Infinite Ebullience-Chapter 48 - 31 Perfect Retreat
48: Chapter 31 Perfect Retreat
48 -31 Perfect Retreat
Tang Zheng’s plan was disrupted.
Pang Meiqin, Zeng Xue, and Zhou Zhou had entangled him for an entire afternoon, leaving him with no time to experiment new abilities with Li Xinlan or discuss the seed intelligence with Lin Weiguo and Qin Yan.
Almost everyone could see, these three flight attendants were competing, fighting for the belonging right of Tang Zheng.
It made the bald man and Zhao Jingye extremely envious.
However, Kang Songde was smiling and giving a thumbs up, teasing him for his attractiveness towards women.
Tang Zheng kept a straight face and treated every flight attendant politely, humbly but firmly rejecting their requests for making tea, comforting, and even rubbing his shoulders.
He understood the principle that it’s not the lack but the inequality that is troubling.
He would absolutely not play favorites in the team, as it would only lead to disunity.
After dinner, like usual, everyone sat in the living room chatting leisurely.
Compared to the rush of few days before, they all had much peace of mind now.
With smiles on their faces, Pang Meiqin, Cheng Chen and the others were playing level-up poker with some cards Bai Guo had found, using crumpled US dollars and a variety of jewelry as stakes on the carpet.
After searching the Oasis Hotel, each one of them could be considered a minor rich woman.
“Too boring.
Maintenance Worker, Captain Zhao, Kang, let’s play poker too, showdown poker.” The bald man waved a bag in his hand, his loot from the day, “Let’s see what you’ve collected too, I know you all got rich today.”
“Not playing, no fun.” Kang sat on the couch, holding a cup of tea, completely relaxed, as if he had returned to his own time.
“No interest.” Zhao Jingye rejected outright.
His eyes were often glancing towards Qin Yan, which made Xu Lu, who was sitting beside him feel unhappy.
She wanted to twist his waist, but dared not and could only pout in anger.
“Maintenance Worker, let’s play.
Old Lin, come on, make an atmosphere.
Anyway, these dollars were also gotten for free.
It doesn’t matter if we lose them.” The bald man pulled out a bundle of green US dollars from his pocket, encouraging the maintenance worker, then looked at Tang Zheng, “Little Tang, don’t just draw there, come and play for a while.”
The maintenance worker was a bit eager to try.
Bringing some money home would be a significant income.
He knew his wife liked a diamond ring, but couldn’t afford it in the past due to the burden of raising children.
But now it was different.
This morning, he found a handbag in a suite and got a diamond necklace and two diamond rings from it.
“My wife would be very happy to see these.” The left hand of the maintenance worker was clenching the jewellery box in his coat pocket.
Thinking of the surprise his wife would have after seeing it, he couldn’t help but laugh.
“I’ll play with you for a bit.” The maintenance worker took out some dollars, deciding to play.
He knew the bald man was very daring and had checked many suites, so he had found many valuable things.
He wanted to win too.
“Taking more home is never wrong.
It should make up for the lost wages of these past few days.”
“I won’t play.
You guys continue.
But a piece of advice, it’s best to gamble with US dollars.” Tang Zheng didn’t bother himself with these matters, the team members needed to relax too.
“Why?” The maintenance worker was puzzled, and the flight attendants who were also gambling for leisure looked at Tang Zheng.
They were merely exchanging the jewelry they preferred through this method.
“If the US dollar bills were printed after 2011, how do you plan to spend them after returning to our world?
They won’t be able to discover gold and diamonds.” Tang Zheng grinned, “Of course, if you guys want to give America some trouble, feel free to bring more back.
I think the FBI would be very busy if they see these ‘franklins’.”
Everyone was clearly shocked by this, especially the bald man, who spat in disgust after he reacted.
He had the most US dollars.
“You can think of this too?
Being with you makes me feel inferior.” Zeng Xue said.
Then Pang Meiqin and Bai Guo nodded in agreement.
They thought Tang Zheng was a freak, but with him as the group leader, they had a lot of hope in surviving.
“I’ve researched the map.
If we can’t stay here, we will head to Las Vegas.” Tang Zheng picked up the map kept on the coffee table that marked several escape routes and waved it.
“Go to Las Vegas?
The city of gambling?” The bald man’s eyes lit up immediately.
“The straight-line distance from Los Angeles to Las Vegas is about 230 miles, which is more than 370 kilometers.
It takes about 3-4 hours to drive by car on highway 15.” Tang Zheng repeated the data he had calculated many times before.
“Highway 15?
Will it have a traffic jam?” The bald man was still able to ask a few constructive questions.
