Betrayal!
"Thank you for your kindness, but I don't need these supplies." Xiao Yi didn't even glance at the cart full of goods as he said indifferently.
Would he ever need their pity and charity?
What a fucking joke!
These things in the cart might be treasures to these people, but to Xiao Yi, they were nothing but garbage.
Food, water, all sorts of daily necessities—he had as much as he wanted!
The entire Jiang City was his personal warehouse, ripe for the taking!
Si Ruo Qing caught the implication in the warehouse man's words and snapped irritably, "Old Zhang, what the hell do you mean? If you're too stingy to part with them, charge it to me! Half these supplies were scavenged by my team, weren't they?!"
"Officer Si, I know your team brought them back, and yeah, we were all saved by you," the warehouse man replied. "But these are public property now. Handing them out willy-nilly to some outsider—isn't that going a bit too far?"
"We're already scraping by as it is. If you keep giving stuff away like this, we won't last three months before we all starve!"
Si Ruo Qing furrowed her brows tightly, her voice laced with anger. "If the food and water run out, we can set up a new shelter somewhere else! We can scavenge elsewhere! As long as we all stick together, we'll make it through!"
"But zombies are everywhere out there. Breaking out and finding a new spot to hole up? Good luck with that."
Zhou Zheng Yu sauntered up from behind, flashing a smile at Si Ruo Qing and the others. "That's why we can't keep feeding dead weight anymore! Everyone in this gathering spot—from now on—answers to me. You'll all take turns heading out to forage for food!"
With Zhou Zheng Yu's arrival, the knife-scarred man and the other guys slowly closed in, weapons in hand.
Zhou Zheng Yu jabbed a finger toward the two elders and three girls cooking by the warehouse wall.
"As for these old folks and kids... sorry, but from here on out, they're on their own. Time to learn to survive or die."
At Zhou Zheng Yu's words, the two elders reacted as if they'd seen it coming—just hollow stares at the scene unfolding before them, sitting in numb resignation without a word.
The older white-haired elder struggled to his feet and dropped to his knees with a heavy thud before Zhou Zheng Yu. "Boss Zhou, us old coots can drop dead for all we care—we're just burdens anyway. But these three kids? They're innocent. They're our future hope! Please, spare them?"
"Fuck me! We're all hanging by a thread here, and you're yapping about 'future hope'? Like we'll even see three months at this rate?" The knife-scarred man lunged forward and slammed a brutal kick into the elder's chest, snarling through gritted teeth. "Kids? Easy fix. We've got all these bitches around—brothers have some fun, and boom, hope's on the way! Hahaha!"
The men trailing behind the knife-scarred thug burst into raucous laughter, their grins twisted with raw, animalistic lust.
Xiao Yi could see it plain as day—these bastards were pent-up bad.
No surprise there. Thanks to Si Ruo Qing's protection, they'd been forced to ogle all these tempting young wives without laying a finger on them.
Two months of that? They'd explode.
In the old rule-of-law world, it wouldn't have mattered.
But this was a lawless, constraint-free dark apocalypse now.
The evil lurking in every heart got amplified to hell and back.
Xiao Yi didn't need to think twice: these men were banding together to take down Si Ruo Qing.
And the main driver? Pure, selfish lust.
At the knife-scarred man's words, the women who'd been whispering among themselves went stone-faced, huddling closer together.
Not one dared step up or utter a peep.
The atmosphere had turned thick with danger, the air heavy with gunpowder tension—like everything could ignite at the slightest spark.
Behind Zhou Zheng Yu and the knife-scarred man stood eight armed men, eyes locked on like predators, blades all trained on Si Ruo Qing's group.
On Si Ruo Qing's side—including Xiao Yi—they had just one armed man and six armed women.
Si Ruo Qing glanced at the silent elders and women cowering nearby. She'd pretty much pieced it together.
While she'd been out scavenging supplies, Zhou Zheng Yu and the knife-scarred man's crews had cut a secret deal.
Now they were united.
All to force her to submit and seize total control of the gathering spot.
And these elders and women here? They'd known about it all along!
Si Ruo Qing swallowed her rage and disappointment, watching the scene coldly.