Chapter 158 — The New Year’s Eve Meeting
On New Year’s Eve, after surviving the zombie bird air raids and the zombie siege, the base finally regained a semblance of its former peace.
From early morning onward, broadcasts played throughout the base—reports on mutated crop research, pre-recorded variety shows, and all sorts of entertainment programs from before the apocalypse.
The once bleak base, still filled with collapsed buildings and ruins, suddenly felt much livelier than before.
The survivors still living in the base had mostly begun preparing for the holiday.
Although the zombie bird attack had caused heavy losses, the “inheritances” left behind afterward were considerable. And because capable people inside the base had reacted quickly and exterminated many of the zombie birds soon after they entered the city, life gradually stabilized again.
Aside from still needing to avoid going out at night because of the zombie rats wandering through the base, most people—thanks to the supplies left behind by the dead and their own preparations before winter—could still manage a relatively comfortable Spring Festival.
With resources redistributed, many households once again had access to radios.
So even though the giant loudspeakers that once lined the streets had long since disappeared, plenty of people could now sit at home listening to programs and news broadcasts.
Most of the broadcasts had already been prepared before the Spring Festival anyway, so the new administration simply needed to dig them out and have the station play them in sequence.
While the entire base celebrated the New Year in noisy excitement, inside the military camp’s towering black fortress, meetings were underway.
Of course, the senior leaders and true decision-makers held their own private meetings.
Meanwhile, lower-ranking officers and staff sat obediently in large auditoriums listening to previously prepared performances—officially celebrating the holiday while simultaneously receiving ideological education.
Deep underground, inside the military camp’s most heavily secured conference room, the people who now held real power within the base were holding a small private meeting.
Documents circulated around the round table.
Compared to the previous leadership group, the people seated here were on average ten to twenty years younger.
Some were military officers who had held authority both before and after the apocalypse, while others were military ability users who had gradually climbed in status through long-term combat missions and their growing powers.
“All teams that accepted and completed the latest missions issued before the New Year are listed here.”
“These are the teams that accepted the missions but failed to complete them before the holiday.”
“And these are the teams that took no action whatsoever.”
An assistant placed several files on the table, handing them first to the key attendees.
After quickly reviewing the lists, they set aside the names of teams that had completed their assignments and focused on the remaining files.
“This basically matches our earlier conclusions,” one man said.
“Besides the teams that openly supported our operation beforehand, most of the groups that completed their missions on time were either relatively capable but uninvolved in factional struggles, or simply practical teams that always worked steadily without stirring up trouble.”
Another man looked somewhat relieved.
“Even though completing missions alone doesn’t necessarily prove anything, at least it shows they trust the current leadership and are willing to cooperate.”
“As for the ordinary teams who knew nothing about the internal changes… those who honestly finished their work are valuable. They’re important foundations of the base.”
“Mm. Those teams are relatively safe to trust.”
“As for the ones still observing the situation—or openly slacking off…”
The atmosphere inside the room instantly turned colder.
After exchanging glances, one man cleared his throat and raised his voice slightly.
“Ahem. Well, after the New Year it’ll already be February.”
“According to the new regulations, every team will soon begin receiving mandatory missions.”
Several others immediately nodded.
“Exactly. If they have ability and strength, then they should fulfill their obligations to the base.”
Someone else added:
“We should still try to win some of them over. In many teams, decisions are made entirely by the captain and vice-captain. Ordinary members often don’t know what’s really going on…”
The discussions continued.
Regarding how to reorganize the ability-user teams in the future—and how to deal with those who had previously opposed or obstructed them—they hadn’t fully coordinated beforehand, but everyone had already developed a general direction.
The earlier proposal restricting teams and imposing mandatory missions hadn’t originally come from most of the people now sitting here.
But once they themselves occupied those positions, they realized the policy actually benefited the rulers of the base far more than it harmed them.
Naturally, different teams would receive different treatment.
Teams that completed their assigned missions early would face reduced difficulty later.
As for the others…
A new official always started with three fires.
But they didn’t even need to light fires.
All they had to do was issue a test.
Those who failed to keep up—or kept hesitating and observing from the sidelines—would simply suffer the consequences themselves.
After all, nobody had forced them to maintain independent teams and act like little kings.
Wouldn’t it be much more harmonious if everyone just peacefully cooperated to build a better base together?
“Thunk thunk thunk thunk—”
The sound of chopping meat and vegetables echoed once more through the sixteenth floor of Building Seven in Hongjing Residential Complex.
But unlike before, they no longer needed to stay extremely quiet and worry about making noise.
Today was Spring Festival.
