Chapter 6: I’m Very Obedient
Before Shen Chengyin could even voice the threat, Su Han—as if possessed by a starving ghost—flipped open the bottle without a second thought and swallowed two pills dry.
Shen Chengyin froze.
Su Han smacked his lips, wincing at the bitter taste. “Is that enough? If not, I can take two more.”
Shen Chengyin: “…No need.”
Su Han handed the rest of the bottle back to Shen Chengyin and sat obediently in place.
“You’re not even going to ask what that medicine does?” Shen Chengyin let out a cold sneer. “If it were a lethal poison that kills you on the spot, would you still have swallowed it?”
Su Han lowered his gaze. “I don’t know, but if you really wanted to kill me, there’d be no need to go through all that trouble.”
Besides… not taking it would get him killed even faster.
Shen Chengyin’s whole body stiffened, his gaze turning complex as he stared at Su Han.
Su Han didn’t dare look up, so naturally, he missed the peculiar shift in Shen Chengyin’s expression.
After a long pause, the man finally stood up, flicking his wrist to store the medicine bottle back into his spatial dimension.
“Ask me for the antidote once a week. If you miss a dose, you die.”
Su Han let out a quiet breath of relief.
So it was just a slow-acting poison to keep him under control… He had honestly thought he was about to drop dead right here. With a protagonist this suspicious and paranoid, it was no wonder only those closest to him could have managed to betray him in the first place.
Whatever. As long as he was breathing, there was hope.
Holding the shallow cut on his neck, Su Han moved to stand, but Shen Chengyin suddenly clamped a hand around his wrist. Within seconds, the wounds on his neck and fingertip knitted back together, leaving no trace behind except for the faint streaks of blood.
Life ability. Shen Chengyin had actually healed him of his own accord.
“…Th-Thanks?” Su Han stammered, genuinely surprised.
Not that it had hurt anyway.
He found a set of well-fitting clothes for Shen Chengyin, then drained and cleaned the bathtub. Now that all those bottles were gone, he didn’t have a single drop of drinking water left; he’d have to find a way to fetch more this afternoon.
With that taken care of, Su Han and Shen Chengyin sat down together on the bed in relative peace.
Well, not entirely in peace. Su Han was still terrified. Shen Chengyin leaned against the headboard, so Su Han perched at the very foot of the bed, keeping as much distance as possible, with half his butt practically hanging off the edge.
“A few hours ago when I left the base, I happened to run into the guards dumping supplies outside. Two whole trucks loaded with spoiled food. They’d rather throw it away than hand it out to the survivors. It had to come straight from the Leader’s orders.”
Su Han spoke with fiery indignation, subtly gauging Shen Chengyin’s reaction as he talked.
“So? What’s that to you?”
“It just feels wrong. I want to expose what the Leader is doing. If he’s truly a scumbag, then he should be dragged off his high horse.”
As soon as Su Han finished, a mocking laugh slipped from Shen Chengyin’s lips.
The man clearly didn’t believe a word he said.
“Why are you telling me this?”
“What I mean is, until that’s done, could you spare my life?” Su Han said with utmost solemnity. “I’m a man with great ambitions to fulfill.”
He made his stance clear, hoping to earn a shred of trust from the male lead. Seeing as they both wanted to take down Wang Jiafu, Shen Chengyin shouldn’t have any reason to kill him.
“Suit yourself.”
Hope Base was an abomination that never should have existed in the first place.
Whatever Su Han wanted to do was irrelevant—in the end, every single one of them would die.
Leaning back against the headboard, Shen Chengyin suppressed the bloodthirsty hatred simmering in his eyes.
Now, Su Han wasn’t just fending for himself; he had a full-grown man to feed as well.
Shen Chengyin’s face was far too recognizable for him to show it in public. The burden of scavenging for supplies naturally fell squarely on Su Han’s shoulders.
By day, he ventured out to kill zombies and collect crystal cores; by night, he traded them for provisions at the trading center. Most of these cores were bought up by the base’s ability users, as it was common knowledge that absorbing cores helped boost one’s powers.
