Chapter 310: Good people, bad people

Zhang Su looked at the villagers around him. There was no need for verbal communication; their eyes alone said everything.

"Brother Zhang, we are willing to join Tianma Islet, but there is something I want to discuss with you beforehand."

"Go ahead, speak your mind."

Zhang Su raised his hand to signal. He never rejected rational discussion, but he detested unreasonable, shrewish behavior.

Yang Liehuo said, "I see you have many female members in your team. Before you arrived, the sisters in our village were just talking to me about wanting to join the combat team, to pick up blades and guns to kill zombies. What do you think about that?"

Zhang Su focused his gaze on the faces of the women Yang Liehuo pointed to. They were simple farm women; the tear tracks on their cheeks had dried, but their eyes were still red, and their hair was disheveled from the winter wind.

Three months of life in the apocalypse had added weariness and wrinkles to everyone's faces. Judging by their builds, they were the type who usually worked hard, not the scrawny kind.

"Not bad! Even if you hadn't brought this up, I would have!"

Zhang Su turned to face the crowd and said, "Before you, Tianma Islet took in people from Lianhe Village in Niuquan Town. At that time, Lianhe Village was attacked by a zombie horde, suffering heavy casualties. Among the dozen or so survivors, only three or four had decent combat capability. They..."

As he spoke, he pointed toward Xidaying Village: "All the able-bodied men of Xidaying Village were dragged off by the Green Dragon Legion to resist the zombie horde and have all perished. The surviving villagers are also a group with weaker combat capability. Your situation in Kuanzhuang is similar."

"I won't hide it from you: we at Tianma Islet believe in a nation in arms. Everyone at Tianma Islet has rich experience in slaying zombies. But if we are forced to protect more and more people who lack the ability to resist zombies, our pressure will be immense!"

Whether it was the people from Xidaying Village or the crowd from Kuanzhuang, they all nodded, fully agreeing with this point of view. How easy is it for five world champions to team up and play? Carrying three or four people—it would be a miracle if they didn't get exhausted!

Seeing that no one spoke, Zhang Su continued, "In the future, besides the elite team I lead, we will form a reserve team. When the time comes, we will select suitable candidates from among you to join it. Be prepared. Facing the cruelty of the apocalypse, I will not care about your gender. Do you understand?"

In the past, Zhang Su's words would have been met with a uniform "We understand," but now, the crowd had been subtly influenced and knew not to shout loudly, so they all nodded in tacit agreement and whispered that they understood.

Among the women in the Kuanzhuang crowd, some clenched their fists. What erupted in their eyes was not the light of hatred, but a resolute spirit. They had long wanted to participate in training and become warriors capable of self-preservation, but unfortunately, Lei Youliang looked down on them, thinking women were only fit to carry his shoes!

Zhang Su was completely different; he treated them equally and gave them a chance. This made them feel respected. Some were afraid to speak, feeling it was inappropriate, but in their hearts, they had already quickly accepted this new leader.

Just as Zhang Su said, there was no enmity between the two sides; they could have become people of the same camp. Because of Lei Youliang's personal ambition, he almost dragged everyone in Kuanzhuang to their deaths with him. In the eyes of others, everything Lei Youliang had done was just paving the way for him to hold onto power tightly!

The situation in Xidaying Village was different from Kuanzhuang; the village women didn't have such deep realizations, but they felt that if they could fight, that seemed pretty good too.

"I know some of you had close relationships with those who died and might harbor hatred toward me. I will say it again: the culprit who caused this was not me, but Lei Youliang. I wanted to merge Kuanzhuang from the very beginning, so... if you don't want to join Tianma Islet, step out now. I'll give you supplies and weapons, and the world is vast—go wherever you want!"

"Do not seek revenge, or you will end up just like that guy dragged over there!"

Zhang Su pointed toward the direction where Xin Qi and the other two were disposing of the bodies, looking at everyone from Kuanzhuang. This was the last thing to do before the takeover: weeding out the stubborn ones.

If this had been right after telling them that the firefight had wiped out all of Kuanzhuang's combat personnel, at least four or five people would have jumped out to express their defiance. But after some time of calm reflection and combining it with the actual situation, they accepted Zhang Su's words: the one who caused the current situation was Lei Youliang!

"Big Brother Zhang, we... we are willing to join Tianma Islet!"

A woman looked left and right, and after confirming the look in her sisters' eyes, she stepped forward to report to Zhang Su.

"Yes, we are willing."

