Yao Wei could hear herself speak; she suddenly exclaimed, probably having discovered something, and quickly retreated to the road, looking across to the other side of the Guanhai River.

Lu Xi'an saw Yao Wei pointing to the car, and the direction of her finger seemed to be indicating the Resonant Gene Scanner on the vehicle.

His heart skipped a beat, and he jumped back to the other end of the bridge, running towards the car.

Yao Wei followed him up.

The two of them could only see on the Resonant Gene Scanner that a red dot had appeared on the easternmost side of the map.

The red dot flickered, constantly moving, as if pacing back and forth along some road to the east.

Still no sight of the sea that far east?

Or has the tide not yet arrived?

"I'll ask him two more questions, and then we'll leave."

Lu Xi'an said to Yao Wei before getting out of the car.

Yao Wei followed him out, saying, "Alright, I'll fetch some water from a bit upstream."

Lu Xi'an replied, "Alright, thank you for your hard work."

Yao Wei shook her head without speaking, directly lifted a bucket from the car, and ran to a place further upstream.

It wasn't easy to find a water source, so naturally, she wouldn't give up fetching water.

The child had just mentioned that many people frequently jumped into the river, and she had heard it clearly.

She didn't really care much, as long as the water was drinkable and safe, but considering Lu Xi'an was on the car too, she thought it would be better to use better water, which is why she specifically ran further upstream.

Meanwhile, Lu Xi'an had jumped back to the other side of the river—he noticed the boy Gou was moving, struggling due to physical discomfort, feeling weak all over, and moving with difficulty, huffing and puffing.

Thus, he didn't need to walk to the previous position; as soon as he jumped over, he saw the boy Gou struggling to move to the roadside.

"What's this, are you planning to jump into the river now?"

Lu Xi'an asked.

The boy Gou forced a smile and said, "Yeah, I... huff... I'm almost dead..."

He started panting heavily again.

Lu Xi'an sighed silently to himself, went over, lifted the boy up, took two big steps to the riverbank, and placed the boy down, where he then sat at the edge of the Broken Bridge.

"Thank you... huff... you're... very kind..."

The boy panted and said.

"..."

Lu Xi'an remained silent for a moment.

Another good person card.

After the silence, he said, "Don't think too highly of me, I just want to ask you two more questions. Hearing you pant makes it difficult for me to listen. You take a rest quickly."

The boy Gou said, "Alright... huff... alright..."

He was very cooperative with Lu Xi'an, and as he spoke, he started taking deep breaths, slowly adjusting until he was in his final state, then said, "You ask."

So Lu Xi'an asked, "To the west, watching over your Sickness Village, who are they, are there Neo-Humans, and how far is it from the Sickness Village?"

The boy Gou answered, "They're all people from Biyun County, and they're all ordinary people. I don't know how many there are.

"They're guarding at East Yin Mountain. To get from Biyun County to the Sickness Village, there's only one road through East Yin Mountain. They just keep guard there."

Lu Xi'an recalled the map and understood—

Previously, when he looked at "World Map One," he focused only on the coastal areas and didn't look west, thus neglecting Biyun County to the west.

But he did see the mountain that lies to the west.

The mountain is called East Yin Mountain, and on it, there's East Yin Pass, a pass guarded by two peaks, one that can be held by one person against ten thousand.

To reach this side from Biyun County without crossing mountains and enduring multiple dangers, indeed, there's only the path through East Yin Pass.

These people presumably don't know the name East Yin Pass, so they simply refer to it as East Yin Mountain.

An important pass is guarded, and there are people from three factions who need to pass through this pass to come this way, so how could those factions not form alliances and cooperate?

Lu Xi'an judged inwardly, but to be safe, he asked anyway: "Did you say that Biyun County, Daze County, and Tingxi County, do they cooperate with each other, like uniting against external threats?"

The boy Gou shook his head, saying, "I don't know... I don't know..."

Indeed, as just an ordinary little pawn, how could he possibly know about these things?

Lu Xi'an had no choice but to put this question aside for now and asked the last one: "How many Neo-Humans are there in Biyun County? And how many in Daze County and Tingxi County?"

The boy Gou thought for a moment and shook his head again, saying, "I don't know. I've seen two in Biyun County, but none in the other places."

He still referred to the Neo-Humans as "Masters," just like the people Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei had seen when they first entered Pingchuan.

But speaking of it, those people were so cunning and unpleasant, making them unlikeable just by looking, nowhere near as agreeable as the boy Gou planning to end his life.

Given how unlikable those encountered before were, if they appeared in a web novel, it might result in reducing the average subscription.

"Whew..."

Lu Xi'an exhaled a long breath, having asked what he needed and then said to the boy Gou: "Thank you." He leapt across the river once more.

