Reborn with a Space: Hoarding Food and Raising My Kid

Chapter 333: Chapter 317: The Matter of Freeloading (Part 3)

With a cheeky grin, Yue Mao picked the largest steamed bun from the steamer in Jed Holden’s hands and took a bite. "Mmph! Old Monroe’s cooking has gotten even better!"

The Crown Prince and Li Mao also reached out, each grabbing a bun and devouring it in two bites. When they reached for more, they saw Jed Holden quickly gulp down his chicken soup, stuff one bun in his mouth, grab another in his hand, and in an instant, only two buns were left in the steamer.

Seeing this, Yue Mao moved to grab them, but he was outmatched. The Crown Prince blocked his hand while Li Mao snatched the last two buns, and then both of them were gone in a flash.

The Crown Prince shot Yue Mao a defiant look before disappearing as well.

Yue Mao stood frozen, shouting into the air, "You can’t just bully me like that!" He turned to Flora Bloom with a pitiful expression. "Sis, the buns..." With a look that screamed ’I’m hungry,’ Yue Mao frantically gestured toward the bun still in Jed Holden’s hand.

Jed Holden swallowed the bun in his mouth in a few gulps and immediately stuffed the other one from his hand in after it, his cheeks bulging.

Flora Bloom watched these grown men childishly fighting over a steamed bun. Speechless, she pointed toward the villa. "There are dumplings in the kitchen."

Yue Mao joyfully dashed toward the villa, leaving Flora Bloom and Jed Holden behind.

Flora Bloom watched as Jed Holden finally managed to swallow the buns, his face beet red as he looked at her. "I, uh, I didn’t have lunch."

Flora Bloom put a hand to her forehead. "Then go get some yourself."

The words had barely left her mouth before Jed Holden bolted for the villa’s entrance, leaving Flora Bloom with nothing but a view of his back.

Flora Bloom even began to wonder, ’Is Sepherdine mistreating Jed Holden? I clearly gave Sepherdine enough food for his whole team for a month—enough to provide everyone in the base with one meal a day for a month. So why does Jed Holden act like a reincarnated starving ghost, always looking like he can’t get enough to eat every time he comes over?’

And so, over the course of a month, everyone in the base grew accustomed to this routine.

Every day, those without superpowers would line up at the entrance of Villa Area One to receive a meal and a bowl of water.

The people’s initial complaints turned to gratitude. The base was now surrounded by unknown plants, trapping everyone inside. There was no way to get food and no income from Crystal Cores. The fact that Sepherdine was willing to share his own reserves with ordinary people like them was seen as incredibly magnanimous.

Most of the ordinary people in the base were deeply grateful for Sepherdine’s actions, which pushed his prestige to its peak. He became a leader whom everyone in the base acknowledged and admired.

As for Jed Holden, his visits to Flora Bloom’s villa changed over time. He initially came to report on the base’s situation and discuss cooperation, but later, it turned into him showing up first thing in the morning on an empty stomach to freeload breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

The more he freeloaded, the more familiar he became with the people in Flora Bloom’s villa. Sometimes he would even bring back pastries and liquor to Sepherdine’s villa, hand the items over to his leader, and then continue freeloading the next day.

Jed Holden’s shameless freeloading finally infuriated several of Sepherdine’s other confidants. They all demanded that Jed Holden take them along to get in on the free meals.

As a result, when Sepherdine woke up the next morning looking for his men, only one team member—the one usually on night watch—was still in the villa. The others had all followed Jed Holden to Flora Bloom’s villa to freeload.

Sepherdine was furious! ’I want to freeload, too! But I’m the official leader of the base. What would it look like if I was always running over to someone else’s house for free meals?’

Jed Holden had failed to deliver a certain report for nearly a month. So, Sepherdine took matters into his own hands and went to the training grounds to find Sherman Lynch. With Sherman, he not only finalized the report but also drafted plans for a base-wide special incident response drill, tailored to their current situation.

The drill would simulate how they would respond to an unforeseen emergency in the base and ensure the safety of its inhabitants to the greatest extent possible.

At the training grounds, Cynthia Grant delivered lunch for Sherman Lynch and the others. After Sherman invited Sepherdine to eat with them, he discovered that Sepherdine ate as if he hadn’t seen food in days, devouring half of Sherman’s meal in one go.

Luckily, Sherman wasn’t very hungry himself. The two spent a pleasant afternoon exchanging ideas, sparring, and talking, finishing up before nightfall.

Meanwhile, Jed Holden, Lyman Preston, and Chad Warren—Sepherdine’s men—were in Flora Bloom’s kitchen helping Ethan Monroe. They quickly assisted him in preparing a huge, lavish dinner.

There was fish, meat, liquor, and vegetables, as well as red tomatoes marinated in white sugar for a post-dinner fruit dish.

A large crowd was gathered around a big round table—one circle of people sitting, and another circle standing behind them. Just as they were about to start eating, waiting only for Sherman Lynch to return, he walked in, and with him was Sepherdine.

Sepherdine’s face grew long as he watched his closest subordinates looking more at home in Flora Bloom’s house than they did in his own villa.

But then he saw the piles upon piles of dishes on the table. ’No wonder Jed Holden disappeared that day,’ he thought. ’His face has gotten rounder after a month of this. So this is how he’s been fattened up.’

And so, joining the dinner queue for the first time, Sepherdine didn’t stand on ceremony with Flora Bloom and the others. ’I spent so many Crystal Cores earlier,’ he thought. ’I’ve got to eat my fill to make it worthwhile, right?’

"Where’s the liquor? Wasn’t there liquor?"

And so, the leader of the Morhaven Secure Base and his subordinates spent the entire night at Villa Number Three. When they sobered up early the next morning, they stayed for breakfast and showed no signs of leaving.