Chapter 123: The Cangzhou Survivor Zone (4) The Insider

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Ye Liusun looked up at the sky and sighed deeply. "Heavens, is this going to be my virgin battle? Can you at least give me some clues?"

"What are we lacking? At the moment, we don’t seem to be missing any essentials..." His thoughts hit a dead end again.

"Zombies... Sigh, we’ve pretty much wiped out the zombies around us... The tens of thousands of zombies in the surrounding cities, nobody even takes them seriously. It's like chivalry breaking the law!"

In fact, among all the global survivor camps counted by the Special Committee, Cangzhou was the most stable, with the Committee's own base slightly less so. The main reason was that the Committee had to fight battles all over, defending the nation, while Cangzhou only needed to live its own quiet life.

Ye Liusun seemed to see himself holding a bowl, kneeling by the roadside, shouting, "Patriotic duty, patriotic duty..."

But no one paid him any mind. Everyone had been thoroughly deceived before and after the apocalypse.

That night, at the Huiyuan Hotel, the Special Committee’s office in Cangzhou, a night crawler arrived. Dressed in full night gear, avoiding the beams of the Committee’s searchlights, he crawled up like a gecko along the wall corner. Then, as if a bulge on the wall flattened, the whole movement flowed smoothly and silently, followed by a "plop."

The night crawler lifted his head from a puddle of water, only to be pressed at the forehead by a few strange blades and steel pipe guns. Behind the armored soldiers, no one uttered a word.

“It's a misunderstanding, a misunderstanding!” came the voice of a middle-aged man. He carefully removed his black cloth mask, lifted his head, and smiled warmly at the soldiers. “Comrades, I’m one of you, one of you.”

In the small meeting room, Ye Liusun, meticulously dressed in plate armor, received the visitor. Cangzhou was a place of hidden talents; he dared not be careless.

The night crawler, soaked with sweat, sat down. He looked at Ye Liusun and said, “The faint scent of lilies plays through the night, yet it carries the feathers of an eagle.”

Ye Liusun was momentarily stunned, then replied thoughtfully, "The rabbit god is a scoundrel."

“I am Wind 16, an intelligence officer from the National Security Department. My official identity before the apocalypse was the director of the Xinhua District Street Office in Cangzhou City, named Zhang Tianyang,” the middle-aged man said.

“I have been ordered by headquarters to assist with the work here.”

“Comrade Wind, thank you for your hard work! On behalf of the Special Committee, I extend my regards!” Ye Liusun, unexpectedly involved in an intelligence handover, warmly grasped Wind 16’s hands and shook them vigorously.

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Wind 16 broke free from Ye Liusun’s grip in a sealed manner and asked, “Is there anything you need my assistance with?”

Ye Liusun poured tea for him, and Wind 16 took a sip, praising, “Good tea! It’s hard to find such fresh leaves in Cangzhou nowadays.”

“We’ve noticed that despite the chaos in Cangzhou, everyone seems to share the same sentiment—they refuse to return to the nation. Why is that?” Ye Liusun found it strange. The locals’ unwillingness to reunite was obvious, but it wasn’t out of malice; it was more like children grown up wanting to break away from the family.

“Sigh,” Wind 16 sighed, “It’s mainly because some government actions before the apocalypse lost the people's trust. Although efforts were gradually made to correct these mistakes in the years before the end, regaining lost trust isn’t something done overnight.”

After the apocalypse, with no rescue arriving, it was the people of Cangzhou who formed various martial teams to eliminate the zombies. Naturally, some became overconfident warriors.

Then the Special Committee came to announce their takeover and grand ambitions to reclaim the entire country. The locals, living well on their own, resented these continued intrusions. No amount of lofty patriotism could persuade them; after all the idealistic appeals were exhausted, only resistance remained.

Though they retained some residual national sentiment deep down and would not violently oppose the Committee’s presence on their land, they absolutely refused to fight for tasks they had no will to undertake, feeling it wasn’t worth it.

Wind 16 stayed on, and for convenience, was given a room next door. In the coming days, he would serve as a behind-the-scenes guide for the United Front Department, so Ye Liusun wouldn’t be completely in the dark.

Ye Liusun sighed. The farther from Beijing, the more polarized the respect for national institutions.

It was mixed with the feeling of “the emperor is far away, the throne changes hands, and someday it might be my turn,” alongside a fear of authority—“not afraid of officials, only afraid of their power,” where the people were like iron and the law like a furnace.

They couldn’t fight, nor did they want to cooperate. Ye Liusun continued to scratch his head in frustration.

The door to the small meeting room was pushed open. A guard reported, “Wu Fengjun, former secretary-general of the Cangzhou municipal government, requests a meeting.”

At the conference table, Wu Fengjun and Ye Liusun sat facing each other.

“I am Wu Fengjun, former secretary-general of the Cangzhou municipal government. May I ask who you are, comrade?” Wu Fengjun tried to appear authoritative, but despite his efforts, Ye Liusun noticed a faint scar on his neck.

“I am Ye Liusun, Minister of the United Front Department of the Special Committee of the People’s Republic of China in the apocalypse. Comrade, thank you for your hard work.” The simple greeting carried genuine concern, but Wu Fengjun suddenly burst into tears...

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Minister Ye was greatly surprised but kept a calm expression, thinking, "Come on, you were already secretary-general before the apocalypse, and I’ve only been minister for a few months. What’s with the crying?"

Wiping his tears, Wu Fengjun said, “Cangzhou is a mess. They have no feelings for the national officials. During the apocalypse, they refused the city party committee and municipal government’s evacuation request. The mayor and party secretary are both dead...”

“Ah?”

“Minister Ye, you must send troops. These are rioters!”

“Secretary Wu, are you a party member?”

“Yes, I’ve been a party member for many years!”

“This time, related departments of our party committee have also sent personnel. You can organize the surviving party members among the populace to regroup.”

“I dare not, I dare not. Those rioters will kill me!” Wu Fengjun looked terrified and overturned his chair, collapsing to the ground, appearing utterly distraught.

“Hmm?”

After crying nearly all night, Wu Fengjun slipped away with tears as dawn approached, looking like a bullied young girl.

Wind 16 came out from the adjacent room, disdainfully saying, “Nonsense! It’s precisely their actions that caused us to lose the people's trust... They were supposed to be disciplined by June, but then the apocalypse happened.”

Worse still, on the day the apocalypse struck, a group of officials carried off their vast fortunes and live-streamed from the shelters. Space was already cramped, but they claimed the supplies were emergency aid. To make room, they even drove some people out to be devoured by zombies.

Eventually, their wealth was exposed, and even worse, they embezzled the scarce emergency relief grain. When the people found out that the pet food was actually their emergency rations, the outrage was complete.