Chapter 199: Uninvited Guests

"Didn't bring gasoline down, I'll go get some."

Wang Xin took a look. There was no fire starter, and he felt it might not be easy to light, so he rode his electric scooter back to the camp to get fuel.

Wu Lue felt a bit bored waiting, walked to the pile of corpses, took out a lighter, *cha-cha-cha*, lit it, and then lit the corner of a corpse's clothes.

Lighting clothes wasn't difficult; the real difficulty was burning the zombie corpse itself. However, when the flame of the clothes touched the zombie's skin, it wasn't as difficult to light as imagined, as if the zombie's skin itself was flammable, and it naturally started burning along the skin!

"Oh, oh, hey!"

Wu Lue didn't react at first. When several corpses in front of him started burning one after another, a wave of heat hit his face, and he hurriedly retreated.

"Little Wu, what did you do?"

Yu Wen watched the prairie fire spread rapidly from one corner of the pile of corpses and asked in surprise.

Just like this, Wang Xin hadn't even reached the foot of the mountain on his electric scooter when he noticed that the pile of corpses had already caught fire, smacked his lips, and turned back.

Not to mention Scarface didn't believe it, Yu Wen's inner words were that if he didn't know these were burning zombies, he wouldn't believe it either...

The man speaking was wearing a black down jacket, looking thick and sturdy, with a scar on his chin, which should have been left by a burn, very conspicuous.

Everyone looked at each other in dismay, wondering if zombies had flammable characteristics?

Fortunately, everyone was located upwind, the heat and smoke were blown away by the wind, and as for whether there was a strange smell, it was also blown away together.

"No, you might be stuck somewhere and naturally rot, haha."

"Are you the one in charge of the village?"

The total of six people wasn't important; what was important was that the four people standing up in the truck bed were actually holding guns!

There were submachine guns and automatic rifles. Yu Wen didn't recognize the models of these guns, but from the style, it could be seen that they weren't the homemade goods made by villagers; they were definitely products of high industrialization!

Over an hour passed, and Yu Wen looked at the plan he had written down, feeling very satisfied. However, at this moment, he heard the sound of people talking in his ears.

Yu Wen had a professional smile on his face, as if in front of him was a group of middle school students waiting to receive the baptism of knowledge.

"Ah, haha, good afternoon, everyone. Some zombie corpses in the village, I'm dealing with them."

Wu Lue didn't have time to answer Yu Wen's question. Following the crowd, he retreated more than twenty meters away from the raging fire pile and was dumbfounded: "I... I just lit the zombie's clothes, and it caught fire, it was especially easy to burn..."

The sudden sound behind him startled Yu Wen instinctively. He wanted to take his gun to be on guard, only to realize that he wasn't carrying his rifle because he was working, and there was only a steel bar uniformly made by the camp beside him!

Slowly picking up the steel bar as a cane, he steadied his mind, stood up, and turned his head. Yu Wen saw a pickup truck parked on the road. Four men were sitting in the truck bed, and there was a woman in the passenger seat. The man talking to him should be the driver, because the driver's seat was empty.

"Zombie corpses? You're talking shit. Such a big pile, how many corpses must that be?"

"Get out... let's go, let's go back!"

"It's too miserable. If I become a zombie, will my final destination also be like this?"

When unable to distinguish between true and false, treat them as the real thing.

Many people who couldn't bear to look returned to the camp early to work, leaving only Yu Wen sitting by the dirt road, writing and drawing with paper and pen, paying attention to the spread of the fire while designing the renovation plan for the pigsty.

"Hey, old man, what are you burning?"

Yu Wen looked back, his expression stiffened, because at this time, the fire pile couldn't see the appearance of zombies at all. After more than an hour of burning, the pile of corpses had turned into a pitch-black mess!

Scarface walked up two steps, lit a cigarette, stood on the side of the road, looking down at Yu Wen with great arrogance.

Scarface saw Yu Wen didn't speak and said impatiently: "Forget about that! You're dressed quite neatly, you must have a safe camp, right? Which village is it?"

Yu Wen looked at Scarface politely and said: "I'm not a local. I fled here with my companions. I don't know what village the place I live in is. Where are you guys from, and where are you going?"

The tongues of fire shot up to ten meters high, and the *zi-la-zi-la* sound was endless. The burning pile of corpses looked exactly like a scene in a magma hell.

"Yo, that depends on what aspect the gentleman is talking about. This old man has a few humble opinions, and I do indeed manage a part of the internal affairs."

Yu Wen spoke slowly, his mind spinning rapidly, thinking about how to answer these people's questions.

"Damn, don't be so long-winded. I'm asking you, how many people are in your safe camp?"

Scarface exhaled a puff of smoke and asked.

Yu Wen made a thoughtful look, counted on his fingers, and said: "Eighteen people, counting the children, eighteen people."

This number was the result of his thinking. Too few or too many would seem fake. Finally, he decided to subtract Zhang Su's group who were out, giving the real number of people currently in Tianmayu. In case the other party insisted on going up the mountain to take a look, it wouldn't be exposed.

