Apocalypse: the Most Ruthless Person

Yang Liehuo glanced at the surrounding villagers; there was no need for words—just a look said it all.

“Younger Brother Zhang, we’re willing to join Celestial Horse Island, but there’s something I want to discuss with you first.”

“Sure, say what you have to say.”

Zhang Su raised his hand to indicate he was open to rational discussion, but he was extremely averse to unreasonable outbursts.

Yang Liehuo said, “I noticed there are a lot of female members in your group. Before you arrived, these young women in our village mentioned wanting to join the combat team, pick up weapons, and fight zombies. What do you think about that?”

Zhang Su focused his gaze on the faces of the women indicated by Yang Liehuo. They were simple rural women, faces full of desire, their hair tousled by the cold wind, but their eyes were resolute.

Three months of living in an apocalyptic world had added weariness and wrinkles to everyone’s faces. From their builds, it was clear they usually did physical work; they weren’t the frail, skinny type.

So many good potential recruits, but Lei Youliang would only exploit them, overly patriarchal, and would eventually lead to their downfall. If not defeated externally, they would implode when grievances erupted!

“Even if you hadn’t brought it up, I would have!”

Zhang Su turned to the crowd and said, “Before you, Celestial Horse Island took in people from United Village in Niuquanzi Town. At that time, United Village was attacked by a horde of zombies, leaving more than half dead or injured. Of the dozen or so survivors, only three or four had decent combat skills. They…”

As he spoke, he pointed to West Camp Village: “All the able-bodied men in West Camp Village were taken by the Cyan Dragon Corps to fight the zombies and have all perished. The surviving villagers are also those with weaker combat skills. Your situation in Kuanzhuang is similar.”

“To be honest with you, we at Celestial Horse Island believe in universal military service. Everyone on Celestial Horse Island has rich experience in killing zombies, but if we have to protect more and more people who can’t fight off zombies, our pressure will be enormous!”

Both the people from West Camp Village and those from Kuanzhuang nodded in agreement, thoroughly understanding this perspective. It’s like five world champions teaming up effortlessly; carrying too many would surely be exhausting!

Seeing no one speak, Zhang Su continued, “In the future, besides the elite corps I lead, we’ll also establish a reserve team. When the time comes, suitable candidates will be chosen from among you to join the reserve team. Be prepared for the harshness of this world. I won’t care about your gender, understood?”

In the past, Zhang Su’s words could elicit a uniform “understood,” but now everyone had become subtly aware not to shout, so they nodded in agreement and whispered their understanding.

The women of Kuanzhuang tightened their fists, eyes sparkling with determination. Their long-humiliated and oppressed lives made them eager to join the fight, to become self-protecting warriors. Unfortunately, Lei Youliang had blocked that path; under his rule, women were only fit to serve men!

But Zhang Su was entirely different; he gave them equal opportunity, making them feel respected and quickly accept him as their new leader.

At this moment, they not only no longer resented Lei Youliang but felt a bit thankful he made a wrong decision. Otherwise, under Lei’s control, they wouldn’t know when they’d be free.

The situation in West Camp Village was different from Kuanzhuang; the village women there didn’t have such a deep understanding, but felt that being able to fight seemed nice.

“Alright, now I need to ask an important question! Among you, who was close to the deceased warriors? Step forward!”

Zhang Su stood with his hands behind his back, eyes sharp as he scanned the crowd. This was his final task—to root out any hidden dangers.

The women glanced at one another, and then one stepped out: “Brother Zhang, we live in Kuanzhuang but actually come from different places. We didn’t know those men beforehand, although some sisters once tried to cozy up to them, but… they ended up ungrateful bastards!”

“We were just tools controlled by Lei Youliang to work, nothing more.”

“Sisters, from now on, we follow Brother Zhang!”

“Right, Brother Zhang, we’re following you from now on!”

A group of women raised their fists, resolute expressions on their faces.

Zhang Su was slightly surprised, but given Lei Youliang’s actions, it wasn’t unexpected.

