"Of course you can." Brother Zhang thought long and hard, yet he truly did not understand why these four people needed to ask his opinion just to leave the base. Back when he arranged their residency, he had already said clearly that as long as they had their residence permit, they could freely come and go.
But then he remembered how he himself had been locked away in that little room before. Who knew what others had told them? So he added, "I already reported everything to the leadership yesterday, the matter has been cleared up. You should act as you please. That one-month temporary residency I granted you is still valid, you may continue to live here. You can go in and out of the base anytime without a problem.
I can see your injuries are not too severe. Then after buying weapons, are you planning to set out for the Capital city base?" After speaking, Brother Zhang paused, then looked toward Huang Jinghe and asked, "I assume in these past few days you have spoken with your parents on the phone. Then they must have already told you the situation."
Situation?
Huang Jinghe asked, "You mean the weather?"
Seeing that Huang Jinghe already knew, Brother Zhang no longer hid anything. "Yes. The extreme heat is coming soon. If you had left earlier, then you would already be gone, but these few days of delay… No one knows exactly when the extreme heat will strike.
Nor does anyone know how long it would take you to reach the Capital city base. But one thing is certain: each day you delay in leaving puts you one day closer to the extreme heat. My advice is that you do not leave for now."
Lan Jin said, "You are not wrong. If we leave now and encounter it on the road, it will be dangerous. But if we do not leave now, later it may be even harder to travel."
After she spoke, Lao Gao asked, "There are some things that Xiao Huang could not ask directly on the phone, and his parents also could not speak openly. They only mentioned it briefly. Since we already know, Brother Zhang, could you explain more about this weather? Even if you repeat what you know, it should not count as breaking rules."
Brother Zhang let out a sigh. "It is not that I cannot say. The truth is, more than a month ago, news came that the extreme heat would arrive. But since it has still not come, no one can say for certain if it truly will. What is known is that before the extreme heat, there will be a extreme cold wave. Global temperatures will drop to minus seventy degrees. Outside, it will be impossible to walk, let alone ride your ice-skating vehicles."
Brother Zhang remembered clearly how the four of them had first arrived at the base: they had come on foot, but those strange ice-skating vehicles in their hands had been very eye-catching. Relying only on those, it was impossible for them to reach the Capital city base quickly.
Even if they survived the extreme cold, if the weather suddenly spiked upward again as before, no one could withstand such extreme swings in temperature. They would lose their lives all the same.
And besides that, the base had already received warnings that before the extreme cold set in, waves of abnormal weather would arrive in clusters. If another round of freezing rain or hail struck, there would truly be no saving them.
So in his opinion, leaving now was not wise.
Even though Brother Zhang's tone was very grave, it still did not shake their determination to leave. Lan Jin asked again, "But what if we do not aim straight for the Capital city base for now? What if we move from one base to another, just like before? If conditions are good when we reach the next base, we can continue onward.
If conditions are bad, then we stay at that base and think of another way. No matter what, once we reach the next base, we will be closer to the Capital city base, and it will surely be easier to figure out a way to continue."
But Brother Zhang could not agree. "Do you even know where the next base is? I do. It is in R city. Even by car, it would take five to seven days. With your skating shoes, you could not reach it in less than one or two months."
Lao Gao froze at those words and hurriedly asked, "But the distance from J city base to H city base was not so long. How come reaching the next base is such a far journey? In the old days, five to seven days would be enough to travel from J city to the Capital city itself."
"In the past, there were elevated highways, connecting the shortest routes. Now even if the ice surface serves as a kind of elevated path, the routes are no longer the same." Brother Zhang explained, "And bases are usually built in the safest parts of each city. From the city center to the base requires far more time. If not for the extreme heat, I would not care what you did. But now is no time for stubbornness."
Moreover, Brother Zhang was puzzled by their determination to reach the Capital city base. "Xiao Huang's parents are there. Him wanting to go is understandable. But the rest of you… why do you seem so anxious too?"
Of course they were anxious. If they did not leave the base, how could they bring out the people hidden in the space? If they truly stayed in H city for years, then what about Grandma Ling? What about Qiao Qiao? Lan Jin could not simply conjure her daughter out of thin air. Nor could she risk going out once, bringing back an elderly woman and a child, and claim they were family.
Not to mention whether the ice-skating vehicle could even carry them. Healthy, living people had arrived at the base, and then she left an old woman and a small child outside? Did that sound reasonable to anyone?
It was completely against common sense.
Lan Jin's head ached. Her thoughts were tangled into one big knot, like a lump of glue she could not pull apart. Finally she only said, "We will think it over. Anyway, it takes two days to embed the crystal into the weapon. For now, let us hurry and bring in the supplies we hid outside and exchange them for contribution points."
Seeing they were willing to at least consider his advice, Brother Zhang felt slightly reassured. "Fine. Lao Gao, come with me to handle the paperwork. Once it is done, you can leave."
The base was very strict about procedure. Whatever items Lao Gao handed in, they would write a clear receipt on the spot, and the details would also be updated into the networked residency permit. Every process was transparent and aboveboard.
As for fees, this time there were none. This was Brother Zhang granting them a special privilege.
Once the paperwork was finished, they returned to the capsule rooms, took their skating equipment, swiped their cards, and left the base, heading downhill.
Perhaps it was because their equipment was so unusual, but from the moment they picked it up until the moment they left the base, curious eyes followed them nonstop.
After they had gone some distance, Ling Jiang glanced back and muttered in annoyance, "What are they staring at? What is there to see? We are not monkeys."
"They are looking because you are leaving on skates and a skating cart. It is new to them, that is all."
New indeed. Back when they went to J city base, had it not been the same, with crowds of people staring, as if watching a spectacle?
The four of them descended to the frozen surface. Lao Gao and Ling Jiang swiftly put on their skating gear. Once Lan Jin and Huang Jinghe sat down, they pushed off and slid downward.
Huang Jinghe asked, "Sister Lan, where exactly are we sliding to?"