Chapter 132: The Li Family Comes Knocking
Between two-, three-, and four-wheeled electric vehicles, they had collected forty or fifty in total. It was enough for everyone on the team to have one. But to avoid drawing attention, they left only two at the base styled like patrol vehicles. Zhuang Mingxu kept a small single-seat four-wheeler for personal use.
“You and Young Master Lu really have an enviable bond,” Li Ling said casually, then got to the point. “The main reason I’m here today is actually to speak with Young Master Lu.”
When the group returned yesterday, Wu Yue had already explained the whole situation to Zhuang Mingxu. Seeing those people hiding behind the others, he immediately understood what was going on—and he had no intention of cooperating.
“Xiao Yi went out to look for supplies. If you want, you can come back this evening.”
“Evening’s when everyone rests. No time for that,” interrupted a man who had come with Li Ling.
“Song Qi,” Li Ling glanced at the man, then turned back to Zhuang Mingxu, “It’s true—we usually rest in the evenings. That’s why I came early today. But since you’re managing everything here, talking to you should be just as good.”
Zhuang Mingxu didn’t say a word at first—he just quietly observed Li Ling and waited for him to continue speaking.
“The situation is like this,” Li Ling began. “Yesterday, one of our teams brought some people to retrieve supplies from the Flour Factory No. 6. They cleared out the zombies and opened a path, but in the end, Young Master Lu’s group snatched the supplies. If it had been a small amount, I’d let it go, but it was a major factory…” He paused, then said, “Since it was your team who transported the goods, I won’t be unreasonable and demand it all back. How about we take everything except for twenty sacks of flour as compensation for your efforts—would that be acceptable?”
Zhuang Mingxu swept his gaze over everyone who had come, then finally smiled. After a long moment, he asked Li Ling, “Do you truly not know what happened, or are you pretending not to and came here just to snatch the supplies?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Li Ling’s face darkened—clearly there was more to the story.
Zhuang Mingxu relayed Wu Yue’s version of events, then concluded, “They couldn’t defeat the mutant dog, so they abandoned more than a dozen ordinary people and ran. Our team killed the dog and took the supplies. And now you come here flapping your lips, calling it theft?”
“Boss, don’t listen to his nonsense—it was them who took our supplies! We already cleared the zombies outside!” Song Qi, worried after seeing Li Ling’s expression sour, tried to defend himself.
Zhuang Mingxu said bluntly, “There were fourteen of us. If we really took supplies from your seventy or eighty people, then what does that make your team—a bunch of useless trash?” He glanced at the two people hiding at the back, then scoffed. “Sure, there are always ingrates, but not everyone you abandoned is going to lie for you. Out of more than a dozen people, at least one or two are bound to tell the truth. Mr. Li, if you’re going to come looking for justice, you should do your homework first. It’s pretty embarrassing to be lied to by your own people.”
Seeing the guilty and evasive eyes of the two people in question, Li Ling immediately understood. He gritted his teeth silently, forcing a smile as he said to Zhuang Mingxu, “Lax leadership—what a joke I’ve made of myself.”
Zhuang Mingxu gestured with his hand in a clear “please leave” motion.
“Let’s go,” Li Ling growled through clenched teeth, turning and walking away first.
Lu Xi, who’d rushed back after hearing that the Li family had come to make trouble, ran into Zhuang Mingxu at the gate. Seeing that he was unharmed, he let out a sigh of relief and asked, “He gave up that easily?”
“Li Ling is ruthless and petty. This time, his own people lied to him and he came unprepared. He was humiliated in front of outsiders and couldn’t argue back. That’s what got to him,” Zhuang Mingxu explained. “If they’d just said outright they wanted the supplies and came with a plan to take them, he might’ve agreed—and made sure to silence any witnesses. He’d frame it like they were the victims.” Then he warned, “We all need to be careful now. Li Ling won’t just let this go after losing face.”
Just as Zhuang Mingxu predicted, Li Ling didn’t really care about missing out on the supplies—this was the apocalypse, after all, and if you didn’t have the strength to refuse someone, even a direct demand for goods was fair game. What bothered him was that his own subordinates had deceived him.
That night, Li Ling gathered everyone who’d been involved in the Flour Factory No. 6 operation. After questioning them, he confirmed Zhuang Mingxu’s account was accurate. In a surprisingly calm manner, he publicly expelled Song Qi and the other ringleaders from the Li family’s team.
He addressed the group, “It’s not wrong to be afraid and flee. But running away and then lying to your superior? That’s unacceptable. The Li family has thousands of people across our squads. If everyone acted like this, how could we manage anything?”
“We’re in the apocalypse now—I won’t pursue this any further. From this moment, you’re no longer part of the Li family’s team. But considering your past contributions, I’ll allocate some supplies to help you get by. With your skills, you can still make a name for yourselves in the base.”
Getting a “severance package” even after screwing up gave Li Ling the appearance of being magnanimous. Song Qi and the others didn’t even have time to feel guilty—before long, Li Ling’s trusted aide Meng Liang came to find them. When they were finally kicked out, their anger and resentment gave way to helplessness.
**
Lu Xi, worried that Zhuang Mingxu might not speak up, went back that night to inform Lu Weiyi about everything. The group talked it over, but there wasn’t much they could do—since the Li family wasn’t making a move, they couldn’t exactly go cause trouble first. The only solution was to stay on guard.