“Alright! I welcome you all. I can see that each of you is a heroine! Only assigning you to chores was Lei Youliang’s biggest mistake and Kuanzhuang’s greatest loss!”

Zhang Su generously praised the women of Kuanzhuang.

Everyone loves compliments, especially when they come from someone stronger, instantly warming their hearts. Even if they knew there was some exaggeration in it, so what?

Once the matter was resolved, except for a brief interlude with an obstinate old woman, everything went smoothly. Zhang Su had no plans to linger and said, “Is there anything else? If not, you can go home and pack. Tomorrow, everyone moves to Celestial Horse Island!”

“Um, we have quite a bit of grain and weapons; we’ll need you, Brother Zhang, to send some help. Otherwise, it’s going to be hard to move it all…”

Yang Liehuo stood with one hand on his waist, looking at the village lit by car lights, feeling reluctant to leave, but he knew the journey here was over. He, and the remaining people of Kuanzhuang, must embark on a new journey.

Zhang Su nodded and said, “No problem, I’ll send a vehicle over tomorrow morning. Just be ready! By the way… do you have diesel in your village?”

“Diesel?” Yang Liehuo thought for a moment and asked, “What grade are you looking for?”

“Really? There’s a choice? What grades do you have?” Zhang Su was surprised Kuanzhuang had a good reserve; he had used up all he found to fuel a digging machine…

“There are only two types: -10°C and -20°C, both light diesel.”

Yang Liehuo answered crisply, clearly knowledgeable about the supplies.

Zhang Su’s face lit up, as this was exactly the grade he needed. He eagerly asked, “How much do you have specifically?”

“Not much, about 80 liters of -10°C and slightly over 100 liters of -20°C.”

Yang Liehuo managed these resources and responded fluently.

“Let’s go, bring it all over right now; I’m willing to trade double the grain for it!”

“No need for grain…”

Yang Liehuo gestured dryly, saying, “Since we’ve chosen to join Celestial Horse Island, contributing to the camp is our duty.”

“Fair is fair; what’s due to you won’t be lessened. Even brothers settle accounts clearly, so let’s go.”

Seeing Zhang Su’s firm stance, Yang Liehuo no longer insisted, glad to obtain some benefits for his fellow villagers.

“Brother Zhang, despite all of Lei Youliang’s many faults, can we let that matter go? I hope you can treat Xiaoya well when you return. Her sister went with Lei Youliang, leaving Xiaoya her only kin in the world…”

When retrieving the diesel, Yang Liehuo spoke softly to Zhang Su, unaware of Su Lei and Zhang Su’s relationship, nor Lei Youliang’s intentions with Su Lei.

Zhang Su paused, nodded wordlessly, and patted Yang Liehuo’s shoulder.

When the convoy left Kuanzhuang, it had one more vehicle. The original vehicles were already full and couldn’t hold the 200+ liters of diesel, so they drove one out of Kuanzhuang, as they needed to return to move things the next day anyway!

In a flash, the basketball court of Kuanzhuang Village, which was bright as day moments before, plunged back into darkness, with only a few small lamps illuminating the people and the blood-stained ground mixed with dust…

“Uncle Huo, do you think Brother Zhang is a good person or a bad person?”

After a moment of silence, someone suddenly asked.

Yang Liehuo retrieved his firearm, looking at the receding convoy, and said weightily, “In times like these, how can anyone be simply judged as good or bad? Lei Youliang did a lot of good for the village, but in the end, he nearly pulled us down with him. Zhang Su killed the warriors who protected our village, but he freed you from Lei Youliang’s control. Who is good, who is bad?”

“Can you clearly say?” Yang Liehuo looked at the crowd.

The complexity of the situation couldn’t be easily reduced to simple judgments.

“I think anyone who can bring us a better life is a good person!”

A woman expressed her view firmly.

Her words were met with approval by many, as they all nodded. Compared to the never-ending days without autonomy in Kuanzhuang, life on Celestial Horse Island was something to look forward to.