Chapter 167: Old Frank’s happiness
Zhang Xiao Qiang was on guard against Shangguan Qiao Yun but did not hesitate to have her by his side. At least they had a great killing machine to fight against the S2, his safety was guaranteed. Every time they went up against an S2, it was extremely thrilling and dangerous, with Shangguan Qiao Yun, everything would be safe and steady, so why not?
The fleet arrived at the spa, which had turned into a large construction zone. Aside from requesting Old Frank to build the oil pools, Zhang Xiao Qiang got him to build a perimeter wall in the valley which had to be at least 4m tall and reinforced with various steel reinforcing bars. Aside from that, the planned perimeter walls would have sandbags added which increases the height by another 2m. This way, the wall would not be destroyed by any D2 or D3. The sandbags were able to effectively protect the walls that also had a few machine gun forts. Zhang Xiao Qiang knew that aside from zombies, there were also various type of monstrosities. If they were to encounter any flying ones, they could at least ward them off.
Old Frank led the entire Logistic Team and the base guards that were from the Combat Team and carried out the construction, the diesel fuel electric generator by the side supplied power to the concrete mixer trucks. Mixing all kind of sand, stones, and cement. A few wheelbarrows were by the side waiting for the load with a few men, who were Zhang Xiao Qiang’s captives and a few men that Shangguan Qiao Yun disliked, all of whom had become the old policeman Zhang Huai An’s subordinates. Although the old policeman was not well received in his past position, he had seen all sorts of people in all walks of life in his 2-decade long experience. With a few words from them, Zhang Huai An quickly grasped their personalities and weaknesses. Additionally, after Zhang Huai An had shot their old leader to death, all of them had lingering fears toward him. On the contrary to Zhang Huai An’s cowardice towards his ex-colleagues, he started to act like a nasty person who had some accomplishments, causing his ex-colleagues to become even more disgusted with him. Whenever they saw him, they never bothered to greet him. But Zhang Huai An did not care, he had been trampled by all of them in his career, how could he not be used to them rolling their eyes?
Everyone had to work and naturally, Zhang Huai An was doing what he did best. He stood by the side of a wheelbarrow and smoked. But as an old cop with two decades of experience, with a sweep of the area, he saw Zhang Xiao Qiang opening the door of his vehicle and was coming out. He quickly threw away his cigarette and ran towards Zhang Xiao Qiang, he was an outsider but was suddenly picked by Zhang Xiao Qiang to be the leader of a small group. His old boss did not dare refute Zhang Xiao Qiang’s arrangement, and could only talk bad about Zhang Huai An behind his back. Zhang Huai An constantly noticed people pointing at him behind his back and the eyes of his subordinates were not as submissive as before, but he was not easy to deal with. After finding out that Zhang Xiao Qiang had the same last name as him, he started to proclaim that they were related by blood since Zhang Xiao Qiang’s ancestors were also from J City. After that, all the idle gossip were gone.
When Zhang Xiao Qiang heard about it, he became somewhat gloomy. His grandfather’s generation came from Sichuan and stayed in Y City for a few generations. He never heard of having any relatives in J City, but he was lazy to declare and reveal his family tree. Due to that, Zhang Huai An constantly stuck onto Zhang Xiao Qiang, as long as he saw his shadow, Zhang Huai An would be the first to walk over to greet him.
Zhang Xiao Qiang did not get sick of Zhang Huai An constantly running to him. Zhang Huai An was in an unstable team and had no choice but to grasp such an opportunity, but at the same time, Zhang Xiao Qiang felt more reassured towards Zhang Huai An. Although he was somewhat a slippery profiteer, he was an old man with a rather kind heart.
“There shouldn’t be any anomaly today right, or did someone not bring a helmet again and got his head smashed?” Zhang Xiao Qiang spoke to Zhang Huai An in ridicule. Zhang Huai An was fixated to fawn on Zhang Xiao Qiang’s thighs and had become affixed to this identity, regardless of any or no news, he would report to Zhang Xiao Qiang and never cared about what others thought. As long as there was something, he would report it. There was no need to talk about for Three or Old Frank, even if He Wen Bin did something wrong, Zhang Huai An would report to Zhang Xiao Qiang. Everyone got pissed off by him, and everyone started to speak badly about Zhang Huai An in front of Zhang Xiao Qiang. But Zhang Xiao Qiang remained indifferent about all these. This indifference caused others to believe that they really had some family ties.
