Chapter 50

The nearby fields have all been leveled, and in the coming weeks, Su Hao plans to lead a group to plant wheat. He is very unfamiliar with farming and can only refer to books from the library and bookstores for guidance.

After all, it can be learned.

Moreover, this also relates to the team's future food supply.

With sufficient fuel as a guarantee, Cao Rui's search team began to venture further. They drove around the neighboring suburban counties, gathering supplies, bringing back over ten heads of livestock such as pigs, cattle, and sheep, as well as several plows essential for farming. Some mountainous areas that tractors couldn't reach could only be tilled with these tools.

Liao Qiu had many clever ideas—he captured several zombies, fitted them with iron clamps. One person held the stick clamped to control the zombie, another person supported the plow behind the zombie, and the last person led a live rat in front. The hungry zombies, attracted by the squeaking rats, charged forward with a roar, the iron chains and leather straps tied to their bodies pulling the plow. This three-person tilling method, though somewhat complex, was very effective.

After all, zombies have much more strength than oxen and move quickly. They don't need to eat grass or rest.

Han Jing brought back a truckload of mature turnips from the vegetable fields outside the city. Under Li Xiaomei's direction, the women sliced these root vegetables, dried them halfway, and then pickled them with salt and chili peppers. This winter, they shouldn't lack for vegetables.

Du Tianhao had an unusual interest in the surging river below the mountain. He led a team to "visit" the fishing households by Dianchi Lake, collecting many fishing nets from the deserted villages. After two days of work, Du Tianhao built a "dam" on the river using wood and fishing nets. The water flow in this area was gentle, and with two small wooden boats found in the upstream villages, they successfully netted nearly a ton of river fish. Most of them were grass carp, but there were also loaches and carp.

The camp canteen's dishes began to become more varied and rich. Vermicelli, black fungus, mushrooms, and kelp, when cooked with fish or pickled meat, tasted very delicious. There were still many wild vegetables in the mountains and forests, and with the vitamin C that Su Hao obtained from the city's pharmacies, the people, despite their heavy workload, remained healthy.

Zhou Chen remained obsessed with the study of Su Hao's blood. He was fascinated by the mysterious black particles. The team needed management, and there were many things to handle, so Su Hao had no time to spare. The camp laboratory almost became Zhou Chen's private space. He took blood samples from all team members and compared them with every outsider who refused to join the team. This tedious data collection lasted nearly a month, and Zhou Chen finally felt that he had made a significant breakthrough in the study of the black particles.

The laboratory's doors and windows were tightly closed, and Su Hao and Zhou Chen sat by the microscope.

"This is a previously undiscovered organism. It is not a cell but a virus from the outside, parasitizing inside your body. I apologize, but the term 'virus' is not derogatory; they are also living organisms. The black particles likely obtain energy through mitochondria. There is no control between you and them; the relationship is one of coexistence. Now I can confirm: they have transformed you into a 'queen bee.' Well... I forgot your gender, or perhaps 'king bee' is more appropriate. These particles can significantly influence the infected, i.e., those who have come into contact with your blood and gained immunity. The black particles cannot control thoughts; they simply create a biological attraction, making the infected feel close to you and willing to follow your commands."

Su Hao found Zhou Chen's research to be somewhat reasonable.

Otherwise, he couldn't explain why hundreds of team members were willing to follow his orders.

After all, these people were civilians, not soldiers. Each had their own unique thoughts, and even under the threat of food and environment, which forced them to recognize him as their leader, there would still be various complaints. However, since the construction of the camp began, the entire team has operated very well. Those who have taken the immune agent, which is his blood, work together very smoothly.

Su Hao had more than once found this phenomenon strange, even future-world hunters couldn't achieve such efficient cooperation.

The only explanation... perhaps, as Zhou Chen said, he was a giant human "king bee."

Zhou Chen's research results had a second part.

"Your blood doesn't work on everyone. In all the research data, 281 blood samples showed rejection of the black particles. These people were outsiders who refused to join the team. They were unwilling to participate in the camp's work and didn't want to stay in this place that seemed to have no future. You know I don't lie about such things, but the fact is—yes, you are very handsome, but not everyone who walks by on the road outside will like you like Li Xinyan. Their way of thinking may affect the cells' acceptance of the black particles. They reject and even repel your blood. Let me explain: 'they' here refers to the cells."

Su Hao looked at Zhou Chen's incredibly sincere face, slightly squinting his eyes: "How do you know? I never gave those outsiders the immune agent. Only those who decided to join the team were eligible to receive my blood."

"Exactly! You never gave them, but you gave me!"

