Apocalypse: the Most Ruthless Person

“Alright, let’s do it this way. Everyone, hurry up and get some rest.”

As dawn broke, after the discussions were finalized, Lei Youliang dismissed the group and dragged his somewhat tired body back to his residence.

“Phew, it’s really cold…”

“Lei Youliang, when can we bring Xiaoya back?”

Just as he pushed open the door, a woman’s clear, cold voice sounded. In the dim light, a figure stood by the wall, seemingly having waited for some time.

“Oh, Leilei, you startled me. Are you just finishing your shift?”

Lei Youliang paused slightly, then smiled and said, “Come on in, let’s talk inside. It’s too cold out here!”

“I’m asking you, when can you bring my sister back?”

Su Lei relentlessly pursued, stepping forward without any intention of entering the house.

In the dim light, Lei Youliang’s eyes shifted slightly, and he replied gently, “Soon, tomorrow. We can bring Xiaoya back tomorrow! If you’re worried, why don’t you come with us to pick Xiaoya up?”

“I can go with you? Alright, you better keep your word, we’ll go together!”

Su Lei nodded emphatically, agreeing and then turning to leave.

Lei Youliang took a step forward, grabbed Su Lei’s arm, and said, “Don’t be angry. Arranging for Xiaoya to go undercover is also meant to get you sisters some fair treatment. Come on, come in and sit for a while.”

Su Lei frowned and shook off his hand, frowning slightly, “Stop trying to take advantage. We’ll discuss it when Xiaoya is back, as agreed. I’m going to rest now.”

“Alright, bye. You’ll see Xiaoya tomorrow. Don’t worry.”

Lei Youliang kissed Su Lei on the cheek, watching her gradually disappearing silhouette, showing a smile hard to describe.

…

A few hours later, the sun rose as expected, shining on the earth, but it did not bring warmth.

“Achoo!”

Inside a guest room on Celestial Horse Island, Zheng Xinyu, who had just gotten dressed, as usual walked to the window and opened it. A gust of cold wind blew in, causing her to sneeze and her nose to redden with a sour and tingling sensation.

“Oh my god, it’s so cold!”

Zheng Xinyu quickly closed the window. Inside, due to the heating, it remained above fifteen degrees, making it very comfortable, but unaware that the temperature outside was dropping more and more.

“Cold?”

Zhang Su rubbed his eyes drowsily. Last night, Fu Weijun kept him chatting about everything, and then lying in bed made him think about the Cyan Dragon Corps issues until dawn; this morning he wasn’t exactly in top form.

The first thing he did when he opened his eyes was check the remaining number of the Cyan Dragon Corps, and he found, to his dismay, that it had decreased to forty-five overnight!

Subduing the survivors of the Cyan Dragon Corps was not that difficult for him anymore, but the number bothered him a bit…

He had planned to take this perfect opportunity to expand the population of Celestial Horse Island, but it didn’t go as he wished. He realized he didn’t have the capability to rescue the Cyan Dragon Corps from tens of thousands of zombies!

Zhang Su walked to the window in his slippers, opened a crack, and felt the exaggerated cold, which immediately gave him goosebumps on his arms.

“Damn, it’s a big drop in temperature!”

Zhang Su quickly closed the window, somewhat astonished.

Creek!

“Yes, it’s a cold wave.”

Zhong Xiaoshan entered the room, wearing a woolen hat and wrapped in a large scarf.

She woke up relatively early and had already visited a few injured people. With the assistance of the Thalamus, recovery was swift. Except for Yang Wenjie, who had some psychological trauma, even with physical recovery, felt awkward; others had returned to normal.

“I heard from Zhao Xue that the temperature suddenly dropped last night. It’s probably a cold snap passing through. At 2 a.m. when she started her shift, it was still minus three degrees. By 4 a.m. it dropped significantly, and after measuring, it was minus fifteen degrees. Just now, Teacher Yu checked again, and it was minus twenty-two degrees.”

Zhang Su quickly dove back under the covers, dressing as he said, “A twenty-degree drop in a few hours. Fine, with zombies around, nothing is too strange!”

