Chapter 75

Su Hao was directing a scene.

Of course, he wouldn't reveal his true intentions to Li Li, the "extra" actor.

As for the role Li Li played... it was merely seeing the two bloodied zombies in the medical room, the haphazardly placed surgical instruments, the ice blocks piled beside the operating table, Su Hao's exhausted yet serious expression, and the observation notes he handed over, which were written in messy handwriting with numerous emphasis marks and red underlines.

Half an hour later, the notebook was handed to Wu Guoguang.

The content of the notebook was roughly a replica of the conversation between Su Hao and Dong Guoping. Some important parts were deleted by Su Hao, avoiding terms like "blood zombies" and "humanoids." In the detailed data section, it listed the observations of the movements of blood zombies and ordinary zombies, as well as various accidents that occurred during the capture process. The lengthy and complex explanations, spanning over ten thousand words, were sufficient to make anyone understand Su Hao's intended message.

"This is a very powerful zombie, different from any we've encountered before."

"We have discovered a new mutant creature. Due to the lack of equipment, we cannot determine whether it is a zombie or a survivor. We found insect-like organs on it. It is very frightening and shocking."

"In the stomach of the insect-like zombie (tentatively named), we found partially digested plant leaves. I never thought such a thing would exist. This corpse is very important and should be quickly transported to a well-equipped laboratory for research. I am using the refrigerator to continuously produce ice blocks to keep them frozen, hoping for a quick response from the Academy of Sciences..."

Wu Guoguang was a pure military man, but that didn't mean he lacked importance in biological research. Without waiting to finish reading the entire notebook, he immediately brought his guards, jumped into a military off-road vehicle, and rushed to the bank building at top speed.

In the basement, he saw the two frozen corpses sandwiched between ice blocks.

"Are these the mysterious monsters you mentioned?"

"Yes."

"They are very important. You're right; they should be transported to a safer place for more professional handling. I will request reinforcements from the base."

Su Hao stopped Wu Guoguang's actions: "Not yet. Their surface tissues are mostly rotten, and they were damaged during the capture. Moving them carelessly will only make things worse. You'd better send the notebook up quickly and have the Academy of Sciences people come to handle it. They are more professional."

Wu Guoguang said, "Then let's send them to the Garrison Command. There is enough space there, and it's easier to produce ice blocks."

Su Hao kept shaking his head: "Your people are few, and it's not safe there."

Wu Guoguang did not insist further.

He knew Su Hao was right—the soldiers at the monitoring station had been injected with first-stage enhancement drugs, but their numbers were small. Relying on the complete protective structure, they could barely hold off a small-scale zombie horde. He had set up guards on nearby buildings to distract the zombies around the command with gunfire. This method was learned from the Northern Army's previous battles. If they had known earlier, the troops transporting the prototype drugs wouldn't have been wiped out, and fewer people would have been eaten by zombies.

Experience is gained through lessons.

Of course, purely from a safety perspective, the Garrison Command was indeed better than the bank building—there was a fully enclosed armored transport vehicle that could break out of the city in an emergency.

"This is a matter of great importance. Before the higher-ups respond, we should gather all our manpower to ensure the safety here."

In the end, Su Hao used an extremely strong attitude to force Wu Guoguang to agree to his plan.

"Don't forget, I am a formal researcher at the Academy of Sciences. In professional matters like this, my opinion must take precedence."

Wu Guoguang clearly understood the importance of these two strange corpses. Instead of sending a dedicated person to deliver the notebook and video storage card to the KD03 base as usual, he requested an urgent helicopter transport via a special channel.

...

An hour later, Li Daoyuan, the head of KD03 base, received the notebook and video.

He quickly browsed the video and flipped through the notebook. The gory scenes of dismembered bodies and Su Hao's messy handwriting were like magnets, deeply attracting his attention.

Li Daoyuan was not a professional researcher, but he clearly understood the significance of the word "mutation."

The entire world had been destroyed by the virus. According to statistics from the United Nations, less than fifty percent of the population in various countries had survived. The military was distributing immunity drugs to everyone at any cost. With the increased production of first-stage drugs, the range of immune people gradually expanded, and the Northern Military Region's second campaign finally achieved a great victory. The large-scale zombie horde of over a million in Tonghua and Miyun regions was completely annihilated, and the military was planning the next attack direction.

Mutation meant the appearance of new monsters.

Zombies were terrifying creatures based on humans.

The dark red zombies and the insect-like corpse in the video were clearly infected by some unknown virus. Although he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, Li Daoyuan could feel a chilling fear from the phrases "faster speed," "agile movement," and "can run" mentioned in the notebook.

From a geographical perspective, KD03 base was on the front line.

