Liu Tiantian's speech was immediately met with ridicule from a group of male residents.
"It's already the end of the world, who still pampers you 'little fairies' now?"
"Haha, you really think you're something special?"
"You expect us to risk our lives to protect you? Do you even deserve it?"
Uncle You, who had been verbally attacked, was at a loss for words.
He couldn't understand why, despite his good intentions for everyone, they were reacting with such hostility.
He wasn't much of a talker and couldn't outargue the others, so he simply stopped speaking.
Zhang Yi watched the group chat and found it rather lively, enjoying the banter like a form of entertainment.
After all, entertainment was quite limited these days!
In short, his conclusion was simple: most of the people in this group deserved their fate.
The argument in the group chat grew more intense.
Perhaps because they had suppressed their emotions for so long, everyone finally found a place to vent, and all their frustrations spilled out.
The group chat became filled with vicious, filthy words, unbearable to listen to.
In the end, they forgot the original purpose of the group.
Zhang Yi set his phone aside and walked into the kitchen.
Although there were many ready-made meals in the alternate dimension, sometimes he felt like cooking for himself to enjoy life.
He took out fresh ingredients from the alternate dimension.
The potatoes, green onions, ginger, and garlic were as fresh as if they had just been dug up from the soil.
The beef brisket was tender and had an appetizing bright red color.
Walmart truly lived up to its reputation as the world's number one supermarket brand—the quality of the products was top-notch.
Zhang Yi stewed a pot of potato and beef brisket. Following the method for "ground pot chicken," he also placed some flatbread along the sides of the pot.
As the dish cooked, the flatbread soaked up the rich broth, becoming particularly delicious.
Picking up his phone, Zhang Yi saw new messages from Fang Yuqing and Lin Caining.
This time, their voices were filled with desperate pleas.
Fang Yuqing and Lin Caining were crying hysterically. Clearly, they were terrified by Chen Zhenghao's killing spree.
The two "green tea" girls had no means to defend themselves against a dangerous man.
As a result, they were likely to become Chen Zhenghao's next targets.
Especially after witnessing the solid security of Zhang Yi's door, they were even more convinced that Zhang Yi's place was a safe haven, and they wanted to move in.
"Zhang Yi, no matter how many conflicts we had in the past, at the very least, you once loved me, didn't you?"
"You can't just watch me die, right?"
"I know you act tough on the outside, but you have a soft heart. Please, I beg you, save me!"
Lin Caining's plea had even less dignity than Fang Yuqing's.
"Zhang Yi, I don't want to die. If you let me stay at your place, I'll be your personal plaything! You can do whatever you want with me, but please don't let me die at their hands."
Zhang Yi could sense the fear in their hearts.
To be honest, if Zhang Yi's apartment hadn't been reinforced and he were living in a cold, food-scarce home, his despair would have been no less than theirs.
But did he feel any pity for these two women?
Haha, of course not!
After all, this was exactly the situation he had longed to see.
The more desperate they became, the more excited Zhang Yi felt.
He didn't respond verbally; instead, he slowly recorded a video and sent it to them.
In the video, Zhang Yi was sitting in front of a large pot of potato and beef brisket, while a roaring fire crackled in the fireplace not far away.
The room was filled with warmth and peace, in stark contrast to the violent snowstorm and howling winds outside.
To the two women, this was nothing short of a massive provocation.
After all, they were not only struggling to find food but also fighting to stay alive.
They continued to send messages, pleading with Zhang Yi to let them into his apartment.
Zhang Yi ignored them.
He neither agreed nor refused.
He wanted to leave them with a glimmer of hope, forcing them to grovel, knowing full well that their chances were slim.
That's how the day passed, filled with boredom.
After seizing a certain amount of supplies, Chen Zhenghao and his gang wouldn't make any hasty moves for the time being.
They knew that if they pushed too far, they would unite all the residents against them.
The most reasonable strategy was to gather some followers, appease others, and kill a select few.
However, that night, through his surveillance, Zhang Yi noticed some unusual activity from Chen Zhenghao's group.
The entire city of Tianhai was without power at night, but Zhang Yi's apartment was still lit—though his neighbors hadn't noticed yet.
Zhang Yi saw a few of Chen Zhenghao's men carrying two bodies out of the building.
Zhang Yi looked closely and found the faces of the two bodies somewhat familiar.
The reason he remembered them so well was that he was acquainted with almost all the residents in his building.
However, these two were clearly not from his unit.
Therefore, they had to be some of the guys Chen Zhenghao had called over when the snow first fell.
After thinking it over, Zhang Yi quickly figured out what had happened.
That day, when Chen Zhenghao and his crew tried to break into Zhang Yi's apartment, they had been blasted with freezing water from the hose.
In temperatures of negative sixty or seventy degrees Celsius, this was lethal.
So, those two men had likely frozen to death.
In extreme cold, a simple cold or fever could be fatal without a warm environment or access to medicine like ibuprofen.
After all, why was life expectancy so short in ancient times?
The two corpses had been stripped of all their clothes and tossed at the stairwell entrance.
Zhang Yi frowned, puzzled at first as to why they would leave the bodies there.
If they simply wanted to dispose of the corpses, they could have thrown them out the window, where the snow would have covered everything.
Why leave them at the door?
But as his thoughts shifted, Zhang Yi suddenly realized something terrifying, and his pupils involuntarily contracted!
Could Chen Zhenghao have left the bodies as… reserve food?
The thought sent chills down Zhang Yi's spine, making his hair stand on end.
But it was the most plausible explanation.
In this freezing environment, the world had become a giant refrigerator. There was no need to worry about food spoiling.
Many modern people's understanding of apocalyptic scenarios came from movies, where cannibalism was not uncommon.
In recorded human history, during times of great famine, there were horrifying accounts of people eating their own children or trading human flesh as food.
Perhaps years of peace had made people forget those stark, written records of history.
Until now, when the apocalypse had arrived.
Zhang Yi took a deep breath, calming his rapidly beating heart.
He accepted this reality faster than most people.
After all, he had lived through one apocalypse already—and had even been eaten by others.
He knew that when pushed to the brink of survival, hunger could drive humans to commit any atrocity, consuming anything and everything they could.
"Chen Zhenghao, you're truly a ruthless man!"
Though Zhang Yi had no love for that gang leader, he couldn't help but admire his cold calculation.
Most people understood this logic.
But to treat the corpses of your own brothers as food reserves even before the food supply had run out—that was inhumane to the extreme.