Chapter 49.2: Reactions of Various Parties [2]

Author: He Feng Yan

Translator: HeXie

Editor: HeXie

Everyone was feeling antsy, making the atmosphere restless and uneasy. And children’s minds were always extremely sensitive to such ambiance. As such, An An’s mind was affected, and he reverted to his previous state, silent and timid. Furthermore, every day when he slept, he would be woken up from nightmares.

Within just a few short days, his little face which had just begun to fatten up with some meat, shrunk rapidly. It seemed that the little guy was afraid that his father would leave him. So, he clung to Li Minsheng all day. His big dark eyes would instantly be filled with fright and worry if there were even the slightest hint of disturbance nearby, making people feel sad and anguished.

Meanwhile, both Zeng Xin and Chen Zhaoyang blamed themselves for not taking precautions, which led to the goods in the shop being looted. Because like Professor Li and Li Minsheng, both of them also believed that Wu Yu would not die that easily. As such, even though there were some people who noticed Zheng Xin’s marketing ability and offered him an olive branch, he politely refused them one by one.

Right now, the amount of goods they had on hand was few. They only had about a dozen counterfeit cigarettes, more than 50 bags of salt, 10 packs of compressed biscuits, five bottles of penicillin, and two bottles of cold medicine. And the reason they still had these things was because it was not brought to the shop when it was taken away. 

So, the past few days, Zheng Xin and Chen Zaoyang went out early and returned late to carefully sell these goods to maintain their daily living expenses. Moreover, some family members of the zombie hunters Wu Ye hired gathered together and caused a ruckus in the small building several times. 

All of them clamoring for compensation from Professor Li and the others who stayed back in the base. Some of the more ferocious and fierce people even wanted to beat them up and rob their things.

Fortunately, Zheng Xin was cunning enough. After the goods in the store were robbed clean, he immediately decided to put the few supplies left in their hands into iron boxes and bury them in the inconspicuous corner of the yard.

When those ferocious people saw that there was really nothing to ‘rob’, they figured that Professor Li and the others were also hired ‘victims’, and were disappointed. Nevertheless, the old, small, and disabled people who came still caused a few fights in the small building, causing Zheng Xin and Chen Zhaoyang some small injuries here and there. In the end, the two’s cries of grievance were louder than anyone else, causing the matter to be left unsettled.

Now that Wu Ye and the others were back, everyone left behind in Lan Cheng Base seemed to have found their backbone at last.

However, Qin Wuhua had recruited 30 people from the zombie hunter’s union. So, with those people added to the team, his group had a total of 36 people who had gone to Qingmin County together. But now, only 18 out of 36 people had returned from the trip, while the other 18 were reduced to become food for the zombies.

As soon as the news of Wu Ye’s return spread in Lan Cheng Base, with reduced size, the family members of the zombie hunters that went with him all rushed to his building. Right after their arrival, they immediately sought for their own family members, and those who found them alive were happy. Meanwhile, the others who found that their family members had passed away were crying bitter tears.

But when they saw that Wu Ye had come back bearing so many supplies with him, some of the families there began to have a crooked idea brewing in their minds.

Even though according to their initial recruitment agreement, Wu Ye would only pay the remaining half of the remuneration for those who died during the mission. And he would also give them some compensation as appropriate. And since Wu Ye had made a lot of money from this mission, he didn’t mind giving more pensions to the deceased’s family.

However, though he was willing to give more, he also didn’t want to be treated as a fat lamb to be slaughtered. As such, the actions of those distant relatives of the deceased greatly annoyed Wu Ye. Thus, he directly reduced the compensation he planned to give the deceased families from the initial three thousand transparent crystals to one thousand crystals.

It was only when he did this move that these people finally stopped clamoring for more recompense. But even after receiving their just settlement, they still refused to leave, incessantly crying for heaven and earth outside Wu Ye’s small building.

Frankly speaking, Wu Ye had been more than generous. He was already kind enough to provide some form of compensation to the deceased’s family. After all, who doesn’t know that in this apocalypse, the least valuable thing in the world was human life; it was doubly so for the dead.

There were plenty of zombie hunters who died during their missions. And aside from Wu Ye, who would be willing to pay the zombie hunters if they die? In general, only those who joined a fixed team would be given subsidies if they died. Most people, who formed temporary teams through recruitments, did not give the rest of the remuneration promised to the deceased’s family, much less give additional compensation for the lives lost.

At this moment, Wu Ye did not know that the price of necessary goods in Lan Cheng Base had increased to about four or five times higher. Thus, he felt that he had been generous enough compared to most people.

As such, his conscience was clear without guilt. Therefore, no matter how much those people cried and screamed, Wu Ye did not pay them even the slightest bit of attention. In the end, the city guards came and drove all those people away.