After that, two men in navy-blue uniforms led us to our assigned quarters—the very last row of houses.
I did a rough count and found that there were seven rows in both directions, a total of forty-nine houses altogether.
Among them, the houses in rows two and three were enclosed by an iron fence, with uniformed men stationed there long-term to guard the area.
Suo Tian and his group were housed in row four.
As for us, we were all placed in the outermost row—row six—which had exactly seven rooms.
I shared a room with Xu Shu and Han Xue.
Uncle Gazi stayed in one room with Tingyun.
Yangyang and Chen Pu shared one room.
Shen Feng had a room to himself.
Zhou Wen and Taozi shared a room, and Zhang Hongsheng had one to himself.
The remaining room was used for storage.
Meals were provided three times a day at regular hours, but we had to eat at the communal cafeteria located in row one.
The food was hot and freshly made.
I also noticed that behind our row of houses was a large area of vegetable plots and farmland.
Along the far edge of the farmland, there was a row of connected temporary prefab houses.
Those were occupied by people like us—outsiders, I suppose you could say for now.
In some ways, they were also survivors taken in by the valley, though their numbers were small—only about twenty or so—crammed into four or five of those prefab homes.
The valley didn't take in outsiders for free.
Those people were mainly responsible for handling food-related tasks, including farming and harvesting.
The valley had running water, but only those living in the white houses were allowed to use it.
As for the others, they had to rely entirely on the stream on the far side of the valley for everything—watering crops, laundry, cooking, and drinking.
After learning all this, I couldn't help but feel a strange and indescribable sense of unease about the high standard of treatment we, as fellow "outsiders," were receiving here.
Han Xue quickly warmed up to that group of people and, in just half a day, had already picked up a lot of information.
Most of what we knew so far had come from them.
In addition, they had warned Han Xue very seriously not to go near the second and third rows of houses, saying those areas held the valley's top secrets.
As for what those secrets were about or involved, they naturally claimed they didn't know.
After living in the valley for about a week, the rest of us—Xu Shu, Han Xue, Yangyang, Chen Pu, and I—spent our days either volunteering to help with farm work in the fields or chatting with some of the older folks around.
During that time, I only caught sight of Suo Tian once, from a distance.
Since arriving in the valley, he seemed incredibly busy.
I kept seeing the convoy going out and then coming back.
One trip in particular lasted the longest—Suo Tian was gone with them for three full days.
It wasn't until the night of the fourth day that I heard the sound of engines again.
When I got up to check, I saw Suo Tian and the black-clad men heading toward the second row of houses, all of them looking absolutely exhausted.
Each of them was carrying a black box in their hands.
The next day, when we went to visit Uncle Qian and Auntie Qian's home, they brought up the return of the convoy the night before.
Uncle Qian and Auntie Qian were the oldest survivors in the valley, both over sixty.
Though not as old as Uncle Gazi, their health clearly wasn't as robust as his, and they couldn't handle farm work.
So instead, they were responsible for preparing meals for the others... though they weren't allowed to eat in the main cafeteria of the first row.
Uncle and Auntie Qian's family was incredibly fortunate.
From the two of them to their son, daughter, in-laws, a five-year-old granddaughter, and a thirteen-year-old grandson, the entire family had been taken in by the valley.
So compared to others, even though they were treated a bit differently, they were still deeply grateful to the valley in their hearts.
The rest of the people had been taken in by the valley for various coincidental reasons, most of them being young adults in their twenties or thirties.
Ever since getting familiar with Uncle and Auntie Qian, Uncle Gazi stopped going to eat at the first-row cafeteria.
When Yangyang asked him about it, he just waved it off and said, "I've been poor all my life, suffered all my life, used to being looked down on. I feel comfortable with this Mr. Qian and the others."
From what I could tell, Uncle Gazi clearly had strong opinions about the class distinctions and unequal treatment in the valley, but he wasn't the type to put it into words.
If it weren't for the fact that there was no space left where Uncle Qian lived, I had a feeling he might've moved in there with Tingyun already.
After watching Suo Tian lead the convoy out of the valley once again, I completely lost the mood to chat or joke around with Uncle Qian and the others.
I slumped on the grassy roadside, holding the noticeably chubbier Zheng Yiyi in my arms, gazing at the distant springwater that still endlessly flowed from the mountain ravine.
I felt utterly disheartened.
Yiyi couldn't understand my feelings at all.
He kept pawing at my face, trying to get my attention to play with him.
But I wasn't in the mood at all.
Eventually, annoyed by his antics, I grabbed the small rubber ball I'd taken from a supermarket earlier—something he liked to chew on—and chucked it hard into the distance.
Simple-minded as ever, Yiyi thought I was finally playing with him.
As soon as I threw the ball, he barked excitedly twice and took off after it in a flurry.
