Chapter 159 Ding Yan's Aftermath
"You admit that you were the one who poisoned them."
Ding Yan did not deny it. Her eyes were red as if she was expressing her grievances: "Although I brought my family to the research institute, I have always worked hard and have not asked for any extra food rations beyond what is required for my official position. My food is already not enough for my family of four to share in rotation. Now you are only having one full meal a day to save refugees, and your surplus food is almost gone. We really can't hold on any longer. Li Yuxiang thinks so too."
She was desperately seeking validation: "As long as we don't share the food with those outsiders, we can hold onto it for a while. Don't you want to live? Even if you didn't bring your families, leaving the food behind will allow you to live longer."
While her thoughts reflected the true feelings of some, some couldn't help but question, "But what you're doing is equivalent to killing over 200 people!"
Ding Yan sneered. She was weak all over, but her voice became stronger due to her emotional outburst: "Murder? You think these people have never killed anyone, since they managed to escape here alive? Many people have killed others in the city to seize supplies. What's so strange about that?"
Song Heng was very disappointed to discover that the poisoner was actually his student: "Even so, you shouldn't be the one to judge him."
Ding Yan turned her face away: "What do you plan to do with me now?"
Her original plan was to use the refugees who turned into zombies and were locked in the administration building, so that the remaining supplies could be used for the laboratory staff. This would also give her more food and more leftover food for her family. So she talked to her colleague Li Yuxiang from the research institute, who was in the same situation as her, and it was all settled.
Now that she's been discovered, she'll face condemnation, but there are no police or courts here, and nobody can do anything to her.
Song Heng moved his lips but didn't say a word, his gaze fixed on Lin Xi.
Lin Xi glared at him, silently protesting: You want me to do this too?
Song Heng responded with his gaze: Good boy, you are a capable person.
Lin Xi took a breath and put down what she was clutching in her pocket: "We don't have law enforcement power, so we can't judge you or kill you. But given that your actions have killed so many people, the research institute will expel those who have committed misconduct. From today onwards, you and Li Yuxiang will not be able to obtain the laboratory's resources."
Ding Yan murmured, analyzing the consequences of this ruling: "What about my family..."
“They used your share of supplies. Now that you’ve lost your status, they certainly won’t either.”
Ding Yan glared at her: "That's sending them to their deaths. What's the difference between what you did and what I did? Direct poisoning and indirect starvation are both ways to kill people! My family is innocent. Even if I lose my legal status, they can still be considered refugees..."
Lin Xi looked at her without saying a word.
Ding Yan suddenly realized that she had just dealt with more than two hundred refugees, so what right did she have to classify her own family members as refugees to fight for their interests?
Realizing she was in a dead end and no one would say a word for her, Ding Yan wiped away her tears in despair, her fingertips brushing against her lips.
Lin Xi took in this action and asked everyone, "What do you all think of this suggestion?"
After witnessing a farce, everyone's sympathy and thoughts towards Ding Yan were shattered by her heinous act of killing more than 200 people.
Moreover, she's a poisoner. If she's willing to poison refugees for resources, there's no guarantee she won't poison others. If we keep her around, she might just sacrifice the lab when food becomes scarcer.
Thinking about it this way, some people even think that Lin Xi's methods were too lenient. This kind of person should be killed directly. There are no police, but there are soldiers. At the very least, he should be handed over to the soldiers for custody.
Just as they were thinking that Lin Xi's approach of not directly dealing with Ding Yan was too lenient, Lin Xi touched his pocket right under their noses, his behavior appearing somewhat hesitant.
Then, as if suddenly making up her mind, she took out something, its silver metallic luster flashing. Before she could even see it clearly, there was a "thud," and Ding Yan fell to the ground.
The group regained their hearing from the echo and realized that Lin Xi had been holding a gun.
The researchers and the guards had been living together for a long time and were used to seeing guns, but they didn't expect Lin Xi to have one too. Moreover, unlike ordinary combat guns, this one was clearly a pistol.
Everyone suddenly remembered that when the research institute was captured, Lin Xi had killed more than a dozen zombies and several infected people with great efficiency.
This person actually had a gun.
They all agreed with Song Heng's previous thought: Is this person really not a spy?
Just as everyone was about to take a good look at Lin Xi's gun, Lin Xi put his hand back into his pocket.
Some people said, "Didn't you say you wouldn't kill her? It turns out it was just a feint."
“I didn’t want to kill her.” Lin Xi kept her hands firmly in her pockets and shook her head. “She secretly took poison while wiping away her tears. She was a bit far from me, and I was afraid she might suddenly mutate and hurt you.”
Upon hearing this, the people around Ding Yan retreated in fear. Their fear wasn't that Ding Yan might suddenly turn into a zombie and attack people, but rather that Lin Xi's shot had been so precise that if it had missed, they would have been the ones injured.
To prove that he had killed an infected person, Lin Xi squatted down and touched Ding Yan's pocket, where he found a small, transparent test tube with the cap unscrewed.
“You don’t need to prove this. She could have died when she poisoned 200 people,” someone comforted Lin Xi.
Some people also asked, "What happens next? What about Ding Yan's family, and Li Yuxiang's family?"
After what just happened, everyone recognized Lin Xi's authority and decision-making power in the laboratory, and they all watched her attitude.
Lin Xi was somewhat troubled; this kind of thing was even more troublesome than surviving the apocalypse. She wasn't a law enforcement officer, yet she had to worry about these things.
In principle, Ding Yan and Li Yuxiang deserve to die, but their families are innocent. Their families were using supplies provided under their status as research institute staff, and now that they no longer need them, they are being reassigned to the refugee group.
Refugees still have a chance to receive supplies.
But this is so unfair to the refugees who died overnight, while the perpetrators' families still benefit.
These family members are still unaware whether they were involved or instigated.
Lin Xi then thought that it was wrong for Ding Yan to sentence the refugee to death without authorization, and it was also wrong for her to try Ding Yan's family in this way.
However, the research institute's supplies are currently subsidized by her personally, and in principle, who she is willing to give them to depends on her own wishes.
She just didn't want everyone to know she had a truckload of supplies. No, it's only half a truckload now.
This is such a headache, this kind of thing that makes people resentful...
Lin Xi caught a glimpse of Song Heng, who was scratching his head and disappearing into the crowd, and grabbed his arm. "Teacher, Ding Yan was about to mutate, so I had no choice but to kill her. Now that things are settled, you are the most respected person in our laboratory, and we will follow your instructions from now on."
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