Cave Refuge

"How is that possible?" he blurted out, even more vehemently. "The days we've been building this camp, we've had people go out to collect food. The food they've brought back belongs to us all."

Hearing the other party's shameless words, Ye Liuyun still spoke in his unhurried tone, "You're referring to the food brought back by the search team, aren't you?"

"Yes, exactly, those are the ones."

"It seems you didn't join the search team," Ye Liuyun continued calmly, "so, the food brought back by the search team has nothing to do with you. If you want to ask for food, let those members of the search team step forward."

Taken aback by Ye Liuyun's words, the man who was leading the troublemaking paused. He hadn't expected Ye Liuyun to know that he wasn't a member of the search team.

Still, he shouted defiantly, "I may not be a member of the search team, but I'm here at the behest of some members of the team, representing them to demand the fruits of their arduous labor."

Watching the other man becoming increasingly frustrated, Ye Liuyun now spoke with even more interest, "The members of the search team you represent should be in the crowd behind you. Since you've claimed as much, then I should now assume that anyone from the search team who stands behind you agrees with you speaking on their behalf."

Just as the man was about to affirm without hesitation, some people began to leave from the crowd behind him.

Seeing the number of people dwindle, Ye Liuyun didn't immediately pursue those who followed the crowd. Instead, he continued to expand upon the man's logic, "According to your theory, the food found by the search team in the wild belongs exclusively to its members.

So, the fish and meat you eat at every meal means you're taking advantage of the search team, since the food is collected by them through hard efforts. Since you put it this way, to ensure fairness, from now on, our camp will no longer provide three meals a day to survivors. Everyone will need to find their own food in the wild.

Since we need to start being self-sufficient with ingredients, all other work in the camp will be voluntary. All plans for improvements in the camp are to be halted immediately. You wanted 'freedom to cook,' so I'll give it to you. From now on, I'm no longer in charge of this camp; do whatever you please.

Those who wish to follow me, willing to accept my leadership, and firmly carry out the tasks I assign, come with me to leave this camp shortly. We'll find a new place to build a new camp."

Hearing Ye Liuyun's words, the ringleader was dumbfounded. He thought that by stirring up public sentiment he could force Ye Liuyun to capitulate, even if it didn't persuade Ye Liuyun to take them to the nearby camp set up by the Imperial Court.

He anticipated that under the pressure of public opinion, Ye Liuyun would make some concessions to appease them. Once Ye Liuyun made concessions, he planned to push further, probing Ye Liuyun's limits until he had taken him for everything he had.

But he never imagined that Ye Liuyun would react so fiercely. Today he had simply tested the waters, yet Ye Liuyun was ready to decisively abandon the half-built camp and relocate to a new construction site.

Ye Liuyun's scorched-earth strategy put him in a very awkward situation. After all, although he had effectively stirred many of the survivors in the camp into a frenzy, now he faced his most important unsolved problem: the food issue.

It was known that even during the floods, the ships under Ye Liuyun's control only distributed enough food for each person to last two days. Now they would no longer issue reserve food, but provide meals at set times instead.

For this reason, even though the search team brought back various seafood after each outing, those gains would go into storage at Ye Liuyun's direction upon entering camp.

If Ye Liuyun really left this camp, it wasn't as though they had succeeded in driving him out, taking over an unfinished camp for free.

In truth, they would be losing a stable source of food. Right now, talking about anything else was meaningless; securing food was the most critical issue and the true ticket to survival.

Perhaps some might say, since the search team could bring back ingredients from the wild, they just needed to be more diligent, as there wasn't much danger outside. A trip outside by the search team members could resolve the food crisis.

While such a simple thought might occur to an average person, in practice, this approach might work as a short-term emergency measure, but as a new standard it would be exceedingly difficult.

Not to mention anything else, first consider that the search team had been out gathering supplies for several days in a row. The simplest fact was that the nearby areas had been picked clean by them already. If they wanted to find food now, they would have to go further afield.

Though every member of the search team was a Martial Artist, precisely because they were Martial Artists, despite moving on foot, it was undeniable that in the nearby region, everything edible had already been scraped up by them like Zhou Papi, with nothing left.