Zombies appeared daily on the surrounding roads and in the forests. They moved slowly and posed no threat to soldiers who had been injected with immunity and first-stage enhancement drugs. In fact, it was precisely because of the large-scale production of these two drugs that the military could dispatch troops to set up monitoring stations in various places.

The KD01 research institute was an exception.

Apart from the main responsibility of the malicious Yuan Bin, the more important reason was that the production of the two drugs was extremely low at that time, only enough to prioritize the military high command and the Northern combat forces.

Li Daoyuan wasted no time. He directly called his bodyguard and ordered in a hurried and steady tone: "Copy the notebook and video as quickly as possible. The original should be handed over to the Air Force and immediately sent to the Northern Academy of Sciences. The copy should be sent to the Chengdu Group Army headquarters. Mark it as 'A-level Top Secret.'"

...

In the northern part of the mainland, near the mountains and forests, there was a manor built on a plain.

Most of the buildings here were simple warehouses and factories. The roads between the isolation zones were wide, allowing large cargo vehicles to pass. There was no greenery or any decorative structures, and everything was designed to save costs as much as possible.

Lin Feihu stood in front of the large floor-to-ceiling window in the central main building, his slightly cloudy eyes fixed on the square below. About two thousand people were undergoing military training there. The content was basic drills, running, and standing at attention. Dozens of instructors in camouflage combat uniforms were moving around, shouting and constantly pulling people out of the ranks, who screamed in pain under the whip lashes and boot stomps.

All the trainees were refugees sent from various places the previous week. They were selected, ranging in age from eighteen to thirty-five, in good health, and with a strong fighting spirit. With strict training and the provision of excellent weapons, they would become the best soldiers.

Thinking of this, the seventy-three-year-old Lin Feihu couldn't help but curl his lips. The muscles pulled his skin, making the dense, hard gray beard on his cheeks tremble, and a faint smile appeared on his wrinkled face.

He turned around, slowly approached the sofa, and sat down. His gaze then shifted to a banner hanging on the opposite wall.

It was a large calligraphy of the two characters "Jing Si" (Quiet Reflection). The style was wild and unrestrained, far from the actual meaning of the words.

Lin Feihu proudly raised his head, his eyes showing a cold light as he gazed at the banner.

He was the leader of the Lin family and the chairman of the "Shengfei" Group.

When he first started his business decades ago, Lin Feihu never imagined he would become successful.

From the initial period of planned economy, he made his first fortune by setting up a roadside stall, then rented a store to sell small goods. At that time, the best-selling and most profitable products in the market were household appliances. Lin Feihu was very smart. He brought out a dozen good-looking girls from his ancestral village, all recognized as his goddaughters. Using money and women, along with the Chinese farmers' characteristic persistence and stubbornness, and the madness of risking everything, Lin Feihu finally connected with officials. The initial capital rapidly appreciated through buying and selling, and then through real estate and stocks, it exploded... By the time China hosted its first Olympics, Lin Feihu had become one of the top ten billionaires in the country.

In Lin Feihu's view, the night a few years ago was a milestone.

He was picked up by a mysterious military vehicle with a special license plate and taken to a heavily guarded military control zone on the outskirts of the capital.

There, Lin Feihu met several high-ranking officials he had to look up to, as well as thousands of other billionaires like himself.

China had many rich people. Most of them were very low-key and not flashy. Those who boasted about their wealth and threw money around to kill someone were seen by the truly rich as clear signs of stupidity and arrogance.

The meeting didn't last long, but the high-ranking official who chaired it was very stern.

"This is the last chance the state is giving you—within two months, you must transfer all your overseas funds back to the country. Don't give me any excuses or demands; this is not a negotiation but an order. Whether you listen is up to you, and whether you act is your choice. I know you people have a lot of power and influence. You can manipulate capital and markets, and in some remote areas, you have more power than provincial or city officials. I don't want to investigate what you've done in the past; I just want to make it clear: you have only two choices. Accept or refuse. You can sneer at my words or mock them behind my back. But I want to remind you—apart from money, you have nothing."

The additional part of this statement sounded a bit confusing, but the basic intention was clear. Lin Feihu believed that all the billionaires present were not fools and understood what the high-ranking official meant.

"Buy as much grain, medicine, cotton, and building materials as possible at market prices. Stop all real estate development and other highly profitable commercial activities, and transfer all funds to the purchase of foreign grain, cotton, and oil. Participate in the development of key water and power projects in the northwest through donations."

The meeting room was filled with hostility. Lin Feihu remembered that many people's eyes showed disdain and mockery.

He felt the government was preparing to slaughter the pigs. Although they hadn't taken action, they were already sharpening their knives.

