At the 13th-floor window, Zhang Yi couldn't help but gasp when he saw the disarray of over a thousand residents of the neighborhood scattering.
This was his first time using a grenade.
To be honest, he hadn't expected the grenade to have such a huge impact at first.
Perhaps he had been influenced by the dramas he watched in the past, where the heroes could withstand various grenades and hand bombs without being harmed.
But the reality was that modern firearms had an unimaginable destructive power against ordinary people!
With just one grenade, Zhang Yi had caused over a thousand people to panic like rats, directly or indirectly killing nearly twenty people!
Originally, Zhang Yi had planned to throw a few more grenades.
However, after the first explosion, the others scattered like birds and beasts. Throwing more wouldn't have the same effect as the first one.
Seeing how useless they were, Zhang Yi lost interest in wasting more grenades.
After all, he only had twenty boxes of grenades; he had to use them sparingly.
He sat in his chair, waiting for Wang Qiang and Huang Tianfang to arrive.
After a few minutes, the panting individuals began to arrive one by one.
In this cold weather, climbing up nine flights of stairs in one go was a task most people simply couldn't endure.
Only Huang Tianfang, who worked on a construction site, and Zhang Yuni, the head of building 5, seemed to manage better.
Zhang Yi knew Zhang Yuni well. He used to run a boxing gym and was quite skilled.
But this didn't matter to Zhang Yi.
Because he had a gun.
"Now that you're here, is it just you few?" Zhang Yi said, his tone calm.
There were too few of them, and Zhang Yi felt a bit disappointed.
If it wasn't possible to take all the building heads down at once, he'd have to implement his second plan.
The few of them had caught their breath, and their previous arrogance had almost entirely dissipated.
Facing someone who could throw grenades and kill them at any moment, who were they?
Li Jian, still trying to catch his breath, spoke up: "Yes, we are... the representatives!"
"Oh."
Zhang Yi responded indifferently. "Then let's talk."
Wang Qiang and the others caught their breath and sat down, but none of them dared to get too close to Zhang Yi.
Everyone knew Zhang Yi was armed.
As expected, Li Jian spoke first.
With a serious expression, he looked at Zhang Yi, his tone deep: "Zhang Yi, you know the situation is difficult. Everyone is short of food and clothes, and many people are freezing and starving to death."
"I've also heard that some of the buildings have started resorting to cannibalism!"
"If this continues, none of us will survive."
"So I hope you understand that we're not against you. We're just trying to survive, and that's why we have no choice but to talk to you this way."
Li Jian's tone was much more polite now.
However, if Zhang Yi hadn't thrown that grenade, his words would have been completely different.
Zhang Yi remained unmoved.
"Don't try to play the sympathy card with me. Do you think these words are still useful now?"
"Just get to the point and tell me your terms."
The five people opposite him were completely dominated by Zhang Yi's imposing presence.
Even though they tried to act composed, climbing up nine flights of stairs had already taken its toll on their physical state.
Yes, everything had been calculated by Zhang Yi! (JOJO!)
The building heads looked at each other, and Wang Qiang nodded towards Li Jian: "Old Li, you handle this."
They were now too scared to use force and had to negotiate. It was clear that Li Jian had better speaking skills.
Li Jian frowned, thought for a moment, and then slowly spoke.
"What we want are some essential living supplies."
"First, food. We need your help to gather supplies from the outside."
"Second, materials for heating, like clothing and blankets."
Li Jian paused here, and the others immediately stared at him.
Li Jian continued, "If our cooperation goes smoothly, we could also assist you in gathering supplies. If everyone can bring in more materials, that would be great!"
After finishing, Li Jian felt he had done a good job explaining. He then asked Zhang Yi, "Mr. Zhang, what do you think?"
No matter what Li Jian said, his words always sounded pleasant.
But Zhang Yi wasn't stupid. He could hear the hidden meaning behind his words.
Language was an art.
The same request, when worded differently, could yield very different results.
Zhang Yi pondered for a moment and understood what Li Jian was trying to convey.
He sneered.
"I understand what you mean. In other words, you want me to help you gather food and supplies. You didn't mention any specific quantities, meaning there are no limits?"
"Also, what you meant by helping me gather supplies is that you want me to give you my snowmobile, right?"
Li Jian was about to explain, but Zhang Yi's expression suddenly changed.
Without saying another word, he pulled out his gun and slammed it on the table with a "bang!"
The five of them were startled, instinctively wanting to flee.
But the door had already been blocked by Uncle You and his men.
Wang Qiang glared at Zhang Yi, his face darkening. "What do you mean by this, Zhang Yi? Let me tell you, even if you kill us, it won't matter. The whole neighborhood will never forgive you!"
Li Jian raised his hands in a gesture of peace, trying to calm him down. "Mr. Zhang, don't get too worked up. We can talk this out!"
