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墨書 Inktalez
Chapter Thirty-Four: Resurgence
The Russian Brothers rummaged through some work uniforms from a cardboard box and stealthily ran to a corner of the warehouse to change. They had crawled out of the sewer, and their smell was more pungent than that of a zombie. If it weren't for this odor causing trouble, they could have obtained weapon support from the yellow dog earlier, and they wouldn't have had to flee in panic, nearly falling into the horde.
Chao Yifan and Ming Junwei found several woven bags in the storage room, emptied the metal parts inside, and filled them with survival food. However, they struggled with how to carry water. The group was completely broke, with no second container for holding water besides their mouths. They searched the entire warehouse but found nothing.
"What a waste!" Ming Junwei lamented, bidding farewell to the clean water in advance.
Chao Yifan was unwilling to give up; he picked up two buckets and weighed them in his hands confidently. "I can carry this!"
"Run a few steps then; if you can do it, run a few steps," Ming Junwei mocked in a tone reminiscent of Zhao Benshan, dousing Chao Yifan's enthusiasm with cold water.
Jiang He pulled his arm away from Song Yao's head. The little girl was tired and had actually fallen asleep after leaning for a while. Jiang He didn't wake her up; instead, he took off his jacket and placed it behind her head so she could rest against the box stack for a moment.
"What are you two pondering?" Jiang He asked as he saw them circling around several buckets of pure water with two bags of food.
Ming Junwei glanced back at the sleeping Song Yao and said, "Trying to figure out how to carry the water out."
Jiang He weighed the buckets and then ran over to pull the remaining nylon rope left by the three men. After measuring it roughly, he cut it into several pieces with a sharp knife.
Ming Junwei and Chao Yifan exchanged glances, guessing his intention. The three of them fell silent and each took a piece of rope of suitable length to start wrapping around the water buckets. Fortunately, there were grooves on the sides of the pure water buckets for aesthetics, and since the nylon rope wasn't thick, it turned out to be quite secure after several rounds of wrapping.
However, Ming Junwei and Chao Yifan could only tie up the buckets; they had no idea how to create a strap-like loop with the rope.
Thus, Jiang He's dexterity astonished both of them.
Jiang He's hands danced like butterflies weaving through the ropes, twisting and turning as he wrapped them around several times. Then, with a mysterious flair, he formed two loops at the ends of the ropes, threading them through the knots tied to the barrel before securing them with two tight knots. He clapped his hands together, declaring his task complete.
Jiang He glanced at the two stunned onlookers, a swell of pride rising within him. He slipped his arms through the two loops and straightened his back to lift the water barrel. It felt stable enough; aside from a slight ache in his shoulders from the nylon ropes, there were no issues—he could run, jump, and wield his weapon without hindrance.
"Not bad, kid," Ming Junwei chuckled. "Didn’t realize you had such a feminine touch!"
"I'm much more skilled than any woman," Jiang He replied confidently. As a long-time friend, Chao Yifan was clearly seeing Jiang He's talents for the first time and gave him an impressed nod.
Feeling buoyed by their praise, Jiang He set down the water barrel and began re-tying their subpar gear.
The two men squatted nearby like children, their eyes wide with fascination.
"Where did you learn to do that?" Ming Junwei asked, smacking his lips. "I heard old fishermen are good at knotting nets; is your family in fishing?"
"Not at all. I taught myself from Chengcai," Jiang He said with a raised eyebrow, his eyes darting mischievously. He added quietly, "I learned it from rope art videos."
"Rope... art?" The two men exchanged puzzled glances; the term sounded vaguely familiar.
"Have you never seen 'Flower and Snake'?" Jiang He boasted as he continued working, rattling off names of various techniques like a menu: "Straight Arm Bind, Tortoise Shell Bind, Diamond Rope Bind... Advanced Master Bind, Four Horse Binding, Su Qin’s Sword on Back, Reverse Guanyin..."
The two listened in stunned silence, their eyes wide with shock as they exchanged looks filled with disbelief. Ming Junwei cast a meaningful glance at the sleeping Song Yao, his expression one of deep sympathy as he let out a long sigh.
In just a couple of minutes, Jiang He successfully tied up five barrels of water. If only he had enough rope, he would have loved to do an elaborate binding to wrap them all up neatly.
The three of them each carried a bucket on their backs. They moved around, finding that it didn't hinder their activity at all, though the nylon straps dug into their shoulders a bit painfully when they ran.
The Russian Brothers returned from changing clothes and burst into laughter upon seeing the three Ninja Turtles floundering about.
"Don't just laugh; you two have to carry one too," Ming Junwei scolded playfully as he walked up to the iron gate and peered through the gap outside.
