Chapter 16 Who Plays Whom

His nervous expression amused Zhou Yan.

"Just by yourselves, can you protect them?"

"Brother... Yesterday, that guy surnamed Yang was about to harm my friends, and it was all thanks to Wu Yang! He's been practicing martial arts since he was a kid, which is how he managed to fight those three to a draw. Otherwise, those girls would have been ruined by them! His family has a hereditary Baji Quan style!"

As he spoke, Wang Zeyu looked pitifully at the dried fish in his hands.

"These were also promised to him. He wanted us to deliver dried fish to him on time, and he made us go door-to-door using the dried fish to trade for supplies for him, and report the status of the water surface to him regularly, or else he would have his brothers kill us..."

"What the hell kind of unequal treaty is that?"

"We had no choice... Before, that guy surnamed Yang even took advantage of us sleeping in the middle of the night and told that lockpicker to secretly open our door. A few days ago, they almost succeeded! So, if you were the one who killed those three people!"

Wang Zeyu looked earnestly at Zhou Yan.

"Then that counts as you eliminating a harm for the people! That's a good thing!"

"How many people are in your mutual aid group?"

"Six..."

"Are you serious?"

Wang Zeyu looked serious: "It really is six!"

"How many are female?"

"Three!"

"Are they all college students?"

Zhou Yan was a bit surprised; college students really have sharp minds! Everyone else is starving, yet they actually managed to support six people!

Wang Zeyu raised his head and replied weakly: "It's good enough that we have these college students in this building. They are all students from Qingyang University and Qingyang Medical College, renting here... I did discover a few high school students, but I'm still trying to recruit them... I previously said I could tutor them, but they didn't seem very interested..."

Zhou Yan patted him on the shoulder: "Next time tell them, stick with me and you'll be well-fed; they'll definitely come!"

In this day and age, offering to tutor people and not getting beaten up? That kid's moral standards must be very high!

Zhou Yan looked at these two college students and rubbed his hands together excitedly... This was exactly what he needed! His great fishing enterprise was about to begin!

"Follow me from now on! Work for me! Stick with me and you won't have to worry about food or drink! Plus, I have a gun, and I can provide you with shelter. How about it?"

Zhou Yan needed a large amount of labor. If they couldn't catch merfolk, helping to catch birds or fish would do!

Although netizens habitually praise college students for having a look that reveals a kind of "clear stupidity."

But actually, they aren't stupid. Wang Zeyu hesitated a bit because Zhou Yan had a gun, not only possessing powerful force, but his complexion didn't look like someone who was starving either.

Besides, if you have a gun and are still starving? You might as well just jump down and feed the fish...

"Why did you choose us? We don't know how to do anything..." Wang Zeyu asked cautiously, fearing he might anger the armed thug in front of him.

"I need labor to help me catch fish or capture other creatures... You can use the live fish you catch to trade with me for daily supplies, food, medicine, or even meat!" Zhou Yan stared frankly at the boy in front of him.

Wang Zeyu scratched his head and asked in confusion: "If you also want dried fish, we can roast them for you. Once they're made, we can just bring them up to you..."

Zhou Yan waved his hand quickly. This kid was too pitiful. Just look at how he'd been exploited by that "capitalist" surnamed Yang!

"No need! I only want live fish; dead fish don't count!"

After speaking, Zhou Yan generously took out two more packs of cigarettes and shoved them to Wang Zeyu.

"These two packs of cigarettes count as prepaid wages. Whether you smoke them yourself or trade them for supplies is up to you. Remember! I only want live fish! Birds are fine too! If you have the ability to catch those mutant merfolk, I'll give you double the supplies!"

"If you're short on food, or want to improve your meals, you can also come find me!"

The two young men exchanged a look... Finally, Wang Zeyu took a deep breath and nodded solemnly—

He understood that if the big boss in front of him was like the guy surnamed Yang, only interested in women and food, he wouldn't be so easy to talk to. The guy surnamed Yang was like that because he couldn't beat Wu Yang, but this guy was different! He had a gun in his hand!

In the apocalypse, choices are far more important than effort!

