Chapter 110: Chapter 110: The Lion Opens Its Mouth?
Sue Lawrence followed Victor Keller, strolling leisurely into the current command center.
It wasn’t as large as the previous one, but it had everything it needed.
She knew exactly why Silas Hawthorne had summoned her. She had even mentally drafted a script on the way over, calculating what she wanted to get out of this.
So when Silas Hawthorne saw Sue Lawrence walk through the door, the first thing he noticed was her cheerful grin—a grin that clearly held a hidden agenda.
Silas Hawthorne was at a loss for words.
But regardless, Sue Lawrence was the only one he could turn to for this matter. As for Dominic Trent, Silas was still extremely wary of his Superpower: Debater.
"Please, have a seat."
Sue Lawrence nodded in acknowledgment and found a quiet spot to sit on the edge of the room.
Someone immediately brought her a cup of hot tea. Tea leaves were a rare commodity these days. They had been holed up in the base for nearly half a year, and many people hadn’t seen tea in all that time.
Sue Lawrence made herself right at home, picking up the cup and taking a sip. She nodded as she drank. "Not bad. You’d pay at least eight hundred for this quality."
Silas Hawthorne couldn’t help but smile. "These days, it’s worth its weight in gold."
’Fair enough.’
Sue Lawrence didn’t say anything, waiting for Silas Hawthorne to make the first move.
Silas Hawthorne was a shrewd man and immediately sensed that Sue Lawrence already knew something. But he remained composed. Neither of them spoke a word until Sue Lawrence had finished the entire pot of tea and turned to signal for a refill.
Silas Hawthorne was speechless once again.
’Tea worth its weight in gold, and she just finished an entire pot.’
Silas Hawthorne felt this standoff was getting a bit ridiculous. In his eyes, Sue Lawrence wasn’t an unscrupulous person; she knew how to handle herself and where to draw the line.
So he decided to break the silence. "I’d like to buy some things from you."
"Of course, of course!"
Sue Lawrence didn’t refuse. Instead, she just beamed at him, waiting for him to continue. For some reason, this put a bit of pressure on Silas Hawthorne.
’Sue Lawrence... As expected of Vincent Lawrence’s daughter.’
Silas Hawthorne composed himself and stopped beating around the bush. "I want to purchase a batch of cold-weather supplies from you. The temperature has just started to rise, and the base is organizing a full-scale supply run. We have a massive shortage of cold-weather gear. After thinking it over, I figure you’re the only one in the entire base who might have enough stock."
The smile on Sue Lawrence’s face deepened. She nodded lightly, her tone shockingly agreeable. "Sure, no problem. I definitely have some cold-weather gear."
Silas Hawthorne hadn’t expected her to agree so readily. A wave of relief washed over him as he immediately had someone hand her a handwritten list, densely packed with urgently needed items. "This is a preliminary list. It’s mainly High Level cold-weather suits, windproof pants, thermal gloves, and snow boots. I’ve marked the quantities next to them. See if you can put them together."
Sue Lawrence took the list and glanced over it. She tapped a finger lightly on the paper, then looked up with that same look of complete confidence. "Mr. Hawthorne, I can get you all of this basic cold-weather gear, but..."
She paused, then added casually, "If you’re staying outside for long in seventy or eighty degrees below zero, this stuff alone won’t be enough. Your hands and feet will still go numb, which will slow down the search. How about you also take some heat packs, portable space heaters, and rechargeable hand warmers? I also have a batch of brand-new, wall-mounted heaters and a few tons of long-burning, smokeless coal. All excellent for staying warm."
Silas Hawthorne’s mind went blank.
He had originally guessed that Sue Lawrence might have stockpiled some cold-weather suits, and he’d only dared to hope she could provide that much. After all, she probably needed to keep some for herself. But now, with just a few casual words, she had offered up an entire, comprehensive system for staying warm: heaters, coal, portable space heaters, heat packs...
In this extreme-cold apocalypse, every single one of those items was a hard currency more precious than gold.
Even someone as composed as Silas Hawthorne was now staring in utter shock.
He even wondered if he had heard her correctly.
"You... what did you just say?" Silas Hawthorne’s voice was strained as he pressed, "Sue Lawrence, do you really have heaters and coal? And portable space heaters, heat packs? How many?"
Sue Lawrence’s smile never faltered. She pressed her lips together and slowly rattled off a series of numbers. "I’ll give you double the amount of cold-weather suits on your list. Twenty thousand heat packs, three hundred portable space heaters, fifty heating units, and a full two thousand tons of smokeless coal. Will that be enough?"
The numbers hit him like a physical blow. Silas Hawthorne was completely stunned, unable to process it for a long moment.
Sue Lawrence’s reserves were so vast... Forget about just this one supply run; she had more than enough to see the entire base safely through the next cold wave.
An immense wave of joy instantly washed away all his anxiety. Silas Hawthorne practically blurted out, "Yes! I’ll take it all! Every last bit!"
The words had barely left his mouth when he calmed down slightly, realizing it was now time to discuss the most critical issue.
Sure enough, the smile on Sue Lawrence’s face remained, but her tone turned more businesslike. "You’re a man who gets straight to the point, Mr. Hawthorne, so let’s talk price. What are you offering for all this?"
’Time to talk business. He’s seen the goods, now it’s time to talk price. This is the main event. Everything before this was just the easy part.’
And just like that, her smile vanished, replaced by a serious, focused expression. Her sudden shift sent Silas Hawthorne’s own mood on a rollercoaster, so much so that he subconsciously glanced at her head, wondering if she had somehow stolen Dominic Trent’s Debater Superpower.
’How else could she be affecting his mood like this, sending it soaring one moment and plummeting the next?’
The lighthearted, almost playful atmosphere between them instantly grew tense and serious.
Silas Hawthorne knew that the supplies Sue Lawrence possessed were priceless, but the base was short on physical goods, and what they could offer in return was limited.
He deliberated for a moment before saying frankly, "Sue Lawrence, you know the base’s current situation. Cash is useless, and you can’t eat gold. I’ll give it to you at the base’s highest rate: for the cold-weather suits, heat packs, coal, and heaters all together, I’ll give you ten thousand Points. How does that sound?"
That number was the absolute maximum he could authorize on his own.
But Sue Lawrence simply shook her head, tapping her fingers on the desktop. Her smile held a firmness that left no room for argument. "Mr. Hawthorne, let’s be frank. You know as well as I do how many lives in the base these supplies can save and how much they’ll increase the success rate of this supply run. Ten thousand Points is too low."
’Even with good people, you still have to haggle. I paid for all this stuff; it didn’t just fall out of the sky. Even with family, business is business!’
’Silas Hawthorne is a good man, fair and upstanding, but when it comes to her interests... sorry, but she wasn’t as noble as him, not selfless to the point of recklessness.’
"Then what do you think is a fair price?" Silas Hawthorne countered, already calculating his bottom line.
