I’m the City Lord of the Last Days

Chapter 16: Exposed

[ Mian’an City, Yamu Villa District, Inside of He Family’s Mansion POV ]

Song Xingcheng turned around and picked up the transparent water cup on the bedside table. Sure enough, there were only three energy beads the size of pearls in the water cup, and there was also a piece of dregs the size of a millet grain.

    Song Xingcheng thought about the content of the novel, and suddenly realized that the little piece of dregs was actually the fourth energy bead, but the energy in it was about to be exhausted.

    As mentioned in the novel, if human beings carry energy beads with them for a long time, their physical fitness will gradually improve. Correspondingly, the energy in the energy beads will be consumed, and will gradually become smaller until they dissipate.

    In other words, he consumed 1 energy bead in one night?

    Song Xingcheng rubbed the back of his head, but he didn’t know if this speed was normal, because “Song Xingcheng” in the novel never got extra energy beads besides building the system’s buildings, and he didn’t have enough energy beads to consume in his sleep. So he can only learn from them now and compare.

    Tentatively clenching his fist, Song Xingcheng didn’t feel anything unusual.

    Then he moved his body. He fired a lot of guns yesterday when he touched guns for the first time. When he got up this morning, he didn’t feel any obvious pain in his wrists and shoulders. Maybe it was because of the energy beads?

    Song Xingcheng recalled that the “Song Xingcheng” in the novel gradually showed powers one month after the end of the world. Now that he has energy beads to assist him, maybe the powers will appear earlier!

    After happily putting away the last three energy beads, Song Xingcheng walked out of the room and down the stairs.

    This morning, apart from He Qianshan and Song Xingcheng, Chetian Qiufeng, and Zhao Zhenhai also gathered in the lobby of the main building.

    In fact, Zhao Zhenhai got up very early in order to ask Han Qinmin, who got up early to exercise, how to use guns and weapons. The He Family Mansion was safe and comfortable, and he didn’t want the children to be kicked out because of his incompetence.

    The breakfast is prepared by the housekeeper, Uncle Fang. There are buns, siomai, deep-fried dough sticks, soy milk, and porridge in the Chinese style, and hamburgers, sandwiches, sausages, fried eggs, and milk in the Western style. Although most of them are heated with semi-finished products, the taste is worse than homemade ones. A few, but a large amount, plus vegetable salad and fruit platter, is rich enough for breakfast.

    After breakfast, the two new arrivals were assigned to Han Qinmin to be in charge, and He Qianshan gave today’s task:

    “Today, let’s clean up the entire Yamu Villa District first. If we can finish it in the morning, we will go to another large shopping mall in the afternoon. It depends on the situation.”

    Everyone nodded to express their understanding. He Qianshan was not ready to act together because there were too many people. He led Song Xingcheng and Zheng Nianhao, and Han Qinmin led Chetian Qiufeng and Zhao Zhenhai. They divided into two teams to act at the same time.

    Six copies of the layout map of the entire Yamu Villa District were copied, and each team had only one copy. The cleaning order of each team was also clearly marked on the map.

    After one final check of the plan, walkie-talkies available within ten kilometers were distributed, and the two teams left the He Family Mansion separately.

[ Mian’an City, Inside of Yamu Villa District POV ]

    To clean up the Yamu Villa District today, Zheng Nianhao didn’t drive an off-the-road vehicle but drove a sightseeing car for transportation, which is the kind of sightseeing car that is open on all sides and are common in scenic spots.

    The Villas in the Yamu Villa District are scattered enough that there is no need to worry about the zombies gathering to form a large scale, so the vehicle is convenient for transportation. Of course, it is also very important to be able to hold two ladders. What if you need to climb over the wall?

    According to the plan, the three of He Qianshan first arrived at another Yang Family Villa which also occupied a large area.

    He Qianshan rang the doorbell at the gate of the villa, and after waiting for two minutes, someone connected to the intercom. He Qianshan was sure, and so he asked directly: “How is the situation at home? Do you need help?”

    “He Qianshan?” The person on the opposite side seemed a little surprised, and then laughed, “Second Young Master He is really free enough. I saw that you just moved back home yesterday. I don’t even know how many cars, and today you are eyeing our small family again?”

    He Qianshan raised his eyebrows, and he could tell from the tone that the other party was in good condition, so he said goodbye: “It seems that you are in good condition, take care of yourself.” After speaking, he turned and left.

    The other party didn’t say anything, they just hung up the communication with a “hum”.

    As soon as He Qianshan took his seat, Zheng Nianhao drove the sightseeing car away.

    Song Xingcheng couldn’t help but cast a few more glances at the Yang Family Villa, which was gradually falling behind but said nothing. In the Yamu Villa District, there lived several wealthy old Mian’an families, and the relationship between them was so intricate that outsiders couldn’t understand or explain it clearly, and he wasn’t interested in getting involved.

    Of course, the few villas they explored first were not arranged according to location, but according to their relationship with the He family before the end of the world.

    Except for the first Yang family who was not close to He Qianshan but actually was with He Qianshan’s grandfather, if there were any survivors in the subsequent families, they all expressed full enthusiasm and gratitude for He Qianshan’s arrival.

    As for Song Xingcheng, the Song family was originally created by his grandfather, without any relatives to help. With the death of her grandfather and mother, and her mother’s sale of the Song family company before her death, replacing it with two residential buildings for her son, Song Xingcheng completely faded out of the upper circle of Mian’an City. The neighbors in the Yamu Villa District don’t have much contact. So he doesn’t care about the order of rescue since it all depends on He Qianshan’s arrangement.

