Chapter 125 – Discovered

The appearance of extreme weather did not mean a Spatial Gate would open here, but the place where a Spatial Gate was about to appear often overlapped with the area covered by extreme weather, or was extremely close to it.

Those soldiers did not understand what the gloomy weather meant, but in Su Lifeng’s heart, he understood it more clearly than anyone.

After carefully detouring around every intersection where checkpoints had been set up, Su Lifeng finally approached the destination of this trip.

“Isn’t this Zhangjiayuan?” Cheng Xiaomei said in some surprise. The place Su Lifeng had mentioned for purchasing supplies was here?

“Mm. I’m here to look for a teahouse,” Su Lifeng said.

Last time, he had bought quite a few weapons at Yushui Teahouse, including that military spike.

This time, Su Lifeng had come to see whether the other party had any other equipment.

Huaxia controlled weapons very strictly. For now, Su Lifeng had not found any other channel to buy professional equipment. Otherwise, he did not really want to come here a second time.

The more he had recalled it before, the more he felt that the petite girl and her elder brother, “Crisis Survivalist,” were probably not simple.

When dealing with people of unclear identity and background, Su Lifeng believed it was better to reduce contact.

Zhangjiayuan, which used to be packed with bustling crowds, was now cold and deserted. Only a few small business owners who traded here were organizing their goods with worried faces. Yesterday’s chaos had clearly affected this place as well. The entrances of many shops were a complete mess.

The fact that they had come back here to clean up showed that these small business owners were like most ordinary people. They believed the turmoil was only temporary, and that life still had to go on. No matter how bad it got, could it really be worse than wartime?

Of course, this way of thinking was actually born of helplessness. If they did not think that way, they had no other way to change anything.

When passing that pet shop, Su Lifeng involuntarily stopped. With a somewhat complicated expression, he stared at those empty cages for a moment.

At a time like this, relationships between people seemed to become especially fragile. Perhaps in the blink of an eye, everything would change and the people would no longer be the same.

But there were also times when relationships became simpler and closer, such as with Cheng Xiaomei and the others. If not for the shared goal of survival, under normal circumstances Su Lifeng probably would never have had the chance, nor would he have thought of speaking with them, let alone living together with them as he did now.

“What’s wrong?” Cheng Xiaomei noticed Su Lifeng’s movement and asked curiously.

“Nothing. I remembered that last time I came, I asked for directions here… The teahouse is up ahead.” Su Lifeng immediately came back to himself and answered.

But when he arrived at the entrance of Yushui Teahouse, Su Lifeng was somewhat surprised to discover that the people had already left and the place was empty. The door was unlocked and wide open just like that. Inside, it was empty, with only some flowers and plants left.

He went into the neighboring shop to ask. The boss lady with a face full of coarse flesh had just revealed a trace of impatience when a hundred-yuan bill was already handed to her.

The boss lady hesitated, then accepted it with a beaming smile. “Them? Looks like they were prepared to close up long ago. Otherwise, how could they move out the moment they said they would? I remember yesterday afternoon, two female customers came to their shop. As soon as those two customers left, they moved out right away. As for where they moved… young man, you know how chaotic the world is now. Who can keep track of anyone? If I had any choice, I would’ve moved too…”

Seeing Su Lifeng reveal a thoughtful look as he listened, the boss lady’s eyes darted. She hurriedly reached out, grabbed an ornament, and said, “Young man, look, I’ve told you everything you asked. My life isn’t easy either. Help me out a little more! Just treat it as doing a good deed. These are all good things. The purchase price was very high when I bought them…”

“Since they’ve all moved out, I’ll go in and take a look.” Su Lifeng paid no further attention to her and said instead.

When Su Lifeng had first come to Yushui Teahouse, he had glimpsed that ornament on the counter. In the blink of an eye, it had become something she was “selling at a loss.”

Although Su Lifeng did not care about money, and was too lazy to bother with people who took advantage of muddy waters to fish for profit, he would not “give alms” to this kind of person either.

After Su Lifeng swept her with a faint glance, the boss lady immediately felt a trace of guilt, and her mouth closed along with it. But a flicker of displeasure still flashed through her eyes. She watched Su Lifeng and Cheng Xiaomei walk toward the teahouse and muttered, “What’s there to see inside? Seriously… acting all weird.”

When Cheng Xiaomei reached the entrance, she turned her head and glanced around again. Su Lifeng took in this small movement of hers, but on the surface he remained completely calm. “Let’s go in.”

The teahouse was utterly quiet. Su Lifeng looked at the trash abandoned on the floor, then walked straight through the corridor to the private room at the end.

After pushing the door open, Su Lifeng opened the hidden door again from memory. To his disappointment, the inside had indeed already been cleared out. It seemed that boss lady had not been talking nonsense. They really had not left in a hurry.

“What a pity…” Su Lifeng felt somewhat regretful. Before coming, he had also checked the other party’s online account. It showed that they had not logged in for two days.

“I’ll have to think of another way.”

But what Su Lifeng did not know was that when he came out of this room, the Cat’s Eye on the door of another private room across from him flickered slightly at that moment.

“What’s wrong? What did you see that made you so happy?”

Inside a warehouse-like room, a figure heard the girl curled up in a round-backed chair suddenly laugh and immediately asked with interest.

“Someone I found rather interesting before. I didn’t expect him to come looking for me again. I had originally left an extra precaution just to ensure safety… This really is an unexpected gain.” This girl was so petite that almost her entire body was curled up inside the round-backed chair, yet the enormous scale in front of her chest was instantly recognizable. Su Lifeng would definitely recognize her at a glance: the girl who had sold him the knife, the “Survivalist” in “Crisis Survivalist.”

“Unfortunately, if he’d come a day earlier, he might have run into us. But at that time we were talking with people from the Shencheng Mutant Alliance, so even if he had come, we probably couldn’t have let him in,” “Survivalist” continued.

“Oh…” After listening with his head propped up, that figure asked again, “Is he a Mutant?”

“I don’t know. Anyway, he isn’t a Xenospecies. How about it, Ge, why don’t you go test him?” “Survivalist” suddenly suggested with a cunning smile.

“Hm?” The figure thought for a moment, then shook his head. “At this juncture, let’s not stir up trouble. We just established a cooperative relationship with the Shencheng Mutants. Right now, we should hurry and recruit manpower…”

Before his words had fully faded, he stood up again. “That’s right. If he’s a Mutant, wouldn’t he be a pretty good candidate? Where is he?”

“He just left the teahouse.” “Survivalist” set the computer in her hands on the table. “Ge, you really are slow to react…” But then she turned her head to look at the place where that figure had just been sitting, now empty. “But with your speed, you should be able to catch up, right?”

The girl turned back and glanced at the screen. It was empty, leaving only a deserted corridor and a tightly closed door.