Inside the car, Pei Huaiye watched through the rearview mirror as that figure grew smaller and smaller, his gaze icy.
“Boss, are we really just letting them go like that?” Han Chao gripped the steering wheel, his tone full of reluctance.
Pei Huaiye didn’t answer immediately, only gently stroking the hair of Ning Ran, who was leaning against his chest.
Sensing something, Ning Ran raised her face to look at him, her clear eyes reflecting his silhouette.
“Brother, don’t be angry,” she said softly, reaching out to touch the space between his eyebrows as if trying to smooth away the wrinkles there.
Pei Huaiye caught her small hand and held it in his palm: “I’m not angry.”
Xu Sui turned back from the front passenger seat: “Boss, I have a feeling that this Shen Shuhe won’t just let it go.”
“Whether she lets it go or not, what does that have to do with me?” Pei Huaiye raised his head, his gaze cold: “I didn’t kill them, which is already considered me being merciful.”
In his past life, Shen Shuhe and Zhou Xu quickly built up their own forces after his death. Relying on the survival skills and tactics they learned from Pei Huaiye, they soon gained a foothold in the apocalypse.
But their management was loose, turning a blind eye to subordinates bullying the weak, and even tacitly allowing Zhou Xu’s trusted aides to rob other survivors.
In this lifetime, after his rebirth, Pei Huaiye had established his own base early on and stockpiled plenty of supplies. Now, he intended to sit back and watch how the two of them ended up.
“Brother, eat!” Seeing that Pei Huaiye’s expression wasn’t good, Ning Ran pulled a chocolate candy from her pocket and shoved it straight into Pei Huaiye’s mouth without even tearing off the wrapper.
“What an absolute fool, how can you eat it without tearing off the wrapper?” Pei Huaiye bit down on the candy wrapper, quickly flicking it open with the tip of his tongue and spitting the paper aside.
Leaving Ning Ran staring in wide-eyed amazement: “Brother is so amazing!”
She clapped and cheered!
“Wild-ge brought her along just to torture the single guys like us,” Han Chao remarked lightly from the front.
“No kidding, who asked us to be single dogs!” Xu Sui chimed in as well.
The car sped forward, its tires rolling over streets covered in gravel.
The city center was even more dilapidated than the outskirts. Amidst the ruined walls, the roars of zombies rose and fallen in waves, and the air carried a reek of decay mixed with a hint of blood.
“Wild-ge, there’s a shopping mall ahead. It looks like it hasn’t been looted yet. Should we go in?” Han Chao pointed ahead to a partially collapsed building not far away. The glass doors of the supermarket were shattered into pieces, and shelves alongside scattered packaged foods were faintly visible.
Pei Huaiye signaled him to stop, and holding the octopus-like Ning Ran, he got out of the car.
“You guys keep watch in the car; we’ll go take a look.”
The moment his foot stepped into the supermarket, several burly men immediately emerged from inside. They were holding machetes, and the leader brandished a modified homemade shotgun: “Brothers, first come, first served. This place has been claimed by us. Go somewhere else.”
Holding Ning Ran in his arms, Pei Huaiye looked cold. It wasn’t that he cared deeply about these few supplies, but the attitude of these men greatly displeased him.
However, Pei Huaiye didn’t plan to argue with them either—he had only come down to check because Han Chao mentioned it.
Hearing what they said, he didn’t want to stay even a second longer and turned to leave.
“Well, it’s not like it can’t be negotiated…” The lead boss stared intently at Ning Ran in his arms.
His gaze carried undisguised greed; in the apocalypse, a girl as clean and pure as Ning Ran was even rarer than supplies.
“Leave the little girl in your arms, and I’ll split the supplies with you in half…” the man said evilly.
Trading supplies for a woman was a good deal, plus the person in front of him wouldn’t even know how many supplies they actually had.
Wouldn’t he just get to decide?
“I didn’t catch that. Say it again?” Pei Huaiye’s eyes turned murderously cold.
“I said I want that girl in your arm—Ah…” Before the leader could finish speaking, he clutched his throat and collapsed to the ground, his eyes wide with unfulfilled resentment.
“Ignorant of the immensity of heaven and earth!” Pei Huaiye snorted coldly, taking out the remaining thugs who rushed at him one by one with a single kick each.
“Spare my life! Spare my life—” The remaining people in the supermarket were so frightened their legs turned to jelly.
“Get lost!” Pei Huaiye didn’t intend to slaughter the innocent indiscriminately; in the apocalypse, simply lacking supplies alone meant they wouldn’t live long anyway.
After the group left, Xu Sui got out of the car: “Wild-ge, why let them go?”
“A bunch of small fry, amounting to nothing. Not worth the trouble.” Pei Huaiye placed his hand on the shelf, and with a thought, the items automatically entered his spatial storage.
“Gone, gone—” Ning Ran opened her eyes wide, her expression quite comical. Just like that day, with a swoosh, all the items vanished.
Sob, so many delicious snacks, all gone. Ning Ran looked a bit unhappy.
Sitting back in the car, Pei Huaiye could clearly sense her low spirits, yet he didn’t comfort her. A little idiot, what is she overthinking for?
He simply pulled the little idiot closer into his arms, a large hand stroking her hair. Han Chao felt like his Boss was petting a cat.
And that cat was the little idiot, Ning Ran.
Without Pei Huaiye giving the word, Han Chao didn’t dare drive, so the group simply sat quietly in the car.
After a long while, Pei Huaiye couldn’t help asking, “What are you unhappy about?”
Ning Ran raised her face: “Brother, the food is gone!”
She was fussing over the supplies he had collected away inside the supermarket.
Hearing this, a flash of a smile crossed Pei Huaiye’s eyes as he pulled a chocolate candy out of his space: “The food is still here.”
He skillfully peeled the wrapper off and handed it to her lips. Suddenly, he felt as if this action had been performed countless times before.
Ning Ran’s eyes lit up. She opened her mouth and took in the candy he offered, narrowing her eyes with satisfaction, like a cat being stroked the right way.
Pei Huaiye looked at her contented appearance, the chill in the depths of his eyes melting away a bit as his slender fingers gently pinched her cheek: “Little idiot!”
Ning Ran let out a few chuckles, her eyes pure, looking just like an innocent young girl.
“This little idiot is really easy to coax; a single candy can settle it. I really can’t imagine what kind of end awaits her if she falls into the hands of those people…” Han Chao lamented as he drove.
“What kind of end? Just like that, it’s not like we haven’t seen it.” How long had the apocalypse been going on? Times when order was collapsing were the easiest for bringing out the inner evil of humans.
Suddenly, Xu Sui pointed not far away and shouted loudly, “Someone over there is surrounded by zombies!”
Following the direction of his finger, sure enough, several people were surrounded by a pack of zombies, using their abilities somewhat clumsily.
Pei Huaiye glanced at them casually, then narrowed his eyes: The trapped individuals were three men and one woman.
He recognized all of them. One of them was precisely Ji Hengyuan, Zhou Xu’s old partner from his past life, while the other two younger ones he didn’t quite recognize.
The woman was Shen Shuhe’s lackey, Lin Yao. At this moment, the group was struggling wretchedly against the zombies.
Clearly, they had overestimated their abilities and were being forced back step by step by the zombies. One of them had already been bitten on the arm, the wound glowing with an abnormal greenish-black hue.
“Tch, truly overestimating themselves,” Han Chao commented. “Daring to come out with just this bit of skill, they really aren’t afraid of dying.”