Chapter 212: Taoyang Doing Charity?
Su Tao couldn’t help but take a closer look at Ding Heyu, wondering if she could “see” the exact location of his death.
But no matter how she looked—up, down, left, or right—she couldn’t activate her ability again.
Does it have to be through physical contact?
After shaking hands, she couldn’t find another chance to make contact, so she decided to let it go.
Ding Heyu was being stared at so intently that his smile turned stiff.
He couldn’t help but recall the rumors outside—saying that the female boss of Taoyang had a fondness for men… that she had even stolen someone’s fiancé and willingly played the role of a mistress…
At first, he didn’t believe it, but with the way she was looking at him now, he couldn’t help but overthink it.
If he were single, it wouldn’t be a big deal… but the problem was, he had a wife and had no interest in attracting unnecessary attention.
Su Tao noticed his subtle change in expression and quickly realized that continuing to stare wasn’t very polite. She withdrew her gaze and casually made up an excuse with a light smile:
“I just felt like Mayor Ding looked a bit familiar earlier. Maybe I remembered wrong, so I ended up looking a little longer. I hope you don’t mind.”
After saying that, she even handed her gun to Ding Heyu. “If you’re interested, Mayor Ding, you can go outside and try shooting.”
Ding Heyu instantly relaxed. So that’s all it was—no problem, then. Excitedly, he took the handgun and ran to the entrance, firing a shot toward the sky above Taoyang.
Sure enough, the bullet hit something like an iron shield, sparking on impact before bouncing off.
Although he had already heard about it, witnessing such an incredible defense mechanism with his own eyes still made his eyes light up.
He had initially harbored doubts about whether Taoyang really had enough supplies, but now all his skepticism vanished.
A defense system this powerful and impenetrable—even Changjing hadn’t been able to develop such technology. And yet, this small settlement of Taoyang had managed to create a fully enclosed protective barrier. The force backing them must not be underestimated.
Given that, the rumors about their abundant supplies seemed much more credible.
Ding Heyu, full of curiosity, couldn’t help but ask Su Tao:
“How come I’ve never heard of Taoyang before? Logically speaking, with your abundant supplies and such an advanced defense system, you shouldn’t be so obscure.”
If it weren’t for this introduction through Ji Boda from Hekang, he wouldn’t even have known such a place existed right next to Dongyang.
If their name had spread earlier, they wouldn’t have faced so much suspicion.
Su Tao answered casually, “We prefer to keep a low profile.”
The truth was, she had never felt the need to advertise Taoyang from the start.
The land area was small, and the number of houses was limited. Even if they became well-known, there wouldn’t be enough space for more people.
On top of that, there weren’t enough staff members. Managing just the housing applications from Dongyang had already been giving Zhuang Wan a massive headache.
Even now, Su Tao had no plans to make Taoyang famous.
The only reason they were spreading information about selling supplies was simply to create another revenue stream.
Ding Heyu twitched his lips slightly.
Beside him, Ji Boda, both envious and eager, asked,
“Boss Su, who built this protective shield for you? Could you introduce them to us? I heard that even Dongyang’s city wall was breached in one district. This shield of yours seems much more effective and durable.”
Ding Heyu also widened his eyes slightly in curiosity.
Although he was confident that Wutai’s city walls, which had stood strong for decades, were impenetrable to zombies, making this shield unnecessary, he was still very curious about how Taoyang had acquired it.
Su Tao answered with her usual response, “It wasn’t built by anyone. It’s my ability.”
As expected, the two immediately accepted the explanation.
After all, in the apocalypse, there were all sorts of bizarre supernatural abilities. No matter how unrealistic something seemed, it could still be perfectly plausible.
Ji Boda, still unwilling to give up, tentatively asked,
“If we invited Boss Su to Hekang to build a similar protective shield… you can name your price.”
Su Tao simply smiled without answering.
Old Mei had taught her that when faced with inconvenient questions, just smile and look at the other person.
Seeing this, Ji Boda quickly said, “Sorry, that was rude of me.”
Then he sighed twice. “I’m just really anxious.”
Hekang’s problem wasn’t just a lack of supplies.
For years, most of their funding had been poured into scientific research, which had yielded some results, but other areas of development had been severely neglected—especially infrastructure.
Hekang had city walls, but due to budget constraints and various issues, their quality was concerning at best.
A couple of Blood Scythe zombies could easily slash through them.
Currently, many sections had visible cracks and large areas of damage.
If not for Shen Wencheng’s team making a breakthrough in research recently—earning Hekang a reward from Changjing in the form of three additional crystal energy weapons and a batch of construction materials—they wouldn’t have survived the last two large-scale zombie waves.
Otherwise, Hekang would have been completely overrun within a month.
Even now, they weren’t sure how long their newly reinforced city walls would hold.
Ji Boda was so worried that his hair was turning white.
Ding Heyu, listening to all this, couldn’t help but feel relieved.
Thankfully, Wutai Base had been lucky enough to build strong and sturdy walls early on. They didn’t have to worry about these issues.
The group took a tour around Taoyang, inspecting everything.
The more Ding Heyu saw, the more he couldn’t believe his eyes. By the time the tour ended and he was seated in the spacious, bright, and pleasantly cool meeting room, he had fallen into deep silence.
He had always thought that Wutai Base was one of the best-developed settlements—at least, it was among the top in Qingpeng. With years of accumulation and construction, it had made countless other bases envious.
But now, after seeing Taoyang, he realized how narrow his perspective had been.
Su Tao handed each of them a price list for supplies and displayed videos and images of various goods on the conference room screen.
Ready-to-eat meals, grains and oils, beverages, snacks, seasonings, personal care products—everything was available, neatly arranged and in abundance.
Ding Heyu was overwhelmed by the variety, completely dumbfounded.
He had expected supplies to consist of water, simple rations, or maybe even just cheap artificial food.
He never imagined they would have such an extensive selection.
He could hardly believe it was real.
Ji Boda had already seen the list before, so he skillfully began making his selections.
Ding Heyu quickly followed suit, filling out his order as well.
But as soon as he saw the prices on the quotation list, he was completely stunned.
He had been 99% convinced before, but now his trust level plummeted to just 20%.
How could supplies be this cheap?!
Bottled water, which people were fighting over outside, was only 20 Federation Coins per bottle?
A delicious-looking, nutritious bento meal was just 60 per serving?
Either there was something fishy going on, or Taoyang was running a charity.
And in the apocalypse, no one did charity—so there was definitely something fishy.
Ding Heyu immediately became wary, and his gaze toward Ji Boda shifted with suspicion.
Could Hekang and Taoyang be working together to set him up?
Ji Boda looked up and noticed Ding Heyu’s defensive posture. He seemed to realize what was going through his mind and, feeling a little annoyed, said:
“Mayor Ding, do you think I teamed up with Boss Su to scam you? Flip the quotation sheet over and read the rest.”
Ding Heyu, feeling slightly embarrassed, did as instructed. On the back, he found three additional conditions:
1/ For long-term supply, an upfront payment of 8 crystal cores is required (Premium Member).
2/ For monthly supply, a payment of 3 crystal cores is required (Member).
3/ For one-time purchases, only 1 crystal core is required. However, a single transaction is limited to 500 jin (250 kg), and for every additional 100 jin (50 kg), an extra crystal core must be paid (Regular Customer).
