novelbin 11: A Gathering of Outstanding People
11: A Gathering of Outstanding People
"Young man? What are you doing here? When did you get back? Where is the others?"
Beside the notice board, an elderly man with a buzz cut, who looked to be in his sixties, asked. He was slightly out of breath as he spoke, his tone hurried, but his eyes revealed concern.
The woman standing by the wall didn't move, continuing to peel the dead skin off her hands with her head down, acting as if it was none of her business. The others, however, were all listening intently, their eyes fixed on Su Chen.
Su Chen glanced quickly at the notice board and, seeing that the number of residents hadn't changed, felt a little relieved. He then spoke half-truthfully, "I don't know about the others, but I was pushed into the fog and got lost for a long time before I finally managed to find my way back to the community."
As he spoke, he glanced at the woman by the wall out of the corner of his eye. She didn't even lift her eyelids, preoccupied with fiddling with her hands, completely detached from the situation.
Looking around, none of the people who saw him return last night stood up to expose him.
"Did none of them come downstairs, or did they each have their own plans?"
Su Chen pondered this in his heart, but didn't show it on his face.
Just then, a sharp voice suddenly rang out, its target Su Chen:
"Ha! You got pushed? Who would believe that! We have no grudge against each other, why would anyone bother to harm you? You cowardly deserter, a deserter who ran away from the battlefield!"
From the crowd, a woman with three layers of "spare tires" around her waist stepped forward, hands on her hips. Following her lead, several other women pointed and whispered among themselves.
"Exactly, exactly. You all went out together, and you were the only one who came back early. Who would believe you if you said nothing happened?"
"Put yourself in their shoes, if any of us came back like this, we'd probably be suspected too, right?"
"Words are not enough; we need evidence."
"Indeed, we'll believe you as long as you can provide evidence."
Su Chen's eyes turned cold. Ignoring everyone else, he stared at the "three-layer swimming ring": "Whether I'm a deserter or not, whether someone pushed me or not, you'll know when the others come back. I have no obligation to prove myself."
"Besides, even if I really am a deserter, what's it to you? Did I eat your rice? Did I take your meat?"
The man with the "three-layer swimming ring" sternly snorted and pointed at Su Chen's nose, pressing closer: "You're a grown man, and you have no sense of responsibility at all! You get upset when I say a few words to you. With you acting like this, what woman will ever want you..."
Su Chen didn't let her finish speaking and retorted directly: "Shut up, what business is it of yours to meddle in my affairs? Go cool off somewhere else, you gossip."
"You...you actually insulted me? Don't you have any manners? Huh! You scoundrel!" "Three-layer swimming ring" was so angry that he bared his teeth, cursing as he rolled up his sleeves, ready to fight.
Su Chen wasn't going to put up with her; his hand was already on the Nepalese katana.
Want to bully him?
impossible!
In the current environment, if he backs down, he will only be seen as someone who is easy to bully, and he will be bullied endlessly in the future.
Therefore, he had long harbored the idea of taking action to establish his authority.
"Hey, hey, don't fight! Peace is the most important thing! Peace is the most important thing!"
The short-haired old man quickly jogged over and stood between the two. He pretended to block the "three-layer swimming ring," whispered a few words of advice, and led the man back. Then he turned around and quickly walked to Su Chen's side, pulling him towards the notice board.
"Young man, control your temper. We don't argue with women, right? With this energy, you could use it to deal with those human-faced owls! You could kill them and get a share of the supplies!" the old man advised.
"Didn't they return them?" Su Chen asked. "Also, what's this about distributing supplies?"
"Those things will come in several waves, just like yesterday!" the old man sighed. "Sigh, I wonder when it will end..."
"As for supplies... the property management found some rice, flour, and oil, which were originally intended for residents who prepaid their property fees. Now they're being managed by the 'temporary management team,' and anyone willing to 'slap the owl in the face' can get some!"
"A temporary management team?" Su Chen's heart skipped a beat. "It seems that while I was away, the community wasn't idle; they even elected people to take charge."
"Sir, who are the people in this group? What's their background?" he then asked.
"They're all reliable people. There are veterans, former police officers, and a few older women who are leading people to clear the green belt in preparation for planting vegetables. The group has everything arranged, and everyone will get a share once the vegetables are harvested."
The old man continued, "Young man, what about that matter I just mentioned? What's your decision? Are you going or not?"
"Sure, but I don't know where to get weapons. Do you have guns? Or cannons or something?" Su Chen asked tentatively.
