“Put them away quickly!” Qian Chuanchuan emphasized with her hands on her hips and a stern little face. “If you give me any more crystal nuclei, I’ll really lose my temper!”
Seeing Ling Zhanlou’s hand reaching for his pocket again, she simply reached out and pressed down on his wrist. “I am a businesswoman. I’ll let anyone else suffer a loss, but I’ll never let myself suffer one. The fact that I can give you this much means I’ve earned even more from you. Otherwise, why wouldn’t I give it to anyone else but you?!”
The girl’s fingers were warm against the man’s wrist. That warmth felt like a small spark, traveling along his veins and burning all the way to the tips of his ears.
He looked at her features, surprised that she would speak so bluntly.
Shouldn’t people in business usually claim they haven’t made much profit?
No one would say something like, “The fact that I can give you this much means I’ve earned even more from you,” right?
Yet she said it, and she said it with absolute confidence, which… inexplicably made his heart soften.
He looked at her slightly furrowed brows and suddenly realized that she seemed truly a bit unhappy.
Why?
“Alright.”
Although Ling Zhanlou didn’t quite understand, he didn’t persist any further.
He obediently stored the mineral water into his spatial storage. Then, without needing Qian Chuanchuan to say a word, he consciously stepped back outside the door.
He didn’t forget to say, “Thank you.”
Qian Chuanchuan really wanted to say that he deserved it.
Of course, she wasn’t actually angry. She just felt that if the man kept giving like this, it would never end, so she had put on a serious act.
At nine in the morning, just as she picked up the rolling pin, the familiar sound of tires grinding against the pavement pierced the brief silence.
Immediately after, a somewhat familiar voice rang out: “Boss Qian!”
Qian Chuanchuan turned to look out the window and saw her first set of customers—the original four-person group.
They were followed by two other vehicles.
The people in those cars were currently scanning the storefront and her with inquisitive—and not very friendly—gazes.
Qian Chuanchuan ignored them. Whether they were friendly or not made no difference to her; she was safe. If they tried to start something, the only ones who would lose their lives would be them.
Looking at the four, Qian Chuanchuan asked, “Are you here for buns? The morning batch is already sold out; you’ll have to wait for the afternoon.”
“That’s fine, we’re in no hurry,” Song Jin nodded.
He then added, “After we went back last time, we told everyone we knew at the base. Another group came the next day—did you see them, Boss Qian?”
“Yes, they’ve been coming every day at the scheduled times.”
Hearing her words, Xu Wang turned back to the group of people who had just stepped out of the cars behind them. With a sour expression, he said, “You all heard that, right?”
“We aren’t so bored that we’d make up a story to lie to you! It does us no good if you die.”
“Xu Wang,” Song Jin spoke up to stop him from saying more.
They weren’t inside the base now. Provoking these people wouldn’t do them any favors.
Qian Chuanchuan understood. It seemed the Dawn Base group’s delay in returning had caused some people to imagine a “dark shop” legend. This new group was both suspicious of a trap and unable to resist the temptation of buns, so they had forced the original four to lead them here personally.
“You really sell buns here?” At that moment, a man with stubble and a square face stepped forward. He held a large axe and scanned Qian Chuanchuan from head to toe with an unscrupulous gaze. Then, his eyes fell upon the dough and meat filling laid out on the counter.
There were also several stacks of eggs nearby.
His gaze instantly locked onto them. His eyes were full of a desperate craving for food.
Qian Chuanchuan didn’t answer his nonsense, only stating: “The buns won’t be ready until one in the afternoon. You don’t need to stand here waiting.”
With that, she turned back to continue her work.
Hearing that it would be one o’clock, Song Jin looked at the others. “Let’s go wait in the cars then.”
“Wait for what?!”
Before Song Jin could finish, the square-faced man spoke with a hostile tone.
“We’ll just snatch the stuff and wrap them ourselves!”
As he finished, he raised his axe and slammed it directly toward the window.
In the next moment, the expected sound of shattering glass didn’t come. Instead, there was a muffled thud. Everyone watched as the square-faced man was flung back by an invisible force, flying ten meters away along with his axe. The axe landed squarely on his abdomen. If the blade had been facing down, the man would have been split in two.
But even so, he wasn’t faring much better. A spray of blood shot three meters high, and then his eyes rolled back as he fainted.
Or perhaps he had died.
Regardless, Qian Chuanchuan only gave him a single glance before looking away. Spending even one extra second looking at such a person was a waste of time.
Song Jin and his three companions were also stunned.
They had predicted this boss wasn’t simple, but they hadn’t expected it to be this ridiculous!
They had seen it clearly just now; Boss Qian hadn’t even given Wei Shi a glance before he was sent flying. They couldn’t even tell what kind of ability it was.
After a long pause, the four finally recovered.
Xu Wang swallowed hard to calm his nerves. “Boss Qian, you are so strong!”
Qian Chuanchuan looked at them and smiled, saying half-jokingly and half-seriously, “So, everyone behave. There are no buns in the underworld.”
She directed her words to Song Jin’s group, but her gaze was fixed on the others.
This display of deterrence was quite effective. The people who had been looking at her with eyes full of ferocity and greed suddenly looked a lot more “clear-headed.”
She ignored them and lowered her head to continue wrapping buns.
This time, without Song Jin needing to say a word, the others consciously returned to their cars to wait.
As for the square-faced man on the ground, no one cared about him. It was as if he didn’t exist, even though they had arrived together and were usually on decent terms.
Only Song Jin and his group hesitated for a moment before stepping forward to check his breathing.
“He’s still alive,” Xu Wang curled his lip and tossed the man into the car like a sack of grain.
They didn’t have a healing ability user with them, so they would have to wait until they got back to the base. As for whether he could last until then, that was up to fate.
But given this man’s character, his “fate” probably wasn’t very good.
After throwing the man into the car, Song Jin and the others walked back to the window, looking apologetic. “Sorry, Boss Qian, for the trouble.”
Qian Chuanchuan continued wrapping buns skillfully. “Why are you apologizing? You aren’t the ones who tried to rob me. Besides, this is something I have to go through. If it wasn’t them, it would have been someone else.”
In the apocalypse, everyone was used to “looting.” As long as your fist was hard enough, you just took what you wanted. This kind of thing wouldn’t be rare in the future.
After all, she was a single person running a shop in the apocalypse and looked powerless. Well, technically, she was powerless and had to rely on the system’s defenses. It was normal for others to have crooked thoughts.
If only I could awaken an ability too…
It wasn’t that she didn’t want to rely on the system—why wouldn’t she use such a massive gold finger?! She was just plain greedy! She wanted to have her cake and eat it too!!
Regardless, being greedy wasn’t against the law!