Chapter 76

Lin Feihu had a very clear understanding of the events of the past few years.

The government knew about the impending disaster and had taken preemptive measures.

However, Lin Feihu was well aware that the country was too large and the population too numerous for aid and rescue efforts to reach everyone. Perhaps, Class A and Class B were the standards used to distinguish those who could be saved from those who would be abandoned. It was brutal and sounded hopeless, but it was a reality that had to be faced.

For a while, Lin Feihu also suspected whether the so-called virus outbreak was a man-made disaster orchestrated by the government in secret.

The government was plagued by too many issues—corruption, inflation, population pressure, resource scarcity, and energy supply shortages. Every time a new leader took office, they would try to solve the myriad of problems left by their predecessors. Each new leader would loudly proclaim that they would thoroughly resolve these issues that the public cared about the most. However, year after year, old problems remained unsolved while new troubles emerged endlessly. The ruling class, mid-level officials, and the public were locked in a battle of wits and courage, never willing to make concessions for their own interests. The best way to break the deadlock and solve these problems once and for all was to eliminate the cancerous creators.

From any perspective, the government had ample motivation to do this.

Let those people die, or kill them outright.

Lin Feihu was not entirely sure if his suspicions were correct.

Because it was too crazy, too terrifying, too frightening.

Many people had died, and many more had turned into zombies.

Guangzhou, Shanghai, Tianjin, Wenzhou... Like the "Shengfei" Group, all the powerful clans and conglomerates focused their attention on the densely populated eastern cities. Based on the information from various squads, Lin Feihu could roughly estimate the number of deaths in each city. It wasn't a simple number in the thousands or tens of thousands, but a staggering figure in the millions, even hundreds of millions.

Lin Feihu instinctively felt fear!

It was an innate mindset that drove him to face the living with a more frenzied attitude. He desperately gathered people, cultivated large tracts of land near the estate, selected the best warriors to exchange for weapons and ammunition with the military, and tried every means to strengthen his private army.

He couldn't even explain where this fear came from.

It wasn't a tangible landscape that could be seen with the naked eye, but it always weighed heavily on Lin Feihu like a mountain.

Every time he closed his eyes, he seemed to see countless blood-soaked corpses approaching him. Although he had never killed anyone, those people seemed to seek revenge from him like madmen. Lin Feihu almost dared not sleep, only occasionally dozing off when he couldn't hold on any longer. He felt that he was involved in an incredibly dirty conspiracy but couldn't uncover the inside story.

He had thought about suicide.

This was probably the only way to achieve peace and tranquility.

But death could not solve the problem—there were still dozens of direct relatives in the Lin family, and he had two sons. They knew nothing, and the military would never tell them what he had done before the virus outbreak. If he died, what would happen to them? Would they be killed? Would the estate be disbanded? Would everything become the property of other powerful clans and conglomerates?

Lin Feihu couldn't find a second choice.

He could only be more ruthless, using more cruel and despicable means to capture more refugees. He used these innocent people as the foundation for his family's stability.

The environment forced people to change—good people could turn into lunatics, and cruelty could devour conscience. This world was originally shared by darkness and light. To survive, there was nothing that couldn't be done.

The sound of the drill ending came from the square outside.

Now, it was lunchtime.

The door opened slightly from the outside, and a meal cart was pushed in. Three women in black lace uniforms with white lace trim pushed the cart and carefully and skillfully set the tableware and dishes on the table. They were young, around twenty years old, with heavy makeup and false eyelashes that were probably five to eight centimeters long, making them look quite alluring but completely masking their true appearance.

Lunch was very sumptuous—on the table were a plate of crispy and fragrant stir-fried river shrimp and eel, a bowl of braised pork with pickled mustard greens, and a plate of green vegetables. On the side, there was a small dish of cold sliced braised pig's ear. Although it was leftover from the previous night's dinner, it still tasted good and had a nice chewy texture.

There was a river to the north of the estate, and several greenhouses had been set up nearby. These meat dishes, which seemed luxurious in the current situation, actually didn't require much effort.

A maid carefully placed a bowl of fragrant rice in front of Lin Feihu.

The rice was very fragrant, made from high-quality japonica rice.

Lin Feihu frowned, picked up a piece of cold braised pig's ear with his chopsticks, shook it, and put it in his mouth, chewing with a crisp sound. After a moment, he turned his gaze to the three maids standing opposite him, looking like frightened little rabbits, nervous and at a loss.

Lin Feihu had dispatched more than thirty armed teams to gather refugees.

With food and immune agents, the work of recruiting and gathering refugees became simpler. In less than two months, the "Shengfei" Group had gathered more than twenty thousand refugees. Among them, the six hundred with the best physical fitness and combat skills were selected by the military. To expand his strength, Lin Feihu chose six thousand men and women from the remaining population to join his private army. As for the elderly, women, and children... there were fields all around the estate. They had to farm, or they would starve.

