Chapter Ninety-One: The Plan

Liu Qiang’s words made Yang Fan feel that he might be right. He seemed to be exactly like that himself: whenever he encountered a problem, he ran, he evaded, instead of facing it bravely. If this continued, then perhaps one day, when he truly met with something severe, the suffering would be many times greater than any happiness he had ever known.

If that happened, he would be reduced to misery beyond endurance. Thinking of this, Yang Fan fell silent for a long while. He sat down hard on the ground, not because he had been crushed by Liu Qiang’s words, but because he was reflecting, reflecting on everything he had done before. Fu Gaobin and Wang Cheng guarded Yang Fan closely, fearing that someone might take advantage of his condition and launch a surprise attack.

Fortunately, nothing happened. After nearly two hours of silence, Yang Fan stood up, brushed the dust from his clothes, and walked toward Liu Qiang. The guards beside Liu Qiang instantly grew tense and moved closer to him, clearly loyal to the death.

“It’s fine,” Liu Qiang said. He was no ordinary man; he had seen more and endured more than these people ever had. So he lifted his head and chest, looking straight at Yang Fan without the slightest trace of fear. He knew that if Yang Fan truly wanted to kill him, it would be easy. No matter what he did, it would be pointless.

So rather than struggle against that, he might as well be calm now. When Yang Fan reached him, he did nothing at all, merely extended his hand, which sent everyone’s hearts hammering with tension.

“You work for the people; I work for the ones I need to protect. Let us work together.” Yang Fan revealed a rare smile, and in an instant the tense atmosphere eased. Many people unconsciously showed expressions of relief. Liu Qiang also let out a breath, then shook Yang Fan’s hand and said, “I hope we can cooperate well.”

“Mm, good.” Yang Fan nodded, smiling all over, then looked at the others and raised his hand. “For the future, for ourselves, for hope, what we need is courage. Cast aside cowardice. I am now discussing with Commander Liu Qiang how to deal with monsters even stronger than the mutated beasts. Everyone, wait and see. I look forward to your blood growing hot!”

Yang Fan’s words were forceful and resonant, stirring everyone’s hearts. It was a call that drew a hundred responses. The fear and dread in their hearts vanished completely. Afterwards, Liu Qiang and Yang Fan went into a sleeper compartment and sat facing each other.

“What do you have in mind?”

That was Yang Fan’s first question. Liu Qiang’s answer made his expression change slightly.

“Is ‘God’ your ID?”

Liu Qiang glanced outside. His weathered face was marked by the traces of time, carrying a kind of wisdom. Though he was in his forties, he had clearly suffered much from wind and frost; he was obviously a man with a story of his own. He placed his hands on his knees, looked out at the falling snow, drew in a deep breath, and slowly began to speak.

“I am from the capital. I’ve had a fiery temper since I was a child, and in the village I liked nothing better than causing trouble. I never committed any great crime, but the little ones never stopped. My parents were worn to the bone worrying over me. Then, as the eldest, I was sent into the army when I was twenty, and after that came twenty-five years of military life. During those two years of training, I came to understand many things. Most importantly, my captain died during one mission, taking a bullet for me. After that, I decided to stay in the army, and in the blink of an eye, twenty-five years passed.

“I went home at most once a year, sometimes not even that. I had two younger brothers and a younger sister. On the day the zombies broke out, I was still chatting with my family, but after that there was nothing. I know my family may have met with disaster. My mother was still waiting for me to go home after a while. I hadn’t been home in three years. When orders came from above, I did not go looking for my parents right away; instead I stayed in the city and fought the zombies. For more than ten days I lived in torment every day, but I knew my duty was to protect the people. I am a soldier of the nation, and my task is to use my body to shield everyone!”

By the end, Liu Qiang’s voice was filled with a kind of mad devotion. He was a soldier worthy of respect.

“So I solemnly ask you: for the thousands of refugees in the workshop, for my soldiers, for the people, please tell me the race that is even more formidable than the mutated beasts. I will send it upward. That will greatly increase our ability to survive, and our power to protect the people.”

With a thud, Liu Qiang knelt on the ground. His gaze was resolute as he bowed hard to Yang Fan. He truly was a soldier worthy of respect. Yang Fan drew a deep breath, slowly let it out, then helped Liu Qiang up. In truth, the post he had made on the forum had already made clear the weaknesses of the insect race; he had simply not revealed the name.

Now Yang Fan still did not want to say the name, but he wrote down the simple set of experience he understood and handed it to Liu Qiang. “I hope this will be useful to you.”

Liu Qiang took Yang Fan’s handwritten notes with some excitement, then said solemnly, “If humanity has a future, you will be the one with the greatest merit.”

“Perhaps,” Yang Fan said with a light smile. The future of humanity—where was it?

Liu Qiang then took the materials upstairs to deliver them to the higher command before leaving. Once outside, he lowered his head slightly and headed toward the first carriage, where there was a high-tech device that could transmit information upward. It could only be used a few times, and sometimes it worked, sometimes it did not. Looking at the documents in his hand, Liu Qiang’s mouth curved faintly, his face full of smiles. That smile looked as if a swindler had just cheated someone out of several million.

After Liu Qiang had been gone for an hour, he returned in high spirits and said, “The message was sent successfully. If what you said is true, the higher command will grant you supreme honor.”

“Honor? That’s secondary. Right now, let us think about how to deal with the situation at hand,” Yang Fan said. He was not a soldier like Liu Qiang. The only reason he had told him all this was that he had been moved by him, and also to avoid the fate of feeling sorrow for another’s downfall in the future.

“As for a response, now that we know the insect race’s weaknesses and traits, I think we should first make some weapons to deal with them, and at the same time carry out drills. Assuming our situation is neither too dangerous nor too calm, we can completely do it this way. Look.”

Liu Qiang took out a planning map. He already knew what kind of creature would be coming next, though he did not ask Yang Fan why he knew so much. Everyone had their own secrets; there was no need to say more about that.

What Liu Qiang said next, and what he arranged, went far beyond what Yang Fan had imagined. He could not help admiring him; as expected of someone from the military, Liu Qiang’s plan was flawless in every respect.

First occupy the surrounding strongpoints, then form teams of ten. Some would be responsible for containment, some for treatment, some for attack. In the last two days they would conduct drills, then hide the vehicles somewhere, burying them in snow, while telling the refugees to make as little noise as possible.

The insect race would search for prey by smell and body heat. The workshop should open its ventilation, and the refugees would have to endure it a little. Then the refugees should relieve themselves in a designated place to lure the insects over. In that case, according to the strategy, there would basically be no problem.

But the most important point was that he had overlooked one thing...

Thank you to Brother Tan Ai Shang Gan Qing for the generous support.