Carrying My Sugar Daddy Through the Apocalypse – CH83

Chapter 83: No Holds Barred Scam

While the group on this side was having a lively BBQ, their every move had already reached the ears of the base’s three major organizations.

Lin Jun had kept people busy all afternoon, fully expecting to get all the guns back tonight. Who knew that his subordinates had just delivered a total of eight zombie cores, saying that was all they could find.

Eight zombies?

They could have been killed in half an hour! It took them all afternoon?

“Are you sure no one was slacking off?” Lin Jun looked at the pile of jade Buddhas, jade carvings, and the eight cores prepared on the table.

“No,” Wang Ning said. “I asked, and they said they killed zombies all afternoon. Not every zombie has a core. There were only these few out of hundreds.”

Only a few cores out of hundreds of zombies!!!

Lin Jun slammed his hand on the table, his usually benevolent face now stern.

“Brother Lin, do you think he’s deliberately scamming us?” Wang Ning had lost face because of Lu Weiyi’s group. He had been hung up for a while in front of the people from the three major organizations, and he hated Lu Weiyi to death. But Lin Jun wouldn’t let him make trouble, so he didn’t dare to send anyone to provoke them. He could only stir things up in secret.

“Scamming what? He didn’t say every zombie had a core. We were the ones who thought that way. Who’s to blame?” Lin Jun sighed inwardly. No wonder he was the apple of Zhuang Mingxu’s eye. He was ruthless when he bit. Lu Weiyi had only said one thing, and those who wanted to take advantage of him now found themselves scammed. From beginning to end, he hadn’t made a single definite statement.

“Then what do we do? Don’t we exchange?” Although Wang Ning resented Lu Weiyi, he also knew that he had to stabilize his own position in the base first.

“Exchange,” Lin Jun said decisively. “Tomorrow, continue to have people kill zombies and try to bring back as many as possible. I’ll also ask if they need anything else, a two-pronged approach.”

“Brother Lin, the people below said that Lu Weiyi exchanged a lot of things in the market today. He exchanged clothes, shoes, vegetables, and meat for whatever he saw. He also told Little Liu to get some and send it over, saying he wanted as much as possible.”

Lin Jun raised his eyebrows. “They didn’t bring many supplies into the base. What did they use to exchange?”

“Water. Lu Weiyi openly said he took over a water supplier,” Wang Ning said. “I think there must be more than that, and their team definitely has a space. Do you think we should…” Wang Ning made a killing gesture.

“Do you know who’s sitting in the wheelchair?” Lin Jun didn’t refute him but asked in return.

“The president of Only Technology, Zhuang Mingxu,” Wang Ning used to be a high-level employee of Longteng Group, so naturally he recognized Zhuang Mingxu.

“He’s the direct grandson of Elder Zhuang of the Capital, and it’s said he’s the most favored one. Their family is full of powerful people,” Lin Jun said casually. “We’re just struggling to survive. As long as we have something to eat, it’s better to take a small loss and protect ourselves. But if people find out that something happened to Zhuang Mingxu here, how do you think we’ll die?”

Wang Ning thought for a moment and said, “Then we’ll wait until they leave the base before making a move. That won’t be our problem.” Afraid that Lin Jun wouldn’t agree, Wang Ning brought it up again, “We only have Lin Fei as a space ability user. If we have another one, even if we can’t stay in the base in the future, it will be easier to transfer and escape.”

Lin Jun thought for a while and remained silent, signaling Wang Ning to leave. As Wang Ning walked out, he knew that Lin Jun had implicitly agreed.

Zhang Xun, who also knew Zhuang Mingxu’s background as well as Longteng, had the same idea as Lin Jun. They were both worried about getting burned and thought that once they left this small territory, they wouldn’t be blamed for anything that happened to anyone else. But they had to plan for the worst to ensure everything was foolproof.

As night fell, Lu Weiyi returned to his room to watch over Zhuang Mingxu’s IV drip. Zhuang Ai Yi pulled Lu Xi to see the newly arranged room. Xi Shi, at Lu Weiyi’s request, went to the kitchen to make pancakes, and Gu Qingyue ran to help. The drunk Xiong Jie and Xu Sa returned to their rooms to sleep, and Liu Rui followed to take care of them.

The rest of them chatted idly under the energy-saving lights in the courtyard, occasionally munching on another skewer. In a corner not far away, the little fanboy Dean was resting his chin on his hand, listening to his idol Gu Qingji’s solo concert.

There was a knock on the door. Li Zhuang and Antonio looked over vigilantly. Lin Yimu and Ning Yuan also immediately stood up. Gu Qingji got up, pulled Dean over, and asked at the same time, “Who is it?”

“I’m from the Yongping City Public Security Bureau. Could you please open the door?” Although Zhang Xun knew Zhuang Mingxu’s identity, in this post-apocalyptic world, who knew if pre-apocalyptic power still held any weight? Personally visiting so casually would be beneath him, so he sent a subordinate over.

Gu Qingji looked at the others. Li Zhuang nodded, and he walked over and opened the door. “What’s the matter?”

As soon as the door opened, the aroma of barbecue inside became even stronger. The two people at the door couldn’t help but take a deep breath before looking inside. They immediately saw Li Zhuang and Ning Yuan in the courtyard, as they had had a brief interaction at the base gate before.

Ning Yuan also obviously recognized the two of them. “Oh, it’s the two of you. What brings you here so late at night?”

“To be honest, brother, there’s really something we need to talk about,” Zhang Qi and Wang Yuan entered the courtyard. Lin Yimu offered two stools for them to sit on.

