“Okay.”

“Sure.”

“No problem.”

“Get in the car.”

Bai Chen, Long Yuehong, Jiang Baimian, and Shang Jianyao spoke almost in unison, without the slightest hesitation.

The young man, wearing a dark shirt and trousers under a black windbreaker, then walked around the front of the car to the passenger seat and opened the door.

He smiled faintly at Jiang Baimian and said:

“Could you move to the back seat?”

“No problem, you sit, you sit.” Jiang Baimian stood up enthusiastically and made way.

After the man took off the silver rifle from his back and sat in the passenger seat, she bent down slightly and said with a flattering smile:

“What should we call you?”

The black-haired, gold-eyed man frowned almost imperceptibly:

“Qiao Chu.”

“What a beautiful name.” Jiang Baimian didn't skimp on praise.

“Look at his name, look at yours.” Shang Jianyao turned his head and taunted Long Yuehong.

Long Yuehong didn't mind at all and echoed:

“Yes, yes.”

Amidst their exclamations, Jiang Baimian opened the rear door and said to Shang Jianyao:

“Move to the middle.”

Before she finished speaking, she changed her mind:

“No, you get out first, I'll sit in the middle.”

Seeing that Shang Jianyao wasn't too willing, Jiang Baimian emphasized:

“I'm the team leader!”

Only then did Shang Jianyao reluctantly get out of the car, watching Jiang Baimian sit in the middle of the back seat.

Hearing the term “team leader” from the Ashlands language, the black-haired, gold-eyed man, Qiao Chu, subconsciously turned his head and glanced at Jiang Baimian.

Jiang Baimian seemed to have been waiting, meeting his gaze and smiling sweetly.

Qiao Chu didn't say much, slowly turning his gaze back.

Jiang Baimian didn't appear disappointed, leaning forward, propping her chin on her hand, admiring Qiao Chu's profile as if she couldn't take her eyes off him.

After Shang Jianyao sat down again, he found that due to his position, he could only see the back of Qiao Chu's head, and his view was often blocked by the headrest of the front seat, an undisguised look of disappointment on his face.

Qiao Chu looked at the broken bridge ahead and suddenly asked:

“Do you have any food?”

“Yes!” Bai Chen quickly leaned over and opened the glove compartment.

“Yes, yes, yes!” Jiang Baimian withdrew her hand supporting her chin and frantically searched for food in her pockets, while Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong straightened up and turned to the back, trying to get Qiao Chu canned braised beef.

Undoubtedly, Bai Chen was the fastest, handing Qiao Chu a small bag of compressed biscuits and an energy bar.

“That’s enough. You guys eat some too. We probably won't be resting at noon; we'll have to take turns driving.” Qiao Chu took the food and issued his orders like a leader, and Shang Jianyao and the others had no objections.

After finishing the biscuits and energy bar with water from the water pouch, Qiao Chu put his things away, waited for a while, and turned to Bai Chen, saying:

“It's time to go.

“Head towards the hills to the northwest.”

“Okay.” Bai Chen, who had finished her lunch, agreed readily but didn't shift her gaze.

Qiao Chu stretched out his left hand, patted Bai Chen's right arm, and smiled gently:

“Drive carefully.”

“Okay!” Bai Chen was flattered and immediately straightened up, starting the jeep.

Qiao Chu then looked to the back row and smiled slightly:

“I need to rest for a while. Pay attention to the surroundings, and wake me up when we get to the hills.”

“Okay!” Jiang Baimian and the others answered in unison.

Qiao Chu didn't say anything more, turning his head back.

The smile on his face quickly disappeared, and his eyes became exceptionally cold.

Then, he took out a sky-blue box from his pocket and snapped it open.

Inside the box was a small mirror.

Qiao Chu stared at himself in the mirror, raised his right hand, and carefully combed his hair.

After examining himself repeatedly, he slowly closed the mirror box, leaned his head back, and closed his eyes.

By evening, the jeep had returned to the hills where Black Rat Town was located. By this time, Wang Beicheng's 23rd Brigade had long gone.

Without needing a reminder, Jiang Baimian and the others transformed into alarm clocks, waking Qiao Chu up on time.

Qiao Chu glanced at the darkening sky:

“We'll rest here tonight and continue northwest tomorrow morning.”

“Okay.” Bai Chen found a familiar campsite and stopped the jeep.

Then, the four of them scrambled to set up the tent, light the campfire, and take out several military-grade canned goods from the trunk.

“You guys have quite a lot of supplies…” Qiao Chu sat in the passenger seat with the door open, leisurely watching Shang Jianyao and the others bustling about.

Before long, Shang Jianyao trotted over and volunteered:

“I’ll go get water from over there.”

Qiao Chu followed the direction he pointed, looked at the location of the clean water source, and thought for a few seconds before saying:

“No need, our water will last for several days.”

“Yes, yes, the canned goods won't be ready for a while. Do you want me to sing you a song?” Shang Jianyao didn't insist at all, instead asking with a smile.

“…” Qiao Chu looked at Shang Jianyao suspiciously for two seconds. “No need.”

“What about the Golden Coast Hula Dance?” Shang Jianyao pressed.

