Because everyone in the villa area is a neighbor, there is no clear hierarchy among the residents, and everyone calls her Yiyi.
But the road ahead will be difficult. Their energy must be focused on external affairs, and internal stability and unity are crucial before they can deal with external threats.
Duan Yuxin's incident provided her with an opportunity. In fact, Ye Yunyi hadn't thought that much about it at first, but Xiao Fang's crying, Duan Yuxin's shamelessness, and the Li family's petty schemes made her feel that this trend couldn't be allowed to grow and had to be nipped in the bud.
And so this meeting took place.
"It's not easy to survive in the apocalypse, it's even harder to live well, and it's even more impossible to survive on your own."
"You can go and take a look at the zombies at the gate. They've evolved; they're smarter and fiercer than before. There weren't many survivors to begin with, and the half-zombie virus took another wave. Half-zombies can only be eaten by zombies, you know that?"
"A year has passed, and our original supplies have been exhausted. How are we supposed to survive? We can only resort to the most primitive method: plunder. If others knew about our place, what could we, with so few people and so few weapons, do?"
“The remote villages have been occupied, and people are living like animals, with just enough food to survive. They work 12 hours a day and are beaten at the drop of a hat, with no regard for life or death. If you think the outside world is better, you can go there.”
"We're short of medicine, weapons, and resources. It's been a year, and we've probably taken most of what we need from outside. We should be thinking about how to survive from now on. Do you think that just having enough to eat for now will solve everything? Are you going to fight amongst yourselves over such a small amount of resources? Of course, Mr. Li, you haven't joined us. We're very united, so you're the outsiders."
Ye Yiyi's words struck a chord with everyone. Even those who used to gossip and criticize Ye Yiyi lowered their heads deeply.
They continued their previous lives in the villa area, almost forgetting the greater crisis that lay ahead.
Ye Yiyi, Wang Zixiang, and Zhao Yong were indeed diligent and conscientious, and they were not at all arrogant towards them. Their care for the widowed and orphaned was commensurate with their efforts and rewards. There could be no fairer system than this.
“Mr. Li, we don’t deny that you are homeowners, and Heart Island has public resources that you use, so we’ll leave that aside for now. But this half-corpse virus that almost wiped us out, I’m giving you a chance to talk about it yourselves. If you don’t want to talk about it, that’s fine too, we have evidence.”
Boss Li raised his head tremblingly. He had already made up his mind: only by sincerely apologizing, showing sincerity, and sacrificing Duan Yuxin could he continue to stay.
He regretted his momentary lapse in judgment, which led to a disastrous hand of cards.
"Dear neighbors, first of all, thank you for giving me the opportunity to defend myself. After being forced to leave, we drifted downstream in a boat, not knowing where we would end up. My family consists of the elderly and the young, and we drifted on the river for two days before finally reaching the shore..."
Then Mr. Li recounted what happened after that.
After drifting for two days, the river became too shallow for the boat to continue. They worked together to drag the boat to the shore, where they found a village that was a newly developed rural area.
The so-called new countryside is where people who were previously scattered live together in one place. Every household has built the same kind of house, similar to a small high-rise or a small villa, but the environment and facilities are not as good. They also have some land to cultivate.
They were really lucky; as soon as they reached the shore, a zombie suddenly appeared, and they were rescued by one of the villagers.
After asking them if they were refugees and if they had any supplies, Boss Li, fearing they might kill them to steal the supplies, offered to exchange his supplies for a place that would provide supplies.
Fortunately, the villagers still retained their original simplicity and were willing to help others. They exchanged relatively fair-priced goods for a house.
After the zombie virus outbreak, the villagers dug their own well, so drinking water was not a problem. Also, because every household cultivated some land, food was relatively plentiful.
There were zombies, but they had mostly cleared them out, so they posed no threat to them and were living a relatively easy life.
But one day someone suddenly fell ill with a fever and a rash all over their body. Everyone thought it was just a common cold or flu. There were no doctors in the village, so people used folk remedies and found some Chinese medicine to treat it, but it was ineffective. Gradually, more and more people fell ill.
Mr. Li and his family originally got along well with everyone. When someone was sick, they would visit them with gifts to express their goodwill. However, as more and more people became sick, he vaguely sensed that something was wrong.
Once he was certain that no one in his family had fallen ill, he took his family and left the village in a car.
With nowhere else to go, they thought of going back to the villa area. Fortunately, Song Ming and his group had already left, and the villa area was relatively safe. They returned home, feeling extremely grateful.
The reason he didn't join the unified management of the villa area was that he was unsure whether he or his family members were carrying the virus, and he thought he would observe himself at home.
As he spoke, Mr. Li was already in tears. He said through sobs, "It's all my fault. It's all my fault for not taking good care of my sister-in-law. She ran away on her own and came into contact with everyone, which led to everyone getting infected. It's our fault, and we'll die for it."
“You can do whatever you want to us, but we also have elderly people and young children. We have two elderly people and four young children. When we were able to help, we did so whenever we could. Now that we have made a mistake, we don’t ask for your forgiveness. We only ask that you be lenient and let us off the hook for the sake of our elderly parents and children.”
“We have no supplies left, so we can’t pay compensation, but we are strong. The four of us will come to work and use our wages as compensation until the debt is fully repaid.”
"As for Duan Yuxin, she has made many mistakes, but she is not malicious or scheming. She is just a typical woman. We will keep a close eye on her from now on and never let anything like this happen again."
Mr. Li explained the origin of the half-corpse virus clearly, showing weakness, gaining sympathy, and making a statement, which was already a very good way of expressing himself.
Let Boss Li speak, because Ye Yunyi doesn't want to go too far, but rather to deal more with Duan Yuxin and serve as a warning to everyone.
The people present were no longer as angry as before because of what Boss Li said, and they quietly waited for Ye Yunyi and the others to handle the situation.
"Boss Li has already explained the origins of the half-corpse virus to everyone. Duan Yuxin, do you have anything else to say?" Ye Yunyi said to Duan Yuxin.
Upon hearing Duan Yuxin's name, the Li family members became anxious.
Duan Yuxin is willful and capricious, but she's not stupid. Since Boss Li has gone this far, she has no choice but to back down.
"I'm sorry, it's my fault, I'm sorry to everyone. I sincerely apologize to everyone, please forgive my ignorance." With that, she bowed deeply.
Seeing Duan Yuxin like this, the Li family breathed a barely perceptible sigh of relief.
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