Chapter 1710 - 939: Director Li’s Enigmatic Nature (Part 3)

Dong Tai tightened his anti-explosion suit, slung his gun on his back, and said, "I’ll be careful."

Then Xiao Jun signaled the people on duty atop the wall to open the main gate.

Rumble—

Dong Tai led six tanker trucks plus one cargo truck and drove off toward the east.

Over their heads, a drone kept following them. This drone had just flown out from Oil City so the people there could watch the trade process up close.

On the other side, Xiao Jun stood on the wall, watching Dong Tai’s group leaving.

Ten minutes earlier.

Chen Er’s men waiting outside the Oil City Gate saw that Chen Er had gone in for so long without any movement, and they were as anxious as ants on a hot pan.

Finally, half an hour later, when they saw Chen Er walk out of the Oil City gate safe and sound, their hearts instantly settled back into their stomachs.

Chen Er’s face was all smiles, his eyes barely able to hide his excitement.

As soon as he got in the car, the subordinate who had come along with him asked excitedly:

"Bro Er, how is it? How is it? It worked, right?"

Chen Er said to him, "Drive first, I’ll tell you later."

Halfway down the road, the subordinate couldn’t hold back anymore and asked again.

Chen Er stopped keeping him in suspense and said cheerfully:

"It worked, but we paid quite a price. Next time we come we’ll have to talk about exchanging other supplies."

"You suspected someone was behind Oil City before. That person was the one who came by helicopter, right?"

Chen Er nodded, his eyes filled with deep wariness as he said:

"Yes. Oil City is just one of their bases. Their headquarters is called Big Camphor Tree Base. According to them it’s somewhere in the Southern region, but I don’t know the exact location.

But their leader at headquarters really surprised me!"

The subordinate was extremely curious and asked impatiently:

"What does the boss behind them look like? Is he similar to our Mr. Hu? Is he even more imposing than Mr. Hu?"

"No."

Chen Er recalled what Li Yu had looked like just now.

"He’s very young, looks like he’s easy to talk to, but he gives me a feeling that makes my heart pound. Calling it imposing wouldn’t be accurate."

He was at a loss for words. This Director Li and Mr. Hu had completely different kinds of presence.

Upon hearing this, the subordinate said in a somewhat complicated tone:

"If just one of their branch bases is this strong, then their headquarters must be much stronger."

Staring at the fields outside the window, Chen Er thought to himself: Yeah....

....

After Dong Tai took the convoy out, Chen Er’s group also got the medicines ready for the exchange.

Aside from Chen Er, it was the first time the others from Southern Paradise had dealt with people from Oil City at such close range.

Both sides were observing, sizing up each other’s strength.

When Chen Er saw that the one coming out wasn’t Xiao Jun but Dong Tai, he wasn’t disappointed.

Back inside Oil City, he had more or less figured out that aside from Director Li, the leader at headquarters, the highest-ranking person in Oil City was Xiao Jun, followed by this Dong Tai in front of him.

"Captain Chen, we brought the six truckloads of oil. Go ahead and check the goods."

"All right, we’ve prepared the medicines too. The cargo bay is already open, take a look. We’ll have our people unload the medicines so you can inspect them."

Both sides began checking.

Inspection on Chen Er’s side was relatively simple: just open the tanks and look at the color to get a rough idea.

Under normal circumstances, oil and water don’t mix.

If some special trick was used, then the color of the oil would change, and it would be obvious at a glance.

Seeing Chen Er’s people unload the medicines spared them the trouble of unloading themselves.

Dong Tai personally went over to inspect the medicines. Everything was sealed in boxes; he’d brought tape and knives and opened every single box to check.

If this were business before the Doomsday, people would still be generous and casual, saying things like: No need to check, I don’t trust you, old XX?

Or they’d do just a cursory check.

But in the Doomsday, social niceties stopped mattering.

It was all barter now. If you had strength, people would bother with you. If you didn’t, no amount of sweet talk would help.

The only thing that mattered was authenticity.

If there was a problem, guns would be raised the very next second.

You could say the Doomsday made people more complex, yet also more simple.

Chen Er’s side finished their inspection quickly, while Dong Tai’s side was slower.

After all, they had to open and inspect a whole truckload of medicines, which took some time.

But with more than twenty people along, although it was tedious, it wasn’t exactly slow.

More than ten minutes later, Dong Tai finished checking and found no problems.

So he had Ma Sailong help them pump the oil into their tanker trucks.

At the same time they loaded the medicines onto the cargo truck they’d brought.

As their men exchanged the goods, Dong Tai and Chen Er started chatting in a half-serious, half-casual way.

"Your Director Li is really young. How did he pull it off?" Chen Er said with admiration.

Dong Tai smiled and said, "He is young. By the way, your Southern Paradise’s leader, Mr. Hu—did he build Southern Paradise from scratch himself?"

Both sides were basically fishing for information, hoping to pry more out of the other.

Chen Er understood one thing: if you wanted gains, you had to pay a price.

If you wanted information from others, you had to share some of your own first.

So he briefly told Dong Tai how Southern Paradise had been built up, deliberately glossing over the current population and exact strength of Southern Paradise.

After quietly hearing him out, Dong Tai reciprocated by telling Chen Er how he had joined Big Camphor Tree Base.

Because he himself didn’t know how Li Yu had originally founded Big Camphor Tree Base.

When he joined, the Doomsday had already been going on for one or two years.

Chen Er was about to ask more, feeling that he’d gotten the worse end of this information exchange.

But the oil had already been pumped out, and the medicines inspected and loaded.

"Captain Chen, we’ll talk next time. It’s getting late. With your rush back to Jinling, time must be tight. If it’s too late, you’ll not only face the danger of Zombies, but the refugees outside your walls are a threat too, right?"

Chen Er checked the time; it was already one in the afternoon.

Getting back quickly would take five to six hours, slowly eight to nine.

So he nodded and said:

"Okay, Captain Dong Tai, see you in a week."

With that, he got in the car.

He started the engine, taking one empty cargo truck and six full tanker trucks and sped off toward Southern Paradise.

In the car, he suddenly felt something was off.

But he couldn’t quite pinpoint what.

"Right! How did he know we had refugees outside our walls? I never mentioned that at all before."

Chen Er slapped his forehead, suddenly realizing.

The refugee problem outside the walls had always been a major headache for Southern Paradise.

There were too many refugees near Southern Paradise, which meant some desperate ones would ambush convoys returning from collecting supplies outside.

Even though they’d cracked down countless times, those refugees were as cunning as monkeys.

Thump, thump—

Chen Er’s backside lifted off the seat and his head hit the door. He hurriedly shouted to the back, "Don’t drive so fast. If these hard-earned barrels of oil flip we’re screwed. Keep it steady."

Only then did everyone slow the vehicles down.

Inside the car.

Chen Er rubbed his brow, his mind replaying the things Li Yu had said just now.

"How was he so sure someone was backing Feng Wei? Scar? That’s not right, Mr. Hu said Scar was at his side the whole time before the operation.

’If you fail to sever, chaos will follow’?

He probably wasn’t saying that to me. If he wanted me to pass that on to Mr. Hu, then Mr. Hu.... must already know something.... Tsk, this Director Li is really impossible to see through."

Chen Er frowned as he thought, his mind racing, repeatedly turning over those few lines Li Yu had said.

...

(Asking for monthly ticket)