Natural Disaster Strikes: I Stockpiled Billions and Carved My Way Through the Apocalypse

On the other side, Dai Mingliang provided Wei Lie with more detailed information.

"President Wei, Duan Qi is a rough man, but he's shrewd and has leadership skills. He's not highly educated and a bit rude, but he knows how to win people over. His team has both old and young members, and although they've lost many people along the way, they've protected the children."

"Shen Qing is a martial arts school graduate, so most of his instructors are his juniors, all skilled fighters. Although they are few in number, they are very strong. However, they have a fatal flaw—they don't have firearms. No matter how high your martial arts skills are, you're still afraid of a kitchen knife. President Wei only needs to be vigilant, not worried."

“But those villagers who are almost invisible are the ones we need to pay extra attention to,” Dai Mingliang said. “The village chief is very shrewd and clever.”

Wei Lie nodded: "Anyone who can lead the entire village to escape and still have so many people survive must be no pushover."

“Yes. At first, I also thought he was a kind-hearted and pure-hearted old man. But later, something happened that made me change my opinion of him.” Dai Mingliang said, “Actually, Li Hu’s woman did not approach him on her own; the village chief gave her to Li Hu.”

"Oh?" Wei Lie tapped his fingers on the table. "Tell me more about it."

"Everyone in that village has the surname Wu, so their village is called Wu Family Village. Village Chief Wu is the person in charge of Wu Family Village. Wu Fang is the village chief's niece. When the village chief gave her to Li Hu, Wu Fang was initially unwilling. But the village chief used forceful means to suppress Wu Fang, and only then did Wu Fang go with Li Hu."

"Outsiders all think that Wu Fang only followed Li Hu because she thought the village was a burden. Village Chief Wu is just a pitiful, abandoned old man. But in reality, Wu Fang's every move was remotely directed by Village Chief Wu. Including Li Hu and his gang, bringing the people of Wu Family Village under his control was also Village Chief Wu's plan."

"Along the way, everyone lacked food and clothing, and some conflicts were inevitable. The villagers of Wujia Village also stole our supplies. But with Li Hu backing us up, we could only let it go. There was nothing we could do; we couldn't fight against Li Hu."

"If Duan Qi hadn't been capable and Shen Qing hadn't been strong, Village Chief Wu would still have tried to take advantage of them. In fact, he did try before. Village Chief Wu planned to use the same trick again and give the young girls in the village to Duan Qi and Shen Qing. But Duan Qi has a wife and daughter. He is a family-oriented man. Although he is rough, he truly loves his family. Therefore, he directly refused Village Chief Wu's offer to give them away."

"Shen Qing simply doesn't find them attractive. Shen Qing is clearly the kind of person with some family wealth; to be able to lead over twenty younger students and start his own gym, he must have some assets. Men with a bit of money don't look down on village girls. Although there are indeed a few pretty girls in Wu Family Village, they are women with only skin and no substance..."

Dai Mingliang smiled.

Wei Lie nodded knowingly.

"Don't laugh at me. There are a dozen or so of us, and none of us are strong enough to kill a chicken. In order to survive, we have to be opportunistic and try to please everyone. When Li Hu bullies us, we go to Duan Qi and Shen Qing for help. But Duan Qi and Shen Qing don't accept us. They only offer some appropriate obstacles and help. That's all."

“I know that in their eyes, we are all a burden. A bunch of weaklings about to be eliminated.” Dai Mingliang smiled bitterly: “But who doesn’t want to live? There are women in our team. What can we do besides fawn over them?”

Wei Lie patted him on the shoulder and said, "You've suffered. It will never happen again."

Dai Mingliang, a grown man, finally couldn't hold back and started crying.

Throughout this journey, he exerted himself every day, having to fawn over and flatter in every way possible.

He was just an ordinary headmaster of students!

Wei Lie's investment quickly yielded returns.

Those dozen or so teachers, in order to prove their worth, brought out all their best skills.

While the neighboring hilltop is still bustling with infrastructure construction, Wei Lie's hilltop has already begun research.

Mu Jiuyue was initially quite curious and even came over to watch the excitement, but later realized she couldn't understand it, so she simply stopped coming.

Three days later, when Mu Jiuyue came again, she found that everything had changed drastically.

All the machinery has been upgraded, making it not only more energy-efficient but also easier to use.

Mu Jiuyue and Lao Hou's cave also benefited, with its interior and exterior reinforced and renovated, becoming more comfortable and pleasant.

Mu Jiuyue touched the brand-new fire wall and said, "This thing really only needs a few pieces of firewood to keep you warm all day?"

The physics teacher in charge of the project replied, "Yes, maximizing the use of heat not only saves energy but also reduces emissions and prevents our location from being easily discovered."

Mu Jiuyue gave a thumbs up again.

Knowledge is power—that's absolutely true!

Time flies, and more than half a month has passed.

The infrastructure on the neighboring hilltop is almost complete.

It must be said that Duan Qi and Shen Qing are indeed capable and competent.

Through continuous logging, quarrying, and salvaging resources, they actually managed to support over a hundred people.

They were also able to make some trades with Wei Lie and obtain a lot of supplies for the winter.

Seeing that the other party was sensible, Wei Lie didn't mind making a deal with them.

That day, a group of more than a dozen people delivered a batch of aluminum alloy they had just found to Wei Lie by boat.

"Secretary Cao, could you please provide us with some new quilts and clothes for the winter?" A villager from Wujia Village made his request to Secretary Cao.

"Sure," Secretary Cao replied with a smile. "Based on the quantity of your supplies, we can give you five quilts or ten sets of cotton-padded clothes. Which would you like?"

"We need three quilts and four sets of cotton-padded clothes."

"Sure." Secretary Cao readily wrote a note and told them to go to the supplies department to collect it.

At that moment, a young woman, as if by accident, tripped and fell towards Secretary Cao, exclaiming, "Ouch!"

Secretary Cao took a quick step back. This time, the other person really fell, with a loud thud.

The young woman was in so much pain that her face twitched.

"Is he sick?" Secretary Cao said without changing his expression, "Don't let him infect us."

The young woman gritted her teeth and stood up, feigning shyness as she touched her hair, saying, "Secretary Cao, why didn't you help me up? I'm all hurt from the fall."

Secretary Cai said with a forced smile, "Oh, really?"

Seeing that Secretary Cao wasn't falling for her tricks, the young woman approached again and whispered, "Secretary Cao, I've always admired you. My name is Wu Xiuxiu, I'm twenty-three years old, and I've never had a boyfriend! I have something good I want to show you. I'll be waiting for you in the northwest corner tonight at midnight."

After saying that, she smiled shyly, turned around and ran away.