"What is it?"
Luo Ping became interested immediately, but he still said, "Let's look at mine first. After we finish with my warehouse, we can talk about yours.
"You guys are incredible. I'm afraid once you take your stuff out, the things in my warehouse won't be worth showing."
Lu Xi'an laughed and said, "How could that be? You have plenty of good stuff. I had the privilege of seeing it all back then."
Luo Ping recalled the items he gave to Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei back in Fengcheng County and grinned, "You're too kind, you're too kind."
Having said that, he briefly introduced Lu Xi'an to the situation of this secret base, and then took out the keys to unlock the warehouse door.
Luo Ping said that this place was supposed to be a research base. The outside was actually dormitories, a living area, and the inside of the warehouse was the important part.
The reason he lived outside was that the corridor was the only entrance when coming in, so guarding there was better. Going further in wasn't as strategic as staying outside.
There were originally four plots of land in this courtyard, but Luo Ping had nothing to plant. The land kept growing grass, and he was too lazy to tidy it up, so he paved it over with stone slabs.
Since Shu arrived, corn could be planted, so they lifted some stone slabs. Previously, working with Shu to lift the slabs, turn the soil, and remove the weeds took quite an effort.
Lu Xi'an glanced around the entire courtyard area that the passage led into. On the flat ground, indeed, there were four sections paved with stone slabs manually cut, making the open space resemble an irregular "field" character.
Probably, Luo Ping also did some special treatment back then. These manually cut stone slabs weren't regular, but between the stone slabs, though varying in size, were tightly and smoothly filled, and were adhered to each other with a paste to stick them together and fill the gaps.
Lu Xi'an speculated that the paste was likely made by grinding the stone slab material into powder, mixing it with water to create a mud-like adhesive, therefore making it similar in color to the stone slabs, which was why he and Yao Wei couldn't tell when they were above.
But now, standing on the ground, he could see everything very clearly.
He asked Luo Ping, "So what did they research here before?"
Luo Ping replied, "I'd like to know too, but I can't open the innermost door.
"You'll see later. I suspect this warehouse I'm treating as a treasure is just the base's periphery.
"When I first discovered this place, I researched it every day, just wanting to open that door and get a good look inside, but I just couldn't open it.
"Over time, I gave up. There's no use staring at something you can't grasp; it's better to focus on your own work."
Lu Xi'an nodded and said, "Makes sense. If you can't hold onto the sand, just let it blow away."
Luo Ping's eyes lit up, "Brother, now that's real wisdom! You sure know how to talk; I couldn't think of saying something like that."
Lu Xi'an paid no attention to Luo Ping's compliments and asked, "Is there no plaque or license or anything like that here?"
Luo Ping said, "There is one, a sign inside with 'Institute 923' written on it, but that's all there is."
As they spoke, they arrived at the warehouse entrance. Luo Ping took out the key, opened the padlock he had added himself, and pushed open the massive, heavy iron door.
The iron door had aged, but it was apparently built to high specifications because now, when pushed inward, it moved smoothly with no resistance whatsoever.
Once the iron door was open, Lu Xi'an immediately noticed the large, square supporting pillars. Next to the pillars, four vehicles were neatly parked in a row: a sedan, one Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei had seen before, a pickup truck, a minivan, and a city SUV.
All kinds of styles, indeed, a complete range.
"These cars weren't originally here, right?"
Lu Xi'an asked.
After entering, he looked around, feeling like this was a large hall that shouldn't have any practical use.
Aside from the four vehicles, the sides were lined with various miscellaneous items, stored in boxes of all sizes, which Lu Xi'an couldn't identify at a glance.
Luo Ping said, "Probably not... Who knows? When I found this place, these cars were already parked here.
"And the rest of the stuff was placed just like this. It was organized well, so I didn't move anything; I just took what I needed.
"I guess maybe all this was outside initially, then due to some special circumstance, it was all moved in. Then the people here locked the door and all withdrew.
"So when I found this place, there wasn't a single person here."
Lu Xi'an nodded, feeling that Luo Ping's guess was quite plausible.
Luo Ping said, "No rush to check out the cars. Honestly, my cars aren't as good as yours. Most importantly, they don't look as sturdy as yours.
"But if you fancy any of these cars and want to take them, I have no problem with that. I have four, and that's enough. More would just waste fuel.
"Come, come, take a look at the other stuff first. Need any lubricant?"
Lu Xi'an, hearing this last sentence from Luo Ping, immediately thought Sharp Brother might say something inappropriate, but to his surprise, Luo Ping actually meant, "I have plenty of lubricants here: automotive, oils, and others, even gun oil and bullets. See what you need?"
