Rotting Land: Survive

Chapter 822: Chapter 807: Luo Baocun’s Memories (Part 3)

"I remember that early that morning, a few of us brothers who got along pretty well were bullshitting in the gas station lounge, and then we heard the guys on duty at the gate come back to report that a convoy was heading toward us."

"Could this bunch be those robbers?"

"Heh, Tang, don’t rush it, let me finish!" Luo Baocun seemed to have already put himself back into that day’s scene, so Tang Xiaoquan’s sudden interruption cut off his train of thought. He fell silent for a moment, pieced his memories back together, and then went on:

"To be honest, when I heard these people were coming, I was actually pretty excited. Let me think, at that time we’d gone about a week without seeing or taking in any new Survivors. You all know how it is these days—no news gets in, so new people means we can finally learn something about what’s going on outside. And this was a big convoy. Back then I naïvely believed we’d definitely be able to fish out some valuable information from them. But this time, after Old Ma went to negotiate with their leader, he completely broke with his usual pattern and demanded we hold a meeting to discuss whether we should allow these people to enter the station. His reasons made sense enough, because every time we took in new Survivors and listened to them talk about their escape along the way, they’d more or less mention scenes of burning, killing, and looting on the roads. So this time Old Ma spoke bluntly to us: based on the talk he’d just had, he felt this batch of people were bad news and should not be allowed into the gas station. But his proposal was quickly shot down, and as for who did the shooting—I don’t need to say it, you can already guess. They accused Old Ma of making a fuss over nothing, of being heartless. But none of that really mattered, because just as both sides were deadlocked over whether to let this lot in or keep them out, the brothers in charge of the gate opened it on their own. And after that..."

Luo Baocun helplessly shook his head: "We’re a bunch of guys who’ve roamed all over, and to be honest we’re pretty sturdy physically, plus we had the numbers. But our hearts weren’t united, and their weapons were a lot better than ours. At the start we could still put up some resistance, but very quickly, because of those few Scoundrels taking the lead, most people just gave up fighting back, sigh..."

"One rat turd spoils a whole pot of porridge. Such a damn shame about Old Ma, that real man!" Old Xu couldn’t help sighing and lamenting: "So what happened next? Why did those bandits let you go?"

"Heh! Laugh if you want, but the reason they didn’t kill us was because they had their eyes on the gas station’s fuel. Killing us would only bring on a Zombies attack and do them no good at all, while keeping us alive meant we could guard the fuel depot for them."

"They weren’t worried you’d run away?" Old Lin asked curiously. He didn’t believe any robbers would be so kind as to assume that whatever they told the people they’d robbed to do, those people would obediently do.

"Sigh, to be honest, at that time most of us had never gone out beyond this shelter, so even if they’d opened the gate and let us leave, I bet there wouldn’t have been many willing to go. Compared with those brutal Zombies, hiding in this tiny gas station playing guard felt a lot safer. Of course those robbers had no way of knowing what was on our minds. Their way to stop us from running was actually pretty simple: those few Scoundrels became their lackeys. With a simple verbal authorization, those bastards naturally turned into the heads of our Survivor base."

Old Lin looked like "so that’s how it was," but what the other man said still made him feel surprised at some of Old Ma’s decisions—for example, that they’d actually stayed holed up in the villa all this time and never gone out. Sitting there eating away their supplies like that was basically just waiting to die. Old Lin bluntly voiced his objection.

Luo Baocun let out another long sigh, his huge head shaking: "How could Old Ma not have brought it up? He was the first and only one who realized we needed to take the risk of going out to get supplies. When he first made that proposal, a lot of people opposed it. Everyone thought the current crisis was only temporary and the government would definitely calm things down quickly. So Old Ma had no choice but to set off alone with two of his closest brothers. The result..."

Luo Baocun paused: "Only Old Ma came back. He didn’t manage to bring supplies either. Then those bastards started spreading rumors to frame him, saying he’d gotten the other two killed. You tell me, who could swallow that kind of insult? But Old Ma didn’t argue back at all—he bore it all in silence."

Old Lin clearly saw that Luo Baocun’s eyes were wet. He exchanged a glance with Tang and Xu, and both of them nodded.

"Little Luo, why don’t we stop here for today? Drink some water and go get some rest." Lin Junfu lightly patted Luo Baocun on the back, speaking with concern.

Realizing he’d lost control, Luo Baocun awkwardly raised his red, swollen little eyes, forced out a smile, and replied: "Sorry for making a fool of myself in front of you all. It’s just that I really feel it’s too unfair for Old Ma. Such a good man... sigh!"

What people do, Heaven sees. Old Ma being too selfless was exactly his biggest flaw. Of course, this flaw itself was not wrong—the mistake was that he knew full well this team wasn’t suited to his way of handling things, yet he still kept doing it. In the end, you could only blame him for being too indecisive.

While Tang Xiaoquan sympathized with Old Ma’s unfair treatment, he also felt sorry for him. If Old Ma had been in the larger environment Tang himself was in now, his situation definitely wouldn’t have been anything like this.

Just as Tang Xiaoquan’s mind started to drift, Luo Baocun picked up his story again: "After those robbers finished appointing their lapdogs, they also went and stripped us of the food and supplies we barely had to begin with. What little they left behind wasn’t enough to keep so many of us alive. From then on, everyone’s living standards went straight downhill. What pissed us off even more was that they pinned the blame for this whole mess on Old Ma in private, saying it was all because he hadn’t stopped those people from coming in when he should have. You can imagine how disheartened Old Ma was. His authority was hollowed out, but his deterrent power was still there, so although those lackeys resented his presence, they didn’t really make trouble for him—at most they shouted a few things behind his back. But the rest of us weren’t as lucky as Old Ma. The biggest issue was in how they distributed food. Damn, those animals gave us stuff that wouldn’t even fill a dog. They ground down whatever courage people had to try and run out to fight for their lives. And it wasn’t just that—they were also stripping any new Survivors who came in. Everything those newcomers carried became the private property of those beasts, and any woman who was even a bit decent-looking got ravaged by them. Only then did some people finally start thinking fondly of Old Ma, but by that time Old Ma’s heart was dead. He couldn’t even be bothered to deal with this bullshit anymore."

"Serves them right. If they’d known it would come to this, why did they act like that back then? That’s called reaping what you sow!" As someone who also carried the weight of a team’s lives on his shoulders, Old Xu understood very well just how heavy the burden was on a man in charge.

Bitter or sweet, you taste it yourself. He agreed with Old Ma’s later refusal to act, and felt that if Old Ma had still kept selflessly giving under that kind of trampling, he himself would have looked down on him and called him a fool.

"These bastards ran wild like that, and you never thought of resisting? There were so many of you—how could you be scared of them?" Tang Xiaoquan really couldn’t understand how Luo Baocun’s people could be so spineless. If they truly had no power to fight back, that would be one thing, but in reality they clearly had a shot at taking a stand, so why choose to live so low?"

Servile nature—in his eyes, this was the ingrained slave mentality buried in the subconscious of Chinese people after centuries of oppression and humiliation. (To be continued. If you like this work, you’re welcome to go to Qidian (qidian.com) to vote for recommendations or monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users please go to m.qidian.com to read.)