The Zombies were still there, but they seemed less frantic than before. The sound of them scratching at the Iron Wall had weakened, and their roars were no longer as exaggerated. It appeared that the Zombies outside were beginning to disperse.
Bai Yudong stood on the pipe, observing the Zombies through the ventilation window. When he saw Ming Junwei approaching with a water bucket, he said, "We can't leave yet."
Ming Junwei nodded, setting down his bucket and sitting cross-legged on the ground. He muttered, "What do we do? Are we really just going to wait here? Little Pan and An Zheng's son are still up in the water tower."
"We have no choice," Bai Yudong sighed as he jumped down, lit a cigarette, and leisurely blew out a series of smoke rings. "What do you plan to do with those people? And what about the woman inside?"
Ming Junwei scratched his head, clearly at a loss for what to do. He hesitated before saying, "We definitely can't take them with us. We haven't finished our supplies either; let's lock them in here when we leave."
"Oh?" Bai Yudong looked at him with interest. "How is that any different from killing them?"
"I don't have any better ideas. Why don't you talk to Yi Fan? I bet he'll choose the most straightforward method," Ming Junwei replied with a smile as he stubbed out his cigarette.
Bai Yudong glanced at Chao Yifan, who was resting on a nearby Box Stack, and remarked, "That kid... he's quite ruthless."
Ming Junwei couldn't deny it; he shrugged and leaned back against the box. "Let's take a break for now. It should be about time in the evening; we'll go to the water tower then to pick them up."
"What's next?" Bai Yudong leaned beside him, settling into a comfortable position. "Should we head back or go down the mountain?"
"What do you think? I think we should go down. We've packed everything up, and our purpose here was to gather supplies, right?" Ming Junwei countered.
"The Zombie issue isn't too big of a problem, and these few people... they can be handled." Bai Yudong suddenly perked up and called over Jiang He, Chao Yifan, and the others who were resting.
"What's up?" Jiang He rubbed his eyes; he had just laid down to catch some sleep.
"Since there's not much going on right now, I need to talk to you all." Bai Yudong took off his hat and set it aside, pointing to the large warehouse. "We have food and water; how about we settle down here?"
"Settle down?"
"Yes." It was clear that Bai Yudong was serious. He frowned in thought and then drew a rough outline of the Power Station on the ground with a cigarette butt. "The water down the mountain probably won't recede anytime soon, and we've basically figured out the Power Station. Didn't that guy with glasses say this warehouse is very safe? There's a reservoir to the north. If they can survive here, why can't we?"
"But..." Jiang He struggled to keep up with Bai Yudong's train of thought but couldn't quite articulate his hesitation.
Ming Junwei's eyes darted around as he asked with an odd expression, "But... doesn't your team still have a mission?"
Bai Yudong's expression darkened slightly as he chuckled self-deprecatingly. "Mission? I've been thinking about that for the past few days, and I just realized something. The most important mission right now is to stay alive; as for everything else, let it be."
Chao Yifan seemed lost in thought, uninterested in the discussion. He simply tossed out a "You decide," before rolling over to sleep again.
Jiang He had actually considered this idea too; he had mentioned it to Ming Junwei on their way up the mountain, but with everything that happened afterward, it slipped his mind.
"Dr. An, they haven't returned yet. I think we should wait until everyone is here before discussing it," Jiang He said, recalling their previous mysterious behavior. He guessed it wouldn't be easy to settle things down. After all, An Zheng was adamant about going to the capital, and now it was just the few of them discussing settling down, which seemed rather unreliable.
"Aren't you the leader? Does your word not count?" Bai Yudong shot him a glance.
"I'm just leading a bunch of nonsense," Jiang He cursed under his breath.
"Hey! What's going on? Are you finding new ways to insult me?" Ming Junwei gave him a playful smack on the head and added, " Jiang He is right; let's wait until everyone is here before we talk about this. Besides, we don't even know what's going on with Dr. An's side."
"Don't worry," Bai Yudong replied confidently. "He Yong is leading the team, and they're all capable hands."
At this point, Jiang He suddenly thought of something and hurriedly said, "Shouldn't we set up some kind of warning? What if Sister An and the others come over and end up in a pile of zombies?"
Ming Junwei and Bai Yudong clearly had already discussed this matter; they didn't seem too anxious.
"The view from the Cooling Tower is great. We can switch shifts with Pan Luo tonight and signal if we see anyone coming," Ming Junwei said as he stuffed a piece of compressed biscuit into his mouth, chewing happily.
Bai Yudong's plan for settling down hadn't materialized, so he could only wave his hand in frustration. "Then let's all take a break for a while. I'll keep watch; once the zombies disperse, we can move quickly."
The group dispersed to find a place to rest, falling silent as they did so.
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