262: Chapter 262 News That Can't Be Bought with Gold

Yu Qingyi returned to her temporary room.

She did not request firearms from logistics.

She only took off that old hair clip, wiped it clean bit by bit with her cuff, and pinned it back into her hair.

The hair clip was old.

There was even a tiny crack along the edge.

Yet she wiped it very carefully.

Her mother used to say that a young girl's hair shouldn't be messy, or she would look unkempt.

After the apocalypse, many things were gone.

But she still wanted to keep her hair neat.

A short dagger.

Two compressed biscuit rations.

A bottle of purified water.

A down jacket.

She smoothed out the down jacket, like preparing to go out for a less-than-dignified date before the apocalypse.

A knock sounded at the door.

Zhao Ya stood at the door, holding an emergency kit.

"Miss Yu, Housekeeper Su asked me to bring this."

Yu Qingyi took it and opened it to take a look.

Hemostatic powder.

Anti-inflammatory medication.

Water purification tablets.

Disposable bandages.

There wasn't much.

But everything could save a life.

Zhao Ya leaned against the doorframe and said, "If you need anything else, tell me. Housekeeper Su has given you Level 2 clearance; you can requisition items from the warehouse."

"This is enough."

Zhao Ya paused for a moment.

"You don't need to be polite with me; it's not mine anyway."

Yu Qingyi smiled.

"This is a personal matter, and I don't want to waste more of Tiangong No. 1's resources."

Zhao Ya looked at her for two seconds and pursed her lips.

"You decent people are such a hassle."

Yu Qingyi fastened the emergency kit.

"Being a hassle is also my last bit of dignity."

Outside the door, Lin Yuan was already standing there.

There was no one behind him.

For the first time, Yu Qingyi failed to maintain that standard polite smile.

"The guard you mentioned, is it yourself?"

Lin Yuan looked at her.

"You are worth it."

[Ding! Target Yu Qingyi (Attractiveness 87), Favorability +2%, current Favorability 10%.]

Yu Qingyi lowered her head.

"I will try my best not to hold you back."

Lin Yuan walked out.

"There is something watching in Shanghai."

"If a large group goes in, it will only scare them away."

Yu Qingyi followed.

"Understood."

The two did not take the george patton.

That car was too conspicuous.

They switched to an inconspicuous SUV, left Cloud Top Palace, and headed for Shanghai.

After the last battle in Shanghai, the main roads had been cleared once by Zhao Dingshan's men.

Wrecked cars were pushed to the roadside.

Corpses were frozen in the crust of snow.

Occasionally, a few stray zombies would pounce from street corners, but before they could get close, they were casually dealt with by Lin Yuan.

The SUV didn't stop much along the way.

Half a day later, the car arrived at an abandoned toll station.

Lieutenant Colonel Liu Zheng, wearing his military uniform, stood beside an abandoned truck.

He handed a paper document to Lin Yuan.

"This is the original record."

"The information comes from a temporary registrar."

"He was responsible for the registration of transient survivors in Sanlintang."

Lieutenant Colonel Liu Zheng paused.

"This is what he left behind before he went missing."

Lin Yuan opened the paper.

The handwriting was very messy.

[Female, around fifty-five years old, carrying a blue cloth medicine bag.]

[Male, around fifty-seven years old, old injury on the left leg.]

Below that were two blurry photos.

Lieutenant Colonel Liu Zheng said, "When the technicians were matching them yesterday, they found that the photos had over 70% similarity with Yu Qingyi's parents."

"That's why I sent you the message."

Yu Qingyi stared at the photos.

She didn't speak.

She just let her fingers rest on the edge of the photos for a long time.

Lin Yuan closed the paper.

"The registrar went missing?"

Lieutenant Colonel Liu Zheng nodded.

"Last time, Miss Lin took away a large number of zombies in Shanghai, and many survivors emerged from every nook and cranny."

"Shanghai's population base is too large."

"Sanlintang is the toughest nut to crack."

The roar of a car came from behind.

Zhao Dingshan had arrived.

After all, Shanghai was his territory.

As soon as he got out of the car, he looked at Lieutenant Colonel Liu Zheng first.

"You are breaking the rules!"

"Why are you dragging Mr. Lin into our mess?!"

Lieutenant Colonel Liu Zheng stood at attention.

"Yes, I admit I had selfish motives when I saw Yu Qingyi's parents."

"But we have already lost three groups of people there."

"There are still hundreds of thousands of survivors in Shanghai to look after."

"If I don't ask Mr. Lin, the next batch to go in will still be our own people."

Zhao Dingshan's face was sullen.

He looked at Lin Yuan again.

Words reached his lips, but he swallowed them back.

A few seconds later, he spoke.

"The old lanes are dense, the alleys are narrow, and the residents all know each other."

He paused.

"I can fight positional warfare."

"Survivor management and grassroots social networks are not my strengths."

"Sometimes, I really want to just flatten the place with artillery."

"But I know I can't."

Lin Yuan said calmly, "Knowing your shortcomings is better than pretending to be strong."

Lieutenant Colonel Liu Zheng's mouth twitched.

Only Lin Yuan would dare to respond to that.

Zhao Dingshan handed over a highest-level pass.

"Do you need me to send a team to follow?"

"No need."

Lin Yuan took the pass.

"Don't alert Sanlintang."

Zhao Dingshan frowned.

"They have armed forces inside."

Lin Yuan said, "That's why I'm going."

Zhao Dingshan stopped talking.

That was true.

