Ch38 Brother, I Didn't Know About This
"You still dare to snatch it? Huh! You wanna die?"
A hot-tempered man in his thirties, his eyes bloodshot likely from prolonged hunger, kicked Zhao Ze to the ground.
His head slammed against the wall as he cursed under his breath.
"You wanna die? Go jump off a building! What's the point of throwing stuff?"
"I'll make you throw it! I'll make you!"
"Are you even a man? Acting like such a coward!"
Zhao Ze's mouth bled from the beating. A few residents in the crowd who retained some sense quickly pulled the man away.
"Zhang Mingtian, stop it! If someone dies, you'll go to jail. It's not worth it for scum like this."
Zhang Mingtian gradually calmed down, though he couldn't resist delivering one final kick before giving up.
Li Ping, seeing her husband released, rushed over and knelt down to wipe the blood from his lips.
"Honey, honey, are you okay?"
"You murderers! I'm going to report you!"
"We brought you here to get food, and now you kick us out!"
"None of you will get away with this!"
By now, Zhao Ze's breathing was weak, his eyes narrowed to slits.
The others paid no heed to Li Ping's words, instead turning to thank Shen Que.
"Young man, thank you for your help!"
"No problem."
Shen Que was taciturn by nature, and his cold expression silenced any further comments.
Meng Ci had seen enough and was growing hungry, so he began shooing them away.
"Alright, you got what you came for-now leave!"
"Oh, and take these two with you. They're just causing trouble."
"No problem, no problem."
The group immediately grabbed Zhao Ze and Li Ping, hauling them away by their arms.
Li Ping tried to struggle at first, but a sharp slap silenced her whimpers.
The issue resolved, the two should have gone their separate ways.
But Meng Ci pondered how much food Shen Que had given him, and since the people had come knocking specifically to cause trouble for him, it felt wrong not to invite him in for a meal.
"Shen Que, why don't you come over for dinner?"
Shen Que couldn't cook at all.
Even with all that food, he'd just add some oil and salt, cook it through, and that was it.
Given the chance to piggyback on a meal, Shen Que was naturally delighted.
After putting down his butcher's knife, Shen Que soon arrived at Meng Ci's place.
When they'd gathered supplies yesterday, Meng Ci had mentioned having an unused gas canister at home.
So when Meng Ci reached the vegetable section, he picked up some undamaged produce.
He planned to cook a rice dish.
With the clay pot they'd brought back yesterday, Meng Ci brushed its inner walls with oil and added rinsed rice to make crispy-bottomed rice.
Fish-flavored eggplant, dry-pot potato slices, cold-tossed dried tofu skin.
Shen Que assisted nearby, even asking Meng Ci for guidance on seasoning the tofu skin to make it taste better.
"I'll teach you a universal seasoning sauce that makes any salad taste amazing," Meng Ci said.
Shen Que perked up at this and eagerly began learning.
Chili powder, minced chilies, sesame seeds, and minced garlic went into a bowl, then hot oil was drizzled over them.
Add two spoonfuls of light soy sauce, two spoonfuls of rice vinegar, one spoonful of oyster sauce, one spoonful of sesame oil, a pinch of salt, and a pinch of sugar.
Stir everything together until well combined, then toss with the cold dishes you want to eat.
Shen Que handled every step of making the dressing himself. When it was done, just looking at the vibrant colors made it look incredibly tempting.
Then, at Meng Ci's prompting, he took a taste with his chopsticks. The flavor was indeed excellent.
After that, Shen Que continued learning how to make other dishes from Meng Ci.
"By the way, I studied the map today. Many liquefied gas stations and coal gas stations are in low-lying areas and are likely flooded."
"We don't have diving gear, so it'll be hard to retrieve anything."
"There is one coal supplier, though, on higher ground."
"And it's a three-story self-built house. We could try there."
Meng Ci agreed they could give it a shot.
With all that coal in his storage space, if the smell drifted out when he started heating it up later, it would definitely raise suspicion.
Now that they'd crossed the open road, they wouldn't have to worry about arousing suspicion when venturing out.
The two of them were already targets now, so they didn't need to sneak around in the dark anymore when searching for supplies.
"Oh, right. I have a diesel-powered assault boat in my room. We can take it tomorrow."
"I'm not sure if it still works, though."
After finishing their meal, Meng Ci fetched supplies from the room where they stored rice and flour.
"I used to go fishing with friends regularly, but when senior year rolled around, I had to focus on studying, so I stopped."
"It's been sitting unused for half a year. Let's check if it's lost any air first."
Meng Ci had deliberately aged the boat to avoid arousing Shen Que's suspicion.
Next, he brought out a can of diesel fuel.
Working together, they inflated the boat. After a perfunctory inspection to confirm everything was in order, they decided to take it out tomorrow.
"Vroom vroom vroom!"
The sudden roar of an engine outside drew them to the window.
It was Si Chen's group-all six members this time, operating two assault boats.
In the book, Si Chen only rallied the others to fight for survival during the late-season blizzards.
The government still maintained control now, so Si Chen's group shouldn't have acted prematurely.
Shortly after, the sound of another assault boat echoed. This time, it was Wei Heng with his younger brother, heading in a direction that suggested they intended to follow behind Si Chen's group.
After stowing the assault boats, Shen Que returned home, while Meng Ci began his physical training.
When he finished, Meng Ci turned on a TV drama. Не watched half an episode before drifting off to sleep.
"Thump! Thump! Thump!"
When Meng Ci awoke again, the sky was already dim. He heard someone knocking on the door, but Shen Que's voice wasn't on the walkie-talkie, so he assumed there was no immediate danger.
After lying in bed for ten minutes to fully wake up, Meng Ci finally got out of bed.
Through the peephole, he saw two figures outside. Judging by their silhouettes, they must be Liu Jie and Li Xiaoya.
"Who's there? Do you need something?"
Meng Ci opened the security door, switched his flashlight to full brightness, and deliberately aimed it straight into their eyes.
The glare stung Liu Jie and Li Xiaoya's eyes painfully. They quickly covered their eyes with their hands.
"Brother, it's Yaya!" Li Xiaoya called out.
With the power out, Meng Ci saw no point in wasting electricity on these two. He promptly switched off the light.
"Don't call me brother!"
"And I've told you before-we're nothing now."
Standing behind the iron gate, he had no fear of them entering.
Li Xiaoya's eyes brimmed with tears. "Brother, do you resent Mom for taking Dad away?"
32
"I didn't know she'd been the other woman for all these years. But brother, I'm innocent too."
"If I could choose, I wouldn't want to be the daughter of a mistress either!"
Meng Ci rolled his eyes.
He wasn't dumb-how could a stepdaughter be so close to Li Shanyang, did she think that he didn't know she treated everything belonging to the Meng family as her own.