Chapter 184: Granting Her Wish
Mist hesitated before speaking:
“An internal recommendation. Fang Zhi and Xiao Bo recommended her, but there’s a high possibility they were influenced.”
Su Tao was stunned, recalling how the logistics department head had tried to recruit Lin Fangzhi.
Her anger flared instantly. “Oh, so now they’re coming after my people?!”
She was absolutely furious.
No wonder Fang Zhi had been acting dazed these past few days, sometimes completely zoning out.
“What are the side effects of falling under her influence?”
Mist explained, “From what I know, if they’ve only heard her once, they’ll recover completely within half a month. But if they’ve listened to her chanting repeatedly over time, she can fully control them.”
“Fang Zhi and Xiao Bo haven’t left Taoyang recently, right?”
“Fang Zhi hasn’t, but I’m not sure about Xiao Bo. Let me call his wife and check.”
After the call, Su Tao sighed in relief. “Xiao Bo hasn’t left Taoyang either.”
“That’s good. Keep a close eye on them for now—under no circumstances should they have any further contact with Lian Sha.”
Taking a deep breath, Su Tao said, “Thanks, I owe you. If you and Qianqian hadn’t known Lian Sha, she might have actually slipped in unnoticed.”
Then, she froze.
So what if she got in?
Taoyang was her territory!
She had already set the system rules: no supernatural abilities could be used to influence other tenants.
Unless they were part of the security department, powers were useless here.
If Lian Sha came, she’d be nothing more than prey on Su Tao’s chopping block.
Since she wanted to come—then Su Tao would let her!
“Tell Qianqian to approve Lian Sha’s application. Let her in.”
That night, Su Tao tried probing Lin Fangzhi for information, but the kid was completely clueless. He hadn’t even realized anything was wrong with himself.
Aside from looking a bit confused when Lian Sha was mentioned and instinctively defending her, he seemed fine.
A little time—just half a month—would fix everything.
But Su Tao was still livid.
Anyone who dared to touch her people had crossed the line.
The next day, Meng Qian handed Su Tao the new tenant list with trembling hands.
Seeing the name “Lian Man” on the list, Su Tao nodded and turned to Zhuang Wan.
“Qianqian isn’t in a position to handle this. When Lian Sha arrives, you take care of her paperwork alone. And don’t mention that abilities can’t be used in Taoyang.”
Zhuang Wan had already heard about Lian Sha bewitching Fang Zhi and Xiao Bo. She nodded solemnly.
“Consider it done.”
After giving instructions, Su Tao carried on with her daily tasks.
At one point, Wu Zhen stopped by Taoli Tower to deliver two bouquets of bi-colored lilies to her and Zhuang Wan—fresh, vibrant, and absolutely stunning.
Meng Rongrong, who didn’t receive any flowers, looked a little upset.
Wu Zhen patted her head. “I gave them to your mom instead. She took a whole armful. You’ll see them when you get home.”
Su Tao: “I want a big bouquet too.”
Fresh, beautiful flowers were a rare sight in the apocalypse.
Wu Zhen laughed heartily. “Alright, I’ll personally deliver them to you later. These were all cultivated on the third-floor terrace over the past couple of days. You should all check it out when you have time.”
Sure enough, as soon as work ended, everyone rushed to the terrace to see the flowers.
Wu Zhen delivered over twenty bouquets of bi-colored lilies in a large bucket to Su Tao.
She kept six for herself and had the rest sent to Pei Dong and the others.
Later, Pei Dong called her, chuckling.
“Your flower delivery caused quite a stir. Even people who barely know me are shamelessly asking for some. Just now, someone from Hekang Base even tried to buy them from me.”
Su Tao asked, “Ji Caizhe?”
“Yeah, that’s him. Pretty rude, honestly. He’s been causing small disturbances at the guesthouse these past few days, and his dad keeps cleaning up after him. By the way, did he give you any trouble in Taoyang?”
Su Tao felt too embarrassed to admit that he had been harassing her. Every night at 8 PM, like clockwork, he would show up at Taoyang’s gate, strumming a guitar and singing love songs. Even after Xiao Bo chased him away several times, he remained stubbornly persistent.
Every day, Su Tao prayed for him to hurry up and go back to Hekang.
“It’s fine. When are they leaving?”
Pei Dong replied, “In the next two or three days.”
After hanging up, Su Tao immediately heard the grating sound of an off-key love song echoing from downstairs.
She checked the time. 8 PM, right on schedule.
Not long after, Meng Xiaobo went out to chase him away again.
Shaking her head, Su Tao carefully placed the remaining six bouquets into vases and pushed them further back on the counter—just in case Black Sesame, her little parkour enthusiast, knocked them over.
Then she remembered… Black Sesame was still locked up. It couldn’t be running around.
Her mood instantly plummeted.
Today marked the fourth day of keeping it confined.
The stubborn thing still tried to bolt outside the moment she opened the cage. It had barely touched its food and water.
Seeing it curled up inside, weak and lifeless, Su Tao finally relented. As she unlocked the cage, she sighed:
“This is the last chance—for both of us. If you run out of Taoyang again… I’ll have to send you away, so you can chase the freedom you want.”
The moment the cage opened, Black Sesame darted out, leaped onto the windowsill, and prepared to jump down.
But then, it suddenly hesitated.
It turned back to look at Su Tao.
She held onto a sliver of hope. “You won’t run off again, right?”
Black Sesame meowed twice but, in the end, it couldn’t resist the call of the outside world.
It disappeared into the night.
White Sesame, seeing its brother run away again, excitedly ran circles under the snack cabinet.
Su Tao barely slept that night. Every couple of hours, she checked its tracker.
At 4 AM, as expected, Black Sesame had left Taoyang and was moving further away.
Her heart clenched.
Calling Jiang Yu, she threw on a coat and went out to find it.
When they finally caught up, Black Sesame refused to go back and even scratched Jiang Yu’s hand, drawing blood.
Su Tao lost her temper. “This is the last time I’m chasing after you! When you join the army, even if you want me to take care of you, I won’t be able to anymore!”
Back in Taoyang, she packed up five kilograms of cat food, shoved Black Sesame into a pet carrier, and headed straight for the Dongyang Pioneer Army Command.
On the way, she called Shi Zijin and explained the situation.
He listened quietly to her vent, then asked, “Have you really thought this through?”
Su Tao steeled herself. “I have. I can’t give it the vast world it wants to explore. And I can’t always keep an eye on it, tying it down. So, let it follow you and see this broken world for itself.”
“There will be dangers here,” he warned.
“There are dangers no matter where it goes. If that’s the case, I’d rather let it live the way it wants. You don’t know how much it longs for the outside. For the past few days in the cage, it refused to eat or drink—too weak to even lift its head, yet still stubbornly staring out the window.”
“Alright. Drop it off with the duty officer. A batch of supplies is arriving at dawn, and it can be sent along with them.”
Su Tao hesitated. “If it still keeps running away, will it cause trouble for you?”
Shi Zijin reassured her, “No. I have people on my team who can handle this. With the ‘Scout’ ability, it’ll be too cautious to run off in an unfamiliar place.”
At sunrise, Su Tao watched as Black Sesame was loaded onto the transport.
Her heart ached so much that she couldn’t even look at it directly.
Just as she turned to leave, an all-too-familiar, annoying voice rang out behind her—
“Fate is truly magical, Boss Su. What a beautiful day, made even better by running into you.”
—Ji Caizhe.
I was crying 😢😭
Then the last sentence force my tear back up 😂😂😂