No matter how strong they were in the alleys, they couldn't hide a nuclear bomb.

The person in front of him was someone who could catch a nuclear bomb with his bare hands.

Lin Yuan patted Lieutenant Colonel Liu Zheng on the shoulder.

"How did you know I would come, kid?"

Lieutenant Colonel Liu Zheng gave a dry laugh.

"The last time I got slapped, Feng Qingwu was there."

"You definitely wouldn't view someone like Yu Qingyi as a regular field agent."

His voice lowered a bit more.

"Besides, someone who is good-looking and capable of getting things done... hehehe."

Zhao Dingshan's eyelid twitched.

This kid really isn't afraid of death.

Lin Yuan glanced at Lieutenant Colonel Liu Zheng.

Lieutenant Colonel Liu Zheng immediately shut up.

The car stopped on the outskirts of Sanlintang.

Further in, the car couldn't go.

Iron gates.

Red ropes.

Abandoned electric scooters.

The local survivors had dismantled the intersections into a maze.

Strips of cloth of different colors hung on utility poles and clotheslines.

As the wind blew, the cloth strips swayed.

Like a group of silent eyes.

Yu Qingyi stopped at the intersection, not rushing to go in.

She looked at the cloth strips for a few seconds.

"White cloth means a dead end."

"Red cloth means someone lives there."

"Blue cloth should be a supply point."

Lin Yuan asked, "Are you sure?"

"Not sure."

Yu Qingyi said softly, "But when people in the old lanes make marks, they don't do it for outsiders to see, only for their own people."

Lin Yuan nodded.

"Lead the way."

The two walked into the alley.

Several gazes swept over from broken windows, door cracks, and behind clotheslines.

Lin Yuan didn't care.

Yu Qingyi didn't look either.

Her footsteps were very steady.

Only the fingers under her cuffs were clenched tightly.

Five minutes later.

Following the blue cloth strips, Yu Qingyi stopped in front of a hot water stall.

The stall was very small.

An old woman sat by a coal stove, holding iron tongs.

Three enamel cups were lined up on a wooden board.

The rims of the cups were chipped.

Yu Qingyi didn't ask directly.

She first took out a small piece of compressed biscuit.

"Granny, I'd like to buy a cup of hot water."

The old woman didn't take it.

She lifted her eyelids.

"Outsiders?"

Yu Qingyi replied to her in a Shanghai accent.

"I lived in Puxi a long time ago."

"Times are chaotic now, and no matter where I go, I feel like an outsider."

The old woman's gaze softened a little.

She picked up a piece of coal and shoved it into the stove.

"Sit down."

Yu Qingyi sat on a small stool, looking at the coal stove.

"It's not easy to keep things going in the old lanes."

The old woman snorted.

"Living one day at a time."

"Fortunately, the man-eating monsters have decreased by more than half recently."

"Otherwise, this old woman would have been dead long ago."

Yu Qingyi held the hot water, not in a hurry to drink.

"I'm looking for two relatives."

"We got separated."

"I have to ask around everywhere."

The old woman's action of picking up coal paused.

Lin Yuan stood by, not speaking.

Yu Qingyi continued to ask, "A woman, over fifty, carrying a blue cloth medicine bag."

"A man, his leg isn't very good."

The old woman raised her eyes.

"Haven't seen them."

Yu Qingyi pursed her lips.

She took out a gold bracelet from her handbag.

"I just want to know which way they went."

The old woman stared at the gold bracelet.

After a while, she shook her head.

"Gold can't be eaten now."

She held out five fingers.

"Five packs of compressed biscuits."

Yu Qingyi was still smiling.

But the smile faded a little.

Lin Yuan raised his hand.

A large bag of compressed biscuits landed on the wooden table.

The old woman's eyes lit up immediately.

Her hand had already reached the opening of the bag.

The next second.

The entire bag of biscuits vanished into thin air.

The old woman's hand froze in mid-air.

The coal tongs hit the edge of the stove with a "clang."

The gazes from the door cracks around them also retreated a bit.

An Esper!

These three words were more effective than a gun.

Lin Yuan looked at her.

"If the information is accurate, these are yours."

"If the information is false, you can taste the coal."

The old woman's throat moved.

"The people you are looking for were taken away by some locals."

Yu Qingyi immediately asked, "Are they still alive?"

The old woman didn't answer.

Yu Qingyi asked, "Where?"

The old woman put down the coal tongs, looked at Lin Yuan again, and lowered her voice.

"Anji Hall."

After these three words fell, a door nearby gently closed.

The entire alley seemed to fall silent for a moment.

Lin Yuan threw the compressed biscuits back onto the table.

He took Yu Qingyi's hand.

Yu Qingyi stood up and still bowed politely.

"Thank you, Granny."

Then she turned and left.

After walking a dozen steps, Lin Yuan felt her hand trembling violently.

He didn't point it out.

He just handed over the map.

Yu Qingyi took a deep breath.

Her fingertips landed on the map.

"Here."

"It used to be an old Chinese medicine shop."

"I came here once with my parents when I was a child."

Lin Yuan looked at that point.

Anji Hall was less than eight hundred meters away from them.

But there were seven alleys in between.

Three dead ends.

And an unmarked area of old residential buildings.

Eight hundred meters.

In a place like this, it was no different from eight kilometers.

Yu Qingyi's voice was very soft.

"Mr. Lin, what if the people in Anji Hall refuse to let them go?"

Lin Yuan didn't look back.

"Then we'll find another group who is willing to let them go."