Chapter 65 Brings Back a Top Architect; The Star Base Begins to Take Shape
Muddy water dripped down the bespectacled man's chin.
He coughed violently, and the seal of the black cylinder he held in his arms was jarred open.
By the pale moonlight, Lin Xingwan clearly saw that swollen, battered face.
Her heart skipped a beat.
Zhao An!
It was actually that infrastructure maniac from her past life, the one fought over by every major shelter, rumored to be able to draw an anti-nuclear Underground City by hand!
Lin Xingwan's gaze swept through the gap.
The parchment revealed inside was densely covered with extremely complex load-bearing structure lines.
"Your name is Zhao An?" Lin Xingwan raised an eyebrow, her tone carrying a hint of certainty.
The man on the ground stiffened.
He used his unbroken hand to protect the cylinder tightly, staring vigilantly at the incredibly beautiful woman before him.
"How did you know?" Zhao An's voice was hoarse, as if it had been rubbed against sandpaper.
"I guessed."
Lin Xingwan released her foot and took a half-step back in her military boots.
"What did that bunch of trash, Bald Qiang, keep you for? And they beat you into this state."
Upon hearing the name Bald Qiang, a flash of unconcealable hatred crossed Zhao An's eyes.
He spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva.
"Those brainless animals, I don't know where they got a pile of inferior steel bars, but they insisted on forcing me to dig a bunker under these ruins."
Zhao An gritted his teeth, gasping in pain as it pulled at his broken ribs.
"Even the cement for the load-bearing walls was mixed with sand, for heaven's sake!"
"I, Zhao An, would rather be beaten to death than build that kind of shoddy project that could collapse at any moment!"
Lu Ting, standing nearby, was amused.
"Yo, a tough nut with a temper. You're in this state, and you're still picky about materials?"
But the corners of Lin Xingwan's mouth curled into a satisfied smile.
These days, there are many capable people, but too few with principles.
"I like your backbone."
She casually snatched a military canteen from Lu Ting's waist and turned her back to the crowd.
A faint glimmer flashed at her fingertips, and a few drops of clear space spirit spring water silently melted into the canteen.
"Drink it."
Lin Xingwan turned around, crouched down, and tossed the canteen into Zhao An's arms.
Zhao An was stunned.
In The Apocalypse, a mouthful of clean water could turn brothers against each other.
Was this woman actually this generous?
He was so thirsty his throat felt like it was smoking, and not caring whether the water was poisoned, he unscrewed the cap and gulped it down.
The cool liquid slid down his esophagus into his stomach.
In just a few seconds, a strange, warm sensation instantly spread through his limbs and bones.
Zhao An widened his eyes in shock.
He discovered that the tearing pain in his chest had lessened significantly, and even his broken lower leg didn't feel as agonizing.
What kind of magical water is this?
"You've had the water, so your life is saved."
Lin Xingwan stood up and looked down at him.
"Come with me; you'll work for me from now on."
Zhao An didn't agree immediately.
He suddenly flipped over, not caring that the mud was dirtying his clothes, and grabbed onto Lin Xingwan's military boots tightly.
"Heroine! Boss! As long as you are willing to save my brother, I'll give you my life!"
His eyes were red-rimmed as he pointed to an iron door deep in the ruins.
"My brother, Zhao Ping, was locked in the basement by those bastards! He is an electrical genius and can be very useful too!"
Lin Xingwan tilted her head and glanced at Lu Ting.
Lu Ting understood and led two subordinates to violently kick open the broken iron door.
Before long, a half-grown teenager, starved to the bone, was dragged out.
"Alright, everyone is here."
Lin Xingwan clapped her hands.
Huo Yuan walked over and naturally put his arm around her waist.
"Get these two on the car, load all the remaining supplies, and retreat in five minutes."
The man's command was cold, firm, and carried an unquestionable authority.
Half an hour later, two armored off-road vehicles loaded with spoils of war stopped on the hillside of Half-Mountain Villa.
The outside temperature was still as high as over sixty degrees.
The sultry wind made it hard to breathe.
"We're here."
Lu Ting slammed on the brakes, waking up Zhao An and his brother in the back seat.
Zhao An was helped out of the car by his brother.
When he looked up and saw that colossal object standing in the night, he froze in place instantly.
The three-meter-high explosion-proof alloy gate slowly rose, emitting a dull, powerful mechanical roar.
On the outer wall, that layer of cold-glowing metal armor shimmered with a chilling luster under the moonlight.
Zhao An's professional habit flared up on the spot.
He even forgot the pain in his broken leg, hopping on one foot to the base of the wall, reaching out to stroke the outer wall as if caressing a peerless beauty.
