Chapter 348: The Resentful Soul
While Meng Qian was downstairs, Su Tao seized the opportunity to open the system and build new housing for October.
The population of Taoyang, excluding Panliu Mountain, the Women and Children’s Hospital, and Taochi, had already exceeded 500 people. If the residential area wasn’t expanded soon, the population density would become overwhelming.
Reluctantly, Su Tao took out three crystal cores and expanded the land by 300 square meters, constructing a new residential building to ease the population pressure.
With the 200 crystal cores spent on West District 3 earlier, she was now left with only 19 crystal cores.
Too little left.
When could she finally achieve crystal-core freedom?
If she had enough crystal cores, she could swallow up all of Dongyang in one go, double the size of Taoyang, and use the rapid-build function to quickly create a whole new urban area.
*
When Meng Qian returned cautiously and saw Su Tao working methodically, she felt slightly relieved:
“Boss, did you already plan ahead?”
Thinking she was referring to the new housing, Su Tao nodded:
“It’s ready. Here are 20 three-bedroom apartments. Get them on the official website as soon as possible.”
Meng Qian: “?”
Without noticing her confusion, Su Tao continued quickly:
“For now, we can only release these 20 units. We’re out of residential space. People will definitely complain, so bear with it for a while.”
Meng Qian snapped out of it: “It’s fine, boss… Are we going to war?”
Now it was Su Tao’s turn to be stunned. “Why don’t I know about this?”
Meng Qian stammered, “Granny Yu just grabbed me and told me to urge you to buy weapons and be ready for battle. Even Captain Duan from Pozhu said he’d help us fight.”
At the mention of Granny Yu, Su Tao immediately understood.
The old lady had endured a life of hardship for too long—her heightened sense of crisis was understandable.
But Granny Yu wasn’t wrong. Taoyang did need to stockpile weapons—just in case.
Su Tao said, “We probably won’t go to war soon, but who knows about the future. Still, weapons are probably expensive, so let’s—”
As she pondered who to task with purchasing weapons, a name suddenly came to mind—Mu An’an.
Back then, by using Manipulate, Su Tao had helped Mu An’an seize control of Qu Jingwen’s body. In return, Mu An’an had revealed that under the hillside on the outskirts of Taoshi, there was a cache of weapons hidden by Tan Yong.
Not just weapons—there were also gold bars and rare gems.
“We’re not buying weapons anymore. At 8 PM tonight, call Xu Qi, your father, Nie Sibo, Mu An’an, and Meng Xiaobo for a meeting at Taoli Building.”
Why pay when you can get them for free?
Being frugal still matters.
Although confused, Meng Qian nodded and notified the others. She also quickly listed the 20 available apartments on the website.
Because the supply was so limited, the listings were fully booked within three minutes.
Soon after, Meng Qian’s inbox was flooded with complaint emails from people who missed out.
She had gone from feeling shocked and angry to simply selecting all the emails and dumping them into the trash—without a flicker of expression.
With a touch of smugness, she thought: Being popular is a kind of burden, huh?
*
“There’s a stash of weapons under the hillside on the outskirts of the old station?!”
No one was more shocked than Xu Qi.
As one of Tan Yong’s old subordinates, he had never heard of any hidden weapons cache.
Mist and Nie Sibo exchanged glances, both equally surprised and skeptical.
Mu An’an nearly swore an oath:
“I—I mean, Qu Jingwen—was Tan Yong’s closest confidante at the time. You all know how much he trusted her. These weapons came from some shady source, and for some reason, Tan Yong didn’t dare to use them—so he hid them.”
Xu Qi pressed, “Why didn’t he dare to use them?”
Mu An’an shook her head. “Even though I was inside her body, I wasn’t always conscious. I swear I’ve told you everything I know—there’s no reason for me to hide anything now.”
Su Tao waved a hand. “Enough, we’ll check it out tomorrow and see for ourselves.”
Everyone agreed.
*
As night fell over the Dongyang Rehabilitation Center, Cen Tianjiao sipped his drink while tapped on the glass and said:
“Boss, I bet in less than a year, Boss Su will take full control of Dongyang. When you wake up, we’ll all be working under her.”
“Not gonna lie—having her in charge comes with perks. Our Pioneering Corps sent all the wives and kids to the Women and Children’s Hospital and the school, so we can focus on missions. Even without you leading, our efficiency in killing zombies and collecting crystal cores hasn’t dropped a bit—no worries holding us back.”
“Hey, everyone’s doing fine—except you. I even heard your love rival, that blond kid named Lei, stirred up a whole mess at the Chu family’s place and is planning to apologize to Boss Su. I mean, what girl wouldn’t be touched by that?”
“And that Gu Mingchi from the East District? Even I can tell he’s after Boss Su. Now that she’s back, he’s bound to show up. Boss, you couldn’t have picked a worse time to go down—leaving your girl wide open for the competition.”
Tired from finally getting some decent sleep, Shi Zijin reluctantly woke up at the sound of Cen Tianjiao’s endless chatter.
When he opened his eyes and saw Cen Tianjiao, he instinctively wanted to kick him.
But as he extended his foot, he froze—his leg passed right through Cen Tianjiao’s body.
Stunned, he couldn’t tell if he was dreaming or if this was real.
Everything felt so vivid—the sounds, the sights.
Then, his eyes fell on the body floating in the treatment fluid—it was his body.
What was going on?
Had he died and become a wandering soul?
When he turned his gaze back to the drunken Cen Tianjiao, he suddenly realized—he could probably possess him!
In a flash, he remembered the power he had once inherited—Resentful Soul.
Back then, even Su Tao had said he seemed like a different person.
Resentful Soul allowed him to possess anyone’s body—but it carried a deep, corrosive resentment that would swallow the host’s consciousness and memories.
A sinister power, no doubt—but it had allowed his consciousness to escape his dying body…
Just then, Cen Tianjiao, eyes crossed from too much alcohol, finally noticed Shi Zijin standing there—alive and well.
He blinked in disbelief and stammered:
“B-Boss, I was just kidding—no need to revive so quickly. Go back to sleep, okay?”
Shi Zijin wanted to smack him but, realizing he was just a soul, decided to let it slide:
“Can you hear me?”
