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Chapter 74: The calm before the storm

The night passed uneventfully.

On a bright, sunny morning, Li Yu woke up early and, as usual, began his workout inside the base.

After exercising, he proceeded to have breakfast.

The newly arrived workers had previously known Li Yu's parents; when the base wall was being built, they were provided with food in addition to their wages.

Now, they all lived within the walls, but their state of mind was completely different from before.

Mealtime was always the liveliest period in the base.

Thin porridge, some steamed buns, and a few pickles made up today's breakfast.

Of course, younger individuals who were still growing received an egg each.

After breakfast, Li Yu led the people from the base to open the main gate and then started clearing the trees in front of the road.

The trees would obstruct the view of the zombies ahead, so some had to be cut down.

Not many trees were felled, only about ten meters worth, and the trees themselves were already nearly 30 meters from the base wall.

The Weng City being built this time can be imagined as follows:

The base wall is a large square encompassing a plain and two mountains, while the Weng City wall is a semi-circle outside this large square, with the square and semi-circle connected.

While Li Yu and the others were felling trees outside, there was always someone observing from the watchtower.

Li Hongyuan, having a background in engineering, found building a wall to be quite simple.

According to Li Hongyuan's plan, the Weng City would be built outside the current main gate, which would not only occupy less land from the base but also expand the base's usable area, resulting in a significant increase in space when considering the additions and subtractions.

The newly constructed wall would form a semicircle with a radius of 20 meters, centered at the main gate, and this time, the wall would be over 3 meters wide.

As the trees were nearly all cut down, many materials from the initial wall construction were still stored in the base, including a mixer and a Rui Jiang tanker, which meant cement could be mixed by machine rather than manually.

Once the foundation was laid and the rebar cages were tied, the concrete could be poured directly, which would be very fast.

There was still some rebar in the base, but it certainly wasn't enough, so Li Yu and Li Tie took some time to lead the part-time workers to the outskirts of the county town to transport some rebar back.

The rebar transportation went very smoothly; they encountered no people and fewer zombies than usual, as if the number of zombies had suddenly decreased, giving a feeling like the calm before a storm.

Li Yu keenly noticed this but felt no joy; instead, he felt a bit worried.

This was very similar to many situations he had faced before, making Li Yu feel that something was not quite right.

The only thing that brought Li Yu some relief was that, after interacting with them for several days, these workers performed quite well, which made Li Yu very satisfied, but he did not let down his guard; instead, he increased his vigilance and observed these people.

The base wall's foundation was also laid within these few days.

During this period, the occasional appearance of zombies outside the wall gradually decreased until very few were seen.

This scene gave Li Yu a sense of déjà vu; before his rebirth, many small groups were swept away by zombie hordes.

Often, before a zombie horde arrived, the surrounding zombies would gradually become fewer and fewer because they were gathering; once a horde formed, it was like a locust plague, and without strong walls to resist, it would inevitably be breached by the zombies.

With this sense of anxiety, Li Yu found his father to ask about the construction schedule.

After the foundation was built, the concrete pouring would be fast but would still take some time.

Li Hongyuan noticed Li Yu's anxiety and asked, "Aren't there fewer and fewer zombies now? Why are you rushing the construction so much?"

Li Yu thought for a moment and finally said, "I feel something isn't quite right. Do you remember last time when the zombie horde came, the number of zombies also suddenly decreased a lot.

This time, I feel there will be an even bigger zombie horde.

We must build the Weng City before the zombie horde arrives, otherwise, we will have a very difficult time later!"

Upon hearing this, Li Hongyuan recalled the previous time the base was besieged by a zombie horde and immediately became anxious.

He then said, "The foundation has already been laid.

Next, we just need to pour the concrete for the walls.

Mobilizing all our manpower, it will take at least five days to complete everything, plus another two or three days for the walls to dry thoroughly."

Li Yu felt a bit nervous upon hearing this; time was running out.

According to his experience, generally, after the surrounding zombies gradually decrease, a zombie horde will arrive within 3 to 7 days.

This timeline was tight, but there was no other way; they had to speed up the construction of the Weng City.

So, he said, "Let's do it as quickly as possible!"

He then found his maternal uncle and others and discussed the situation with them.

Upon hearing it, his maternal uncle and the others instantly became restless.

Every decision Li Yu had led them to make in the past had been proven correct.

After multiple instances, everyone deeply trusted Li Yu's judgment, and coupled with the recent noticeable decrease in zombies, no one raised any objections.

After all, the sooner the Weng City was built, the sooner everyone could feel at ease.

After discussion, they decided to work through the night.

From the very beginning, Li Yu had bought many super high-beam lights, and under the illumination of six of these lights, the area around the wall was as bright as day.

However, working at night, apart from the wall area, everything outside was pitch black, which still looked very eerie.

The night was very dark.

But around the base, the sound of the mixer continued to hum.

It was strange; zombies were most active at night and most sensitive to sound.

Yet, despite this, not a single zombie was seen tonight.

This made many people feel more relaxed and they began to concentrate on building the wall.

In the darkness, the wall was built little by little, from one meter, slowly reaching two meters.

Behind the forest, two zombies, whether stragglers or for some other reason, were not with the majority of the zombies but were instead wandering alone along the edge of the National Highway.

The base's tanker mixer made a loud noise, and these two zombies seemed drawn by the sound, slowly approaching the base.

However, the people at the base had seen almost no zombies today, and their vigilance had significantly decreased.

Those workers, in the days after entering the base, had eaten and drank with Li Yu and the others, and slept soundly in beds at night.

With ample food and sleep, their bodies had recovered greatly, and psychologically, they were slowly adapting.

Now, they were chatting while working.

There was no way around it; building a wall, while simple, was highly repetitive and prone to causing drowsiness.

However, those two zombies had slowly approached the base, reaching the forest.

They were less than 30 meters from where the group was building the Weng City!

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