Chapter 181: The Unlucky United Village (Thanks to that brother Fan Jianqiang for the tip)

"Then do you know the specific situation at Beita Camp? How many people, how many guns? Also, where is their village, and how do you get there from Niuquanzi Town?"

Zhang Su asked in detail.

From the moment those two half-grown boys appeared in Niuquanzi Town, he had felt something was unusual, and the matter was indeed as his intuition suggested.

Upon hearing Zhang Su's words, Wang Xingui was overjoyed, guessing that the other party might be about to take action to make trouble for Beita Camp. This was great news for their United Village, so he hurriedly said.

"There aren't many people in Beita Camp, probably fewer than twenty able-bodied men. However, there's a guy among them with high technical skills who built a batch of decent-quality firelocks, and they also have detonators—quite formidable! If you head southwest from Niuquanzi Town, you can find Beita Camp in just two kilometers."

Zhang Su noted this information. Since they could make detonators, they must have gunpowder and the like. Once he got his hands on it and handed it to Yu Qing, there should be some room for development!

After inquiring clearly about Beita Camp, he continued: "We collected some supplies from Niuquanzi Town today. Do you have any pork here? Let's trade."

As he spoke, Zhang Su opened the trunk of the car, which was piled with daily necessities, from toiletries to textiles.

"Brother, you... haha, is this okay?"

Wang Xingui had been prepared to be extorted, but he didn't expect Zhang Su to propose trading supplies with him, which surprised him greatly.

"I bring out what you need, and you bring out what I need. Civilized exchange, isn't that good?"

Zhang Su knew what Wang Xingui was thinking. In the eyes of most people today, the world had become a place where the weak were prey to the strong, but he hoped to build a positive development circle around himself.

To achieve this, mutually trusting exchange was the foundation.

When both sides could profit, cooperation could continue, but there was a prerequisite: the rules were set by the strong.

"Yes, yes, you're right, Brother!"

Wang Xingui gladly accepted the rules set by Zhang Su. In the end, he traded half a pig and some crop seeds for soap, toothpaste, plastic basins, and toilet paper.

Both sides felt it was a very worthwhile deal. A perfect transaction.

"Brother, where are you camping?"

Just as Zhang Su was about to leave, Wang Xingui asked tentatively.

Zhang Su casually gestured to the north and said, "We cleared out a village to the north. By the way, Little Wang, do you know where there is coal nearby?"

"Coal? There's some in Niuquanzi Town. Didn't you find it? It might have been hauled away by Beita Camp. We used to get coal from there. Are you in a hurry? If you are, we have some reserves in the village, we can... hehe, trade some to you."

Wang Xingui had tasted the sweetness of peaceful trade; even if he took a slight loss on the price, it was better than having supplies sitting idle.

"Next time. That's it for today. I'm leaving. I'll come back to trade with you next time!"

Zhang Su patted the car door and stepped on the gas to start the car. Since there was coal in Niuquanzi Town, there was no need to trade.

They had spent a total of over half an hour in United Village. Walking on the road, Zhang Su looked left and right but didn't see the two brats.

"If I'm not mistaken, the three guys who ambushed us yesterday were from Beita Camp. Those two brats following us today wanted to figure out which faction we belong to and where we live."

Zhang Su looked into the distance with deep eyes and said lightly.

"Huh?" Qi Xiaoshuai laughed: "Brother Su, if you put it that way, doesn't that mean those people really mistook us for people from United Village?"

Zhang Su nodded: "That's right, that's what I intended from the start. Just testing them out!"

The group returned to Tianmayu. When everyone saw the half-pig, they were overjoyed. They hadn't eaten their fill of meat for a long time.

That evening, a large pot of a classic northern dish, pork stewed with vermicelli, was served on the table, and the fragrance almost filled the entire homestay area.

The people of Tianmayu felt like it was New Year's, and everyone ate until they were stuffed.

"Hey, look at this. There are two excavators in Niuquanzi Town, damaged like this. Who has the ability to fix them?"

After dinner, everyone was lounging in the restaurant of the Little Lucky Homestay. Zhang Su took out the photos he had taken with his phone and passed them around for everyone to see.

"Brother Su, this excavator is basically scrapped..." Jia Shiqin zoomed in on the photos one by one to look closely, finally giving his conclusion: "If it were before, we could try to fix it, but now that we're missing this and that, I don't think there's any hope."

Tan Huajun also nodded and said: "If we had an excavator in the camp, we might be able to study it slowly and maybe fix it one day. But Brother Su, you said this thing is in Niuquanzi Town, where there's no stable maintenance environment. It's very difficult..."

Jia Shiqin added: "Brother Su, if you ask me, fixing this is not as easy as going back to a construction site in Qin City and just driving one back."

"That's right!"

A word awakened the dreamer. Zhang Su slapped his thigh. Excavators might seem rare, but that was mainly because they hadn't looked in the right place. Construction sites that were operating—couldn't they just take one if they wanted? Zheng Xinyu said: "The city is so dangerous. We finally managed to get out. Brother Su, why do you want an excavator? Our progress here is steady and not slow. Besides, it seems there's no work that requires an excavator."

"Heh..." Zhao Dezhu laughed: "Big brother wants to dig a trench in the field below to connect the foot of the mountain to the road, so the zombies will jump in themselves."

