Chapter 50
When Wen Xin realized that he was seen, he stopped where he was, holding the little fox and touched his nose to cover up.
But before he could calm down and speak, he saw the red-robed man sitting on the chair change his expression drastically.
The old man stood up, and his aged body burst out with the speed of a running champion in his twenties. In the blink of an eye, he even closed the lid of the tea can.
This is preparing to run away with the tea!
Immediately, Wen Xin didn’t care whether it was awkward or not, he rushed over in two steps and pressed down the red-robed man’s tea can first.
When the others saw him running away, they didn’t care about anything else, but the man in red robe’s first reaction was to take away the tea.
This proves that in the red-robed man’s heart, tea is more important than himself!
As expected.
Seeing that he couldn’t take the teapot away, the man in red robe turned pale and almost got angry.
“Take your hands off me!”
Wen Xin was unusually tough: “Then you have to promise that you won’t run away after I let go of your hand.”
The red-robed man responded without even thinking, “I promise.”
No guarantee, just take it and run.
Unfortunately, Wen Xin did not believe his promise.
“Swear by your pope or your gods.”
Red robe man: “…”
The lifeline is in hand.
This boy is such a thief.
The man in red robe clicked his tongue, glanced at the little fox blinking innocently in Wen Xin’s arms, and felt so sad in his heart.
But he has calmed down now: “What do you want from me?”
Wen Xin was sure that the man in red robe would not run away again, so he withdrew his hand from the teapot that was on his mind.
“I want to learn about Idealism.”
In fact, Wen Xin wanted to know more about the divisions of other forces and organizations, but just now, his thoughts changed a little.
The man in red robe picked up the fallen chair from the ground and brushed off the dust on it with his hand.
“You don’t look like you’re going to join Idealism.”
The red-robed man sat down again and met Wen Xin’s gaze: “You just pry into other people’s secrets, do you think I will tell you?”
The passage of time has given the old man’s eyes a deep power. Under the gaze of these eyes, Wen Xin has a feeling that he is seen through.
Wen Xin did not show any fear.
But he had to think about one question.
That means I don’t have anything I can exchange information with for the time being.
Exchanging intelligence for intelligence might be the most appropriate method, but Wen Xin couldn’t do it.
Because he was focused on training while in the base and rarely went out, most of the things he knew were related to the training camp and the army.
He would not reveal those things, whether they were confidential or not.
The atmosphere was tense before and the two sides had different positions. Wen Xin could take out his gun and point it at the red-robed man’s head without any burden and list various conditions.
But not now.
To put it bluntly, his situation is that he is dependent on others. He has to keep a low profile, but at least he cannot be too arrogant.
What’s more, the attitude of Idealism towards him can be described as friendly.
Seeing Wen Xin’s silence, the red-robed man laughed, not surprisingly: “You can’t tell.”
The little fox was about to look up.
But then I heard the young man clear his throat.
“I thought of one, but I don’t know if it counts.”
Wen Xin looked at the tea can in the red-robed man’s hand and said, “There shouldn’t be many people growing tea outside now, but there is one in the base in City A, and the output is relatively stable.”
“If you need it, I can introduce you to the tea merchant when I get back.”
The red-robed man’s expression did not change, but his eyebrows twitched suddenly.
“Are you serious?”
Wen Xin nodded seriously.
In fact, he didn’t know any tea merchants, but he had seen fresh tea in Li Yongming’s ancestral home before.
After asking, I found out that there are actually people growing tea in the base.
City A as a whole is not well-off, and many people still have to go hungry.
Wen Xin himself had never experienced hunger, but he knew that the cultivation of various vegetables, fruits and melons was competing for fields and greenhouses.
In that case, we should put tea and other things aside and focus on high-yield and filling crops.
Wen Xin has always been puzzled by this.
It was only later that he found out that the tea leaves were grown with Wen Jinfeng’s permission.
But they were not sold to their own people, but to wealthy businessmen in other bases.
Since he is a wealthy businessman, he must have a large amount of resources in his hands.
They have long been tired of potato noodles and instant noodles that ordinary people cannot eat, so of course they will pursue better things that others cannot easily get to improve their quality of life.
Facts have also proved that the decision to sell tea to other countries has indeed solved the hunger problem for many people in the base.
Wen Xin still remembers it vividly.
It can be said that it was the first time that he filled the seemingly blank image of Wen Jinfeng in his mind.
Instead of just vaguely remembering a serious high school boy who sat at the dining table with his back to him and pushed open the door without looking back.
From then on, apart from a phone call from him every few months to express condolences, he was never seen again.
For Wen Xin, the current situation is just right.