Food was precious now, and no one would be as polite as before, offering food and drinks as soon as someone entered. The few of them sat dryly. Zhang Qi simply said directly, “I’m here on behalf of Director Zhang, the head of the base. I heard from a friend this afternoon that your team is exchanging supplies for water, and I’d like to ask how the exchange works?”

“You have so many supplies?” Ning Yuan asked.

“Not much,” Zhang Qi said with a wry smile, “but we have even less water.”

“Then what do you want to exchange? I need to consider if we need it,” Ning Yuan glanced at the others in the courtyard who hadn’t spoken all along.

“Clothing and daily necessities can be a bit cheaper.” After all, to be honest, these things could still be found and weren’t scarce, but water was different. Very few supermarkets could still find water now.

“This…” Ning Yuan looked troubled, thought for a moment, and said, “You should have also heard that we exchanged quite a lot of these things this afternoon. Those things are just for emergencies. Too much won’t be very useful. Do you have anything else?” Although Ning Yuan didn’t know why Lu Weiyi had exchanged for so many things, since he had asked to exchange, it was better to exchange for something edible than for useful clothing.

“Then what do you want? To be honest, we don’t have much food either,” Zhang Qi said.

“Vegetables, fruits, eggs, meat, etc., are all fine. In this season, vegetables and fruits are actually available in every village. A quick trip around and you’re bound to find something. But you should have also heard that we’re in a hurry to get back to Qingyuan City and don’t want to waste time on the road. If the price is right, we’ll collect some,” Ning Yuan said, observing the two men in front of him. Seeing that they didn’t seem too troubled, he tentatively said, “Actually, there won’t be a shortage of grain either. Think about it, every household in the village has stored a lot of grain. The wheat has just been harvested, and most of it hasn’t been sold yet. The corn will be ripe soon, and potatoes and sweet potatoes in the fields will be harvested in another month or two. A trip to the city to get some food back will be enough to last for two months. Don’t you think so?”

Seeing that the two men didn’t object at all, Ning Yuan felt a bad premonition. He didn’t think these two had been convinced by him. They must have been told from the beginning that these things could also be used for exchange. Being able to exchange food for water meant what? Either they had a lot of food, or they were sure that even if they exchanged it, it wouldn’t matter.

And the supplies in Zhang Xun’s hands didn’t seem to be so abundant that they could squander them like this. So, it could only be that even if he exchanged today, it definitely wouldn’t affect them. How could it not affect them?

It would return to their hands.

The politeness now was probably a prelude to force later.

Ning Yuan didn’t know if the others had thought of this. He glanced around, trying to calm himself down and continued, “But water is different. There’s less and less drinkable water now. We’re relying entirely on the bottled water we stored before, but that will eventually run out, right? Without a source of replenishment, who knows what will happen in the future?”

“Then aren’t you afraid of running out of water if you consume it like this?” Wang Yuan, who hadn’t spoken all along, asked.

“To be honest, we’ve stored quite a bit in Qingyuan City,” Ning Yuan said with a chuckle, looking like a rat that had fallen into a rice jar.

Zhang Qi and Wang Yuan exchanged a glance and finally decided to ask about the price of vegetables, fruits, and meat first, as these things were not essential for survival.

“The price of vegetables and fruits depends on whether they’re in season. If they are, they’ll definitely be cheap. After all, everyone in every village grows cucumbers and tomatoes in their yards. But if you bring out something like durian or mango, fruits that aren’t produced here, then they’ll definitely be expensive,” Ning Yuan said, thinking of the prices of the things Lu Weiyi had exchanged earlier. “And we’ve already exchanged for a batch this afternoon, so the price definitely won’t be high.”

“How do you exchange?” Wang Yuan asked.

“One bottle of water for twenty pounds of ordinary vegetables and fruits, ten pounds for rare vegetables and fruits.” According to the current prices in the base, one bottle of water could probably exchange for twenty pounds of flour at most, and the most common vegetables would be ten pounds at most. After all, although water was scarce, it hadn’t reached the point of extreme shortage, and the three major forces in the base seemed to have water-based ability users, and more embarrassingly… they were all stronger than him. The price Ning Yuan quoted was obviously high. He said this to test them. If they accepted such a high price, then they definitely had something up their sleeves.

The others just glanced at Ning Yuan silently when they heard the price, without any extra comments.

“Isn’t this too expensive?” Zhang Qi frowned.

“It is expensive, but I believe water will be even more expensive in the future,” Ning Yuan said with a confident look, a smug expression that said, “This is my price, take it or leave it.”

“What about grain? Flour, rice? Are the prices of wheat and other grains the same?” Wang Yuan remained calm, his expression not changing at all when he heard him.

Ning Yuan’s suspicion grew stronger. “Thirty pounds for flour and rice, sixty pounds for wheat and corn. You also know that flour mills and the like are extremely expensive, whether they use electricity or gasoline.”

Zhang Qi’s breath hitched when he heard this, and he wanted to say something, but he forcibly held it back, his face turning red.

Ning Yuan pretended not to see it and continued with a smile, “However, animals are not common now, so exchanging with meat is definitely more cost-effective. Ten pounds of chicken and pork for one bottle of water, lamb and beef can go up to five pounds, and eggs are also fine, eight pounds.”

“Cough cough cough…” Zhang Qi couldn’t help but choke on his own saliva. Wang Yuan waited until he calmed down from coughing before saying, “Okay, then I’ll go back and ask. If we want to exchange, we’ll come find you tomorrow.”

“Okay,” Ning Yuan stood up to see them off. “If you ask me, there’s really no need to consider it. My price is a bit high, but to be honest, it’s definitely higher than the value of water. After all, science says that a person can live for seven days without food, but without water in this weather, you won’t last three days.”

“Okay, we’ll definitely consider it carefully,” Wang Yuan said politely, and walked away with Zhang Qi.