Chapter 163: Yaoben Base

“Leader, are you here to pick us up?” Seeing that Qi Mengnan was a woman—and clearly seemed easier to talk to—a man she had pointed out finally mustered his courage and asked.

“Yes, please everyone stay calm,” Qi Mengnan nodded. After she finished speaking, she looked at the people she had just called out and said, “Let’s go.”

Song Qian swept his gaze over the people inside. When his eyes landed on Jiang Yan and her two companions, he paused for a moment.

But he quickly turned and left as well.

Jiang Yan glanced at Sun Jingtao and Ye Qing, only to realize that both of them had slung submachine guns over their shoulders.

No wonder the others had paid special attention to them.

The room began to buzz with whispers, and soon the chatter grew louder and louder.

It was like a marketplace.

Everyone was excited—after all, they could finally leave.

The soldiers standing nearby, as usual, remained silent and still.

Suddenly, Sun Jingtao stood up and walked toward a room in the corner.

Jiang Yan frowned, quickly realizing what he was doing.

That corner was close to where they had parked their inflatable boat.

He must have gone to check on it.

Soon, Sun Jingtao returned, his brows tightly knit. “The inflatable boat’s no good.”

“Huh?” Jiang Yan and Ye Qing were both taken aback. “Why?”

“It must have been that explosion earlier. Some shrapnel hit the steel plate in the middle, and it’s taking on water.”

“No wonder when I was upstairs earlier, I saw water in the cabin. I thought it was just rainwater that hadn’t been drained,” Ye Qing said.

It had been dark and far away at the time, so he hadn’t seen clearly.

“Looks like we’ll have to take the official boat to leave,” Sun Jingtao said with a heavy sigh. “Sigh, I wonder how Su Dai is doing.”

Jiang Yan narrowed her eyes. She still had a stash of boats and inflatables in her space, but she didn’t have a good reason to take them out.

She’d just have to play it by ear.

A few minutes later, they finally heard someone outside on a boat using a loudspeaker.

The gist was: they were from the official Yaoben Base and just happened to be passing through.

If anyone wanted to go to their base, they should board the boat on the left.

But there was a condition: those who chose to go to the base would have to work for free for four months.

After all, everyone here had nothing left—the only thing they could offer in exchange was their labor.

However, they also said that after that, people who went to the base would be rewarded according to their work—more work, more food and subsidies.

If anyone didn’t want to go, they could board the boat on the right.

That boat would return everyone to their original residential communities.

“Yaoben Base?” Jiang Yan was stunned.

What a strange name.

She’d never heard of it before.

She only knew that the official base in Anming was built at the Twin Towers.

“‘Yao’ is three earth radicals, ‘ben’ is three oxen. ‘Yaoben’ originally refers to towering mountains,” Ye Qing explained from the side.

Now that the world outside was nothing but a vast ocean, the meaning behind the name was obvious.

“Lieyan has fire, Yaoben has earth. These names are interesting,” Jiang Yan couldn’t help but laugh.

“Let’s go, let’s get in line,” Sun Jingtao said, not overthinking it.

He was already eager to go home.

Luckily, it seemed the people on the three official boats hadn’t paid special attention to them.

That was a good thing.

“Tao-ge, wait a sec,” Ye Qing said, taking the submachine gun off his back and quickly disassembling it into several parts.

Watching him deftly stow the pieces in his backpack, Sun Jingtao and Jiang Yan were both momentarily stunned.

But they immediately understood.

Ye Qing was worried that if he walked out carrying the gun, he’d be stopped for questioning.

Compared to the other detainees, the three of them already stood out.

Their physical condition and clothing were different, and they each had a backpack.

But clearly, they couldn’t just ditch the backpacks.

Jiang Yan could probably pretend to, but Sun Jingtao and Ye Qing were obviously reluctant.

“Jiang Yan, where’s your gun?” Ye Qing finally noticed that at some point, Jiang Yan’s submachine gun had disappeared.

“Oh, it was out of bullets, so I tossed it,” Jiang Yan replied. In reality, she’d slipped it into her space when no one was looking.

Ye Qing didn’t press further and turned to Sun Jingtao.

“No need to take mine apart. Better keep one, just in case,” Sun Jingtao said.

Taking it apart was easy, but reassembling took time.

Besides, the three of them already looked conspicuous.

Even if they got on the boat, their backpacks would surely be searched.

As for the gun, they’d picked it up from some bandits anyway.

If the officials wanted to confiscate it, there was nothing they could do.

“All right, everyone, line up quickly!” a voice outside urged.

Several floor-to-ceiling windows near the boat were smashed open, and more gangways were lowered.

People began to board the boats in single file.

Since they had nothing on them, it saved the soldiers the trouble of searching.

Both boats quickly filled up.

But clearly, more people chose to return to their communities.

Probably because they’d been separated from their families.

Jiang Yan and her group were at the end of the boarding line.

As they finally reached the window, Jiang Yan felt a wave of cold air.

“Is it going to snow?” Sun Jingtao looked up at the gray sky.

He and Ye Qing had gone into the water to save people earlier, and now their legs felt like they were stuck in an ice hole.

“Comrade, please wait. Our base leader would like to see you,” just as the three of them were about to head to the gangway of the right-hand boat, Song Qian walked over alone and addressed Sun Jingtao.

“Me?” Sun Jingtao glanced at Jiang Yan and Ye Qing.

The three exchanged looks, instantly on high alert.

Song Qian smiled slightly and nodded, “Yes. The leader just wants to ask you a few questions. Afterward, you three will be sent back to your community by a small boat.”

With that, Sun Jingtao had no choice but to agree. “Wait for me a bit.”

Jiang Yan and Ye Qing nodded. “Be careful.”

Song Qian gestured toward the farthest boat.

A red speedboat quickly cut through the waves and pulled up by the window.

Sun Jingtao followed Song Qian onto the speedboat, heading for the farthest vessel.

At the same time, the other two boats, now packed with people, sounded their horns and set off.

The number of soldiers on the decks was visibly reduced by two-thirds.

There were benches inside, so Jiang Yan and Ye Qing simply sat down.

After looking around for a few seconds, Ye Qing leaned in and whispered to Jiang Yan:

“Did you notice that only half the soldiers who went upstairs came back?”

“I noticed,” Jiang Yan nodded.

She’d also noticed that those soldiers who went upstairs were carrying heavy backpacks.

A few even had drills.

Those drills were clearly for blasting holes in construction."