Sometimes the village chief would hold a meeting to discuss some important matters in the village, such as how to use the yard separately during the autumn harvest, how to distribute water during drought, how to queue up to make sweet potato vermicelli in the workshop in winter, and how to deal with some public property in the village. These all need to be taken care of by the village chief and arranged in advance so that there will be no trouble when the time comes.

However, it was always the men who went to the meetings. Even if there was something that needed to be notified to every household, Aunt Guixiang would go to their house the next day. Shen Qing had never been asked to go to the meeting alone. Therefore, Miao and Shen Qing were very surprised when they heard this.

The one who came to report the news was a young daughter-in-law. She drank a bowl of hot water that Miao had poured for her. It was the end of winter now, and it was very cold in the mornings and at night! Her hands and feet were numb from running all the way here, and she felt better after drinking a bowl of hot water. She glanced around the table unconsciously, sniffed, and said with emotion: "The food in your house is really delicious!"

Can you eat these eggs everyday? When someone's chicken lays eggs, they either sell them or exchange them for salt. Only families with children or pregnant women occasionally make one, and they boil or steam the eggs, not fry them like Miao's! A big bowl of fried eggs with chives is full of oil, and the overbearing aroma goes straight into your nose!

There have been rumors in the village recently that Miao not only refuses to sell eggs laid by her own chickens, but also always goes to other people's houses to buy eggs. Some people say that without the supervision of the elders above, they don't know how to be frugal, while others envy the life of the mother and son, and they are free!

Miao smiled and said, "The child has worked hard all day, he must be nourished more, otherwise where will he get the strength? He injured his hand a few days ago while hunting wild boars, and he lost a lot of blood. Our family depends on Qing Ge'er to survive, so we must take good care of him, right?"

Nowadays, Shen Qing’s role in the village is still to chop firewood in the mountains or pick mountain products every day and then take them to the county town to sell.

This was very true. The wife clapped her hands and said, "Of course! The village chief was looking for Qingge'er to talk about this. Didn't your Qingge'er kill a wild boar in the mountains before? I don't know if it was from the same litter. Today, someone saw wild boar footprints near our village. It looked like there were several wild boars. The village chief thought that your Qingge'er had experience in hunting wild boars, so he asked him to come over to discuss it together."

After hearing this, Shen Qing quickly put down the bowl, put on a coat and was about to go out: "Really a wild boar? I'll be there right away!"

It's no joke when wild boars come to the village! In the winter, the grass and trees in the mountains wither and food is scarce. Wild boars have nothing to eat, so they will come down the mountain to destroy the farmland. Winter wheat has been planted at this time, and it would be heartbreaking to see them destroy crops, which are the lifeblood of farmers! Not to mention if they eat children!

Even though Shen Qing's family no longer had any land, the emphasis on crops that was ingrained in his nature still made Shen Qing rush to the village chief's house like the wind.

The village chief had the same idea. Judging from the footprints, the wild boar was just wandering around. It would be too late to kill the crops. It would be better to take the initiative and invite hunters from several surrounding villages to go up the mountain and kill the wild boar together: "We still have some money in our village account, but it may not be enough. I think every household can contribute a little. Let's find Hunter Liu. After all, he is from our village and he probably can't ask for money. We can just give him more pork later."

The village has public land, which is rented out to people for cultivation. The rent collected each year is put into the village account and used for some collective construction and to help the elderly and weak. For example, the vermicelli workshop is built with money from the public account, and the elderly and weak in the village can also receive some food at the end of the year.

According to the rules of the nearby villages, even though the hunters were hired with money, only half of the pork could be kept in the village, and the other half had to be divided among several hunters.

When they heard they had to pay, the villagers who had been discussing this matter suddenly became quiet. The village chief understood their temper and did not urge them. He just said, "Think about it carefully. If wild boars come down the mountain and eat the crops, the loss will be more than just that little money. Each family can only collect a few dozen coins."

Anyway, he was the least anxious one. His land was not next to the foot of the mountain, so no disaster could come to his family.

After a while, a young man finally spoke up: "Village Chief, why do you want us to pay for the wild boar that Shen Qing brought here?"

