A day or two later, after Boss Yuan, who had a prior appointment, finished handling some miscellaneous matters and brought in another "helper," he met up with Li Yun's group. With the necessary equipment and supplies packed, they finally set out of the city.
"Finally" was perhaps an overstatement. It had not actually taken that long, but movement within the city had become somewhat inconvenient. To be safe, the streets were still under low-level restrictions.
The camouflaged figures standing ramrod straight at the roadside were like statues, silent and unmoving. The atmosphere alone made it hard to breathe.
Clearly, this round of "turmoil" had put even the local Special Office on alert, leading directly to several rather "special" security and inspection procedures—
The only reason they had managed to leave the city smoothly was because Fatty Yuan had called in some favors, with Old Li's nominal rank as a lieutenant wedged in between, allowing them to get a permit approved quickly.
There was no helping it.
Even communication signals had become somewhat intermittent. News was flying everywhere, while rumors of uncertain truth spread like wild grass.
Today, people said a fallen meteorite fragment in the east had been snatched away. Tomorrow, they claimed someone in the west had drunk some precious stored "rainwater," thinking its bluish color was natural, only to discover it had grown moss and mold, and the person ended up in the hospital. The day after that, there were stories of "mutated" cats and dogs appearing somewhere and biting people at night—
Truth and lies mixed together in a storm of rumors. No one could tell what was real.
But one thing was certain—the roads outside the city were no longer easy to travel.
At first, they had planned to drive. Boss Yuan had somehow acquired a