Gu Han’s silence gradually calmed the surge of anger in Jiang Lingyue. Her reason slowly returned as well.
Looking at his cold, stern face, she still felt a little intimidated.
The more satisfying it had felt to curse him just now, the more uneasy she felt now.
What if this guy held grudges? Even if he couldn’t do anything to her inside the hotel, what if he left? An S-class ability user could kill her more easily than crushing an ant.
No, this couldn’t just end like this. She had to make him completely understand who the boss here was.
Jiang Lingyue cleared her throat, sat back down in the chair, crossed her legs, and tried to put on an air that said, “Everything about you is under my control.”
“Now, can we talk properly?” she said, trying to keep her voice steady and hide her nervousness.
Gu Han didn’t speak. He simply looked at her with a complicated gaze there was shock, wariness, and a hint of curiosity.
He had personally experienced the power of that electric shock just now. It was a pure energy attack brutal and impossible to defend against directly acting on his body. If she had wanted to, that strike alone would have been enough to kill him.
He had no doubt about that.
Both this woman and this strange hotel were far beyond his understanding.
“I’ll say it again,” Jiang Lingyue continued when he remained silent, forcing herself to go on. “I saved you. From now on, you are a tenant of this hotel. If you stay here, you must follow my rules and pay rent on time.”
“Rent?” Gu Han spoke hoarsely, repeating the two words.
“Yes, rent.” Jiang Lingyue nodded. “There’s no such thing as a free lunch. This isn’t a charity. I don’t keep freeloaders. If you live here and use my things, you have to pay a price.”
Gu Han’s eyes darkened.
In the apocalypse, the so-called “price” was often tied to dignity, freedom, or even life.
Looking at her, he asked coldly, “What do you want me to do?”
He had already recognized the reality of the situation. Before he figured out the truth about this place, he had no capital to resist. When the knife is in someone else’s hand and you’re the fish on the chopping block, temporary compromise was the only choice.
Seeing how cooperative he seemed, Jiang Lingyue secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
She had been afraid he might be the kind of stubborn person who would rather die than submit. That would have made things much harder.
“It’s simple,” Jiang Lingyue said, standing and walking to the window, looking out at the gray, ruined city. “I need supplies food, water, anything useful. Especially… crystal cores.”
She turned back to look at Gu Han, her eyes shining with anticipation.
“Your rent will be paid with those. Every day, you go out and collect supplies for me. I’ll decide your treatment for the next day based on the value of what you bring back.”
“Treatment?” Gu Han caught the word immediately.
“That’s right.” Jiang Lingyue admitted it openly. “For example, if the supplies you turn in today are valuable, tomorrow you can stay in a luxury suite with a soft bed and a private bathroom. You’ll have clean hot water, and you might even get extra food as a reward.”
She shook a packet of soda crackers in her hand the one she had saved from the beginner gift pack.
“But if you bring back nothing,” she paused, her tone turning colder, “or if what you bring back isn’t worth much, then you might only be able to sleep on the cold floor and there will be no food or water.”
She had just come up with this system in her head. The idea came from a management simulation game she used to play.
She wanted to build her own reward-and-punishment system, using the most direct form of benefit to drive this powerful man to work for her.
Gu Han’s gaze fell on the unopened packet of soda crackers, and his pupils shrank slightly.
Five years into the apocalypse, sealed pre-apocalypse food like that had long become extremely scarce. Every pack represented safety and calories something that could save lives.
Yet this woman was casually holding it in her hand as a mere reward?
He recalled everything he had seen since waking up the stable electricity, the clean hospital clothes, the miraculous healing spray…
This hotel seemed to possess resources beyond imagination.
And the key to obtaining all of it was working for her.
That realization filled Gu Han with complicated feelings.
As an S-class ability user, he had always been someone major bases competed to recruit. When had he ever been treated like this controlled with food?
But… he couldn’t refute it.
Because she was right. In the apocalypse, nothing was more important than food and safety.
And she seemed able to provide both easily.
“Your injuries haven’t fully healed yet, so rest today,” Jiang Lingyue said when he stayed silent for a long time, assuming he had accepted the arrangement. She placed the crackers and the earlier glass of water on his bedside table.
“This counts as an advance on your wages,” she said generously though her heart ached. That was a whole pack of crackers! Enough for her to ration for a day.
“Tomorrow morning at eight, go out on time. You must be back before six in the evening.”
“Remember don’t try to run,” Jiang Lingyue said as she walked to the door. She turned to look at him, her expression more serious than ever. “No matter where you run, if I don’t want you to live, you won’t live. I mean what I say.”
After saying that, she didn’t wait for his response. She turned and left the medical room, closing the door behind her.
The moment the door shut, she leaned against the wall and let out a long breath.
Oh my god, that scared me to death.
Facing off with an S-class big shot was really a test of one’s heart.
She patted her chest, which was still pounding wildly, and realized her back was soaked with sweat.
Still… the result seemed pretty good.
That Gu Han looked like he had been successfully intimidated for now.
Inside the room, Gu Han stared at the glass of water and the packet of crackers on the bedside table for a long time without moving.
He could feel that his body was still slightly numb from the aftereffects of the electric shock, and his ability was nearly depleted. He needed time to recover.
He picked up the glass. The cup was warm. He took a sip clean purified water, without the slightest strange taste.
Then he picked up the crackers, tore open the package, and found four neatly stacked soda crackers inside. He took one and put it into his mouth.
The crisp texture, with its faint saltiness and wheat aroma, melted across his tongue.
It was a taste he hadn’t experienced for a very, very long time a taste that belonged to civilization.
He slowly finished all four crackers and drank the entire glass of water.
A warm current rose from his stomach, driving away some of the cold and weakness in his body.
Leaning against the headboard, he closed his eyes. Everything that had happened since he woke up replayed again and again in his mind.
The strange hotel.
The mysterious woman.
The incomprehensible power of rules.
And… that surprisingly tasty packet of crackers.
Jiang Lingyue…
He silently repeated the name in his heart.
No matter who she really was, and no matter what this place actually was
If he wanted to survive, and if he wanted to uncover the truth behind all this, he had no other choice.
Tomorrow, he would take a look and see just how different the inside and outside of this hotel truly were.