Seeing this, Lu Li extended his right hand and introduced himself. “Hello, Lu Li.”
“Hello, hello, Leader Lu. I’m Zhao Limin. You can just call me Little Zhao.” The middle-aged man hurriedly reached out with both hands and clasped Lu Li’s right hand in greeting.
Lu Li: “…”
“Hello, Mr. Limin.” Lu Li naturally couldn’t call him Little Zhao. Zhao Limin was almost forty, after all. It would be terribly impolite for a young man like him to address the man with “Little” in front of his surname.
As the camp’s deputy leader, Lu Li didn’t bother being overly polite and asked directly, “Can you tell me about your mother? There’s something I may need to trouble her with.” [TN: I’d wanted to clear something. Deputy Leader, Second Leader, second-in-command are all different terms the author uses. It’s not the translation mistake. I don’t know if it’s a mistake by the author, or something. That’s why I’ll translate it as is.]
Hearing this, Zhao Limin immediately straightened his back and said with complete confidence, “My mother really is a sericulturist, and she’s proficient in the entire process of making clothing from silk. She’s even a federally recognized inheritor of intangible cultural heritage.”
“Then where is she? Can you introduce me to her?” Lu Li hurriedly asked.
Zhao Limin scratched the back of his head and explained, “My mother is staying at home right now. I came out looking for food. I heard there was a camp nearby, so I came over to take a look.”
Hearing this, Lu Li more or less guessed what the man wanted.
“Would you and your mother be willing to join Dawn Camp?” Lu Li invited him directly.
Zhao Limin said somewhat awkwardly, “We could, but my mother is already old and has trouble getting around. I really don’t feel comfortable moving her.”
Lu Li pondered for a moment, then asked, “I need your mother to help me weave clothing using the silk of a certain demon beast. What equipment is needed for the process of making clothes from silk? Do you have it at home? Is it easy to transport?”
“That might not be very convenient. Traditional silk clothing production involves several stages such as silk reeling, and it requires quite a few tools, like spinning wheels and spindles for spinning and weaving. Some of the equipment is also fairly large. Fortunately, though, we have all of it at home,” Zhao Limin hurriedly explained.
“Where is your home?” Lu Li asked.
Zhao Limin quickly replied, “It’s in the villa district of Anke Residential Complex.”
Another wealthy residential complex.
Lu Li suddenly understood, though it made sense when he thought about it.
The fact that Zhao Limin had only come to the mall today to look for food was enough to show that his family had originally been well supplied and had only just exhausted their reserves.
But the problem now was that Zhao Limin had clothing-making equipment at home, yet the equipment couldn’t be moved over here. That meant Lu Li could only bring the materials to them.
“How about this? I’ll gather some people and bring food to your home. Your mother can weave the fabric for me there, and she won’t have to risk crossing the road,” Lu Li proposed a solution that worked for both sides.
Zhao Limin had actually wanted to ask Lu Li to help bring his mother over, but crossing the road really was risky for an elderly person. Besides, Lu Li had already arranged everything, so he wasn’t really in a position to object.
“No problem. My wife and I can both help my mother out when the time comes.” Zhao Limin nodded decisively in agreement.
Seeing that Zhao Limin had agreed, Lu Li immediately said to Fatty Lei, “Old Lei, go tell Sister Jun to gather some people. I’ll take them to Anke Residential Complex to search for supplies.”
“Alright, I’ll go tell Sister Jun right now.” After saying that, Fatty Lei turned and went to report to Jun Shutong.
Jun Shutong quickly gathered the manpower. Because of Lu Li’s earlier proposal, the Scavenging Teams had stayed in the camp these past few days without going out.
There were two Scavenging Teams in the camp, eighteen people in total. This time, Jun Shutong brought both teams along.
Lu Li even spotted Jun Shutong among the assembled group.
Seeing Lu Li look at her, Jun Shutong took the initiative to say, “I’ll go with you this time. With you around, there shouldn’t be much danger.”
