The colleagues were reluctant to part with their food and wanted to drive them out.
Gu Feng’s father repeatedly pleaded with them, but they made a demand: to have Gu Feng and her mother sleep with them.
In a fit of rage, Gu Feng’s father fought with them, and in the struggle, he was stabbed to death.
Her mother, terrified, rushed forward and killed the perpetrator.
Gu Feng and her mother stayed in that house for a while, but after running out of food and resources, her mother went out to look for food and never returned.
She hid in the room, crying countless times, and when she was almost starving to death, it was Han Xiangman who came to rescue her.
Later, she searched everywhere for her mother, and unexpectedly found her mother’s corpse in a room downstairs.
Her mother wasn’t humiliated to death; she was killed by a mutant beast in the room.
When Gu Feng saw her mother’s corpse, she noticed that her mother was clutching a cup of Xiangpiao milk tea.
It was the flavor she used to love the most, and her mother had ventured into the room just to get that cup of Xiangpiao milk tea.
This was a sorrowful past that she could never touch.
Today, a cup of milk tea from Gu Feng elicited those memories, making her cry uncontrollably.
Gu Feng hurriedly comforted her and took her to the fourth floor to watch a movie.
This kind of scene happened in many places within the shopping mall.
The more happiness they saw in front of them, the more the seemingly ordinary things from before the apocalypse would evoke memories and thoughts of life before the great flood.
The elderly wiped away tears quietly.
The young ones, unable to control their emotions, held onto supplies and wailed loudly.
But many more people were smiling.
They had survived, and now their lives were getting better and better.
And all of this was thanks to the leader of the Shelter, Mr. Liang.
On the cliff, Liang Yuan stood at the summit, looking down at the scenes in the valley square, a smile on his face and an inexplicable sense of joy in his heart.
Not because the shopping mall had opened and the future of the Shelter would bring him a lot of mutant beasts and points.
But because he saw the faces of those who had suffered so much showing happy smiles again.
He didn’t know why he was smiling too, why he felt happy along with them, touched in a way he couldn’t describe.
He never considered himself a saint, much less a savior of all.
He had been selfish, had once been infatuated with the girl next door, and had killed for personal gain.
But he still felt happy and pleased by helping everyone, providing a shelter, and seeing the previously weak and helpless people regain a stable life.
Tu Long stood beside him, looking at the jubilant and cheering scenes below with a complex expression, his face also full of smiles.
"Mr. Liang, can I join the Yangshan Shelter?"
Tu Long suddenly spoke, looking at the young man in front of him.
He had cursed this man countless times in his heart, but at this moment, he truly admired him and sincerely wanted to join the Shelter.
After experiencing the despair of the great flood and witnessing the tragedies following the corruption of humanity, everyone inwardly longed for a beautiful and peaceful life.
Liang Yuan didn’t turn around, still looking at the hard-won shelter in the valley below, and asked, "Why suddenly have this idea?"
Tu Long was silent for a while, then said in a low voice, "I admit, before, I didn’t really submit to you. In fact, I still harbored some resentment, always feeling that you took everything from me."
Liang Yuan was not surprised; no one was a saint, and after he broke the rule of the Phoenix Temple, it was natural for Tu Long, the former leader, to harbor resentment.
He turned his head and asked with interest, "So, you don’t resent me anymore?"
Tu Long smiled wryly and shook his head. "It would be a lie to say I don’t resent you; I still have some resistance towards you. But looking at the shelter you’ve built, and then looking at the days when Monsoon, Wang Xiao, and Han Ben followed me, I realized what I had before wasn’t even a shelter."
"What you have done is a hundred times better. When they followed me and stayed in the Phoenix Temple, few people would truly smile from their hearts."
"When they were with me, they were always worried, always afraid of having nothing to eat next."
"I suddenly realized that even if you didn’t defeat me head-on, with the current situation in the Yangshan Shelter, my people would have eventually defected to you."
"So actually, it wasn’t so bad that you defeated me and took my people in."
Tu Long laughed, this time not a forced smile, but one from the heart.
He laughed, "I suddenly felt that the days before were really fucking meaningless. Just a few hundred people, always plotting and scheming, couldn’t even solve food and drink issues, guarding a temple as if it was some treasure, afraid someone would seize our territory."
"Now, seeing everyone so happy, it’s like we are back before the apocalypse, everyone living happily together. When people meet, they don’t scheme against each other, don’t go mad trying to harm each other for a little food."
"Now when people meet, they greet each other, they go fishing and hunting together, they farm and raise livestock together. I really like it this way."
"Mr. Liang, I, Tu Long, am a rough man; I was also once a villain, and I have killed and robbed. But honestly speaking, I don’t want to live that life. Do you believe me?"