Chapter 78: Mine, Don’t Eat It, I Beg You
The logistics team leader was furious:
“What’s wrong with you? Are you short on food or water? You act like everyone’s bullying you! All you do is cry while dumping your work on others. Have you ever thought about how much trouble you’re causing your teammates?
Our team must’ve had the worst luck in eight generations to end up with a drama queen like you.”
Jiang Jinwei cried even louder.
The logistics team leader was both shocked and angry, “Keep it down! This isn’t Dongyang! You’ll attract zombies any minute!”
But Jiang Jinwei couldn’t care less. She was sobbing so hard that she could barely breathe, drawing everyone’s attention.
Su Tao heard the noise and looked over, but they were too far away for her to make out the argument.
Guan Zining stood up, looking fierce, “Women are always so much trouble.”
Sure enough, shortly after she went over, the logistics team’s area fell silent.
The convoy continued on its way. Midway, they encountered a small wave of zombies—about a dozen ordinary ones, starving, their eyes red as they charged at the scent of the living.
Major Shi Zijin didn’t even get out of the vehicle. Over the walkie-talkie, he assigned just three people to clean up. Gunshots and zombie growls filled the air.
Su Tao wanted to watch the whole thing but was pulled back by Guan Zining, who closed the privacy curtain, “Don’t be curious about everything. You’ll end up not being able to sleep at night.”
Su Tao had to sit tight, listening as the noise outside gradually died down. She nervously asked, “Is it over? Was anyone hurt?”
She then turned to comfort Lin Fangzhi, worried the child might be scared.
Unexpectedly, Lin Fangzhi seemed so accustomed to the danger that he didn’t show a trace of fear. His expression was as indifferent as if he were eating or sleeping.
Su Tao swallowed back her comforting words.
She nearly forgot—this kid had grown up surviving in the wild.
Guan Zining listened to the walkie-talkie and calmly said, “It’s all settled. Just a few beasts—not enough to hurt anyone. This stretch from Dongyang to Shou’an is the safest. We’ve cleared it many times before. Most zombies avoid this area. The evolved zombies are smarter and definitely won’t wander into this deserted zone.”
Su Tao finally felt relieved.
“But don’t get too optimistic. The real challenge is after Shou’an, on the way to Changjing. It’s a long road with few supply stations. The many empty cities make it easy for zombies to hide. It’s the deadliest route with the highest casualty rate.”
Su Tao mentally prepared herself and nodded, “Got it. Unless the sky falls, I won’t get out of the car and make trouble for you.”
When night fell and they stopped to rest again, they hadn’t encountered more than five zombies at a time, and the surrounding scenery remained largely unchanged.
Dinner was provided by the convoy’s supplies: a fist-sized bread roll and a pack of dried vegetables that, when soaked in water, expanded into a bowl. Sprinkle some seasoning, and you could stuff it into the bread to eat.
Su Tao found it a bit dry, and the portion seemed too small for grown men. She took six bottles of milk and six packs of chicken patties from her bag and asked Guan Zining to deliver them to Shi Zijin and the others.
Before leaving, her tenants had given her a lot of supplies: chicken patties, sausages, biscuits, millet, rice, flour—practically all tenant donations.
Su Tao brought it all along. Just the supplies from the tenants could feed 20 people for a month.
And that didn’t even include the bentos, instant noodles, drinks, and the 40 kilograms of grains and oil she’d packed herself.
It was enough to make a round trip for two months.
If only they could purchase and restock vending machines outside of Taoyang, there would be no need to carry so many supplies on the road.
On the way out, Su Tao tried it. Once they left the area managed by Taoyang, the vending machine stopped working and couldn’t be restocked.
Even connecting it to a power source didn’t help.
The TV bought from the home goods store could be turned on with power, but without a signal, it could only play offline videos from the communicator through screen mirroring.
It seemed that many magical products would lose their function once outside Taoyang’s management range.
To pass the time, Su Tao hung the TV on the car’s rear window and watched offline videos with Lin Fangzhi and Xuedao.
There weren’t many videos on her communicator, just a few cartoons she had downloaded to entertain Chen Xi and Chen Yang back then, so they wouldn’t bother her and Zhuang Wan while they worked.
Now, it came in handy. Lin Fangzhi was particularly interested, staring at the screen without blinking.
Before Guan Zining and Shi Zijin even opened the car door, they heard a child’s laughter from the TV. Then they saw the two of them reclining their seats, enjoying the air conditioning, wrapped in thin blankets, with cookies and candies by their side.
Even the only dog was lazily yawning while munching on canned meat.
Guan Zining spoke to Shi Zijin with righteous indignation, “Such decadence! Major General, I swear I had no part in this.”
Su Tao handed them some candy and cookies. “Want some?”
When Lin Fangzhi heard this, his eyes, which were fixed on the screen, instantly stuck to the fruit platter. It was almost as if his face said, “Mine, don’t eat it, I beg you.”
Shi Zijin pretended not to see and, despite not usually liking sweets, unwrapped a candy and popped it into his mouth, “Finish watching and go to sleep early.”
Then he turned to Lin Fangzhi, who looked pitiful and aggrieved, “After watching, go sleep in the front passenger seat. No sleeping in the back.”
Su Tao shut the car door. “Hurry up and go.”
Shi Zijin returned to the front of the car. Cen Lao’er and the others had just finished eating. The men weren’t particular, leaving trash everywhere, so they called the logistics staff to clean up.
Shi Zijin noticed a familiar-looking woman among the logistics team. After a while, he finally remembered—she was from the Su family.
He didn’t say anything, but Dang Xingyan, the big mouth, blurted out, “Haven’t I seen you before? Oh, oh, I remember now—the one who got kicked by the leader of the Third Division!”
When he said this, Cen Tianjiao also remembered.
This woman used to work in logistics for the Third Division, specializing in recovering equipment from the dead.
Later, no one knew whether she was truly scared or just pretending. She threw herself into the leader’s arms and cried hard.
Who knew that the leader of the Third Division didn’t buy it and kicked her on the spot.
And that’s how she became famous.
Jiang Jinwei’s face instantly turned red. Having her embarrassing story exposed, her barely stabilized emotions collapsed again. She stopped cleaning up and ran away crying.
Dang Xingyan scratched his head.
Shi Zijin was speechless and waved his hand, “Those with tasks, keep working. Those without, talk less.”
On Su Tao’s side, she heard the sounds of crying and arguing again, still coming from the logistics vehicle.
Guan Zining got out of the car with a fierce look, “I’ve said it before—voices in open areas attract zombies the easiest. Are you treating my words like air?”
This time, Su Tao heard clearly—it was Jiang Jinwei crying.
Ugh, what a headache.
After things calmed down again, it was time for shift changes, and the convoy continued traveling through the night.
Su Tao firmly turned off the TV and urged Lin Fangzhi to get into the space to sleep.
Not having watched enough, Lin Fangzhi reluctantly went into the space.
Seeing him disappear, Su Tao lay down, covered herself with a blanket, and opened the system panel.
With no signal on the road, she couldn’t get updates about Taoyang from Zhuang Wan. Fortunately, the system could still be checked in real time.
After restocking all the vending machines with one click, she also paid the entire month of May’s water and electricity bills, which totaled just over 5,300 Federal Coins.
