Chapter 288: Trust Someone Who Knows
The television had barely stopped trying to mimic a possessed toy before Xu Zhenlan decided that we needed to have a meeting when an email would have been enough to get his point across.
At this point, I could practically read the man’s mind.
He was going to put on his CEO hat and ’fix’ this whole situation.
He waited until the workers started talking over one another again before catching my men’s eyes and cocked his head toward the basement door. Zhou Chenghai took a step forward before looking over his shoulder to me and raising his eyebrow in challenge.
Or like I was supposed to follow them like a good little pet.
Just because I knew what they were thinking didn’t mean that I agreed with it.
After all, if I gave in now, Xu Zhenlan’s head would get too big. He would probably start thinking that I was going to follow mission briefs or, God forbid, a schedule.
I thought about refusing for all of a few seconds, but then I gave in. My biggest worry was that he was going to open his mouth, tell everyone about my supplies and insist that I give them to everyone.
Not that moral blackmailing me would work, but it would definitely make my life that much harder than it needed to be.
So, with a sigh, I grabbed my Cheezies and followed after them.
Might as well get this over and done with before I ran out of snacks.
The noise of frantic people faded the second the basement door closed behind us. Here, we were in our own little world, and I didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing.
But since it was a thing, I walked carefully into the rec room and stretched out across the couch with the Cheezies balanced against my stomach. Yuche sat beside my feet, Lingyun claimed the chair closest to me, and Chenghai leaned against the wall while Xu Zhenlan remained standing in the middle of the room.
He looked like he was about to announce quarterly losses. "We need more supplies," he finally announced like this was supposed to be some grand revelation.
I chewed slowly, narrowing my eyes. Surely he wasn’t dumb enough to mention supplies a third time. This ’new and improved’ Xu Zhenlan had a hard on for supplies that pretty much bordered its own kink category.
"We just watched a man get murdered through the television, and somehow that led you to wanting to go shopping?" I muttered when no one else interjected. Please tell me that no one else thought that this was a good idea.
"This is not shopping," replied Zhou Chenghai, his eyes going hard. "This isn’t a leisure activity. This is a necessity of life. Or do you think that everyone can live off of Cheezies and snacks?"
The basement went still.
"A necessity of life," I purred, putting down my Cheezies and licked the neon orange dust from my fingers. None of the men in the room flinched.
That was really too bad.
They should have.
Instead, Xu Zhenlan ignored me completely which was becoming one of his many new talents. "We brought back twenty-three people. Most of them arrived with whatever they were wearing and very little else. They need food, clean water, clothing, shoes, bedding, medicine, soap, and enough basic supplies to keep them working."
"They brought things back from the store," I reminded him, my gaze unwavering. Didn’t he remember the store? The one where a zombie had managed to attack and bite Lingyun? Or was that something he planned?
That whispering thought caused me to freeze.
It would have been so easy for him to set it up. A dodge instead of a strike and that would have been one more man down.
I kicked my feet off the couch and sat up. Leaning forward, I stared Xu Zhenlan down. "I will admit that they are useful," I started slowly. "But once the house is fixed, that is where their usefulness ends. I am not putting my neck out on the line for people who don’t deserve it. And there are only two men in this entire country that deserves it."
Yuche and Lingyun sat up straighter, a slightly twisted grin on their faces as they looked at me with heat in their eyes.
"We made promises in your name," snapped Xu Zhenlan like that was all the justification that he needed.
Zhou Chenghai, unfortunately, decided that this was the moment to weight in on the conversation. "The supplies that we have in the house will last for a while, but not with this many people," he pointed out, trying to sound more reasonable than I was currently being. "Some of them do not have clothes to change into. Others are wearing shoes that are already falling apart, and the houses they are staying in need bedding, cookware, cleaning supplies, and more than whatever was left behind by the previous owners."
I stared at him. "You mean the dead owners?"
"Yes," grunted Xu Zhenlan. "Who knows what is actually being used or not."
"They’re dead," I replied, my voice completely devoid of emotions. "They probably aren’t using any of it."
"That does not mean there is enough," continued Zhou Chenghai, picking up where Xu Zhenlan had left off. Look at them, being the perfect couple.
But they touched on the one word that I really hated in my past life.
’Enough.’
People seemed to love that word when there wasn’t enough things to go around.
I mean, I was guilty of it, too. But I used my own resources to take what I needed. And no, I didn’t think I would ever have enough. However, what Xu Zhenlan wanted to do was completely different. He wanted to hand over what I had gotten with blood, sweat, and tears to people who could stab us in the back before they took their next breath.
And lets face it, once they got the handout the first time, they would always be looking for it.
No matter how much they had, it was never enough once they realized there was something else they might need later. Food, clothing, toilet paper, clean socks, all of it somehow became an emergency the second someone started making a list.
Trust someone who knows. I dare you to ask how much toilet paper I have in my space right now.
