"But leaving that person out there is always a disaster."
Qin Chuan’s eyes rolled to the heavens. "You can leave a small team outside to search, but District B is still the priority. Hurry up and send people to clear it out; the zombie tide here seems to be getting worse."
The voice on the other end of the phone grew fainter.
"But you went to find the antibody. What if the antibody matter is exposed..."
Hearing this, Qin Chuan was utterly furious.
"I don't care what kind of dirty thoughts you harbor, but you'd better not target me!"
After Qin Chuan’s warning, the other side fell into a long silence.
It was so long that Qin Chuan thought they had hung up.
But they hadn't.
After a long pause, a low "Okay" came through.
If Qin Chuan hadn't had excellent hearing, he would have almost missed it.
However, Qin Chuan didn't pressure them further.
This concession was within Qin Chuan's expectations.
"In half an hour, I will send people to clear District B. You are responsible for evacuating the crowds inside." Midway through his sentence, the man paused. "I hope you know what your mission is. You can arrange for others to rescue people, but your primary mission is still to find the antibody. I hope you understand."
Qin Chuan scoffed in his nose. "Got it."
He then hung up the phone without any courtesy, leaving the other person furiously cursing him as a brat.
After hanging up, Qin Chuan picked up his communicator again and carefully reread the article.
Initially, he suspected Xu An was behind it, but he looked at the photos in the article.
Many were taken from the early stages of the zombie outbreak, and Xu An arrived when the outbreak was already in its mid-stages.
Qin Chuan deduced from this that Xu An could not have written this article.
However, besides Xu An, did anyone else know about that escape tunnel?
Qin Chuan instinctively denied it.
In fact, the route of that tunnel was not something a rat had told Xu An.
If anyone was most familiar with the secret passages in the lighthouse, it would undoubtedly be Qin Chuan, as a member of the enforcement team. This secret passage was actually something Qin Chuan had deliberately revealed to Xu An through the rat.
Qin Chuan believed he understood Xu An well enough and did not believe Xu An would be kind enough to share such an important escape tunnel with others.
His first thought was that Xu An had gotten into trouble, and coupled with the fact that Xu An's communicator was consistently unreachable, Qin Chuan became even more anxious.
He took out his communicator again, preparing to call Xu An.
As soon as he took it out, Qin Chuan hesitated, then tapped Zhou Haimei's number and dialed.
Three minutes later.
Zhou Haimei looked at her communicator, her expression blank.
Xu An, on the other end, noticed Zhou Haimei's strangeness and asked, "What's wrong?"
Zhou Haimei stammered, "An An, look at your communicator, it seems to have regained communication."
Xu An didn't believe it at first. Upon closer inspection, he saw that Qin Chuan had left him over a dozen missed calls, and only then did he truly believe that communication in District B had been restored.
"It seems to be restored. Who called you? Wasn't it Qin Chuan?"
Zhou Haimei asked curiously, "How did you know?"
"He called me so many times, but I didn't receive them."
Xu An ignored Zhou Haimei's ambiguous gaze. "You answer the call first and see what's going on. I'll keep an eye on the surroundings."
Zhou Haimei nodded in agreement, watching as the phone continued to ring incessantly.
She casually picked it up, "Hello."
As soon as the call connected, Qin Chuan's voice paused strangely. "Hello?"
Zhou Haimei looked at the phone, bewildered. "Or did you dial the wrong number?"
Qin Chuan immediately said, "No, don't hang up. Is Xu An with you?"
Zhou Haimei subconsciously nodded, then realizing Qin Chuan might not see her, she said into the phone, "She's with me. Is there something you need?"
As she spoke, Zhou Haimei walked over to Xu An and put the communicator on speakerphone.
The voice on the other end paused, then continued, "Listen to me. Someone has escaped from District B and posted an article asking for help, claiming to be an infected person. The outside world is in panic, and the situation in District B can no longer be concealed. The army will likely be sent to clear it out."
"I don't know what method you planned to use to escape, but it's best not to try it now. They will use powerful lethal weapons to clear the zombies, and I fear you might be caught in friendly fire."
Qin Chuan kept giving instructions to Xu An and Zhou Haimei on what to do and precautions to take when hiding.
However, only Xu An remained silent.
She knew that the person who escaped was likely Liu Liu, and the claim of being infected was probably nonsense.
She had seen that girl once and knew her capabilities; she would not be infected.
In fact, she thought the same as Qin Chuan. If Liu Liu were truly infected, she wouldn't stay put and wait to die, nor would she write a rescue letter.
But Qin Chuan was unaware of all this, so why was he so certain that Liu Liu was definitely not infected?
She then recalled Qin Chuan saying, "The tunnel is old and worn out, and it’s unsafe to go through. It's better to find a place to hide and wait for official rescue."
These words, both explicit and implicit, pointed to Xu An and the others trying to escape through the secret passage.
But how did Qin Chuan know about the existence of the secret passage?
Qin Chuan rambled on about all sorts of things, but found that the other end of the phone remained very quiet.
There was not a single sound.
Qin Chuan called out uncertainly, "Xu An?"
After a long silence, Xu An's faint voice came from the other end of the phone, "Why are you here?"
Qin Chuan was momentarily stunned.
Even though Qin Chuan wasn't in front of Xu An, Zhou Haimei still felt a moment of eerily silent tension.
Qin Chuan looked at the phone. When he couldn't get through to Xu An earlier, he was extremely anxious, but now that he knew Xu An was on the other end, he found himself at a loss for words.
"You should be able to guess my purpose for coming."
Xu An's eyes flickered, and she stared at the communicator, also falling into silence.
Zhou Haimei, however, looked at the two of them engaging in a guessing game, utterly confused.
She sometimes felt speechless, wondering why they couldn't just say things plainly.
Did they have to speak like this, playing riddles?
Or was it more sophisticated to speak this way?
Xu An grumbled inwardly, "As expected, she knew Qin Chuan coming would mean nothing good."
Only the love-struck Zhou Haimei would believe that Qin Chuan was here for some so-called love.
From the moment she obtained the antibody, Xu An never thought that the official people wouldn't discover it. She merely thought that if she could leverage this antibody, she might be able to gain some benefits.