The Buddhist Temple Takes in Refugees

Rita and Li Sushang followed Durandal's finger and saw two small, thin figures, one large and one small.

The two looked emaciated, wearing loose monk's robes. However, their heads weren't shaved, and they didn't have the unique aura of monks. They looked more like they were cosplaying.

They each had a bamboo basket, and through the gaps in the basket, you could see green leaves. They were also holding a large handful of leaves, indicating what they had just been doing.

"Hello." Rita, seeing the monk's robes on the two, knew that her guess had come true.

She took a step forward and bowed slightly to the two. "Excuse me, are you survivors from Xieyang Temple?"

The smaller child stared blankly and didn't respond, while the older girl finally reacted, nodding repeatedly at the three of them.

She swallowed, looking at the three of them with some trepidation at their unusual armor and the weapons they were carrying.

"You are..." Finally, she asked cautiously.

"We are..." Durandal wanted to say that they were from the city exploration team, but after a moment's hesitation, she chose another title.

"We are search and rescue soldiers from the MOTH, currently carrying out our city search duties," Durandal said seriously. "It's great to have found you. Do you know the location of the other survivors?"

The two of them, one large and one small, both gasped, their minds quickly searching for the name [MOTH].

But they found nothing. They had never heard any information about this organization. The only thing they could associate it with was the phrase "a moth to a flame."

But the clothes these people were wearing gave them a very reliable feeling, a feeling like...

The people's soldiers...

When she saw them, the girl could see undisguised surprise and relief in their eyes. That feeling was exactly the same as the people who had airborne to her in the shaking earth more than ten years ago.

"I know! Everyone is in the temple!" The girl chose to place her hope in Durandal's group.

"Great!" Durandal smiled and looked back at Rita. "You were right! There really are survivors here!"

"Lady Durandal, we still need to know how many people are in the shelter and think about how to evacuate everyone. We don't have a vehicle, and there are too many zombies at the foot of the mountain. With so many of us, it's easy to trigger a horde and chaos."

The girl's face instantly turned pale. She understood the word "horde." After all, it often appeared in those zombie movies.

"There are a hundred and nine people in the temple!" the girl blurted out. The word "horde" had really scared her.

Before the Great Honkai, the girl liked to watch all kinds of apocalypse movies. She had, of course, seen the classic HOMU Crisis several times.

It was the scenes from these movies that allowed her to escape with her sister and hold on until the monks from the temple came to their aid.

In the movies, the "horde" was the most terrifying disaster. The girl, having benefited from the movies, was naturally very sensitive to the things in them.

That was why she was so proactive in providing the information she knew. After all, the three of them didn't look like bad people... would bad people really bring a snot-nosed kid out to cause trouble?

Li Sushang noticed the girl's gaze, sniffed hard, and sucked the runny nose back in, only for it to run down again uncontrollably.

It seemed she had caught a bit of a cold in the cave...

Rita took out a tissue and wiped Li Sushang's nose, then spoke to the girl again. "Excuse me, could you take us to the temple? And could you tell us about your experiences over the past three months?"

The girl nodded hastily. "Yes, yes, of course!"

As she spoke, the girl craned her neck to look down again. "How many... of you are there?"

"Just the three of us..." Li Sushang's nose was a little red from being wiped, and her muffled voice sounded a little like a lisp.

"Three people?" The girl's eyes widened. "There are only three of you?"

The three of them nodded, and the girl suddenly felt that the hope she had just handed over was about to be extinguished.

What could three people do... even with weapons, they couldn't deal with so many zombies! Could it be that these three were some kind of super soldiers, the kind that could kill a cow with one punch?

Sighing pessimistically, the girl put the tea leaves she had been clutching for a long time into the bamboo basket. This small half-basket of tea leaves was part of everyone's dinner in the temple.

"I'll take you to the temple... everyone in the temple is very kind..."

"Why did you all gather at the temple?" Rita asked with a smile. "Was it because the monks in the temple were kind and protected you?"

The girl nodded without thinking, and Rita understood.

It seemed that was indeed the case, and not some story of taking over another's nest...

"It was about three months ago. We had a holiday two days early and were planning to have fun at the scenic spot before many people came back. Then those zombies suddenly appeared."

"A lot of people were killed by them and turned into zombies. Luckily, I've seen a lot of movies, so I was able to run away with my sister."

The girl looked down at her sister. Although she was also thin, she was a little better off than the girl.

Rita confirmed another thing. Although the girl looked like she had suffered, her mind was clear and her mentality was still good. It seemed that there was someone with a sense of justice leading the overall situation and maintaining order in the temple.

After all, to be able to divert resources to a child who was basically useless was truly rare.

"What's even luckier is that we were right next to Xieyang Temple at the time. The abbot of the temple opened the main gate and let the monks come out to bring us in. Those monks really know kung fu! Each of them could fight several zombies with a stick!

"Thanks to those monks, we were able to escape into the temple... For the past three months, everyone has been able to survive thanks to the help of those monks.

"It's just that there are too many people, and there's very little food in the temple. In order to let everyone live, those monks went out with some strong and able-bodied people and emptied several small shops in the scenic area. They even got some meat from somewhere."

"Eating meat in a temple... that must be a great disrespect to the Buddha... but the abbot said it was fine, and he would chant sutras for us to ask for the Buddha's forgiveness."

As she spoke, the girl secretly glanced at the three of them. Their healthy appearance was a stark contrast to her own thin wrists, where she could see the shape of her bones.

The weight loss she had always longed for had finally come to fruition, but the girl couldn't bring herself to smile.

These three should be eating well, right? Then they probably wouldn't be interested in our dinner tonight, right?

The three of them didn't know the girl's little thoughts. They followed behind her and gradually completed the last part of the journey to Xieyang Temple.