Lv Bai didn't chat with Wu Ya for too long before he saw Ke Jiangni and Tian Wang carrying their trays and heading towards the tent.
"Lü! I didn't expect to see you here."
Tian Wang, after seeing Lv Bai, was equally excited.
Even without considering Lv Bai's incredibly reliable combat skills, just meeting someone you know in an unfamiliar place is enough to bring joy to your heart.
Tian Wang handed the tray he was holding in his right hand to Wu Ya, slapped his forehead, and said, "Lü, you probably haven't eaten, right? I should've brought an extra one."
Lv Bai waved his hand to indicate it wasn't necessary; though they weren't particularly close, he had spent some time with the group that included Ke Jianghao.
He looked at the three of them with all their limbs intact and sighed slightly, "So it's just you three left."
Hearing this, Tian Wang also let out a long sigh, a hint of dejection appearing on his round face.
"I wish I had been a bit braver back then."
Lv Bai reached out and patted Tian Wang's shoulder twice.
During this, he noticed Ke Jiangni kept her head low the entire time, but he didn't want to say much.
After all, family and classmates carry different weights.
Forcing words of comfort would seem like insincere reassurances from someone who's uninvolved.
Perhaps sensing the somber mood among them, a broadcast sounded from the loudspeaker overhead.
"Attention, movement will be restricted in ten minutes. Citizens are reminded of the precautions during the restricted movement period, which will last for one hour. This time will be used for inspections and facility sanitization... Please refrain from moving during the restricted time. Repeating once more..."
A week into the zombie virus outbreak, people's understanding of the virus was still limited, and they could only rely on the safest conventional methods for prevention.
As for the effectiveness of sanitization, people didn't have much confidence.
However, the surviving citizens didn't mind, mainly because seeing medical personnel in protective suits coming and going provided some psychological relief.
"I'll be on my way then."
Lv Bai smiled kindly and added, "If anything comes up, you can find me in the Seventh District."
...
The temporary refuge converted from a military base has already housed tens of thousands of surviving refugees.
For management convenience, forty areas were set up as citizen placement points, and even so, each area had nearly a thousand citizens, pushing the refuge's capacity to its limit.
Because of this, it was utterly impossible for management in each area to remember who belonged to theirs.
Lv Bai understood this.
He took a similar approach to sneak past the lockdown soldiers and successfully returned from the Twenty-First District to the Seventh District,
picked up his temporary ID badge issued by staff, and found the tent assigned to him.
Of course, hoping for a single room under these circumstances was unrealistic.
Lv Bai walked into the tent and scanned its interior layout.
The tent covered about ten square meters, yet had six cots laid out on the ground.
Along with a small unfolded folding table, he almost couldn't find a place to step.
A frail-looking young man sat at the small table, carefully eating from the food tray.
Meanwhile, three rough, shirtless men surrounded the frail youth like they were supervising his meal.
A new type of bullying?
Lv Bai didn't understand, so he casually picked an unused mattress, sat cross-legged at its edge.
At this point, the man with a dragon tattoo across his shoulder, clearly the leader, discontentedly slapped the table, "Can you eat a bit faster?"
The frail young man flinched in fear and quickly sped up his eating.
Seeing this, the dragon tattooed man twisted his neck, and moments later, suddenly flipped the tray in front of the frail youth, "Answer when someone asks you something."
The other two just snickered, watching the reaction of the frail youth with mocking faces.
"Al... alright, I get it."
"Sigh~"
The dragon tattooed man raised his hand to press his shoulder, then grabbed a handful of rice from the table and slapped it onto the frail youth's face, "Don't waste food; show some basic respect for the grains, will you?"
After doing all this, the dragon tattooed man got up and brushed the rice grains off his palm.
As if just noticing Lv Bai, he turned around in surprise, "Oh, we have a newcomer."
"Your acting is a bit extravagant." Lv Bai commented with a smile.
The dragon tattooed man didn't mind and casually squatted down in front of Lv Bai, pointing backwards at the frail young man with his head, "That kid doesn't know how to read the room, only got enough food for himself, can't be so selfish."
Lv Bai maintained his harmless smile, looking straight into the eyes of the tattooed brute.
This behavior was a bit strange, making the dragon tattooed man pause for a moment, "Little brother, you haven't eaten either, right? Go get us a few more portions."
During this time, the other two rough men came over too.
Hearing the dragon tattooed man's words, one of them casually placed a hand on Lv Bai's shoulder.
"Hurry up and get moving."
"Isn't it restricted movement time now?"
Lv Bai scratched his head, his smile never altering in the process.
It seemed like he wore a fixed-expression human mask, paired with his calm tone, it was eerily unsettling.
The dragon tattooed man suddenly raised his hand, his motion unclear whether it was meant to intimidate or actually make a move.
Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, the dragon tattooed man noticed a team in protective gear outside the tent and nonchalantly lowered his hand.
"Ha ha, we can get more food later."
Two medical personnel in protective suits entered the tent and, ignoring whatever was happening inside, proceeded with their sanitization routine.
A man dressed like a staff member entered the tent right after them.
The man took one look around, frowned, walked over, and helped the frail youth to his feet.
Turning to the dragon tattooed man, he scolded, "Fatty Gao, are you looking to make trouble again?"
"No way, Zhou, I'm a law-abiding citizen,"
The dragon tattooed man grinned, "I was just joking with the kid."
Zhou Zongming kept a stern face, "Behave yourself! Cui, if they bully you again, come find me."
The latter part of his words were directed at the frail youth.
In response to Zhou Zongming's assurance, Cui Qing only nodded tremblingly.
Lv Bai held his chin with one hand, watching the drama unfold with interest, not stepping in to announce his presence.
The acrid smell of disinfectant slowly filled the tent.
The medical personnel were quite proficient in their sanitization routine; within a minute, they gathered their equipment and left for the next tent.
Zhou Zongming offered some consolation to Cui Qing before leaving the tent as well.
With over a thousand people under his supervision in the Seventh District, he had too many responsibilities to spend much time on one person.
As they exited, Fatty Gao, the dragon tattooed man, sat down next to Lv Bai with a smiling face.
"Little brother, let's continue our chat."