“Wow, minus twenty-two degrees?! That means the indoor-outdoor temperature difference is almost forty degrees. That’s so cool, Xiaoshan, this must be a low-temperature record for Qin City, right?”

Zheng Xinyu took out the thickest down jacket from the wardrobe, showing no anxiety over the low temperature.

Zhong Xiaoshan shrugged, saying, “This is probably as low as it gets.”

“Damn, it’s so cold that even the car won’t start!” Zhang Su dressed, suddenly thinking, “Oh right, does the temperature drop affect the zombies?”

“Hmm?”

“Haven’t really noticed…”

Both women paused, not associating the temperature drop with the zombies.

“You both carry on, I’ll go check it out!”

Zhang Su was very concerned about this issue because he still needed to go to the Cyan Dragon Corps. If the zombies were all frozen stiff, he needed to act quickly because once the threat of zombies was gone, the survivors of the Cyan Dragon Corps would definitely start self-rescuing, making them harder to conquer.

Upon stepping outside the room, even standing in the corridor separated by a door, he felt the cold seeping in. Tightening his down jacket, he rubbed his cheeks to warm up.

“Mr. Zhang, fortunately, the camp’s reserves are adequate. Otherwise, with such a significant drop in temperature, many people wouldn’t even be able to step outside their houses!”

Yuwen was in the middle of his morning exercises, wearing a blue down jacket, looking even younger than before; perhaps the cold had shrunk his skin a bit. Seeing Zhang Su exit Little Lucky, he commented in surprisingly good spirits.

“The temperature drop affects us significantly. Are things okay with the greenhouses, fish ponds, and pipeline facilities?”

Zhang Su fished out a cigarette and offered one to Yuwen, asking as he did.

“After we learned about the temperature drop last night, Master Jia, Xiaoguo, and Xiaotan worked for a couple of hours, checking all the places that needed maintenance to handle the current situation. Wang Longzhong and I, along with some folks from United Village, set up stoves inside the greenhouses, and the fish ponds’ heating systems were activated. The small animals are also doing fine.”

Yuwen explained smoothly, then expressed worry, “But the reservoir might not hold out for long. At this low temperature, relying solely on water flow is insufficient to prevent freezing.”

Although Celestial Horse Island is small and has just over forty people, many projects have been developed. To run them smoothly, each aspect requires careful attention.

Yuwen didn’t tell Zhang Su that everyone had previously overlooked the temperature in the pig and sheep pens. When they remembered, the pigs and sheep were already huddled together, shivering. If they waited until daylight, they’d probably have enough meat for every meal for a while…

“The weather is unusual, keep everyone vigilant. Still enough zombies to burn?”

Zhang Su watched his well-bundled companions busily at work, concerned about the heating situation.

“Plenty of them. The stockpiled zombie corpses are packed into the woodshed, and zombies burn at a rate faster than coal of equivalent volume!”

Heating with zombies—a new post-disaster ecosystem…

“Cold as hell. I wonder if the zombies are affected. Want to come along and take a look?”

Zhang Su extended the invitation.

“I’d be honored.”

Yuwen put out his cigarette and followed Zhang Su.

Recently, Celestial Horse Island had not stopped capturing various types of zombies. Not only had they brought back many Petrified Skin Zombies from outside, but they’d also captured many regular zombies, even those wandering into the camp!

In the past, zombies wandering into the camp were immediately killed and used as fuel. But now, Fu Weijun needed them for experiments, so they were all captured alive and kept with the Petrified Skin Zombies.

Currently, over fifty zombies of various types were kept in the temple courtyard.

After researching for a long time, no one really knew which Buddha the Celestial Horse Island was venerating or how many incense offerings they went to, but there was only this one temple in the scenic area, intended for receiving incense.

To avoid wasting manpower specifically for monitoring the temple courtyard, Liu Tianji purposely adjusted the position of the ticket hall’s camera, allowing for easy monitoring of the temple courtyard’s situation.

It turns out that as long as no living humans approach, zombies in an enclosed space don’t typically go berserk. They only show some reaction when new zombies are introduced, but once people back off for a few minutes, the zombies in the courtyard will quiet down again.