Saying they needed to find Captain Zhang was only half true. In reality, any captain in the base could handle it, but since they were most familiar with him, he was naturally the easiest choice.
The moment weapons were mentioned, none of the four could sit still. Lao Gao suggested, "Why don't we go check out the weapons now?"
"But the captains are all busy settling the people from the official base. Who's got time to take us to look at weapons?" Huang Jinghe said.
"Let's just try. It's not like we've got anything better to do," Lan Jin said as she hopped on her bike and pedaled toward the main hall.
The main hall's first floor was the lobby, and the floors above were the offices. The setup looked a lot like the one in H City.
They rode nonstop from the recreation zone to the office building, but even at full speed it still took them half an hour.
When they arrived, the last batch of returning teams had just made it back. The captains were running around like their heads were on fire. When Captain Zhang heard what they wanted, he could only laugh and cry at the same time. "You guys really have nothing better to do, huh? We're drowning in work here. There's no way I can spare anyone to deal with that. If you're really so free, why don't you give us a hand instead?"
Helping was out of the question. Lan Jin quickly explained, "Xiao Huang's dad called earlier, he said we can start planting tomorrow. That's why we wanted to squeeze in a look at the weapons today. We won't have time later."
Captain Zhang sighed. "I really can't right now. How about tomorrow? Get your planting done in the morning, I'll take you to see weapons in the afternoon. Not just me, no one else has the time right now either."
Seeing the long line of new residents waiting to check in, the four really couldn't bring themselves to hold things up any longer. They agreed right away. "Fine, fine. We'll just go pick up Qiao Qiao first, we'll come back tomorrow."
Hearing that, Captain Zhang finally let out a breath of relief.
Watching them leave, he muttered, "These four just keep making trouble for me every day."
Captain Wang looked curious. "What now? What'd they do this time?"
"They just got here and already want to buy weapons. I had to talk them out of it. You tell me, how am I supposed to find time to take them when we're this swamped?"
Captain Wang laughed. "What's wrong with that? Buying weapons for self-defense means they can protect the base better. That's a good thing."
"It is, but not when we're this busy. Tomorrow's soon enough."
…
Tomorrow was tomorrow. True to their word, once the planting was done the next morning, the four found Captain Zhang again in the afternoon.
He was still neck-deep in work, but a promise was a promise. He brought them to the sixth floor of the office building where weapons were supposed to be sold. Except when they got there, he froze. The place was completely empty, every counter bare. Not a single weapon in sight.
He asked one of the guards at the door, "Where are the weapons? Yesterday I heard they'd be stocked here. Why's there nothing today?"
The guard replied, "They were supposed to go on sale today, but headquarters sent word to hold off. Everything's been pulled for now."
"So when will they be available?" Captain Zhang pressed.
The guard could only shake his head. Nobody knew.
That wasn't on Captain Zhang. He turned to the four. "See, it's not that I don't want to take you. The weapons just aren't up yet. What's the rush? They're not going to run away. Besides, I'd actually tell you to wait. You've been helping the base a lot, and all that work can be converted into contribution points. Right now, you don't have many points. You probably couldn't buy anything good anyway. Better to save up and come back later, don't you think?"
Lao Gao grumbled, "That's not what you said yesterday." His disappointment was written all over his face. He'd been looking forward to this since yesterday, only to walk away empty-handed.
"I didn't think of it yesterday, alright? With so many people arriving, everything's chaos. Who has the headspace to think about details like this?"
The real reason was that the base had discovered traitors among their people. What those traitors wanted or how many of them there were, nobody knew yet. One thing was certain though, they couldn't let this news leak.
That was why they'd staged this delay. If the traitors suddenly went quiet, they had to shake things up to draw them out. Meanwhile, they tightened surveillance, secretly watching everyone and hiding their suspicions from those who might be compromised. Not a single hint could slip.
So all they could do now was wait.
Lan Jin and the others went home disappointed, completely unaware of the truth. They just kept on with their daily lives.
A few days later, when Huang Jinghe's parents dropped off the keys to their shop on Commercial Street, the four got busy again.
The stock of condoms they'd been selling hadn't run out yet, though business was good. Ling Jiang said, "We can still keep selling these for a while. They're expensive, so we'll make plenty before they run out. After that, we can dig around for something else. Lan Jin, didn't you say you wanted to get rid of that playground set? Why don't we tell Captain Zhang and find a chance to bring it out? It'll free up space."
"Alright."
So they went to find Captain Zhang once again.
When he saw them, he felt his head start to ache. "You guys again? Don't you ever get tired? You're farming, you're opening a shop, and you still have time to come bother me? What is it this time? Renovations? No, wait, Lao Gao can handle that. You wouldn't need me for that."
"No, no, it's not that…"
Lao Gao leaned in and whispered the plan in his ear.
Captain Zhang's eyes widened. "Wait, you've got something like that too?"
Lan Jin explained, "I was rich before all this, and I only had one kid. Of course I spoiled her, so I bought it. But it was too big, too much of a hassle, so I never used it. Then after I awakened my ability, we just stored it away. Now it could actually be useful. We saw the kindergarten area earlier. There are lots of empty lots, perfect for setting one up so kids can play."
Ling Jiang added, "The problem is how to take it out. We didn't bring anything like that back with us, and we don't want to expose our space ability."
Captain Zhang almost rolled his eyes. "You think just because you don't want to expose it, nobody will notice? There's no way any other group's sitting on extra supplies like this anymore. But fine, I'll figure out a way to cover for you. Give me some time, I'll get in touch when I've got a plan."