Chapter 137. Manor
Arc 5 : Wasteland World Movie Nightmare.
At dawn, Du Yan and Shen Heng returned to the Homeland No. 5 they had just left. After a night of traveling, Du Yan slept in the rear part, while Shen Heng was an Infected who did not need much sleep.
When entering the edge of the city, Shen Heng turned the vehicle and drove onto a fork in the road.
Du Yan was a little surprised and asked: “Where are you going? Isn’t that the road to the temporary residence outside the Homeland?”
Shen Heng nodded: “Let’s not go to my place, it’s definitely not safe there now.”
“Oh.” Du Yan nodded obediently and said nothing more.
Shen Heng’s concern makes sense. Now that the research institute knows that he took Du Yan away, they will naturally find someone to monitor Shen Heng’s whereabouts.
Although Shen Heng is not afraid of the pursuers sent by the research institute, he is confident that he can protect Du Yan.
However, the purpose of the two people coming back this time is to investigate the murder of the Du family. In order to avoid unnecessary complications, it is more appropriate to change the location, hide their tracks, and investigate secretly.
Shen Heng has been wandering alone between various Homelands and settlements for so many years that he is already considered an old hand and is very familiar with the distribution of power in various places.
The current destination is one of the forces in the Infected settlement outside Homeland No. 5. The leader of this force is an extremely radical Infected.
Supposedly, he himself almost forgot his name, and only his nickname is Old K.
The origin of the nickname was very simple. Old K loves playing poker. The king of poker is K, so he gave himself the nickname Old K.
After the nuclear crisis, many people abandoned their names, and Old K was just one of them.
Old K is a crazy person. He looks down on Pure Ones and thinks they are useless weaklings. But he has to trade with Pure Ones in exchange for anti-radiation drugs.
As a compromise, Old K chose to settle down near Homeland No. 5 because Homeland No. 5 was once a military base. He believed that most of Pure Ones there were descendants of military personnel, could drive mechas, had the ability to fight against mutants, and were essentially different from the other weak Pure Ones.
Shen Heng brought Du Yan here because Old K looked down on Pure Ones, especially Pure Ones in the Homeland No. 1 that focused on scientific research.
In Old K’s camp, the radio signal of Homeland No. 1 was blocked, so naturally, he would not receive the wanted warrant issued earlier. In addition, his base was located at the edge of Homeland No. 5, so it was the safest place for the two of them to hide.
Another reason why Shen Heng felt at ease coming here was that he had saved Old K’s life. In his opinion, Old K is a bit unruly, but he is a grateful person.
Now he brought Du Yan here, it has only been a day or two. With Old K’s help in covering it up, the information about him and Du Yan’s return should not be passed on to the research institute so quickly.
Before entering Old K’s influence range, Shen Heng contacted the other party by radio, and Old K expressed an extremely warm welcome to Shen Heng’s arrival.
The predecessor of Homeland No. 5 was a military base built in the desert. Naturally, there were no buildings left at the edge. The buildings in Old K’s settlements were almost all built by Infected themselves after the nuclear crisis. The architectural style of the entire camp is very reckless, which is completely different from the extremely regular interior of Homeland No. 5.
Shen Heng drove the ‘behemoth’ into a manor. After passing the gate, the architectural style was suddenly different, all of which were magnificent and luxurious.
Du Yan was a little surprised, leaning against the window, watching very seriously.
Shen Heng asked: “Do you like these houses?”
Just as Shen Heng was counting down his various places of stay in his mind to see which one was of this style, he heard Du Yan’s answer.
“I just find it quite surprising that the buildings inside look completely different from those outside.”
Shen Heng said: “Old K and his men live here. Old K likes this style, so he made it look like this.”
While the two were talking, the ‘behemoth’ had already stopped in front of the largest building in the manor. The person guarding the gate saw Shen Heng’s vehicle coming and turned around to report.
After Du Yan got out of the vehicle, he saw a burly man with a strong physique and a beard walking out. Judging from his appearance, he was indeed the bold and unrestrained man described by Shen Heng.
When Old K came out, he found that there was no one in the driver’s seat and was slightly stunned. Then he saw Shen Heng and a young man coming out from the other side of the vehicle.
When Old K saw Shen Heng coming with a person, he was surprised and said: “Boss Shen, is the sun rising from the west? You finally found a companion?”
After some pleasantries, there was a dinner party that could not be refused. The banquet was held behind the magnificent building that was incompatible with the end of the world.
The dishes on the table made Du Yan feel as if it was not a wasteland world. It was full of decadence and luxury and was no different from the peaceful world before the nuclear crisis that he had seen in the literature.
