Xu An hurried home, put the food into the storage cabinet, and sat on the sofa with an angry expression.
Seeing Xu An’s demeanor, Xu Yan asked, “What’s wrong? Didn’t you go out to buy food?”
“Nothing, I just ran into a lunatic!”
Xu Yan couldn’t help but chuckle. Ever since the apocalypse, her daughter had always been mature and composed. It was rare to see her so upset.
“Mom, do I look that desperate to get married?”
Xu Yan was stunned by her words, “Did someone introduce you to someone again?”
“No, when I came back just now, I met a stranger downstairs who said they were about to descend the Lighthouse and asked me to team up with her son or something.”
“Don’t get angry just yet, why would she think of coming to you?” Xu Yan found the contradiction in Xu An’s words, “Or rather, how did she set her sights on you?”
Reminded by her mother, Xu An also pulled herself away from her anger and carefully thought about what the woman had said earlier.
“She said she was a neighbor from across the way and saw that there were only two women in our house, so she wanted her son to guide me…”
As Xu An spoke, she realized something was amiss. Their family hadn’t opened their curtains much in the past few months. Even if they accidentally opened them, if the other person saw them by chance, how could they observe them so meticulously, knowing even how many people were in their family?
Xu An calmed down completely, “It seems her intentions are not as simple as they appear.”
“She probably saw that there were only two women in our house and had some improper thoughts,” Xu Yan agreed.
Xu An thought she had almost lost her mind. Indeed, prolonged stability would lower one’s vigilance. She had been too focused on being angry, that these women were constantly scheming against her, and had forgotten the most crucial thing.
“It seems quite a few people are targeting us…”
As two women, living in an apartment made them easier targets than others.
Xu Yan’s words alerted Xu An. They were already being low-key and cautious, yet they were still being targeted.
Xu An’s gaze shifted to the window, looking at the hidden dangers cloaked beneath the blooming flowers, her expression gradually turning cold.
“Since being low-key is useless, why not lure the snakes out of their holes and deal with them all at once.”
…
In the blink of an eye, it was the day of the Lighthouse’s descent. Many people were queuing at the registration desk, waiting to rush out early and seize the initiative.
The Lighthouse had announced the landing location for this descent a day earlier—the Chaliku Desert.
Coincidentally, Xu An happened to know this place. The Chaliku Desert had rich oil and gas reserves, and at its center, there was a deep pit about 70 meters in diameter and over 30 meters deep.
This deep pit had been burning with raging flames year-round.
It had been burning continuously for 15 years with no signs of extinguishing, and later, people listed this unquenchable fire as one of the world’s top ten unsolved mysteries. The Chaliku Desert was ironically nicknamed the gateway to the “Flames of Hell.”
As a result, the Chaliku Desert became a famous tourist attraction. What people didn’t know was that fifteen years ago, the country had secretly established a base station here, designating it as a crucial energy reserve.
The Lighthouse’s descent this time was to mine the energy there.
Xu An felt it was more than that. The Lighthouse likely wanted to avoid descending into the city. Firstly, it was difficult to land. Secondly, they wanted to minimize competition for survival resources with survivors on the ground. Thirdly, and most importantly, was to conceal the Lighthouse’s existence.
Otherwise, in her previous life, they wouldn’t have spent so many years searching for even a trace of the Lighthouse.
After learning this news, Xu An became even less anxious. Although the Chaliku Desert wasn’t completely desolate and uninhabited, it was no different from a ghost town. Even during peak tourist season, few tourists ventured there due to the scorching heat.
She knew this information because she had researched the Chaliku Desert for a project in college. That’s right, she forgot to mention that Xu An’s major in college was Tourism.
If you were to ask why someone with a poor sense of direction would major in Tourism, Xu An could only reply that she didn’t know herself… (#^.^#)
Xu An found an opportunity to visit the dark alley. Ratly saw her and smiled.
“Back again?”
“I want to buy that woman’s location.”
“Tsk, little An’an, you’re truly heartless. You get straight to the point without catching up with me.”
Xu An was speechless, “Do we have any ‘catching up’ to do? And can you speak properly? Don’t call me little An’an… it’s creepy…”
Ratly clasped her chest dramatically, a look of grievance on her face, “You hurt me~ and then just smiled it away… I’m going to punish you! No discount for you this time!”
Xu An’s mind was filled with black lines. She hadn’t realized this woman was such a drama queen before!
“If you want to raise the price, you can just tell me directly… How will you give me the location? How many transaction coins?” wap.kanshu伍.net
“Tsk, don’t expose me. This is new technology, not cheap. Considering you’re my regular customer, 500 transaction coins will do. You can get a 30% refund if you return it after use.”
Xu An: Even capital isn’t as dark as you…
After speaking, she handed Xu An a palm-sized disc. Ratly explained, “This is a rare item newly developed on the second floor of the Lighthouse, a tracking device. It can be used outside the Lighthouse and is not affected by any environmental interference. If the target appears within 50 meters, the pointer inside the disc will turn red.”
Due to continuous natural disasters, humanity had long lost contact with satellites in the sky, which was why all communication equipment and positioning systems, except for those in the Lighthouse, had failed.
Xu An hadn’t expected Ratly’s “reach” to be so long, to be able to obtain items from the second floor of the Lighthouse.
Xu An took the tracker and examined it closely, then asked, “The locator, have you already placed it on that woman?”
“Of course, it’s in the watch she wears. Remember to bring the whole set back, and the price can be negotiated.”
Xu An and Ratly had an agreement long ago, so she wasn’t surprised by her answer.
However, she was quite interested in the “second floor.”
The reason was simple. Xu An had been on the Lighthouse for three months, but she had never been to the second floor. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to, but she couldn’t get there.