"What information do you want to know?" Chen Xiuni asked, then added, "I agree to a trade with you, Boss Huang — but this battlefield isn't safe. We should find a more secure place."

"I think it's safe enough here. My battle pets need to recover. If you don't feel safe, you can leave me an address and go — I'll come find you. Or we trade right here."

"All right. Right here, then."

"You want to know about the large government-military organization. I can tell you. But first, you tell me about the Bug Warriors, and about the post-apocalypse situation in Tai'an City, Laiwu City, Jinan City — the whole of Shandong Province, if you can. Be as detailed as possible. I'll assess the value and exchange equivalent information in return."

One Pest-Killer Squad member, perhaps finding Shen Cong's whole act too mystifying, spoke up. "How are we supposed to trust you're not a con man?"

Shen Cong answered coldly. "I do business at marked prices, cheating neither old nor young. You're free to choose not to believe me. I won't press it."

Chen Xiuni raised a hand to signal the member to say no more. "It's fine, Boss Huang, I trust you — for fighting the Bug Warriors alone, if nothing else. Trade or no trade, I can tell you all of this."

"Please, go ahead."

"Your accent isn't from Shandong. Sounds like Anhui. I don't know the situation for all of Shandong — I can only tell you about the Ji-Mou-Dai region. This has to start not long after the apocalypse began. Back then, my father was deputy mayor of Culai Town in Tai'an City…"

The situation Chen Xiuni laid out matched the old woman's account closely enough, only in far greater detail.

A heroic mayor, Chen Jiuxian, who out of the chaos built the happy, thriving Squirrel Town — Mushroom City — gathering a great mass of survivors from the three prefecture-level cities of Ji, Mou, and Dai.

Then the Bug Heavenly King, Xu Yun, secretly cultivated the Bug Warriors, and once exposed, chose to launch…