11: Chapter 11: A "Confession" with the Two Sisters – Shen Wanbing's Entry Gets an Upgrade!

"Come over and eat." Chen Chen called out.

Shen Wanbing caught her breath, though her face remained pale, and she was helped by Shen Wanxing to sit down on the old mattress in the back.

The three of them formed a circle.

The space inside the vehicle was already cramped; even with the life-support system ventilating, the three boxes of steaming hot self-heating hot pot forcibly raised the temperature by several degrees.

Shen Wanxing had been hungry all day and couldn't care about her image.

She picked up a chopstick full of beef rolls coated in red chili oil and stuffed them into her mouth, gasping as the spiciness hit her, fanning her face with her hand, and complaining incoherently: "This base is way too spicy. Mr. Chen, do you have any more water?"

Chen Chen casually tossed a bottle of purified water over.

Shen Wanxing caught it, gulped down half the bottle, and finally caught her breath.

A thin layer of sweat appeared on the tip of her nose.

She couldn't handle the heat, so she tugged at the collar of the black windbreaker wrapped around her to let some air in.

The loose zipper slid down, and the silver backless evening gown underneath couldn't hide much.

Large patches of snowy, delicate skin were exposed directly to the air, glowing with a dazzling, alluring luster under the dim overhead light of the vehicle.

Chen Chen was sitting opposite her, and his gaze unavoidably collided with the view.

This woman was usually untouchable on the trending charts, but now she sat before him completely unguarded, teary-eyed from the spice, with no image to speak of.

The contrast was too great.

Shen Wanxing noticed his gaze, followed it down, and her cheeks instantly burned.

She scrambled to pull the zipper of her windbreaker all the way to the top, covering herself up tightly, even her neck.

She kept her head down, stuffing wide noodles into her mouth, not even daring to look at Chen Chen.

Beside her, Shen Wanbing ate much more elegantly.

Her high-end professional attire was damaged, but she still maintained the habit of chewing slowly and carefully, her movements with the chopsticks revealing her good upbringing.

The high-quality beef tallow base had a strong aftertaste, and under the steam, that icy face was tinged with a rare flush.

Sweat from her forehead slid down her slender neck, disappearing deep into her unbuttoned shirt.

The atmosphere in the vehicle gradually warmed up, mixed with the unique ambiguity and sense of security of the apocalypse.

Outside was a life-or-death battlefield, but inside this tin box, the smoky scent of hot pot drifted.

Chen Chen's attitude toward these two women had also changed; they were not just tools to provide traits, but companions who could rely on each other in the apocalypse.

After eating their fill and cleaning up the mess.

Shen Wanbing pulled out a tissue to wipe the corners of her lips. The flush on her cheeks from the hot pot faded, and the professional demeanor of a female CEO regained its dominance.

She opened the trading hall module on the virtual panel and quickly browsed the scrolling data stream.

"Now is the best time to enter the market," Shen Wanbing said with a steady voice, getting straight to the point. "Temperature drop, nightfall, monsters are active. The psychological defenses of bottom-tier players are on the verge of collapse. To survive tonight, they are willing to pay any price for a bite of hot food."

She looked up at Chen Chen: "Dump the excess food. This is a typical seller's market; the information gap and resource gap are enough for us to carry out a dimensionality reduction strike. Blueprints and cores are cheapest to collect right now.

When the temperature rises again tomorrow, the prices of these things will go back up.

Primitive capital accumulation is always bloody.

Right now, if we trade a box of hot pot for a useful blueprint, they will feel like they've gotten a huge bargain."

Chen Chen appreciated this approach, which was devoid of any saintly halo.

He pulled up the trading interface and selected the same type of self-heating hot pot and purified water they had just eaten.

[Listed Items: High-Quality Beef Tallow Self-Heating Hot Pot * 1, 500ml Purified Water * 1]

[Requirements: Blueprints, Vehicle Core Fragments, Special Items]

[Note: Only equal exchanges accepted, no trash.]

He clicked confirm.

The regional channel of the trading hall stalled for half a second before exploding with a flood of messages.

"Holy crap! Self-heating hot pot? I can barely even drink my own urine, and the big shot is eating beef tallow hot pot?"

"Big shot, please, share a sip of soup with me! I'll trade you a piece of bread!"

"Black-hearted merchant! Everyone don't trade! He's taking advantage of the disaster! Boycott him!"

Chen Chen's private message list was jumping wildly, the number soaring to the limit.

He clicked on the top few messages.

Someone sent a voice message, sobbing: "Big brother, my wife is about to give birth, please give me something to eat. Can I dismantle this broken tricycle and give it to you as materials?"

"Brother, I'm the school beauty of Jiangcheng Media University, measurements 90, 60, 90. As long as you give me a box of hot pot, I'll be yours from now on. I'll send you a photo to verify the goods..." Below was a very explicit flash photo.

These impotent rages, moral kidnappings, and low-level seductions were worthless in the face of absolute survival pressure.

Chen Chen closed the private message window and transferred the trading authority to Shen Wanbing in the passenger seat.

"It's up to you," he said, leaning back in his chair. "You do the screening; I'll only look at the final results."

Shen Wanbing took over the panel, her fingers sliding quickly across the virtual screen.

She blocked all the nonsense, leaving only transaction requests with actual items.

She was adept at this kind of commercial screening, without a shred of sympathy.

The vehicle returned to silence.

There was only the slight ventilation sound of the life-support system.

Two stunningly beautiful women and one hot-blooded young man were in the same room.

In the air, besides the lingering scent of hot pot, there was an indescribable restlessness.

Chen Chen broke the silence: "What are you thinking about? Afraid I'll get horny in the middle of the night and take you right here?"

As soon as the words fell, Shen Wanxing's hand, which was holding the water bottle, trembled, and water splashed onto the back of her hand.

Shen Wanbing's sliding gesture paused, her back muscles tensing.

"Put away that anti-wolf stance of yours." Chen Chen changed to a more comfortable sitting position, his tone straightforward. "I'm a physiologically normal man. Facing Jiangcheng's top female CEO and a national idol, if I didn't have any crooked thoughts, I'd need to see a urologist. Your assets are indeed quite tempting."

Shen Wanxing's cheeks flushed bright red, and even her neck was stained with a scarlet hue.

"However," Chen Chen put away his joking mood, and reason took over again.

"In the apocalypse, a few pounds of white meat can't buy a chance to survive. I'm more interested in your talents."

He looked straight into Shen Wanbing's eyes: "As long as you can continuously provide value, there will always be a place for you in this vehicle. I will ensure you survive. As for the rest, I don't have the spare time to force anyone. Staying alive is more important than anything else."

The extreme frankness tore through all the hypocritical pleasantries, laying the bottom line clearly on the table.

Shen Wanbing's tense shoulders relaxed.

This kind of naked exchange of interests was exactly the field she was most familiar with.

Compared to those who spoke of benevolence and morality while stabbing people in the back, someone like Chen Chen, who put his desires and bottom line out in the open, was more reassuring.

[Ding! Detected deepening of the beauty causal relationship.]

[Shen Wanbing's favorability has risen significantly, reaching Lv.2 (Progress 10%).]

[Congratulations to the host, Shen Wanbing's exclusive trait has been upgraded!]

[Trait Effect: [Daily Supply Blind Box (Lv.2)] — Blind box quality upgraded to Bronze tier. Every day at 0:00 AM, it is guaranteed to open advanced survival items or rare materials urgently needed for current survival.]

Chen Chen felt secretly pleased.

The gains from this round of psychological maneuvering were extremely high.