The village chief was stunned, and didn't know what to say for a moment. Aunt Guixiang came in with a teapot to add hot water. She couldn't stand what he said, and frowned and said, "Wang Liuzi, what are you talking about? Why are you talking about Shen Qing? What does Qingge have to do with this wild boar coming down the mountain? What do you mean Qingge brought it here!"

Wang Liuzi shrank his neck. He was a generation younger than Aunt Guixiang and was naturally afraid of the village head's wife. However, the resentment in his heart still made him muster up the strength to reply: "Why is it none of his business? He killed the cubs of others and got some money from them. He is eating greasy food. The big pig is here to seek revenge!" He secretly glanced at Aunt Guixiang and muttered softly: "I know that you are on good terms with his family. His family sent you trough cakes and invited you to dinner. Of course you are biased towards him. But you can't pick our pockets to favor him. He attracted wild boars and asked us to share the money. Why? Why, our money was blown by the wind?"

As soon as these words came out, several people followed suit, all of them were young men in the village. It was unknown whether they really believed that Shen Qing had attracted the wild boar, or whether they would do anything as long as they didn't have to pay for it.

Compared with the aunts and uncles in the village, most of them praised Shen Qing for his ability and filial piety. The men in the village had a different view of Shen Qing, especially the boys of the same generation as Shen Qing.

This annoying guy has been suppressing them since they were young! Many people present have been beaten by Shen Qing. Now they have grown up to marry and have children, and can represent their families to attend meetings, but their disgust for Shen Qing has not diminished at all with time!

When I was young, I was often compared to Shen Qing by my family because I worked in the fields. They said that they were not as good at work as my brother. Today, no boy in the village dares to say that he dared to fight a wild boar with a hatchet and win.

But Shen Qing could do it! He could even bring the pigs back and sell them cheaply to the villagers. During that time, they often heard the aunts and uncles who bought the meat praise Shen Qing to the sky. A boy's limelight overshadowed the men! Now he was even invited to the meeting. Why should a boy like him attend the meeting with the men?

They didn't want to blame themselves for being incompetent, so they could only vent their nameless anger on Shen Qing: they blamed Shen Qing for being too eager to show off, and for not being a brother. No wonder he couldn't get married even after becoming a brother!

Hearing Wang Liuzi's words, especially the fact that he brought up the fact that his family had accepted Shen Qing's gift, Aunt Guixiang was so angry that her face turned red. Just as she was about to curse, the village chief pushed her away: "Come on, pour the water and get out quickly. The men are talking, so don't waste time here."

After all, it was a meeting about the village's business. Even if he was biased towards his wife, he couldn't break the rules. But after talking about Aunt Guixiang, the village chief looked at Wang Liuzi and the others and said, "How long has it been since Shen Qing killed the pig? It's been a month? It took the big pig a month to find our village? Will there be another wild boar next year? Will you blame Qing for killing the piglet? Listen to what he said and see if it makes sense!"

Wang Liuzi choked and could not say anything reasonable. He could only mutter: "Anyway, I can see that the village chief's family accepted the gift and was biased towards Shen Qing!"

The village chief was not happy to listen to his nonsense, but he had to accept Shen Qing's gift, which made his face red. Just as he was getting annoyed, he heard a noise outside the house, and heard Shen Qing's voice: "Don't make it difficult for me, village chief."

The thick cotton door curtain was lifted. It seemed to be snowing outside. A thin layer of snow fell on Shen Qing's hair and eyelashes, reflecting the candlelight. Shen Qing ran all the way over, sweating a little, but his heart grew colder as he listened to Wang Liuzi's words at the door.

He knew that the boys of similar age in the village didn't like him, but he didn't expect that in order to pin the wild boar incident on him, Wang Liuzi would say such nonsense and even involve the village chief's family.

The key point is that there are so many people who agree with him by telling lies with their eyes open!