The man in red robe likes to drink tea and has a high status in the Idealism Sect, so he should have a lot of resources.
It completely meets the target customers for tea sales.
Wen Xin’s two sentences really touched the heart of the red-robed man.
He likes drinking tea, but has been struggling to find a stable way to make it.
Mercenaries were commissioned with a high bounty to search for the tea in the tea shop, but unfortunately, the tea leaves had either been looted in advance or smashed by zombies.
Even if it’s not rotten, it’s impossible to drink it if the packaging is damaged and stained with blood.
Only a few cans were recovered.
It’s all old tea.
For some teas, the longer they are stored, the mellower their flavor becomes.
But for some teas, you have to choose the young tea from early spring to taste the best.
The red-robed man missed the taste of the latter, and of course would not refuse Wen Xin’s proposal.
He thought about it, touched his chin, and looked at Wen Xin as if he had just met someone new: “I didn’t expect you knew the tea merchant?”
In terms of property rights, the largest tea merchant in City A is Wen Jinfeng.
So Wen Xin spoke confidently: “I know him.”
The red-robed man smiled broadly, his attitude obviously much better than before: “Okay, okay, then come sit here, there’s a chair over there.”
Wen Xin brought over the folding chair and sat down opposite the man in red robe, holding the little fox.
The red-robed man asked, “What do you want to know about Idealism?”
Wen Xin put on the appearance of a good listener: “I don’t know much about Idealism. I am very curious about why Idealism exists, what are the things and people in it.”
The man in red robe heard Wen Xin’s subtext.
The other party wanted to know the origin, personnel distribution and event information of Idealism, and would accept anyone who came.
Although he was trying to gather information in a roundabout way, the young man’s attitude was sincere and genuine, so he was not unpleasant to look at.
The man in red robe looked at the little fox and talked about some things that did not involve the secrets of Idealism and were not too big a deal.
From the words of the red-robed man, Wen Xin learned the origin of Idealism.
In fact, not all idealists believe in idealism. What they say “idealism is supreme, idealism is best” is just a verbal oath.
To be honest, the man in red is still a realist.
In his opinion, having love and being contented with water only exists in imagination, and pie falling from the sky is even more impossible.
The word “Weixin” in Idealism was changed when the sect was founded, but only the Pope knows the real name.
Why it was not adopted is also an unsolved mystery.
When the man in red robe said this, the little fox raised his head silently, looked at Wen Xin steadily, hiding the complex emotions in his eyes.
Wen Xin asked: “Did the Pope of your religion receive any revelation when he founded the religion?”
Most people outside may not be able to explain this clearly.
They only knew that Idealism Cult arose suddenly, and the expansion of its membership was so fast that it was far beyond common sense, and a survivor base was established in just a few days.
But apart from that, it seems that he hasn’t done anything earth-shattering or tear-jerking.
The red-robed man took a sip of hot tea and said slowly, “Because people at that time were in so much pain, many almost died.”
When talking about the doctrines and dogmas of Idealism, the old man remained very calm, unlike the pockmarked man who was full of obsession and fanaticism.
Seeing that he didn’t mind, Wen Xin made a bold guess.
“You mean, everyone was looking for a spiritual support at that time, and Idealism just happened to appear?”
The red-robed man shook his head: “Yes, but no.”
“If you tell a person who is running out of food that tomorrow will be better, he may listen, because his worries are for tomorrow, not now.”
“But if you tell a starving person that things will get better in the future, he will just spit in your face and tell you to get lost as far away as you can.”
When the end of the world came, the man in red robe saw with his own eyes a child who was not even as tall as his thigh die in the mouth of a zombie.
He knew the child; she was the precious granddaughter of his next-door neighbor.
He is still young, speaks with a soft and tender baby voice, and his eyes are curved like crescent moons when he smiles. If you give him a sweet orange slice or a lollipop, he will become very happy and say thank you with joyful dances.
When he heard the child crying, the man in red robe’s eyes turned red and he picked up a stick to hit the child.
But when the zombie heard the noise and turned around, he saw the familiar face and the stick in his hand almost fell to the ground.
Because the zombie biting the child was none other than the grandfather who loved the child the most.
What a heartbreaking thing that is.
But such tragedies have been happening frequently on this land without interruption since the end of the world.
No matter what kind of spiritual sustenance one has, it cannot eliminate such pain.
Wen Xin was silent.
He thought of the aphrodisiac that the pockmarked man had used.
If the brain is too clear, it will remember all the pain clearly and destroy its spirit and will day by day.
Then perhaps the only way left is to resort to medicine/substances to help yourself get rid of it.
But Wen Xin quickly ruled out this speculation.
