The settlement's forty thousand people were soon assembled.
Everyone felt that the assembly suddenly called today was no ordinary one.
The survivors buzzed with speculation.
In the more than six months since they had gathered here, only three general assemblies had been held.
Each had concerned matters of the utmost importance, such as restoring the rule of law, the military, and the various law enforcement departments, or announcing a ten-year plan to give the survivors a direction, with production expected to be gradually restored over ten years...
It could be said that those first three assemblies had established the settlement's current peace and order, ensuring stability and development to the greatest extent possible.
Today was the fourth assembly, and there had been no advance notice whatsoever.
On top of that, word of Zhang Tianyuan's group arriving in force yesterday had already spread throughout the settlement.
Many people instinctively felt that today's assembly must also have something to do with Zhang Tianyuan and his people.
Under everyone's gaze, Zhang Tianyuan sat in the front row with Bai Xu, Yin Hongda, and the other vanguard members. Behind them were the settlement's pregnant women, quite a few of them-at least three or four hundred.
With the settlement's current standard of medical care, surgery could not yet be performed safely. Once a pregnancy was discovered too late, they could only let nature take its course.
Over time, the number of pregnant women had inevitably grown.
Zhang Tianyuan also spotted A He among them.
This expectant mother, always silent yet strong within, had left quite an impression on him. He gave her a gentle smile before sitting down.
Before the meeting began, the staff were testing the equipment.
Tong Wenshi took advantage of this interval to bring four people over, introducing them to Zhang Tianyuan with exhaustion written all over his face:
"These four are the first core comrades of our Mutual Aid Society branch. They were only recruited last night."
Zhang Tianyuan had already risen when Tong Wenshi approached. After hearing his words, he turned his gaze naturally toward the four.
The four consisted of three men and one woman. They looked like young cadres in their thirties and were equally exhausted, their eyes wary and doubtful as they looked at Zhang Tianyuan.
Clearly, Tong Wenshi must have spent all of last night talking to them about the Mutual Aid Society.
Neither side had slept.
Tong Wenshi's efforts had borne some fruit. Although the four had yet to dispel the doubts in their hearts, they had at least agreed to accept positions in the Mutual Aid Society.
"Zhang Tianyuan, current president of the Mutual Aid Society." Zhang Tianyuan shook hands with the representative of the four.
Bai Xu also looked at the four with delighted surprise. "Hello, my name is
Bai Xu. I'm the representative dispatched to your spacetime by the Mutual Aid Society's First Branch!"
Instructor Yin and the others were equally delighted.
They could hardly help being happy.
Zhang Tianyuan had only just met up with them today and had not yet had time to tell them that Tong Wenshi had signed the member-state application last night.
As far as Bai Xu and the others knew, Tong Wenshi was still where he had been last night, when he went back saying he would think it over.
Now, all of a sudden, Tong Wenshi had brought four people over and introduced them straightaway as core members of the Mutual Aid Society's Second Branch.
How could they not be happy?
It meant Tong Wenshi had agreed to join the Mutual Aid Society and become their comrade across spacetime!
"Welcome, welcome!" Instructor Yin could barely contain his joy as he shook hands with all four people before him.
Meanwhile, Zhang Tianyuan and Tong Wenshi discussed matters off to the side.
Only when those onstage announced that preparations were complete did Tong Wenshi leave on his own and walk up alone onto the wooden speaking platform.
Zhang Tianyuan then assigned Bai Xu another task, asking him to bring over the team of virology experts who had not come to the assembly.
He was also to bring the virus data that Tong Wenshi had just passed on to them that morning.
The assembly officially began.
After a brief opening, Tong Wenshi first welcomed the survivors who had followed Zhang Tianyuan to the settlement yesterday. He then singled out the Mutual Aid Society to express his gratitude, already placing it on an equal footing with himself in his words.
Those few simple words immediately struck people as odd.
Many began whispering:
"What's going on? From what Director Tong is saying, aren't these people planning to merge with us?"
Tong Wenshi had been the director of a certain bureau before the great evacuation of the Imperial Capital.
"I heard these people set up an organization of their own, called the Mutual Aid Society..."
"You can tell at a glance how good their equipment is. Surely they aren't planning to set up on their own?"
The crowd below immediately grew uneasy, their whispers like the buzzing of a swarm of bees.
Many had never imagined this possibility.
Mainly because they did not believe that, at this critical juncture when their nation and people faced extinction, any schemer would still dare engage in plots.
Many even cast hateful looks toward the vanguard members seated at the front, leaving quite a few of them on pins and needles, afraid they might be pelted with stones the very next second.
Fortunately, Tong Wenshi did not suffer from a stutter and soon explained why he had singled out Zhang Tianyuan and the others.
"You must be wondering why, when we are calling
on the entire nation to unite as one and make a fortress of our common resolve, I would single out our friends from the Mutual Aid Society. Aren't they part of our country too?"
At this point, Tong Wenshi laughed. The laughter coming through the microphone was somewhat self-mocking. "In fact, I thought the same as you yesterday. I originally imagined that, at most, they were soldiers returning from our nuclear submarines-until I learned the Mutual Aid Society's true origins."
"It was something none of us could have imagined."
Tong Wenshi spoke with a deeply affecting air of wonder, whetting everyone's appetite.
The vanguard members seated at the front also breathed sighs of relief.
At last, the people behind them were no longer staring at them with hatred.
Curiosity had taken its place.
They, too, turned back and offered smiles.
Team Leader Bai and the administrative officers in the vanguard had all particularly stressed to them that the people of this spacetime shared their culture and ancestry, spoke the same language, and had a similar history, so they had to treat them as their true compatriots.
Tong Wenshi continued speaking onstage. He used no script; everything he said was improvised.
"You may not know this, but there is a concept in physics called parallel spacetimes. You can simply think of one as a world extremely similar to ours."
"And after our verification yesterday, it is very likely that our friends from the Mutual Aid Society come from a parallel spacetime extremely similar to ours."
"They are not, in fact, people of our world, but friends from another spacetime who, after learning that our spacetime was facing an apocalyptic crisis, decided without hesitation to come to our aid..."
Whoosh!
The entire gathering erupted like thunder.
Even though Tong Wenshi called for calm from the stage, he could not stop the startled, doubtful crowd.
Everyone stood on tiptoe, craning their necks to look toward the front.
Had there not been barriers and guards around the assembly grounds, some people would probably have circled around either side to get a close look at Zhang Tianyuan and his people.
Faced with such a spectacle, Wu Yisi and Mie Juan were a little nervous. Zhang Tianyuan patted their shoulders reassuringly.
Then he stood alone and turned around, facing the gazes of forty thousand people.
In their eyes, he saw suspicion, surprise, and anger, but above all, bewilderment.
Everyone was wondering.
Director Tong up there, whose organizational ability was first-rate, who had led so many survivors safely out of the Darkseeker-filled Imperial Capital all the way to the grasslands, while also restoring social order...
How had he been duped?!