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"Come on, we're in a strategic alliance now," Luci quickly explained, changing the subject. "So why didn't you come looking for us? Didn't you say we should meet at Roundabout?"
"I don't know a thing about Roundabout," Jin Bo replied, just as carefree as before. He could easily be distracted by a casual remark. He smacked his lips and continued, "You have no idea how tough it was for me back then. I spent nearly a year on that deserted island and was about to turn into a wild man."
"Well, you seem to be doing fine now—plenty of people around, and you've got guns too," Song Yao said with a smirk, stealing a glance at Fang Fei and giving her a playful wink. "And there are quite a few ladies here."
"You're too kind," Jin Bo said, his personality much brighter than before. Although he used to be a bit of a scatterbrain, he had always been shy when it came to matters of love. Now, he was completely at ease, playfully wrapping an arm around Fang Fei and boasting, "Come on, give him a kiss so they can see."
"Get lost," Fang Fei said, her cheeks flushing as she shot him an annoyed glare. She turned to the others and explained, "We're like siblings; don't listen to his nonsense. Besides, he's still thinking about that girl named Dongdong."
"Oh!" Luci exclaimed, as if discovering something new. "No wonder you were always hanging out with Dongdong back then."
At this point, Song Yao suddenly remembered something and asked urgently, "By the way, did you run into someone earlier? A guy around your age with a man and a woman?"
"Yeah, I did," Jin Bo recalled the person who had tried to steal his horse and asked, "What? Did your people come to steal my horse?"
"You didn't get into a fight, did you?" Luci asked with a teasing tone. "We wouldn't want any trouble at the Dragon King's temple."
"Nope. I was in a hurry to get up here while he wanted to find his horse. We exchanged some words," Jin Bo said with a chuckle. "Why is Qixi so worked up? Is it because of you?"
"That's Yao Yao's younger brother—her real brother," Luci quickly interrupted Jin Bo's rambling and pretended to threaten him. "You're lucky you figured it out; otherwise, Yao Yao would have skinned you alive."
"Is that true?" Jin Bo asked in surprise, muttering to himself, "No wonder he looked so familiar."
"It's such a pleasant surprise running into you here today, but now isn't the time for reminiscing. We need to take care of business first; we can chat later when we get back," Ming Junwei said, snapping back to reality from the joy of their reunion. There were still zombies and fires down the mountain; it wasn't safe to linger.
"Sure thing," Jin Bo said as he sprang up from his seat. He glanced around at the neatly organized supplies in the warehouse and exclaimed, "Wow! There's so much here!"
"Exactly! We were waiting for you because we planned to discuss this matter. It seems we won't need to steal anything after all," Luci said with a grin. "So where are you staying now? Why don't you come back with us to Roundabout?"
Jin Bo paused for a moment, not immediately agreeing. After all, he was now a local warlord himself. After some hesitation, he smiled and said, "I can go back with you first, and then you can come visit me."
The graduate student interjected, asking, "Your equipment looks pretty formidable; where did it come from?"
"That's a long story, and I have to thank Shaoshan for that," Jin Bo replied with a hint of nostalgia, chuckling as he continued, "My base is at sea. Right now, I've got a fleet at my disposal. Over there, we hardly see any Zombies throughout the year; life is quite leisurely."
The others were taken aback by the mention of the sea.
"Yes, we can talk more about it later. We’ll have plenty to discuss when we get back," Jin Bo said, waving his arm with an air of leadership. He commanded, "Pack up the supplies; it's time to retreat."
After a brief reunion, everyone quickly returned to their posts. Jin Bo and Ming Junwei gathered together, ignoring their subordinates as they joyfully reminisced about their past experiences. During the conversation, they brought up various topics and Jin Bo asked Song Yao, "Did you marry Ginger River? Did I miss the wedding feast?"
"Cough." Luci cleared her throat, wanting to interject but ultimately holding back. It was better for Song Yao to share that news himself.
Jin Bo finally sensed something was off; his expression changed slightly as he looked at Song Yao.
"He’s gone," Song Yao said lightly. Turning around, she caught sight of the cold corpse lying against the rock wall, her heart sinking as she fell silent.
Jin Bo opened his mouth but suddenly felt a lump in his throat, losing interest in the conversation and letting out a frustrated sigh.
The warehouse was soon cleared out by the three groups, with bags of supplies piled up on the mountain path, tied according to weight and batch as they awaited Song Jiu's return with the horses. During this time, Yang Chun Yue and Ying Dou Dou recounted what had happened in the cave to Jin Bo. While supplies were one matter, there were also dozens of female captives involved.
Since they were old acquaintances, some things could be openly discussed. Ming Junwei explained that Roundabout was currently unable to accommodate such a large group of people. Jin Bo furrowed his brow in thought before ultimately deciding to take them all in. After all, his territory was far out at sea; once they were up there, it would be difficult for them to come back down. He wasn't worried about them causing trouble since the Sea Surface had no cover.
"So we still need to make a trip to the power station for coal," Jin Bo said with a wink, tentatively suggesting, "Why not come over to my place? We rely on wind power on my island—it's eco-friendly and pollution-free."
Ming Junwei and the others exchanged surprised glances at each other: "Wind power?"
"Well, I have wind turbines, and every household on the island has electricity, right?" Jin Bo chuckled foolishly, not expecting that after a few years apart, his current camp environment was actually ahead by quite a bit.
Ming Junwei had no doubts about his words, so he cast an inquiring glance at Wu Wentao. Roundabout wasn't really reliant on electricity; it was just that the laboratory had certain requirements, which was why they had been working so hard to generate power. If Jin Bo's conditions were indeed that good, then there was no need for them to go through all this trouble. Besides, the island was far from the surface, and no matter how powerful e was, it wouldn't think they had a base out at sea.
