Xu An shrugged, spreading his hands helplessly.
"In my previous life, I never found an official sanctuary."
Xu Yan seemed to disbelieve, her expression exaggerated as she asked, "Don't tell me you didn't find it because you got lost?"
Xu An shook his head. "Getting lost was one reason, but it's impossible to not find it for ten years. The country announced that sanctuaries were under preparation and construction. Many people didn't even get a chance to leave before the zombie tide hit."
Xu An had told her this before. Xu Yan nodded and continued, "And then?"
"Then, by chance, I ended up at a small private sanctuary in the west. Eventually, that sanctuary couldn't sustain itself and collapsed. Haven't I told you all this?"
Xu Yan nodded and asked, "Where did you live for the next few years?"
Xu Yan could now calmly ask about Xu An's past life. During their previous frank conversation, Xu An had only given a general overview, and Xu Yan had been left confused. Now, she was quite curious.
"After that, I kept moving between various small bases. Some weren't even considered sanctuaries, just holiday resorts or small villas like ours that could serve as strongholds."
Xu Yan nodded, able to imagine the scene.
"Did you not look for official sanctuaries then?"
"I did, but I didn't find them." Xu An thought for a moment and continued, "It's not that I didn't find them, but there was no news of them on the ground."
Xu Yan sensed that Xu An's words had a hidden meaning and pressed further.
"By the fifth year of the apocalypse, no one who survived in the wild was ordinary. Everyone converged from all directions."
"But, we shared all our information, and none of it pieced together any news about the sanctuaries."
Xu Yan was shocked. "How is that possible? According to the scale of the sanctuary you mentioned, such a large base, how could you search for so long without finding it?"
Even without network or GPS, with such a massive scale, it was impossible that no one had discovered it.
The construction of sanctuaries would definitely prioritize resource and energy issues. Therefore, following water sources or oil fields would surely lead to large sanctuaries.
Xu An shook his head. "We just didn't find them, because the official sanctuaries were not on land at all, but in the sky."
As Xu An finished speaking, Xu Yan's jaw dropped, wide enough to fit an egg.
"In the sky? How could such a massive sanctuary be in the sky? This isn't a sci-fi movie!"
Xu Yan found it impossible to believe something so far beyond her comprehension.
Xu An didn't have much to convince her, as even he hadn't seen the sanctuary in its entirety.
He had only heard from others that it was the culmination of humanity's most advanced technology.
"But you said you didn't find the sanctuaries? So where did you get this information from?"
"In my previous life, I coincidentally saved a little boy. He told me that the government had four large sanctuary cities, but for some reason at the time, they only announced it to a small group of people. Whether one could enter depended entirely on luck and strength."
Xu An continued, "China's population is nearly 1.5 billion. Even if some people died due to natural disasters, the remaining population base is still enormous."
"I don't know what the country's initial plan was. In the end, the maximum population capacity of one sanctuary was only fifty million."
"And the four sanctuaries, at full capacity, could only accommodate two hundred million people."
At this point, Xu Yan understood. As a businesswoman, she herself often used the principle of survival of the fittest.
Who wouldn't want to hire the best employee for the least amount of money?
That's why there was so much industry involution.
It was like Noah's Ark, which carried countless birds and beasts.
Those in power considered more about the future of humanity, the continuation of the human race, and the top technical personnel from all social strata and industries.
They couldn't consider how ordinary people should survive in the wild.
If you were to say they were wrong, were they?
From the perspective of ordinary people, perhaps it was wrong, because they disregarded people's lives.
But if you changed your perspective, were they wrong? They didn't seem to be, as they ensured the continuation and development of humanity.
Of course, these were not things Xu An needed to consider. She always advocated for leaving professional matters to professionals.
Matters concerning human survival and political levels were clearly not hers to decide.
She continued, "That boy said that the country initially used irregular broadcasts to convey information about the sanctuaries."
"This depended entirely on luck. But even this 'luck,' the country only allocated slots for ten million people. Once the number exceeded the limit, the sanctuary would close its entrance and ascend into the sky."
"Those who received the message, we called them 'the chosen ones,' and the sanctuary suspended in the air, we called it the [Lighthouse]."
"There were a total of four [Lighthouses] in the entire China, named Chaoyang, Xi Wang, Shuguang, and Liming."
Xu Yan was shocked by this news, her emotions unable to calm down. After thinking for a while, she said, "The names are quite good, but this is just..."
She thought for a long time, but swallowed the word "cruel" that was about to escape her lips.
Different positions led to different perspectives.
It was not wrong for ordinary people to want to survive, nor was it wrong for the country to want to ensure the continuation of humanity.
China's survivors numbered nearly a billion. It was clearly unrealistic to move all ten billion people into sanctuaries.
What did a billion people mean? If people knew that sanctuaries could only accommodate two hundred million, a riot would ensue, leading to the extinction of all humanity.
Forget saving two hundred million people, humanity would likely go extinct directly.
"So you kept staring at the radio just to ensure the sanctuary's location?"
Xu An nodded.
"Didn't that boy tell you the location before?"
Xu An looked at her as if she were an idiot. "Mom, those sanctuaries float in the air, they're definitely not fixed. When I got this news in my previous life, it was ages ago. How could it possibly be the sanctuary's landing location?"
Xu Yan finally understood. "That's true."
She hadn't expected going to a sanctuary to be so troublesome.
"But there's no news now. Did we miss it?"
After saying that, Xu Yan realized with a belated sense of urgency. The country could go to such great lengths to build sanctuaries, so safety would definitely be guaranteed.
If they really missed it, would they have to continue wandering outside alone?
Xu An recalled her own wandering life in her previous existence, her eyes clouded. In this life, even if it meant resorting to theft or murder, she would find the exact location of the sanctuary.
No matter what, she had to get her mother in first.