Chapter 14: Asking for Supplies
Once Chu Yang finished explaining his thoughts about the crystal cores, his eyelids felt as heavy as lead. He let out a massive yawn, his voice thick with exhaustion. “It’s no use, Brother Jiang… I really can’t keep my eyes open. I’m completely wiped out—I could fall asleep standing up right now.”
He collapsed onto the mattress, and almost the second his head hit the pillow, he went silent. Within moments, his breathing deepened into a steady, rhythmic pattern, fast asleep.
Jiang Jue held the two crystal cores Chu Yang had pressed into his palm, the cool touch of the stones leaving his thoughts tangled and complex. He turned to look at the boy sprawled beside him without the slightest regard for his posture. In the end, Jiang Jue said nothing, quietly lying down on his side of the bed and closing his eyes.
Perhaps because the physical and mental strain of the past few days had been so heavy, or perhaps because the presence beside him was inexplicably comforting, Jiang Jue—who had always been a light, hyper-vigilant sleeper—sank into a rare, deep, and peaceful slumber.
When he opened his eyes again, the bright glow filtering through the seams of the heavy curtains made it clear that the morning was already half gone.
He lifted his wrist to check his watch. Sure enough, the hands pointed to eleven-twenty.
He moved to sit up, but a heavy weight pressed against his chest. Looking down, he found a fuzzy head nestled in the crook of his arm—Chu Yang had rolled over at some point in the night, his cheeks flushed with warmth, his soft hair brushing lightly against Jiang Jue’s chin.
Jiang Jue’s frame stiffened for a fraction of a second. Letting out a quiet, resigned sigh, he used the gentlest movements possible to ease Chu Yang’s head back onto the neighboring pillow before slipping soundlessly out of bed.
He walked over to the window and peeled back a corner of the curtain, his brow furrowing instantly.
The storm from the night before had not let up in the slightest. The snow outside was piled alarmingly high, easily reaching past the waist of an average adult. The entire cityscape had turned into a blinding sea of white, enveloped in a dead, suffocating silence.
Out in the living room, Wang Rui, Li Wen, and Zhao Dayong were huddled gloomily around their dwindled rations.
The biscuit tin was empty, save for a few stray crumbs, and their plastic water bottles were bone dry.
Li Wen rubbed his hollow, aching stomach with a miserable expression, letting out a heavy sigh of regret. “If I’d known the snow was going to come down like this without stopping, I would’ve risked my life to scavenge more food yesterday! Now look at us—we couldn’t go out even if we wanted to. What are we going to do?”
Wang Rui ruffled his hair in frustration, turning it into a wild mess as anger flared in his voice. “Damn it! Who could have guessed the weather would go completely insane? It’s like the sky tore open—there’s no end to this snow!”
He kicked the leg of the coffee table with a dull thud. “Now we’re stuck! The front entrance is practically buried, we can barely leave, and we’re down to our last bite!”
Zhao Dayong’s eyes darted toward the closed bedroom door where Jiang Jue and Chu Yang were sleeping. Lowering his voice, he suggested, “I saw it clearly yesterday—when Brother Jiang and Chu Yang came back, their packs were bulging and heavy. There must be a ton of good stuff inside…”
The other two perked up instantly, exchanging a knowing, calculating look.
Just then, the bedroom door clicked open, and Jiang Jue stepped out into the hall.
Zhao Dayong braced himself, forcing a humble, fawning smile as he approached. “B-Brother Jiang… you’re up? Uh… on your end… is there anything left to eat? We’re… we’re really at our limit here, practically starving to death.”
Jiang Jue paused. His gaze swept over the three men, taking in the mixture of desperate hope and underlying fear on their faces, before glancing toward the snowdrifts pressing against the living room window. After a few seconds of silence, he turned back into the bedroom, brought out a small bag of rice along with several packs of compressed biscuits, and set them quietly on the dining table.
“Thank you, Brother Jiang! Thank you so much!” the three stammered hurriedly, their greedy gazes glued to the food.
Just as they reached for it, bang, bang, bang! A sharp knocking rattled the front door.
