Rotting Land: Survive

Chapter 622 611: Analysis (Part 3)

To be honest, Lao Zhao's reaction was quite normal. When faced with a story told by a weak patient, anyone would find it difficult to discern the truth from falsehoods in their words.

Even Lao Zhao, and even Tang Xiaoquan himself, if it weren't for his urgent need to know the whereabouts of his parents, might not have listened so attentively and carefully to Yao Ruyi's account, making it hard even for him to notice the discrepancies in the other's words.

"Actually, Lao Zhao, from the very beginning of his story, I felt something was off." Tang Xiaoquan began his analysis.

"From the beginning?" Lao Zhao recalled carefully, but after thinking it over, he couldn't find anything wrong with Yao Ruyi's account. He shook his head in confusion, signaling for the other to continue.

"Look, he said that the reason the military evacuated urgently was because they noticed signs of zombie gatherings in several nearby streets, right?"

Lao Zhao nodded affirmatively, "Yes, Yao Ruyi did say that, but what's wrong with it?"

In Lao Zhao's view, the military's actions were quite appropriate. The gathering of zombies must have a reason. Although these creatures are mindless and can't think, their insatiable hunger for food always takes precedence.

And the Juli Sports Arena shelter housed a large number of survivors. What does this mean to the zombies? It means that there are savory and delicious meals waiting for them to hunt and feast on.

So, as upper management on the survivors' side, there is reason to suspect that the zombies suddenly gathering could very likely have the Juli Sports Arena as their ultimate target.

Following the principle of prevention, the military decided to organize an evacuation before the zombies completed their encirclement of the stadium; this choice was undoubtedly a wise decision.

Tang Xiaoquan could see the doubt in Lao Zhao's eyes, as the latter didn't fully understand some of the details. However, he had personally gone to investigate the Juli Sports Arena with Lao Lin and others.

So he had grounds for suspecting Yao Ruyi: "Lao Zhao, do you remember the things I told you about after I, Lao Lin, Brother Hu, and Qiangzi returned from the Southern City Stadium? When we got there, we saw almost no sign of zombies inside or outside the entire stadium, not even any corpses."

"I remember that, but didn't you encounter many zombies that had been shot and crushed on your way to the Southern City Stadium?" Lao Zhao recalled what he had heard that day, led by Tang Xiaoquan.

"Yes, indeed." Tang Xiaoquan confirmed Lao Zhao's recollection. The latter then asked with increasing curiosity, "Doesn't this match exactly what Yao Ruyi said about the military discovering signs of zombie gatherings on the streets around the stadium?"

"Yes, it matches perfectly. Yao Ruyi was entirely correct on this point. But the first flaw I want to discuss appears precisely here."

"Oh?" To Lao Zhao, there still didn't seem to be any problem. On the contrary, he increasingly found Yao Ruyi's account reliable.

"Look~ Yao Ruyi mentioned in our conversation that the military evacuated towards the south. I even confirmed it with him, but in reality, all the zombies we encountered that were shot and crushed were concentrated in the north. Moreover, from the vehicles pushed to the roadside and the scratches on the bodywork, it's clear the military evacuated north, not south as Yao Ruyi claimed."

With Tang Xiaoquan's step-by-step analysis, a crease appeared on Lao Zhao's forehead.

"However, it was four months after the fact when we went to the Southern City Stadium, and perhaps the military split into two groups, or other survivor groups passed through from the north; all this is unverifiable now." Tang Xiaoquan's words put a big question mark over his earlier account.

Lao Zhao wasn't in a hurry; he trusted that the young man in front of him wouldn't overturn his theory without reason. The latter must have more precise evidence to validate his suspicion of Yao Ruyi.

As expected, Tang Xiaoquan soon laid out the second flaw he discovered in Yao Ruyi's words.

"In fact, what really made me suspicious was Yao Ruyi's story about the hijacking of the military vehicle. Lao Zhao, think about it: isn't this too far-fetched? A few survivors could hijack a military vehicle guarded by armed soldiers? What were the soldiers doing? Even if he claims it happened under the cover of night, the military should act on curfews and control at such times. Besides, how could those hijackers sneak past the sentries to the driver's seat? Were the remaining survivors on the vehicle completely oblivious? Not to mention, if they really could achieve those things, what was their motive? Anyone with some sense wouldn't be foolish enough to leave a quasi-military group and choose to survive with a ragtag group of isolationists."

Lao Zhao frequently nodded, indeed agreeing with Tang Xiaoquan's analysis. Beside the fact that those people faced the military troops, hijacking hostages itself seemed unreliable. Just imagine, that military vehicle housed tens of survivors, enough to overwhelm the hijackers.

"Not only that!" Tang Xiaoquan continued his analysis: "Later, Yao Ruyi said he, along with a few others, took advantage of a bathroom break to overcome the guards and escape. Lao Zhao, I ask, if you were the bandit leader, would you care about the detainees' need to eat and drink? If it were me, even if they wet their pants, I wouldn't let the detainees get off the vehicle to solve their personal needs. Moreover, if Yao Ruyi truly intended to counter the hijackers, why would he wait so long? At the very onset of the hostage-taking, they should have reacted."

Lao Zhao didn't respond verbally, but he strongly agreed with Tang Xiaoquan's point. What time were they in now? It was the apocalypse, and traditional moral constraints have long disappeared, with national law enforcement collapsed.

If you wanted to kill someone now, it was as easy as stepping on an ant, with no police hunting you down afterward.

In the situation Yao Ruyi described, the hijackers would find it much easier to kill you than tolerate you slipping away from the crowd for a bathroom break.

"Moreover, his final escape claim: since you managed to escape successfully, and you and a few others took down a hijacker together, what do you fear afterward? I don't believe in the supposedly wide JZ County, you'd need to hide around to avoid those few hijackers, and what would the hijackers gain by capturing you? It doesn't just waste manpower and resources; what's the point?"

Tang Xiaoquan's analysis was comprehensive, and his discovery of three different flaws indeed exposed the fact that Yao Ruyi was lying. (To be continued. If you like this work, you're welcome to vote for recommendations and monthly tickets at Qidian (qidian.com). Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please read at m.qidian.com.)