People were working on the construction site with their upper bodies bared, sweating heavily. They had all been tanned over the past ten days.
As Lin Qiao and Yuan Tianxing arrived, they all glanced at the two of them.
Li Zheng and his people were managing the construction site. They walked to Qiao and Yuan Tianxing at the sight of them. Li Zheng looked at Lin Qiao as a life-saver and quickly said, "Ah, Miss. Lu is finally back! Please tell that one to go away…"
While speaking, he pointed at the elderly zombie who was wandering in the construction site with his hands behind his back.
The workers on the construction site would have their body turn stiff and limbs become inflexible when the elderly zombie approached them. But still, they had to keep working while he was nearby. They just couldn't stop.
Lin Qiao had sensed the old zombie's vibe before she arrived. As she got here, she saw him strolling in the construction site without doing anything special. She looked around and found that the area on the other side of the river was assigned to the elderly zombie earlier on by her to guard.
The zombie old man's clothes were still clean. Lin Qiao didn't know how long he had been wearing those clothes for. She wondered if he would take those off to wash while nobody saw him. Otherwise, how could those clothes be so clean?
As Lin Qiao looked at him, the zombie old man immediately stopped walking, then turned and walked toward her.
Seeing him approach, Li Zheng instantly moved to another side of Lin Qiao and said to her with a bitter face, "You have no idea! Since the day we started working here, he's been watching us. We were scared to death that day! Thankfully, Qiu Lili came over later and made some peace. But, since that day, he comes here every day just to watch us. He has nothing else to do except walk about in the construction site with his hands behind his body. If any of us get a little lazy, he would silently stand behind him and gaze straight at him."
Upon hearing Li Zheng's description, Lin Qiao imagined that some workers decided to take a little rest, but suddenly felt that someone was behind them, and then turned back to find a zombie leader silently standing behind them. That was pretty scary for sure!
She looked at the zombie old man and laughed, "You can't do this. You'll hinder their work."
"Roar!" The zombie old man roared at her with discontentment.
As Lin Qiao was here, the others were less afraid of him.
"What did he say?" Yuan Tianxing asked curiously.
"He's unhappy," said Lin Qiao, "He said that he's supervising these people. If any of them isn't doing his work, he'll drag him away and eat him. He's being a supervisor."
Lin Qiao's words sent shivers down the spines of all who had heard them.
After saying that, Lin Qiao looked at those people with a big smile and continued, "I was kidding. He doesn't need a reason to attack people. Do you think zombies need reasons to attack you? I've given my zombies strict orders, so they won't hurt people."
Li Zheng and the others knew that her zombies wouldn't hurt people. However, those people still found them very scary when they even approached.
"So… what did he say just now?"
"He just said that I owe him ten days of water," said Lin Qiao.
"What water?" The others looked at her confusedly.
Meanwhile, she looked at zombie old man and said, "Give me your cup."
Then, the others saw the zombie old man rummage under his clothes, and then noticed that there was a bag hiding under his loose-fitting clothes.
Next, they saw the old man zombie take out a cup and hand it to Lin Qiao.
'Eh? It's not the cup I gave him!'
Lin Qiao looked at the ceramic cup with lid, then glanced at the old man zombie with surprise.
She didn't say anything, but took over the cup and shook her hand. In two seconds, the cup in her hand was filled with water.
She handed the cup of water to the old man zombie, and the latter took it over.
The others thought that he would drink it immediately, but he didn't. Instead, he took over the cup and put on the lid, then turned and left.
The others watched him walk up to the second floor of a half-torn-down building nearby, grab a chair there, and sit down.
Only after that did he raise the cup and began drinking the water with an elegant manner.
"Was he drinking that water as tea?" The others looked at Lin Qiao with confusion.
Lin Qiao shrugged and said, "Maybe."
"Do you need to give them water everyday?" asked Yuan Tianxing, "Do zombies need water as well?"
Lin Qiao glanced at him and responded, "They surely don't need ordinary water." After saying that, she walked into the construction site and took a look at the current work. She and the others were now standing before a bridge, which would be the gate of the base center.
She observed the surrounding environment but didn't say anything.
Yuan Tianxing stood behind her, telling her about the current progress. For anything she could think of, Yuan Tianxing and the others had thought that already.
The nearby buildings had been torn down. Lin Qiao guessed that only earth-powered people like Yuan Tianxing were able to do a wide range demolition like that.
She took a look at the surrounding small buildings. All of them looked twenty or thirty years old.
Yuan Tianxing guessed what she wanted a small building for. "You want to put a small building in your space, right? Why don't we go over there? The buildings here are all residential buildings, with five to seven floors. You can find some smaller, independent buildings over there," he said.
Lin Qiao glanced where he pointed at, then turned back. The buildings in this area were all old indeed. The relatively newer ones all had five or six floors, and the smaller ones looked dangerous. Those buildings might fall down soon.
"Alright, let's go over there and take a look," she nodded, then followed Yuan Tianxing to that area.
"Lin Yu, go and bring the car. We'll drive there," Yuan Tianxing said to Lin Yu, who stood beside him.
"Yes, sir," Lin Yu responded, then turned and ran to the side of the construction site. Soon, he drove a black off-road vehicle over. Lin Qiao and Yuan Tianxing sat into the backseat. After that, Lin Yu drove the car toward where Yuan Tianxing pointed at.
Ten minutes later, they arrived at a residential area. All buildings there were independent and two or three stories tall, built by their previous owners.
Lin Qiao got off the car and found that all those buildings looked less than ten years old. She guessed that these buildings were built just a couple of years before the apocalypse, and their previous owner hadn't lived in them for long.
"What do you think? The buildings here look nice, don't they?" Yuan Tianxing got off the car and asked.
Lin Qiao nodded. Those buildings weren't fancy, yet looked sturdy enough. They were her best choice at the moment, as the villa area was a bit far from here.
Lin Qiao found a relatively good-looking building, then pointed at it and said, "This one. Let's take a look inside."
Yuan Tianxing nodded and followed her to the doors of the building.
This building had double doors. The door outside was made from iron, and the one inside was wooden. The doors weren't broken, but were wide open, with dark-brown stains. That was the most often-seen kind of stain in the buildings which still had people in them after the apocalypse.
That dark-brown color was the color of blood which had been dried over the years.