Regardless of whether families had abundant food or only scraps left—whether they had meat or vegetables at all—everyone wanted to somehow prepare a steaming hot batch of dumplings.
Luo Xun’s group had only enough flour left for this final meal.
After taking out the frozen mutton from storage, everyone discussed it and unanimously decided:
Today’s dumplings would be mutton and carrot filling.
If meat itself was already a luxury in the base, then mutton-and-carrot dumplings were luxury among luxuries.
Nowadays, just having meat was fortunate enough.
Who could still afford to be picky about what kind?
Happily, everyone chopped the filling together.
The meat and carrots were minced, green onions and ginger added for flavor, and the carrots lightly salted to remove excess moisture before being mixed into the seasoned mutton.
Then the group began chatting and laughing while wrapping dumplings together.
After their teamwork during the Western New Year celebration earlier, everyone had become much more skilled at cooking together.
Once the efficiency of dumpling-making improved, the two women took over rolling wrappers while Luo Xun headed into the kitchen to prepare several stir-fried dishes.
All the ingredients for the hotpot had already been fried in advance.
Duck and mutton replaced the usual meats.
Potatoes, yam, tofu, and other ingredients had all been prepped as well.
Even the hotpot itself was already set up—they only needed to pour in the seasoned broth later that evening and start boiling it.
Now he just needed to prepare two additional stir-fried dishes.
Since they had thawed a generous amount of mutton for the dumplings, there was still a large chunk remaining.
He could make stir-fried scallion lamb with green onions.
And if there was enough left…maybe he could even attempt ta si mi?
Luo Xun scratched his head.
He knew how to make the first dish.
As for the second…
he’d heard of it before, but wasn’t entirely sure about the exact recipe.
He’d ask the others later.
And if nobody knew, he’d just improvise something similar to sweet-and-sour pork.
As for vegetables, they hadn’t sold any before the New Year.
Their household currently had plenty.
Some surplus vegetables had even been hung to dry or pickled.
They could make almost anything without much effort.
After cutting the meat and preparing all the vegetables, Luo Xun returned from the kitchen and discovered the dumplings were nearly finished.
“Brother Luo, what dishes are we having tonight?”
Since it was New Year’s, everyone was treating themselves extravagantly for once.
Top foodie Zhang Su and second-place foodie He Qiankun looked especially excited.
“I’m planning to make stir-fried scallion lamb.”
“Oh right—does anyone know how to make ta si mi?”
As he spoke, Luo Xun walked over to the table and looked at the dumplings.
Fortunately, they all looked fairly normal this time instead of the bizarre mutant shapes from their previous attempt.
He felt deeply gratified by everyone’s learning ability.
“I don’t know.”
“Never made it.”
“What’s that? Can you eat it?”
Well…as expected, almost nobody knew how to cook it.
Luo Xun certainly hadn’t expected anything from Li Tie’s group of five professional eaters.
Fortunately, both Zhang Su and Yan Fei claimed that although they couldn’t cook it, they had at least eaten it in restaurants before.
In the end, after listening to their descriptions, Xu Mei, Luo Xun, and Song Lingling—who were relatively decent cooks—managed to piece together an approximate recipe.
Whether it was authentic or not didn’t matter.
As long as it tasted good, that was enough.
The entire group bustled cheerfully through the apartment, rushing back and forth preparing the lavish dinner.
After all—including Luo Xun and Yan Fei, everyone had only eaten a simple makeshift lunch earlier that day.
A truly makeshift lunch.
Just enough to fill their stomachs.
All their enthusiasm and anticipation had been saved for preparing tonight’s feast.
Little Xinran also sat nearby while everyone wrapped dumplings. Like she was playing with modeling clay, she pinched together several bizarrely shaped dumplings and proudly declared that once they were cooked, she would eat them herself—and give some to Little Guy too…
At this point, Luo Xun silently lit a metaphorical candle for the poor dog.
Now, while all the adults were busy, the little girl carried a small basket filled with freshly picked bright red strawberries into the kitchen to wash them, insisting they should also eat those during dinner.
Well, after eating so much meat, some fruit to cut through the greasiness wasn’t a bad idea.
Before long, darkness fell outside once again.
The music from the radio became even more cheerful, noisily broadcasting pre-recorded songs, dances, comedy sketches, and cross-talk programs.
The hotpot they had prepared earlier was finally carried to the table. Luo Xun poured in the broth they had simmered during the day and turned on the induction cooker.
The small dishes Luo Xun and the others had worked on were also finished one by one and brought to the table.
Soon after, another pot finished cooking as well—mutton-and-carrot dumplings.
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