CHAPTER 915: CHAPTER 642: SIGHS (THREE-IN-ONE)

Zhou Zhisheng nodded and said, "You’re right, we can’t stay in this place any longer. If those people from the distillery find us again, they might cause us trouble."

"Shall we leave in half an hour?" Liu Cunyi asked.

Zhou Zhisheng looked at the Zhou family members behind him. Many appeared listless, but more were lying asleep under the sun.

With a slight sigh, he thought about how these past days had been exhausting and tense, and how they had been eating less to save grains. They hadn’t slept all last night.

At this point, both physically and mentally, they had reached a critical point, so when the sun came up, they ate a bit and laid down to sleep.

So, he said to Liu Cunyi, "Let’s make it an hour. At least let everyone rest a bit because no one can endure a drive today without some rest."

Liu Cunyi pursed his lips and said, "I still think we should leave earlier. We don’t know what’s going on here; maybe those people from the distillery are on their way, or perhaps they’re watching us right now.

If you’re tired, we can rest in the car. It’s not like one person has to drive all the time; we can take turns driving.

Lao Zhou, seriously, I don’t want to stay in this place any longer than I have to. We must leave as soon as possible."

Hearing this, Zhou Zhisheng hesitated. After what happened last night, he increasingly felt that Liu Cunyi had more foresight.

Sometimes admitting someone else is better and following someone with more insight isn’t a bad thing.

So he nodded and said, "Okay, I’ll go notify everyone. We’ll leave in half an hour."

"Good," Liu Cunyi said, nodding with satisfaction.

....

One and a half kilometers away from Liu and Zhou’s location, in a residential house.

Old Zhuang put down the telescope and said to the people around him, "Allocate the shares to Xiaobing and Zhao San equally among everyone. Well... they can only blame their bad luck for not hiding well and being discovered by those zombies last night."

One of his subordinates asked, "Zhuang Team, are we going to keep following them? If we keep going, who knows how long we’ll have to keep it up."

Old Zhuang hesitated a moment and said, "Alright, Dachao, you take two people and drive a car back to headquarters to tell Director Gan what happened these past two days. I’ll continue to follow and see where exactly they’re headed."

Dachao hesitated and said, "Okay, but you all be safe, don’t let them discover you."

.....

Western Alliance.

Since the Liu and Zhou families left, only the Gan family remained in the Western Alliance.

They held absolute power.

After withdrawing those specializing in overseeing the Liu and Zhou families, the personnel released were dispatched to scavenge for resources.

Recently, the weather has been getting colder, and who knows how much further the temperature will drop. Therefore, they must gather as much food and resources as possible to survive this cold winter.

This extremely low temperature has also left Gan Xiong feeling a bit hopeless.

At these temperatures, farming seems nearly impossible.

He has thought about building greenhouses, but constructing them is no simple task.

Not to mention, energy and electricity are huge issues. Although the base has solar power, it’s barely enough for heating.

They still need to use diesel generators to produce electricity.

Even though they’ve significantly reduced manpower, there are still thousands of people, and it’s already exceedingly difficult for them to survive the harsh winter.

As such, there is also some small-scale indoor farming within the Western Alliance, but even a season’s yield isn’t enough to feed them all for a week.

The pressure from food and energy stems from having too many people.

Yet having too few people also means they can’t defend such a large base.

The base is already built so large, and they can’t just reduce its size.

A vicious cycle.

Thinking about these troublesome matters made Gan Xiong feel his head ache.

It’s worrisome.

All he can do is pin his hopes on next year. If the temperature rises in spring, they can then broadly plant some crops. With more food, they’ll have more assurance in everything they do.

They won’t be stuck in such a vicious cycle, where everything they consider is just about having more food and ensuring survival.

When people are hungry, they can go mad.

Sometimes, Gan Xiong even thought about whether to exile some people from the base or kill them, to ease the pressure.

But then he thought of the nights or when it rains, they still need these people to guard the base, so he dismissed the idea.

This approach can only be taken in the most desperate of times.

It’s easier to grow from small, but hard to shrink from large.

The base was initially built to be extremely large, necessitating a large security force.

But with more people, food, energy, and various other pressures come rushing in.

....

Bawang Plastic Factory.

9:30 in the morning.

Li Yu looked at the truck fully loaded with solar panels, even with some tied to the top with ropes.

Despite being full, it was not overweight.

The solar panels were very light, amounting to only a quarter of the weight of steel when fully loaded.

Ju Tianrui, looking at the fully loaded solar panels, said to Li Yu, "Director Li, shall we head back directly next?"

Li Yu smiled and said, "Of course, what else would we do — go for a stroll? Let’s go, brothers, get in the car, we’re heading home!"