No matter whether it was the red-robed man he saw, or the other black-robed men and ordinary believers, they all had healthy and rosy complexions, and walked with vigor, not looking like they had been taking large amounts of illegal drugs for a long time.
Wen Xin touched the little fox’s fur.
He asked out of the blue: “Does the Pope have special powers to help people relieve their spiritual suffering?”
Having said that, the red-robed man was not surprised that Wen Xin could guess it: “That’s right.”
Except when he appeared at the door of the hotel room, the old man showed enough momentum towards Wen Xin.
Most of the rest of the time, he was like an old man strolling around in the garden, holding a thermos cup in his hand and taking a sip from time to time.
Only at this moment, a hint of religious piety appeared in the eyes of the red-robed man.
Not as crazy as the pockmarked man, but full of gratitude and obedience from the bottom of his heart.
He said seriously: “When you arrive at the base, you will know how incredible and fortunate the existence of His Holiness the Pope is.”
The little fox moved its ears, and Wen Xin held them in his hands and rubbed them gently twice.
As if remembering something, the man in red robe looked at the young man meaningfully.
“So don’t say I didn’t remind you. Once you arrive at the B City base, you’d better concentrate and don’t think of any crooked ideas.”
The man in red robe had an unspoken subtext, and I believe Wen Xin could understand it.
——I know your main target is Zhang Quanyong, but don’t think about taking him away. He is a member of our base now, so just stay put and behave yourself.
Hearing Wen Xin being warned and threatened, the little fox glanced at the man in red unexpectedly.
“Hmm.”
The red-robed man twitched his lips: “This is just a friendly reminder, just a reminder.”
Wen Xin pondered for a moment, and said calmly: “Don’t worry, how could I have any evil intentions?”
The red-robed man looked at him suspiciously: “That’s good.”
The current members of Idealism can be briefly divided into four categories.
Ordinary believers, priests, twelve bishops, three cardinals and the most powerful Pope.
Clothes are the easiest way to distinguish your identity.
Ordinary believers usually wear plain linen robes without any patterns and without any emblems on their chests.
The priest wore a black robe with simple patterns and a three-petal flower emblem on his chest.
As the name suggests, there are twelve bishops in total. By analogy, they are equivalent to the management level in the base in City A, overseeing and managing the affairs of different sections. The patterns and patterns on their black robes are also more refined, and the emblem is a four-petal flower.
Further up, there are cardinals, wearing red robes and marked with five-petal flowers.
Wen Xin reasoned by analogy: “Then is the emblem on the Pope’s clothes a six-petal flower?”
“How could that be?” The red-robed man said as a matter of course, “Your Highness the Pope can wear whatever he wants. If you need anything, why don’t you just tell us directly?”
Wen Xin: “…”
Okay, that’s very pope.
After talking about the origin of Idealism and the division of identities of members within the sect, all that remains are the major and minor events that took place in the base.
It is inevitable to mention the current operating model of the base.
Today’s currency has become a piece of waste paper. Only gold can still maintain its value. After all, it is a non-renewable resource and can also be used in the production of some ultra-high precision electronic components.
Under this premise, barter is the most common form of transaction in the base.
If you can’t think of what you need at the moment, you can exchange it for contribution points or points and register them in your account, and you can redeem them at any time.
Most of the disputes in the base are about disagreements on the distribution of contribution points.
Wen Xin waited for the red-robed man to continue speaking.
But no one spoke.
Following the red-robed man’s attitude, he came to an incredible conclusion.
“Everyone only disagrees about the distribution of contribution points, and they won’t argue about other things?”
There are at least tens of thousands of people in a base, and with tens of thousands of people living together, resource allocation becomes a big problem.
There will always be people who don’t have enough to eat or enough clothes to wear, and there will always be people who eat too much.
Before Wen Xin joined the training camp, Li Yongming sent someone to take him to familiarize himself with the base.
The private trading market is where the noise is the loudest.
Some people tamper with the scales, some take advantage of the information gap to raise prices secretly, some form groups to engage in private monopoly, and some hire actors to drive up prices and adulterate their goods.
Once they were discovered, they would start fighting without hesitation, until their heads were broken and bleeding and they screamed in pain.
The person in charge of the private market could not help but call the guards to take away the talents from both sides.
This is just the tip of the iceberg.
Faced with Wen Xin’s disbelief, the man in red robe repeated the sentence mysteriously.
“When you get to our place, it will become clear.”
It took about seven days for Wen Xin to arrive at the base in City B following the Idealism Sect.
Perhaps because he got along well with Wen Xin, the man in red robe was willing to answer other questions asked by the young man on the way.
