Chapter 8
Guanguan had gone to sleep late last night, so he woke up a little later this morning too.
Still groggy when he opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was big brother sitting by the bed, reading a book.
Then his nose twitched. Like a fluffy little puppy, he sniffed here and there, and when he spotted what was by the bed, he gave a startled little cry. “Peaches.”
Wei Cheng put the book in his hands back into the safe house. It was a pathology book he had bought yesterday from the educational resources section.
“Guanguan is awake?”
Guanguan held up the washed peach by the bedside with both hands. “Big brother, it’s a peach.”
“Mm, it’s a peach.”
Wei Cheng took out the new comb he had bought and started combing Guanguan’s hair, only to discover that a few little strands absolutely refused to behave no matter how he combed them.
He said, “Does Guanguan want a haircut?”
Guanguan hugged the big peach. “Don’t want it cut.”
“How about big brother ties your hair into a little sprout?”
Guanguan asked, “Like Qiqi’s little sprouts?”
“Qiqi’s hair is longer, so she wears two little sprouts. You only need one little sprout on top of your head.”
Guanguan pinched his chin and thought about it, looking as though he was genuinely considering the matter. “Then you have to make Guanguan look pretty.”
“Such a vain little Guanguan.”
Wei Cheng opened the Cloud Mall and picked out four or five animal-themed hair ties. “Which one do you want to wear?”
Guanguan pointed at one with a mango-colored little dog. “This one!”
Tying up part of his little curls like this would make the child look much fresher.
After he finished tying it, Wei Cheng held up a mirror for him. “What do you think?”
“Wow!”
There was not a trace of dislike in Guanguan’s eyes—only pure admiration for how cute he was.
“Big brother, can we raise a puppy in the future?”
Wei Cheng hesitated. He did not know how to refuse Guanguan. In the apocalypse, a dog barking at random could very likely attract zombies.
He also did not want to lie to the child. “Guanguan, we can’t raise a puppy right now. But if one day we find a safe place where we can live and survive for a long time, then not only can we raise one puppy, we can raise lots of puppies.”
“Then Guanguan will give the puppy the cutest name!”
“Okay. I hope that day comes soon.”
After breakfast, Wei Cheng opened the mission section and saw that the new task had already been waiting there for some time.
[Mission Section]
[Daily Mission]
(1) Learn ten Chinese characters [1 Twisty Coin per character]
[Basic Mission]
(1) Kind little baby, use your brain and remind others to stock up actively [10 Twisty Coins per person, limited to three days.]
So-called “use your brain to remind others to stock up” meant they had to warn people to prepare supplies without revealing that they knew the future. This mission was actually somewhat difficult. Who would believe the words of two children?
But as long as one person successfully stocked up, they would earn ten thousand yuan.
With the little yellow duck backpack holding peaches and a water cup on his back, Guanguan asked, “Big brother, what mission are we doing?”
Wei Cheng thought for a moment. “Let me teach you characters first.”
Guanguan was very smart. Although he was a bit playful and greedy, whenever big brother taught him, he was always at his best. Even when Wang Xiaotiao tried tempting him with kicking the watermelon ball, he clenched his teeth and ignored it.
Little Guanguan’s hard work did not go to waste. In just half an hour, he successfully learned ten Chinese characters.
Wei Cheng could tell Guanguan was itching to move, so he smiled and said, “Leave the mission planning to big brother. You go kick the watermelon ball with Wang Xiaotiao and the others.”
He already had two ideas in mind—livestreaming and handing out flyers.
Livestreaming would require Teacher Xiaomei’s help, and he had no idea when she would be back.
As for handing out flyers…
Wei Cheng took out a sheet of paper and wrote several lines on it. Once he was done, he slung Guanguan’s little yellow duck backpack over his shoulder and headed downstairs.
“Big brother!”
Guanguan had been playing so hard that he was sweating all over. Wei Cheng took out the new little dog cup he had bought for him from the backpack. “Come on, rest a bit and drink some water.”
Guanguan gulped down a few mouthfuls, his eyes sparkling. “Big brother, are we going to do a mission now?”
“Mm. Big brother has thought of a way.”
Wei Cheng said, “Let’s go to the little supermarket we went to yesterday.”
The supermarket owner recognized handsome Wei Cheng, who was still not very old, as well as cute, round little Guanguan.
“What do you two brothers want to buy?”
Wei Cheng said, “Boss, our elementary school gave us summer homework. We’re supposed to help shops hand out flyers to experience how hard our parents work. Does your supermarket need us to hand out flyers for free?”
The owner blinked. “I didn’t quite understand. You mean you’ll help my supermarket hand out promotional flyers, so more people will come shop here, right?”
“That’s right. May I ask whether your shop has anything you need to promote?”