Those who didn't know Zhang Su's thoughts looked at him with strange eyes. This project wasn't as simple as building a wall for the homestay area; without modern large-scale machinery, it would be truly unbearable.

Zhang Su nodded: "That's right. If the zombies fall into the trench and can't get out, we can burn them with a fire, which will save us a lot of trouble. And the trench can be reused. Once built, it's a permanent solution."

"I advise you to be cautious, Brother Su. The risk of going to the city to get an excavator is too great..."

Zhong Xiaoshan also held an opposing view. Publicly and privately, she certainly didn't want Zhang Su to return to the city to take risks.

"That's right, Brother Su, let's slow down on this matter. Let's build the defensive fortifications on the mountain first. Maybe there's an excavator nearby. Let's look around the surrounding area next time."

"Mr. Zhang, don't go to the city easily. It's a dragon's den and a tiger's lair."

Everyone tried to dissuade him. It wasn't that they thought the trench was a bad idea, but they felt going back to the city to find an excavator was too risky. Besides, it was over twenty kilometers from the city, and an excavator made a lot of noise; who knew what accidents might happen! "Alright, we won't go to the city."

Zhang Su listened to everyone's opinions and planned to scout the surrounding area first. Besides, the two excavators in Niuquanzi Town might not be unfixable. He planned to take Jia Shiqin and Tan Huajun to see them next time. What if they got lucky and fixed them?

The days of fleeing everywhere felt like years, but once things stabilized, time passed very quickly.

Days and months alternated, and time flew. A week had passed in the blink of an eye since they traded for pork at United Village.

During this week, two groups of survivors passed by on the road, but after the signpost was removed, anyone not familiar with the area wouldn't know that there was a developed scenic spot and a large homestay area hidden in the mountains.

During the week, everyone worked very hard, pushing forward the construction of the defensive fortifications in an orderly manner. Although it hadn't been completed in a week, it had already taken shape. If nothing went wrong, it would be finished in another ten days or so, and the rest would be various reinforcements.

During this period, Zhang Su continued to go to Niuquanzi Town every day to haul supplies, and also took Jia Shiqin and Tan Huajun to see the two excavators. Things weren't as simple as he had imagined; the two of them were helpless against those iron lumps with ordinary tools.

Every time he went to Niuquanzi Town, Zhang Su was very careful, guarding against people from Beita Camp at all times. However, since being followed by the brats that day, he hadn't encountered any local survivors.

It took over ten days in total. As they became more proficient, the main street of Niuquanzi Town was basically swept clean, and they had also successfully hauled back several tons of coal to Tianmayu, preparing reserves for winter heating.

Daily training never stopped, and everyone was living actively in the apocalypse with a high-spirited attitude. Their mental outlook was far from what it was when they first arrived at Tianmayu.

The youngest, Mo Qianlan, picked up a rifle and practiced with Tan Huajun in a proper manner. The bullets fired from the rifle in her hands were just as lethal as anyone else's. At the same time, she learned dagger stabbing movements from Zhang Su, which were clean and neat.

Zhang Su had specifically talked to Mo Qianlan. Her thoughts were very simple: she couldn't be a fledgling bird protected by others anymore; she wanted to become a warrior like her mother!

It was precisely because of the little girl's hard work and progress that it stimulated some of the lazy guys, such as Wu Lue, Lu Leiyang, and Liu Tianji, who also had to bring out twelve points of focus to train, fearing that if they faced a zombie horde, they wouldn't even be able to kill as well as the little girl, and they would have no face left to show.

Compared to the peaceful and thriving Tianmayu, United Village had not been very peaceful these past few days.

On the third day after Zhang Su traded for the pig, Wang Xingui led people to nearby villages to scavenge for supplies and was ambushed by Beita Camp. The two sides engaged in a fierce battle until the *thump-thump* of firelocks attracted a siege of zombies, which ended the fight.

As a result, two people from Beita Camp were injured, while United Village, in addition to two people injured, also had one person bitten by a zombie.

During this confrontation, the people of Beita Camp discovered a problem: the guys from United Village were still the same as before, with no standard rifles, let alone grenades, and the cars they drove were still vans and pickups—they hadn't seen a large RV!

This discovery made the people of Beita Camp suspicious, and they began to doubt the investigation results of Gawa and Xiaohu.

Until four days later...

"Brother Su, this zombie is wilting!"

This morning, Zhang Su once again came to the ticket hall where the zombies were detained with several others. Wu Lue used a wooden stick to tease the zombie in the darkness. It could only make a faint *awoo* sound, but it didn't even have the strength to lift its head.

But even so, its lower jaw was still powerful, and its teeth collided to make a crisp sound. No one doubted the power of its teeth, but it had basically lost the ability to pounce and kill, unless blood food was fed to its mouth...

On the other hand, the zombie tied to the tree was in much better condition. Although its spirit was slightly lower than a few days ago, it could still launch an effective attack when someone approached, and the hemp rope tied to its body creaked.

"It seems it should be related to sunlight?"

Liu Tianji stared curiously at the wilting zombie. It was his first time seeing a zombie in this state.

Zhang Su opened the door of the ticket hall and said, "We'll know if we try."

After a while, the group busied themselves, dragging the dying zombie out of the ticket hall and tying it next to the other zombie. They observed for a while. Perhaps the time was too short, there was no obvious change; it was still half-dead.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 182 =====