“This question costs a broken laptop and a scrap engine. Any objections?”

No objections. Shen Cong added both items to the flat-bed trailer and answered.

“I don’t know the situation outside Anhui Province. Within our area: the Hefei Garrison military has started building a new order structure. They came through Juchao once — but for reasons I don’t fully understand, they only took evolved people and their immediate family. Ordinary survivors were left behind.”

He let that settle before adding: “In other words, you’re on your own.”

Wang Yingying carried that back to the group, then returned with the second question: “What is an evolved person?”

Significant value — Shen Cong swept a pile of salvaged items off the exchange table.

“Evolved person is the working term for humans who’ve been changed by what happened. There are three categories. First: half-beasts — their appearance has changed significantly, but their minds have deteriorated. Functionally animals. Second: mutants — appearance changed, minds intact, physical capabilities greatly enhanced.”

He paused.

“Third category: iron people. Similar to mutants but indistinguishable in appearance from ordinary humans.”

“Boss Huang — are you an iron person?” Wang Yingying asked, surprised enough to ask without thinking about whether it cost anything.

“Yes.”

He didn’t charge for that one. He was already planning to direct this group toward the southern district and Zhu Haifeng’s rescue team before he left — his nature as an iron person would become apparent the moment anyone saw Vajra up close, if it hadn’t already. Not worth keeping secret.

The exchange session ran short quickly — the salvage team’s first day haul wasn’t enough to cover many more questions. The information trading paused until tomorrow.

Night fell. The salvage team returned to their camp at the university athletic field. Shen Cong turned on the work lights and started sorting through the day’s take.

Priority order: small precision electronics first, then intact metal components, then whatever remained went to the ants as feed.

The old-mature larva — still pre-pupation, still eating steadily — was a simple consumer. Blackhead was something more useful.

“Blackhead — welding torch.”

He didn’t turn around. He released the intent through the perceptual bond, felt Blackhead receive it, heard the sounds of movement behind him — the ant climbing into Vajra, locating the tool, climbing back out, crossing the flat-bed, raising the torch up to Shen Cong’s level with mandibles held carefully.

“Good.”

He took it and gave Blackhead a pat on the oversized head. The antennae went into immediate enthusiastic motion.

Then the laptop alarm sounded.

A blip had entered the radar perimeter — something approaching Vajra from the direction of the university ruins.

“Blackhead — inside. Hide.”

The ant disappeared into Vajra without hesitation. Shen Cong followed, pulled the door closed, opened a window on the far side, and watched the approaching light on the radar resolve into a single moving figure.

His night vision brought the shape into clarity quickly: a female student from the salvage team. Young, reasonably attractive.

His mind cycled through possibilities immediately.

Why is she here at this hour?

Honeytrap?

Distraction — while something else moves?

He kept still and waited to see what she’d do.

She approached with visible hesitation — stopping, continuing, stopping again. The moon hadn’t risen yet; the night was deep enough that she couldn’t see him watching from the window. She reached the cab section, raised her hand, and knocked on the armor plate.

“Boss — Boss Huang? Are you there?”

He didn’t answer.

“I can see your work lights were on. I need to talk to you.”

“What about.” He let his voice come out without warning.

She startled, then moved to the window. “Could I come in?”

“No.”

Silence. Then, halting: “I — I want to come with you when you leave. I’ll do anything. Really, anything at all.”

“Isn’t staying with your group the better option?”

“There’s no future there.” Something in her voice firmed up, past the hesitation. “They argue every day and wait for a government that isn’t coming. And the male students — when they have nothing to do, they—” She stopped. “I don’t want to stay. I’m asking you to take me. I’ll do anything, I mean it.”

“What makes you think I’m not also a bad person?”

A pause. Then, with a kind of determined finality: “I don’t believe you are. You’re this strong, and you still traded with us fairly. That tells me something. I believe you’re a good person, Boss Huang. Whatever happens, it’s my choice. I’ll accept the outcome.”

Naive.

The assessment was instantaneous and without particular warmth.

“No room in my vehicle.”

“But someone as strong as you — wouldn’t you want—” She pushed forward, voice shifting register. “I know I don’t look like much right now, but cleaned up I’m — I was the campus beauty queen. A lot of people tried to court me. I can do laundry, housework, anything you need, and what I don’t know how to do I can learn—”

Shen Cong reached over and closed the window.

“Boss Huang—”

He didn’t respond.

A few minutes later, she left.

An insignificant interruption. By morning, everything continued as before.

A day and a half to finish clearing Bantang Town. The haul was a mixed pile of salvageable components and, most usefully, a steel plate container that the salvage team had assembled from sheet material — now bolted to the flat-bed trailer as a proper cargo box.

Next: the northeast corner of Juchao district. Previous survivor groups had already swept through it, so the pickings were thinner than Bantang Town, but Shen Cong wasn’t looking for food or daily goods — he was looking for metal components and precision electronics, and those had been left behind in most scavenger sweeps.

Two more days in the northeast sector.

Through the exchange sessions, he’d dispensed most of the non-sensitive information he was willing to share. The food stores he’d traded had been things he barely needed — he ran on Activity meat and evolved fruit now, and his body repaired through Activity rather than nutrition in any conventional sense. The food had negligible value to him and real value to twenty-three hungry people.

The electronics were a different calculation. Industrial production capacity in this world was wrecked — whatever precision components existed now were what existed, full stop. Activity corrosion was eating through exposed metal faster than conventional rust. Every passing month reduced what could be recovered. He needed to accumulate enough for Vajra’s eventual overhaul before the window closed.

The tobacco and alcohol from Wang Gen’s stockpile he kept entirely. High-value barter with evolved people, down the road. More reliable than food.

The electronics haul from both sectors let him complete the final display monitor repair. He powered up all eight screens in sequence and sat for a moment looking at the full array.

Eight screens live simultaneously:

Four camera feeds — complete coverage, no blind spots at any angle around the vehicle.

Two infrared thermal imaging feeds — close-range biological detection, nothing living within range could hide from it at ground level. A third screen picked up the wired drone feed; he could launch it through the roof hatch and run it from the driver’s seat without going outside.

One radar screen — tracking large moving objects within a kilometer radius.

One touchscreen control panel — water, power, hatches, windows, camera rotation, radar deployment, all accessible from the driver’s seat without leaving it.

And the salvaged Hummer center console, now embedded above the steering wheel as a dedicated map display. No GPS or BDS signal, so navigation was manual — but the display itself worked, and that was what mattered.

He looked at all of it and felt, for the first time, that Vajra was beginning to look like what he’d always intended it to be.

“Next major overhaul — weapons. Remote weapon stations. Rotary cannon. Heavy machine gun. Whatever I can get my hands on. By trade, by salvage, or by force if necessary. Vajra shouldn’t need me standing outside with a crossbow. The vehicle itself should be able to fight.”

He said it to no one, in the quiet cab, surrounded by eight glowing screens.

(End of Chapter 97)