Zhang Yi only smiled faintly.
"Why are you nervous? I just thought this gun was in the way, so I took it out to air it out. Don't be anxious! Come, let's sit down and continue."
The five of them looked grim but reluctantly sat down.
Zhang Yi said, "First, let me tell you that I cannot agree to your terms!"
The five of them were anxious and were about to speak, but Zhang Yi raised his hand to stop them.
"Don't rush, let me finish!"
"What you're asking is for me to take care of the entire neighborhood's survival? Don't be ridiculous, no one can do that."
"With 30 buildings and over a thousand people, just finding the supplies would be exhausting!"
"The most important thing is, as far as I know, none of you are kind enough to worry about your neighbors while you're starving yourselves."
Zhang Yi said sarcastically, then looked around at the five of them.
They exchanged glances, but no one spoke.
Only Li Jian furrowed his brow deeper, weighing the pros and cons.
Because in the entire neighborhood, only their building had managed to survive as a harmonious community, with shared resources and no internal looting. This had allowed them to survive with the highest survival rate so far.
Seeing no objections, Zhang Yi continued: "Now I will state my conditions for cooperation. You can see if it's feasible. But if you don't accept it, I won't change it, and we'll just fight!"
The five of them had different expressions.
To be fair, they were all quite afraid of Zhang Yi's power now.
If it came down to a one-on-one fight, Zhang Yi could easily overpower any one of them, or even several of them working together.
Zhang Yi raised a finger and said, "First, I can provide you with supplies, mainly food. But the quantity is limited—I'll only provide enough for ten people per building."
"Who gets the food and how it's distributed, that's up to you to decide within your own building."
"Providing food for over 300 people every day is already my limit."
As Zhang Yi spoke, the five people in front of him lowered their heads, lost in thought.
They hadn't expected Zhang Yi to take on the responsibility of supplying food for the entire neighborhood.
But at the very least, they wanted to ensure that their own faction would survive.
"Ten people's worth of supplies is too little," Chen Lingyu was the first to speak up.
"Our building has 76 living people. Just my company employees alone number over 20. You're giving only ten people's worth—how are we supposed to divide that?"
Zhang Yi shot her a cold glance.
"So, does that mean there's nothing to discuss?"
His tone carried a chilling murderous intent, and Chen Lingyu suddenly remembered that Zhang Yi had said before, if they couldn't come to an agreement, then they would fight!
Huang Tianfang, who was not happy about this, quickly raised his hand and said, "Wait! Chen Lingyu, don't rush to speak for all of us!"
"I think we can still negotiate about the quantity of supplies."
Of course, Huang Tianfang was more than willing to accept this!
Most of their Tianghe Gang had already been taken out by Zhang Yi, and now only seven of their core members remained.
Including himself, they had eight people—ten people's worth of supplies was more than enough!
As for the other neighbors, he thought, they could just deal with them later.
Wang Qiang sized up Zhang Yi and hesitated in his mind.
He still had 16 people under him, and ten people's worth of supplies was clearly not enough.
However, it wasn't entirely impossible to work something out.
At worst, they could just optimize by leaving six people out.
"Ten people's worth is a bit too little. We won't be able to explain it to the other buildings later," Wang Qiang said deliberately, trying to negotiate for more.
Zhang Yi's expression remained indifferent. "You think three hundred people's worth of food is too little?"
Just a single issue about the supply quantity had already caused cracks in their loose alliance.
Some had more people under them, others had fewer—it was a difference in interests.
Li Jian's face was full of worry.
The reason he could be the building head was because of the system that ensured equal distribution of benefits.
If all the people in the building, over 80 of them, only got ten portions of supplies, his leadership would instantly be undermined.
The entire harmonious neighborhood could collapse, and it might even devolve into a more chaotic situation with even worse infighting than in the other buildings!
Li Jian glanced at Wang Qiang and Huang Tianfang, who seemed to be considering the situation.
He quickly turned to Zhang Yi and said, "Let us think about this some more. Please, tell us the other conditions first!"
Zhang Yi nodded slightly. "Fine! Next, I'll tell you what you'll have to pay in return for the supplies I provide."
His right hand rested on the table, just two centimeters away from the gun, lightly tapping the surface.
"Since we need to keep 300 sources of fire, we must aim for sustainable development."
"Simply going out to gather supplies won't be enough. No one knows how long this snowstorm will last."
"Therefore, we must become self-sufficient and start working!"
As Zhang Yi spoke, he seemingly performed a magic trick, pulling out a packet of corn seeds from behind him and tossing it onto the table in front of them.
"When I went out, I found a batch of grain seeds. I think we can plant crops to ensure a continuous and stable food supply."
Zhang Yi joked, "Just like our ancestors. Food must be earned through hard work!"