At the same time, in the top conference room of the A City Base administration building.

Ye Xin pushed open the doors to the conference room, her expression blank. Her gaze slowly swept over everyone present, finally pausing for a second on Zhou Jinyu, Li Xiao, and the others. "Looks like everyone’s here."

Ye Xin let out a soft chuckle, casually tucking a strand of long hair behind her ear. She sank lazily into her seat, not bothering to hide the mockery in her eyes.

’How rare. After so many years, these people were actually sitting at the same table again. And for the same person, no less.’

But this time... Ye Xin lowered her gaze, her eyelashes drooping slightly.

’She hadn’t slept a wink in days. Forcing herself to stay awake and watch this bunch of hypocrites put on a show was really asking a bit much of her.’

Ye Xin gave a lazy yawn, leaned back slightly, and rested against the back of her chair.

"Vice Director Ye is such a busy person," Yang Xi, who was sitting next to the leader of A City Base, jabbed sarcastically. All the while, her eyes kept darting toward Zhou Jinyu out of the corner of her eye.

Ye Xin couldn’t be bothered to deal with this woman. Back in the day, Yang Xi had pursued Zhou Jinyu, only to be rejected. Afterward, Zhou Jinyu, with ulterior motives, became Ye Xin’s devoted admirer—so devoted it was common knowledge...

Ye Xin hadn’t given that past affair a second thought. Men, to her, were nothing more than a bit of spice in life.

’To put it bluntly, while trying to survive in the apocalypse, they were just playthings, not worth her effort.’

’In Ye Xin’s world, men existed to please her; she would never waste her energy on a man!’

But Yang Xi, it seemed, did not think the same way...

Ever since Ye Xin had walked in, Zhou Jinyu’s gaze kept drifting toward her, yet Ye Xin hadn’t given him so much as a single glance.

This infuriated Yang Xi so much that she almost couldn’t hold her tongue. Fortunately, Tang You, the leader of A City Base sitting beside her, gave her a little tug, reminding her not to forget where she was and that official business was more important right now.

Yang Xi sullenly retracted her gaze, deciding to go with ’out of sight, out of mind’.

Just then, Zhou Jinyu suddenly spoke up. "Since everyone is here, let’s get down to business. I imagine you all know by now that the miasma shrouding the Death Swamp has mostly dissipated..."

At this point, he turned to Tang You. "I hear City A already sent people over last night?"

Tang You hadn’t expected to be able to hide this from everyone present. But hearing Zhou Jinyu direct the spearhead at his A City Base right from the start, he was momentarily unsure how to respond and decided to deflect evasively.

"That is true," Tang You nodded, not denying it. "But it was just a coincidence."

Seeing everyone look up at him, he gave a helpless smile and explained, "The Special Service Team went to an outpost outside the city for supplies earlier. But this was right after the major earthquake, you see, and we in City A were also struggling. So, the outpost... in short, there were some misunderstandings between the two sides."

At this, he set down his water glass and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "After the matter was reported to me, I was worried that Mr. Ye and... and Miss Gu would misunderstand our base, so I immediately sent people over with supplies."

"Who would have thought, by sheer coincidence, they happened to arrive just as the miasma in the Death Swamp was disappearing..." Tang You attributed it all to coincidence.

Everyone present knew Tang You’s words weren’t entirely true and that he was just bullshitting them. But they were on his turf, after all, and they had to give him some face.

’After all... a mighty dragon can’t crush a local snake.’

So, even though they all knew the truth, by some unspoken agreement, no one questioned him.

After his noncommittal explanation, Tang You shifted the topic to the Research Institute. "By the way, Mr. Zhou, the Land of Death has always been a key project for your institute. Now that the miasma has vanished, I wonder what your next move will be?"

’Having everyone stare at the A City authorities right now was not a good thing.’

Tang You’s gaze drifted impassively between Zhou Jinyu and Ye Xin before finally settling on Zhou Jinyu. His tone was sincere. "If there’s anything you need, Mr. Zhou, just say the word. We at City A will do our absolute best to cooperate."

Although outsiders all said Zhou Jinyu was difficult to deal with, in Tang You’s opinion, that woman, Ye Xin, was clearly more trouble.

To be precise, none of the members of the old Doomsday Squad were easy to handle.

And the most troublesome one of all was currently...

’The thought that ’that person’ from back then—the one they called a god—was now in City A and could come storming over at any moment made Tang You’s heart pound with fear.’

’If he had a choice, he wouldn’t want to be sitting in this position at all right now.’

’But when you’re in the thick of it, you don’t call the shots.’

His City A was right under that person’s nose. If that person wanted him to sit here, he had to sit here.

Otherwise, all that person had to do was lift a finger, and the entire A City Base, along with its hundreds of thousands of survivors—including him, the base leader—would be finished!

So, at this moment, Tang You, who was not his own master, could only try his best to stay in the shadows and deflect the main conflict onto others.

To be blunt, the Evil God had no irreconcilable conflict with his A City Base. The one who wronged her back then wasn’t him, Tang You, but rather...

Thinking this, Tang You glanced impassively at Ye Xin, who sat diagonally opposite him.

Ye Xin didn’t care in the slightest how others saw her. She had understood a simple truth from a very young age: only the weak care about what others think. When you’re strong enough, others will be the ones desperately trying to guess what you’re thinking.

And she was here today for one reason only...

Zhou Jinyu’s gaze swept impassively past Ye Xin, who was yawning brazenly, before landing on Tang You and the others. He pushed up the gold-rimmed glasses on his nose and said mildly, "The Research Institute is indeed very interested in the Land of Death."

"However," he said, his tone shifting, "since the Special Service Team and Miss Gu are already there, I assume the military has made other arrangements. The Research Institute won’t interfere. It won’t be too late for our research teams to go over after the soldiers on the front lines have handled things."

His words were worth pondering.

"Mr. Zhou..." Liu Bo, the military representative sitting opposite Tang You, frowned slightly. "I’m afraid that won’t do."

’Was Zhou Jinyu trying to pick up the scraps without offending Gu Xi, so he wanted to push the Liu Family out to be the scapegoat?’

’Not so easy!’

Liu Bo stated his prepared excuse. "As you all know, due to certain special circumstances, we’ve been out of contact with the Special Service Team for some time. We haven’t been able to deliver new orders from the top..."

Zhou Jinyu, who had long expected someone from the Liu Family to shirk responsibility, immediately looked to Tang You beside him and said with a gentle smile, "That shouldn’t be an issue. Hasn’t City A already sent people? Mr. Tang’s men are in the swamp region right now. I imagine re-establishing contact with the Special Service Team won’t be a problem."

"Isn’t that right, Mr. Tang?" Zhou Jinyu impassively tossed the problem to Tang You.

’Tang You wanted to curse someone out.’

Honestly, he wanted no part in this mess. He had zero designs on whatever was in the Land of Death—because he knew better than anyone that it wasn’t something he could even dream of coveting.

But now, both the Research Institute and the Liu Family wanted him, the leader of A City Base, to be the one to stick his neck out!

Tang You certainly didn’t want to be that bird, so he turned to the silent Li Xiao. "Mr. Li, you’ve come from the Central Base. I wonder, what are the higher-ups’ intentions regarding this matter?"