The man who received the glance from Hou Guozhong soon disappeared.

"I don't think we can say no to your hospitality," said Wei Guozhong smilingly.

Reasonably speaking, they should not stay in Sea City Base any longer, as Sea City Base had unilaterally ended all trade with them. Xiao Yunlong didn't really mean to invite them for lunch. His point was to ask them to leave. Clearly, he didn't want those people to linger in his place.

However, Huaxia Base people, of course, wouldn't want to leave, as they hadn't heard any news about a massive zombie attack in Sea City Base. So, they shamelessly decided to stay for lunch.

Bao Chengzhi and Li Zhengye glanced at each other, then looked at Xiao Yunlong and Zou Shihui. After that, they stood up and left the conference room along with the others without saying anything.

Xiao Yunlong and Zou Shihui didn't expect them to agree to stay for lunch. They both paused briefly, then looked at each other with a gleam of light flashing across their eyes. They could roughly guess out what those people were thinking.

They were waiting for the trouble to start! How would their faces look when they realized that the trouble was never going to arrive?

As the guests didn't want to leave, Xiao Yunlong and his people didn't say anything to expose their true intention, but told the canteen to prepare some decent food, then led the guests there for the lunch.

At the table, the people on both sides had different thoughts in their heads. No one talked as they looked at each other with cold smiles, trying to buy more time.

"Gentlemen, are you not satisfied with our food here? Should we get you something else?" Xiao Yunlong talked smilingly with a friendly tone, yet a faint scorn was detected from his language.

Wei Haichao glanced at him and responded with a smile, "That is nonsense. The food is luxurious for the post-apocalyptic era. I heard that Sea City Base is doing good in the breeding industry, and that you have healthy pigs, cattle, and lambs. These meat dishes are precious."

He looked at those savory dishes on the table and complimented them without even touching his chopsticks.

Li Zhengye, who sat beside him, slowly picked up the chopsticks, then picked a piece of stewed pork with brown sauce and put it into his mouth. While chewing, he nodded and praised, "Mm, this is delicious. I really love meat!"

Finishing the pork, he picked up the glass of wine before him and took a sip, then said with satisfaction, "We all know how precious these foods are. How can we waste it? Eh?"

"Haha, I agree with Chief Li," Bao Chengzhi laughed, then picked up his chopsticks and started eating as well. They didn't worry that the food might be dodgy, because Sea City Base people had no reason to poison the food.

Xiao Yunlong looked at them and blinked, then started eating as well. The cooperative relationship between Sea City Base and Huaxia Base was broken, but the leaders from two other bases were also present. Sea City Base had no intention of turning those two bases into enemies as well.

The people spent a while focusing on the food with different thoughts in their heads. Hou Guozhong's subordinate, who had disappeared earlier, soon returned. He walked straight in even though the room was full of base leaders. That man quickly walked up behind Hou Guozhong and bent over before whispering something to him.

Hou Guozhong's expression changed subtly. He soon adjusted it, but none of the others in the room missed that, as they had all been paying attention to him.

Xiao Yunlong curved his mouth corners in a meaningful smile. Wei Haichao had a bad feeling when he noticed the look which had flashed across Hou Guozhong's face. Li Zhengye and Bao Chengzhi stayed composed, but a slightly sullen look could be detected from their eyes.

'Nothing happened at the front gate.' That was what Hou Guozhong heard from his subordinate.

That meant the massive zombie crowd that was supposed to be led to the front gate didn't show up. Their people out there might have had some kind of accident, or encountered some kind of problem. Otherwise, they would have accomplished their missions.

Without a massive zombie attack, nothing would be diverting the attention of Xiao Yunlong and his people, meaning that they wouldn't have a chance to take away those scientists while the base was in chaos.

At that time, Xiao Licheng walked over to Xiao Yunlong's side. He didn't whisper like what Hou Guozhong's subordinates did, but said slowly with a voice that was loud enough for everyone in the room to hear, "Chief, I heard from the West Gate that about ten zombie crowds are gathering near the safe zone. We don't know why they all gathered up. But fortunately, they aren't approaching the safe zone."

Xiao Yunlong wore a surprised face as he turned to look at him and reply, "Zombie crowds? They gathered together?"

Xiao Licheng nodded and said, "At first, those zombie crowds tended to merge into one, almost forming a small-scale massive zombie group. But for some reason, that didn't happen. They were approaching the safe zone earlier, but then they stopped moving."

"What about now?" Xiao Yunlong asked.

"They have all stopped moving now," said Xiao Licheng, "The crowds didn't merge together, and nothing happened subsequently. All the zombies have quieted down."

Xiao Yunlong nodded and glanced at Zou Shihui, then said, "I see. Keep an eye on them. Deliver the news to All Beings Base, to our Chief Wu. He knows how to deal with those zombie crowds."

Zou Shihui, who had stayed silent the whole time, nodded and started talking with a deep voice, "It's not a big deal. I think it won't affect our base." Then, he looked at the others and continued, "But I'm afraid Chairman Wei and his friends are going to have to take a detour later. Maybe they can leave from the North Gate."

They came in from the West Gate, so they planned to leave from that gate too.

Hearing that, Wei Haichao and Hou Guozhong started to look unhappy. They both tried pretty hard to conceal their unhappiness though as Wei Haichao said through clenched teeth, "It's alright. We'll take the North Gate."

Unexpectedly, their plan didn't work. Xiao Yunlong's man said it out loud. Clearly, Sea City Base people wanted them to hear it, meaning that they knew what their guests were up to since long ago.

Wei Haichao and his people couldn't leave any evidence for Sea City Base people, and they could never admit that it was their plan.

So now, they had no other choice but to pretend like it didn't happen. They even pretended to care for Sea City Base. "Since there might be a small-scale zombie attack, I think it's probably serious. You guys need to be careful with it."

Xiao Yunlong smiled and said, "Ah, it's fine. We have plenty of ways to deal with zombies now. You don't need to worry about it."

"Great!" Wei Haichao responded with a fake smile.

Li Zhengye and Bao Chengzhi were having their expressions changing constantly, avoiding eye contact with the others. No one knew what they were thinking about.