Chapter 1054 - 1039: Laying Low (5)

Chapter 1054: Chapter 1039: Laying Low (5)

Old Xu nodded slightly; right now he also felt a weight lift from his heart.

Although they were still in a predicament, at least for the time being, with this batch of food supplies they didn’t have to rack their brains over a way out.

But while he no longer had to worry, the brothers outside...

Thinking of the situation with the vehicles he’d just observed from the rooftop, Old Xu’s relaxed heart tightened again.

Arguments! Infighting! Images kept flashing through his mind of the team members clashing because they wanted to rescue him. Old Xu thought for a while, then subconsciously raised a hand and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"What’s wrong, Captain? What’re you thinking about?" Seeing Xu Renjie’s worried expression, Lei Tong hurriedly asked.

Regarding the situation outside, Old Xu had held back earlier; he hadn’t told him what he’d seen about the parked vehicles.

The reason he’d done that just now was mainly because he didn’t want Lei Tong to take on more worries because of peripheral matters.

After all, it’s enough for one person to be troubled by this kind of thing; an extra person wouldn’t help solve the problem and would only make the atmosphere worse.

But that was then and this is now. At the moment they were inside, with food, their side was temporarily stable and didn’t have to burn brain cells over survival. Old Xu felt it was necessary to frankly tell Lei Tong what was really going on.

With that decided, Old Xu laid out the hidden truth.

Sure enough, after hearing it Lei Tong frowned just as expected: "Captain, your worry makes sense. I know that kid Hua Biao—don’t be fooled by how easygoing and steady he seems most of the time, when he snaps he’s a total mad fighter. You’re about the only one who can keep him in check, anyone else... hmph." Shaking his head, a trace of bitterness appeared on Lei Tong’s face; he’d clearly tasted Hua Biao’s temper before.

As Hua Biao’s direct superior, Old Xu naturally knew his temperament and character like the back of his hand.

And precisely because of that understanding, he was sure Hua Biao was now doing everything he could to come rescue him.

And in fact, Old Xu’s judgment was spot-on.

Ever since they ran out of the Xianghe Noodle House, Hua Biao had been insisting on pushing forward for a rescue.

This was what Old Xu least wanted to see, and what he couldn’t stop worrying about.

Though if it were him, he would make the same decision, once the roles were reversed, Old Xu was absolutely unwilling for his brothers to risk their lives because of him.

"Captain, I’d bet Qiang and Dazhuang will kick up a fuss too. If those two start acting up, I don’t think Xiao Tang and Xiao Hu will be able to keep control of the situation!" Lei Tong quickly added.

Only this time Lei Tong was wronging Wang Qiang; the latter not only didn’t shout about launching a rescue, he was, for once, actually providing fire support for his own brother Tang Xiaoquan.

"Yeah! What I’m really afraid of now is them charging over here like they don’t care about dying. If that happens... ai!" Slapping his palm hard on his thigh, the wrinkles on Old Xu’s face deepened again.

There’s no question that if the team members outside tried to storm the building right now, it’d be no different from an egg hitting a rock—there’d be no way out alive.

"No, this won’t do! We have to find a way to get in touch with them!"

"Get in touch!?" Lei Tong raised his eyebrows in surprise. "How’re we supposed to do that? Captain, you’re not thinking of using the old method, sending signals with firelight, are you? If we act from in here, will they even be able to see it?"

The so-called "firelight signaling" was a communication method Old Xu had used back at school; the principle was to use the on-off of a flame to simulate Morse code and send messages to the outside.

Right now the Survivor convoy had Hua Biao with them, and if they used that method, he’d just happen to be able to recognize it.

Plus, making a torch inside the apartment wasn’t hard, so Lei Tong’s idea was actually a feasible option.

But after Old Xu thought it over carefully, he immediately rejected it: "No. That won’t work. Pitch black out there—if we light a torch up on the floor, the Zombies downstairs will definitely react. No, we need another way."

He was worried the firelight would attract the Zombies’ attention; after all, the Zombies in the city had only regressed, not lost all their senses.

So if some curious beast happened to look up and fix on that firelight, then...

Old Xu had no desire to shoot himself in the foot, so his veto of Lei Tong’s plan was more than reasonable.

"Then what do we do? It’s a pity we didn’t bring the hand-held radios out with us, or getting in touch now wouldn’t be this hard." Lei Tong shook his head helplessly.

But he didn’t realize that while he spoke without much thought, someone listening had his mind set on it; hearing this complaint, Old Xu suddenly slapped his own forehead.

"What is it, Captain? You thought of something?" Lei Tong knew that when his captain made that motion, it meant he’d gotten an idea.

"A phone! We need a phone!"

A flash of inspiration! Since the earring guy could use a phone to contact Hu Chao, why couldn’t he use a phone to communicate with the outside?

Old Xu was sure the earring guy’s earlier operation hadn’t been wrong; that so-called Bluetooth communication had already passed a practical test.

And Old Xu had clearly memorized the procedure the earring guy had described, so now as long as he got a phone with power, he could follow suit and get it working.

Old Xu’s words also reminded Lei Tong; he’d seen the earring guy’s contact process and was familiar with the Bluetooth communications too.

Without further discussion, the two of them hurriedly stood up and started searching for a phone.

This time Heaven wasn’t playing tricks on Xu and Lei; it didn’t take them much effort to find a Samsung phone in the bedside drawer of the bedroom.

Old Xu took the phone over to the window; what he was hoping for now was that the battery inside still had some juice left.

"Turn it on!" The way they were acting, it was almost like performing some sacred ritual; this simple act of powering on the phone actually brought a touch of reverent solemnity to Lei Tong’s face.

And no wonder—after all, whether the phone could start up was directly tied to the safety of the brothers outside.

So even someone as tough as a tiger like Lei Tong couldn’t help praying to Heaven at this moment.

Perhaps moved by Lei Tong’s sincerity, the instant Old Xu’s finger lightly pressed the button, a familiar startup tone sounded.

"It’s on! It’s on!" Like an excited kid, the moment he saw the welcome screen appear, Lei Tong’s big mouth split open like a "crack."

Old Xu also felt a rush of relief; with the phone powered up, he’d cleared his first major hurdle.

Next came the actual operation.

Following his memory, Old Xu pressed the buttons and entered a string of web addresses.

He remembered the earring guy had said that to use this Bluetooth signal, he first had to register a number.

Once he finished typing, Old Xu hit Enter.

After waiting about thirty seconds, a background image of blue sky and white clouds appeared.

The registration content was no different from when we register a number on websites in normal times.

Basically just a nickname, password, name, gender and other general information.

Old Xu randomly filled in some details; he was sure the other side had no way to verify whether the information was true.

Sure enough, once he finished entering and clicked confirm, there was almost no waiting at all before the screen immediately displayed four large characters: "Registration Successful."

Returning to the main menu, Old Xu entered the number he’d just registered, and once he logged in successfully, his preliminary operations were complete.

After that, all he had to do was send a message.

Hoping everything would go as expected, Old Xu quietly let out a breath, then his fingers started flying as he began typing the message.