“No…., there’s nothing, I just saw you coming, so I cam to greet you….” Zhang Huai An’s eyes darted around Zhang Xiao Qiang’s face, seeing that his mood was relatively well, he continued to speak: “It seems that the materials for construction are not enough, Old Frank and the rest said something about going out to look for more?”
Zhang Xiao Qiang frowned. It’s only been a few days and there’s insufficient materials? None of them are easily found, aside from the markets, only the counties have them. But the counties have as many zombies as J City, what should we do?
He dispatched Zhang Huai An back to work while he walked over to the side and pondered. With regards to Zhang Huai An, Zhang Xiao Qiang’s thoughts were no different from any person occupying a leadership position, he could not allow his subordinates to gather together, otherwise, it would be difficult for the top management, as well as dispelling any concealed dangers that might surface. Zhang Xiao Qiang wanted to go to WH City but he did not want to lose the spa. If WH City’s environment was bad, he definitely wanted to return to the spa. The spa was his roots as he had invested too much into it. If someone else were to take the place from him, Zhang Xiao Qiang felt that he would most probably die from anger.
The memorial arch of the spa had been torn down, the cement pavement had been split and cracked by the various construction vehicles and the old electric gate was demolished. All of the bushes that were as tall as an average person were all pulled from their roots. To build the base, the amount of earth dug formed a hill on an empty space they found far away. The protective wall that reached a height of 4m and 3m thick was of priority were underway, while Wang Le led a group of men to break apart and scrap the outer covering of a car. This metal was to be used as substitute material as there were insufficient reinforced steel bars and added to the walls. For the sake of the wall, it could be said that Zhang Xiao Qiang spared nothing. They made search teams and went out daily, but instead of looking as though they were searching for supplies, it looked as though they were demolishing the structures they found. Along with neatly placed bricks, cement, and prefabricated boards, they moved everything up their vehicles. For this, Zhang Xiao Qiang’s fleet brought along a small crane. Every time they left, all of the buildings would be demolished to the ground. They were like an Asian locust swarm, wherever they went, they needed to take everything as an accomplishment, but even so, the supply of materials could not catch up to the progress of construction.
They arrived back in base, and upon walking in a few steps, Zhang Xiao Qiang saw Old Frank scolding a few people. He had a helmet that was placed crookedly on his hand, an originally white towel that had turned black wrapped around his neck, the originally green camouflage clothes had turned black and yellow and the perspiration on his face mixed with dust caused him to have black lines all over. After becoming a leader of a group, Old Frank’s personality had changed as well, his expressed more ferocity and his mood fluctuation were even more erratic. He was forced to change due to the multiple responsibilities he held unlike the past, where he never worked as a chief labor contractor before, making him clumsy at him. Right after the oil pool was completed, even before the cement had dried, Zhang Xiao Qiang got him to build the protective perimeter wall, he was so busy that he constantly looked as though he was in a terrible shape. He was no longer the coward and inarticulate man of the past, his walk and talk were always filled with anger, and even before his workers got near him, he would have scolded them upside down. On the previous day, just because He Wen Bin was half a day late in supplying the materials, Old Frank actually went to find trouble with him, leaving He Wen Bin speechless and unsure whether he should laugh or cry. Three had disappeared completely from Old Frank, whenever he saw Old Frank, he would take a detour.
Old Frank constantly berated his subordinates, yet they never dared to unleash their anger. There was once where one of the subordinates actually refuted a few impulsive words. Old Frank instantly kicked him. The thing was, this man knew of Old Frank’s old personality, he even thought to climb back up and retaliate, but Old Frank actually pointed his M1911 at the man’s head. After that, no one tried to create trouble for Old Frank anymore, whoever did so had to face the wrath of a gun; No one was willing to do it.
There were also two girls who followed Old Frank and constantly walked by his side. When he elder sister held a bottle of water for him he replied by smiling at them, then turning back and staring at his subordinates. His subordinates would instantly scatter like birds and beasts. The younger sister who was previously mentally unsound became much better, she no longer needed her sister to hold her hand and instead, she held onto a small pink cat towel and tugged at his shirt. Sensing that she was trying to get his attention, Old Frank stopped and looked at her. The little girl pulled on his shirt and got him to kneel, to which Old Frank responded like a docile sheep and obediently knelt beside the girl. The little girl used her towel to wipe his face, removing the dirt but staining the pink towel. Being cleaned, Old Frank looked at the two girls and gave a foolish smile.