Our neighborhood has been transported again.

Chapter 99 Shuo Rat
Upon entering the house and seeing the drastically changed room, Zhao Pu paused, clicking his tongue in amazement. "Is this your card building? It's quite interesting. What's it for?"

Deng Guang said with a smile, "We can raise some small fish and shrimp, and also crabs and eels."

"That's good, congratulations." Zhao Pu lightly leaped over the ditch and landed in the middle.

Deng Guang asked curiously, "The fight you're talking about, was it downstairs just now?"

“Yeah, you all saw it, sigh, what a mess this is.” Zhao Pu was speechless when he mentioned it. “Some people really seize on a little bit of power and then amplify it to an extreme.”

When the topic came up, Zhao Pu launched into a tirade: "There was a resident in Building 3 who said that the family there had all been infected, so he put up a note on their door, forbidding them from leaving."

The male homeowner objected, secretly ran away, and tore off the seal. The homeowner discovered this and told him to go back, but he refused. So the homeowner and he got into a fight.

Upon hearing this, Deng Wen asked in surprise, "Uncle Zhao, this should be fine, right? Shouldn't you stay home if you're sick, otherwise you might infect others?"

Zhao Pu said, "What I just said is the version of events told by the original poster. The male head of the household has a different version. He said he wasn't infected, only his wife was. He was about to go out to find something to eat when the original poster demanded a bribe from him before letting him out. He said that since the original poster was the one who told him to do what he said, he couldn't stand it and started fighting with the original poster."

"Was the male homeowner infected?"

Zhao Pu shook his head: "I don't know, but the original poster has been temporarily removed from his post and replaced with a new one. But I heard from others that the male owner has no symptoms. The original poster said he was in the incubation period."

So the Alliance was just discussing whether it was possible to form several special teams, such as hunting and gathering teams, for families with sick members.

Xiao Xuemei thought the idea was alright, but implementing it might not be so simple. "It's a good thing, and no one can guarantee that someone in their family won't get infected, but implementing it might not be so easy."

“It’s definitely difficult, because normal people certainly don’t want to team up with the families of these patients, and the families of patients dislike each other, worrying that others might be in the incubation period. Who wouldn’t want to be teammates with a healthy person? But if you are a healthy person, would you be willing to take the gamble?” Zhao Pu clapped his hands. “To put it bluntly, it’s still a matter of trust. There is a lack of trust between everyone.”

At this point, Zhao Pu shook his head: "I guess they'll make a fuss for a while longer, but once they face reality, they'll still form teams."

Upon hearing this, Deng Guang sighed silently, hesitated for a moment, then turned to Qin Ziwen and said, "Brother Qin, I'd like to stay home for a while tomorrow and catch some more fish and shrimp to raise in the ditch."

Qin Ziwen joked, "Alright, the fish traps are here, right? Brother Deng, catch a lot more tomorrow. Whether I can eat more river delicacies in the future depends on you, Brother Deng."

After leaving Deng Guang's house, Zhao Pu said in a low voice, "By the way, Mr. Qin, the owner of Unit 2 in Building 6 talked to me about something today."

"what's up?"

"There are rats within the Tongmenghui."

Qin Ziwen's eyes were subtle. "Aren't you the leader of the Tongmenghui?"

Noticing Qin Ziwen's gaze, Zhao Pu smiled wryly, "I'm just a figurehead. The real middle-level managers are the team leaders who can win people over."

He continued, “The Alliance is developing very rapidly now. It’s the only large-scale organization in the community right now. And because of this infectious disease, many families have joined. The Alliance now has fifteen hunting teams and even more gathering teams, nineteen in total. Including the logistics teams that are responsible for weaving cages, making simple masks, and drying herbs, there are about forty teams in total, and the number is still increasing. Each team has ten people. Mr. Qin, you can imagine how large the Alliance has become.”

Hearing this, Qin Ziwen was somewhat shocked; the Tongmenghui had developed so rapidly.

"At its current scale, the Alliance can hunt and gather enough food each day to not only cover its expenses but also have a surplus, since we live in a forest and resources are quite abundant."

Furthermore, it's rumored that some card owners have secretly partnered with the Alliance, selling some of the resources used to produce the cards to the Alliance at discounted prices. However, these resources are rarely seen by anyone within the Alliance, and the Alliance is frequently experiencing shortages of supplies—this is definitely not normal.

"Who do you think did it?"

Zhao Pu said, "Is there any need to guess? Only a few people can do it."

Qin Ziwen found it somewhat incomprehensible: "Is he an idiot? He finally managed to build up the Tongmenghui to a large scale, and then he does something so stupid that he destroys his own foundation." Zhao Pu said helplessly: "There are plenty of people like this. Many of them are not without greed, they just don't have the opportunity to be greedy. Once they get the chance, their true nature is revealed."

Previously, when our hospital got a new director, his first act was to implement sweeping reforms, which caused widespread resentment and complaints. He was arrested in less than six months; I heard he embezzled hundreds of millions of yuan and kept four mistresses—all within those six months.

"So what are you going to do?"

"Let's gather evidence first. Without substantial evidence, it's hard to prove anything. This food is not like other things. It's only been a few days, and they can't eat much. What can we do if they turn around and say it was just temporarily stored away?"

The two talked for a while longer, and finally Qin Ziwen told Zhao Pu to be careful.

The riverbank was wet.

The group walked along the riverbank.

The ground was overgrown with weeds and covered with silt that had not yet dried, a scene that appeared shortly after the floodwaters receded.

Someone stopped in their tracks. "Captain Zheng, I smell a strong stench of blood."

"Isn't it supposed to smell like mud? There's no smell of blood."

As they were talking, they suddenly stopped.

After turning the corner, there is a backwater in front of you.

The blood stained the river red.

Along the shore of the backwater bay, there were seven or eight enormous corpses lying densely packed together.

"Is that a hippopotamus?!" Someone pointed to the half-eaten carcass at the edge of the backwater, with some of its white bones exposed to the air.

The hippopotamus had been dead for who knows how long.

"The hippo was just eaten like that. Who can hunt these things? Could it have been a crocodile?" someone muttered to themselves.

Zheng Yuan's expression was grave. "Judging from the injuries, they don't seem to have been caused by crocodiles. Besides, these are a herd of hippos, and even ordinary crocodiles wouldn't dare to provoke them."

"Captain Zheng, look over there, there seems to be something in the water."

Following the direction the team member pointed, Zheng Yuan saw something moving near the hippopotamus carcass underwater.

Because of the distance and the reflection from the water, it was difficult to see clearly.

He didn't dare to look.

Zheng Yuan decisively said, "Let's go back first."

As he was leaving, Zheng Yuan turned back and glanced behind him one last time.

He saw that something large, black like a water centipede, seemed to be crawling on the hippopotamus's carcass.

　Two more chapters at 11:59
　　
　
(End of this chapter)