    Every time they went to a villa, they would ring the doorbell first to try to communicate. If no one responded, the three of them would try their best to clean up the zombies in the courtyard and then leave. As for the zombies locked in the villa room, it doesn’t matter if they don’t clean them up.

    The best situation is natural when someone responds to the doorbell. Whether they are opening the door, or probing through the window to communicate, it still means that there are survivors in the villa. He Qianshan would ask if he needed help, and the host said he didn’t need help, so they left directly.

    If the owner’s family expressed that they needed help, and they couldn’t open the door for them, the three of them might need to set up a ladder to climb into the courtyard wall.

    The ones that took the time were the villas where the owner asked for help. Most of the owners who have asked for help were family members or helpers turned into zombies. As a result, the survivors were forced to hide in the room and could not leave.

    After being rescued by He Qianshan, some of the survivors who had been hungry all day and night almost cried with excitement.

    In this case, He Qianshan mostly replied to them blankly and then said that there was still a heavy task to take away.

    Just like cleaning up the villas one by one, at nine o’clock in the morning, He Qianshan and the three had almost finished cleaning up their mission objectives. At this moment, Han Qinmin suddenly sent a message through the walkie-talkie, with a rare urgent tone. Explaining only a few sentences briefly, he let He Qianshan and others rush to his position as soon as possible.

    He Qianshan’s expression froze, and he signaled Zheng Nianhao to speed up. The small sightseeing car drove at a limited speed, and the rear wheels were all empty when turning. Song Xingcheng hurriedly grabbed the guardrail nervously.

    What is more nervous is his little heart. If I heard correctly, the location given by Han Qinmin is where the wooden house he built by the Xinghu Lake is located. Could it be that his system building has been noticed?

    He Qianshan was worried that Song Xingcheng was afraid, so he put his hands on Song Xingcheng’s shoulders to hold him down, acting as a safety belt, but Song Xingcheng became even more nervous.

[ Mian’an City, Yamu Villa District, Xinghu Lake POV ]

    Seeing the three figures of Han Qinmin’s group from a distance, He Qianshan probably knew where the problem was. After a day of not noticing that there was a row of neatly arranged wooden houses of the same style on the shore of Xinghu Lake?

    Song Xingcheng also saw Han Qinmin circling around the wooden house, and immediately sighed, as it turned out that his small wooden house was discovered.

    “Boss, something is wrong with these houses.”

    Before the sightseeing car stopped, Han Qinmin greeted them.

    Needless to say, He Qianshan also noticed something was wrong.

    When they passed by the shore of Xinghu Lake yesterday, He Qianshan saw a small wooden house there, but he didn’t pay much attention to it at the time, thinking that it was built by an old man that hadn’t returned for a long time.

    But now one night has passed, the wooden house has changed from one to five, and there is an additional building like a water tower. Just thinking about it with your toes, this is very wrong. It’s the end of the world, who has the time to build a wooden house?

    Of course, there was more than that, another that was wrong with this is the row of log cabins that is neatly organized.

    Han Qinmin led He Qianshan to the gate of one of the wooden houses, and saw a signage in the middle of the wooden gate, with words written on it:

   ◤━━━━━━━━━━━◥

 Small wooden house: two rooms, maximum of six people.

    Rent per room:

1 Energy Bead/1 day;

20 Energy Beads/1 month;

150 Energy Beads/1 year

◣━━━━━━━━━━━◢

    He Qianshan’s expression suddenly became solemn, and the wooden house that appeared strangely directly named the Energy Beads. It seems that someone who knows the situation of the last days is secretly manipulating. Could it be that he is not the only one who has seen the novel in his dream?

    In the novel, “He Qianshan” first escorted the employees who worked overtime together home and then went to rescue He Shangshui, the eldest daughter of the He family.

    Then, at the begging of his sister, He Qianshan provided weapons and organized manpower, and together they went to his brother-in-law’s hometown to rescue his relatives. That is to say, he left Mian’an City soon after the end of the world.

    There is no mention in the novel that such an anomaly occurred in the Yamu Villa District.

    He Qianshan fell into deep thought, wondering if the appearance of this row of wooden houses was due to the change brought about by the butterfly effect of his behavior, or if was there more than one person like him who had seen the dream novel in advance and possessed special talents?

    Seeing that He Qianshan was lost in thought, the others didn’t say a word, but they looked at each other with a bit of worry in their eyes. The behavior of the big boss all showed that he was going to build Yamu Villa District into a base camp, but if Yamu Villa District has other abnormalities in it, they don’t know what other twists and turns will the original plan have.

    Song Xingcheng struggled and hesitated, and subconsciously stood at the outermost edge, trying to hide the uneasiness in his heart with a serious expression.

    After pondering for a moment, He Qianshan took out the energy bead, ready to try it himself, and inserted an energy bead into a small metal hole under the notice on the door of the wooden house.

    As He Qianshan expected, the energy beads were in place, and the door of the wooden house opened, revealing a long and empty corridor inside. In the middle of the corridor, which is one meter wide and ten meters long, there is a smaller wooden door. It seems that it is a wooden house with two rooms introduced by the notice at the door.

    He Qianshan stepped into the wooden house, and Han Qinmin followed closely and tried to follow, but as if he had hit a transparent and invisible barrier, he was directly knocked back by the recoil, and he couldn’t enter the wooden house at all.

    He Qianshan turned his head in surprise and stretched out his hand to test back and forth at the door of the wooden house, but he didn’t feel any hindrance.