Shen Qing brushed the snow off his hair twice, but the house was warm and the snow melted quickly. Shen Qing could only shake the water off his hands: "I don't think the village needs to pay, and we don't need to find other hunters. Look at the footprints. How many wild boars are there? I can go up the mountain in the next two days and kill them all." Shen Qing looked at the village chief: "But if I kill them all by myself, the pork won't be distributed to the village. It's still the same as before. If you want, you can buy it from my house, or you can exchange it with food."

The village head and his wife were so shocked that they were speechless. Aunt Guixiang quickly stopped them: "Qing'er, don't say such angry words!" No matter how much she liked Shen Qing and thought Qing'er was capable, she didn't think that one person could fight against a group of wild boars! Not to mention Shen Qing, even the strongest and most powerful hunter would not dare to say this!

Shen Qing shook his head: "I didn't say that in anger. I'm not like some people who can't stand seeing others who are capable even though they themselves have no ability. If someone is more capable than him, it's like asking for his life! I can say it, and I can do it."

In less than a month, under Shen Qing's conscious learning and imitation, he can now argue with others for several rounds with solid reasons and has also learned how to use sarcastic words.

These words hit Wang Liuzi's sore spot, making his face turn green with anger. He stood up and said, "What are you bragging about? Why are you pretending? You were just lucky to kill a small wild boar. If you had encountered a big boar, would you have been able to come back alive? And you killed all the wild boars. Do you have the ability to do that? The wild boars almost killed you!"

Shen Qing sneered, "I'm talking to the village chief, what does it have to do with you? I want to kill a wild boar, not you, so why are you so anxious? I don't have the ability, but do you? If you don't agree, go and kill it. Otherwise, how about we go up the mountain together and see who kills more wild boars, and the loser kowtows to the winner?"

Wang Liuzi's lips trembled with anger, but he could not bring himself to say anything to challenge Shen Qing. Although he was very reluctant to believe that Shen Qing could kill a wild boar, what if... what if...

Shen Qing did not let him go, and took another step closer: "How about we not go through so much trouble, and just go outside and fight?"

Wang Liuzi was even more afraid to respond. Shen Qing might not be able to beat a wild boar, but he could easily beat him! He was two years older than Shen Qing, but he had never gotten any good results from Shen Qing since he was a child.

All the men in charge of the village are sitting here. If he is beaten up by Shen Qing in front of these people, how will he still have the face to live in the village in the future!

Seeing him squatting back with his neck shrunk and not daring to say a word, Shen Qing rolled his eyes and said, "Coward."

However, he was not just saying this out of spite. Well, there was a little bit of spite in it... But if Shen Qing only had that compound crossbow, he would never dare to be so arrogant and say that he could kill all the wild boars: wild boars are social animals, and a group can have more than ten or twenty, or at least six or seven. The combat power of an adult wild boar is not comparable to that of a half-grown wild boar, and a compound crossbow cannot kill them all. He only bought a few arrows.

However, he went to the end of the world frequently these days and saw a weapon that was more powerful than the compound crossbow: the gun.

That day, Song Kaiji wanted to take him to the Hongcheng Base for a walk and treat him to fried starch sausage. The Hongcheng Base was built based on the hotel area and resort town near the amusement park. Later, some nearby houses and two residential areas were cleared out and included in the base, and a wall was built.

Over the past six months, the Hongcheng Base has been built to a considerable scale, a bit like a miniature city: the base is divided into the inner city and the outer city. The inner city is mainly a high-end residential area, where the official senior and middle-level managers of the base and larger teams of psychics live. It is relatively quiet, with good housing conditions. Most of the buildings were built before the end of the world, and there are also many small villas.

In the outer city, there are all kinds of people, with shops and stalls, but they need to be in designated locations and pay management fees. Near the base wall, the government builds mobile cabins and iron houses in batches for the poor to live in. Although there are good and bad people, the public security is very good because of the iron-blooded and tough official governance methods. Theft, robbery, and sexual assault are all dealt with strictly in the base and will not be forgiven lightly. There is a good order.

This is also the reason why Song Kaiji would rather spend more crystal cores and pay management fees every day to live in the base. The safety is incomparable to those small tents set up outside the base.

No one dared to set up a food stall outside the base. Without a patrol guarding it, if you took out a large amount of food, it would be snatched away in minutes and you would have nowhere to cry!

