Ch36 That's Right, It's for Self-Defense
"Ha!"
Meng Ci stashed the gun under his pillow. The army distributing food outside had likely departed, and the residents' arguments gradually faded.
The world finally fell silent.
Meng Ci stretched lazily, burrowing back under the covers to sleep.
But before long, a cacophony of knocking erupted beside his ear.
"Thump thump thump!"
"Clang clang clang!"
"Squeak squeak! Meng Ci, Meng Ci, what are you doing?!"
"Meng Ci."
Meng Ci was utterly exhausted. Half-asleep, he heard the chaotic din.
His rational mind told him he should get up and beat these people senseless.
But in that instant, Meng Ci felt as if he were being pinned down by a ghost, or trapped in a nightmare-his body stubbornly refusing to wake.
Even as his brain screamed that someone was smashing the door, someone was calling his name, that he should wake up.
He simply couldn't rise, feeling as though a thousand pounds weighed him down.
Summoning every ounce of strength, Meng Ci finally snapped awake.
"I'm here."
Taking several deep breaths, he rose and grabbed the intercom from the bedside table, pressing the talk button.
On the other end, Shen Que exhaled a long sigh, his hand pausing mid-motion to open the door.
If that guy hadn't answered, he'd have sent the crowd away and gone to pry open his door himself to see what was wrong.
"Outside your door, there are probably ten or so men and women. Some are holding kitchen knives, others are carrying stools."
"But their fighting skills seem average. From what I gather, they want to buy food from you."
Shen Que quickly summed up the situation outside in two sentences.
"Alright, I'm on my way!" Meng Ci replied.
Buying food? Why would they bring kitchen knives for that?
Thankfully, he'd had the agent replace the door earlier and reinforced the doorframe and such.
Plus, there was an iron pull-down gate outside the security door.
Otherwise, given their momentum, they'd have smashed the door open by now.
Throwing on a black coat and tucking his pistol behind his waist, Meng Ci grabbed the long knife from the entryway, opened the security door, and confronted them through the iron gate. The two ramming the door, caught off guard, slammed into it violently, nearly colliding with Meng Ci's blade.
"Holy shit!" The pair jumped back in fright.
The others outside, seeing the blade in Meng Ci's hand, instinctively took a few steps back.
Meng Ci opened the steel door and stepped out, closing both doors tightly behind him.
"What's your business?" Meng Ci asked, advancing step by step toward them, knife in hand.
His gaze was fierce, his voice devoid of warmth.
These dozen or so men were no less afraid of death than anyone else. Seeing the knife in Meng Ci's hand, they backed away repeatedly.
Even with the door open, they dared not charge forward.
Only when Meng Ci stood at the doorway, closing the iron gate behind him, did he halt.
Immediately, Shen Que beside him opened his door.
In his hand was a butcher's knife, likely quite old, covered in a mix of rust and dried blood-utterly unsettling.
"Weren't we supposed to open the doors together in five minutes? Why did you come out early?"
Shen Que didn't even glance at the others, instead exchanging pleasantries with Meng Ci.
After connecting via intercom, the two had agreed to exit together. At that moment, Shen Que had been wearing slippers.
When Meng Ci mentioned needing to change clothes and asked him to wait five minutes,
Shen Que didn't think much of it and returned to his bedroom to swap his shoes.
But no sooner had he put them on than he heard something amiss. He rushed over to open the door.
How reckless! What if he'd encountered danger alone?
Meng Ci scratched his nose. "Isn't this something I can handle myself?"
Meng Ci reasoned that with Shen Que as his formidable backup, he could step out first to intimidate them.
Let them know he wasn't someone to mess with, so they wouldn't dare cause trouble again.
If intimidation failed, Shen Que could step in later.
Seeing these two chatting as if no one else existed, the group naturally grew displeased.
"We heard you went out for food last night. We'd like to buy some too."
The man who had slammed the door earlier cleared his throat and spoke up.
Although the army had delivered food this morning, they'd only received three bags of instant noodles-hardly enough to last three days.
They'd already been starving for the past three days, and if they went any longer without food, they wouldn't survive until the storm passed.
So when word spread that 1706 had found food last night, a few of them decided to come up and see for themselves.
Meng Ci raised an eyebrow, his gaze fixed on him.
"Heard? From whom?"
"Who said it doesn't matter. What matters is don't push your luck."
"Exactly. Don't force us to storm in and take it by force. Then we won't be so easy to deal with."
Even though they hadn't revealed the source, Meng Ci spotted Li Ping and Zhao Ze in the crowd.
Li Ping, whose nerves weren't the strongest, visibly took a step back upon hearing this.
They practically confessed without being asked!
Meng Ci chuckled softly, running the long knife in his right hand across his left palm twice.
"Buying food?"
"Look at what you're carrying. Does that look like you're here to shop?"
"More like you're here to rob us!"
Seeing Meng Ci smiling cheerfully, the group assumed he was willing to sell to them and relaxed into easy grins.
"We're just protecting ourselves! You know how dangerous it is everywhere these days!"
"Exactly, exactly."
"It's purely for self-defense. Don't read too much into it."
As they spoke, they hastily hid the weapons they'd brought behind their backs..
"Young man, show us what food you have. I'll pay five times the price."
"Young man, I'm not greedy. Whatever you're willing to give, I'll take. Money's no issue."
"Young man..."
"What if I refuse to give it?"
Amidst their chatter, Meng Ci suddenly spoke up.
"I knew it, young man, you..."
"What?!"
"You won't give us any?"
The smiles froze on their faces as they stared at Meng Ci in disbelief.
"We're all residents of the same building. As the saying goes, a good neighbor is better than a distant relative. Why won't you help us?"
"Exactly. You help us now, and we'll help you next time."
"Young man, don't be so selfish."
Meng Ci was hungry too. Fed up with their moral blackmail, he
held his knife horizontally and glared at them coldly.
"It's my stuff. I give it if I want to, and I don't if I don't. Mind your own business!"
"Besides, whether you lot can even survive this downpour is another matter entirely."
"If you don't make it, it would be like my stuff were thrown to some dogs."
Hearing this, the group was instantly furious.
"Who are you calling dogs?!"
"Who do you think will die?!"
"If you won't share, why insult us?!"
"Did I insult people?" Meng Ci's cold gaze swept over them.
"I clearly cursed shameless creatures."
"Too weak to find food yourselves, yet you come to steal from others!"
"How can people be this shameless? And a whole bunch of them at that."
Provoked by Meng Ci, the group vowed to teach him a lesson.
"Fine, bring it on."
Meng Ci stepped forward with his blade, causing them to instinctively retreat.
Their most formidable weapons were kitchen knives, while Meng Ci wielded a long sword over thirty centimeters long. No matter how they looked at it, they were at a disadvantage.
Voices began stirring within the crowd.
"Why retreat? If we don't take their food, we'll all starve to death anyway."
"Exactly! We're doomed either way-why not fight for it?"
"He looks tough on the outside but weak inside. I doubt he'd dare attack."