Chapter 129

The sky was overcast with clouds. Without the sun as a reference, the passage of time seemed a bit blurry.

Zhang Su and his group spent more than an hour finally clearing one street. There were forty households on both sides of the road, though some clearly had new houses built but no one living in them, presumably having gone to the city for work. There were more than ten such streets in Shuiwa Village.

"Use something to block this intersection. We won't go to the rest of the places. Our vehicle's carrying capacity is limited; we can't even fit the stored food from the thirty or forty households on this street alone. Don't be greedy!"

While speaking, two zombies wandered over from other streets, and several team members solved them easily.

Zhang Su had another consideration for making this decision: zombies wandering in the village not only hindered them but also hindered latecomers. They could serve as a kind of alternative guard; in case later people were afraid of danger and didn't clear the zombies, the food stored in other parts of the village could still be preserved.

Although the food would eventually spoil, he wouldn't dare say for how long, but a year or so shouldn't be a problem.

The group had no objections to Zhang Su's decision and started working one after another, dismantling the previous roadblock and using the zombie corpses as sandbags, piling them together to set up a new roadblock.

After everything was done, it was the most anticipated harvest time!

"Uncle, this house, this house has an old well!"

Pang Dakun stood happily at the entrance of a house and waved.

The group walked over and saw, just as Pang Dakun said, an old hand-cranked well.

They poured water in and pushed and pulled the rocker hard. A gurgling sound came from the bottom of the well, making everyone feel excited. Immediately after, clear groundwater sprayed out from the faucet, splashing onto the ground with a splash.

"Water, water!"

"Hahaha!"

The moment the group saw the flowing water, they were overjoyed. The longing for the source of life was carved into their bones.

"Big brother, come, have a cup; it's more satisfying than wine! Eh? What's wrong? Is there a problem with this water?"

Zhao De didn't know where he found an enamel mug. He filled it with water and handed it to Zhang Su, only to find that the other party was frowning at the faucet that was gushing water.

"It's not that..." Zhang Su saw that everyone was very nervous after hearing Zhao De's words, so he quickly waved his hand and said: "I'm thinking about how to get this water into the water tank."

"Just connect a pipe; that's simple." Zhao De felt relieved once he heard it was just that.

"It's not about the pipe... The water tanks of the two vehicles can hold several tons of water. Dakun, is there a more advanced well?"

Zhang Su was worried about efficiency. With the current well, it wasn't impossible to fill the water tanks of both vehicles, but it would be a bit labor-intensive.

"Huff, huff..." Pang Dakun stopped turning the rocker, stood up straight, and pointed to the west: "Uncle, go three houses to the west; that's my fourth uncle's house. His well has a water pump, but there's no electricity to start it."

"Electricity? That's no problem!"

Upon hearing this, Zhang Su immediately took people to the fourth uncle's house, while ordering others to drive the vehicles over.

If it can be solved with electricity, don't use manpower...

The two RVs parked outside Pang Dakun's fourth uncle's courtyard. A thick water pipe connected to the water tank, and Tan Huajun connected the generator to the water pump. It started successfully, and in less than twenty minutes, all the water tanks of the two RVs were completely filled.

The moment the showerhead sprayed hot water, almost everyone couldn't help but cheer, causing the zombies on the next street to become restless.

"Alright, if it doesn't fit, don't force it in; it'll be more troublesome if the vehicle breaks!"

During the water-filling process, the others weren't idle; they were moving food from the villagers' houses one after another. Zhang Su silently calculated the load. Seeing that there were still more than ten households left to go, but the vehicle had already reached its limit, he felt a bit helpless, but there was nothing he could do.

There were two cars parked in the village, but they couldn't find the keys, so they violently broke the fuel tank caps and siphoned off the oil.

The main harvest in terms of food was flour, peanuts, potatoes, and sweet potatoes, as well as a small amount of cabbage, pickled vegetables, and meat.

Originally, Zhong Xiao and Yu Qing planned to calculate the team's current total food reserves, but Zhang Su felt it was too early. It wouldn't be too late to calculate after finding a stable place to settle down.

"Eat. After lunch, let's have a shooting competition, how about that?"

After everything was finished, Zhang Su was in a very good mood. Seeing the open fields nearby, he felt it was time for everyone to touch a gun.

Including himself, no one had used a gun. This was a shortcoming. Even though there weren't enough firearms for everyone to have one now, they needed to be familiar with them because the guards would be equipped with firearms. Don't wait until the critical moment to drop the ball; that would be too terrible.