"Whoa! Where did you get these guns? We made all our own weapons. The temporary management team only has kitchen knives, let alone cannons."
"Don't be afraid, young man! As long as you're careful, you usually won't get hurt!" The old man patted Su Chen's shoulder with a smile, his eyes full of encouragement.
Is the only thing visible to the naked eye a knife?
You can't believe everything you hear, but at least you don't have to worry too much about being forced to do something against your will.
After thinking for a moment, Su Chen said, "Alright, old man, who should I sign up with? Can you give me directions? I'd like to get a spear and try killing a few owls."
"Good lad, you've got guts!" The old man gave him a thumbs up.
Then he pulled a small notebook out of his back pocket and asked with a smile, "What's your name, young man? I'll register it for you, and then you can go help out over there by the wall."
Good heavens, here's what they've been waiting for me... Su Chen looked at the old man, his lips twitching involuntarily.
Old ginger is spicier; he chatted for ages just to trick me into going to the front lines.
Fortunately, he was just putting on an act; otherwise, he might have been tricked by the old man.
"Su Chen, from Unit 1, Building 2, Room 1802, volunteered to fight off the human-faced owl. Applause!"
The old man stuffed the notebook back into his pocket, then raised one of Su Chen's hands and loudly introduced him to the people around him.
The crowd paused for a moment, then burst into applause.
The women who had been swayed by the "three-layer swimming ring" had changed their gaze towards Su Chen, becoming much gentler.
"Dude, that's tough!"
"You're a real man! From now on, if anyone calls you a deserter again, I, Wang Laoba, will be the first to object!"
"Those guys who were muttering about earlier, now you know whether that guy is a deserter or not, right? Don't talk nonsense without evidence in the future. We need to unite! Unite!"
"It's a pity I have children to take care of at home, otherwise I would definitely go to the front lines and fight alongside you, brother!"
……
After registering, Su Chen didn't stay any longer.
He followed the old man's directions and walked towards the section of the wall that was most severely damaged.
He paused as he passed the central lake area.
On the grassy lakeside, three or five plump middle-aged women were teaching a few young girls how to use a hoe. The women chatted and laughed as they spoke, while the girls looked at the blisters on their hands, pursed their lips, tears welling up in their eyes, their faces filled with grievance.
Looking further afield, there were more than a dozen fishermen sitting by the lake. Each of them was guarding four or five fishing rods, and some even had more than a dozen, without moving, as focused as if they were meditating.
Just then, a young man in a police uniform walked by. Su Chen stopped him and asked, "Hey buddy, will we all share these fish once we catch them?"
"Yes." The young policeman nodded.
"All resources in the community belong to all residents. Whether it's fishing or land reclamation, all the harvest belongs to the collective and is distributed according to labor."
"There is only one exception—the temporary management team will not forcibly take away the spoils brought back by those who go out to explore."
"They risked their lives to earn 'public survival points' for the community, which is a huge contribution in itself. We can't force them to hand over their earnings for distribution..."
The young policeman explained patiently.
Su Chen was startled upon hearing this and pressed for an answer: "Can going out to explore really increase the number of public survival points in the community?"
"It's true, it's been confirmed. Didn't you come to the meeting this morning?" The young policeman glanced at Su Chen, a subtle, unusual glint in his eyes, before explaining:
"Then I'll tell you again."
"After the expedition team left the community yesterday, four messages popped up on the computer in the property management office about the increase in public survival points."
"It is clearly stated above that these newly added points all come from the expedition team's exploration."
"Look, I have photos here."
The young policeman turned on his phone and held up a photo in front of Su Chen.
It is a record of changes in public survival points:
[Gray Fog World Exploration +1, Public Survival Points +100]
[Gray Fog World Exploration +5, Public Survival Points +500]
[Gray Fog World Exploration +8, Public Survival Points +800]
[Gray Fog World Exploration +12, Public Survival Points +1200]
"Although we do not know exactly which brave person completed these explorations, we must not forget their contributions."
"Besides exploring the gray fog world and resisting the attacks of those human-faced owls, you can also earn public survival points for the community."
"Both of these types of people are heroes to our community!"
"Young man, you look quite sturdy. You should learn from these people and stop sleeping in so late. In this world, you can't build a future just by sleeping." The young policeman spoke with a certain air of physique, pointed and gestured, then turned and left.
Su Chen stood there, relieved, and almost laughed out loud.
I thought my whereabouts yesterday were going to be exposed!
The lousy computer only showed the exploration progress and points, without mentioning who did it!
It was a false alarm.