The owner slapped her thigh. “Yes! Quite a lot, actually. Stuffed bread doesn’t keep in summer, plus some freshly squeezed juice and milk, and also eggs, sugar, and so on.”
Wei Cheng said, “Okay, then I’ll help you write a flyer. Could you take us to a print shop nearby to print it?”
“No need for a print shop. We can print it right here!”
The owner was an honest person. “You two kids are giving me ideas and handing out flyers for free. I won’t charge you for printing!”
Wei Cheng said, “I want to print one hundred copies. Boss, you should still charge me.”
In the end, the owner only charged him for fifty copies.
As she looked over the promotional text Wei Cheng had written, she took another careful look at him. “You must be the best student in your class, right? I could never write something like this. You’re so young—how do you write so well? What calligraphy class did your mother sign you up for?”
Wei Cheng smiled but said nothing.
He had lived with that elderly professor couple for a full five years. Wei Cheng had provided them with survival supplies, and in return they had taught him a great deal of knowledge and practical life skills.
In a sense, Wei Cheng had been their last student in this world.
In the end, after they got the one hundred color-printed flyers, the owner even gave each of them a lollipop.
Wei Cheng glanced at the sun, then took Guanguan into a hidden corner and quietly bought two hats and two sun-protective jackets.
With the lollipop in his mouth, Guanguan said, “Big brother, the candy is so yummy!”
Wei Cheng settled the hat onto his head. “The orange-flavored one is yours too, but you have to stay close to big brother and not run around. We may have to cross the street in a bit and go to that busy little park.”
Guanguan patted his chest. “Guanguan will be good. Guanguan won’t cause trouble!”
Wei Cheng took Guanguan across at the traffic light to the little park opposite.
The park was full of leafy trees, with a murmuring stream running through it. It was the perfect place for taking kids out or going on dates.
Spotting an old grandmother pushing a child in a stroller, Wei Cheng hurried over. “Grandma, there’s a huge sale at the Fu Family Supermarket across the street. Buy one bag of flour and get five eggs free. Ten loaves of bread are only five yuan. Do you want to stock up on some things?”
The grandmother glanced at them and took the flyer. Adjusting her glasses, she read aloud, “You only feel safe with food stockpiled! Carnival discount prices, today-only deals, miss it and wait a year…”
“Buy milk and you get sugar too?”
The grandmother tucked the flyer onto the stroller. “Just right, I was about to buy some milk and sugar.”
Guanguan tilted up his little face and joined the sales pitch. “Granny, buy more sugar. Sugar is yummy. Guanguan loves eating it!”
The baby in the stroller sucked on their fingers and grinned at Guanguan.
Old people always liked plump fair-skinned children. The grandmother reached out and touched Guanguan’s little hat. “You love it that much? Then it must really be good. Granny will buy more.”
Wei Cheng smiled and reminded her, “There’s a WeChat group on the flyer. If you want to stock up on more sale items, you can apply to join it.”
“Okay, okay, I’ll add it in a bit.”
The two children watched as the grandmother pushed the stroller back across the street and entered the Fu Family Supermarket.
Before long, a voice rang in their minds.
[Congratulations! You successfully reminded one passerby to actively stock up and earned 10 Twisty Coins!]
Ten thousand yuan in hand!
The two children looked at each other, both very happy.
Guanguan grabbed the flyers heroically. “Big brother! Let’s hand out more flyers!”
But unexpectedly, Guanguan’s freshly built-up enthusiasm was wrecked by a young couple.
A lot of people disliked being handed flyers, and ignoring them or throwing them into the trash was normal enough. But cursing at someone maliciously was going too far.
Before Guanguan could even reach them, the impatient young couple shouted, “Get lost, trash!”
Guanguan froze and looked blankly at his brother.
Wei Cheng swallowed his anger again and again. The police station was not far away, and now was not the time for fighting. He could not scare Guanguan either.
He picked Guanguan up and said, “Let’s go.” Even though they were handing out flyers to earn Twisty Coins, the system’s ultimate goal was also to help them warn as many people as possible to stock up, so those people might survive the apocalypse.
“There are all kinds of people in this world. Good words can’t persuade a ghost that wants to die,” Wei Cheng said. “Guanguan, don’t feel sad because of people like that.”
Guanguan made an “mm” sound and kicked his little legs. “Guanguan isn’t sad!”
For the rest of the time, they handed out flyers strategically, mainly to elderly people, aunties with children, and young men and women with gentle-looking faces.
The rest of the flyer distribution went very smoothly. They did not run into anyone rude like that again.
The system prompts kept sounding beside their ears one after another, and the flyers in their hands grew thinner and thinner.
When Wei Cheng felt the timing was right, he prepared to take Guanguan back. “Big brother will take you to buy milk tea?”
