Chapter 25: Major General Shi, You’ve Changed
Xing Shuyu was an only child and had always been used to getting her way. It never even crossed her mind that others might need the sanitary products too.
But she wasn’t about to admit she was wrong. She stubbornly said, “I’ve already bought them. What do you want me to do?”
A few female tenants discussed among themselves: “You should sell us some. Come over here—and no price gouging. Otherwise, I’ll tell Boss Su.”
Xing Shuyu: “…”
When Su Tao came out, she immediately saw Xing Shuyu squatting in a corner, selling sanitary pads.
“Changed careers?” Su Tao walked over and asked.
Xing Shuyu felt embarrassed and ignored Su Tao’s teasing. After selling everything, she awkwardly said, “The sanitary pad vending machine is empty. You should restock it.”
Seeing this, Su Tao understood the whole situation and simply smiled without saying much. She went to the general store and restocked the machine.
Xing Shuyu followed right behind, raiding the machines clean. She tried to sound justified:
“You didn’t set a purchase limit. There’s no problem if I buy them all, right?”
In her mind, she added a small thought: Well, if it’s an issue, I guess I could return them. o(╥﹏╥)o
Su Tao found her behavior amusing: “Go ahead. But with so many, when will you ever use them up?”
Xing Shuyu replied, “You don’t know how tough life is outside Taoyang. My mom hasn’t used such things for years. I’ll take them back, split them between us, maybe gift some to others—there won’t be much left.”
Su Tao thought this made sense but also realized another potential issue: The items in Taoyang were in high demand outside. What if tenants started buying excessively to resell them?
If left unchecked, genuine tenants who needed these items might not be able to purchase them.
This thought flashed through her mind, and Su Tao immediately decided to impose purchase limits.
She searched through the system and found a vending machine management option. Not only could she restock items with a single click, but she could also set purchase limits.
Su Tao set all four machines in the general store to allow each person to purchase only one item per month.
Then, she notified the tenant group:
“To ensure our own tenants can buy and use what they need, each product in the general store is now limited to one purchase per person per month.”
Most people understood, but the middle-aged woman Wen Peizhen, who previously ignored advice not to go out, snarkily commented:
“Is Boss Su afraid we’ll become scalpers?”
Su Tao replied with a blank expression: “Don’t get all passive-aggressive with me. If you’re not comfortable living here, you don’t need to renew your lease next month.”
Wen Peizhen had truly become more difficult with age.
Last time, she had insisted on going out despite warnings. Fortunately, she had luck on her side and nothing happened.
After learning about the fate of the Tao brothers, she kept a low profile for a few days and didn’t dare go out.
But now she was stirring up trouble again, and Su Tao found her quite irritating.
Wen Peizhen didn’t respond. She muttered to herself, thinking how young girls were all petty and how landlords never had a conscience.
Other tenants didn’t like Wen Peizhen either. They thought she was narrow-minded and unpleasant, and they all sided with Su Tao.
Seeing this, Wen Peizhen went to bed in a huff.
Zhuang Wan was also fed up with Wen Peizhen and suggested to Su Tao:
“Let’s not renew her lease next month. She’s truly annoying. I heard from Yuying that she even steals other people’s laundry detergent. When someone eats something, she shamelessly asks for some—and not just a little. Last time, silly Xiaobo bought breakfast, went to the bathroom, and she finished it, saying she thought Xiaobo didn’t want it. She pretended to offer money but never actually did.”
“She even asked Qian Rongrong if she got paid for helping with cleaning. When Rongrong said no, that it was just a small favor, Wen Peizhen called her naive and said she was being taken advantage of. Later, Qian’s mom heard and came out, cursing Wen Peizhen as a heartless old woman.”
Su Tao sighed, feeling a headache coming on: “Next month, you tell her. I bet she won’t want to leave and might try to make trouble. But that’s fine—if she does, let Xiaobo throw her out.”
This little episode passed quickly. However, in the following days, word somehow spread that the residents of Taoyang were living the good life, almost as if the apocalypse hadn’t affected them.
Not only did they eat and live well, but they also had access to all sorts of pre-apocalypse luxuries—things that were priceless outside.
This caused a problem. People started gathering at Taoyang’s gate every day, their eyes red with envy whenever they saw someone coming out. Some even reached out to grab at them.
Shi Ziyue was furious: “I was just heading to school, and those people looked at me like zombies seeing fresh meat! Some even held a grudge against me—one person hit me and another pinched me when I wasn’t looking! It’s ridiculous. How does me living here bother them?”
Su Tao pulled her over and rolled up her sleeve, revealing two bruises.
A surge of anger rose within Su Tao. Damn it.
She hugged Shi Ziyue to comfort her. “They’re hearing rumors that this place is like paradise on earth, and since they’re stuck living in a cesspool, they feel unbalanced. I’ll get justice for you.”
It turned out that the people causing trouble were simply jealous.
Originally, everyone was just surviving in the apocalypse—there was nothing to say; if you suffered, so did I.
But now, you’re living a good life while I’m still struggling to survive? That’s not fair.
Some even got greedy, wanting to sneak into Taoyang to steal things and sell them outside.
This greed led to tragedy.
Two thieves, trying to sneak over the electric fence in the middle of the night, were detected by the smart system and, treated as intruders, were electrocuted to death on the spot.
When Su Tao learned of the incident, she got up in the middle of the night, under a cloud of gloom, to deal with the bodies.
The male tenants who came to help simply wrapped the bodies in shrouds and tossed them at the front gate.
By morning, when the next wave of troublemakers saw the fresh corpses, half of them fled in fear.
Su Tao hardened her heart, thinking this could serve as a deterrent. She left the shrouds open, letting the bodies lie there as if saying, “See? This is what happens if you mess around.”
Only after the bodies started to rot at the gate, becoming unbearable to look at, did she have them dealt with.
The troublemakers got the message—Taoyang was not to be messed with.
There were even rumors that Taoyang’s owner was a ruthless femme fatale, and that the two dead men had been tortured to death by her as a warning to others.
Ruthless? Femme fatale?
When Shi Zijin heard these rumors, he couldn’t help but smile for quite a while.
Cen Lao’Er was puzzled. “Boss, four people have died, and you’re still smiling?”
That little beast, wherever it’s hiding, had killed four people, and they still hadn’t shown their face. It was stressing them out to the point of going gray.
Shi Zijin restrained his smile. “Frowning all day won’t solve the problem.”
Cen Lao Er scratched his head. “True. Hey, you’ve changed. You used to worry before everyone else—”
Shi Zijin: “Get back to work.”