After hearing Luo Ping out, Lu Xi'an felt a little ashamed, inwardly sighing that prejudices are indeed like a mountain.
He said, "These are all useful. I'll take a look, and if you have enough, I'll just take a little."
Just as he finished speaking, Yao Wei chimed in, "No need for gun oil. We might not use guns much in the future."
Lu Xi'an turned his head somewhat surprised to glance at Yao Wei, who was looking at him earnestly and said, "When facing someone skilled, a gun is indeed not as useful as just throwing something. I feel like I'm getting a bit of accuracy now, I need to practice more in the future, can't rely on weak tools."
Lu Xi'an nodded and said, "That's true."
Luo Ping: "..."
He felt these two Type A Neo-Humans were being pretentious. Of course, he didn't know what "pretentious" means, but he just felt that these two were showing off.
Damn it! Being Type A Neo-Humans is so great?!
When Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei came over, Luo Ping showed them the boxes beside him, Shu and Chai Xin also came to join the fun, whereas Liu Hua and Tang Er just stayed at the door.
They stayed there voluntarily, even when Luo Ping told them to come in, they refused, which made Luo Ping sigh with melancholy.
Lu Xi'an knew what Luo Ping was sighing about, but in this world, the difference in status between Neo-Humans and ordinary people had become too significant to ignore. The transformation of identity and mindset is not something that can be easily achieved without prolonged exposure and adjustment.
For the moment, he could only watch and not do much to help.
Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei looked inside the box and found it packed with various pots.
"Still so full? Haven't you used them much?"
Lu Xi'an asked.
Luo Ping laughed and said, "Of course, I use them, but I'm reluctant to use them excessively, trying to save as much as possible.
"I use these four vehicles in turns, and only when one's wear and tear is about even do I switch to another. Once all four are worn out, I will replace the engine oil, lubricant, and the like.
"Oh right, there are also car repair tools here, do you need them? As for electrical connectors, there's not much left, just two."
As he spoke, he went to rummage through another box. Lu Xi'an saw that he took out wrenches and screwdrivers, all of which Yao Wei's car had, and the electrical connectors he mentioned were similar to Yao Wei's "power bank."
So he declined, "We don't need these, we have car repair tools with us, and we don't need electrical connectors either since we have Gou."
Luo Ping marveled, "That's true, your stuff is impressive, I have seen it before. And that Resonance Instrument, if I had that, I wouldn't be afraid of anyone!"
Lu Xi'an said, "Wouldn't you be afraid if you encountered a Type A and Type C combination again?"
Luo Ping said, "I can discover and dodge them in advance."
Lu Xi'an: "..."
Come to think of it, what this guy said made sense.
Then Luo Ping introduced more of what he had in his storage. In those boxes, there was indeed a lot, though mostly they were idle books and stored food.
Those stored books were various idle reads, like the comics and magazines he had shown Lu Xi'an before, and martial arts novels. The food was boxed, mainly instant noodles, ham, and marinated eggs, and then there were canned goods, all convenient for storage and carrying.
Most of those instant noodles were cup-style, with only a few being packed in bags.
This reminded Lu Xi'an of working overtime in his previous life. Back then, to solve hunger during overtime, they bought these kinds of food.
Could it be these things were also meant for people to snack on while working overtime here?
Lu Xi'an picked up a cup of instant noodles and examined it, finding the packaging quite tightly sealed, far surpassing the shrink wraps they used in the past, feeling like it might be a post-apocalyptic specialty.
Perhaps... it was also a preparation for the cold disaster.
He judged in his heart.
Luo Ping saw Lu Xi'an picking up the cup of instant noodles and said, "This is not bad either, I used to eat them dry, it was Shu who told me you can soak them in hot water, add the seasoning inside, and then a ham and egg, it's delicious!
"We didn't eat much of these before, so there's quite a bit left. If you can fit more on your car, take a few more boxes.
"Come on, come over here, these boxes here haven't been opened yet."
He said as he walked to the innermost side of the warehouse. There were boxes lined up on both sides, but the middle area was left empty, seemingly to make space for a metal door.
"Is this the door you said you've always wanted to open?"
Lu Xi'an took a glance at the metal door and asked.
To be honest, this door was quite large, the same size as the big iron gate at the back.
"Yeah."
Luo Ping replied with some wistfulness, "It's a pity, no matter how I try, I can't open it. If only it could be opened, I wonder what's inside?"
No sooner had he spoken than there was a response.
Two beams of light suddenly shot up, hitting straight on the middle of the metal door on the left side.
Everyone was surprised, looking down, only to see Gou, who was beside Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei, with his eyes glowing.
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