Guanguan had been a little tired, but hearing that, he instantly perked up. “Yes, want it, want it!”
Wei Cheng tucked the remaining few flyers into the little backpack, then picked up chubby Guanguan. “You’re worn out today, huh? Big brother will carry you back.”
Guanguan obediently wrapped his arms around big brother’s neck. “Guanguan isn’t tired. Being with big brother makes Guanguan as happy as the sun is big.”
The milk tea shop was a little crowded at this hour, so Wei Cheng helped Guanguan choose a strawberry yogurt milk jelly tea.
Guanguan looked left and right, then huffed and puffed as he dug the flyers out of his little backpack. “Guanguan can still hand them out!”
Big brother had said they should mostly give them to aunties with children.
So Guanguan headed straight for a stroller, where he saw a little baby inside chewing on their hand, but there was no adult nearby.
The two babies stared at each other for quite a while.
The little baby’s lips trembled, and suddenly they burst into tears.
Guanguan took a step back in fright, the little flesh under his chin trembling too. When he saw a woman coming over, he immediately called out, “Auntie, auntie, come quick! Your child is sounding off!”
Hearing that, the woman hurried over and picked the child up out of the stroller. Behind her followed a tall boy in a basketball jersey.
At that moment Wei Cheng also came over carrying Guanguan’s milk tea. He recognized the boy—it was the one who had given them the bottles that day.
“It’s you two!” the boy said with a smile.
The moment the woman picked her child up, the child stopped crying.
She looked at Wei Cheng and Guanguan. “So these are the two children you mentioned?”
The boy looked a bit proud. “Yeah. We did a good deed that day, and someone even bought us drinks.”
Standing on tiptoe, Guanguan handed the flyer to the older boy. “Here.”
The boy glanced at the flyer. “You two are amazing. Are you handing out flyers to make money again?”
Wei Cheng nodded. Since this boy had helped them once before, he added one more line. “I hope you’ll support Fu Family Supermarket more. Their stuff really is cheap. It doesn’t hurt to stock up a little.”
Wei Cheng left with Guanguan, and the boy said, “Mom, if we go buy the things on this flyer at Fu Family Supermarket, do these two kids get paid too?”
The woman lowered her head and glanced at the flyer. “Probably. We’re out of flour at home anyway, and you’ve been begging for dumplings. Since it’s cheap, you can stock up on a few bags.”
“Okay!”
After thinking it over, he took a photo of the flyer and posted it in the family group chat of more than forty people, then sent it into the group chat with his basketball buddies too.
The sight of those two children picking up bottles had been too pitiful. If he could help them, then he might as well.
Yishen’s Eggplant: Guys, please support Fu Family Supermarket! This is the flyer from those two little trash-picking kids from that day!
People kept replying with “1.”
: Wow, that little curly-haired chubby kid is crazy cute. Wish he were my little brother!
: Then tell your mom to adopt him!
: But I think the boy beside the chubby kid is kind of scary. Like if anyone dared snatch his little brother, he’d bite them to death kind of scary!
Yishen’s Eggplant: Everyone, feel free to share it around too!
: OK, I’m forwarding it to the neighborhood group!
: I’m forwarding it to the neighborhood group too!
—
Wei Cheng and Guanguan were chatting and laughing as they were about to enter the welfare home, when they saw Director Wang and Li Yun standing by the small gate.
Next to them stood Zhou Zihao and several other older boys, all hanging their heads in obvious dejection. It was clear they had already been scolded.
Mingming, Wang Xiaotiao, and Qiqi stood nervously near the slide, watching them.
Li Yun gave a cold laugh. “Director, what did I say? This Wei Cheng is clearly leading the children here astray. We never used to hear about Zhou Zihao and the others sneaking out to play.”
“Don’t jump to conclusions from every little thing. I’ve caught Zhou Zihao and the others sneaking out plenty of times already!”
Director Wang said darkly, “Wei Cheng, speak. Where did you take Guanguan?”
Wei Cheng replied without changing expression, “We wandered around the park, then went to the ball court to watch the older boys play.”
Director Wang’s gaze fell on Guanguan’s milk tea. He narrowed his eyes. “Where did you get the money to buy those harmful drinks?”
Guanguan lowered his head and clutched the milk tea tightly in his little hands.
Wei Cheng said, “Someone gave it to us.”
Li Yun said, “Someone gave it to you? Who would give you milk tea? I’ve lost a lot of money. Did you steal it?”
Wei Cheng said coldly, “The police station is right nearby. If you lost money, why aren’t you reporting it? Why are you questioning me?”
Li Yun choked with anger. “You little brat—was it you who led Zhou Zihao and the others into stealing money?”
“Zhou Zihao and the others have already admitted it. They stole your money to go online. Wei Cheng and Guanguan only snuck out to play.”
Director Wang gave her a disapproving look.