Zhou Chen smiled, stood up, walked to the medical freezer in the corner, and knocked on the hard door, not without pride: "You gave me 400 milliliters of blood for research. I am always very frugal. Under the guise of 'quarantine virus,' when I took blood samples from outsiders who refused to join, I lied and injected your blood as an antibiotic... The effect was very clear. Those who refused to acknowledge you, the black particles could not integrate into their cells. I don't know why the brain can affect cells, but they indeed developed immunity. Like us, as long as they take silver bones, they can become enhanced humans."

Su Hao immediately stood up from his chair, looking at him with shock.

"No! This kind of uncontrolled spread is too dangerous. Do you know..."

"Wait! Let me finish—"

Zhou Chen put his hands in the pockets of his white coat, pulled over a chair, and sat down. He looked at Su Hao and smiled softly: "I am a very cautious person and would not let immune outsiders run around freely. They were just carriers for my argument. Don't worry! These people will not pose any threat to you, and the team's secrets will not be known to outsiders. Because... I killed them all."

The last sentence was very soft, and Su Hao felt a thunderous shock in his mind. He felt a bit dazed and asked strangely: "You... what did you say?"

"I killed those who refused to join the team but were injected with your blood."

Zhou Chen's fair face showed a very sunny smile, full of sincerity and earnestness, without any remorse or coldness: "All those who were injected with the immune agent but did not join the team are dead. Everything was handled very cleanly, with no omissions. I am a second-stage enhanced person and have a gun."

Su Hao stood still.

He felt his mind was in chaos, staring straight at Zhou Chen sitting opposite him.

Reason told him this was terrifying and bloody. He had never thought that someone close to him would do such a thing.

"They... they are people, not zombies."

Su Hao's eyes emitted a cold light.

This had already exceeded his tolerance limit.

However, deep down, there was still a faint hope.

He was waiting for Zhou Chen to say that none of this ever happened, telling him it was just a joke to lighten the mood.

"I killed them."

Zhou Chen's extremely serious words shattered Su Hao's last hope: "I needed experimental data, to prove something useful to you from the opposite direction. Besides, they wouldn't get far on that road. Zombies are everywhere, and there is no rescue. Even if they weren't bitten by zombies, they would starve to death."

"That's different."

Su Hao's voice became hoarse: "I said— they are people, not zombies."

Zhou Chen said no more.

The atmosphere in the room became frozen.

After a few minutes of silence, Zhou Chen stood up from the chair and walked over to Su Hao. He stood by the microscope, took out the issued pistol from his coat pocket, held the gun, and extended the handle to Su Hao.

"You can kill me."

His face showed no resentment, only honesty and calm: "I don't know why I did this. When I killed the first person, the fear and shock in my heart were indescribable. I thought about stopping, about ending this evil, and compensating the living in other ways. But I still continued, one after another, taking blood samples, comparing, injecting, and then tracking them to a distance, aiming, and shooting... "

Su Hao looked into Zhou Chen's eyes, trying to see through all the hidden elements: "You should have told me about this earlier. I could have helped you, and none of the subsequent events would have happened, and more people wouldn't have died."

"No! You couldn't have helped me."

Zhou Chen's response was sudden. He smiled bitterly and shook his head: "I know it's wrong, but I can't stop. If time could be reversed, I believe I would still do it, still hide it from you."

Su Hao's face showed anger, and he gritted his teeth and asked: "Why?"

Zhou Chen looked straight ahead, thought for a while, raised his right hand, pointed to his heart, and then pointed to Su Hao.

"You... don't you understand? I have a sense of recognition for you and have been injected with your blood. You are the queen bee, and I... am a worker bee."

Bees are very special creatures.

The queen bee is unique and irreplaceable. Every worker bee exists for the queen bee. They extract nectar, refine royal jelly, and all their work is for the queen bee. They will never rebel, and they are tightly united like iron. When faced with an enemy, any worker bee will raise its stinger, rush forward without hesitation, and defend their queen with their body and life.

For the queen, they are willing to do anything.

Even if it means bearing sin.

..

Without weather forecasts, the survivors could only rely on experience to observe the weather. The heat in the air was gradually decreasing, and the sun was no longer so glaring. Even on clear days, they still felt a slight chill.

Team members received winter clothing. These were actually supplies collected from stores in the city a few months ago. Since most of the warehouse space was used for food and medicine, the amount of clothing stored was not much. In total, it could only meet the needs of about 600 people.

Su Hao held the steering wheel and drove west along the city road. A speed of 30 kilometers per hour was not fast, and occasionally, agile zombies would pounce and grab the steel mesh on the car body. They were very persistent, refusing to let go, and were dragged along, leaving a trail of wet blood on the asphalt.

