Chapter 230: Wang Le’s Old Superior
Women were the miserable gender in the apocalypse, not only do they have to cope with starvation and zombies, they have to face the pressure from men who give in to their desires. The majority of the women Zhang Xiao Qiang found had turned numb from torture with the occasional dilemma on their purpose of living.
The women in front of them were not numb or had vacant looks. No doubt they were afraid, covering themselves up to the greatest extent and concealing their genders while hiding behind the men. When they realized that the combat team members with their guns sizing them up unbridled, they trembled in fear.
Countless muzzles pointed at the shabbily dressed and skinny men when they arrived before Zhang Xiao Qiang. Like quails that had gone through a torrential rainstorm, the men did not dare do anything aside from lowering their heads and waited for the man before them to decide their fate.
Before Zhang Xiao Qiang could even speak, Wang Le took the initiative. He looked at the 50-year-old bald man and spoke up.
“Hahaha…. Isn’t it Director Ma? Oh my! Where did your famed size 43 tummy disappear to?”
In the past, Director Ma was someone clearly unsure of how to dress, his clothes never fit or were coordinated badly. His outer shirt and pants were obviously larger than his body. Regular people used belts, but he used a nylon rope to tighten his loose pants. As his pants were too large, it constantly revealed his skin that had turned black.
Director Ma squinted his eyes and stared for a long time. Before the apocalypse, Wang Le was a prudent and careful man. With a family and children, he had to act cautiously to earn his rice bowl. After losing everything after the apocalypse, he relied on his own skills and continued to live as such to earn his fill.
It was only after he came across Zhang Xiao Qiang did things change for the better, due to his contributions and reports, he was promoted to be the director of a small repair factory. Relying on how Zhang Xiao Qiang saw hos importance, he lived a life better than he did prior to the apocalypse. With the authority, he gained self-confidence. Now that he was high-spirited, all the familiar people that knew him from before had difficulty connecting him to the petty and minor figure that he was in the past.
“Le’zi….you’re Le’zi?” Director Ma finally remembered him. He shouted Wang Le’s factory nickname. At that time, someone took the opportunity to nickname him as Le’zi and Director Ma had coincidentally heard of it. Director Ma could not remember his real name, thus naturally called him by his nickname.
“No no no… I’m not Le’zi. That has never been my name. Do not call me that from now on. My name is Wang Le, the Director of the Spa Base Repair shop, Wang Le. You better remember it well for me….”
When he heard Director Ma call him by his nickname, Wang Le immediately stopped fooling around. After all, he was considered the top 10 figures out of the 700 people of the base, how could he allow people to call him by a name that had stuck to him before the apocalypse?
A bead of perspiration immediately rolled down from Director Ma’s glossy bald head. He had obtained his position not from bootlicking and pulling strings. He had a knack in looking at people and was an old fox with extensive experience.
Wang le’s dressing and aura were different from the soldiers that came with him. The others were dressed in uniform yellow military uniform and impressive M1 helmets, but Wang Le was armed completely to the teeth, dark gray stabproof vest with SWAT-issued bulletproof vest over it, his head covered with polymer protective helmet, his waist equipped with a glossy gun holster with a Type 92 pistol. The others were equipped with Type 56 AR, but Wang Le had a bizarre looking sniper crossbow.
All these information led Director Ma to know that Wang Le was no simple character amongst them.
“Wang…..Director Wang….hahaha, welcome, Director Wang, are you here to inspect the place….”
Director Ma became anxious and immediately delivered a welcoming speech that he used to welcome superiors. Wang Le became intoxicated by how Director Ma’s salutation, but he did not forget his place. He interrupted Director Ma and introduced Zhang Xiao Qiang to the situation.
Director Ma used to be Wang Le’s factory director. At that time, he was an extremely obese man. Obviously, the apocalypse did not treat him very well, causing him to lose most of his weight. As for the rest of the men, Wang le was not familiar with them. His social circle was not large in the past and as a person who kept low-profile, he naturally would not recognize the majority of them. But from his experience, he could tell that there were about 30 odd men that used to work in the factories, the calluses and scars on their fingers could not escape his eyes.
Wang Le recognized over 10 of the women, they were all clerks from the office and handled cut in salaries or punishments. The other women were most probably clerks as well, especially for a 40-year-old lady whom Wang le had a deep impression of. Every time he went to the cookhouse to eat, she would give him half less streaky pork compared to others. Upon thinking about this, Wang Le immediately became furious. For many years, he had to eat less meat than others.
