Night of Despair

Chapter 88: Situation 2
 

Silence.

Everyone present didn’t know what to say.

Yu Hong was aware of the dangers, but he never expected it to be so perilous.

“The situation is such, Mr. Yu, the support team should arrive within about ten days. It might be delayed or could come earlier; I don’t know how things are on your end…”

“I have no issues.” Yu Hong calculated his stock of protein bars, his strongest supply, which consisted of dried lizard from Li Rushan—one bag of ten sticks, enough for a normal person for two days, but he could stretch it to ten days. That was a fivefold difference.

And now, there were over two hundred protein bars stored in his cave, a mixture of goods from the last supply run and what Li Rushan had bred himself.

Previously, Mr. Yu had been able to provide for everyone in the surrounding area by breeding alone, and though Li Rushan’s efficiency wasn’t as high as Mr. Yu’s, his breeding could amply feed the three of them.

“That settles it then,” Wei Hongye said sternly, “The pressure on the front lines is immense, and gaps are being slowly released to ease the pressure buildup. From what we can tell, in a month, the Gate of Despair will continuously pour forth the Black Disaster. The threat in the wilderness around you will spike drastically, and you’ll face the first wave of attack. Everyone… try to stay as close to the big cities as possible.”

Communications ceased.

Wei Shanshan cried fiercely, her eyes swelling up like peaches.

“How do you plan to take care of Wei Shanshan and her mother?” Li Rushan asked Yu Hong.

“Can they stay with you?” Yu Hong thought about his own place, knowing he couldn’t let others into his current safe house.

The only option was the post office basement.

“That’s fine, but I can’t cover food and drinks, or medicine…” Li Rushan spread his hands, “I’m now responsible for four people; it’s quite the burden.”

“…So what now? Do you have any extra mushroom cultivation boxes?” Yu Hong inquired, realizing he needed to start sourcing his own food.

It was inevitable, he just hadn’t planned for it so soon, but the situation with Wei Shanshan hurried his plans.

“The cultivation boxes are easy to make. What we lack are the spores. The group from the village has some; you could trade with them. You have a manual on how to grow them, right? From the records of old Yu we found before. Is it still around?” Li Rushan asked.

“No problem,” Yu Hong replied, his gaze falling on the tear-streaked face of Wei Shanshan.

“Let’s go, head over to your mother’s first, and we’ll bring her back,” he said decisively, ready to act quickly now that they had struck a deal.

Wei Shanshan shivered and nodded eagerly.

She wanted to say something but fell silent, standing behind Yu Hong with her head bowed.

“By the way, Li, with the supply team gone, does that mean…?” Yu Hong suddenly thought of this.

“Sigh… It’s not the same channel, but mail delivery will become much harder. I’ll let you know when I have more details,” Li said helplessly.

Without further conversation, Yu Hong left the stone house with Wei Shanshan, carrying the local area network communicator, and returned to his cave sanctuary.

He didn’t allow Wei Shanshan to enter, just gave her a talisman-engraved wooden board to stand with outside the courtyard.

Then he stored his things, took out various tools, and quickly began searching for a spot against a corner of the courtyard wall.

Having found the right place, he dragged lumber from the nearby woods and rapidly began constructing a makeshift wooden hut.

By the afternoon.

Wei Shanshan stood numbly outside the half-person-high courtyard wall, watching as Yu Hong swiftly dragged log after log from the forest.

He carried one in each arm, transporting two at a time, and easily dragged logs that weighed hundreds of pounds into the courtyard.

Next, he took out an axe and saw. His energy, seemingly inexhaustible and requiring no rest, chopped and sawed fiercely; within half an hour, he had turned the logs into neat wooden planks.

He then used the planks to build a simple wooden hut, laying a layer on the ground, erecting tall and thick planks on all four sides, topping it with a pointed slanting roof, then coated the remaining waterproof paint, and finally pressed some disordered leaves onto the top.

A small wooden hut, two meters wide, three meters long, just enough for a large bed, was complete.

The hut stood over two meters tall, a light brown all over, resembling a big doghouse. Because it clung to the courtyard wall and had a thick plank layer laid on the inside, it looked surprisingly decent.

“Let’s go. It’s getting dark; let’s pick up your mother first.” Yu Hong dusted off his hands, glanced at the strengthened Red Value detector, and saw that it had finished.

The enhanced detector was smaller, fitting in the hand like a smartphone, and its surface was smoother. Aside from that, it maintained its black color and LCD screen, unchanged.

Yu Hong pressed the single round button to power it on.

Beep.

A series of numbers appeared on the screen after the short sound.

‘Current Red Value: -79.348.’

Impressive!

Yu Hong inwardly praised.

Previously, the precision could only reach 79; now, it had been heightened to include three decimal places.

He closely inspected the upper-right corner of the LCD screen, where the battery icon was displayed, reading the tiny font below it: Remaining time—56 hours 07 minutes.

‘So, with the device on, it can still be used for fifty-six hours. Definitely longer if switched off!’ Yu Hong sighed with relief in his mind.

Before the enhancement, the Red Value detector’s battery life extended only a few hours, and he kept it mostly off, only turning it on for testing when something seemed amiss.

But now, after the enhancement, he could keep the detector on for an extended period to monitor the surroundings continuously.

‘Just a few hours of strengthening and it’s already worth it!’ Yu Hong went back into the cave, took another Red Value detector, and initiated a second enhancement, planning to prepare one for Shanshan with the speech impediment.

After completing this, he beckoned Wei Shanshan, and they set out towards Baiqiu Village.