Xinyan wore a set of tight-fitting modal clothes and sat in the passenger seat. She leaned to one side, looking at Su Hao with some concern.

Su Hao did not take any action against Zhou Chen. It was as if nothing had happened, and he had heard nothing.

It wasn't Zhou Chen's fault.

Su Hao didn't know what to do.

The only thing he could do was to repeatedly emphasize that in the future, any similar events must be reported to him immediately, regardless of who it involved, rather than making decisions on their own like Zhou Chen.

"I don't like your current state."

Xinyan said softly: "You should smile, like when I first met you."

Su Hao's tense face gradually relaxed. He held the steering wheel with his left hand and grabbed Xinyan's wrist with his right hand, his fingers slipping into her palm and gently tickling. The ticklish sensation traveled up her arm to her entire body, and Xinyan finally couldn't help but laugh.

Su Hao turned his head, looked at her, and smiled with satisfaction: "You too."

No one else knew about the conversation between him and Zhou Chen. Su Hao did not intend to pursue it further.

What was done was done, and the people were dead. Any remedial measures would be meaningless.

He believed that, including Zhou Chen, the other team members would not defy his orders.

After all... he was the queen bee.

However, the title was really hard to hear.

The off-road vehicle drove on the empty, deserted road, and the negative emotions that had been troubling Su Hao for a long time gradually eased.

Driving out was not for relaxation. To the west of the city, near the second ring road, there was a large machinery trading market. There, many useful things could be obtained, including different models of solar power generation equipment.

This city was among the best in the country in terms of solar energy engineering and building integration. The annual sunshine rate exceeded 56%, and the annual sunshine hours were over 2250... These data were not just on paper but were real, as evidenced by the solar thermal equipment almost covering the rooftops of the city's buildings, reflecting a blinding metallic sheen in the sunlight.

(Friends visiting Kunming, you can stand at a high place and look down to see the dense solar water heaters everywhere. I'm not lying!)

Su Hao chose Kunming as the time and space landing point, also considering the use of thermal energy. Compared to other cities, there were more solar thermal merchants here, and the equipment was simple to use and install. Especially the gas stations near the camp, which were being renovated, needed to install small generators.

Passing through a crossroads with traffic lights, they drove around several abandoned vehicles with crushed heads and tails, and the off-road vehicle slowly drove onto the auxiliary road under the overpass.

Suddenly, Xinyan frowned and looked out the window.

"Slow down!"

She raised her left hand to signal a stop and quickly gripped the automatic rifle leaning against her leg, uncertainly saying: "Did you hear something?"

Su Hao narrowed his eyes and then firmly pressed the brake, turning the key to shut off the engine.

Xinyan had taken enough silver bones to reach the fourth enhancement stage. Her hearing and perception were at least twice that of ordinary people. Besides, Su Hao himself also heard some sounds that were not mechanical noise. After the engine was turned off, these sounds became particularly clear.

"... Go... you damn guys... go... kill... save, save me... anyone, help me?"

The cry for help was weak, with intermittent gasps. It sounded like a drowning person's last few seconds of struggle.

Without waiting for Xinyan to speak, Su Hao, who had already identified the direction, restarted the engine, stepped on the clutch, shifted gears, and accelerated, driving the off-road vehicle across the road toward the side street where the sound was coming from.

This was a residential area next to the street.

Just over a hundred meters into the alley, several zombies immediately pounced from the corners. They clung to the car, staring at Su Hao and Xinyan through the window glass with red eyes. They were clearly very hungry, gnawing at the steel mesh welded to the car windows and licking the windows with their tongues, leaving disgusting brown-yellow pus marks on the transparent glass.

Su Hao did not slow down.

He could already see that dozens of meters ahead, a man in his fifties was standing on top of a distribution room, waving a thin steel pipe from a folding chair, desperately trying to drive away the zombies surrounding his feet. The zombies tightly surrounded him, leaving no escape route, and there were no poles or anything to climb.

The old man was extremely panicked. He kept cursing, swinging the steel pipe and smashing the heads of the zombies at his feet. Zombies were knocked back and stumbled, but the force of these actions was clearly not enough to cause significant damage. The zombies that were knocked back would soon rejoin the encirclement. This terrifying situation, like a devil, was devouring the old man's confidence and strength. He cried out loudly, his thick white beard covered in tears and snot, and his swings of the steel pipe became slower and more laborious.

(Thank you to everyone who wished me a happy birthday. Haha! My eyes are moist.)

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