The boy Gou was taken aback, showing a slightly surprised expression.

He wasn't surprised by Lu Xi'an's ability to jump so far in one go, nor was he surprised by the beautiful woman and the tall campervan on the opposite bank.

To him, it's perfectly normal for Neo-Humans to achieve these feats and possess such fine things.

He was surprised that Lu Xi'an would actually say "thank you" to him.

How could these two words come from the mouth of a Neo-Human, said to someone as useless as him, a mere ordinary person?

Yao Wei was repeatedly fetching water, filling the water tank of the RV.

She was swift in her actions, and by the time Lu Xi'an had asked those questions, she had already fetched quite a bit of water.

Lu Xi'an then went over to help, carrying the water to the tank.

While pouring water into the RV's water tank, he said to the mechanical dog in the car, "Gou, did you hear that? The guy over there shares your name."

Gou replied, "My official designation is Mechanical Dog 02, Gou is simply your nickname for me, not a shared name."

"..."

After a moment of silence, Lu Xi'an said, "Alright, you're right."

He asked another question, "Gou, take a look, is the virus on that person across the river deadly?"

Gou responded, "It's not deadly to you. However, the physical condition of that life form is extremely weakened by the virus, leaving no chance of survival."

"I see…"

Lu Xi'an sighed.

He glanced again across the river and saw the boy sitting by the broken bridge, occasionally bending forward, peeking down below.

The turbulent water beneath surged, frothing white, with a continuous "whooshing" sound.

The young Gou seemed eager to jump, yet the roaring water was so intimidating it made him hesitate, unable to take that final step.

—Or rather, unable to budge the last bit of his backside.

The water tank was already full, and Yao Wei had also filled two buckets, carrying them over.

Lu Xi'an took the buckets, placed them on the vehicle, secured them, and then looked at the young Gou, who was still indecisive, and said, "Why not come on our vehicle instead of jumping?

"Though it's inconvenient to give you a ride inside, you can stay on the roof for a while.

"When you die, we'll find a place to bury you, sparing you the ordeal of forcing yourself to jump into the river."

After he said this, he paused slightly, feeling an inexplicable coldness and detachment, yet in this world, there was a hint of tenderness in it.

In the past, he would never have said such words, but now, it almost slipped out instinctively.

Having lived in this world for so long, he had gradually adapted to the world, accepting the different values of the people in it.

Or perhaps he was slowly becoming like Yao Wei, straightforward, without a bit of hypocritical roundaboutness.

"Thank you, you really are a good person."

The young Gou on the opposite side suddenly smiled at Lu Xi'an and said again.

Well, he collected his second 'good person' card today.

Standing at the bridgehead, Lu Xi'an curiously asked young Gou another question: "Besides fear of being eaten, is there any other reason?

"Has anyone in your Sickness Village mentioned why everyone jumps into the river before they die?"

Young Gou shook his head and said, "I don't know… we're all just waiting to die, no one's in the mood to talk.

"But we all definitely have to jump into the river, I don't know the others. For me, I think…I feel like jumping into the river can wash away all the filth on me, dying as clean as the Master… like Neo-Humans…"

"..."

Lu Xi'an fell into a slight silence.

Perhaps, in this boy's eyes, or in the eyes of many ordinary people, Neo-Humans are so clean they envy them.

How did that cleanliness come about?

Probably part of it is their innate physical condition, but more importantly, the privileges that come with power and authority.

The ordinary people of this world live under the oppression of the Neo-Humans, struggling and suffering, how could they possibly have the opportunity, time, or energy to clean themselves?

This is a task only Neo-Humans, who have others to serve them, have the luxury of doing.

Whether that young Gou understood or not, he had placed his hope for 'cleanliness' solely on the act of jumping into the river as a way to commit suicide.

Lu Xi'an didn't say anything further, he silently turned around and walked away.

He went back to check the car and saw the red dot on the Resonant Gene Scanner map still lingering on the eastern edge, with no intention of coming this way, which made him relax a little.

Thus, he and Yao Wei did not disturb the boy any further, giving him more time.

—So, relatively speaking, compared to this world's Neo-Humans, he and Yao Wei are indeed good people.

Those Neo-Humans, fearing they wouldn't have the patience to wait, might have already picked up the boy by now and thrown him into the river, lending him a helping hand.

"Splash—"

After waiting for a while, the red dot on the Resonant Gene Scanner map was still hovering in place, and the boy on the broken bridge across the river finally gathered his courage, moved his hips forward, and jumped into the river, supported by his hands on the bridge.

Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei got out of the car to watch, as the slender body was already carried downstream, heading east.

"Let's go."

Lu Xi'an said to Yao Wei.

"Mm."

Yao Wei nodded.

The two lifted the car and leaped over the bridge.

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