Selecting a few young and beautiful women to serve as maids was the idea of Lin Feihu's younger son, Lin Zhou, the second son of the Lin family.

Both sons liked to play with women, which was no secret in the Lin family.

Lin Feihu was very open-minded about these things and didn't want to interfere too much—money was earned to be spent. Since pleasure and enjoyment could be bought with money, why commit crimes and harm others? Therefore, Lin Feihu was never stingy with his family's enjoyment, even being considered extravagant.

Especially after his youngest son, the third son, turned into a zombie, Lin Feihu transferred all his affection to his other two sons.

It wasn't just playing with a few women; even if he played with all twenty thousand refugees, Lin Feihu wouldn't lay a finger on his sons.

After all, he had donated all his assets to the government years ago; now he was just collecting interest.

After all, there was no fun in living now—no normal entertainment, no market, no information media... what else could he do besides play with women? Masturbate?

After all, after all, after all... after all, he had guns in his hands and could do whatever he wanted.

The environment was indeed the greatest factor that drove people to change.

However, what his son liked didn't necessarily mean that Lin Feihu liked it.

He took a bite of rice and mumbled, "You can all go out! In the future, let Aunt Wu handle the delivery of meals and water."

Lin Feihu didn't like young and beautiful girls. They were too passionate and intense.

Indeed, playing with young and beautiful models was very stimulating for an old man like him. But it was like exhausting his remaining vitality, with all his remaining energy and spirit being drained by the dazzling beauty. Lin Feihu wanted to live a few more years and didn't want to be seen as impotent and sexually incompetent by a girl full of expectations... Therefore, he selected a woman in her fifties, who looked quite elegant, from the twenty thousand refugees to serve as his personal attendant.

The three maids, who were all very beautiful and graceful, looked at each other, bowed cautiously, and left the room in order.

The door didn't close, and a tall man walked in from outside.

He was about twenty years old, very young, but his facial expression was cold and weathered. He wore a set of old-style military combat uniform, with broad shoulders that seemed like thick sandbags. His skin was very dark, easily evoking images of thugs or pirates.

He walked to the table, stood with his hands crossed, and looked down, his face full of defiance but showing a respectful demeanor.

"Sir, the two new battalions have been integrated as per your instructions and are ready to depart at any time."

Lin Feihu put down his chopsticks, wiped his mouth with a napkin, and stared intently at the man standing in front of him.

He met Luo Jingpeng purely by chance—eight years ago, Lin Feihu lost his wallet in a nightclub. Since the wallet only contained a few thousand yuan and some credit cards, he didn't take it seriously. A few days later, the police station called to inform him about a lost and found. When Lin Feihu got his wallet back, he found that nothing was missing. That afternoon, he had a talk with the nightclub manager and took away Luo Jingpeng, who was then a waiter.

Lin Feihu always believed that "integrity" was the most precious trait in human society. Naturally, he treated Luo Jingpeng as a trusted confidant. Luo Jingpeng's performance did not disappoint, and he even outperformed Lin Feihu's other two sons.

The "Shengfei" Group had been training family members who passed physical tests before the virus outbreak. These people, along with two thousand armed trainees, formed the core elite of the "Shengfei" Group. With the military's permission, Lin Feihu trained the gathered refugees, and those who qualified were incorporated into the family's private army.

Each new battalion had five hundred people, so two battalions were a thousand.

Two weeks ago, Lin Zhou, the second son of the Lin family, had already set out with an elite squad and several new battalions. Including some logistics and mechanical repair personnel, the vanguard force numbered over three thousand.

The support force would depart later, depending on the messages from the vanguard force.

This was an extremely large force.

Although the weapons and equipment were mostly old military firearms, they were well-maintained, and the ammunition was sufficient. In terms of actual combat capability, they were probably weaker than the militia in peacetime.

Lin Feihu had never thought of giving up Kunming.

He had gained and lost, and his life had been a series of ups and downs.

The Han Fei squad and Lin Jingshang's company had not sent back any messages. In the chaotic and terrifying world, "missing" was equivalent to "dead."

Before the virus outbreak, the military had conducted physical tests on all members of the Lin family. Many people who were "Class B" did not survive. Lin Feihu valued these surviving relatives highly.

Lin Jingshang was his nephew, and even if he was dead, he had to find the body.

"Xiaopeng, I've handed over half of my assets to you. Use them well and make the best of them—"

Lin Feihu stood up from his chair, walked to Luo Jingpeng, and tightly grabbed his large, knobby hands, full of expectation, and said, "Xiaozhou will establish a base there. You should fly there to catch up with them. I'll arrange for others to bring the new battalions over as soon as possible. Xiaozhou is still young, so help him more. You must find the murderer who killed Jingshang. I want to see who is opposing me."

The intense speaking speed made the elderly Lin Feihu slightly short of breath. He held Luo Jingpeng's arm, stood there for a few seconds, and took out a sealed syringe from his jacket pocket, with a kind and gentle expression, and smiled as he handed it to Luo Jingpeng.

