Still hoarding supplies in the apocalypse? I'll just go on a killing spree and looting!

Lin You, who had taken in all of this, paused and said, "As for the medicine you got for him... I won't take it back. The child's fever is already subsiding, so there's no point in getting the medicine back. You'll be punished with half your rations for a month and a month of night shifts. From now on, if anyone comes to you for medicine without following the procedures, tell them to come directly to me."

Old Zhang was slightly taken aback; this was somewhat different from what he had expected.

According to information gleaned from conversations with other acquaintances, this bald young woman is not a soft-hearted person.

They dared to kill people with guns before the end of the world, and it caused quite a stir.

After the apocalypse, people should be even more ruthless and lawless.

Ignoring Old Zhang's rapidly changing expression, Lin You spoke to Old Sun, who looked guilty and uneasy:

"Also, Mr. Sun, you and your granddaughter will stay in the family quarters on the first floor, mainly cleaning the visitor center. The child will be temporarily placed in the infirmary."

Old Sun stood there, stunned.

He thought today was the day he and his granddaughter would be evicted, and he had already packed his bags.

Now the plastic bag in his hand suddenly seemed superfluous, and he didn't know what to do with it.

The worry and guilt on his face turned into utter bewilderment.

It seems that everything that happened was far from what he had expected.

As an elderly person, I have experienced so much: the people I've met, the roads I've traveled, and the hardships I've endured.

All of this is based on his experience.

From the moment he boarded the vehicle heading to the base, he realized that the world was about to descend into chaos.

He inquired everywhere, hoping to obtain some reassuring information, but he was disappointed.

Information about Lin You is easy to obtain.

When he learned that a key suspect in a major shooting murder case wielded considerable influence within the base.

His heart was filled with unease and fear.

Old Sun opened his mouth a few times before finally managing to squeeze out, "Miss Lin, I..."

Lin You didn't let him finish, raising her hand to interrupt, "Your rations will be halved starting today. Go to the wall construction site now; they need manpower there."

Old Sun nodded vigorously, placed the plastic bag in the corner, and turned to leave.

He paused at the door, didn't turn around, but said with his back to everyone, "Yanzi. My granddaughter's name is Yanzi. I'll bring her to kowtow to you after her fever breaks."

Lin You maintained a cold expression. "Let's just leave it at that. Let's not talk about this again."

Old Zhang put on his glasses and followed Old Sun out.

His back was very straight, as if he had never bent down.

Only Lin You and Team Leader Song remained in the meeting room.

Team Leader Song was silent for a moment before saying, "You didn't mention my responsibility."

"You are not responsible. You are the manager, not a prison guard. If someone breaks the rules, your first step is to investigate the facts, report them, and not conceal anything. The rest is about enforcing the rules. I set the rules, so of course I should be responsible for enforcing them."

"You changed the rules."

"I didn't change it. The paper said 'Stealing medicine, expel.' Old Sun didn't steal it; he knelt down and begged, and Old Zhang gave it to him voluntarily. Old Zhang didn't steal it either. He had the authority to distribute it, but he did so illegally, not by embezzlement. The rules haven't changed. What has changed is the way they are enforced."

Lin You paused for a moment, then said, "Rules are rigid, but people are flexible. When you lay bricks on a wall, each brick is a standard size. But the gaps between the bricks need to be filled with cement. Those gaps are what management needs to judge."

Team Leader Song remained silent.

He looked down at the list of supplies on the table: Amoxicillin tablets, inventory reduced by six tablets.

Lin You just added a line to the remarks column: "Added, will be deducted from this month's food rations."

He stared for a long time, then looked up. "I learned rules, enforcement, and procedures in the police force. Nobody taught me about 'gaps'."

What is a crack? Only they themselves probably know.

Legal principles are inseparable from human sentiment; what is reasonable, justifiable, and legal is not something that can be done outside the law.

When someone boasts that they don't break the law, they are not necessarily a bad person.

Good people never boast that they haven't broken the law; instead, they say they've never done anything wrong.

Before the law was enacted, those who stage accidents to extort money, even if they caused good people to lose their families, would not have broken the law; they would have only violated the bottom line of morality.

Just because someone hasn't broken the law doesn't mean they're a good person.

Team Leader Song said with a complicated expression, "But I understand now. From now on, I will make these kinds of decisions."

Lin You did not answer.

But the line at the corner of her mouth, the line that had always been hard and cold since he had known her, softened a little.

She turned and walked out of the conference room.

He walked straight to where the crowd was gathered, where a wall was under construction.

The gate built on the highway using natural barriers could not protect the base's safety.

It can't even truly calm people's hearts.