He told Wen Xin that the current power organizations were roughly divided by direction.
The first base is located in the north. It took less than a month to incorporate the two surrounding cities and establish the largest survivor base in the world.
Countless survivors were rescued and taken in by the First Base, and they burst into tears of gratitude.
However, there are also some bad rumors circulating in the First Base.
Rumor has it that the zombie virus and mutants were created by them.
After all, the predecessor of the First Base was H City, where the virus originated, and the research on zombies and mutants was so profound that it didn’t seem like it had only been conducted for a few months.
But unfortunately, the First Base is so powerful that no one can confirm this matter.
The north-west is basically the territory of warm and strong winds in City A.
Due to its relatively far location from the First Base and its geographical advantage, City A happened to avoid the latter’s efforts to gain power and expand its territory, and was not forcibly conquered.
The South China Sea area is dominated by a giant whale mutant.
This whale is particularly displeased with humans and often creates a small tsunami, causing great suffering to the residents in the surrounding areas.
Although people generally won’t die, no one can stand having their house flooded from time to time.
The residents had no choice but to move away with their families, and basically no fishermen or mercenaries dared to approach that area.
As for the east and west sides, it was all very chaotic.
There had been large groups of snakes and other extremely dangerous mutants in the east. These mutants were full of hatred for humans and would attack anyone they met.
The mercenaries who had been there and survived described it in such a horrifying way.
——Every step was like walking on a tightrope on the edge of a cliff. I had never felt death was so close.
A little further east is a well-known forbidden area.
Because there are terrifying unnatural disasters happening there, such as climatically defying dragon-sucking water and thunderstorms that are several kilometers long.
No one dared to go deeper, and no one could see what had happened there to cause such an abnormality.
“If there is something you want, or something you want to know, you can go west. The dark market there is well-known and has the largest trading house. But I advise you to stay away from a place called Rose City.”
The red-robed man said sarcastically.
“His master has just taken office and is very arrogant. He is very keen to bury those who disobey him in the ground.”
.
In the blink of an eye, the B City base was already within reach.
Wen Xin remembered that Tang Qi’s parents were in City B.
When the zombies appeared, Tang Qi was worried about his parents and also came to City B.
Wen Xin felt a little relieved.
Since the Idealism Cult has established a survivor base in City B, the people here should have a great chance of surviving.
I don’t know how he is doing now, and whether the ragdoll cat Huanhuan is still healthy.
The car stopped and members of the Idealism Cult got off one after another.
The guards saw their shadows on the city wall and ran to the gate early, lined up in a row, and waited respectfully.
Wen Xin followed the red-robed man, and as he walked over, a deafening shout rang out.
“Welcome to the Church–”
Before he could finish his words, he was interrupted by the red-robed man who suddenly came to his senses: “Why are you yelling? The emperor has been dead for hundreds of years. Stop learning those feudal ideas and go back to do your own things.”
The believers who were paying their respects were suddenly stuck: “…”
They looked at each other and responded blankly.
The man in red and the little fox looked at Wen Xin at the same time.
Seeing that the person looked normal and seemed to have discovered nothing, I couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief.
As soon as he entered the city, Wen Xin clearly had an unusual feeling.
This feeling was illusory, but it made him subconsciously relax his body.
Worry about his brother Wen Jinfeng, team member Lin Nan, and his long-lost friend Tang Qi;
Concerns about whether they could successfully meet with Zhang Quanyong;
Sadness for the soldiers who have passed away;
There is also the indescribable fatigue that has been going on for days.
It was as if someone had taken an eraser and wiped it clean.
Wen Xin couldn’t help but look at the people walking on the street.
These people were obviously under the same magic as him, and each of them had a bright and carefree smile on their face.
It seems that the world is beautiful, life is worth looking forward to, and there are no more troubles that can bring me down.
Even those who are pale and thin will not be as numb and dull as the survivors fleeing outside.
Wen Xin became more and more fascinated as he watched.
He had seen so many desperate faces and heard so many hysterical screams that he almost forgot that people’s eyes could be filled with hope like this.
It is a luxury to hope.
Wen Xin couldn’t help but be moved.
The red-robed man saw his ease and said with a smile, “Now you know, this is the greatness of His Holiness the Pope.”
Although Idealism is fundamentally different from traditional religions, they still followed etiquette and built a church.
The heavy porcelain-white door was pushed open, and Wen Xin stepped onto the shiny floor holding the little fox.
After walking a few steps, he was attracted by the paintings hanging on the wall.
“That’s… your Pope?”
The little fox’s pupils shrank and he quickly looked in the direction Wen Xin was looking!