Qiao Chu frowned slightly:

“No need, I want to be quiet for a while. Come and get me when the canned goods are ready.”

“Okay!” Shang Jianyao responded enthusiastically.

After he turned and walked towards the campfire, Qiao Chu once again took out the sky-blue plastic box and snapped it open.

Looking at himself in the mirror, Qiao Chu's expression became a little more lively, and he muttered in a low voice:

“Oh, this is such a pain…”

Thus, the night passed quietly, and the sun rose once again from the east of the Blackmarsh Wilderness.

After breakfast, after a secret competition, Jiang Baimian finally used her authority as team leader to snatch the driving duty, while Shang Jianyao, Long Yuehong, and Bai Chen could only squeeze into the back row with some grievance.

Qiao Chu looked at his mechanical watch, using the compass on the dial to determine the location.

“Drive in that direction, keep going.” He pointed to a place slightly northwest.

Jiang Baimian didn't question him, driving the jeep, first detouring out of the hills, and then rushing straight in the direction Qiao Chu had indicated.

As time passed, the surrounding terrain became flatter and flatter, and the soil became darker and darker, and more and more rotten. Eventually, the mud became the main scenery, and the harder road surfaces became fewer and fewer.

They were heading deeper into the Great Swamp.

Compared to Bai Chen, Jiang Baimian was slightly less experienced in this area, twice nearly getting the car stuck in the bottomless mud.

She had to give up the driver's seat and return to the middle of the back row, while Bai Chen drove the jeep carefully and diligently, like a child hoping for praise.

The jeep's speed undoubtedly slowed down a lot. Even by noon, they hadn't traveled more than thirty kilometers, and various plants gradually grew in the surrounding swamp.

Compared to normal plants, their colors were either dull or vibrant, looking quite strange.

Jiang Baimian remembered her duty as team leader and casually reminded Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong:

“Seeing similar clusters of mutated plants indicates that we've entered a contaminated area. However, the plants here aren't strange enough, not dangerous enough, so the level of contamination shouldn't be too high.

“In this kind of environment, ordinary people can still function, but without protective gear, it's best not to stay for more than three days. People who have undergone mature genetic modification can last about ten days, but that's assuming they have pre-prepared food and water.”

Qiao Chu turned his head again, glanced at Jiang Baimian, but quickly withdrew his gaze, pointing to the side:

“Go this way.”

“But…” Bai Chen subconsciously wanted to offer her own suggestion.

The routes she chose were types with lower levels of contamination and suitable for vehicles to travel on. If they changed course rashly, they might encounter that expanding swamp domain, sinking the car and everyone in it to the bottom.

“Go this way,” Qiao Chu emphasized again.

“Okay.” Bai Chen chose to obey.

After the vehicle changed course, it entered an area that Bai Chen was unfamiliar with, which slowed the jeep's speed down even more—Bai Chen needed to drive while using her experience to judge the road conditions.

About twenty-five minutes passed. The people in the car finished lunch and were preparing to have Jiang Baimian replace Bai Chen when the scene ahead suddenly changed:

In the deep, black swamp that stretched as far as the eye could see, thick vines, carrying rotten mud, drilled out from the bottom, forming a low “forest.”

They were cyan-black in color, each one as thick as an ordinary python, and covered with countless tiny red thorns.

These strange vines were intertwined, covering every area visible to the naked eye in front of the jeep. Apart from the black swamp itself, everything else was adorned by them—even the sky seemed to have become gloomy, gray, and oppressive because of the obstruction of the low “forest” or some other problem.

Seeing this spectacular but terrifying scene, Jiang Baimian, Bai Chen, Shang Jianyao, and Long Yuehong all felt an unspeakable sense of shock at the same time.

In the midst of the shock, they almost simultaneously had a question:

“Why did we come here?”

At this moment, the corners of Qiao Chu's mouth turned up, revealing a gentle smile:

“Don't be nervous.”

This voice and these words immediately dispelled the questions of Shang Jianyao and the others, causing them to look at Qiao Chu with fascination again.

Qiao Chu straightened his body and began to earnestly direct Bai Chen on how to drive and where to go.

Looking at the python-like cyan-black micro-red vines flashing past the window, Jiang Baimian's left hand wiggled her fingers.

Instinctively, she took out paper and pen from her pocket and recorded what she saw.

Shang Jianyao would occasionally look at the back of Qiao Chu's head, and then look out at the vines, always feeling like they harbored great danger.

Just then, he felt a light bump on his left arm.

Shang Jianyao subconsciously turned his head and saw Jiang Baimian bringing the white paper in her hand closer.

He concentrated and looked over, only to see that the white paper faithfully described the current scene, and in addition to that, there was a strange sentence at the end:

“…Deep within the Great Swamp, there is actually such a severely mutated area, but what’s amazing is that the chip on my left arm tells me that the radiation contamination here isn't too serious. Perhaps the contamination has decayed and weakened over time?

“…The vines are covered with tiny red thorns, like they’ve just been filled with fresh blood…

“…The chip on my left arm tells me that our current location is completely different from the intended destination, Qifeng Town…”

ps: Asking for recommendations~