After being asked about basic information such as name and place of origin, Shen Shian was asked a question when registering in the guardhouse:

“Any ability?”

Before packing up and coming to the cigarette factory, Shen Shian made and told the team members two assumptions: the base garrison had a method to distinguish the people with abilities from ordinary survivors, or the base garrison could not distinguish the people with abilities from ordinary survivors.

“If the base garrison could distinguish the abilities, then there are two methods they most likely use: one is through some kind of machine, and the other is through abilities similar to Liu Fangzhou.” Shen Shian continued, “So when we will be asked questions, Liu Fangzhou, you need to sense whether there are abilities among the personnel responsible for registration and give us a hint, stomping your feet to indicate yes, coughing to indicate no. If there are neither abilities nor machine detection, it means that the base garrison has no way to distinguish us. Then everyone will keep their abilities secret until they have enough information.”

Behind him, Liu Fangzhou coughed. Shen Shian looked unfazed and said to the man in charge. “No.”

After all four people were registered, a soldier led them into a narrow passage on the right side of the gate, but at the end of the passage was not a cigarette factory, but an area close to the wall of the cigarette factory, built with wooden boards, barbed wire, and plastic sheds.

The shed area was quite large. The concrete floor was divided into four columns and covered with dozens of cushions. On the left, there was a wooden wall with the word “Isolation Area” painted with red paint.

On the cement wall on the right, there were several small characters written, “Qujiang Cigarette Factory Base Code of Conduct”, there were not too many, a total of twelve, which listed the things that must not be done in the base and everyone must know.

There were people already in the isolation area. Shen Shian glanced at them quickly to get the number: sixteen. There should be the sixteen survivors from the truck that he observed with binoculars, plus four of them, there were exactly twenty.

“You need to stay here for twenty-four hours and wait until tomorrow at this time. If there is no mutation then you can go out from another door and enter the base formally.” The soldier said, probably because Shen Shian was holding a child in his arms, his tone was still quite polite. “The newcomers can get a free meal on the first day they come in. Do you want it? The food will be distributed at 6 o’clock in the evening, and the drinking water will also be delivered at 6 o’clock. Toilet problems, resolve them in the public portable toilet. When you are idle, memorize these codes of conduct on the wall. Prohibitions should not be violated. Once you violate the rules, you will be expelled. If you see someone who is feeling sick and looks like they are going to evolve, press this alarm bell——You can’t press the alarm randomly. You can also press the alarm bell outside of the base, we will come over as soon as we hear the ringtone.”

As the soldier said that, he glanced at the long sword on Shen Shian’s back and the thorn stick in Chen Nan’s hands. “But it seems that you can solve them yourself. Okay, is there any question?”

Shen Shian said, “No, thank you.”

The soldier nodded and retreated back.

The sixteen survivors who entered in advance have been sweeping their eyes on the four people, either brightly or darkly, but no one has taken the initiative to approach. Shen Shian didn’t care, in the last days, anyone with a little brain knew to keep away from strangers.

Looking around for a long time, he pointed to the furthest corner away from the mobile toilet and told Chen Nan, “Bring three cushions.”

This corner was close to the entrance. On the opposite was the twelve codes of conduct on the concrete wall, and behind was the wooden wall painted with the words “Isolation Area”.

There were no windows on the wooden wall, only a few sporadic gaps formed when the wooden board was spliced ​​at the bottom. Chen Nan knelt down on the mat and looked at the gap before shaking the wooden wall. After a moment, he shook his head, “The gap is too low and nothing can be seen except for the concrete floor.”

Turning around, he found that Shen Shian was still standing. “Brother Shen, why don’t you sit down?” In order to prevent accidents, they brought a lot of things, and the backpack was quite heavy.

Shen Shian stared at the muddy dark yellow color of the cushions for a long time. His beautiful eyes were cold, and his brows were so wrinkled that they could catch flies. Hearing Chen Nan asking him, he put the child down from his arms, opened his backpack, and took out two blankets. He carefully laid it on the cushion to confirm that there was no exposed part that would be directly touched, and Shen Xun sat down. The longsword was placed within easy reach on the cushion.

Chen Nan leaned over and lowered his voice, “Brother Shen, what’s next?” While speaking, his eyes swept on the last code of conduct on the opposite wall: Actively participate in material search, one for all, all for one.”

“Wait for the twenty-four-hour isolation time to pass.” Shen Shian thought about it and whispered back, there was nothing else he could do. Then he asked Liu Fangzhou, “Are there any abilities among the sixteen people on the opposite side?”

Liu Fangzhou has been staring at a certain point in the opposite crowd since he entered the quarantine zone. His gaze was very heated. He nodded immediately when he heard the words, “There is one. He has a yellow light, not a lemon yellow, but a kind of loess{n1} yellow. The light is very bright, and the volume is not small, about the size of a washbowl. Look, it’s the dark-skinned skinny man on the right.”

