Chapter 290: Do We Leave?
Xu Zhenlan didn’t answer.
There was nothing he could say that wouldn’t make the situation worse, and judging by the way Zhou Chenghai’s shoulders had gone rigid beside him, his second had reached the same conclusion.
They turned away from the open storeroom and walked out of the basement without another word.
Rouxi had turned her head to watch them go, but the cold look in her eyes confirmed that there was no part of his ward in her anymore. Instead, she just sat on the couch, her two lap dogs around her, eating a snack she never would have touched in his last life.
No one stopped them from leaving, no one demanded an answer from them. They just watched them leave, Wei Lingyun wiggling his fingers in a bastardization of a wave.
It shouldn’t have bothered him, but for some reason, the look on Wei Lingyun’s face was a challenge Xu Zhenlan didn’t want to back away from.
But continuing the fight right now wouldn’t be productive. They were reacting, and that alone guaranteed that Zhenlan and Chenghai would walk away as losers in whatever game was currently being played.
And he refused to do that.
The noise from the repairs hit them as soon as they reached the main floor. Hammers struck wood somewhere near the entrance, a drill whined from the direction of the kitchen, and Fang Lihua was arguing with someone about measurements. The workers barely glanced up as the two men passed, too busy putting the mansion back together too lost in their own world to notice that the people responsible for bringing them there had just been told not to return if they left again.
Zhenlan pushed open the back door and stepped outside.
The yard looked different from the one he remembered seeing when they first arrived. Reinforced fencing surrounded the property, damaged sections had been repaired, and the gate was strong enough to slow down anyone who tried forcing their way through. Generators sat beneath temporary coverings near the side of the mansion, while the trucks from the supply run remained parked closer to the garage.
Stacks of lumber, pipes, wiring, and other materials had been organized across the yard. Workers moved between them, carrying tools and calling instructions to one another as if the world beyond the walls hadn’t just collapsed a little further.
They had water here. They had power. They had vehicles, weapons, food, and enough materials to finish the repairs. They had everything that they could possibly want and need...
Except for food to last them longer than the next year.
Zhenlan walked toward the far side of the yard, stopping where the noise from the house wouldn’t carry as clearly. Chenghai followed and remained silent until they were alone.
"Do we leave?" Chenghai finally asked, a concerned look on his face. The question was simple so the answer should’ve been too. But it wasn’t.
They could leave. Neither man needed Rouxi’s permission to walk through the gate, take whatever belonged to them, and find another place to live.
They’d done it before, they knew what it would take to survive.
Finding a defensible building wouldn’t be all that difficult. There were more buildings than people at this time, so it was just a matter of choosing the right building. Not to mention, they knew what made a location worth keeping and what weaknesses would eventually get everyone inside killed. They could clear the surrounding area, secure water, gather supplies, establish patrols, and recruit anyone useful enough to earn protection.
Zhenlan could become a warlord again, Chenghai could become his second, and they would just fall into the same lives that they had before.
They already knew what awaited them, and that was the problem.
Zhenlan looked across the massive backyard. The workers moving between the mansion, garage, and piles of construction materials seemed small against the open stretch of land. Beyond them, the fortified walls cut off any view of the surrounding streets.
He couldn’t see what was happening outside, and that was part of the problem.
The compounds were collapsing, and they had no idea who had survived, where those people were going, or what they’d already claimed. The walls kept danger out, but they also kept Zhenlan blind to everything happening on the other side.
But there was only a few things that would be happening now that the bases had been destroyed. Either the survivors would be staying low and hoping for the best, or they would be spilling back into the city, looking for food, shelter, weapons, and somewhere they could defend.
Power users, those that were strong enough, would gather followers, roads would be blocked, stores would be claimed, and anyone with enough strength would start deciding that whatever they could take belonged to them.
Zhenlan knew exactly how quickly a temporary shelter could become a territory.
He’d watched it happen once already... had bled to protect what he had claimed as his.
The compound hadn’t begun as a kingdom. It had begun as a place where people could survive one more night. Then another family arrived, followed by a group with weapons, then people with useful powers, medical skills, or supplies. Bigger walls went up, patrols were created, and the place he had called his own had become big enough that rules were more than necessary.
Before long, thousands of people looked to him every time the food ran low, the generators failed, or another group threatened the boundary.
They called him a warlord as if that meant he’d been free to do whatever he wanted.
Only, he hadn’t been free at all.
Every decision had carried the weight of the people living behind his walls. Every shortage had become his problem. Every betrayal had needed an answer strong enough to prevent the next one. If he expanded, he gained more territory to defend. If he refused, someone else took it and used it against him.
There had never been enough food, fuel, medicine, weapons, or people willing to risk their lives gathering them.
The compound had always needed more.
More supplies.
More land.
More power.
More bodies to replace the ones lost protecting everything they’d already claimed.
Zhenlan hadn’t owned the compound.
The compound had owned him.