Although he was very curious about why he wanted live fish... he suppressed his curiosity and didn't ask much.

He just felt like a lackey under a big boss, executing some tasks he didn't understand but which had some kind of special meaning.

Thinking of this, Wang Zeyu was very excited!

"Big Brother! We still have quite a few live fish on the 6th Floor! Our tools are too small, so we can't make too many dried fish at once, and quite a few of the fish are still alive!"

Zhou Yan's eyes lit up!

"Can you bring them up? I'll trade you food for them! I have other supplies too! Medicine? Feminine products? What do you need?" Thinking about getting another blind box, Zhou Yan couldn't help but rub his hands.

Wang Zeyu heard this and immediately widened his eyes. "Big Brother... those fish are full of poison! We're just keeping them in the bathtub on the 6th Floor for now. We caught them using our homemade nets, and we don't have any containers to transport them!"

Zhou Yan was very disappointed. Did he really have to step out of this door after all?

"If that doesn't work... what if you bring one up at a time? I'll give you one compressed biscuit per trip!"

Wang Zeyu thought to himself, I might as well go back down and gnaw on dried fish... How did joining you make life even more miserable?

Zhou Yan saw his troubled expression and realized he had said something stupid.

These college students were on the 6th Floor, and he lived on the 11th. If they had to deliver them one by one, wouldn't that work them to death?

"Alright then, you guys go back and wait for me. I'll go to the 6th Floor to find you when I have time later!"

Wang Zeyu immediately said goodbye to Zhou Yan and went back to prepare for the "Big Brother's" inspection.

Halfway there, he specifically turned back. He picked up the fire axe on the floor.

"Do you still want this?"

Seeing Zhou Yan shake his head, he felt relieved and tucked it into Wu Yang's backpack.

The two of them swayed as they went downstairs.

Watching the two of them leave, that swaying "rainbow head," Zhou Yan felt that the future of this organization he was about to establish was completely blank...

He turned around and looked at his armored door with a subtle expression.

When he left, Zhou Yan had deliberately placed the keys on the shoe cabinet by the door. No matter who it was, anyone who walked up to the door could see those keys...

Feeling the spare keys in his pocket, Zhou Yan raised his hand and knocked on the door.

Soon, the light at the peephole changed. Then... the door opened directly...

Although there was no obvious expression on Su Yanyue's face, the grievance in her eyes couldn't be more obvious.

Her sister, Su Yanqiu, was sitting on the sofa, basking in the sunlight that hadn't appeared for more than two months...

Zhou Yan's gaze drifted involuntarily to the shoe cabinet by the door; the keys were still placed in their original spot, unmoved.

Although the younger sister was a bit naive, she wasn't stupid. Seeing this look on Zhou Yan's face, she immediately opened her small mouth in surprise, looking at Zhou Yan in disbelief.

"You were testing us?"

"Of course... not!"

Zhou Yan waved his hands repeatedly. Did that even need asking? It was definitely testing the two of you!

Although he thought that in his heart, he absolutely could not say it out loud; after all, relationships need to be managed. Zhou Yan flatly denied that he was taking the opportunity to test the two sisters.

The pile of emergency food he had hoarded in the kitchen was enough to arouse anyone's greed in this period, although human emotions cannot withstand testing. But Zhou Yan was always this cautious and suspicious; his profession meant he had almost no sense of security...

He walked to the sofa and touched her forehead. The temperature was normal. Her complexion was also a bit ruddier, not as pale as it was yesterday.

Su Yanqiu snuggled against the sofa cushion and handed him a list, which detailed the "material inventory" the two sisters had taken after Zhou Yan left.

"Hmm... This is the current inventory of supplies in the house. I think we should reduce our daily food consumption... At the current rate of consumption, we actually won't be able to last long..."

"Compressed biscuits — 5 boxes (200 pieces total)", "Canned beef — 71 cans", "Canned beef tongue — 55 cans", "Canned vegetables — 55 cans", "Self-heating rice — 70 boxes".

He glanced at the list; it recorded the quantity of supplies stacked in the kitchen in detail... She truly was a strong businesswoman!