Note1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loess

Shen Shian saw a man according to his description. He was about thirty years old, not tall, indeed very thin, and had a really obvious guarded face. He was sitting alone on the cushion and holding the backpack in his arms tightly.

He quickly took back his sight and said to Liu Fangzhou, “Don’t stare at others.”

This was said a little late, and the man seemed to turn around, his gaze met with Liu Fangzhou’s. Liu Fangzhou raised his left hand with enthusiasm and waved. His right hand unconsciously swiped on the cushion with the posture of holding a scalpel, and he swallowed his saliva.

The other person shivered and looked more alert. He immediately moved his luggage several meters away from the four.

Shen Shian had no choice but to turn the teenager’s head back, “Calm down a little, don’t make trouble.”

Liu Fangzhou wanted to glance back, but Shen Xun gritted his teeth: You heard him say no, you are not allowed to trouble An An!

His body turned back instantly and the whole person shrunk into a ball, “I’m wrong, I’m wrong, I’m wrong, I didn’t look, I didn’t look, I didn’t look.”

Twenty-four hours are not long nor short, and in a blink of an eye, a small part passed.

At six o’clock in the evening, as a newcomer, they received a free dinner from the soldiers who came to distribute supplies——a pack of soda crackers per person.

Such a thing was normally dispensable for several people in front of Shen Shian, but it such times, those could save lives. More than half of the remaining 16 survivors ate the biscuits in an almost gobbling posture. Chen Nan and Liu Fangzhou thought of the same thing: if they did not encounter Brother Shen, their situation might not be much better than these people.

A pack of crackers was enough to wrap the belly. Some people asked if they could give more. The soldier refused, “How much free food do you want? I think it’s already enough for you to wait until tomorrow then you go use your own labor to exchange for some.”

The people dare not say anything, but there must be some dissatisfaction. As soon as the soldiers left, some people began to complain, “They said that there would be free food, and in the end they sent a packet of crackers. Everyone in the group of soldiers had guns in their hands, and the collected materials were reloaded by a truck. I don’t believe that they don’t have food for 20 of us to eat a meal. They saved us, can’t they treat us more nicely?”

There were people who agreed and people who kept silent.

Liu Fangzhou wanted to speak but was stopped by Shen Shian with his eyes. Four people chose not to get too compelling food to solve dinner.

It was dark soon.

There were two lights in the isolation area, which were the most common low-wattage incandescent lamps. The lights were dim and hanging at both ends of the artificially constructed wooden wall. On the other side of the concrete wall, there should be a searchlight. The light was much stronger, and it vaguely entered through the plastic film on the top.

Shen Shian couldn’t sleep. One hand was held in Shen Xun’s hand, and one hand was resting behind his head. His eyes were fixed on the thin steel bars that acted as crossbars above his head.

The child slept tightly against him, and his soft belly was slightly undulating. Occasionally, he didn’t know what he dreamed of, he would stick his tongue out and licked his wrist, mumbling, “Mine…”

Chen Nan next to him did not sleep. He laid on the cushion and turned over multiple times. He finally asked Liu Fangzhou in a low voice, “How big am I?”

Liu Fangzhou didn’t dare to get too close to Shen Xun. His cushion was on the other side of the four people. He was indulging in various colorful light group inductions in the base. After being interrupted, he could not react for a while. “…What?”

“Didn’t you say that the light of that dark-skinned skinny boy is the size of a washbowl? Then how big am I?”

Liu Fangzhou turned to look at him, and his expression was not sympathetic. “The first time I saw you, you are the size of a teacup.”

“Now what?”

“An extra teacup with a lid.”

Chen Nan was silent, a little unwilling, he asked. “What about Brother Shen?”

“The golden light on Brother Shen is too bright, and the size cannot be sensed. It must be bigger than you anyway.”

Chen Nan wanted to ask again, and suddenly Shen Shian’s low and hurried warning came to his ears, “Hush, don’t talk.” At the same time, Shen Xun in Shen Shian’s arms also opened his eyes. The dark green iris glowed brightly and he stared at the wooden wall above his head.

There were footsteps outside the wall. The person deliberately put it very lightly, as if he didn’t want to disturb anyone, but he was still caught by Shen Shian just a few dozen meters away. About a minute after he vocally reminded Chen Nan, the footsteps came to the side of their wall. There was rustling and a piece of paper was jammed into the gap under the board.

After several seconds, two more papers were jammed from other places on the wooden wall.

Liu Fangzhou was closest to the first piece of paper. He quickly rushed over and took the paper back. He unfolded it and placed it in the middle of the four people. There was only one sentence on the paper:

“If you are an evolver, please keep your identity secret and prevent yourselves from becoming a military test subject.”