"Hehe! This is for you."

It was a first-stage enhancement agent.

The military had already started mass-producing this agent, and its use was limited to in-service military personnel. Of course, powerful clans and conglomerates had their own confidants in the military and could obtain some through formal or informal means. The military leadership turned a blind eye to this. As long as the number of leaks was not significant and did not affect the normal allocation to soldiers, no one would ask questions.

In the post-apocalyptic world filled with zombies, a single enhancement agent was equivalent to a second life.

Luo Jingpeng slowly clenched his fingers and nodded silently.

..

The winter night came earlier than usual.

By seven o'clock, it was already completely dark. The dark and rainy sky quickly enveloped the earth. The damp and cold rain and the darkness blocked the view, making it impossible to see far in any direction. Although there was a dim light, it was not strong. Its only function was to indicate that there were people here, not a silent graveyard.

Deputy Chief of Staff Chen Yanlin of the 41st Army Group sat at his desk, carefully reading the photocopies of the notebook transferred from KD03 Base a few hours ago.

A thick stack of documents was on the table. These things needed to be reviewed and signed by Chen Yanlin himself. However, he had no time to deal with these matters. The content of the notebook and the autopsy video had aroused his intense interest.

As a man in his sixties, Chen Yanlin had the typical appearance of his age—sparse hair, a balding head, loose skin, increasing black spots on his cheeks, and dense wrinkles around his eyes and forehead, often feeling powerless.

As a lieutenant general in the high ranks of the army, Chen Yanlin had been injected with immune agents and second-stage enhancement agents. These two things rejuvenated him, giving him energy, strength, and the special vitality of youth.

The director of the Academy of Sciences, Wang Qinan, had said, "This power comes from mutated cells."

Standing at his current position and perspective, Chen Yanlin no longer believed in so-called authorities and experts.

But he never doubted Wang Qinan. Although the fat man was old and ugly, and his dirty white coat probably hadn't been washed for twenty years, no one could deny that Wang Qinan was the most honest, conscientious, and academically accomplished person in the country.

The effects of the immune and enhancement agents on the body were obvious. The abundant energy and physical strength made one feel young, and it was indeed the case—according to the analysis of the components of the enhancement agents by the Academy of Sciences a few years ago, the cells of the injected individuals would undergo a new round of metabolism, and their natural lifespan would be extended by five to seven years.

The military's research direction in science, especially biological science, had never been as important as it was now. Chen Yanlin also benefited from this. Therefore, he paid close attention to news and cases in this area. He treated the photocopies of the notebooks transferred from KD03 Base the first two times as confidential documents and handed them over to the army group's confidentiality department.

Chen Yanlin had been studying this notebook since noon.

Unlike the previous two times, this observation record also included a video. The two mutated corpses in the image were clearly different from zombies, and the bloody and terrifying scenes occupied all of Chen Yanlin's thoughts. Along with shock and alarm, he began to feel unprecedented concern. He pushed his chair back, stood up, and slowly walked to the window, gazing at the pitch-black night sky outside.

Chen Yanlin did not think that the red-lined and emphasized sentences in the observation notebook were exaggerated—indeed, zombies were becoming stronger. Many frontline soldiers had this feeling, and his desk was filled with at least ten reports from various monitoring stations and forward bases. Regardless of whether the reporters were officers or soldiers, they all repeatedly claimed that the zombies they encountered recently were "very strong and agile" and "could even run."

These descriptions were very vague and lacked precise measurement.

After standing for about ten minutes, Chen Yanlin sat down again. He turned on his computer, opened Su Hao's file, and looked at the photo in the upper right corner of the screen, showing a handsome young man with a slight smile. Chen Yanlin was first surprised by his youthful appearance. Then, his face filled with anger as he read the content.

This file was uploaded to the army group headquarters by Li Daoyuan from KD03 Base.

Su Hao's personal identity information was collected, verified, and reported by Wu Guoguang. Because the first observation notebook was taken seriously by the military and the Academy of Sciences, both Li Daoyuan and Wu Guoguang were promoted. Out of a sense of guilt towards Su Hao, Li Daoyuan filled the "personal performance" section of the file with thousands of words, detailing how Su Hao helped the soldiers at the monitoring station, rescued survivors trapped by zombies, assisted the military in distributing immune agents, and observed the living habits of zombies in dangerous environments.

These things seemed ordinary.

Wordplay was a high-level art that could deceive the eyes and the mind. A simple act, when embellished with beautiful language and elevated by supportive statements, and backed by a series of detailed and real numbers, made the paper image of Su Hao come alive.

Chen Yanlin, in his high position, was not fooled by such surface-level things. But he still felt angry—because the "personal rewards" section of Su Hao's file was blank.

(Luo Jingpeng has appeared. Alright! This time, I'll give you a promotion. Also, the character Chen Yanlin is played by the reader "Death Fang." Applause! Flowers! Spit! Vote!)

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