"My man following Lei Youliang was his fate; I want to control my own destiny!"

"That's right, sisters, from now on we follow Big Brother Zhang!"

A group of women clenched their fists and raised their arms, their expressions resolute.

"Good! I welcome you all. I can see that you are all heroines! Only letting you handle trivial matters would definitely be Kuanzhuang's greatest loss!"

Zhang Su did not hesitate to flatter the women of Kuanzhuang.

No one dislikes hearing compliments, especially praise from someone stronger than themselves. In an instant, the final layer of estrangement melted away.

The atmosphere at the scene gradually eased. Zhang Su did not intend to stay too long, so he said, "Is there anything else? If not, you can go back and pack your things. Tomorrow, everyone moves to Tianma Islet!"

Looking at the Kuanzhuang crowd, if it weren't for Lei Youliang's crazy actions, they could have gained a dozen more combat members. Truly, the world is unpredictable.

"Well, we have quite a bit of grain and weapons here. We might need Brother Zhang to send some manpower to help..."

Yang Liehuo stood with one hand on his hip, looking at the village illuminated by the car lights, feeling a lot of reluctance in his heart.

Zhang Su nodded and said, "That's easy to handle. I'll send vehicles over tomorrow morning. Just be prepared! By the way... does your village have diesel?"

"Diesel?" Yang Liehuo thought for a moment and asked, "What grade do you need?"

"Damn, there's a choice? What grades do you have?" Zhang Su didn't expect Kuanzhuang's reserves to be so rich. The little diesel he found along the way had all been added to that excavator...

"Just two types: minus ten degrees and minus twenty degrees. Both are light diesel."

Yang Liehuo answered efficiently.

"How much?"

"Not much. About eighty liters of the minus ten degree, and a bit more of the minus twenty degree, just over a hundred liters."

Yang Liehuo happened to be in charge of these supplies and was very clear about it.

"Let's go, let's go, bring it all over. I want it now. I can trade double the grain for it!"

"We don't want grain..." Yang Liehuo waved his hand somewhat dryly. While leading people toward the place where the diesel was stored, he leaned into Zhang Su's ear and muttered.

In the end, he used the condition that all the women who wanted to join the combat team be accepted as the price, and gave all the diesel to Zhang Su.

"Brother Zhang, even though Lei Youliang had a thousand faults, our village is still very hurt. I hope that after you go back, you can treat Xiao Ya well. Her older sister also went with Lei Youliang; that was her only relative left in this world..."

While taking the diesel, Yang Liehuo said softly to Zhang Su. He didn't know the relationship between Su Lei and Zhang Su, nor did he know Lei Youliang's purpose in taking Su Lei.

Zhang Su's body stiffened. He didn't speak, just nodded, then patted Yang Liehuo on the shoulder.

When the convoy left Kuanzhuang, there was one more vehicle, because the original cars were already completely full and couldn't fit the two hundred-plus liters of diesel, so they had to drive one away from Kuanzhuang. Anyway, they had to come back tomorrow to help move things!

In the blink of an eye, the Kuanzhuang village basketball court, which had been bright as day a moment ago, plunged back into darkness. Only a few small lights illuminated the crowd, along with the bloodstains mixed with dust on the ground...

"Uncle Huo, do you think Big Brother Zhang is a good person or a bad person?"

After a moment of silence, someone suddenly asked.

Yang Liehuo took back his firearm and watched the convoy moving further and further away, saying heavily, "In this world, where can you still simply judge a person as good or bad? Lei Youliang did a lot of good things for the village, but in the end, he almost dragged us all to our deaths. Zhang Su killed so many people from our village, yet he is willing to provide us with a place to stay. Who is the good person, who is the bad person?"

"Can you explain it clearly?" Yang Liehuo looked at the crowd.

The crowd remained silent; complex situations really couldn't be generalized.

"My man was killed by Zhang Su. I don't hate him, but I hate that this revenge cannot be taken!"

A woman said through gritted teeth.

Speaking of revenge, the crowd sighed again. If one really traced it back, the dispute was caused by Lei Youliang, including the initial plan to send a spy to Tianma Islet—it was all his scheme. The one who caused so many things was him!

But he was already dead...

"Forget it." Yang Liehuo shook his head and waved his hand, "Let the past be the past. Let go of the ties and move forward! Let's go, go pack your things, moving house tomorrow!"

The trauma suffered by Kuanzhuang needed time to be slowly smoothed over.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 311 =====