Apocalyptic Reincarnation: Start with a 30-million Bonus

Big Camphor Tree Base, at the main gate.

He Chao arrived with a full truckload of cement, followed by 4 vehicles carrying various construction materials.

Their trucks were light-duty, with a carrying capacity of around 5 tons.

Li Yu and Second Uncle, among others, stood on the fence watching them.

He Chao looked up at Li Yu on the fence and said, "Director Li, you're going to honor the deal we discussed earlier, right?"

Li Yu watched them, expressing surprise, not expecting that just one day later, they had transported so much construction material.

And these materials were definitely not sourced from nearby areas because the local supplies had already been collected by Li Yu and his team.

It seems that hunger is a powerful motivator.

What Li Yu and his people didn't know was that He Chao's team had put in a lot of effort to acquire these construction materials.

Not to mention, they faced a group of ravenous zombies during transport, resulting in the loss of two workers.

And because of melting snow on the roads making them too slippery, one of the vehicles overturned, injuring two people.

Otherwise, there would have been more than just these 5 vehicles arriving.

Seeing this, Li Yu nodded and said, "I keep my word. The 5 vehicles' drivers can come in. The rest of you wait outside."

He Chao readily replied, "Okay, we'll drive in."

Li Yu turned to Li Hang and said, "Open the gate, let them in."

Bai Jie from the Research Room in Weng City had been asked to leave earlier.

At this time, atop the walled enclosure of Weng City stood a dozen people, each holding a gun.

Their eyes were vigilant, carefully watching the people below.

Li Yu descended from the fence, followed by Dapao, Li Tie, Ding Jiu, and other workers.

He Chao slowly entered the base, and just as the five trucks pulled into Weng City, the gate behind them closed with a thud.

This made He Chao a bit nervous, but after giving it some thought, he figured he had nothing worth coveting.

So he blurted out quite straightforwardly, "Director Li, all five trucks are in, shall we start the inspection?"

Li Yu nodded and said, "No need to make it complicated. There's a weighbridge on the right, just drive the trucks over there to check."

He Chao was a bit surprised, having thought that just inspecting the goods would take quite a while; he didn't expect that Li Yu's side would actually have a weighbridge.

With this device, things would be much simpler.

The trucks slowly drove onto the weighbridge, a weight was recorded, and then Ding Jiu and others began unloading the items from the trucks.

After all the goods were offloaded, the vehicles were driven onto the weighbridge again for another reading.

Subtracting the two values provided the final weight.

After Ding Jiu and the others finished unloading and checking, they quietly reported to Li Yu.

Li Yu had a rough idea and said to He Chao with a smile, "According to our previous agreement, we've just calculated it.

That's 26.3 tons in total—5 tons of cement, 15 tons of rebar, and 6.3 tons of stone.

In exchange, that comes to 38.3 jin of rice."

He then took out the rice bags that had been prepared.

Seeing the large sacks of rice, He Chao hurriedly said, "Director Li, could we divide it into ten portions?"

Li Yu looked at He Chao and nodded, "Sure, no problem."

He then had Song Min distribute the goods into ten equal shares.

Into smaller bags, they went.

After receiving the rice, He Chao's face lit up with excitement, and he immediately began distributing it to the people around him.

Those who came with He Chao, upon receiving the bags of rice, also revealed expressions of excitement.

Li Yu watched their reactions and said with a smile, "Alright, that concludes our transaction. If you have other stuff in the future, feel free to come and trade."

He Chao nodded appreciatively and said, "Mhm, thank you, Director Li. Fellows, let's pull out."

Li Yu looked at He Chao with a satisfied expression, knowing the importance of profit-sharing; after securing food, he distributed it immediately. This way of doing things would make others want to work with him.

He may not know about other aspects, but at least in this regard, he's handling it well.

After a few more cooperations, it would be worth seeing if he can demonstrate any prowess. Maybe he could even be invited to join.

Thinking of this, Li Yu watched their vehicle leave Weng City while he tucked away his gun.

Outside the wall, as soon as He Chao and others left the wall, He Chao distributed the items he carried to some people who hadn't made it into Weng City.

Although 38.3 pounds of rice seemed like quite a bit, when divided among the people following He Chao, each person only received 3.83 pounds.

With just under 4 pounds, if you consume about 4 ounces of rice a day, you could eat for 10 days.

Now, in these post-apocalyptic times, being able to eat, and to eat one's fill of white rice every day, that's a luxury.

It's impossible to expect to eat one's fill every day, consuming a pound of rice.

Who lives like that in a post-apocalyptic world?

After more than a year of the apocalypse, they had all grown accustomed:

To not eat at all if they were not working or exerting themselves in some way.

If they drink porridge once a day, this 3.83 pounds of rice could last them over twenty days.

For people who have gone hungry many days after enduring a brutal winter,

Having anything to eat at all, enough to ensure survival, was already a blessing.

After receiving his share of rice, He Chao's hands trembled.

Since the apocalypse erupted, his parents, his wife, all had successively died at the mouths of zombies, and his wife had starved to death during the apocalypse.

Originally he had two children, and after the rest of his family passed away, he was left with the two kids.

But the younger daughter died from the cold, in the frigid and starving conditions of this winter.

Now his older daughter, not yet 11 years old, has been malnourished ever since the start of the apocalypse, and at 11, she looks barely 9.

At an age when children should be growing, how can they develop without food?

Moreover, they hadn't had any normal food for three days already.

Every day, they would just eat some tree bark to fill their stomachs.

Not far from Big Camphor Tree Base, near the gas station, these people huddled together for warmth.

In fact, there were not only a few people like He Chao in this situation, some who had it worse were left all alone after the apocalypse and one cold winter.

"Good girl, Xiao Ya, Daddy's back," exclaimed He Chao as he ran excitedly into the room.

On the stool sat a girl peeling tree bark, her blond hair shining; hearing the familiar voice behind her, the young girl turned her head joyfully and saw it was her father.

She stood up, but because her body was so weak, she stumbled and almost fell.

He Chao quickly steadied her and said, "Take it slow."

Xiao Ya didn't mind her near fall and happily said, "Dad, you're finally back."

But out of the corner of her eye, seeing the tree bark she had been grinding, her pale face slightly furrowed and she said:

"Dad, after eating the tree bark, Auntie Xiao Dang had constipation and her belly's been bloated all day.

I've been looking for some of the tenderest bark, but there's not much left now."

Hearing his daughter speak, He Chao instantly felt a sharp bite of guilt.

So he brought out the rice that he had been hiding behind his back, saying:

"Xiao Ya, we can have porridge today. Yesterday, didn't we scavenge some wild mushrooms? We can cook them into the porridge."

Xiao Ya excitedly took it, then seeing the white, glistening rice inside the bag, she became extremely joyful.

But after a short moment of joy, tears suddenly began to stream down her face.

Tears as large as beans, impossible to stop.

He Chao caressed his daughter's head, saying:

"Daddy will trade for more food later on, Xiao Ya, so don't cry anymore.

We have food now. You didn't cry when we had none, why cry now that we do?"

Xiao Ya's voice choked with sobs:

"I thought of my little sister; if we had had food then, maybe she wouldn't have died. I just..."

At her words, He Chao shuddered.

In that moment.

His heart felt like it was being crushed by iron fists

Leaving him utterly breathless.