"call--"
Su Chen breathed a sigh of relief and walked briskly towards the wall.
Just then, an extremely angry roar suddenly exploded from behind:
"Stop right there! You bitch! You slut!"
Su Chen was taken aback—why did that voice sound so familiar?
Looking back, I saw that it was Instant Noodle Guy chasing a woman, frantically pulling up his pants as he did so.
"What's going on? You're not satisfied after you've finished eating, and you want to come again?" Su Chen chuckled to himself.
"Why didn't you say so earlier if you were fucking sick!" Instant Noodle Guy pulled his pants up to his waist, not having time to fasten his belt, so he could only grip the waistband tightly, shouting in shock and anger.
"If I told you I have AIDS, would you still feed me instant noodles?" the woman running ahead retorted confidently, then led the instant noodle guy away like she was walking a dog.
"Outrageous."
Su Chen withdrew his gaze and quickened his pace toward the wall.
……
Standing by the wall, Su Chen looked around.
The second wave of attacks from the human-faced owl hadn't arrived yet. The men responsible for guarding the area gathered together, doing the final processing of a pile of timber delivered by logistics.
They used various household knives of different sizes to carefully whittle wood, slowly shaping it into a spearhead that could be inserted into an iron pipe.
Is this a homemade weapon? Can a wooden point really kill that thing? ... Su Chen wondered to himself, but remained outwardly calm, silently blending into the crowd. He drew his Nepalese kukri from his back waist, squatted down, and began to work on a piece of wood.
The scimitar was extremely sharp; a single, light stroke could slice off a large piece of wood. In no time, Su Chen had finished crafting four spearheads.
"Wow! Brother, that knife is amazing!" A burly, dark-faced man next to him gave a thumbs-up in admiration, his eyes shining as he stared at the curved knife in Su Chen's hand.
"It was passed down from my ancestors, nothing to brag about," Su Chen said without hesitation.
They were both men; he understood that look all too well.
If you don't make it clear that the other party will definitely take advantage of the situation and want to borrow it to take a look.
It's easy to lend something out, but hard to get it back.
Su Chen dislikes being passive, so she feels no guilt whatsoever when lying.
Sure enough, upon hearing that it was an "inherited" craft, the dark-faced man was too embarrassed to ask to borrow it again. The others around him also withdrew their eager gazes and lowered their heads to continue whittling wood and making spearheads.
After whittling a few more pieces of wood, Su Chen looked at the thirteen finished spearheads in the bag, patted the sawdust off his legs, and stood up.
He twirled the scimitar in his hand, picked up the bag containing the gun barrels, walked towards a man wearing a red armband not far away, and took a steel pipe.
After getting the steel pipe, Su Chen took out a gun tip from the cloth bag, made some minor repairs, and then inserted it into one end of the steel pipe.
To make the gun tip more firmly embedded, he gripped the steel pipe and slammed it vertically into the ground several times, using the momentum to press it in place.
With the spear ready, Su Chen securely fastened the scimitar to his belt at his back. He closed his eyes and recalled for a moment, then began to mimic the spear-wielding movements of generals in old TV dramas.
Amidst the whooshing sound of the gun tip cutting through the air, Su Chen was completely focused: his eyes were fixed on the trajectory of the gun tip, his ears were listening to the wind, his body was sensing the direction of the force, and his mind was constantly analyzing the differences and changes in the movements.
The Nepalese kukri is too short; it requires close-quarters combat to use. Right now, only this homemade spear can provide Su Chen with some safe distance.
Recalling the night Xu Ermazi died—that giant human-faced owl that climbed the wall, made a human-like laugh, and exuded a strange malice—Su Chen practiced even more diligently.
This is for survival; we can't be lazy!
After practicing for a while, he felt that he was almost there.
If I continue practicing, not only will my hands hurt and I feel mentally exhausted, but my physical strength will also be greatly depleted, and I probably won't be able to hold on for the next defensive battle.
Thinking of this, Su Chen dragged his spear toward the place where the crowd was resting, where there were benches to sit on.
But suddenly a voice full of "wisdom" rang out from the crowd ahead, freezing him in place:
"elder brother!"
"You said those human-faced owls look pretty fat, but... can you eat them?"
With a bang, Su Chen's scalp tingled.
Why do some people think about eating everything they see?
You'd be crazy to think they're edible! Can't you see they all have human faces?
This is absolutely outrageous! It's ridiculous that they opened the door for someone so ridiculous! Our neighborhood is truly full of talented people and outstanding individuals!