The courtyard immediately fell silent.
Zhong Xueliu felt completely exhausted and staggered back to the low stool, a deep sense of powerlessness welling up inside her.
This is similar to the famous train dilemma, with the survivors of Panlong Village on one side and the people outside who have been harmed by the flying zombies on the other.
Zhang Juan took a deep breath, looked down at Qi Chuhan who was slowly calming down in the wooden tub, grabbed her arm and glanced at the spot where the flying zombie had grabbed her, her voice calm: "I'm not that great."
"Sacrificing the people of Panlong Village for those insignificant people outside."
In Panlong Village, the remaining half of the villagers are the sparks that the father and the other half of the villagers desperately kept alive.
She couldn't bring herself to sacrifice the last embers her father and his family had painstakingly preserved just to prevent the flying zombies from causing trouble.
"...What about that flying zombie?" Zhong Xueliu covered her eyes and asked in a hoarse voice after a long while, "Are we just going to let it continue to hurt innocent people outside?"
She lowered her hand from her eyes, looked at Zhang Juan, and after holding back for a while, finally couldn't help but question her: "Your lives are lives, but aren't the lives of those innocent people lives too? Haven't you noticed that that flying zombie is almost evolving into an indestructible beast?"
"Do you know how destructive a beast with unmelting bones can be to ordinary people? At that point, all the ordinary people in X province will be..."
As Zhong Xueliu spoke, she couldn't continue. What right did she have to question Zhang Juan? From Zhang Juan's perspective, this was indeed a difficult choice.
If it were her, there would be nothing she could do.
Nan Yichen remained silent and did not interrupt.
Nan Yuanman frowned, looked at this and that, and raised her little hand: "I have a method."
Everyone in the courtyard looked towards Nanmanyuan.
Nan Yuanman: "Why don't we catch that flying zombie, lock it up, and prevent it from escaping and harming people?"
Zhang Juan scoffed, "Catch that flying zombie? It's not as easy as you make it out to be."
"In fact, I set up a formation in this mountain range to target flying zombies a long time ago. As long as no one gets close to this area, they will not be harmed by it."
She looked at Zhong Xueliu: "Guess where all those mountains of corpses in the zombie den came from?"
Feng Langqing's face darkened instantly when he recalled the guide who had lured their entire crew into that mountain range: "...Are they the corpses of villagers from a nearby village? Is someone raising that flying zombie?"
"Yes." Zhang Juan nodded slightly: "Don't those enemies know how we'll contain that flying zombie? But no matter how much preparation we make, people will just automatically run into its mouth. Tell me, what can we do?"
Nan Yichen scratched his head in frustration: "This won't work, that won't work, are we just supposed to watch that flying zombie evolve into an indestructible beast?"
“And those children from R country…” Nan Yichen frowned, scrutinizing Zhang Juan with his gaze: “Are you really sure that no one in Panlong Village besides you can contact the outside world?”
Just as Zhang Juan was about to nod in agreement, the little boy who was sitting idly to the side playing with ants blinked and suddenly spoke up: "Mother, there's also Brother Ma!"
Zhang Juan: "?"
Zhang Juan frowned, as if she had thought of someone: "Brother Ma? Ma Sanleng? He went out? When did he go out?"
"Yes, yes!" The little boy nodded, waving the branch in his hand. "Three years ago, I saw Brother Ma leave the village! He even brought back a huge bag of things! There was a lot of candy in it!"
Zhang Juan's face instantly darkened, and she raised her hand to slap the back of his head: "You brat, why didn't you tell me sooner?! Didn't I tell you to report to me if anyone leaves the village without permission?!"
The little boy let out a yelp, sheepishly covering the back of his head, glancing at her cautiously again and again, muttering, "He...he gave me a handful of candy, and I...I forgot about it while I was eating it..."
Zhang Juan: "..."
She poked the little boy's head hard, wondering who he got his sweet tooth from.
Zhong Xueliu managed to shift her attention away from the flying zombie and asked, "And who is this Ma Sanleng...?"
“There used to be a sorceress in our village whose grandson, whose grandmother died along with my father, was a good-for-nothing. Ten years ago, he tried to sneak out, but I caught him and gave him a good beating…”
"That kid was crying and beating his eyes out in front of me earlier, saying he'd never go out again..." I thought I'd beaten him into submission, but who knew...
Zhang Juan's brows and eyes were full of irritability, and her face looked as if she had been slapped hard, burning with spiciness.
Just a moment ago she was confidently assuring these outsiders that there were absolutely no evil spirits in Panlong Village, and now, out of nowhere, a rotten apple has appeared...
That's fucking disgusting!
"We'll discuss how to deal with the flying zombie after you three have removed the corpse poison. I'm going to check on Ma Sanleng's house now!"
Zhang Juan stood up sullenly, her face dark, and picked up the large knife next to her: "This is outrageous! If he really did it, I'll skin him alive!"
Nan Yuanman and Feng Langqing exchanged a glance and quickly followed. Zhong Xueliu and Nan Yichen also wanted to go and see.
Zhong Xueliu acted swiftly, pressing Nan Yichen back into his seat: "You stay here and watch over Senior Brother and the others, I'll go!"
As soon as she finished speaking, she ran off at lightning speed. Nan Yichen and Erkang called out, "Hey!"
Why wasn't it you who stayed?!
-
On the west side of Panlong Village, in the small playground where grain is dried, a few young people are gathered together, sitting on haystacks and chatting while looking at the sky.
"Brother Ma, tell me, how many years has it been? When can we finally get out?" A man with a buzz cut turned his head slightly and looked at the young man sitting next to him, who was wearing a gray short-sleeved shirt, with medium-length hair, a thin body, and pale skin, and asked.
"How is the outside world now? Is every household able to use electricity and eat meat?"
"If we go out, will we be able to get married and have kids?"
"What's wrong? Have I ever been mean to you?" Ma Sanleng glanced at him and said irritably.
The man with the buzz cut scratched his head and chuckled, "Isn't it because... wild ones and domesticated ones taste different?"
The man with the buzz cut looked left and right, then quietly approached Ma Sanleng and whispered, "Brother Ma, I went to the east side earlier and met several people who said they were here to explore the mountains. Hey, you know what, they were dressed really smartly!"
"And they were also carrying something that could generate electricity, I think it was a flashlight? And there was something that could lock little people inside and put on a show, I think it was a chicken?"
"The outside world is developing so fast. If we really go abroad, will we still have room to maneuver?"
Ma Sanleng remained silent, his mind flashing back to the novel and fashionable things he had carefully hidden in the room, and recalling the promise that person had made to him, a surge of excitement rose in his heart.
He opened his mouth, about to say something to the young man, when he suddenly yelled, "Holy crap!"
Then, as if someone had bitten his butt, he scrambled away to the side. Ma Sanleng was startled and turned around to see a large knife flying straight at his head.
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