Su Chen was putting some of the hides and meat into the refrigerated truck.
He also took out some furniture he had brought from the landlord's home, intending to burn it.
Space inside the refrigerated truck was limited.
Some of the wooden furniture was hardly necessary.
Su Chen was a good cook himself, and he returned to the fire to grill meat.
He also called out to Yang Defa, "Come eat!"
Yang Defa accepted without fuss, sat down with Su Chen, and began grilling meat.
The first batch of grilled meat was delivered to the cabs of the refrigerated truck and the cargo truck.
Su Xi was in one vehicle, and Wang Xiumei was in the other.
For now, the vehicles were the safest place.
Su Chen would not let Su Xi get out, and Yang Defa would not let his wife leave the truck casually.
It was an unspoken understanding between the two men.
"Eat more. It might help you acquire a Sequence."
"But there's no telling whether a Sequence is good or bad. A Sequence comes at a price.
"Just making your body stronger is pretty good, too."
As Su Chen grilled the bear meat, he shared those reflections with Yang Defa.
"In this fucked-up world, who cares about the price?"
Yang Defa sighed as well.
He had been watching from the sidelines earlier and had felt some pressure, too.
Facing that kind of monster, he really felt he could die at any moment.
Su Chen ate a skewer of grilled beast meat.
He had to admit it.
Once grilled, the meat was not tough at all. Instead, it was delicate and tender, with a mouthwatering aroma.
Su Chen felt it would have counted as top-quality meat even before the apocalypse.
More importantly, his abdomen felt slightly warm after eating it.
He wondered.
Could it improve his Sequence ability?
"Share some among yourselves, too!"
After eating, Su Chen grilled some for the people in raincoats as well.
These people were all decent folk from Banyan Tree Village.
They were far more disciplined than the other lax survivors.
He was giving them a small favor so it would be easier to assign them work later.
Huang Wei was by the fire, grilling the organs he needed.
He ate all those organs by himself.
The communal meal was also being prepared.
It really was one big pot of food.
Rice and water were put in a large pot, along with some sausages and seasonings.
Su Chen was not actually going to deny the ordinary people every scrap of meat.
He sent over a few pounds so everyone could have some bits of meat.
But despite Su Chen's warnings, some people still touched the snow without restraint.
Kind words could not save those bent on dying!
Huang Wei only cared for the organs, so he shared some of his meat as well.
Zhang Xiaomeng helped prepare the communal meal.
Xiao Zixia had passed out, but arrangements still had to be made for the survivors from Xintang Town.
They already knew the group's rules.
Most chose to join the Big Pot Rice Team.
From among them, Su Chen selected a bespectacled teacher named Chen Siwen to manage the school bus for the time being.
A few others remembered Xiao Zixia's kindness and were waiting for her to wake up.
The rest were Individual Households.
The kind who were responsible for their own gains and losses.
These people did not get a single scrap of the giant bear's meat.
That included Gao Yue and Fan Hui.
Cold!
It was so cold!
Gao Yue and Fan Hui huddled in their car, shivering.
The car's window had been broken at the gas station, letting the cold wind blow inside.
They had no heating equipment, either.
They could not get a single bite of hot food and could only stave off their hunger with snacks.
Even the water in the car had frozen.
Gao Yue held the icy water against her belly to melt it, then took a couple of sips.
"Should we go join Huang Wei's group, too?"
Fan Hui wanted to switch sides.
"We could even go to the school bus."
Fan Hui also knew that Xiao Zixia was a new Sequence holder.
"Go ahead!"
Gao Yue indicated that Fan Hui could leave right now.
She regretted it.
If Fan Hui had not screwed her over, she would certainly have been living well.
But things had come to this, and she could only follow this path to the bitter end.
Gao Yue thought that if Fan Hui left her, she could take the opportunity to ask Su Chen for forgiveness and ease their relationship.
Unfortunately,
Fan Hui saw that Gao Yue wanted to abandon her.
She said a great deal, but never left the car.
Gao Yue did not actually drive Fan Hui away, either.
In truth, she needed someone to keep her company.
After everyone finished eating, the bonfires remained lit.
Quite a few people rested beside the fires, leaning against things and preparing to sleep.
Gao Yue and Fan Hui did the same.
The two sneaked out of the car and approached a fire.
But they felt rather frustrated.
They had not eaten their fill earlier, and now all kinds of food aromas surrounded them again.
It was as though they were being targeted.
Of course, neither dared voice her anger now.
The latter half of the night passed.
Dawn arrived.
With the snow falling, the sky was gray and did not look much brighter.
Of course, it was still more comforting to look at than the Red Moon.
Beneath the Red Moon,
everything always felt like a blood-soaked battlefield.
Only ashes remained of the lines of fire lit the night before.
The flames had been extinguished by melted snow.
Suddenly, everyone noticed several small hills to the west.
The snow on those hills had melted, exposing black chunks of coal.
The coal mine was in sight.
"A coal mine!"
Someone cried out in surprise.
Coal could keep them warm.
In this world of ice and snow, it was truly vital.
At that moment,
before Su Chen could say anything, some people impatiently started their vehicles.
Yang Defa, meanwhile, looked toward Su Chen again from among the crowd.
Yesterday, Su Chen had only told them to light the fires, without saying why.
It had actually been for the coal mine!
Unlike petroleum, coal could not fuel their vehicles.
But it was indispensable for boiling water and cooking food.
Without Su Chen, they might never have discovered the coal mine right under their noses.
"Let's go!"
"Let's take a look!"
Su Chen called for the others to get into their vehicles, then set off toward the coal mine.
While the others cared about the coal,
Su Chen cared more about the good stuff mentioned in the intelligence.
In fact, he already had a guess.
A coal mine needed loaders and excavators to dig up and transport coal.
As well as coal trucks.
The importance of vehicles while fleeing the apocalypse went without saying.
With more versatile loaders and excavators, the convoy would immediately grow much stronger.
They would also be able to handle some unexpected situations.
So,
Su Chen's targets were the heavy machines inside the mine.
If they wanted to escape the hunting ground, they had to push the snow aside.
Before long,
everyone reached the coal mine, and many rushed to dig up coal.
Su Chen glanced at the Intelligence System. The intelligence had not refreshed.
That was good news.
It meant the dangers around them were more or less the same as before.
"Let's go find some vehicles!"
Ignoring the people loading coal, Su Chen called Yang Defa and Huang Wei over.
Those vehicles had surely all been buried in snow.
Su Chen and the others began clearing it away.
Soon,
they dug out the first excavator.
Its body was yellow.
The large letters read SANY.
"Great!"
Huang Wei was also thrilled at the sight of the machine before him.
He suddenly understood Su Chen's thinking.
Driving through the snow was truly difficult.
With excavators and loaders, they would undoubtedly move much faster.
To do a job well, one first had to have the right tools.
There was no key in this excavator. Who knew whether its operator had been taken away?
But Yang Defa used to repair vehicles.
He took an iron rod and briefly bridged the terminals on the starter motor. Before long, the excavator rattled to life.
"Officer Huang, could you ask around and see if anyone knows how to operate this?"
Su Chen sent Huang Wei to find someone who could operate an excavator.
A minute later,
Huang Wei brought over a driver named Lei Zhenghao.
He used to work on construction sites.
With the excavator, clearing the snow became much faster.
At the foot of the coal hills,
several vehicles came into view.
The survivors who had been collecting coal could not help gathering around, too.
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