Lu Bai didn’t chat with Wu Ya for too long before he saw Ke Jiangni and Tian Wang walking towards this tent with food trays in hand.
“Lu student! I didn’t expect you to be here too.”
After seeing Lu Bai, Tian Wang also appeared quite excited.
Even without considering Lu Bai’s combat power that was reliably off the charts, just running into someone familiar in an unfamiliar place was enough to bring joy to one’s heart.
Tian Wang handed the food tray in his right hand to Wu Ya, slapped his forehead, and said, “Lu student probably hasn’t eaten yet, right? I should’ve gotten an extra tray.”
Lu Bai waved his hand to indicate it wasn’t necessary. Although they didn’t have a deep friendship, he had spent some time with Ke Jianghao and the others after all.
He looked over the three with all their arms and legs intact, feeling a bit emotional: “So it’s just you three left.”
Hearing this, Tian Wang let out a long sigh, a bit of dejection appearing on his round face.
“If only I’d been a bit braver back then.”
During this, he noticed that Ke Jiangni kept her head lowered the whole time, but he didn’t say anything more.
After all, family and students carry different weight.
Forcing words of comfort would just sound like speaking from an ivory tower.
As if sensing the somewhat sorrowful atmosphere among them, a broadcast voice came from the loudspeaker overhead.
“Notice: Passage prohibited in ten minutes. This is a reminder to all citizens regarding precautions during prohibited passage time. This prohibited passage period will last one hour, during which facilities and tents will be inspected and disinfected… Please try not to move around during prohibited passage time. Repeating…”
One week after the zombie virus outbreak, people’s understanding of the zombie virus was still limited, so they could only choose the most reliable conventional means for prevention.
As for disinfection and such, no one really knew how much effect it had.
However, the surviving citizens had no objections to it. Mainly, seeing medical staff in protective clothing coming and going every day helped them relax psychologically.
“Then I’ll head out first.”
Lu Bai smiled kindly and added, “If there’s anything, you can come find me in District 7.”
……
The entire temporary shelter, converted from a military base, was currently housing tens of thousands of surviving refugees.
For ease of management, forty areas were set up as settlements for citizens. Even so, each district had over a thousand citizens, basically reaching the shelter’s capacity limit.
Precisely because of this, the managers of each district couldn’t possibly remember which people belonged to their own district.
Lu Bai understood this.
He slipped past the strict soldiers in the same way and smoothly returned to District 7 from District 21.
Holding the temporary identity badge issued by the staff, he found the tent assigned to him.
Of course, in this situation, a single room was out of the question.
Lu Bai entered the tent and glanced at the interior situation.
The tent’s interior was about ten square meters, yet there were six sets of bedding laid out on the ground.
Plus an unfolded small square table, he almost couldn’t find a place to stand.
A skinny young man was sitting cautiously at the small square table, eating the food on his food tray.
Meanwhile, three thuggish men with bare upper bodies were gathered around the skinny young man, as if supervising him eat.
Some new type of bullying?
Lu Bai couldn’t figure it out, so he first casually found an unused bedding and sat cross-legged at the edge.
At that moment, the man with an over-the-shoulder dragon tattoo, clearly the boss, discontentedly slapped the table: “Can’t you eat faster?”
The skinny young man shuddered in fright and hurriedly sped up his eating.
Seeing this, the over-the-shoulder dragon twisted his neck, and moments later, he flipped over the food tray in front of the skinny young man: “Answer when someone talks to you.”
The other two chuckled, grinning as they watched the skinny young man’s reaction.
“O-Okay… okay, I… I understand.”
“Sigh~”
The over-the-shoulder dragon pressed his shoulder with his hand, then grabbed a handful of rice that had fallen on the table and quickly smeared it on the skinny young man’s face: “Don’t waste it. Can’t you show some basic respect for grain?”
After doing this, the over-the-shoulder dragon stood up and brushed the rice grains off his palm.
As if just noticing Lu Bai, he turned around in surprise: “Yo, a newcomer.”
“The acting is a bit overdone.” Lu Bai gave his evaluation with a smile on his face.
The over-the-shoulder dragon didn’t mind, slowly walking over to squat in front of Lu Bai, pointing at the skinny young man without looking back: “That kid has no eyesight. He only got one portion when getting food. Can’t be that selfish.”
Lu Bai still wore his harmless smile, looking straight at the tattooed man in front of him.
His attitude was a bit odd, leaving the over-the-shoulder dragon silent for a moment: “Little brother, you haven’t eaten yet either, right? Go get us a few more portions.”
During this time, the other two thuggish men had also come over.
Hearing the over-the-shoulder dragon’s words, one of the men familiarly placed his hand on Lu Bai’s shoulder.
“Get moving already.”
“Isn’t it prohibited passage time now?”
Lu Bai scratched his head. During this, the smile on his face didn’t change at all.
As if wearing a fixed-expression human skin mask, paired with his calm tone, it was anomalously creepy.
The over-the-shoulder dragon suddenly raised his hand. Just from the action, it was hard to tell if he was just intimidating or really planning to strike.
Suddenly, the over-the-shoulder dragon caught sight of a team in protective clothing outside the tent from the corner of his eye and naturally lowered his hand.
“Haha, you can go get food later too.”
Two medical staff in protective clothing entered the tent, ignoring what had happened inside and starting their disinfection work on their own.
Following them, a man dressed as staff entered the tent.
The man glanced at the situation in the tent, frowned, walked over, and helped the skinny young man up.
He turned and scolded the over-the-shoulder dragon: “Gao Pangzi, trying to stir up trouble again?”
“How could that be, Brother Zhou? I’m a law-abiding citizen.”
The over-the-shoulder dragon grinned: “I was just joking with that kid.”
Zhou Zongming kept a stern face: “You better behave! Cui Qing, if you’re bullied again, come find me.”
The last sentence was directed at the skinny young man.
Faced with Zhou Zongming’s promise, Cui Qing just trembled and nodded.
Lu Bai propped his cheek with one hand, watching the drama with great interest, without speaking to draw attention.
The tent gradually filled with the unpleasant smell of disinfectant.
The medical staff were already skilled with the disinfection process. In less than a minute, the two headed to the next tent with their equipment.
Zhou Zongming comforted Cui Qing a bit and soon left as well.
He managed over a thousand people in District 7 under him, with many trivial matters, so he couldn’t spend time on just one person.
After seeing them off, Gao Pangzi, also known as the over-the-shoulder dragon, sat smiling next to Lu Bai.
“Little brother, let’s continue our chat.”