Shen Qing also needs to pay an entry fee to enter the base. Ten crystal cores or gold and food of equal value, not too much, not too little, enough to make people afraid to do anything out of concern for the sunk cost, lest they be kicked out of the base and these crystal cores go to waste.

This was nothing to Shen Qing. Song Kaiji registered his residence with his own, which could save some housing management fees. Shen Qing had never stayed in this world, so Song Kaiji didn't know where he lived.

Since entering the base once, Shen Qing has been dazzled by many things he has never heard of or seen before, and he is even more fascinated by the modern food he has never seen before! Song Kaiji caters to his tastes. In order to get along well with his generous sponsor, he often looks for some delicious stalls to treat Shen Qing to food. Before meeting Shen Qing, he saved up a lot of coarse grain cakes produced by the base. Now that he is used to eating Shen Qing's food, he can't swallow it at all. Now he can use it to pay for it.

On this day, the two were waiting for blood tests at the gate of the base. Suddenly, a person who had just joined the line at the end of the line and was waiting for the test fell to the ground with convulsions, and mutated within a few seconds.

The crowd shouted in panic and fled in all directions. Song Kaiji grabbed Shen Qing's hand and tried to run as well, but before he could take a step, a "bang" sounded behind him.

The infected person who had just twisted to stand up suddenly had a big bloody hole between his eyebrows. He twitched twice and fell to the ground without any movement.

The patrol members stationed at the city gate rushed forward, some carrying the bodies, some disinfecting.

Song Kaiji noticed that Shen Qing was holding his hand tighter and tighter. He saw that Shen Qing didn't know whether he was afraid or excited, and he was staring at the person who fired the gun a few meters behind them.

"That's a new member of the city gate guard team." Song Kaiji whispered in Shen Qing's ear: "I heard he's a second-generation guy from somewhere, and he's here to get promoted. Be careful, don't offend him if you meet him." He sighed again: "He's really rich to shoot at such a close distance."

Bullets are not cheap! Song Kaiji has guns, and he has several of them. At the beginning of the apocalypse, many people died at the hands of zombies because there were too few weapons, so after the completion of the Hongcheng base, a batch of guns were immediately mass-produced. Nowadays, not to mention that everyone has one, it is definitely not a rare thing.

Even the price of the gun itself is not expensive, but consumables like bullets are very expensive! One crystal core can buy one bullet, but if the shooting skills are not good and the aim is not accurate, it will be a loss if the zombie is not killed in one shot - one zombie can only produce one crystal core.

This is the important reason why Song Kaiji mainly uses a crossbow to kill zombies even though he has a gun. Guns are good for saving lives in critical moments, but it is not worth it to hunt zombies.

However, Shen Qing was not looking at the person, but the gun in his hand! This was the first time Shen Qing had seen a weapon more powerful than a compound crossbow, and he was so shocked that he was speechless. Shen Qing couldn't even imagine how invincible he would be in the deep mountains and forests if he had such a thing!

"What he has in his hand... do you have it?" Shen Qing also whispered in Song Kaiji's ear.

"Yes. Hey, didn't I take them out for you to choose before?" Song Kaiji was a little uncertain.

Shen Qing was silent. Before this, even if Song Kaiji had taken it out, he would not have recognized it! He would have thought it was just a black lump of iron.

As soon as Song Kaiji stretched out his hand, a brand new pistol appeared in his palm. It was obvious that it had rarely been used and the magazine was full.

Shen Qing reached out to take it, but Song Kaiji hesitated: "Do you know how to use it?"

Shen Qing: ...

Now that he was more familiar with it, Song Kaiji could sometimes even judge Shen Qing's meaning through his silence. At this time, he couldn't help but chuckle: "Oh~ You don't know how to use it?"

He suddenly had the urge to tease Shen Qing. For a male college student, what could be more attractive than having his brothers call him "Daddy"!

However, when he met Shen Qing's dark eyes, the three words that were in his throat turned around and around, but Song Kaiji swallowed them back, turned his eyes away and said, "Call me brother, and I'll teach you how to use a gun."