The canteen immediately fell silent—so quiet that even a falling needle could have been heard.
Even those who had been whispering shut their mouths.
Wen Qiao and Wen Jiuya looked at each other.
Wen Qiao, heaven and earth as witness, had only wanted that old pervert to stop talking, so she made it quiet—but she had only meant to silence him alone.
Wen Jiuya was stunned. So it had gone quiet like this?
Then she thought, as expected of her best friend—so lethal. One move had suppressed an entire crowd.
Bai Mumu did not dare speak anymore and quietly backed away, afraid of provoking that God of Death and getting an arrow through her heart.
She thought inwardly that she must absolutely not be remembered for trying to flirt with that woman’s man earlier. That would be fatal.
Who even wore such a soft-looking outfit while being this strong? If she had dressed more like a domineering woman, she wouldn’t have embarrassed herself.
If Wen Qiao had heard that, she would have definitely called it stereotypical thinking—unacceptable.
After all these matters were settled, it was already noon.
Everyone was hungry, and the canteen staff had already gone to cook.
The cooking area of the canteen was separated. While they were cooking, the lights suddenly flickered—and went out.
The power had been cut.
Xue Qi noticed that everyone’s attention was no longer on the three of them, so he calmly released his grip and stepped back.
The overhead lights flickered and then went dark.
He looked at Wen Qiao, his expression turning serious. A power outage and internet shutdown meant human survival conditions had become even harsher. It was just unknown how things were at the base.
Especially at the Minqi Base they were about to head to—whether there were any staff members responsible for restoring electricity.
It was truly worrying.
Fortunately, it was still daytime. Light still came through the small windows in the wall, and cooking with gas was still possible.
It was just that if they had to cook for the entire day, once night fell, they would not be able to see anything.
The canteen manager saw that even the last remaining backup water had been used and frowned.
He called Director Li over, and the two of them spoke in a corner. Director Li’s expression turned unpleasant, but he still nodded.
“Alright, understood.”
Soon after, students lined up to collect their meals. On their plates were only stir-fried cabbage and boiled radish, along with two scoops of rice.
There had originally been meat, but it was scarce, freshly bought and cooked. However, fearing power outages or spoilage, it had all been finished in the previous days.
The students looked at the food with little appetite, but they still had to eat. If they didn’t, they would starve. That morning, they had only had thin rice porridge—barely any rice in it.
The four teachers were even worse off. They usually had separate cooking arrangements and a dedicated teacher’s serving window, but now that was no longer possible.
On the other side, Wang Ze and his group were completely different. During their week at the convenience store, they had almost finished all the frozen goods.
They had been eating well every day—not only had they not lost weight, they were full of strength. Now, Lin Xu’s space alone contained half a convenience store’s worth of supplies.
There were self-heating hotpots, hotpot soup bases, self-heating rice, chocolate, candies…
There were also many snacks, chicken breast, beef jerky…
At least enough for them to last a month, even with heavy consumption. If they were frugal, a month and a half would not be a problem.
Now they sat in a corner of the canteen, occupying a long table.
Lin Xu directly took out thirteen boxes of self-heating hotpot and thirteen boxes of self-heating rice, using the water they had collected last week to prepare them.
After they were ready, all thirteen of them opened the lids at varying speeds. The rich, spicy aroma instantly spread throughout the entire canteen.
Many people swallowed their saliva while silently eating their plain meals.
Wen Qiao and her group were even more excessive. Using the empty space where they had just placed their chairs, Wen Qiao directly summoned a table.
On it, she placed home-cooked dishes from home: spicy chicken, mapo tofu, garlic stir-fried green vegetables, steamed egg custard, and corn pork rib soup.
Four dishes and one soup—perfect.
The teachers and students had already witnessed Wen Qiao’s strength before, so they did not dare to speak against them and instead turned their attention to Wang Ze’s group.
A boy stood up and said loudly, “Wang Ze, is your food taken from the school’s convenience store?”
Before Wang Ze could respond, he continued on his own.
“Even though it’s the apocalypse, that is still private property of the school. It belongs to everyone.”
Li Xiaodong said angrily, “Bullshit! Everyone in senior year knows Brother Ze has his own 100-square-meter convenience store outside school.”
“That small convenience store, not even 20 square meters, wasn’t even something we cared about normally. Now in the apocalypse, we’re worried about our sisters—who has the time to care about that?”
Wang Ze put down his chopsticks. “Thanks for the reminder. We’ll make sure to visit it when we leave.”
The boy choked and shot him a resentful look.
Jun Bian threw a leaf-shaped golden blade over.
“Jun Bian!” He Wangyan, sitting opposite him, hurriedly called out. He did not want Jun Bian to develop a habit of killing in the apocalypse.
Just as the blade was about to strike the boy’s eye, it disappeared. The boy, frightened, fell back into his chair and nearly slipped off.
Jun Bian withdrew his gaze and calmly picked up a slice of potato to eat.
“I understand.”
Seeing that he was restrained, He Wangyan said nothing more.
Jun Bian looked the coldest, but he was extremely protective of his own people. No one was allowed to hit or insult them—even a glare was unacceptable.
The boy’s gaze just now had clearly carried hostility, and that was something Jun Bian could not tolerate.
At that moment, the highest-ranking of the four teachers, Director Li, spoke again.
“This is outrageous! You are students of the same school—you should be helping each other. How can you turn into this?”
He then pointed to the main issue. “Wang Ze, you should take the initiative to share your supplies with everyone. How can you eat so well yourselves? Respect your teachers and classmates. Is this how I usually teach you?”
Wang Ze ignored him completely and continued eating.
Seeing that he was being ignored, Director Li shifted his target to the timid Lin Xu, since everyone had seen that he was the one who took out the food earlier.
“Lin Xu, I know you are a good child. Do you really want to join them in wrongdoing too?”
Lin Xu shrank nervously beside Qin Zhou and remained silent.
Li Xiaodong finished eating and wiped his mouth. After making sure there was nothing left, he said, “Director Li, don’t cause trouble. The thirteen of us all have superpowers. If this canteen collapses later, it won’t be our responsibility.”
Director Li’s expression darkened again.
An old man who never learned.
Although Wen Qiao had agreed to protect them, and Xue Qi had taken half of their supplies, if he could not stand on his own, he would not survive long in the apocalypse.
Seeing how tough they were, she also felt like helping a bit.
She picked up a piece of garlic stir-fried green vegetables for Wen Jiuya, earning a disgusted look from her before smiling in satisfaction. (Here, the disgust was toward the greens—Xiao Jiu preferred meat dishes.)
Then she turned away and ate a small spoonful of rice slowly, her expression unreadable.
“Does no one wonder why the three of us came to this school? We are not students or teachers here.”
“We accepted most of their supplies and agreed to help rescue their sister from this school.”
“And if you want food… why don’t you just come ask me?”
Xue Qi looked at her arrogant expression and obediently continued eating, playing his role as a pretty boy well.
Wen Jiuya screamed internally—as expected of my best friend, you’re owed an Oscar!
Director Li listened. It was unclear whether he believed it or not, but he still sat back down unwillingly.
Wen Jiuya rolled her eyes at him (?_?)
A shameless, thick-skinned old man.