"Really!?" An unexpected turn made Lin Junfu abandon his usual calm and steady demeanor and he exclaimed excitedly, "Quick, quick, tell us! What's going on here?"

Old Zhao was visibly excited too, as evidenced by his heaving chest. After calming his breath slightly, he slowly explained the whole incident to the two in front of him.

"This is what happened. I was just looking for clothes for Zhao Huilong."

"Mm, right," Tang Xiaoquan responded instinctively, and he vaguely understood something.

Old Zhao nodded knowingly and continued, "Earlier, when I was searching for medicine for Xiao Hu, I found some uniforms in a room at the second-floor entrance. They must have been put away in the cabinet after city management duty. I didn't pay attention at the time since we didn't need them. If not for the suggestion that Zhao Huilong takes a bath, I probably wouldn't have gone to that room again."

As he spoke, Old Zhao clicked his tongue, perhaps also lamenting the twists of fate.

"After entering the room, I grabbed the uniform sets from the cabinet without thinking much and started taking clothes off the hanger. It was during this process that I felt something was off, as the top half of the clothes felt 'heavy.' Upon closer inspection, I discovered the reason was..."

With that, Old Zhao pulled a bunch of keys from his pocket and held them out in front of Tang Lin and the others, "It was these, found in the breast pocket of the uniform. I tested them; one is for opening a room, another for a drawer. But that's not the important part. The important part is..."

Slightly shifting his body, Old Zhao tried to let more sunlight in from the door. He picked out one key from the bunch, slightly excited, "The important part is this, do you see the tape on the handle of this key?"

To let Tang Lin and the others see clearly, Old Zhao moved the key closer to the light.

Sure enough, as the key entered the light, Tang Xiaoquan suddenly noticed there were four large characters written on the tape.

"Vehicle Key!!" Almost in unison, Lin Junfu and Tang Xiaoquan exchanged a look, both showing signs of surprise and delight.

Undoubtedly, if Zhao Yunhai's information was accurate, then this key was most likely for the city management vehicle outside the door.

"What do you think?" Suppressing his excitement, Old Lin turned his gaze to Tang Xiaoquan beside him. At this point, he wanted to hear the latter's judgment.

Tang Xiaoquan pondered for a moment, as this matter was no small affair and directly concerned the survival of the entire team. He dared not be careless: "I... here's how I see it. Since Uncle Zhao has already tested two of the keys' uses and determined they are for this office location, it's very likely the other two keys could be for the owner's home."

"Mm, and then?"

"Then naturally we talk about this one," Tang Xiaoquan pointed at the key in Old Zhao's hand and continued, "Normally, if it were a home car key, there wouldn't be a need to specifically label it on the handle. Additionally, from the design of the car key, it's the most regular type, not a remote key, which happens to match the model of the city management car. Based on these two points, we can basically conclude that this key belongs to the city management car."

At this point, Lin Junfu was very satisfied because the young man's deduction was almost identical to his own. Just as he was about to voice his agreement, Tang Xiaoquan made a 180-degree turn: "However, there's one more issue, which is while this key does indeed belong to the city management car, does the City Management Bureau only have this one city management vehicle?"

Undoubtedly, his words took Lin and Zhao by surprise. They, caught in the excitement of "obtaining the car key," hadn't considered the direction of the young man's question.

Now prompted by him, while they agreed, they also felt the "seed of hope" that had just been ignited was somewhat extinguished.

Indeed! How could such a large City Management Bureau have only one vehicle?

"Sigh~" Old Zhao couldn't help but feel a bit discouraged.

It's no wonder; from hope to despair often takes just a step. Although the situation the survivors faced wasn't yet dire, the significant ups and downs would cause psychological fluctuations.

Perhaps noticing the change in the two elder's emotions, after some thinking, Tang Xiaoquan added, "However, those are just suspicions, not conclusions. Besides, from the analysis of the single city management vehicle parked outside, even if there are other vehicles, they are probably also abandoned outside. Therefore, our hope is still quite large."

Silently nodding, even though the young man's perspective restored some hope, the calm Lin Junfu still said indifferently, "Alright, no matter what, we still need to go upstairs and communicate with the brothers to see what everyone thinks."

5 minutes later, the gathered survivors quietly listened to Old Zhao's recounting. When he finished, they unsurprisingly showed a look of excitement on their faces.

Then, as Tang Xiaoquan began his analysis, they plummeted like a roller coaster, each falling into silence.

"So~ the new situation is like this. We're gathering everyone now to hear your opinions." Although knowing it was a bit inappropriate to bring up discussions at this time, the reality of resource scarcity didn't allow Old Lin to give more time for everyone to adjust their mental states.

"I'll say!" To everyone's surprise, Wang Qiang was the first to raise his hand to speak: "I don't have much to say, just one sentence: how many more days can we last if we don't charge forward now?"

After speaking, Wang Qiang withdrew his arm and leaned on the seat, scanning his companions.

No one responded. Of course, it wasn't because the question was difficult to answer. On the contrary, the answer was so obvious that everyone in the room was left speechless.

Indeed! How many more days can we last in our current situation?

"Enough! Stop dithering! We're doomed whether we charge or not! In my view, we should break out regardless of whether we have a vehicle!" Dazhuang finally couldn't stand the hesitant attitudes around him, got up, and spoke forcefully.

Seeing the other's slightly aggressive demeanor, Old Lin smiled and gestured for him to sit down. Knowing Dazhuang well, he immediately offered his opinion, "Personally, I agree with Dazhuang. Everyone dies eventually, whether sooner or later. But if we're going to just sit here and wait for death, I'd rather put up a fight, and maybe we'll carve out a path to survival. Besides, we have the key Old Zhao found. Although the chance of starting the car is only 50 percent, our chances of survival have nonetheless increased."

By this stage, everyone's misgivings were essentially resolved. Even those who felt "staying put" was safer were influenced by the group and gave agreements.

Since the decision to break out was made, they'd need to devise a detailed action plan...

PS: Thank you to the book friend diguoxingren for the continuous rewards yesterday, much appreciated.

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