(This chapter is a discarded draft, pending update)
To everyone, she said, "Everyone, I believe you all understand by now that we must work together.
As for Tang Li's recent words, offending Zhang Yan?
This was precisely the effect Tang Li wanted!
The current Tang Li was not afraid of offending Zhang Yan.
Having learned about the jade pendant's ability to enhance her strength and mastering the use of the Yan Ling saber, Tang Li now possessed the ability to protect herself in the apocalypse.
Moreover, she was not lacking in supplies at the moment.
After a full extreme cold season of interaction, Tang Li had come to understand Zhang Yan very well.
To establish his authority, he could sacrifice some people, paving his own path over their corpses.
To win over hearts, he could also be solicitous of talent and appear extremely friendly.
While this friendliness might be calculated or a show of generosity at others' expense, Zhang Yan had a knack for taking advantage of others while still making them grateful.
The previous Tang Li had suffered from this.
The points compensated by the authorities after requisitioning houses were then demanded by Zhang Yan, asking her to part with some to exchange for supplies for everyone.
Although she was protected by others, Zhang Yan was not the primary contributor, yet it was still perceived by everyone as Zhang Yan's favor to her.
Even though she had paid the points to exchange for supplies, those who received them thanked Zhang Yan, not her.
Zhang Yan had contributed nothing but had gained all the benefits.
She and those who fought desperately to protect everyone, despite their significant contributions, were seen as indebted to Zhang Yan.
It wasn't until much later in the apocalypse that Tang Li realized this.
In this life, Tang Li had both supplies and the ability to protect herself; she could live quite well on her own and had no need to be subject to others' control.
Therefore, no matter how Zhang Yan "showed his goodwill" to her, she would not accept his help.
Tang Li knew very well that if Zhang Yan got the mistaken impression that she trusted and was grateful to him, he would, just like in the previous life, naturally demand that she exchange supplies for them.
At that time, if she didn't want to be exploited by them as in the previous life, she would either have to move elsewhere or confront the other residents in the building.
This was the place Tang Li was most familiar with, and she did not want to leave.
However, living here and being in conflict with everyone else would not be a wise move.
Therefore, Tang Li had to make it clear to Zhang Yan from the beginning that she would not accept his "favors" and clearly distinguish herself from them.
She later learned that she had been thrown down the stairs by the residents of the 17th floor. And that family had eventually starved to death in their home.
For several days, the thunderstorms in the sky had not ceased, no rescue teams had arrived, and the floodwaters showed no signs of receding.
Following the incident with Li Guilan, the lower-floor residents on the 17th floor had become even more convinced of Zhang Yan's leadership.
Meanwhile, the residents on floors 1 to 9 gathered together. Some had more supplies, some had fewer. They were not worried about scarcity but about inequality, leading to friction among them on a daily basis.
Zhang Yan then proposed pooling everyone's supplies for equal distribution, ensuring everyone had food to eat and could last longer.
Those who still had plenty of supplies were somewhat reluctant, but recalling that Zhang Yan had helped them recover the stolen supplies from Li Guilan, and with those around them who lacked supplies constantly eyeing them, they all agreed.
This was likely the origin of Zhang Yan collecting everyone's supplies for unified distribution during the later shortages in the extreme cold season.
As time went on, water and food in many of the upper-floor residents' homes also began to run out.
To win over the populace, Zhang Yan was also very generous to those families whose supplies were running low, allowing them to join the distribution.
After all, in the previous life, the great earthquake had struck too suddenly, resulting in massive losses of official supplies, and the collapse of buildings had produced a large number of corpses.
If these corpses were not used to feed the rice worms, a large number of people who had no food would resort to eating the dead bodies.
Even if some held onto their principles and did not eat corpses, they would still starve to death due to lack of food.
After weighing the pros and cons, the authorities made such a decision and severely punished those who directly ate corpses, sending them to build underground cities.
This way, after the great earthquake, the trend of eating corpses was curbed.
However, in this life, Song Pinxuan had long ago sent a reminder to the high-ranking officials through his precognitive dreams.
Due to his background and his achievements after the apocalypse, the officials highly trusted his words, made preparations in advance, and frequently conducted earthquake evacuation drills.
It was likely that the casualties in this life would not be as severe as in the previous one, and supplies had already been transferred to safe locations.
However, the worrisome aspect was that once the great earthquake destroyed production.