They hastened their pace, following the familiar gravel path to the village’s entrance.

The entry they approached had been blocked with furniture stacked as an obstacle, leaving only a small access point.

Two young men on guard sat behind the obstacles, each wielding a long machete and a handgun.

“`

The two seemed to be making small talk, using a heavily accented dialect from some region.

Yu Hong couldn’t understand, so he motioned for Wei Shanshan to go up and negotiate.

His goal this time was to escort someone, and if possible, he wanted to avoid trouble and disputes.

Wei Shanshan nodded, approached the obstacle from the side, and knocked.

Thud thud.

“I’m Wei Shanshan from team three, please let me in, thank you.”

The two men glanced up at the outside.

The first thing they saw wasn’t Wei Shanshan, but the towering, exaggerated dark figure behind her.

A hulking figure standing one meter ninety, clad in a cumbersome black bulletproof suit, wearing a helmet, with legs as thick as tree stumps, and a black, thick-barreled pistol holstered at his waist.

They hadn’t noticed this person approaching, but now upon closer inspection, they feared that if this person were to start trouble with such equipment…

“Shanshan, weren’t you out looking for medicine?” one of them asked cautiously. “Who is this person?”

“I’ve found a doctor, please open the door, I need to check on my mom,” Wei Shanshan repeated.

“You can come in, but your companion here… if he wants to enter, please remove his gun and also cannot come in wearing that gear,” another person hesitated before responding.

“Mr. Yu is the doctor I found!” Wei Shanshan argued loudly.

“What kind of doctor comes equipped like that!? Cut it out! Are you coming in or not, if not, just move along!” the individual became impatient.

“It’s okay, you go in and help your mom out; I’ll wait here,” Yu Hong instructed.

If unnecessary, he had no intention of getting into a needless conflict with these people.

Moreover, his gear did indeed appear dangerous at first glance.

Wei Shanshan bowed gratefully to him.

“Then I’ll go now. Please wait a moment.” She quickly squeezed through the barriers, whispered something to the two men, and then hurried off along the narrow path between the houses.

Soon, in less than five minutes, she emerged along the path, supporting a woman in her thirties.

The woman looked pale, was coughing incessantly, and her lips were cracked from apparent dehydration.

It was clear that although older, the woman retained a certain sharpness in her delicate features; she closely resembled Wei Shanshan, but lacked cuteness and prettiness, exuding more of a competent career woman’s aura.

Her body was fuller, and she wore a grimy grey tracksuit with black sports shoes smeared with stains and mud. Her long black hair was tied with a band, revealing a neck as pale as her complexion.

‘At a glance, this woman seems difficult to deal with,’ Yu Hong assessed from a distance, coming to an unconscious conclusion.

Clearly, the reason for Wei Shanshan’s meek nature was probably due to being used to having all aspects of her life decided for her, unable to resist, and being in a long-term dominated position, leading her to be this way.

And now it seemed that her mother was likely the dominant force.

Watching the two women slowly approach, passing by the two door guards, who kept their distance as if avoiding a plague, for fear of catching a cough from Wei Shanshan’s mother.

Yu Hong also felt uneasy, worried that the woman’s illness might be contagious.

Fortunately, he was wearing a breathing filter and had already set up a small cabin for the two to live in.

He had moved the luminous grass from the underground of the cabin to another place, essentially carving out a small radiation-free zone within the yard for them to dwell.

“So you must be Mr. Yu? Sorry for the trouble this time. I’m Qiu Yanxi, Shanshan’s mother,” Wei Shanshan’s mother spoke after coming out of the village, surveying Yu Hong.

“It’s fine, just business. Can we speed things up? We need to be back in the safe house before dark,” Yu Hong said in a deep voice.

After speaking, he saw the troubled expression on the other’s face, knowing it definitely couldn’t be rushed.

“Shall I carry you? Would you mind?”

After glancing back at the village and noticing only two girls who had come out to watch, Qiu Yanxi’s eyes darkened, and then she turned back.

“I don’t mind, thank you for your trouble,” she said softly.

“Okay.” Yu Hong stretched his arms and then suddenly reached out, grabbing the back of Wei Shanshan’s clothes with one hand and Qiu Yanxi’s with the other.

Then with a lift of his hands.

“Ah!!!” x2.

Amid two screams of terror, he carried one in each hand, hanging in the air like clothes on a hanger, limbs splayed, quickly descending the slope.

Yu Hong’s strength, after his breakthrough, had increased so much that grabbing a person one-handed was as easy as picking up a piece of cardboard—effortlessly light.

The two of them together were just slightly heavier than his giant wooden shield and Wolf Fang Club.

At most one hundred and seventy or eighty kilograms.

Before his breakthrough, he could swing the giant wooden shield and the Wolf Fang Club at full strength for a few minutes, not even taking into account the endurance provided by his Inner Qi.

After the breakthrough, his strength had surged, making it all the more effortless.

Within minutes, they reached the safe house.

Yu Hong stuffed the two into the cabin in the yard, then went into the cave to grab a cotton blanket to throw inside, successfully accomplishing the task.

The next step was medicine, the enhanced effect of the anti-inflammatory drug lasted just over two hours. He planned to enhance it before using it on them, as he had promised to take care of the two and should be a bit more conscientious.

But now it was dark, time was probably too tight, and to ensure the other two’s survival outside, he had to provide some security.

Yu Hong dug out candles he hadn’t used for a long time, then poured a cup of hot water, got two protein bars, and took them to the two women.

Then, with a bang, he shut the door and left them to it.