Watching him sprint off into the distance, I let out a soft sigh.
Maybe… he really was the happiest one among us right now.
"Are you Chen Yang?" A woman's voice suddenly called out behind me.
I quickly turned around and saw a middle-aged woman in a navy-blue uniform.
She looked to be in her late thirties or just under forty.
I was a bit surprised that she knew my name, and just as I was about to get up from the ground, she walked up with a smile and gently pushed me back down, sitting beside me.
Maybe my curious stare was too obvious, because after glancing back at me, she smiled and said, "You haven't answered my question yet."
Hearing that, I finally snapped out of it and quickly waved my hand while nodding, saying, "Sorry, sorry—I tend to zone out. Yes, I'm Chen Yang."
Then I glanced at the woman who was still looking at me and bit my lip before asking, "How do you know about me?"
If I remembered correctly, this should be the third time I'd asked someone that question.
The woman was momentarily stunned before saying, "Shouldn't you ask me my name first?"
I blinked at her for a moment, then smacked myself on the head in mild embarrassment and asked, "May I ask your name?"
"There." The woman pointed to a small silver badge pinned to her chest and said, "That's what we go by."
I leaned in to take a look.
The delicate badge bore just one letter and two numbers: T17.
I stared at it for a while before looking back up at her and asking, "T17? That's your name?"
"Mm-hmm." She nodded and then smiled, pointing toward a few other people in the distance who were dressed in the same navy-blue uniform.
"They're the same as me. All of us have a 'T' prefix."
"Oh." I nodded in understanding, then asked after thinking for a second, "Does that have something to do with the color of your uniforms?"
"Exactly," she replied with a nod.
I thought again. "What about Suo Tian? What letter is he? I've never seen a badge like that on him or his people."
Hearing that, T17 smiled at me, looked around briefly, and then leaned in slightly to speak in a low voice:
"Boss Suo doesn't belong to any squad himself. But the team he currently leads is Squad C, so we refer to him as the Boss."
Hearing that, I was stunned for a moment, my mind quickly working through the implications—Suo Tian doesn't belong to any squad?
Did that mean he wasn't directly affiliated with these people?
But... something didn't quite add up.
The level of respect everyone here showed him, and the fact that he could freely go in and out of the highly classified second row—if he wasn't one of the core members of this place, how could he have such privileges?
Looking at T17's smiling face, I realized that I probably didn't understand Suo Tian nearly as well as I thought I did.
"Why are you telling me all this?" I asked.
Hearing that, T17's smile faded slightly as she replied, "Our T-Squad also falls under the command of Squad C. In other words, Boss Suo is our direct superior."
At that, she turned to look at me, her expression suddenly serious, and asked, "Isn't the valley beautiful?"
"It is," I nodded.
"Good. As long as you think it's beautiful." After saying that rather cryptic sentence, she stood up.
Just as she turned to leave, she seemed to remember something and looked back at me with a smile. "If you like, you can call me Sister T from now on."
I blinked in surprise, then quickly caught on and smiled back, calling out, "Sister T."
She seemed quite pleased with that.
After giving me a nod, she finally turned and walked away.
Watching her figure retreat into the distance, I glanced around the valley again.
Maybe it was just psychological, but it didn't seem quite as bright and sunny today as it had in previous days.
I turned Sister T's words over in my head again.
Suo Tian was the direct leader of T-Squad, so was she trying to hint at something on his behalf?
The more I thought about it, the more off it seemed.
I gave my head a shake and decided to stop overthinking.
Just as I got up to head back to my room to take a shower and maybe catch a nap, my eyes unintentionally drifted toward the far end of the valley—and suddenly, I remembered…
Yiyi had run off chasing that ball a while ago.
And he hadn't come back.
Anyone who's ever raised a dog knows that no matter how far you throw a ball, they'll always manage to find it quickly and bring it right back.
Even though I did toss the ball pretty far just now, based on how fast Yiyi's little legs usually move, it definitely shouldn't have taken him this long.
I stared at the distant part of the valley for a while and noticed that the grass over there was much taller—probably because people rarely walked through it.
It was clearly higher than the grass around here, and Yiyi's little body was completely hidden in it.
I scanned the area for a while but didn't see any movement, so I cupped my hands around my mouth and shouted toward the distance: "Zheng Yiyi, time to come home! I've got sausages and meat waiting—hurry back!"
Yiyi had run off like this before.
Usually, as soon as Yangyang called out like that, he'd come scampering back wagging his tail, bounding out from some random direction.
But after waiting a while longer and still seeing no sign of him, I started to feel a little worried.
Could something have happened to him?
But then again, I couldn't think of anything particularly dangerous in this valley...
With that, I decided to just walk over and take a look.
After all, I had nothing else to do—might as well go find him.
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