Elder Jiang chuckled softly, his attitude friendly.
"Didn't you want to take people from our base earlier? How about this - you can choose freely. Take as many people as you want, except for my grandson Zhe, of course."
"What benefit would I get from taking so many people?" Yun Xiaoxiao raised an eyebrow.
"Besides, you're already overwhelmed and can't support this many people anymore. Wouldn't I be helping you reduce your burden by taking people away? Why are you acting like I'd be getting such a great deal?"
Elder Jiang burst out laughing.
This little girl's mind was quite quick. She wasn't one to be taken advantage of either.
What she said wasn't wrong. The base currently didn't have enough supplies to feed so many idle people.
If Yun Xiaoxiao could help take some people away, it would actually be good for the base.
"How about this then - for each person you take, our base will compensate you with an extra 10 pounds of rice?"
"Elder Jiang, this..."
A subordinate behind Elder Jiang wanted to stop him.
Letting her take people away and giving her resources on top of that seemed far too unfair!
But before he could finish speaking, Elder Jiang raised his hand to cut him off.
He frowned but didn't say anything more.
Yun Xiaoxiao shook her head, "I don't want extra people. I'll just take these three."
She pointed at Zhong Mingsheng, Fan Wenying, and Feng Jin, the director of the Agricultural Sciences Academy.
The base hadn't been formally established yet, so they didn't need too many people.
She had never built a base before and was still an amateur. With too many people, she wouldn't be able to manage them all.
"How about this - a flat price of 200 pounds of rice."
The subordinate behind Elder Jiang widened his eyes.
Two hundred pounds of rice!
This kid really dared to ask for so much!
They were the ones extorting here, weren't they?
Just as he thought Elder Jiang wouldn't agree, Elder Jiang directly approved it.
"Deal."
He was dumbfounded.
Soon, Elder Jiang had people bring over the 200 pounds of rice.
He even sent an extra 100 pounds of flour.
He thanked Yun Xiaoxiao again for saving his grandson.
Yun Xiaoxiao waved it off nonchalantly.
"We're even now."
After saying that, she got in the car and left.
Watching the vehicles gradually disappear into the distance, Elder Jiang pressed his lips together, a glimmer of admiration flashing in his eyes again.
What a perceptive little girl.
He knew that on the surface, she was asking him for rice, but in reality, she had seen through Long Zhe's guilt.
When she said they were even, she meant that she had saved Long Zhe twice, and he, as the grandfather, had repaid that debt with the rice.
From now on, neither would owe the other anything.
"They've gone. Let's head back," Elder Jiang said meaningfully, patting Long Zhe's shoulder once the cars had disappeared at the end of the road.
Long Zhe withdrew his gaze and nodded.
"Alright."
---
Three vehicles sped along the deserted highway.
Lu Chen drove, carrying Yun Xiaoxiao, Mu Yang, Xiao Feng, and Nie Yizhou.
Ling Jing drove alone in the car behind, which was filled with supplies.
Ye Shuyuan drove the ambulance, which was the largest and carried the most people.
It held Zhong Mingsheng, Fan Wenying, Du Juan, Feng Jin, as well as Grandma Niu, Fat Uncle, Qin Zhi, and Nan Yi.
Nie Yizhou turned his head to look at Ling Jing following behind, frowning slightly.
"Kid, are we really bringing him along?"
Because Ling Jing had suddenly taken Yun Xiaoxiao away before, Nie Yizhou couldn't help but dislike him.
Yun Xiaoxiao nodded, "Mm, he's not as bad as you might think."
A person's instinctive actions don't lie.
Every time she had been in danger before, Ling Jing had stepped in front of her to protect her.
Moreover, she could see that Ling Jing's eyes had lost their will to live.
For some reason, she felt a strange urge to pull him back from the edge of the abyss.
This idea was a bit crazy.
Logically speaking, someone the Scumbag Detector couldn't read shouldn't be kept close.
But...
She'd observe him for now.
She trusted her intuition that she hadn't misjudged him.
But during this probation period, she would still keep a close eye on Ling Jing.
If he showed any ill intent, she believed that she and Lu Chen working together could deal with him without much trouble.
Hearing that Yun Xiaoxiao intended to keep Ling Jing, Nie Yizhou pursed his lips but didn't say anything more.
"Little one, where are we going now?" Mu Yang asked.
Yun Xiaoxiao looked straight ahead, "To our very own base."
"Our own base?"
Mu Yang and the others silently repeated these words.
"That's right. From now on, we'll have a place to call home."
Yun Xiaoxiao's eyes sparkled as she broke into a bright smile.
The others felt her joy and started to get excited too.
At the same time, they all felt a surge of motivation.
In their imagination, the base Yun Xiaoxiao spoke of would be a place they'd find and then build up bit by bit themselves.
Even so, they were very happy about it.
No matter how nice someone else's base was, it still belonged to others. There was always a sense of being a guest in someone else's home.
It was better for them to build their own place brick by brick.
As the saying goes, a golden cage is still a cage - there's no place like home.
Besides, they believed that as long as they were together, there was nothing they couldn't accomplish.
Who knows, they might even end up creating a super powerful base!
Their eyes shone with eagerness, itching to arrive at their destination right away.
"Girl, where exactly is this place you're talking about?" Xiao Feng asked.
Yun Xiaoxiao's lips curved up, "You'll see when we get there."
Ever since Little Enemy told her she could decide the location of the base herself, she had been thinking about the most suitable place.
First, it couldn't be too far away. A long journey would expose them to too many dangers on the road.
Second, it couldn't be too close to the city, to avoid zombie hordes migrating en masse towards the base.
Third, it couldn't be near mountains or water, since animals and plants would mutate later, making those areas full of hidden dangers.
After much consideration, she realized there was only one suitable place near Rong City.
That was a large-scale new agricultural experimental plantation located in the suburbs between Rong City and Xiang City.
This place was a vast plain, with no mountains or water nearby. The terrain was flat and expansive, far from urban areas, with very few residents.
Although remote, it had convenient transportation, with a main road directly connecting Rong City and Xiang City.
They might even be able to harvest vegetables and fruits from the greenhouses there when they arrived.
It was perfect!
She knew about this place because in her previous life, she and Lu Chen had passed by it on their way to Xiang City.
The vehicles continued to speed forward.
Yun Xiaoxiao was also pondering how to move the base from her spatial storage to the outside world without anyone noticing.
Just after 3 PM, they arrived outside a small town.
This town was on the necessary route to reach the plantation.
Originally, they wouldn't have needed to worry about the zombies in the town, as there was a road outside that bypassed it.
But now, the road in front of them was packed with a dense crowd of zombies!