"Old man, you aren't lying to me, are you?"

Scarface glared at Yu Wen with murderous intent in his eyes.

Yu Wen spread his hands with incomparable frankness and pointed casually: "If the gentleman doesn't believe it, just go with me and you'll know. I don't understand why there's a need to lie about this kind of thing."

"We'll recognize the road later. Now let's talk about the matter with you. We are from the Qinglong Corps in the north. We are now levying protection fees on your survivor camp. Per head, fifty units of grain per month. This is the grain category list!"

*Rustle*, Scarface pulled a fairly flat A4 paper from his pocket and handed it to Yu Wen.

Yu Wen didn't express any opinion for the first time, looking at the list with a calm face.

Flour: one catty is one unit

Pork: one catty is two units

Corn: two catties is one unit

Potatoes: one and a half catties is one unit

Sweet potatoes: same as potatoes

Vegetables: two catties is one unit

Beef: eight taels is one unit

Peanuts...

Fruit...

And so on, listing more than a dozen types of food, with clear categories and logical order. There were supplementary regulations behind, which were some special items such as medicine, but the general value was very low.

"Since these materials are nominally protection fees, may I ask what protection you provide?"

Yu Wen folded the list neatly and put it in his pocket, appearing very serious, but the question he asked was neither humble nor arrogant.

Scarface saw Yu Wen's actions and wanted to lose his temper, but suppressed his anger and said: "Do you have a radio transmitter? Our headquarters will receive broadcasts from all frequency bands. If not, we will provide one for you the first time you hand over food. If there is a zombie attack, just broadcast, and our Qinglong Corps will rush to exterminate the zombies!"

Yu Wen nodded with an admiring look and tentatively asked: "Then may I ask, gentleman, what is the scale of your Qinglong Corps, and what is your strength? What level of zombie horde attack can you handle?"

"You talk too much, old man. Why ask so much? Our Qinglong Corps has thousands of brothers and sisters. Just the combat personnel are several hundred, all fully armed, with excellent weapons and equipment. A horde of ten thousand zombies is no problem. Let's say it in advance: we don't care about zombie attacks of less than three hundred. If you can't hold on, then go die!"

Scarface kicked the stones on the road impatiently.

Thousands of brothers and sisters...

Yu Wen's heart skipped a beat. He could be sure the other party was bragging, but it was hard to say how much of the brag was true, because even if it was halved and halved again, there were still two or three hundred people, which was a quite huge survivor force!

Taking a step back, even if it was only one-tenth, that was still one hundred people. If they were all armed militants, the threat would be equally huge!

"Gentleman, don't be angry. I'm just trying to understand the situation clearly, so as not to disturb you for no reason."

Yu Wen's mind was full of thoughts, but on the surface, he was still light and breezy.

Scarface was impatient to grind with the old man and said: "Let's go, take me to your camp to take a look. I'll give you one week to prepare the grain. One day of delay means fifty more units. Five days of delay means using human lives to pay the debt!"

Yu Wen showed a look of horror on his face and said: "Oh my, this gentleman, according to the standard you set, we can't come up with nine hundred units of grain in a month. There are only ten laborers."

Seeing Scarface's gloomy face, Yu Wen hurriedly added: "Gentleman, to avoid being a 'post-mortem' when the day to hand over grain comes and we can't come up with it, I'm stating the difficulties in advance, because I know the specific situation of the camp. Winter is coming, we are really struggling."

"And you don't want us to really not be able to survive, right? If everyone dies, who will pay the protection fee? As long as people are alive, they can pay at least some, don't you think so, gentleman?"

Scarface didn't know Yu Wen's profession and knowledge, but he was persuaded by the other party's words...

That's right, the purpose of the Qinglong Corps was to levy grain, not to kill. If everyone died, wouldn't they have to do it themselves in the end?

"Can't tell that the old man has some brains. No need to say, you must be the one in charge of the camp. Fine, since we've talked to this point, I'll give you a discount for the first time: eight hundred units. Don't haggle anymore. Even with sixteen laborers, eight hundred units of grain isn't difficult. In the apocalypse, you have to work hard to survive, otherwise, you don't even have the qualification to live!"

Scarface directly blocked Yu Wen's intention to continue pressing the price.

Yu Wen had a heartbroken look and said: "Fine, eight hundred units it is. Then, gentlemen, follow me for a trip, just walk that way."

Unexpectedly, Scarface frowned as he watched Yu Wen point toward Tianmayu.

"Old man, you agreed quite readily. Are you trying to fool me?"

Before this, they had found two survivor gathering places after leaving Qingxian and negotiated the same problem, but it was very unpleasant, and the other party tried every means to block them from entering the gathering place. The old man in front of him was unusually enthusiastic, which made him feel something was wrong!

Yu Wen smiled frankly: "Why not agree? This is a very good trade."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 200 =====