"Supplies..." Zhou Yan was about to say there was no need to take inventory, after all, most of the supplies were in the system, but he couldn't say that right now. Refusing would... be unfair to their hard work...

"Not bad! This job was done beautifully! Hungry, right? How about... let's eat first!"

Zhou Yan got up and went to the kitchen island to prepare to heat up some food...

Seeing that Zhou Yan was in the kitchen and not paying attention to the sofa area, Su Yanyue dragged her sister into Zhou Yan's bedroom.

But looking at herself being pushed in by her younger sister, she looked at her sister in a loss: "What are you doing? I haven't had enough sun yet..."

Ignoring her sister's struggle, Su Yanyue directly stripped off her sister's cotton pajamas.

This was the difference between working out and not working out. The younger sister practiced yoga all year round, and her physical fitness was much better than her sister's!

Pushing her sister onto the bed, she had no strength to resist!

"What are you doing?!" Su Yanqiu struggled in a panic.

"Nothing, just playing a role-playing game with you..."

Forcibly putting the white shirt and shorts she was wearing—which belonged to Zhou Yan—onto her sister, Su Yanyue then put on her sister's cotton pajamas and went to the living room on her own.

"Let me do it..." Su Yanyue reached out and took the pig's trotter rice from Zhou Yan's hand.

"No..." Zhou Yan was stunned, because wasn't the woman in front of him still sick? How could he let a patient cook?

"Yue'er isn't feeling well, she said she misses you, hurry and go check on her..." Su Yanyue pretended to be cold, acting as if she were Su Yanqiu...

Zhou Yan originally wanted to be polite, but as soon as he heard the woman say that, he quickly wiped his hands and returned to the bedroom.

In the living room, Su Yanyue, who was pretending to be her sister, hurriedly tiptoed to the bedroom door and listened with great interest...

Zhou Yan pushed open the door and saw "Su Yanyue" sitting on the edge of the bed, looking a bit flustered.

When she looked up and saw clearly that it was Zhou Yan, her fluster became even more obvious.

Zhou Yan didn't care about that much; he just tackled her.

Everything that should and shouldn't have been done last night was already done, so why be polite?

While gently biting her earlobe, he asked: "What's wrong? Where are you not feeling well? I'll go get you some medicine!"

"No... nothing!" Su Yanqiu struggled with all her might, but then she thought of how her sister had inexplicably wanted to swap clothes with her earlier.

At the time, she thought her sister wanted to wear her clothes to run over and play a game of pretending to be her with Zhou Yan, which made her incredibly shy...

Now she understood. Yue'er was intending for her to play a game of pretending to be her with Zhou Yan!

"I'm not my sister... I'm the older sister... I'm Su Yanqiu!"

Because Zhou Yan was lying on top of her, Su Yanqiu, who had never had such intimate contact with a man, felt her whole body go weak and limp. The force she used to push Zhou Yan made even herself feel like it was some kind of "flirtatious game."

"Oh? You can play role-playing games too? Not bad!"

He aimed for those lips and kissed her directly.

It's over! Pink little stars started bursting everywhere in her head...

Lying on the bed, her voice was dazed: "I am Su Yanqiu..."

Hearing her say this, Zhou Yan kissed her even harder twice.

Su Yanqiu was about to faint!

Zhou Yan got out of bed and pushed open the door. Su Yanyue, who was outside, was suddenly a bit flustered.

The door opened.

"You eat first, Yue'er isn't feeling well so she's not eating for now..."

"Mm... okay..." Su Yanyue lowered her head and slipped into the kitchen. Seeing the door close again, she tiptoed back in secret.

Su Yanqiu watched as Zhou Yan walked and took off his clothes, and she was so scared that the pink little stars in her head instantly dissipated.

"Zhou Yan! Calm down! Yue'er forced me to swap clothes with her! I really am the older sister!"

"I know, I know, big sister Qiu, come into my arms..."

Su Yanqiu was incredibly shy; the man in front of her was clearly "getting into it," and at this point, he probably wouldn't listen to anything she said.