CHAPTER 328: CHAPTER 1: RESTARTING HOPE

The ’playground’ shelter is holding a funeral.

In the simple cemetery, about a dozen people have sparsely gathered. The deceased was the shelter’s ’chief legal advisor’, the seventy-something Beck Hughes.

Jeff Connally played the role of a priest, holding a Bible whose origin was unknown, intermittently recalling decades of memories with his old friend.

He was once a legendary figure in the legal field, his eloquence had impressed countless people, and his laughter once echoed throughout the office.

Now, all of this will be buried with this handful of earth.

Zhou Qingfeng personally lifted Old Beck’s coffin for burial, grasping a shovel to cast soil onto the coffin. Ironically, the shelter lacks nothing in terms of living supplies, yet a decent coffin and headstone are hard to find.

A few boards joined together formed a rough wooden box, which became Old Beck’s coffin. The headstone was a crooked wooden cross.

No matter how glorious one was in life, death was still this impoverished.

Beside Old Beck’s grave, there was a whole row of mounds. The nearest was for Old Hammer, who was also in his seventies, with multiple ailments, and passed away half a year ago.

Further away was the grave of Madam Nasa, Gray Shark’s mother, who also in her sixties, died of a lung infection.

Now the oldest in the shelter is Jeff Connally, acting as the priest, also in his late sixties. He had been infected once and is in poor health. It’s uncertain how much longer he will live.

Old Beck had no children, and the funeral ended hastily, with most of the attendees quietly dispersing.

"Gray Shark" hobbled over on crutches to his mother’s grave, placing a bunch of wildflowers of unknown origin on the bare mound, crying out ’Mom’ several times in grief.

Zhou Qingfeng stood behind him, unable to find any words of comfort, could only let him cry his heart out.

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A year ago, Zhou Qingfeng infiltrated the US Military’s secret virus laboratory in the town of ’Macon’, obtaining a batch of X Virus enhancers, conveniently killing the lab director and many researchers.

The enhancer must be stored at low temperatures, as it becomes ineffective at room temperature—Zhou Qingfeng had it injected into those around him in time, but the enhancement effect only manifested in Gray Shark.

Originally confined to a wheelchair, Gray Shark’s atrophied leg muscles and nerves began to grow again, allowing him to stand with the help of crutches.

Others weren’t so fortunate, at best only having enhanced immune systems.

Soon after, the X Virus evolved into the highly deadly and easily spread ’Delta’ strain, ravaging the globe.

The human population plummeted by three-quarters. Particularly in the less developed countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America, some once bustling cities became uninhabited, with billions reduced to skeletons.

Society and the economy collapsed entirely, industry and agriculture halted, and service industries were devastated.

Before the outbreak, Zhou Qingfeng had prepared dozens of shelters across the United States, which sheltered several thousand people in times of crisis.

For instance, the ’playground’ shelter mainly housed employees from the now-dissolved ’Electric Flight’ in the United States’ ’Dongda’, numbering around a hundred people.

Initially, there was plenty of food and drink, and life in the shelter was akin to living in heaven. But within just a year, various problems began to arise from this enclosed lifestyle.

For example, the photovoltaic power system’s inverter burned out a few days ago, and the shelter, lacking backup power, experienced a complete outage.

Fortunately, there was no shortage of electricians among the ’Electric Flight’ staff, so replacing a backup inverter was enough to allow the shelter residents to continue finding joy amidst suffering.

Moreover, Zhou Qingfeng had once purchased an ’MRI’ machine at a high price, deliberately choosing a ’helium-free’ model.

But when Old Beck fell ill recently and needed to have a check-up with it, they found no one in the shelter knew how to use the machine—with just about a hundred people, each was required to master multiple skills, but professional doctors were still too few.

The issues mentioned above were still solvable, with spare parts available. If not, they simply endured. But there was a problem they couldn’t ignore—the gender ratio in the shelter was ’ten to one’, and Zhou Qingfeng alone held most of the ’female resources’.

This was not something that could be shared, and for the sake of internal unity, it had to be resolved.

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After the funeral, Xiao Jinlang came to find Zhou Qingfeng. In a simple room, they discussed how to make the shelter’s internal environment more "harmonious".

Xiao Jinlang held a crumpled cigarette in his hand, not lighting it but just sniffing it, speaking in a veteran’s tone:

"When I was in the system before, there were dedicated officers responsible for caring about employees’ family lives. Anyone with difficulties, family disputes, or even troubles in marriage would have their issues resolved.

Back when ’Electric Flight’ sent their staff to the United States, they were all men.

We gathered everyone together, kept each other warm, and could endure day by day, but over time, morale would break down."

He paused, looking sharply at Zhou Qingfeng with a hint of mockery: "You’re our leader, so it’s fair for you to have some privileges.

But the other guys see you with your entourage of ladies while they can only keep company with ’the five sisters’, and there are already quite a few grievances."

Xiao Jinlang flicked the ashes and continued: "We need to take pre-emptive measures to keep the spirit and motivation of our brothers.

The best solution is to introduce some female residents, let the guys get married, which will also alleviate the gender imbalance in the shelter."

Zhou Qingfeng naturally understood the reasoning behind this. For the longevity of the shelter, balancing the gender ratio is indeed crucial, otherwise internal conflicts would erupt.