Chapter 23 The Processing Plant

Zhou Yan understood now; she wanted to stay and help.

But Zhou Yan wasn't at the point where his own woman had to go out and do manual labor.

Just seeing that she truly had the heart to do so was enough; there was no need to actually make her work.

Wang Zeyu stood at the doorway and invited Zhou Yan to tour their "dried fish processing plant" run by the university students.

The four doors on the 6th Floor were all wide open. In one of the rooms, the bathtub was filled with quite a lot of fish! Seeing this, Zhou Yan rubbed his hands together, feeling extremely excited.

These university students were quite clever. Most of the water in the hallway had seeped in and didn't contain many fish.

Starting from the 4th Floor, they had broken the windows around the corridor and used fish entrails and some unwanted scraps to bait the area.

The fish were extremely aggressive now; once someone fell into the water, they would swarm to attack, let alone when fish entrails were involved.

As soon as a fish entered the baited area, someone else would scoop it up with a landing net.

Zhou Yan had underestimated these two "punks."

Being bitten by that kind of fish would probably lead to poisoning! These two lackeys really had guts!

It would be great if he had the chance to get a fishing rod from an ordinary blind box in the future!

There was also a small boy in the room, wearing glasses and looking cultured and refined.

He was helping the other three girls process the dead fish.

Two of the girls were carefully sealing the dried fish in plastic bags, pressing the openings with heated iron to ensure they were airtight...

But in reality, the production of dried fish wasn't very high. For safety reasons, they only took the meat from the fish belly; after being roasted over a fire, it shrank into a tiny piece...

A single fish, once processed into the final product, might only be enough for an adult to take one bite...

Zhou Yan sighed. They were making this dried fish at the risk of their lives, and he couldn't just take it for free!

"If anyone comes down to help over the next two days, keep them. You can give them some dried fish to eat; treat it as me trading with you." As he spoke, Zhou Yan pulled out a pile of protein bars and gave them all to Wang Zeyu.

"Big Brother! That's too kind! Just say the word if you need anything! No need to be so polite with your younger brother..."

Wang Zeyu was a smart man. In this situation, effective protection was more important than anything else.

The "Big Brother" before him was constantly redefining his worldview.

What kind of normal person keeps an automatic rifle at home?

This wasn't "Free America, where gunfights happen every day."

The protein bars were pushed back; he wouldn't accept them.

But when he looked at Zhou Yan, he lost his nerve and obediently accepted the protein bars.

One of the girls, tall and quiet-looking, was Wang Zeyu's girlfriend. On the day of the rainstorm, Wang Zeyu had gone on a date with her. The rain had been heavy, and when Wang Zeyu sent her home, they ended up getting trapped together.

Her name was Zhang Dongxue, and she was wearing several layers of rubber gloves, gutting and cleaning the fish.

Then, she placed them on a grill to roast slowly over charcoal.

If you were to say this dried fish probably wasn't toxic, well, the fuel was just dismantled furniture or some composite boards.

Zero natural, pure technology.

The formaldehyde content was maxed out.

The other two girls were a bit at a loss, looking at the "fully armed" Zhou Yan.

They stood to the side nervously, watching Wang Zeyu introduce the layout of the room to Zhou Yan.

But fortunately, Zhang Yajing was there. She gradually lost herself in the girls' sweet calls of "Sister-in-law."

The two girls, one named Li Ke, was a student at Qingyang University who rented here, and the other was her roommate named Wang Xiaoyun, who was also a student at Qingyang University.

Zhou Yan could only keep pulling out protein bars to give to the two girls as a greeting gift. These little girls were just too sweet-tongued! They had completely charmed Zhang Yajing!

Zhou Yan didn't avoid anything; he stood right at the doorway of the bathroom.

Wu Yang scooped one up, and Zhou Yan stabbed it to death with his dagger.

Wu Yang thought Zhou Yan wasn't satisfied, so he caught another one.

The result was one person scooping and one person stabbing.

The final result left Zhou Yan quite satisfied.