Wu Wentao furrowed his brow and pondered for a while before saying lightly, "This matter needs to be discussed in detail when we get back. Dr. Zhong still doesn't know if there have been any developments."
Jin Bo was unaware of the consensus reached between the two alliances and was momentarily taken aback. "By the way, how did you all come together?"
"That's a long story, but I can tell you the key points," Ming Junwei said with a smile, leaning in to whisper. "We now have Infected Virus and Antibody; as long as we keep up with the electricity, it won't be long before we can mass-produce Vaccine."
"Damn," this news carried much more weight than anything from the island. Even someone like Jin Bo, who was indifferent to Zombies, was stunned and exclaimed, "Really?"
"So yeah, unfortunately, there have been a lot of complications along the way, so it's still on hold for now." Ming Junwei sighed and was about to say more when he looked up and saw Song Jiu returning with a blank expression.
Outside the warehouse, Luo Yu and Old Lin were distributing over ten donkeys and horses. The Foreigner and Militia felt somewhat disheartened; facing mountains of supplies, these small animals were indeed insufficient.
"They're back." Luci nudged Song Yao and signaled with her eyes.
Sure enough, as soon as Song Jiu entered the cave, his gaze met Jin Bo's, and both were momentarily stunned.
"How did it go?" Ming Junwei interjected. He didn't know what had happened when the two met; now they were all on the same side, and causing trouble among themselves would be pointless.
"We brought them all back, but it's not enough," Song Jiu glanced at Jin Bo without acknowledging him and said flatly. "We need to think of other ways."
"Are you talking about transporting supplies?" Jin Bo came back to his senses, clapped his hands together, and called over a bored young man. "Go down and bring the vehicle up."
"Wow, Xiao Jin is really rolling in it now," Luci joked to break the somewhat tense atmosphere and asked, "Is it enough to load everything?"
"Suspended." Jin Bo grinned, looking at the supplies with a hint of confusion. "Just one bus, it was a hassle on the road, but it was for convenience. We actually have quite a few Assault Boats at the dock."
"The dock?" Luci frowned in confusion. "Where did you land?"
"Over at Zhoushan," Jin Bo replied, lacking any real sense of distance. "We've been ashore for quite a while now."
"Speaking of which, you came all the way here just for supplies?" the graduate student asked in surprise.
"Yeah," Jin Bo nodded seriously. "Shaoshan left me a Sea Chart before he died. It marked quite a few military reserves. We found three along the way, but they were all completely emptied. This is quite a good haul."
"Shaoshan is dead too?" Song Yao paused, recalling that soldier who had saved them from peril multiple times.
"Yeah, he was too severely injured back then and couldn't be treated," Jin Bo said, feeling a bit down at the memory. If it hadn't been for Shaoshan back then, he wasn't sure he would have made it to today.
"The Sea Chart doesn't show the location of The Establishment's bases," Wu Wentao suddenly approached, his eyes carrying an unusual expression. "I heard they're also out at sea. Haven't you gone looking for them?"
Jin Bo glanced at him, still harboring some resentment. Wu Wentao had led the bombing of their ship, and Shaoshan's death was a direct result of those bombings; by that logic, Wu Wentao was indeed a murderer.
"Forget it, pretend I didn't ask," Wu Wentao said, sensing Jin Bo's thoughts. He forced a self-deprecating smile and turned to leave the group.
Ming Junwei and the others felt helpless about this situation. The issues between Xiao Wei and Wu Wentao were something only they could resolve. Although Jin Bo had a good temper, he could be just as stubborn as Xiao Wei when he got fixated on something; trying to mediate would be pointless.
Just as he was about to speak, Song Jiu silently walked past them toward the rock wall. He bent down and picked up a body covered with white cloth, then wordlessly walked out again. Luo Yu and Liu Yan sighed silently; the joy of reunion had nothing to do with them—this turmoil had only brought them pain.
"Let's talk about it later," Ming Junwei said with a bitter smile. After all, they had once faced life and death together; after such a long separation, reminiscing about the past felt somewhat inappropriate.
"Old Wu," Ming Junwei called as he approached Wu Wentao, who was quietly smoking by himself. "What are you thinking about?"
"Wu Wentao shrugged and tossed a cigarette to Ming Junwei.
"How do you feel about continuing to search for energy and conducting experiments at the Roundabout, or should we take our chances at sea?" Ming Junwei took the cigarette, thought for a moment but didn't light it. The previous dust explosion had left him with some lingering fears; he didn't want to stir up any trouble again.
"What do you think?" Wu Wentao threw the question back, frowning in contemplation. After a moment of hesitation, he added, "Can we really trust this person? You may have had a past connection, but people's hearts can change."
"Like yours," Ming Junwei chuckled lightly, glancing at Young Swordsman, who was chatting with Luci and the graduate students. He smiled and said, "I believe in him."
"That's blind faith," Wu Wentao scoffed. Deep down, he understood that if there were indeed conditions for wind power generation at sea, it would undoubtedly be the best research location. However, the trust between him and Ming Junwei had only just begun to form. The sudden emergence of another force made their relationship seem unconvincing to Wu Wentao. Moreover, they had initially agreed that only a few people would know about this matter, and now it seemed like almost everyone at the Roundabout was aware.
Ming Junwei dismissed his concerns. Seeing that everyone was nearly done packing up, he called for Wu Wentao to join him as they headed out. As they walked, he said, "Just consider it a gamble. If you can trust me, why can't you trust him?"
"It's different." Wu Wentao didn't want to continue the argument. Just before stepping out of the cave, he said, "Regardless, we can't afford any more delays. You should understand that our enemies are still lurking in the shadows."
"Yeah." Ming Junwei nodded and fell silent afterward."
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