Rotting Land: Survive

Chapter 820: Chapter 805: Luo Baocun’s Memories (Part 1)

"Come on, Luo, have a seat."

In the audio-visual room, Old Xu and Tang Xiaoquan sat upright, while Old Lin smiled and pulled a chair, signaling Luo Baocun, whom he’d just called upstairs, to sit down.

"Have some hot tea!" At the right moment, Old Xu pushed the prepared tea to the front of Luo Baocun, who looked around at the three people somewhat nervously and asked, "I don’t know what you all want with me?"

Old Xu noticed Luo Baocun’s wariness, knowing that Wang Zhongyu and Wenquan Xin had already roughly told him Luo’s story, so he quite understood this reaction.

After all, in these end times, you never know what kind of disaster you might face. Any slip could cost you your life, not to mention joining a small Survivor Team on your own; a careless comment could bring trouble.

To ease Luo Baocun’s concerns, Old Xu did not go straight to the point but chose to approach it indirectly: "Oh, Luo, don’t be nervous. We’re here to chat with you, nothing special, really. Don’t be restrained, as you can see, this small team of ours gathered on this path of fleeing for survival. None of us knew each other initially. As the saying goes, ’Fate brings people together from far and wide.’ Meeting is destiny, so on everyone’s behalf, I welcome you and hope you will soon integrate into this big family."

"Thank you. Honestly, I owe my life to brothers Wang Zhongyu and Wenquan Xin for saving me. Otherwise, whether I’d even have a whole corpse in the future is uncertain. Now I’m lucky to join this big family of yours, I really..."

Old Lin raised his hand: "Brother Luo, no need to say anything. Once you are here, we’re brothers. As for your accommodation, Wenquan Xin insisted on sharing a room with you. We might as well take this opportunity to discuss whether it works for you. If you prefer to stay alone, I can arrange a single room for you."

"No need. I’ll room with Brother Wen. Honestly, I’ve traveled everywhere delivering goods; I can sleep anywhere without fuss. As long as Brother Xiang doesn’t mind me taking up too much space for being fat, hehe." Luo Baocun specifically patted his round belly, drawing a smile from the three present.

"Great, let’s settle it then. Later, I’ll have someone arrange your daily necessities, but feel free to let us know if you need anything. Don’t hold back."

Old Xu nodded: "But Luo, I must remind you, Wenquan Xin snores thunderously at night."

"Old Xu, you’re understating it. It’s not just earth-shaking; it’s like he’s going to tear the floor down," Old Lin shook his head helplessly. Unfortunately, his room was directly below Wenquan Xin’s bedroom. Even more unluckily, he frequently had to get up at night to check the rooms, so he deeply experienced Wenquan Xin’s nightly terror.

"It’s no problem!" Luo Baocun smiled, his chubby face folding into a grin, squinting his eyes into slits as he chuckled: "I’m just worried that Brother Wen will mind my snoring. To be honest, whenever I travel for business with friends, I always let them fall into a dead sleep before daring to sleep myself, yet they still complain I disturb them."

Old Lin’s face turned instantly green. My, oh my, a Wenquan Xin is already more than enough for him to handle, and now there’s Luo Baocun. Seems like they’re setting him up to live like an American with his troubled sleeping. Old Lin pondered whether he should change rooms; otherwise, how could he possibly get a good night’s sleep in the future?

"Haha! So, um..." Tang Xiaoquan, who had been silent, suddenly interjected: "Luo, I heard from Xiangzi that before you were rescued, you were heading to a certain refuge. Could you tell us about that if it’s convenient for you?"

Tang Xiaoquan’s words instantly shifted the atmosphere in the audio-visual room to a serious tone. Even Old Xu, who had been smiling, was now earnestly fixed on Luo Baocun, saying: "Luo, I realize it might not be convenient to ask you about this now, but the situation is urgent. You probably don’t know, but we are currently under threat from a group of bandits. These guys are heavily armed and numerous. We believe direct confrontation isn’t sustainable and must find a new, reliable place for refuge. If the place you mentioned is suitable, we’re planning to drive out and check it."

"I don’t mind, except this refuge is also something I heard orally from others, and I can’t be sure if it’s reliable," Luo Baocun said lightly, sounding indifferent about it, but his melancholy expression betrayed him.

Old Lin understood, rose up, walked to his side, added some hot water to Luo Baocun’s teacup, and said kindly: "Don’t worry about it, Luo. No pressure. We have a grasp of this matter—even if it doesn’t work out, it’s fine. Mainly, we’re facing a very powerful enemy at the moment, so as long as there’s some lead, we’re willing to test our luck."

Liu Muhua’s words were evidently overconfident. In reality, given the villa’s current manpower, they wouldn’t dare to deploy an external team to that so-called refuge without at least a 90% certainty, risking weakening their own forces.

However, his statement did significantly lessen Luo Baocun’s psychological burden. After all, Luo was new here. If everyone held high expectations about this refuge he mentioned and they were ultimately very disappointed, life here wouldn’t be easy for him.

Luo Baocun’s thinking was indeed a bit narrow-minded, judging others by his narrow standard, but he can’t be blamed. After all, he wasn’t very familiar with the people at the villa and didn’t know their temperaments, so such thoughts were understandable.

"Alright, though this matter is indeed somewhat unreliable. The person who told me about it came to us roughly a month into the apocalypse, and he also heard it from someone else. As for who relayed this information, it was actually heard from an accidental encounter with a portable radio. That’s the situation—it’s a bit circuitous, so I suggest not getting your hopes too high. Frankly speaking, I went there out of desperation, facing bandits who were extorting money, and... alas, no point in mentioning it."

Luo Baocun’s hesitance clearly piqued Tang Xiaoquan’s interest. Although he only said a few words, Tang managed to catch a few keywords like "seek refuge," "us," "bandits," and "extortion," especially the final sigh tinged with dissatisfaction and a bit of desolation. Just based on these, Tang Xiaoquan could roughly sketch an outline of Luo Baocun’s past life in his mind.

This person likely lived in a small team after the apocalypse, a team that regularly accepted newcomers. Most importantly, from the tone, it wasn’t hard to tell that the bandits’ extortion seemed to have persisted for quite a long time.

Given this, it reflects that their team’s supply of resources probably wasn’t that bad. And they must have some corresponding defensive power. Otherwise, why wouldn’t those bandits wipe them out in one go and instead go for a prolonged battle?

Was it just the bandit raids that led this chubby guy to leave his base at a risk?

Tang Xiaoquan found this curious. His intuition told him there must be more to the story. Otherwise, why would a normal person leave their base easily in unclear circumstances?

Moreover, from the conversation, it couldn’t be inferred that their defensive power should be sufficient to contend with the bandits. (To be continued. If you like this work, you’re welcome to vote for it on Qidian (qidian.com). Your support is my biggest motivation. Mobile users can read on m.qidian.com.)