89: uninvited guest

The next morning, Shen Yuan opened her eyes, stretched, and felt her nose clear and her whole body light.

On the table next to the sickbed was a lunchbox and a thermos. Tian Ming was nowhere to be seen, likely having already gone out. A note was placed on top of the lunchbox.

The note read: “Miss, your meal is here. Eat well. Tell Dr. Wu if you want anything. It’s on me. But you need to change your habit of talking in your sleep. Suddenly blurting something out can scare someone to death.”

Shen Yuan looked at the note, a smile playing on her lips. Her boss was actually quite considerate, which was good.

Outside the Shelter, Tian Ming stood on the now-repaired city wall, applying a high-strength Graphene film to the broad outer layer of the wall.

Meng Dong stood beside him, watching Tian Ming use his superpower. As a soldier, he had unique insights into the Shelter's defense, which was why Tian Ming had sought him out.

“Done,” Tian Ming retracted his superpower. The outer layer of the city wall now had a translucent black film.

Meng Dong exclaimed, “Boss Tian Ming, your ability is truly incredible! Such a high and sturdy city wall is enough to withstand a large-scale zombie attack on the Shelter.”

Tian Ming waved his hand and said, “The height is sufficient, but we still need to arrange some firing points on the city wall. Equip them all with heavy machine guns. You should have experience with this type of defensive structure, right? I called you over to see how to arrange the firing points more scientifically.”

Meng Dong nodded and said, “The north and east sides of our Shelter are mountains, so the defensive focus should be on the southwest direction. The city wall here is almost finished, so we can build some structures similar to ancient beacon towers. Heavy machine guns can be mounted on top, and ammunition stored below. The front edge of the beacon tower should protrude forward to build an antechamber wall, which will help extend the firing range.”

Tian Ming rubbed his head and said, “Later, go find Shen Yi and get a blueprint of the Shelter. You can draw it out for me. As for how to build the antechamber wall, we still need to discuss it with Grandpa Yuan.”

Meng Dong nodded in agreement. Tian Ming continued, “How to build the defensive fortifications on the city wall, how to arrange the firing points, and how to assign personnel after they are built—I’m leaving all of this to you. My only principle is that once zombies attack, we must be able to repel them with the least possible cost.”

Meng Dong hesitated, saying, “We don’t have many people right now. If everyone is transferred to the city wall, there will be no one left to work below.”

Tian Ming smiled and said, “We have someone named Director Han in our Shelter. Originally, I had her in charge of training, but now that the enforcement team has been established, she must be very busy. All the brothers you brought are soldiers, right?”

“Yes!” Meng Dong nodded.

“Then this is good. In the early stage, you coordinate with Grandpa Yuan and have him build according to your defensive layout. The unfinished city walls can be built slowly. Transfer some people to first build the defensive fortifications in key areas. Before this snow melts, we must have a complete defensive fortification.”

Meng Dong nodded: “Mission accomplished.”

“Boss, Gouzi calling.” Gouzi’s voice came through the walkie-talkie.

Tian Ming picked up the walkie-talkie: “What is it now?”

“There are strange marks in the snow east of the Shelter, like human footprints. Do you want to come and see?”

Tian Ming frowned and immediately said, “In such cold weather, with such thick snow outside, how could there be human footprints?”

“We’re not sure either. It’s just outside the Shelter’s wall, coming down from the mountain. And the snow in this area seems to have been shoveled away quite a bit, becoming very thin.”

“I understand. I’ll come over and take a look right away.”

Tian Ming then turned to Meng Dong: “The defensive fortifications are entrusted to you. You can build them according to your requirements. You can listen to others’ opinions, and once confirmed, have Shen Yi show them to me.”

Meng Dong nodded and said, “No problem.”

After Tian Ming finished speaking, he directly took off, flying straight to the outer perimeter of the Shelter’s city wall. Although it hadn’t been snowing continuously, the snow hadn’t melted much due to the low temperature. The outer area was still a vast expanse of white, with the thinnest parts still over two meters deep.

Outside the eastern wall, extending down from the mountain, was a long, trench-like snow pit. It looked as if someone had deliberately cleared the snow to the sides. This hadn't been there yesterday, and overnight, it was impossible for someone to have nothing better to do than clear such a large area outside.

Moreover, the edges of this area were very neat, just like something excavated by humans. There were strings of footprints on the snow, leading from the snow pit on the mountain directly to the base of the Shelter’s wall.

Gouzi ran over and said, “Boss, look, these footprints must be heading in our direction.”

Tian Ming frowned and said, “When was this discovered?”

“Around noon. A patrol team makes a round along the outer perimeter. We didn’t find anything like this yesterday, so it must have happened overnight.”

Tian Ming nodded and said, “Strengthen the alert tonight. These footprints suggest quite a few people. Since they came but didn’t enter our Shelter, they are probably not ordinary people. The snow here wasn’t dug out; it looks more like it was melted away.”

Gouzi’s mind went blank, and he asked somewhat confused, “Boss, do you think it could be those super soldiers Meng Dong mentioned? Even if I sent 50 people to dig for a day, they couldn’t clear such a large area.”

“Don’t guess wildly. Who cares who they are? Even if they are so-called super soldiers, I’m still here. Since they didn’t secretly attack the Shelter, it means they don’t have ill intentions towards us.”

Tian Ming glanced at Gouzi and asked, “Who was the squad leader of the night patrol team last night? Call him over.”

“That would be me.”

A burly man emerged from the crowd. This man’s name was Zhuang Qian. He had come with Qiu Wuhui and was also one of his bodyguards. He was supposed to be sleeping after his night shift, but Gouzi had called him over again.

Zhuang Qian walked up to Tian Ming and respectfully said, “Boss, I was leading the brothers on patrol last night.”

“When you were on your routine patrol, didn’t you hear any movement?” Tian Ming asked.

Zhuang Qian shook his head: “In heavy snow, in the middle of the night, what kind of movement could there be? We patrolled last night, circling the inner perimeter of the Shelter every 30 minutes, and didn’t hear anything.”

Tian Ming couldn’t get any more information and had to give up. If they really were super soldiers, he would have to meet them. If he could win over these super soldiers, his Shelter would become even stronger.

“Gouzi, arrange three patrol teams tonight. Equip everyone with walkie-talkies. If there’s any unusual movement, notify me immediately via walkie-talkie. I will personally oversee things tonight.”

“Understood,” Gouzi replied.