Chapter 103: Raiding the Supplies Beneath the Pot
The person in charge of the base administration office was Li Xiao, younger brother of Li Ling, who now led the Li family. Before the apocalypse, Li Xiao had merely been a government office director in Qingyuan City. Coincidentally, the earthquake and zombie outbreak had taken out his two superiors, leaving only Gu Tao—someone he had always been at odds with. If not for the fact that the Gu family was now weaker than the Li family, the base might have ended up under Gu family control.
With such a major incident occurring, both Li Xiao and Gu Tao naturally showed up. Supporters from both sides were noisily arguing, when someone from the Li family announced that they too had lost an entire warehouse—one filled with flour and rice.
Although the base seemed stable on the surface, the lack of water, electricity, and gas meant only a few households could cook. Most still relied on instant food. The Li family’s warehouse, slightly less guarded due to this, ended up completely looted.
Over ten thousand pounds of grain—enough to feed a small squad for a month—gone. Li Xiao was heartbroken.
Since all the major families had lost supplies except the Gu family, Li Xiao directed all his anger at them, trying to pin the blame and make them take responsibility.
“Your henhouse wasn’t guarded, so the eggs were stolen, and now you want to blame someone else for locking theirs well? Li Xiao, getting old really makes you shameless, huh?” Gu Tao, hearing his insinuation, immediately snapped. If the reported value of over a hundred thousand was charged to them, it could crush the Gu family.
“I’m not saying it had to be your family. But come on, everyone else lost something except you. I’m just reasonably suspicious,” Li Xiao pressed on, eager to tear a chunk off Gu Tao.
“I think it was your family that hid stuff and is crying thief now!” Gu Tao snapped back without giving an inch.
“Enough! Check all warehouses from last night—who passed by, who was near them. Bring them all in for questioning,” said Li Mu, the Third Corps commander, slamming the table. He had no patience for government scheming and, as a soldier, his stern command immediately silenced the bickering.
All patrol staff had already been brought in for the first round of questioning. Anyone named was immediately apprehended by military and police cooperation.
Wu Yue couldn’t go near but watched nervously as each person was brought in, praying none of them included Lu Weiyi. When the last one was led in, he finally exhaled in relief.
Due to the base’s limited infrastructure, there was no hard evidence. With a wide variety of people, even the patrolling staff didn’t recognize everyone they saw. Most just said someone passed by, but they didn’t know who.
The second round of interrogation began. As one of the victims, Wu Yue started thinking about how to frame Li Ji. He’d been struggling to find an excuse when suddenly, a small clan that had also lost goods had a guard finger someone—which led to a chain of accusations. Eventually, one of Li Ji’s subordinates, an ability-user named Zhang Jianxin, was named. It was confirmed that he had been with two others at the time.
These two had recently been seen hanging out with Cheng Hai and Song Yu—once even spotted by Wu Yue sneaking out together at night.
At first, Wu Yue suspected Lu Weiyi might have grabbed some goods while passing through. But now it seemed those others had been looting last night too—only to run into Lu Weiyi pulling off a major haul.
Once Zhang Jianxin was named, the military quickly went to arrest him. He initially denied everything, but the witness was a woman working for A Mei, and Zhang had been one of her clients. She even listed a few of his distinctive features.
Once exposed, Zhang stopped denying it. After thinking for a bit, he said he had been drunk and had gone for a walk with two others.
And those two were none other than Song Yu and Cheng Hai—giving Wu Yue the perfect chance to link everything back to Li Ji. He immediately stood up and said to Commander Li Mu, “Commander Li, I want to report someone.”
“Go ahead,” Li Mu replied. He recognized Wu Yue—after all, Zhuang Mingxu had donated the first batch of supplies to the military when the base was being established.
Coincidentally, Li Mu had once served under Zhuang Mingxu’s grandfather in the army. Before leaving, Zhuang Mingxu had especially introduced Wu Yue to Li Mu, hoping he would look out for him a little. With that connection, Wu Yue still had some confidence in reclaiming a few villas and kicking the rest out.
“I’ve seen Zhang Jianxin, Song Yu, and Cheng Hai go out together at night more than once, and the next day some family would report their supplies stolen.”
“Wu Yue, we’re on the same team, don’t make baseless accusations!” Zhang Jianxin panicked a bit upon hearing this.
“Whether it’s baseless, you know it yourself. And you’re under Li Ji’s command—who’s on your team?” Wu Yue turned back to Li Mu. “I can’t be 100% sure, but both Song Yu and Cheng Hai have spatial abilities.”
“Why didn’t you mention this earlier?” Li Mu asked.