Other than this frustrating episode, the military also delivered some good news: mutant animal meat is edible. However, since it contains energy, it’s best if ordinary people eat little or none of it; ability users are fine.
While Lu Weiyi already knew this, it was great news to the others. After all, two mutant dogs weighed several hundred pounds—enough meat to last a dozen people for quite a while.
“Then from now on, let’s only eat mutant meat. Leave the regular stuff for others,” Wu Yue offered.
“Sounds good. When should we cook it up? I’m curious to see how it tastes compared to normal meat,” Ning Yuan asked eagerly, looking around as if waiting for the group to pick a date.
Everyone was curious, but no one said anything at first. They exchanged glances, and eventually all looked to Lu Weiyi.
“Let’s do it tonight,” Lu Weiyi said reasonably.
“Awwwooo~~” Ning Yuan let out a dramatic howl and flopped onto the sofa. “I didn’t know you had a workaholic streak! We’ve been out there working nonstop for over a month!”
“I’m not tired. Are you guys?” Lu Weiyi asked Li Zhuang and Antonio.
Both men shook their heads. Ning Yuan groaned again, “That’s because their ability levels are high! Ask Qingyue and Wu Yue if they’re tired!”
Lu Weiyi really did turn toward the newly awakened ability users and the three ordinary members of the team.
“Me… I’m alright,” Wu Yue said awkwardly. He felt bad admitting fatigue—especially when his build looked much more solid than Lu Weiyi’s.
“Yeah right,” Ning Yuan cut in, “you sleep like a dead pig every night and need a cold shower just to wake up.”
Gu Qingyue smiled gently under everyone’s gaze. “It’s been a bit much. I was actually thinking of taking a day off tomorrow.”
“Why don’t you all take a break for a while?” Zhuang Mingxu suggested, turning to Lu Weiyi. “The supplies we’ve collected over the past month are several times more than any other team’s. With around twenty people, we can live off this for a while. Plus, I’ve checked—temperatures have already hit fifty degrees. Running around in this heat could be dangerous.”
Lu Weiyi thought for a moment and finally shook his head. “We can stop collecting supplies, but we still have to hunt zombies. Otherwise, the leveling up is too slow.” Right now, two people on the team were at a critical point, waiting to level up—it wasn’t the right time to relax.
“Hunting zombies…” Zhuang Mingxu tapped the armrest of his wheelchair, deep in thought.
Lu Weiyi knew that was his usual thinking gesture and silently waited. After a moment, Zhuang Mingxu smiled. “I’ve got a method for hunting zombies.”
*
With Zhuang Mingxu’s method, the team took the next day off entirely.
Even though they called it “sleeping in,” no one slept past seven. As soon as they finished breakfast, everyone eagerly looked at Lu Weiyi.
“Which one first?” Lu Weiyi still had quite a few unprocessed animals in his space. Besides that giant mutated pig and the two mutated dogs, there were also regular pigs and chickens they had seized from Li Ji’s group. They’d never gotten around to processing them since they weren’t short on meat and were constantly out scavenging.
“Let’s do the mutated dog! I haven’t seen one yet,” Dean said, curiously watching Lu Weiyi.
“The pig sounds good too—I heard it’s huge,” Lu Xi chimed in.
“Yeah, yeah, how about… we bring them all out?” Bai Miao said excitedly.
“Let’s get everything ready first. Do we need to scald off the hair with hot water? We should collect the blood too—don’t waste anything. What should we use to store it…” Zhuang Mingxu was curious as well but more thorough in his thinking. He looked around for a large enough container.
“No need for the dog. Just skin it. The fur can be made into a blanket—it’ll be warm,” Li Dongsheng said.
“Then let’s handle the dog first. We’ll stew some dog meat tonight,” Xiong Jie suggested.
Lu Weiyi nodded and tossed the yellow dog into the yard. Those who hadn’t seen it before excitedly circled around to examine it. Zhuang Ai Yi even carefully reached out to touch it, his small face beaming. “Its fur is so smooth!”
“Then we’ll make a coat for you, Ai Yi. You can wear it when it gets cold, okay?” Xiong Jie asked.
Zhuang Ai Yi looked first at Lu Weiyi. Seeing that he didn’t say anything, he responded softly, “Okay.”
Everyone asked about the process of slaughtering the dog, and the few who’d done it started reenacting the story with dramatic gestures—it could’ve been a Hollywood action movie. Lu Weiyi, uninterested in their bragging, told someone to prepare a container and brought out the mutated pig as well.
“Want me to leave the black dog for you guys to handle too? Zhuang Mingxu and I are heading to the Greenfield Villa,” Lu Weiyi said. He figured if he saw the slaughtering process, he might not be able to eat, so he’d better stay far away.
“The black dog’s still alive, right?” Xu Sa remembered it had been stored alive.
Everyone immediately tensed up, ready to jump into combat at any moment.
“It’s dead,” Lu Weiyi replied. “I cut off its head. But… it might still twitch a bit.” He wasn’t entirely sure—this was his first time storing a live creature.
“Clear out a big enough space and let’s check it out,” someone said. It was a good opportunity—maybe this would work again the next time they couldn’t beat a mutated beast.
They moved the yellow mutated dog and the mutated pig to a corner, clearing out a big area. Those with low combat ability were told to keep their distance. The others circled up in a battle-ready stance, prepared to strike if necessary.