After listening to Wang le’s explanation, Zhang Xiao Qiang understood and considered Wang le to be fortunate. The factory had urgent taskings and required people to work the night shift. Naturally, no one was willing to do so, so Director Ma got the relatively naive and less pain-in-the-ass people to work the night shift.
Due to working for decades and behaving well, Wang Le was naturally the first to be selected. Although Wang le was skillful, he was constantly bullied and the factory never raised his salary. He had to cycle 2 hours every day to return to his home that was out of the city, and it was during this cycle that the outbreak occurred.
Zhang Xiao Qiang looked at Wang Le, not knowing to consider him lucky or unlucky, then turned to look at the other factory workers.
“All of you take a good look, this is our leader, you guys have no rights to know who he is and only need to know that our leader has over a thousand men under him equipped with guns and mortars. As for those monsters that have caused all of you to scream and shit in your pants? We have killed thousands of them, we only have one rule here, you’ll survive by being obedient. If not, you’ll just die…”
With the opportunity of revealing his success in front of his ex-colleagues in hand, Wang Le began exploiting Zhang Xiao Qiang’s might. Fortunately for him, Zhang Xiao Qiang was too lazy to even care and led a few men and headed towards the other warehouses. With his sharp eyes, Director Ma immediately followed up upon seeing him leave.
Zhang Xiao Qiang did not comment on his actions, thus the other members did not stop Director Ma from following. Upon seeing that, Wang Le had the thoughts to follow, but upon seeing the remaining eight sets of AA Guns, he stayed behind. After all, he was a man who treated his work as a priority.
These factories were extremely efficient, so the warehouses were filled with materials. Looking at the warehouse full of steel cables, Zhang Xiao Qiang did not know what to do. He was not building any machinery, so what was the use of them?
Zhang Xiao Qiang’s gloomy face was caught by Director Ma. He walked up a few steps in an attempt to get closer to Zhang Xiao Qiang but was met with multiple muzzle holes pointed at his head. His bald head started to perspire once again.
Zhang Xiao Qiang stole a glance at him and waved his hand. The members lowered their muzzles and made way, allowing Director Ma passage to Zhang Xiao Qiang. Holding the urge to pee in his pants, Director Ma walked up.
“Leader, are you disappointed by what you see here?” Upon approaching, Director Ma started pandering.
Zhang Xiao Qiang frowned and looked at Director Ma and nodded his head. All of these materials were usable by the base, non-essentials were plenty as well and their harvest was already considered good. Nine sets of 14.5mm AA Guns, adding the available installations and workshops, 30 odd men with engineering knowledge, it could be said that they have searched the base a couple of times well.
But upon looking at the materials arranged in neat rows inside the warehouse, Zhang Xiao Qiang felt dishearted.
“Leader, there’s good things there, clothes, food, oil, everything…”
They stood in front of the standalone building that Zhang Xiao Qiang noticed earlier. Above the doors hung a black signboard with the name . Chained shut, the doors that looked rusted seemed as though nothing had passed through it for a long time.
By the side of the building was a small road just big enough for a car to squeeze in that led to the back. Faintly visible was a smaller size warehouse that looked to be of the same structure. Zhang Xiao Qiang and the group walked behind while they listened to Director Ma’s introduction.
The factory gave out good benefits and welfare to the workers with the occasional gifts of perfume, shampoo, toothpaste, towels, etc. when there were no occasions. When there were occasions, it was even better. Rice, oil, and edibles were the basics, with the addition of wine, fruits, preserved food packages, biscuits and sweets, peanuts, melons, etc. All of these were for the ordinary workers, as for the managerial positions, they were even better off. Famous brand cigarettes and wine were transported to their homes, dried goods, abalone, and even shark fin included.
While listening to Director Ma ramble on, Zhang Xiao Qiang walked ahead. Earlier on, he had sensed that something was amiss, there were dried zombie corpses lying in the corner that had no bite marks, which left one possibility. The zombies were killed and dragged to their corners.
Upon thinking that there were survivors around, Zhang Xiao Qiang gave the combat team members a look. The four members immediately raised their weapons and cocked them. Their actions shocked Director Ma, causing him to be anxious once again until he realized that none of the guns were aimed at him.
Zhang Xiao Qiang discovered more traces and clues. Due to the long abandonment, the dust had covered up the floor around him, but there were footprints around. They were not large and did not belong to a man, another set of footprints was so shallow until it was barely visible while some other footprints were fresher.