"Good, good, good! I've been wanting to shoot a few rounds for a long time!"

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's start now; I'm not hungry!"

"Big brother, how many bullets can each of us play with?"

The men's enthusiasm was high, and even the women were very active. Firearms were different from cold weapons; bullets fired from a woman's hand were just as lethal!

"Guns? Uncle, you guys still have guns? Then why didn't you take them out earlier? How fast would it be to kill zombies with guns!" Pang Dakun asked, puzzled.

Zhang Su gave Pang Dakun a "heh" expression and said: "We just found the guns and haven't used them yet. Our marksmanship is total crap, and there are only a few hundred bullets. Using them to kill zombies is a waste. The role of that thing isn't as simple as you think. Go, go, go, eat first!"

However, just as everyone was busy preparing to eat, Pei Lan, who was standing guard on the fertilizer shop, shouted: "Brother Su, there are people over there! There are people coming from the field!"

Hearing this, everyone turned their heads to look in the direction Pei Lan pointed.

The distance wasn't close, but they could vaguely see a group of people approaching.

"Little Pang, is there another village over there?"

Zhang Su was very surprised. According to his previous observations, there were only fields and greenhouses over there, and then the river. How could a group of people suddenly pop up?

Pang Dakun's face darkened: "There's no village. That group of guys are people from our village; they must have sneaked back from Beiliang Village on the other side!"

"The other side? Wasn't that bridge blown up? How did they get over?"

Tan Huajun asked.

"Auntie Pang, you don't know. The water level in the river is low now, and there's a section of the riverbed where a lot of large stones were thrown. If you're careful and avoid the zombies, you can walk over!"

Everyone suddenly realized. So it was just that cars couldn't pass; it was no problem for people to cross the river. As for those zombies that fell down, there must have been a way to deal with them.

"This group of guys is coming with bad intentions. Don't let your guard down. Eat quickly, fast!"

Zhang Su ordered, took a bite of the bread in his hand, and then asked Pang Dakun: "Little Pang, if there's a dispute, will you help them?"

"Huh?" Pang Dakun laughed a little and said viciously: "Uncle, if it weren't for you persuading me, I'd love to beat them to death. How could I possibly help them!"

"Alright, leave it to us to handle in a bit. Don't make a sound!" Zhang Su patted Pang Dakun's arm.

Watching a group of people walk over from the fields, even a fool could tell something was wrong from their aggressive appearance.

Zhang Su didn't say much. He stuffed the unfinished bread into his pocket, took the crossbow from his shoulder, raised it, and *whoosh*—shot an arrow toward the edge of the field.

*Pfft! *

The crossbow bolt, to the astonishment of the approaching people, stuck into the ridge of the field, with only a small portion exposed, emitting a slight vibration.

The group of people led by a tall, sturdy man stopped in their tracks, not daring to move forward easily.

"Datie, they have a crossbow!"

A middle-aged man said in astonishment, hurriedly holding a shovel across his chest, fearing that the other side would take a shot at him.

"Who are you people? If you have something to say, stand there and say it. It's not polite to get any closer!"

Zhang Su saw that the newcomers had all stopped, and said loudly. The two sides were about fifty or sixty meters apart, and it wasn't difficult to talk in the quiet environment.

"We are villagers of Shuiwa Village. Just now I saw you moving a lot of the village's food. A bunch of bandits, stealing and looting in our village, and not letting us get close—are you crazy?"

Immediately, someone felt dissatisfied with Zhang Su's words. The crossbow was scary, but there was only one, and reloading was very slow, so its deterrent power was limited.

"Real villagers would defend the village, clear the zombies, and purify the environment, just like what we're doing. Where did you come from? How could you be villagers of Shuiwa Village? Get out of here!"

How could Zhang Su fall for their act? He directly turned the tables.

The burly man in the lead sneered, holding a pickaxe in his hand, and said: "You're bullshit Shuiwa Village villagers. Don't talk nonsense. If you dare to take away a single potato today, I'll make sure none of you leave!"

"We are authentic Shuiwa Village villagers. Not only do we work for the village, but I'm also his relative. I'm his uncle." Zhang Su pointed to Pang Dakun behind him and grinned.

"That's right, I'm his brother!" Lu Yubo joined the fun, putting his arm around Pang Dakun's shoulder and smiling very insidiously.

Zhao De patted his chest: "I'm also Pang Dakun's uncle, his second uncle. What's the matter? You guys aren't convinced?"

Following that, everyone reported their family connections, all of them were Pang Dakun's relatives...

(End of chapter)