“It seems like the one with the last name Han has some ideas.” Jia Wu spoke淡淡 (indifferently).

Nan Muran could guess what Han Yingting was thinking, but she wasn’t concerned: “Our goal is to get the mutated fruits. People who are not important don’t need to be worried about.”

Nan Muran flipped through the photos of the five mutated fruit trees, comparing them to the locations Chen Jianguo gave her when he left. The coldness in her eyes grew deeper.

Especially with one of the trees, the lantern-like orange fruits were extremely familiar to her.

“What’s wrong?” Si Ye immediately noticed her subtle emotional change.

“Do these fruits look familiar?”

Si Ye took the military tablet from her hand. After seeing the fruits on the tree, his expression darkened: “The mutated fruit you gave us the other day was exactly like this one.”

“Those fifteen fruits were from the plant research institute outside the underground laboratory.” Nan Muran didn’t hide anything.

Si Ye and Eagle had both been through the underground laboratory.

Jia Wu had also heard her mention it several times, so they probably knew what had happened.

“Do you think the problem is with the base’s official internal channels, or is it just a coincidence?” Eagle couldn’t help but ask.

Since the safe house was attacked, Eagle’s trust in the base’s officials had started to waver.

He still trusted Chen Jianguo and the Special Warfare Brigade, but for others, he had to maintain a suspicious attitude.

Si Ye flipped through the images of the other trees: “Only this tree has the fruit found in the underground laboratory. We can’t determine how the military knew the location of this tree, so we can’t pinpoint where the problem lies. But we still have to be cautious.”

“We should reach Jin Town, the town nearest to the Luan Tree, by this afternoon. Let’s rest for a bit, we’ll need to take turns keeping watch tonight,” he added.

Jin Town was located at the foot of Mount Di, and it was small.

Before they entered the town, they saw the sign of the agricultural demonstration base fluttering in the wind by the roadside.

After entering the town, they noticed the two-story brick-gray houses on both sides were already dilapidated, not very exquisite, but unified.

The whole town had only two streets. The east-west street was a little longer, about five hundred meters. The north-south street was short, only about two hundred meters. It had been soaked in floodwaters during the early days of the apocalypse, causing peeling everywhere.

Strangely, although the wide street looked desolate, there were no wandering zombies, clearly indicating someone had cleaned up the area.

The cold wind blew through, and the gray buildings emitted a particularly eerie vibe before the winter night fell.

On the second floor of the buildings on both sides of the street, windows were slightly open, peering out at the three military trucks and the soldiers who had jumped down, armed with weapons.

Han Yingting jumped out of the car and immediately walked up to Si Ye’s vehicle.

Clearly, he wanted to ask Nan Muran for her opinion.

“There are people in the second-floor shops,” Si Ye quickly glanced around and noticed at least five or six windows slightly ajar.

Nan Muran looked at Han Yingting: “Let’s just find an empty house and settle down there.”

“What about those people…” Han Yingting hesitated, considering whether to tell them the location of the base.

But after seeing the cold look in Nan Muran’s eyes, he instinctively suppressed the thought: “Alright, I’ll notify them.”

What they didn’t expect was that before they took the initiative to find anyone, the people came looking for them.

Five men arrived, with a middle-aged man around fifty years old leading them.

Upon seeing Han Yingting in military attire, the man’s face squeezed together, his enthusiasm was overwhelming: “You’re here to rescue us, right? Thank you so much, our town…”

From the man’s account, the group learned that this middle-aged man was the mayor of the town.

He was living with the survivors in this town.

The town originally had over a thousand people, but now less than one-tenth were still alive, the rest had died.

There were two girls among the military-based abilities team.

Hearing the group’s story, they couldn’t help but soften and comfort them, with one girl, her braids tied up, even having tears in her eyes.

In the end, the group was warmly invited into the courtyard where the survivors were staying.

There were more than thirty men of varying ages and about ten women.

“You haven’t eaten, right? We found a lot of food and poultry after the disaster in nearby villages, so we’re not lacking food for now.” The mayor quickly led the group into the largest room in the center.

The room had a wooden long table that could seat everyone.

Seeing the mayor’s enthusiastic manner, Han Yingting couldn’t help but frown. The situation seemed a bit strange.

He had been on more than one search-and-rescue mission, but he had never encountered such behavior.

However, several members of the military team were already expressing their gratitude: “We can’t eat your food, we have dried rations.”

The mayor waved his hand, smiling: “You’re all doing important work, it’s just a meal, we have plenty. We even have some vegetables in the greenhouse, I’ll make sure you have a hearty meal.”

In the apocalypse, everyone lived off the leftover supplies from before.

Not starving to death and not eating moldy food was already fortunate; where could they find fresh meals?

Nan Muran looked at the mayor with a deeper gaze: “We’re not hungry, so we won’t eat. Could you please find us a place to stay? Preferably a suite.”

“After such a long journey, how can you not be tired?” The mayor smiled and approached, about to drag them to the dining table to wait for the meal.

Si Ye immediately stood in front of Nan Muran, his eyes cold, his tone stern, making people tremble: “Is it so difficult to arrange a place for us to stay?”

The mayor didn’t expect such a strong attitude from them. A flash of malice passed through his eyes, but he quickly plastered a smile on his face: “Not difficult at all. Er, take them to the house on the east side.”

The military ability team’s braided girl couldn’t help but frown: “The mayor is just being kind. If you don’t want to eat, then don’t, but what’s with this attitude?”

“Idiot,” Nan Muran, from behind Si Ye, spoke coldly.

“What did you say?” The girl couldn’t believe her ears after hearing Nan Muran’s direct insult.

Nan Muran tugged at Si Ye’s sleeve: “Let’s go.”

“You just cursed at me,” the girl, finally coming to her senses, was furious and naturally refused to let it go.

Nan Muran impatiently turned back: “Yes, I called you an idiot. What’s the problem?”

“What kind of person are you?” Another girl from the group stepped forward, and several of the silent men also showed discontent.

Although they were led by Nan Muran, they couldn’t let her act this unreasonable.

“Well, enjoy your meal,” Nan Muran was too lazy to talk to these fools, and she directly pulled Si Ye to leave.

Outside, a dark-skinned man watched the four of them walk out and quickly led the way.

After entering the room, the door was immediately shut. Eagle sighed deeply: “Han Yingting should not be an idiot. How can he not see the problem?”

It wasn’t strange that only a small number of people survived in a town of over a thousand.

But the survival of over thirty young, strong men and a dozen clearly attractive women… that was a big issue.