"The rain pours all night, my love overflows like the rainwater
The fallen leaves in the yard, stack up as thick as my longing
A few words of right and wrong, can't cool my passion
You appear on every page of my poetry~
Before Xie Liuhai stepped into the room, a pleasant song could be heard, not coming from Boss Zhou's voice. But it had its own flavor.
With curiosity, Xie Liuhai followed Brother Zhong into the room and what caught his eye was an antique large table, on which was placed a Taihu rock. Its form was unusual but full of charm.
And behind the rock, a man in sportswear was humming the song and writing with a brush.
From behind, this man seemed tall and carried an air of ease, but the song he sang, though sounding quite nice,
didn't seem to match his demeanor.
"Mr. Wang. I've brought the person over," Brother Zhong stated softly from behind Mr. Wang.
Mr. Wang's singing halted, and the brush in his hands paused, then he slowly turned around.
What kind of man was he?
Mr. Wang was young, not yet thirty, his clean and fresh face made him look much younger than he really was because he wore sportswear.
"Come, sit," Mr. Wang said as he sat down and gestured with a wave of his hand for the two to sit at another table set beside them.
After sitting down, Mr. Wang did not speak right away.
He took a moment to size up Xie Liuhai and said with a beaming smile, "Nice hairstyle."
His tone was very sincere, and his eyes showed earnestness.
At this moment, Xie Liuhai felt a surge of warmth. Mr. Wang had noticed and commented on the aspect of his appearance he cared about most and took the greatest pride in.
In the past, so many people had misunderstood him. Many even ridiculed him, thinking his hairstyle was outdated, and behind the times.
But they didn't understand, it was a vestige of past glories. That was the eternal faith of the Funeral Homeboys; such spirit would never be behind the times, never outdated!
As the city's individualistic Sea Young Master, he would never allow his standard to fall.
This was the first encounter with Mr. Wang, yet Mr. Wang seemed to understand him so well.
Xie Liuhai felt a great sense of recognition, his eyes even reddening slightly. All these years, he shouldered the mission of the Funeral Homeboys alone, marching forward. Now, someone understood and appreciated him.
He felt that coming here was the most correct thing he had done.
"Thank you, Mr. Wang," Xie Liuhai said with gratitude.
Mr. Wang still wore a smile, and upon hearing the thanks, replied: "Must've been tough coming here, with the drought and heat. I welcome you joining us."
Upon hearing this, Xie Liuhai felt extremely comfortable; such pleasant words to hear.
Xie Liuhai quickly responded, "I've heard a lot about you and greatly admire you. Actually, I've wanted to come over for a while, but couldn't leave at the time..."
Mr. Wang let him finish speaking, then casually asked, "I heard there was some trouble over at Jiefang City?"
Xie Liuhai immediately nodded, "Ah yes, yes, yes..."
Then Xie Liuhai told Mr. Wang about some of the things that happened in Jiefang City.
Mr. Wang nodded and squinted his eyes, "Seems like I heard from Little Zhong that there's a group in Xin City?"
Xie Liuhai's heart skipped a beat. While discussing Jiefang City, he purposely avoided mentioning the situation regarding Li Yu, and now faced with the question, he originally didn't intend to disclose that Li Yu's group had firearms.
After all, if he were to join them, providing useless information could likely result in being excluded.
Li Yu's side probably has a lot of food. But he wasn't clear on how strong Li Yu and his group actually were, anyway, I've told you now.
But, from the brief contact just now, he felt that Mr. Wang was truly a good person.
Someone who knew how to appreciate him. Appreciate his hairstyle.
Yet after some internal conflict, he eventually said, "Yes, yes, I've seen them before, their supplies should be very plentiful, but I'm not exactly sure where they're located."
Mr. Wang asked a few more questions, and Xie Liuhai shared what he knew, discussing everything that didn't affect his interests.
After about 20 minutes of conversation, Mr. Wang nodded and said to Brother Zhong, "Alright then, take our brother here to rest for now. He'll follow you after that."
Mr. Wang then said to Xie Liuhai, "Do a good job. Right when I saw you, I knew you were a reliable and capable person."
Being praised by Mr. Wang in front of Brother Zhong, Xie Liuhai's face seemed to glow.
Words are an art form.
Spewing lotus blossoms.
Thus, there are some who know the art of winning people over, those adept in linguistic arts, who are often good at commending others, and they do it in front of that person and others.
This sort of praise ignites the urge to 'die for a friend who truly knows you.'
This is the real morale booster.
Giving face to someone, genuinely praising them in the presence of others.
After Xie Liuhai left the room, Mr. Wang stood inside, gazing at a map on the wall, took out a pencil, and circled Xin City. He calculated the distance, hundreds of kilometers.
"Xin City..." Mr. Wang murmured.
A gleam of wisdom flashed in his eyes.
He then marked the position of Jiefang City on the map. It was much closer to them.
Nevermind their group, there were many others who had left Jiefang City.
Split into various sized organizations.
But come nightfall, many organizations suffered terrible losses due to zombies.
Too few people, impossible to establish a base, hard to fend off zombies.
Too many people, impossible to sustain them all.
Seemed to be an unsolvable problem.
However, at Li Yu's base, it seemed possible to balance these aspects.
With tall walls surrounding, growing crops inside, plus having a vast stockpile of supplies.
The number of people was neither too many nor too few, and their combat strength was remarkable, overall a very strong community.
Recently, due to the drought, some water-intensive vegetables were not planted anymore. However, there were still seeds, safely sealed in the dry, room-temperature storage room.
Li Yu had hoarded an incredible amount of seeds, and using vacuum packaging, they should be preservable for an extended time. After all, normal seeds can be preserved for several years under common conditions.
Even more so, under meticulous packaging and room temperature, the preservation time would be much longer.
Aside from these seeds, some of the crops Li Yu and his group cultivated could also be used for seed propagation.