[ordinary blind box: 21]

"Harvest time!" Zhou Yan rubbed his hands together happily.

Wu Yang's expression was a bit poor; all the fish had been stabbed to death and taken away by another boy named Li Meng to be made into dried fish.

Li Meng was not fierce at all; on the contrary, he was a bit "cute."

Wearing thick glasses, he had a short stature.

He looked Li Ke a girl.

Zhou Yan even worried about whether he would cut his fingers.

Wu Yang was very worried that the supplies the Big Brother had promised would fall through, because it seemed Li Ke the Big Brother wasn't very satisfied with these fish.

They had all been stabbed to death by him.

Zhou Yan didn't let them down.

Twenty-one fish, twenty-one cans, plus twenty-one biscuits.

He also pulled out six boxes of pork knuckle rice as a greeting gift.

After all, they would be following him from now on, and Zhou Yan was never stingy with his own people!

Wu Yang looked at Zhou Yan in shock as he pulled out box after box of pork knuckle rice from his backpack and asked eagerly:

"Big Brother! Where did you buy this bag? Do you have a link?"

Wang Zeyu heard Wu Yang's words and was so exasperated he laughed.

"Even if there were a link, do you have a phone to buy it with?"

Zhou Yan leaned against the window on the 6th Floor, looking at Building 17 across the way, feeling a bit puzzled.

In that building opposite, through the corridor windows, one could see a crowd of people moving back and forth, and every so often, they would throw things out of the windows...

The demographics of this residential complex were actually quite complicated; it could barely be considered a wealthy area. However, this complex had gone viral on the internet a long time ago because several nearby buildings had many duplex units. Many rich people kept their "mistresses in golden houses" here; usually, when walking Xiaobai, he could often encounter beautiful women.

It really lived up to the saying: "You can question a rich person's character, but you cannot question a rich person's taste."

The building opposite was a duplex development.

Netizens had dubbed it the "Gun Tower."

Looking at the water surface below Building 17, it turned out they were building a "Floating Bridge."

Dismantled bed boards, composite boards from sofas, tied together with cut-up bed sheets and quilt covers, and nailed together, they were slowly laying it out on the water surface, extending towards the surrounding buildings.

The "construction" on both sides had paused, and everyone was busy working on extending it towards his own building...

After thinking for a moment, Zhou Yan called Wang Zeyu over.

"What's the meaning of this with Building 17 across the way?"

Wang Zeyu's expression was serious: "My partner chatted with a girl from across the way this morning! They said that building is attacked by merfolk every night, and many people have died! They really couldn't stay there any longer, so they thought about hiding in our building!"

"They're stupid! Wouldn't it be fine just to block the fire door?" Zhou Yan pulled out a cigarette and handed it to Wang Zeyu.

Wang Zeyu took the cigarette, tapped it against his thumb, and with a trace of fear on his face, looked at the building opposite and said:

"They said... those merfolk can climb buildings... they all climb up from the outside under the cover of darkness..."

Damn! Zhou Yan cursed under his breath.

Then they were practically leading the enemy right into their village!

"Did you ask them why those merfolk are targeting them?"

Wu Yang, standing to the side, shook his head in confusion. He didn't understand how merfolk could be picky about who they attacked.

"Find out why the merfolk are targeting them. You guys find a way to ask clearly; if they don't say, tear down their bridge!"

"But... in this situation, shouldn't we humans unite as one to fight against the external enemy? The merfolk are the external enemy now, right?" Wu Yang gripped the fire axe in his hand; he was getting fired up!

Zhou Yan looked at the university student who was inexplicably getting fired up.

He said, frustrated by his lack of common sense: "Did martial arts practice make you stupid? They've brought the enemy right into the village, and you're still there welcoming them with a parade? There are over a dozen high-rises around here, so why are the merfolk targeting them? There must be a reason!"

The building opposite was Building 17, which geographically was located towards the center of the entire complex. There was no reason for merfolk to be picky when eating people. The only possibility was that there was some unknown reason that caused those merfolk to unite and keep attacking that building opposite!