The next morning, Xu An got up early.
She originally thought she was the first to wake up, but when she woke up, Qin Chuan was already doing basic training.
Taking advantage of Zhou Haimei not being awake yet, Xu An walked up to ask Qin Chuan.
She placed the short needles she had been holding in front of Qin Chuan, "Do you recognize what this is?"
All these short needles were of the same thickness, and they were all made of hard steel. Xu An didn't believe that the family had made them themselves.
Qin Chuan looked at the short needles in Xu An's hand, remained silent for a moment, and then told Xu An about the matter.
"These short needles are indeed ours."
Xu An: "Then why are they in the hands of those villagers?"
Qin Chuan nodded and wiped the sweat from his body with a towel.
His strong and powerful body was covered with evenly distributed muscles, and his well-aligned abdominal muscles were clear and obvious.
As Qin Chuan pulled down his clothes, they were gradually covered by his clothing.
Xu An's gaze followed Qin Chuan as he put on his clothes, with a hint of regret in her eyes.
Her gaze was so fiery that even Qin Chuan felt a little embarrassed.
He turned around, picked up his clothes, and put them on.
"When our unit first discovered this place, we found that the people here seemed to have not been affected by the apocalypse at all."
Qin Chuan put on his clothes and sat on the bed. As soon as he quieted down, he felt a little cold.
"Not affected? Is it because of the climate here? These people rely on the sea for their livelihood. According to your words, it seems that the impact would indeed be smaller."
Qin Chuan nodded, affirming Xu An's statement.
"Just as you said, these people have lived by the sea for many years, relying on fishing. The only way to communicate with the outside world is through some fishmongers and factories that come here to purchase goods."
"Normally, the fishermen here rarely go out of the fishing village to places outside."
"When we arrived, the people here were just curiously asking what had happened outside, and why no one had come to buy fish for more than a year."
"Someone from our unit told this group of villagers about the situation outside."
"However, after we told these people about the apocalypse, their faces showed no fear or dejection."
"Instead..."
"Guarded, right?" Xu An hit the nail on the head, a look of understanding on her face.
Although Qin Chuan couldn't say it, Xu An immediately understood what he meant.
When the long-standing peace and tranquility were broken, people saw outsiders.
The first thought might not be, "Are you here to save me?"
It might be, "Are you here to compete with me for survival resources?"
The villagers here did not initially think that Qin Chuan and his group were here to rescue them.
But that was the reality, Qin Chuan and his group were indeed not here to save these villagers.
"What happened next?" Xu An continued to ask.
Qin Chuan: "Later, those people couldn't accept it at first. Some even tried to leave the fishing village to see if it was really the apocalypse."
"There was a young man in our unit on his first mission who was not careful with his words. He said that the outside world had already fallen into chaos, and it would be best for you to stay here and live your lives well. Don't go out and run around randomly. If outsiders knew that there was such an isolated fishing village here, you wouldn't even be able to protect this place."
"It was this sentence that made the villagers here suspicious, wasn't it?"
"Yes." Qin Chuan nodded heavily.
Xu An: "Perhaps they didn't think in that direction at first, but after your team member mentioned it, they started to think in that direction."
Qin Chuan: "Yes, at first, the villagers were still quite enthusiastic and willing to exchange the seafood they caught with us to entertain us."
"But gradually, those people also came to their senses. They thought that if it was really the apocalypse now, then the purpose of our group coming here must be to share their resources."
"They only then realized that our group were not guests from afar, but possibly enemies who would compete with them for resources."
Xu An looked a little curious, "Don't you guys explain? This misunderstanding should be easy to explain. You can just make up a reason, and that should resolve this misunderstanding."
She thought very simply. Setting aside the purpose of Qin Chuan and his group coming here, just the sea monsters in the seawater...
Making up a pretext that they were here to hunt sea monsters should be believable to the villagers, right?
Qin Chuan shook his head, "It's not as simple as you think."
"We did explain. After discovering that the villagers' attitude towards us had changed, we immediately said that we were here to explore the ocean. If we could find energy resources in this sea area, we would share them with the fishermen here when they were extracted, and we would also provide some daily food."
"The villagers didn't believe you?"
Qin Chuan nodded, "Yes, they didn't believe us."
Xu An watched Qin Chuan speak casually, but she didn't think it was that simple.
If it were really that simple, then how to explain.
The resources that rightfully belonged to Qin Chuan and his group were worn by those villagers.
This proved that there must have been some friction between Qin Chuan's team and the villagers that led to this situation.
Xu An did not disturb Qin Chuan, letting him continue.
"They thought that the resources we were talking about were to catch fish from the sea. Although we explained it repeatedly, it wasn't. We wanted those resources from the deep sea."
"We even found a university student who understood marine resources to specifically explain the differences to the local people and the benefits they could obtain."
"But it was all useless. Those people simply wouldn't listen to what you were saying. They just interpreted you with their own thoughts and perceptions."
"We had no choice but to go out to sea ourselves to prepare for our own exploration. Unexpectedly, those fishermen directly opposed us and controlled us, preventing us from going out to sea."
Xu An glanced at Qin Chuan suspiciously at this point.
After all, the incident where Qin Chuan used heavy weapons to suppress rioting civilians at the lighthouse was too deeply ingrained in people's minds.
Xu An found it hard to believe that Qin Chuan could be restrained by a few villagers.
Thinking of this, Xu An asked, "Just because they restrained you, you gave in?"
Xu An glanced at him with disbelief, as given Qin Chuan's style and the power disparity at the time.
Wouldn't it be a simple matter to control the other party?
Xu An had a hunch that there must be some hidden reason.
Then she heard Qin Chuan's voice slowly say, "Whenever we were about to take action against these people, they would bring out their wives and children and use them as shields."
Xu An: "..."