Su Han seized the opportunity, using the core trades to strike up acquaintances with several ability users throughout the base.
Taking advantage of the bustling evening crowds in the trading hall, Su Han deliberately raised his voice, claiming he had stumbled upon a cellar in a village a few kilometers south of Hope Base. Inside, he claimed, were several tons of coal along with all sorts of pickled, preserved vegetables.
The only pity was that he hadn’t had a vehicle to haul it all back.
The cellar and the supplies were, of course, a total fabrication, concocted purely to herd people toward the pit south of town where Wang Jiafu had buried the rotting food.
After letting the rumor loose, he didn’t care how the crowd reacted. Loudly proclaiming that he’d definitely rent a truck tomorrow to haul everything back, he turned and left.
The strongest networks and resources in the base were monopolized by the ability users. The pickled vegetables might not have piqued their interest, but several tons of coal were an irresistible prize.
The base was desperately short on working generators and hadn’t even achieved full-scale electricity yet. Fuel was the ultimate lifeline.
Sure enough, that very night, word reached Su Han that people had tried sneaking past the gates after hours, only to be stopped by the patrol guards.
And it wasn’t just a single squad.
One team, composed of five arrogant ability users, was particularly brazen. They threw punches, beat the night sentries into the dirt, and blasted through the gates without looking back.
Su Han stayed obediently inside his villa gnawing on bread, recounting every scrap of gossip to Shen Chengyin.
“Even if they managed to sneak out in the dead of night, there’s no way they’ll make it to that fake cellar. Truck engines are deafening. The low-tier zombies I lured near that road over the past few days should all be stirred up by now.”
Even for five ability users, at their current ranks, their only option would be to turn tail and run.
He had never intended for them to reach the village anyway.
As long as even one of those five made it back alive, the truth about Wang Jiafu secretly burying tons of spoiled rations would be impossible to contain.
Shen Chengyin lifted his gaze, staring straight into Su Han’s eyes.
Clear, beautiful eyes—yet strikingly devoid of emotion.
The next morning, Su Han headed to the mission hall as usual to sniff out news.
To his surprise, the hall was practically deserted.
He used a zombie core to trade for a cup of clean water at the front desk, then brought it over to a scrawny man huddled in the corner, known by everyone as the base’s “Know-It-All.”
Taking the water, the man grinned from ear to ear and immediately began chattering away without a pause.
“Big trouble went down last night! Zhang Qiang’s squad of five ability users beat up the sentries on duty and smashed their way through the gates, claiming they were heading out for supplies.
The moment Vice Leader Wang found out, he sent men after them. Half the base’s patrol guards were dispatched to hunt them down—the whole place was thrown into utter chaos, tsk, tsk!
The guards clashed with Zhang Qiang’s team halfway out, and the racket drew in a swarm of low-tier mutated zombies. Both sides took heavy casualties! Two of Zhang Qiang’s ability users were torn apart, and the patrol lost quite a few men of their own.”
Finishing his story, Know-It-All rubbed his fingers together with an obsequious grin.
“Actually, there’s one more thing…”
Catching the hint, Su Han fished half a piece of bread from his pocket and pressed it into the man’s palm.
Know-It-All stashed it away like a prized treasure, swallowing a gulp of saliva to wet his dry throat.
“Word is, on the road out there, both squads noticed something strange. There’s a spot where tons of rotten food had been buried, not far from Hope Base at all.”
Ability users received base subsidies—not massive amounts, but enough to collect monthly rations.
The guards were even more reliant, depending on the base for every scrap of food and clothing.
Su Han couldn’t help but wonder how those two squads felt when they realized Wang Jiafu would rather let mountains of food rot away into the dirt than distribute it to them.
He let out a cold sneer in his heart.
What forced those two squads to turn back wasn’t the mutated zombies at all—it was the pure shock and blinding fury directed at Wang Jiafu.
