125: Chapter 125 Sharing Food

Hearing General Chen's words, the mother's body trembled violently.

She raised her head, her vision blurred by tears.

Suddenly, she turned around and looked at Lin Wan.

"Lin Wan!"

Like grabbing the last straw, the mother scrambled and threw herself at Lin Wan's feet.

"Didn't your reconnaissance team go out for reconnaissance?!"

She grabbed Lin Wan's trouser leg, her voice carrying entreaty and a trace of hope:

"You must have found food, right? Please... Please give me a little food... Even if it's just a small bite."

"My child, he really is not going to make it."

Looking at the child's mother kneeling at her feet and the dying child lying on the ground not far away, Lin Wan froze entirely.

She knew this woman.

She was an ordinary cleaner in the shelter, whose husband had sacrificed himself in a Swarm raid half a year ago.

Ever since then, she had relied on meager food rations to barely support herself and her child.

"I..."

Lin Wan opened her mouth, her throat feeling as though it were blocked by something.

Looking at the frail child in the mother's arms, her heart ached as if being cut by knives.

"I'm sorry..."

Her voice trembled:

"I... I didn't find any food this time."

"My mecha's energy was depleted, and I almost didn't make it back. Everyone else on the reconnaissance team also sacrificed their lives."

The child's mother's body froze.

She stared fixedly at Lin Wan, the hope in her eyes extinguishing bit by bit.

"No... food?"

She murmured, her voice carrying despair and disbelief.

"Then my child... What will happen to my child..."

Holding the child tightly in her arms, she completely broke down, letting out a heart-wrenching cry.

Staff Officer Liu said coldly: "Lin Wan, have you seen the situation in the shelter? A few more mouths mean more people will starve to death."

Su Mingyuan was silent for a few seconds, his gaze sweeping past the mother holding the child, and then looking at the sallow-faced, hollow-eyed survivors around.

He turned around and nodded at the Longyan Warriors behind him.

"Take out all the compressed food in the tactical packs."

Zhang Dabiao was stunned for a moment: "Captain, these are our rations,"

"Execute the order."

Su Mingyuan's tone was unquestionable.

The Longyan Warriors exchanged glances and successively took out silver-white vacuum packages from their backpacks.

Those were high-energy compressed foods specially made by the Longyan base, and each package was enough to sustain an adult's physical energy for two days.

Su Mingyuan took a package, squatted down, and handed it to the mother:

"Give it to the child to eat."

The mother blankly looked at the glossy food in front of her, her whole body freezing.

"This... This is..."

She trembled as she reached out her hand, yet dared not touch it, as if it were some fragile treasure.

"Take it quickly." Su Mingyuan stuffed the food into her hands, "Tear open the outer packaging, there is nutrient paste inside, feed it to the child in small and frequent amounts."

The mother finally reacted.

She abruptly hugged the food tight, tears gushing out like a breached floodgate:

"Thank you... Thank you..."

Her voice was choked with sobs and she could not speak a complete sentence, only repeating "Thank you" over and over again.

The surrounding crowd boiled over.

"Food!"

"They have food!"

"Oh god, so much..."

Under Su Mingyuan's signal, the Longyan Warriors began to distribute the food in an orderly manner.

Tao Zhe held a clipboard and quickly tallied the number of people: "Priority for the elderly and children, one package per person."

Li Xiu handed a package of food to a frail old man.

The old man took it with trembling hands, tears rolling down, yet he could not even say a single word.

Wang Lie distributed the food to several skin-and-bones children.

The children tightly hugged the food, and for the first time, there was a gleam of light in their eyes.

The atmosphere of the entire shelter changed in an instant.

The originally hostile and vigilant gazes turned into gratitude and shock.

"These people... are good people..."

"They really shared their food with us..."

"The child is saved... My child is saved..."

Cries, laughter, and words of gratitude intertwined together.

Staff Officer Liu watched this scene, a trace of imperceptible dark light flashing deep in his eyes.

Zhao Tiezhu walked to Su Mingyuan's side and said in a muffled voice: "Brother, you guys... are good people."

General Chen leaned on his cane, looking deeply at Su Mingyuan, complex brilliance flashing in his eyes.

"Young man," the old man's hoarse voice sounded, "Where do you come from?"

Su Mingyuan said calmly: "Daxia."

"Daxia?" General Chen chewed on the name, "Good name. Follow me to the conference room, we need to talk properly."

General Chen led Su Mingyuan and the others through the narrow passage to the depths of the shelter.

The "conference room" was an abandoned subway carriage.

The carriage shell was rusted, and the windows had long been shattered, sealed off with wooden boards and sheet iron.

The carriage door emitted a harsh scraping sound, obviously having not been maintained for a long time.

Pushing open the carriage door, the scene inside was even more crude.

A table cobbled together from wooden boards and iron frames occupied the center of the carriage, its surface pitted and full of scratches.

Several dilapidated chairs were scattered about—some missing armrests, some with broken backs, barely tied and fixed with ropes.

The only illumination came from a wobbling incandescent lamp on the ceiling, emitting a dim yellow light, accompanied by a "buzzing" current sound.

Hanging on the wall was a faded map densely marked with something in red.

General Chen sat in the main seat—that was the only relatively complete chair, yet there was also a conspicuous crack on its back.

Staff Officer Liu stood behind him, still maintaining vigilance, his sharp gaze sweeping over Su Mingyuan and Tao Zhe.

Zhao Tiezhu leaned against the doorframe, his thick arms resting on the gun handles at his waist, ready to deal with sudden situations at any time.

An old man wearing broken glasses sat on General Chen's right side.

He was about seventy years old, with sparse and messy grey-white hair, and his lab coat's original color could no longer be discerned, patch piled upon patch. On one lens of his glasses was a prominent crack, barely glued together with tape.

"This is Professor Li," General Chen introduced, "The tech consultant of the shelter, and also our only surviving mecha maintenance expert."

Professor Li nodded, a gleam of sharpness flashing in his turbid eyes.

Besides them, there were also several high-ranking officials of the shelter—material administrator Li Xia, defense captain Wang Meng, logistics director Zhang Bing—all with faces of fatigue and vigilance.

Su Mingyuan and Tao Zhe walked into the conference room and sat down opposite General Chen.

Lin Wan stood behind Su Mingyuan, while the rest of the Longyan Warriors remained on the periphery of the carriage to maintain guard.

"Lin Wan," General Chen said in a deep voice, "Report the mission situation first."

Lin Wan took a deep breath, stepped forward, stood at attention, and saluted:

"Reporting to the General, the Seventh Reconnaissance Team executed the 37th outing mission."

Her voice was steady, yet attentive people could hear the repressed tremor within it.

"Mission objective: Northwest Area Industrial Zone 17, searching for usable mecha parts, food, and drinking water."

The conference room was frighteningly quiet.

Everyone stared at Lin Wan, waiting for her next words.

"On the third day of the mission..."

Lin Wan's voice began to tremble:

"We encountered a Swarm ambush."

"It was a trap," she closed her eyes, "The Swarm may have already evolved the intelligence to hunt humans."

"They laid an inescapable net in the industrial zone—there were Mantis Insects on the ground, Flying Insects in the sky, and countless Engineer Bugs all around."