The three flinched violently, instantly reminded of the horrors of the previous night, their bodies tensing in alarm.
“Is anyone in there? Please, open the door,” a man’s voice called from the hallway.
Hearing an unmistakably human voice, Wang Rui and the others finally let out a breath of relief.
“Are you out of your mind?! What are you banging for?!” Zhao Dayong cursed under his breath as he yanked the door open.
Standing on the landing were two pale, emaciated young men accompanied by a haggard young woman, all three looking desperate.
“Brother, please, have mercy! Do you have any spare food? Could you share just a little with us?” the man in front pleaded eagerly, his voice hoarse from hunger and his lips dry and peeling. “When we find supplies later, we’ll pay you back double! We swear on our lives!”
“Yeah, man, what if we buy it? Name your price—we’ll pay several times the going rate!” the second man chimed in desperately. “We still have cash on us, we’ll give you everything we’ve got!”
Hearing that, even Li Wen couldn’t resist rolling his eyes. “Buy it? Cash is just scrap paper now! It’s too stiff to even use as toilet paper! What good is money?”
“Get lost, all of you!” Zhao Dayong waved them off impatiently. “We’re starving ourselves—where would we get extra food to feed you lot?”
“Wait… isn’t that food on the table?” The girl in the back, Zhao Youning, had sharp eyes. Her gaze locked straight onto the packs of biscuits Jiang Jue had just set down, pure hunger blazing in her eyes.
Li Wen glanced back, cursed under his breath, and quickly shifted his body to block her view. “Even if it is, it’s ours! What’s it got to do with you? Get out of here!”
Driven mad by starvation, the two men saw the rations and completely lost their heads. Their eyes turning feral, they tried to shove their way into the apartment.
Zhao Dayong pushed the first man back, but the second kept muscling his way through the gap.
Losing his patience, Wang Rui snapped. With a sharp whoosh, a bright fireball ignited in his palm. He leveled a vicious glare at the intruders. “Damn it! Take another step forward and see if I don’t turn you into ash!”
Seeing the supernatural flame, the two men froze in terror. They exchanged a frightened look and decided their lives were worth more than an argument. Glaring with bitter resentment, they slowly backed away down the hall.
Zhao Youning looked at the crackling fireball in Wang Rui’s hand, then glanced past him toward the food on the table, her thoughts turning rapidly.
She was truly at the end of her rope. Before, she had managed to get by by relying on a few gullible men to share their supplies, but those guys had either turned into monsters or vanished without a trace. With the snowstorm sealing them in, she hadn’t eaten a single bite in two days.
She looked at Wang Rui. While he wasn’t particularly handsome, he was a genuine Ability User. In this apocalyptic world, latching onto a man with real power would make survival so much easier…
With that in mind, she subtly adjusted her posture, pulling her thin shirt tight to accentuate her figure. She raised a hand to tuck a loose strand of hair behind her ear, dropping her voice into a soft, flirtatious purr: “Big brother… I’m really so hungry. Can’t you spare just a tiny bite for me, please? Pretty please~?”
Wang Rui had never encountered this kind of treatment before. Before the outbreak, he had just been a petty street delinquent whose previous girlfriends were nothing special. Even though the woman before him looked unkempt, her features were undeniably pretty. That sweet, teasing “Big brother” sent a jolt of heat straight through him, making his thoughts spin as he unconsciously swallowed hard.
“Little sister… which unit do you live in?” Wang Rui’s tone softened instantly.
Zhao Dayong and Li Wen traded disgusted looks, silently cursing the girl for being a shameless temptress.
Li Wen gave Wang Rui’s sleeve a firm tug. “Brother Rui, it’s getting late. Let’s get the food cooked first!”
Turning toward Zhao Youning, Li Wen hardened his voice. “Sorry, lady, but we really don’t have any food to spare!”
With a heavy bang, he slammed the door shut in her face.
Wang Rui stared at the wooden door, the image of the woman’s desperate eyes and soft curves lingering in his mind, leaving his chest buzzing with a restless, itchy heat.