Shen Heng tasted almost every dish, and only after confirming what kind of mutant the meat came from and what range its radiation value was in did he start serving food to Du Yan.
Du Yan has a special physique and can purify radiation by himself, but Shen Heng is worried that if the radiation value in his body increases too much in an instant, he will have high fever symptoms like when they first met. Therefore, Shen Heng usually controls Du Yan’s diet very strictly and does not allow him to eat food with too high radiation value.
Du Yan was also used to this way of getting along and would only eat food after Shen Heng confirmed the radiation value.
However, this way of getting along that the two of them had become accustomed to almost caused those at the table who knew Shen Heng to poke their chopsticks into their noses.
Others didn’t dare to say anything more. Old K was a man with no taboos. After a few drinks, he became even more outspoken.
He grabbed the woman sitting next to him and said with a smile: “Boss Shen, I didn’t expect you to like this type. You should have told me earlier. When you saved my life, I told you that you could choose whatever I had, but you left without asking for anything. If I had known that you liked this type, I would have picked out eight or ten for you to choose from. Although there are not many slender teenagers among Infected, there are many in my territory…”
Shen Heng paused for a moment while picking up food for Du Yan. He did not say anything but just looked up at Old K.
Old K was struck by that look, and the words that were still on the tip of his tongue were swallowed back into his stomach. He laughed awkwardly, raised his glass, and said: “You know that I start crying after drinking three or two cups. Speaking without thinking, I will punish myself with three cups, punish myself with three cups.”
Shen Heng nodded and didn’t argue with him. He and Du Yan were just staying here for a day or two, and they wouldn’t be with Old K for a long time, so there was no need to argue.
Du Yan was not a fragile boy, and he would not take these words to heart.
He just lowered his head and ate the food in the bowl seriously, perfectly showing the appearance of a teenager who just woke up from a cryopod and was still a little afraid of the outside world.
Old K has been mixing in the rivers and lakes for so many years that reading people’s faces is a basic skill.
From the current performance, he clearly knew that Shen Heng seemed to value the boy named Du Yan beside him very much, and it was not just a simple physical relationship. So he stopped talking about the boy and started to discuss business with Shen Heng.
When he heard that Shen Heng was here to investigate, Old K waved his hand and generously called the most powerful local intelligence dealer over.
Shen Heng naturally wouldn’t tell Old K everything. He just said that he heard about the wanted order and happened to be nearby, so he wanted to investigate what happened.
Shen Heng hates to see people killing children. Almost all Infected know this. Now, his request was not too unreasonable.
When Old K heard this, he said it was not difficult, and then he called the most well-informed intelligence dealer among his subordinates and asked him to find out the information related to this matter.
Afterward, the two of them stayed at the place arranged by Old K, waiting for the intelligence dealer to bring news about the murder of the Du family.
Old K’s men were very efficient, and the next morning, the intelligence dealer brought extremely useful information.
The intelligence dealer had long-term dealings with a staff member of the Homeland No. 5 Surveillance Center, and his information came from there.
The other party offered a price and agreed to copy all the surveillance videos near the Du family residence during that period and hand them over to Shen Heng.
But that person had an additional condition, that is, because the other party is a Pure One, he required that the transaction could only be conducted in the trading center.
Shen Heng was a little hesitant. Bringing Du Yan to the trading center was extremely dangerous and impossible. But if he didn’t go to the trading center to get the surveillance video, he didn’t know how to investigate this matter.
Seeing Shen Heng’s unhappy expression, the intelligence dealer explained cautiously: “Boss Shen, I tried my best. After all, copying the surveillance video of the Homeland may cause him to lose his job. It is understandable that he is cautious about meeting the transaction partner…”
Shen Heng nodded and said: “Wait for me outside.”
The intelligence dealer closed the door and left, but Shen Heng remained sitting on the sofa without moving. Du Yan, who was standing by, saw through his worries and stood up and walked to Shen Heng.
He said: “You go ahead. I will not leave here, and I have ways to protect myself.”
Shen Heng only thought that the means of self-protection Du Yan was talking about were guns, so he said: “Light firearms are almost useless against powerful Infected…”
Du Yan bent down and closed the distance between the two. He stared into Shen Heng’s eyes and said word by word in a slow tone: “You go, I have the means to protect myself, and it is enough to deal with Infected.”
Somehow, Shen Heng suddenly believed that Du Yan did have the means to protect himself, and even if an Infected broke in, he would not be harmed.
By the time Shen Heng came to his senses, he had already arrived at the trading center, waiting for the trading partner to arrive.
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