Chapter 22: Who Doesn’t Know How to Call for Backup?
Five minutes later, Chaolu sat blankly in the corner of the room, lost in thought.
“Brother Chaoyang, is Sister Chaolu okay?”
Not far away, Mibao looked at Chaolu—who was huddled in the corner, cosplaying a gloomy little mushroom—and couldn’t help feeling worried.
Chaoyang, however, was perfectly calm. “She’s fine. Her CPU overheated a bit. She just needs to cool down.”
“CPU? What’s that?” Mibao asked curiously.
Chaoyang: “…It’s like the processor in the brain. Her brain couldn’t keep up with everything.”
Mibao half-understood, half-didn’t. “Oh~”
“Anyway, it’s nothing serious.”
Actually, seeing Chaolu so shaken and doubting life made Chaoyang feel even better. Compared to her, he had accepted the situation almost instantly.
Mm-hmm, clearly he had the higher tolerance.
But then…
The moment he thought about having to go out tomorrow with Mibao, his mood soured again.
His own safety was assured. Even though the armory heist was already mostly arranged, Bald Man and the others still needed him to stay in control, just in case.
But Mibao…
Even if Old Wolf didn’t kill her, there was no guarantee he wouldn’t make her suffer.
Chaoyang’s face darkened. After a few seconds of thought, he turned to Mibao.
“Mibao, how about… we leave tonight?”
As for the others locked up here—he didn’t know them, and he didn’t care.
Why risk their own lives for strangers?
“Huh?” Mibao blinked in surprise. “Brother Chaoyang, are you worried I’ll be in danger? I’m not afraid.”
“I know Mibao is very brave, but…” Chaoyang clenched his fists, unable to finish the sentence.
Maybe it was because of his family background, but Chaoyang’s feelings toward outsiders had always been very faint.
But once someone stepped into his heart, once he marked them as “family or friend,” Chaoyang would treat their problems as his own.
Even though he hadn’t known Mibao for long, he had already come to see her as one of his own.
Mibao was obedient, but more importantly, she was so genuine and so warm that people couldn’t help but want to draw close to her, to protect her.
When people are cold, they can’t help but seek out the sun for warmth.
And the reason the sun is the sun, is because it doesn’t shine on just a few—it wants its light to reach every corner.
“Brother Chaoyang, I can’t just leave like this.”
Mibao more or less understood what Chaoyang meant, so she looked at him seriously, ready to reason with him.
“Among the people locked up here are Uncle Wang and Auntie Li from next door. Uncle Wang loves to grow vegetables in the yard, and Auntie Li loves planting flowers.
So Uncle Wang often gave me little tomatoes and strawberries he grew, and Auntie Li would give me flowers.
Then there’s Auntie Zhao from behind my house—her family runs a supermarket, so she often brought me snacks.
And Uncle Zhu, he often gave me toys…”
Mibao counted on her fingers one by one, earnestly listing all the kindnesses others had shown her.
She was so young, yet remembered every single detail.
While Mibao rambled on, Chaolu had also come closer.
The siblings listened to Mibao seriously, and in the end, neither of them could bring themselves to suggest leaving first.
Maybe they could leave, and with Mibao’s nature, she wouldn’t blame them—in fact, she would probably even understand. But… how could they possibly abandon her and walk away?
“Mibao, what I said just now was wrong.”
The moment Mibao finished speaking, Chaoyang hurried to make amends.
“They have to be rescued—we must save them!”
Mibao blinked. “Brother Chaoyang, it’s okay. You guys can go ahead without me. The uncles and aunties have always been very kind to me, but you don’t even know them. It’s normal if you don’t want to save them…”
“What kind of talk is that? How could we possibly leave first!” Sister Chaolu spoke up indignantly. “Wouldn’t that make us completely untrustworthy?”
As she said this, she turned and gave Chaoyang’s head a firm pat. “And you—what nonsense are you saying?”
Chaoyang: “…”
“Mibao, don’t worry, we won’t ignore this.” Chaolu reached out and pulled Mibao into a hug. “The three of us don’t have any adults with us anymore, so from now on, we’ll stick together. Once we get out of here, we’ll help you find your father.”
“Mm!”
Mibao hugged Chaolu back, her little face filled with emotion.
“Sister Chaolu, you’re so good to me!”
After going through all of this, Chaolu had finally digested that unscientific piece of information.
“With this master key, rescuing people will be much easier.” Chaolu rubbed her chin in thought. “As for tomorrow… I’ll follow secretly. If that Old Wolf—or Dead Wolf, whatever he’s called—dares to lay a hand on Mibao, I’ll shoot him with an arrow!”
“It’s fine, my big brother will protect me too.”
[Don’t worry, Mibao. Nothing will happen to you tomorrow.]
The system sounded utterly confident.
And since Mibao trusted her big brother completely, she was also utterly confident.
If her big brother said nothing would happen, then nothing would happen!
As for why… she didn’t know. But if her big brother said so, then it was true.
…
…
Early the next morning, Bald Man took Old Wolf, the two kids, and five or six underlings, and drove them toward the shopping mall.
Mibao and Chaoyang sat together in the backseat. Chaoyang still couldn’t help feeling worried.
“Mibao, are you sure it’s okay?” Chaoyang leaned close to her ear, lowering his voice. “How exactly is your big brother going to protect you?”
“I don’t know either, hmm… but my big brother said it’ll be fine, so it will be fine!”
Chaoyang: “…”
Alright then. That was about as useful as not saying anything at all.
But thinking about how Mibao’s so-called alien big brother was already completely unscientific, he decided he’d better not use science to try and reason it out.
Now that everything had unfolded the way it had, he could only reluctantly choose to believe.
[Hmph, this brat dares doubt my abilities?]
The system snorted in disdain.
What a joke—sure, his current points balance wasn’t much, but… he had plenty of brothers, sisters, uncles, and aunties in his contacts!
When you’re out in the world, what really matters is connections.
So last night, he’d already called in favors in the system group chat and borrowed a luck buff from the [King of Luck] system.
Which meant that for the whole of today, Mibao would be a walking ball of good fortune.
Of course, since it was borrowed, the effect would only last for a single day.
And besides, he couldn’t abuse loopholes too much—otherwise the System Bureau would punish him.
The car rattled along, and before long they arrived at a town more than ten kilometers away.
With the collapse of society, the small town looked desolate. The streets were littered with corpses and bloodstains, wrecked vehicles, and smashed-up shopfronts.
When snow had covered everything, it had at least looked neat and clean. But now that the snow had melted, the roads were nothing but mud, making the whole place filthy and disorderly.
At least there weren’t many zombies in sight—probably because it was so cold they’d holed up inside the buildings.
Soon the car pulled up in front of a large supermarket.
Since the supermarket was huge, moving together wasn’t convenient, so they split into smaller groups.
“This one’s coming with me.”
Old Wolf grabbed Mibao by the arm and yanked her to his side.