The doomsday shelter chat group.
The members chatted late into the night, with thousands of messages exchanged before the conversation finally died down around midnight.
Throughout this, Hunter Zhang Ge, who resided in the Western Continent, never appeared or participated. Some group members @'ed him, but he remained silent, leading some to speculate that something might have happened to him—after all, he lived in the Western Continent, which was now facing major issues.
Of course, these baseless speculations were quickly dismissed by the group admins and owner, as they had privately chatted with Hunter Zhang Ge just the day before and knew he was currently dealing with some personal matters.
However, none of this concerned Li Dong. He had only come to see what the group was discussing and whether there was any new information.
Early the next morning, the entire Lin family went to Pengcheng First Central Hospital. They had arranged in advance with the hospital leadership to have a doctor ready to administer the rabies vaccine.
The hospital official was Li Dong's second uncle—Xu Yajun's second elder brother.
Otherwise, they wouldn't have been able to pull strings like this.
Xu Yajun had two elder brothers. The eldest was unremarkable and could only inherit the family business—a scrap collection station in their hometown. The second brother, however, was both intelligent and hardworking, so he chose to study medicine.
The second brother was named Xu Zhongcheng, while the eldest was Xu Jiye.
Xu Yajun's eldest brother had a very common name—there were countless people named Jiye across the Great Xia Nation. From their names alone, it wasn't hard to see what hopes their parents had placed on them.
The second brother, who studied medicine, spent twenty to thirty years climbing the ranks and was now a mid-to-high-level official at Pengcheng First Central Hospital, with a government-assigned position.
This was no small achievement.
Unfortunately, Li Dong's maternal grandparents were no longer alive to enjoy the fruits of their son's success—they simply didn't have the fortune to do so.
Pengcheng First Central Hospital.
"Second Uncle, we've come to see you," Li Dong greeted as his uncle, dressed in a white lab coat, approached them in the third-floor corridor of Building A.
Xu Zhongcheng stood over six feet tall, with the appearance of a middle-aged man, though he looked visibly exhausted at the moment. Still, he was happy to see his nephew and sister.
Li Tiang then handed over an exquisitely arranged fruit basket.
"You didn't have to bring anything—your second uncle can afford his own fruit," Xu Zhongcheng said, declining the basket and instead patting Li Tiang on the shoulder. His gaze briefly swept over Song Weiwei, who stood beside Li Tiang.
With a meaningful smirk, he teased, "Tiang, when are you going to invite your second uncle to the wedding banquet?"
"Second Uncle!" Li Tiang shot a quick glance at Song Weiwei, who was nervously rubbing her hands together, and signaled with his eyes for his uncle to stop.
"Alright, I don't have much time to chat. Your second uncle still has a surgery to perform," Xu Zhongcheng said, rubbing his temples before walking away. "I've already arranged everything for you. Just go up to the fifth floor and look for Dr. Huang Wenhai."
It was clear that holding a leadership position wasn't easy.
Recently, the hospital had been overcrowded, with doctors from every department overwhelmed and nurses stretched thin. Even a skilled physician like Xu Zhongcheng had to step in personally to save lives.
"Mom, what about these things?" Li Tiang held up the fruit in his hand and glanced at his mother, Xu Yajun.
Xu Yajun took a look at the fruit in Li Tiang's hand. "Why are you looking at me? You know where your second uncle's office is. Just toss it in there and leave."
"Got it."
Then, the group headed straight to the fifth floor of the hospital and quickly found Dr. Huang Wenhai.
Dr. Huang didn't ask why they were there to get rabies vaccines—he just knew he had to do his job properly.
Besides, these people were relatives of Director Xu, so Huang Wenhai didn't dare neglect them.
Generally, rabies vaccines were administered at local epidemic prevention stations or disease control centers.
Of course, some people weren't aware of these places and would go straight to the most well-known local hospital, thinking it was more reliable—though the other two places were just as professional.
If someone was actually bitten by a rabid dog, they could visit departments like infectious diseases, dermatology, preventive immunization, or the emergency room.
Li Dong and his family had registered for the preventive immunization department.
This floor was practically empty for rabies vaccinations because most people didn't pay much attention to last night's news advisory.
They figured, If I haven't been bitten by a rabid dog, why waste money on a vaccine?
This was precisely why the Great Xia nation later mandated rabies vaccinations for the entire population.
A single shot didn't take much time, and within minutes, all four members of the Lin family had received their first dose.
They still needed two more shots, but there had to be intervals between the second and third doses.
After the vaccinations, Li Tiang went to dump the fruit basket in his second uncle's office.
Then, the Lin family left Pengcheng First Central Hospital and went their separate ways to handle their own business.
Li Dong, meanwhile, was planning to assemble a security team.
This wasn't about hiring neighborhood security guards.
It was about recruiting bodyguards—a security force to maintain order at the Shelter Base.
That meant recruitment had to be careful. No shady characters, and definitely no so-called "streetwise" types.
First priority went to military veterans, followed by ordinary civilians with clean records and good health. Then came athletes, martial artists—anyone without a criminal record was eligible.
In essence, they were looking for decent, upstanding individuals—preferably those with traceable backgrounds and even distant blood ties.
Anyone less than upstanding was automatically disqualified.
Because when the apocalypse hit, troublemakers and street thugs were the first to turn traitor. The dregs of society would become ruthless marauders in the end times.
To that end, Li Dong needed to personally return to the ancestral hall of their branch of the Lin family and ask the elders for the latest genealogy records.
The family registry contained contact details and addresses of all their clansmen.
Then, he'd gather intel—whether a person was reliable, whether their background was clean. Things like: education level, temperament, violent tendencies, how they treated their family, filial piety, family background, and so on.
Compared to outsiders, these carefully selected, upstanding clansmen—distant relatives sharing the same surname—would be far more trustworthy in the apocalypse.
In Guangnan Province, there was an old saying: "Half of Guangnan is Chen and Lin."
It's evident just how exaggerated the population numbers of these two major surnames are in Guangnan Province.
Of course, no matter which surname or ancestral hall, there will always be black sheep. Li Dong's trip this time was precisely to weed out the bad apples to avoid getting scammed.
"Ugh, another troublesome task. Once I get the genealogy records, I'll have Tiang use big data technology and weak AI to help filter them. Otherwise, this job would be exhausting to death."
As he drove, Li Dong thought about the series of tasks ahead and felt utterly overwhelmed.