"Holy crap! A half-meter-thick special titanium alloy interlayer?"
Zhao An's voice cracked from extreme excitement.
"Even the chamfering of the firing ports has been treated against stray bullets? This... this is an anti-nuclear level shelter!"
He turned his head and looked at Lin Xingwan as if she were a monster.
"Miss Lin, who exactly are you people? This scale, even if you emptied the provincial treasury, you couldn't build this!"
Huo Yuan sneered and squeezed Lin Xingwan's palm.
"A country bumpkin who has never seen the world."
Lin Xingwan ignored Huo Yuan's teasing and walked straight through the gate.
"Come in, don't roast yourselves outside."
The first step into the base, a cool breeze of 26 degrees mixed with a faint, fresh plant scent, rushed toward them.
Zhao Ping, the half-grown teenager, cried out unashamedly.
"Brother, it's air conditioning! They actually have electricity to run air conditioning!"
The temperature-controlled underground hall was as bright as day, with luxurious leather sofas and a full set of smart appliances that were spotless.
Just then, Chef Li walked out with two plates of freshly cooked braised pork rice.
The rich aroma of soy sauce and pork fat drilled into the brothers' nostrils like a hook.
"Gulp."
Two loud swallowing sounds were particularly abrupt in the quiet hall.
Zhao An could no longer maintain the airs of an intellectual.
He pulled his brother down, and with a "thump," both their knees hit the polished marble floor.
"Boss Lin! Boss Huo!"
Zhao An stared fixedly at the plate of glistening braised pork, tears mixing with the blood on his face.
"As long as you give us brothers a bite to eat, from now on, if you tell me to go east, I will never go west!"
"Even if you want me to hollow out this mountain, I will build you the number one doomsday fortress in the world!"
Lin Xingwan was waiting for these words.
She sat on the sofa and pointed to the food on the coffee table.
"Eat, you'll only have the energy to work once you're full."
The brothers pounced on the lunch boxes like hungry wolves, not even using chopsticks, grabbing the meat with their hands and stuffing it into their mouths.
After a whirlwind of eating, even the sauce at the bottom of the plates was licked clean.
Lin Xingwan handed over a tissue and casually pushed the original architectural blueprint of the villa in front of Zhao An.
"Right now, this place is, at best, a turtle shell."
Her finger drew a large circle on the blueprint, her tone filled with burgeoning ambition.
"I want you to use this as a foundation and expand horizontally into the mountain."
"Change it into a Xingchen Base that includes separate residential areas, agricultural areas, and even industrial production lines, capable of accommodating tens of thousands of people."
Zhao An didn't even bother to wipe his mouth; he put on his broken glasses, and his whole person instantly entered a state of madness.
"With this titanium alloy as a foundation, expansion is absolutely no problem!"
He grabbed a pencil from the table, lay on the coffee table, and started frantically writing and drawing.
This was probably the obsession of a genius; as long as there were top-tier materials, he didn't care about his life.
It was a whole sleepless night.
When the first ray of scarlet sunlight pierced through the high-temperature haze and shone on the hillside.
Zhao An, with two heavy dark circles under his eyes, stood up excitedly, clutching several blueprints filled with complex lines.
"Done!"
He waved excitedly at Lin Xingwan, who was drinking coffee not far away.
Lin Xingwan and Huo Yuan walked over side by side.
On the blueprints, a massive Underground City prototype with an inverted pyramid structure was depicted in extreme detail.
The load-bearing and anti-seismic designs for each area were perfect.
"The structure is impeccable, absolutely the limit of what can be achieved right now."
Zhao An pointed to the red dots on the outermost periphery of the blueprint, but his previously excited expression collapsed.
He scratched his messy hair, looking troubled.
"Boss Lin, these outer anti-aircraft firepower and bunker positions are too large."
"We don't have enough manpower; if a real fight breaks out, we won't be able to cover them at all."
Zhao An sighed and threw the pencil on the table.
"To achieve this level of all-weather unmanned defense, we are missing a top-level fully automatic fire control system."
This thing was a state secret before The Apocalypse; where could they get it?
Lin Xingwan didn't speak.
She held her coffee cup, slowly turned her head, and glanced at the man beside her.
Huo Yuan was leaning against the edge of the table, his long legs crossed casually.
On that cold, stern face, the corners of his mouth were curled into a playful yet arrogant arc.
"What a coincidence."
Huo Yuan tapped his long fingers lightly on the tabletop twice, making a crisp clicking sound.
"The thing you're talking about, I just happened to loot a set a couple of days ago."