Lu Li felt somewhat helpless, but in the end, he still nodded. “Stay close to me when the time comes. If we encounter danger, remember to retreat with everyone else.”
“Mm. I won’t hold you back,” Jun Shutong promised seriously.
“This time, we’re not going to cause trouble for that camp,” Lu Li added.
Jun Shutong opened her mouth, looking as though she wanted to say something, but stopped herself.
She actually wanted to resolve everything once and for all, but since Lu Li had already said that, she could only listen to him. After all, the “truth” was currently in Lu Li’s hands.
Lu Li looked at Fatty Lei. “Is the food ready?”
“It’s ready. There’s enough food for three people for two weeks.” Fatty Lei hurriedly nodded.
“Pick three people to come with me,” Lu Li ordered again.
Jun Shutong selected three young, able-bodied men, who followed Lu Li into the room.
“You three, take these things with you too.” Lu Li pointed at the pile of white silk in the corner.
Old Xu, who was leading the three, hesitantly walked over to the white silk.
At a glance, he could tell that it was white silk produced by an insect demon beast, but there was actually an entire pile of it here.
“Where did the deputy leader collect all this white silk?” Old Xu wondered to himself.
Jun Shutong gave Lu Li a thoughtful look and asked softly, “You caught another insect demon beast?”
Jun Shutong never considered whether Lu Li had tamed that insect demon beast. After all, they had personally witnessed just how powerful insect demon beasts were.
Even with that ugly fish demon beast, it would still be very difficult for Lu Li to tame an insect demon beast. At most, he could have used the ugly fish demon beast to capture it.
Lu Li nodded. “Yes.”
Lu Li didn’t say that he had persuaded Weedle, nor was he deliberately hiding it from her. He simply went along with her assumption and admitted it.
“Be careful. Insect demon beasts are much more dangerous than fish demon beasts,” Jun Shutong warned in a low voice.
“Don’t worry. I know what I’m doing,” Lu Li said confidently.
Watching the three men gather up the white silk, Jun Shutong asked again, “You’re planning to weave the silk produced by the insect demon beast into clothing?”
Lu Li nodded. “Yes. Clothes woven from this insect silk definitely won’t offer any less protection than a bulletproof vest. More importantly, they’ll be lighter and more comfortable.”
“With this much white silk, you should be able to make at least a dozen sets of clothes,” Jun Shutong said conservatively.
“When the time comes, we can distribute them to the members of the Scavenging Teams. That’ll improve everyone’s safety as well.” Lu Li didn’t deliberately lower his voice, so Old Xu and the other two men carrying the silk heard him too.
Clothes comparable to bulletproof vests, and made from silk produced by a demon beast at that. Before the apocalypse, they wouldn’t even have dared to dream about treasures like that.
Once they heard that Lu Li was preparing these things for everyone’s sake, the three men became much more energetic in their work.
Earlier, they had still been wondering why things they had painstakingly collected had to be handed over to someone else. Now it seemed that if the leaders had arranged things this way, there was naturally a reason for it.
“Hurry up, and don’t get it dirty,” Old Xu whispered to his two companions.
The other two also became much gentler with their movements, afraid of damaging the insect silk.
The silk Weedle had produced was quickly packed up.
Lu Li’s right hand brushed across the pouch at his waist, his fingertips rubbing against the round outline of the Poké Ball inside. He took a deep breath.
Suppressing the unease churning in his chest, Lu Li followed everyone into Emergency Exit No. 7.
At the emergency exit, Lu Li said to the people behind him, “I’ll take the lead first. Once I confirm there’s no danger, everyone cross the road as quickly as possible.”
No one dared joke around with their own lives at a time like this. Everyone nodded seriously.
Lu Li gripped Feebas’s Poké Ball in his right hand and kept his hand hidden inside his sleeve as he cautiously walked out of the emergency exit.
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