Lin You once managed to get his hands on cement, and after the truck was used, it was left in a warehouse.

Because of its proximity to the lake, the entire scenic area is very humid, making it impossible to preserve moisture for long periods under current conditions.

A wall only two meters high was erected around the perimeter.

This is just an ordinary wall, not a city wall.

Some useless bricks were found, such as the walls of the farmhouses, and were all demolished.

There is no shortage of stones and wood in the mountains, and even including the steel bars used as the keel support, the amount of material actually used is not very large.

No one spoke on the construction site where the wall was being built.

It's not that I don't want to talk, I'm just keeping a silent out of unease.

Finally, someone couldn't help but speak up; it was Old Zhao.

He is the father-in-law of Armed Police Officer Xiao Liu, and he is responsible for mixing concrete at the construction site.

As he turned over the gravel with a shovel, he lowered his voice and said to Old Qian beside him, "Have you heard about Old Sun? He stole amoxicillin and got punished. I heard he's now being forced to move stones at the construction site, and his rations have been halved. He's an old man, and moving those big stones, he can't even straighten his back."

Old Zhao couldn't help but sigh and shake his head. "Just for a few pills. His granddaughter had a fever, and he had no choice. And what was the result? He was punished like this."

Old Qian was the middle-aged man who argued with two elderly couples in the neighborhood.

He squatted down next to the cement bag, a rolled-up cigarette between his fingers, squinting at Old Sun, who was bending over and carrying stones in the distance, a cold smile playing on his lips.

"You still don't understand? This is called making an example of someone. Old Sun, an honest old man, stole a few pills and was punished by being made to move stones on the construction site. Who is he making an example of? He's making an example of us. The meaning is very clear—anyone who dares to touch the base's supplies will suffer this fate, no matter how old they are, no matter how badly their granddaughter is burned."

Chen Mei, who was sifting sand nearby, stopped using her iron sieve.

She is a family member of an armed police officer. Her husband was attacked by a strange beast while on patrol last night and sustained minor injuries. He is currently lying in the infirmary.

She wiped the sweat from her face with her sand-covered sleeve.

In an instant, his once clean face was transformed into a gruesome mess.

Chen Mei hesitated for a moment before speaking: "Old Zhang was also punished. You know him, right? He's the one who manages the medicine cabinet, Little Zhang's dad. I heard he had a month's rations deducted and was made to work an extra month of night shifts. I heard that he didn't embezzle the medicine himself, he just helped Old Sun get a few pills. Just a few amoxicillin pills. He's managed the pharmacy at the health center for over ten years, he's extremely meticulous, and he's never made a mistake. This is the first time he's been punished so severely."

Silence fell upon everyone once again.

Even the movements of his hands slowed down considerably, and he kept glancing around.

It was as if they were looking around for some kind of monster.

The wary old man didn't see the shiny bald head, so he looked away.

He flicked away the long ash from the end of his pipe and snorted.

"Old Zhang just walked right into the line of fire. She was just looking for someone to set an example, and Old Zhang delivered himself. Think about it, Old Zhang is a family member, one of our own. If even our own people are punished so harshly, what are we ordinary survivors? Who will dare to go to the medical room for medicine in the future? We'll just have to tough it out if we have a cold or fever, it's better than being kicked out."

Old Zhao stopped turning over the sand and gravel, leaning on the handle of his shovel, lost in thought.

The two elderly people who had been working silently were the same couple who had argued with Lao Qian.

The old woman deliberately lowered her voice and said, "What you're saying—punishing people with extra work, withholding rations—is all reasonable. What I don't understand is something else. I heard that during the rescue, a woman blocked the convoy from leaving, saying her boyfriend was still upstairs and she insisted the convoy wait for her. The monsters were already charging at her, but she clung to the safety bar. Then that bald man… that Miss Lin got out of the car, didn't say a word, and shot her dead."

He said the words "beaten to death" very softly, but several people around him heard it.

Of course, not everyone believed what the two old men said.

After all, they have some character issues; they love to take advantage of others and they shirk their responsibilities when doing work.

But everyone has heard about this.

The iron sieve in Chen Mei's hand stopped completely, and sand and gravel fell down from the edge of the sieve.

Old Qian didn't say anything, but just put the pipe in his mouth, took a deep drag, and exhaled a cloud of grayish-white smoke.

Xiao Zhou, who was squatting on the other side of the cement bag mixing cement, looked up.

He was the driver who was stopped by the woman.

His lips moved a few times, as if he wanted to say something but hesitated and dared not speak. Finally, he squeezed out a few words: "I saw it."

Everyone turned to him.