The entire campsite was in an uproar. There was a bonfire burning in the middle of the street intersection. The huge bonfire spewed out flames several meters high, illuminating a large area. The scorching heat roasted the people walking on the street. The camp personnel walked on the street with a loudspeaker, constantly shouting, "All the monsters in the lake have been killed. Go and help … there will be meat to eat …"
This sentence was shouted repeatedly. The men and women holding the loudspeaker were sweating profusely from the fire. Sweat soaked their clothes. They had shouted too many words in their throats, and their throats began to dry up. Their voices were hoarse, but the expressions on their faces were very happy, and there was a sense of pride in their eyes.
One by one, the poor and civilians walked on the street and asked them questions. They also tried their best to answer, but there were too many people asking, and they could not answer all of them. Some people simply continued to shout for people to come out, while others gave speeches to the crowd. The theme was that the camp had eliminated the monsters in the lake, and the dead big fish had piled up into a mountain.
The crowd was skeptical, but it did not stop them from watching the fun. Why not when someone was holding a bonfire party?
The huge bonfire shone on the street, and the bonfires were lined up, forming a long line that extended into the distance. At the end of the line was the wall of the camp near the lake. There was a large empty area, and the registration point was there.
The crowd followed the bonfire and arrived there. As soon as they arrived, they were shocked. There was a huge fish tail hanging high on the four-meter-high wall. The big fish tail was so huge that it not only blocked the wall, but it was also a lot higher than the wall. The bamboo fins were so sharp, and the fins between the fins were so dense.
People looked at the huge fish tail greedily. Although it was only a tail fin hanging on the wall, it did not stop them from imagining how huge the real big fish was, and how much meat it had on its body.
Then, the crowd was attracted by the fishy smell in the air. That was the smell of fish. There were dozens of big pots lined up on the wall, boiling water in the pots. The boiling water was still covered with oil, and under the illumination of the flames, it was slightly reflecting light. Pieces of fish were rolling in the pots, and each piece of fish weighed more than two taels. A big pot weighed dozens of jin, so how many jin would there be in dozens of big pots?
Zhang Huai'an was reluctant to add seasonings to the pot to suppress the fishy smell, so he boiled it in plain water with a little salt. After the fish was cooked, the fragrance could not suppress the fishy smell, and it spread all over the place. The survivors who had not seen meat for a long time did not mind. They smelled the strong fishy smell, and their mouths quickly secreted saliva.
"If you want to work, go get a bowl of meat. If you eat, then work through the night. If you don't want to work, go back …"
Zhang Huai'an stood next to the big fish tail. There was a wire pole beside him, and a one-kilowatt spotlight above his head, illuminating Zhang Huai'an. Zhang Huai'an was in high spirits, wearing a black flowery shirt with silver dragon patterns. His shiny hair was neat and tidy. Maybe it was a little dazzling under the one-kilowatt spotlight, but he still wore sunglasses in the middle of the night. He stood on the wall and looked down at the crowd below. In front of him, there was a microphone, and the microphone was connected to two huge speakers hanging on the wall.
Zhang Huai An was proudly issuing orders from above, as if he was afraid that others wouldn't be able to hear him, so he spoke as loudly as he could. Actually, he was thinking too much. The people who installed the sound equipment were all professionals. Up there, not to mention speaking, even a fart from him could be heard throughout the entire gathering place.
Seeing the big fish tail, the crowd that came one after another showed a face of surprise and greed. They had been tortured by hunger for too long, and did not think about how powerful this big fish was. They only thought about how much meat this big fish had.
When they saw the pot, the fish, and the smell in the air, the long-forgotten smell of fish surged into their hearts. It seemed that their favorite food before the apocalypse was fish. Even if some of them didn't like the smell of fish before the apocalypse, they only felt that it was fragrant here. They were sure that they liked to eat fish before the apocalypse. Although they didn't know what fish tasted like, it didn't stop them from comparing the most delicious food they had ever eaten to the fish in front of them.
From above, Zhang Huai An ordered the people below him to go to the cauldron and eat first before working. The people below did not have the self-esteem of the people of Qi. They all let out a cheer that shook the entire camp. Regardless of whether they were men or women, they all squeezed towards the cauldron.
"Ta, ta, ta …"
The heavy machine gun on top of the wall flickered into the bright night sky. The flickering light was like a group of stars flying to the moon, disappearing into the darkness in the distance. When the meter-long tongues of flame disappeared from the muzzle, the gunshots were still echoing in everyone's ears. The crowd stood still and looked up at Zhang Huai'an who was standing on top of the wall.
"Do you know what quality?
Line up … If you don't line up, you won't be able to eat … "
Other than the queue at the train station, the crowd that didn't line up anywhere else miraculously formed ten columns. The time it took to form each column was definitely no longer than that of a well-trained soldier. Looking at this miracle that happened right under his nose, Zhang Huai An's jaw dropped.
The crowd was neat and orderly. There was no whispering, no whispering, and no one even looked left and right. They just stared at the pot in front of them, silently counting the number of people in front of them. They even calculated the time needed for each person in front of them to get their food, and then summed up the time needed for them to get their turn.
With the probability of time, they lined up with peace of mind, counting the seconds, and calculating any unexpected delay or reduction in time. At this moment, everyone could calculate their time to the second.
The people in front of them demonstrated.
The people in the back didn't need to say anything. They only needed to line up, just like the people in the supermarket before the apocalypse.
The people in the front were blessed because it would soon be their turn to eat the fish and fish soup. The people in the middle were blessed because they arrived earlier than the people in the back, so they could eat first. The people in the back were also blessed because they had already arrived. No matter how much was left, at least a mouthful of hot fish soup was indispensable. Compared to those who were hesitant or did not believe, they could have a mouthful of fragrant fish soup to warm the night.
The people who got the fish soup chewed the fish meat in two or three mouthfuls, drank the fish soup, returned the bowl, and walked forward. It was not that they didn't want to taste it carefully, but the people in front were urging them to process the fish before it went bad.
There were still piles of dazzling bonfires in front of them. Looking at the bonfires that lit up the road, and seeing the wood that was as thick as an adult's thigh, many people felt that it was a pity. These were rare building materials in the gathering place, but they were burned to ashes. It was really heart-wrenching.