“This highway stretches from San Diego in the southwest of the United States to Salt Lake City, the capital of Utah in the northwest.
It has 10 or 12 lanes in both directions.
A traffic jam?
You could drive at maximum speed without any problems.” Tang Zheng threw the map at him, “See it for yourself.”
“How would I understand this?” The bald man, making a silly face, leaned towards Lin Weiguo, asking him to explain.
“We are sat here all cozy, why go to Las Vegas?
We are not exactly keen on seeing blonde bunny girls in the casino.” Zhao Jingye’s comment was quite sharp, making everyone laugh.
“I want to go.” The bald man shamelessly, in a carefree manner, expressed his view.
“Our goal is not the gambler’s city, but the Mojave Desert beyond Los Angeles and crossing through the middle-west of the United States.
Once we’re on the highway, on both sides, there are vast and boundless gobi areas.
Other than cacti, camel thorns, desert willows, you can’t find a single human, and of course, you wouldn’t find any zombies either.” Tang Zheng shared his plan, which was also his backup plan.
“The plan sounds fine, but what about our supplies?” Zhao Jingye thought the idea was worth a try.
He really didn’t want to stay in a city crowded with zombies.
“We can empty out the hotel’s supplies, like the canned food, and the bus in the lobby downstairs could be a good means of transportation.” Tang Zheng took out the M1911A1 from the gun holster around his leg, and began practicing how to disassemble it and put it back together again.
“How does that sound?”
“Even if we have less food, it won’t be a problem.
There are some rest areas on the American highways.
We can get gasoline and food there, even firearms, and the place is usually not too crowded.” Qin Yan seemingly had been to America before, so she had some knowledge about it.
“Little Tang’s plan will work.”
“How do we get out of Los Angeles then?
There are a ring of zombies outside.” Hearing that they can leave the city, the flight attendants were all excited.
They had long grown tired of the city environment.
“I can handle these zombies.
The more challenging part would probably be dealing with the journey leaving Los Angeles.
So we must be well-prepared.
But of course, if there’s no need to, I really don’t want to risk leaving the hotel.” Tang Zheng furrowed his eyebrows, obviously considering the worst-case scenario.
“If there’s a traffic jam, we will really be doomed.
I don’t want to be surrounded by zombies.
But don’t worry, the timing of the outbreak was just right, it didn’t happen during the rush hours.
Otherwise, I would definitely veto this plan.”
“Then we should just stay put for now.” Cheng Chen recalled the zombies relentlessly eating people on the bus on the first day and retracted her suggestion.
“You guys are overthinking.
Even if there is a traffic jam in Los Angeles, the spacious highway can still accommodate us.
Don’t forget, we can break the road rules, and nobody will fight us for the roads.” Xu Lu saw that not many were convinced, and added, “A friend of mine studying in America showed me the photos she took and it was true.”
“Being prepared is a good thing.
Having more exit strategies is always beneficial.
Actually, if the Oasis Hotel had a basement or something, I wouldn’t bother with all of this.
By the way, guess my preferred place for hiding?” Tang Zheng held up his index finger, saying, “Guess correctly, and you get a prize, a grenade.”
Everyone’s eyes lit up, and they started to think hard.
“The police station.
It’s got an armory.” Zeng Xue was quick to respond, but unfortunately, she was wrong.
“I bet survivors who made it through the initial stage would instinctively flee to the police station.
Moreover, there are usually a lot of people there, and even burglars and robbers, meaning we would definitely encounter more zombies.” Pang Meiqin shook her head after denying it, deep in thought.
“The mayor’s office?
There should be fewer people there.” That was Cheng Chen’s answer.
“Right, it’s the bank vault, absolutely.
Take some supplies with us, and we could easily survive until day fifteen.” Qin Yan found the correct answer.
Seeing Tang Zheng nod in approval, she was happy and made the victory sign with her fingers.
“Unfortunately, once we implement this plan and sneak into the bank vault, it means there would be no way out.
I don’t like that feeling of being trapped.
As they say, so close but yet so far.
I would feel terrible.” Tang Zheng picked up a grenade from the travel bag filled with M24 grenades and handed it to Qin Yan.
Then he explained to everyone, “I prefer to prepare several backup plans.
That way, we will never be caught unaware.
So, everyone, here’s to survival!”
Tang Zheng picked up his cup and drained his tea in one gulp.
Everyone else also shouted “Cheers!” and finished their drinks.
At that moment, everyone was brimming with confidence about surviving till the fifteenth day.
Even Zhao Jingye had to admit, Tang Zheng was a pretty good group leader and bore much of the burden.
……
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