Lin Feihu himself was part of the circle and understood that the real wealth of the billionaires was not what was published on the Forbes list. The amount of wealth hidden from public attention was enormous, and no one would be foolish enough to reveal all their assets, which could provoke the poor to think of robbing the rich to help the poor.

The high-ranking official's words were very direct—either obey the order, buy the goods listed at the specified prices, and participate in resource engineering.

Or resist and refuse.

As for the outcome... a week later, Lin Feihu heard rumors: a private bank in the country had collapsed due to a run by depositors; a construction giant had been investigated for hoarding houses and arbitrarily raising prices; a mine owner had committed suicide due to the collapse of international steel prices...

Very vivid examples, bloody and shocking.

Lin Feihu began to be glad he had made a wise choice—he bought a large amount of rice from the Southeast Asian market at a price fifteen percent higher than the market price. He also donated half of his assets to the ongoing resource projects in the northwest. This humble and obedient attitude eventually paid off. When the total assets of the "Shengfei" Group were down to thirty percent, and everyone thought the company would go bankrupt in a few months, Lin Feihu received a secret letter with the words "Special Approval."

It was actually a permit issued by the highest authority.

It allowed the construction of quasi-military buildings in a designated area, with three thousand trainees. As for weapons, the military would provide a batch of old military equipment.

The secret letter was delivered by two soldiers. They did not explain the content of the document. They only said in a brief and cold tone: if Lin Feihu was willing to accept these conditions, he must hand over all the remaining family liquid funds, except for the recruitment documents and construction resources.

Of course, Lin Feihu had the right to refuse.

All his family and close associates opposed it. Lin Feihu locked himself in his office, considered it for over two hours, and almost trembling, signed his name at the end of the fund transfer document.

Three days later, several military doctors examined Lin Feihu and his family.

The examination results were not the familiar "healthy" or "unhealthy," but the unfamiliar "Class A" and "Class B."

Out of over a hundred people in the Lin family, fifty-three were "Class B."

Lin Feihu didn't understand why his own examination result was "Class A," while his favorite youngest son was "Class B"?

The military doctor did not explain. He only told him: "Let all those with 'Class B' results enjoy themselves, eat well during this time. Next week, someone will come to take them."

Lin Feihu couldn't bear to part with his youngest son. He invited a military doctor who looked kind into his bedroom, knelt down, and took off a jade pendant he had cherished for many years, crying and begging the doctor to show mercy and save his child.

Lin Feihu didn't know why his family had to be taken away, but the phrase "eat well" had always been used for the dying.

Lin Feihu cried bitterly, his scalp bleeding, and his face covered in blood. The military doctor, moved by his sincerity, told him he couldn't make the decision, so he went out to consult with the medical officer... After several hours of negotiation, the medical officer sought approval from his superiors, and Lin Feihu repeatedly swore, the child's name was finally removed from the "Class B" list.

Before leaving, the military doctor repeatedly instructed Lin Feihu: he must lock up his youngest son, reinforce the walls and doors of the room, and equip the guards with guns and electric batons...

In his grief, Lin Feihu found it strange—these measures were like those for the most ferocious tigers in a zoo. The problem was, his son was only six years old, didn't eat people, and was very cute.

He recruited a batch of people from the group and family members. After medical screening and removing the "Class B" individuals, and after several rounds of supplementation, he finally gathered over two thousand six hundred people.

At this point, Lin Feihu began to understand the meaning of the high-ranking official's words. He started to cultivate the trainees and use the remaining resources to cultivate loyalists.

Three months before the virus outbreak, Lin Feihu was again taken to the military control zone for a meeting.

There were fewer than two hundred participants. They all knew each other and often smiled bitterly at each other. Through brief conversations, Lin Feihu learned that they were all "smart people" who had made the same choice as him.

The meeting was still chaired by the high-ranking official.

"I am very satisfied with your choices in the initial period. Your actions and sincerity have been recognized. In the past few years, you have worked hard and shown the most loyal dedication to this country. All of this will not be in vain, and you will receive the richest rewards."

Despite some vague guesses about the meeting content, everyone was still shocked when they heard it.

The trainees specified in the document would become the private armies of the wealthy families. Using the pre-stored resources and food, each group could gather civilians after three months, select the most capable ones, and hand them over to the military.

Lin Feihu felt dazed, terrified, and horrified. When these terrible negative emotions were dispelled by reason, he finally shook off the gloom and oppression of the past few years, becoming ecstatic and excited.

On May 11th, behind two layers of steel barriers strong enough to withstand a truck collision, Lin Feihu, tears streaming down his face, watched his youngest son turn into a zombie and then personally shot the once innocent and adorable face.

In