The food at the Lincheng Base was as usual, two main staples and two side dishes, with a soup that was as clear as water. The Sang family initially disliked it, but after eating it, they found it quite good. To carry more useful items, their plane was filled with packaged food and instant meals, and they had long grown tired of them.
During dinner, the important members of the Sang family gathered to discuss their next steps.
"The person in charge of this base is Jin Wenye. He handles all major and minor matters, with Shen Qian as his deputy. In addition, there are military personnel who hold significant authority. However, the most powerful ability user is Shen Zhongyan. It's said that he alone can resist the alien attacks, and the base personnel greatly admire him. They have spirit spring water and their ability levels are very high. Jin Wenye is a fifth-tier lightning ability user, and Shen Qian is a fifth-tier space ability user. Besides them, there's a team of special forces soldiers, all of whom are fourth or fifth-tier ability users. The strongest person in the base, Shen Zhongyan, no one knows his ability level, but everyone in the base says that all other ability users combined cannot defeat him."
"That amazing!"
"Is he really that powerful? He could be killed by a war of attrition, isn't that just boasting?"
Sang Jue glanced at his cousin, "Whether he's powerful or not, you'll have a chance to see. The person from today was Shen Qian. He is Shen Zhongyan's elder brother, so you should watch what you say in the future."
It was precisely because he knew the other party's identity from the beginning that Sang Jue forced his younger brother to apologize.
"Besides them, there's little information about Lin Wan. She is responsible for supplying the spirit spring water and rarely appears. The two girls around her are a fourth-tier ice ability user and a fourth-tier water ability user. Both are very powerful. In short, don't act rashly for now. If anyone causes trouble in the base and something happens, no one will be responsible."
Sang Jue was long designated as the next head of the Sang family. She was the first to awaken her ability after the apocalypse. She held significant authority among the younger generation of the Sang family, and no one dared to oppose her.
A young girl looked up, "Brother, can we go play with Sister Lin Wan?"
This person was the adopted daughter of the Sang family who had taken Lin Wan's identity. Her name was Sang Pei. When she was seven years old, the Sang family discovered she was not their biological child. However, by then, they had developed feelings for her. Since the Sang family could afford to raise her, they didn't send her back, but instead raised her as their daughter.
Sang Jue gave her a cold look and said, "She may not be willing to see us, let's wait."
Sang Pei lowered her head slightly.
She felt some envy and jealousy. Although Lin Wan had become an orphan by mistake, with no family background or connections, she was still favored by Jin Wenye. Furthermore, after the apocalypse, she awakened the unique spirit spring space, becoming an important protected figure in the base. It was as if her good fortune was something no one could snatch away or take from her.
With such good luck, how could she not be jealous?
"Behave yourselves for the next few days. You can go to places that are not forbidden to gather information, but do not go to places explicitly prohibited by the base. Once your identity cards are issued, we can make further plans. As for Lin Wan, if she is willing to acknowledge us, we will accept her. If not, so be it."
He himself knew that although the Sang family had searched for people in the past few years, they had not been desperate. Otherwise, they wouldn't have failed to find her.
Now, Lin Wan was more wary of them than she felt any affection. Anyone who had struggled and suffered for twenty years would not feel good when someone approached them to claim kinship after they had finally prospered.
——
It must be said that Sang Jue understood human nature very well. Lin Wan knew that the Sang family was not lying. She instinctively felt that the claim of her being the maternal granddaughter of the old Madam Sang was probably true.
But she just didn't want to acknowledge them.
When she was suffering and being bullied, no one stood up for her. Now that she could protect herself and had someone willing to protect her, her relatives had found her.
How could she not resist?
To ease her discomfort, Jin Wenye stayed with her in the space for several consecutive days. Another week passed, and it was time for their planned nuclear bombing of the Ten-Mile Lotus symbiotic body. Jin Wenye then appeared in the conference room.
The Ten-Mile Lotus was not far from their location, but to avoid accidents on the way, the base decided to send escorts. They spread the news to other bases through 007, and then a group of people set off to bomb the symbiotic body.
According to their plan, one group would be responsible for destroying the symbiotic body. After completion, a small group would return to the base, and the remaining personnel would assist the people coming from other regions.
These matters were arranged by Jin Wenye. Besides this, the outermost city wall of the base was also being rushed. They intended to build a wall around Lincheng, with a minimum height of sixty meters and a maximum of one hundred meters, and a thickness of over two meters.
This process not only required a large amount of manpower and resources but also many materials. There were very few space ability users in the base, besides Shen Qian and Lin Wan, there were two others. One of them had been sent out and had not yet returned. This time, they needed to go out to find materials. After weighing the pros and cons, they decided to send Shen Qian.
His ability had almost no offensive power. To ensure his safety, the base assigned him over twenty high-tier ability users. Given that the city wall was not yet completed and the anti-air system was still being improved, Shen Zhongyan had to remain at the base. Jin Wenye had initially wanted him to lead the mission, but Shen Zhongyan was now reluctant to handle anything other than resisting the aliens. He didn't trust his subordinates, and there was also Lin Wan, who was pregnant. In the end, he had to abandon the idea.
This was not Shen Qian's first mission as a leader. He was quite calm. They drove four or five cars and set off eastward from Lincheng, planning to visit the largest city in the southwest.
When they had passed through this area before, the R virus seemed to have just emerged, and many plants had withered. But it was nothing like now; they couldn't see a single blade of grass from a great distance.
Occasionally, they saw some abandoned houses on both sides of the road. In a few months, a once prosperous city had turned into a silent wasteland. Most human structures showed signs of damage, some had completely collapsed, and sometimes the roads were also destroyed, forcing them to get out and walk.
Fortunately, he had his space ability. There were still many people in the world who had awakened abilities. Otherwise, if they had to rely on walking, manual labor, and the fragile human body to deal with those monsters, let alone build a base, survival itself would be a problem.
"Where are we going? Which city around here has more industrial materials?"
"Let's check out C City first. This was a major grain-producing province in the past. If possible, we should bring back more food. Otherwise, with the growing number of people in the base, everyone will go hungry."
Sang Jue was also on this trip. As a high-tier ability user, he had volunteered to participate in the mission, and no one opposed it, so he was allowed to join.
He asked, "Are there any developments from the research department? No matter how much grain we stored before, we can't live off the fat of the land forever. With the virus spreading worldwide now, the previously stored grains may not be safe."
Shen Qian felt that talking to him was exhausting, as he had to be extremely vigilant to avoid being tricked into revealing information. "A few days ago, they said they overcame a difficult research problem. It should be soon. You don't need to worry."
Sang Jue narrowed his eyes and remained silent.