. Two of them went to light the stoves, while the rest deftly began to knead dough.

"STATIC... Sister Qing, gas station..."

Chu Zhaozhao’s voice crackled from the walkie-talkie hanging on Su Qing’s chest. Liu Bin, who was standing nearby directing the crowd, also froze when he heard it and muttered to himself,

"’A tank? Just one?’"

"Okay..."

After replying to Chu Zhaozhao, Su Qing turned her head to glance at Chu Zhaotian and Xu Qian beside her, then looked at Liu Bin and asked,

"What are your thoughts? Let’s hear them."

"Their identity is unknown. We shouldn’t rush over to make contact in the middle of the night. Getting shot would be a bad outcome..."

Liu Bin mulled it over for a moment before speaking first.

"Ziy and Brother Wang’s group are out looking for vehicles, otherwise I’d have him go scout. He was a reconnaissance soldier, very cautious."

"There’s still no word from Brother Lin, but before he left, he said that the world is in chaos now. Even if officials show up, we can’t hand over the food..."

Before Chu Zhaotian could finish, Xu Qian, standing nearby, chimed in with a rare opinion.

"You can’t be too careful with people."

"I think they’re both right..."

Su Qing said earnestly, looking at Liu Bin.

Everything they said was directed at Liu Bin. Lin Fan’s people operated on a very simple principle: what the big boss says, goes.

But Liu Bin and the hundred-plus people he managed had been deliberately kept separate by Lin Fan; they weren’t tied to him.

Both their supplies and their personnel management were partitioned.

Now that an outside group had suddenly appeared, how Liu Bin chose to act and what path he would take were decisions that even Lin Fan, were he present, likely wouldn’t interfere with too much.

Therefore, they each simply stated their views from their own perspectives. The final course of action still depended on Liu Bin.

"The two young brothers are right. You can’t be too careful... Haitao!"

Liu Bin was silent for a few seconds, then called out.

"Brother Liu, the trucks are full... What’s up?"

Wu Haitao jogged over, covered in flour from helping move the supplies. He casually dusted himself off, glanced at the group, and asked Liu Binn.

"You and Chi Rui take your truck, drive it into the alley, and park it among those broken-down cars on the side of the road. Cover the cargo bed and the windows..."

After speaking quietly to Wu Haitao, Liu Bin turned and shouted loudly to the people who were still carrying supplies out from the first floors of the residential buildings:

"Everyone! Consolidate all the supplies in a few first-floor rooms. Stop bringing them outside for now... Move everything that’s already been brought out into the warehouse behind the supermarket. We don’t want it to get wet if it rains. We’ll load it onto the vehicles when they get here!"

"You got it, Brother Liu!"

The group leaders organizing the transport immediately responded.

"Full bags of rice, flour, grain, oil, salt, sugar, and some daily medicines are already loaded. There wasn’t much packaged meat to begin with, and that’s loaded too. What’s left are half-empty bags and miscellaneous things like dried noodles and vermicelli..."

After finishing his redeployment of tasks, Liu Bin turned back to Su Qing and the others.

"Have them put the half-full bags of rice, flour, grain, and oil they scavenged from the residential buildings back in the supermarket warehouse. When the other vehicles arrive, we’ll move all the water from the supermarket’s backyard into them...

This way, if something goes wrong, we can pull a little bait and switch..."

As he spoke, he seemed to think of something else.

He turned his head again and called to Ding Qiao from the cooking team, who was carrying a basin in and out of the supermarket:

"Sister Qiao, thaw all the meat in the freezer. We’re having stewed meat today. Cook whatever we can’t finish and salt it for preservation..."

Su Qing nodded in agreement as she listened to Liu Bin’s arrangements. This way, even if a conflict broke out, they could protect their core supplies.

’It was basically consistent with the instructions Lin Fan had left before he departed. It was just that he...’

She looked up at the distant horizon as she thought. Even though it was blocked by rows of residential buildings, she could still see the orange-red glow of the fire.

She had a feeling that the earth-shattering explosion was related to Lin Fan.

And that blaze was proof that he was in danger.

Distraught, she took out the walkie-talkie, pressed the talk button, and spoke into it:

"Zhaozhao... what’s your status...?"

...

She waited for several seconds, but there was no response.

The silence now was more unsettling to Su Qing than the explosion had been.

"Sister Qing, should we go up to the roof and check? The signal is bad down here anyway..."

Chu Zhaotian said from the side.

"...Okay, let’s go."