Wu Yue sighed. “Our supplies were originally gathered by Zhuang Mingxu and his men. Later, he went to Wutong City to pick up his lover, taking four people with him. A few days later, only two came back—with over a dozen ability users—and they told me Mingxu was severely injured and couldn’t return. That’s when I suspected they’d betrayed him.”
“How do you know? What if what they said is true?” Li Xiao questioned, frustrated that the blame wasn’t being shifted to Gu Tao.
“Zhuang Mingxu is someone who values relationships deeply. You may not have heard, but I’m sure Commander Li has. He left the military for that lover of his. Later, he was even disowned by his family and started a business from scratch in Qingyuan with that person.”
Wu Yue looked around the room, his gaze landing on Li Xiao’s brother, Li Ling. “A few years ago, Zhuang Mingxu’s lover was kidnapped by a business rival. Without saying a word, Zhuang gave up a project worth billions. I believe President Li should remember that.”
Li Ling smiled and nodded under everyone’s gaze. “President Zhuang is indeed a man of deep feelings.”
Once he said that, those who had known the story before the apocalypse all turned to look at Ji Heng. Ji Heng gave an awkward smile, pretending not to notice the glances.
“That person is his lifeblood. As long as Zhuang had a breath left in him, he would have gone to get him—he would never have let others return alone and then gone silent for so long,” Wu Yue continued. “And later, I found they were colluding with shady people. Those who didn’t side with them never came back from missions.”
“That’s why I stopped sending anyone out to gather supplies. I didn’t speak up earlier because they said Zhuang Mingxu was with them—I didn’t dare risk it. But it’s been so long, and he’s still not back. I don’t believe their excuses anymore. And now that nearly all of our stored supplies are gone, saying there’s no traitor—I wouldn’t even believe it myself. Ji and Jiang families also lost almost everything. Ji Lin is Li Ji’s girlfriend, so it’s not surprising he’d know where the supplies were.”
As soon as he finished speaking, everyone turned to look at Li Ji. Li Ji forced a cold smile. “Brother Wu, I brought people here to help collect supplies, and now you’re saying this about me?”
“Sure, helping—by having your men follow and monitor me 24/7. Didn’t Li Mingli and his brother tell you? I served in the military for eight years, part of one of the top combat units in the country. Your ragtag bunch of spies trying to tail me? Heh…” Wu Yue sneered, then looked at the others. “If you don’t believe me, interrogate them separately. I won’t say I’m 100% sure—but I’m at least 90%.”
Li Ji realized things were about to fall apart and quickly glanced at Li Ling and Li Xiao. Li Xiao immediately stepped forward. “Is it really appropriate to interrogate people based on a single accusation?”
“That’s not what you said earlier, Chief Li. And everyone here was brought in on a single accusation—what, did Li Ji promise you something to make you flip like this?” Wu Yue had no way back now. The supplies were already gone. Even if no one supported him anymore, he could always go find Zhuang Mingxu.
“Exactly! Just now, Chief Li was pointing fingers everywhere, vowing not to rest until someone was found. But now, when someone gets accused, he starts protecting them? What, is there something shady going on between them?” Gu Tao, already fuming from Li Xiao’s earlier comments, quickly joined in.
“You—”
“Enough. They’ve been brought in already. Interrogate them separately,” Li Mu cut them off, already having sent soldiers to bring Song Yu and Cheng Hai over. “Let’s wait. The military’s interrogation methods should give everyone peace of mind.”
For a moment, the conference room went silent. Li Ji’s gaze toward Wu Yue was murderous, while Wu Yue just met his eyes with a mocking smile. Moments later, a soldier in uniform walked in, saluted Li Mu, and reported:
“Sir, Cheng Hai confessed. Zhang Jianxin and Song Yu manipulated him into helping steal the supplies.”
The room instantly erupted.
Wu Yue let out a breath of relief. “Did he say where the supplies were stored? If we know, we can return them to everyone.”
“Yeah! Where did they put all our stuff?”
“They better hand it over now. They’re not thinking of keeping it all, are they?”
The moment supplies were mentioned, everyone’s attention turned to Li Ji. His fists clenched tightly—if the entire base leadership wasn’t here, he’d have killed these troublemakers already.
“We’ve got the location,” the soldier said. He reported an address—exactly the building Li Ji had rented after arriving.
At this point, no one needed further explanation. The facts spoke for themselves.
Li Ji said nothing and led a group to the building.
It was a ten-story building, fully rented by Li Ji. The supplies were all stacked on the top floors—three whole floors full. But that amount still didn’t match what was reported missing. A new wave of arguments broke out, and with no resolution in sight, others began interrogating Song Yu and Cheng Hai again.
It was only then that the two realized supplies from the Ji, Jiang, and even Li families had been stolen. As for their own side, they had thought everything was simply being stored away safely. But at this point, no one believed a word they said.
Payback is swift and sweet