Then he said, “You five, Zhou Zihao and the others—I’ve already called your relatives. After the busy farming season, they’ll come pick you up and take you home.”
As for the remaining boy, his mother had died, and his father was in prison. He was getting out within the next two days and would come collect him.
Zhou Zihao and the others were all unwilling to go back to the remote countryside. “Grandpa Director, we don’t want to go back…”
Director Wang waved his hand. “Go back. Staying here has only made you worse—stealing money, going to internet cafés, skipping class. I even found cigarette butts under your bed! Is this acceptable? Rather than drifting along here, you may as well go home and work the fields!”
Wei Cheng lowered his brows in thought. This was a twist that had not happened in his previous life.
Maybe if Zhou Zihao and the others returned to the countryside, they really might survive.
Zhou Zihao fake-cried, “Grandpa Director, if I go back, no one will take care of me. I’ll starve to death!”
“Grandpa Director, we know we were wrong. We’ll definitely behave!”
“We’ll never steal money again. Please don’t send us back!”
Director Wang snapped, “Stealing money wasn’t a one-time thing for you. And now you’ve even learned to smoke. If I don’t send you back now, I’m afraid next time you’ll go even further and do something illegal!”
There was really no way to argue with that. These children had only been temporarily placed in the welfare home anyway. Once their poor family situations improved a little, they were supposed to go back home.
The boys left with their heads lowered, and Director Wang turned to criticize Wei Cheng too. “If you dare take Guanguan out sneaking around again, I’ll call your uncle and tell him to come pick you up.”
Guanguan waved both hands anxiously. “Grandpa Director, Guanguan was the one who wanted to go out! It’s not big brother’s fault!”
Director Wang gave him a sidelong look. “You wanted to go out? Then you can leave too!”
Guanguan scratched his little face. “Oh. Okay then…”
Wei Cheng said, “Grandpa Director, I know I was wrong. There are lots of cars outside, and lots of bad people too. Guanguan is still so little. Taking him outside to play really was dangerous. Don’t worry—from now on, unless you or Teacher Xiaomei say yes, I won’t take Guanguan outside again.”
Seeing that this was his first offense and that his attitude was good, Director Wang sighed. “As long as you understand that, fine. I won’t punish you this time. But if there’s a next time, I’ll definitely punish you heavily.”
After walking two steps with big brother, Guanguan suddenly turned back and stuffed the orange-flavored lollipop he had not been willing to eat into Grandpa Director’s hand.
“Grandpa Director, don’t be mad at Guanguan. If you get mad sick, nobody can take your place.”
Director Wang drew in a deep breath. “You sure talk too much! Hurry up and go wash your hands for dinner!”
Guanguan gave two little giggles, then ran off hand in hand with big brother to eat.
“Strawberry milk tea!”
Guanguan generously shared the milk tea with his little friends. “Drink!”
The children all held their little iron bowls and drank happily.
“You have to treasure it. Drink slowly.”
Relishing the strawberry milk tea fragrance still lingering in his mouth, Guanguan crossed one leg over the other, his little face full of deep feeling. “From now on, Guanguan and big brother won’t be able to sneak out and buy milk tea and grilled sausages anymore.”
Mingming pointed outside and then shook his head.
He meant that it was dangerous outside and they should not go.
Wang Xiaotiao said, “If Zhou Zihao and the others leave, does that mean we can play on the slide every day?”
“Yeah!”
The children were a little excited and quietly tapped their little iron bowls together in celebration.
Luckily, Wei Cheng and Guanguan had handed out the last few flyers on the way back.
But although they had handed out one hundred flyers today, only forty-two people had actually gone to Fu Family Supermarket to buy things.
Ten Twisty Coins per person—forty-two people meant 420 Twisty Coins, which converted to four hundred and twenty thousand yuan!
Guanguan asked in confusion, “Is four hundred and twenty thousand a lot of money?”
Wei Cheng nodded. “With this money, our lives for the next few years should be fine.”
And yet the next morning, the moment they woke up, the system’s voice rang beside their ears.
[Congratulations! You successfully reminded 1 passerby to actively stock up and earned 10 Twisty Coins!]
[Congratulations! You successfully reminded 1 passerby to actively stock up and earned 10 Twisty Coins!]
…
[Congratulations! You successfully reminded a total of 92 passersby to actively stock up and earned a total of 920 Twisty Coins!]
Wei Cheng froze for a while.
Nine… nine hundred and twenty Twisty Coins!
How had so many people gone to Fu Family Supermarket overnight?
![The Max-Level Boss Just Wants to Be a Slacker [Apocalypse]](https://i3.wp.com/panda-translations.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20250902175028_300_420.jpg?resize=151,215 "The Max-Level Boss Just Wants to Be a Slacker [Apocalypse]")