Chapter 66: The Ruse of Self-Sacrifice

What Sun Jingtao said wasn’t without reason.

Among the group present, aside from Ye Qing who was still in college, the rest were all seasoned veterans who had spent years navigating the workplace and the ups and downs of life. They understood the basics of social interaction.

What’s more, they all knew that the young girl from 3201 actually had a gun, though no one knew how she’d gotten it.

At the very least, if they could use today’s opportunity to build a relationship with her, maybe in the future she could become a powerful ally.

Tian Jiliang was a smart man. He was the first to sense the shift in the wind and took the lead, saying:

“Let’s set aside Miss Jiang’s share first. Brother Tao, we’ll follow your lead.”

You had to admit, he knew how to talk.

While flattering Sun Jingtao, he also made sure to assert his own role as the leader among the others.

With his stance made clear, the others had no choice but to echo, “Yeah, we’ll listen to Brother Tao!”

Sun Jingtao nodded.

They wasted no time. After getting up and moving Jiang Yan’s supplies to one side, they opened the boxes and began sorting and dividing everything up again.

“Honey, Xiao Ye and I found some supplies that can be used to bundle and carry all this stuff. There are also five empty paint buckets—if we need them, we can use those too.”

As she spoke, Su Dai and Ye Qing emerged from a small bedroom, carrying several large rolls of unopened electrical wire, electrician’s tape, and a stack of woven sacks used for construction debris.

The apartment where Liu Dahong and his group had stashed their supplies probably belonged to someone who was in the middle of a renovation but wasn’t living there.

The place was practically empty.

In one of the small bedrooms, there were piles of electrical wire, drywall, putty powder, paint buckets, paintbrushes, and the like.

While the others were discussing how to divide the supplies, Su Dai and Ye Qing hadn’t joined in. Instead, they’d gone to search the other rooms for anything useful.

After all, when they’d first come down, everyone had only been focused on finding the supplies as quickly as possible.

No one had thought about how they’d actually carry everything back.

With the power out, it wasn’t too bad for those living on the 17th floor or lower.

But for people like Sun Jingtao and Su Dai, who lived on the top floor, even making a single trip up and down was no small feat.

The supplies, once divided, weren’t that much or that heavy, but the problem was how scattered everything was.

For example, the sugar obviously needed to be taken out of its box and re-bagged for distribution.

Plus, everyone had already used up a lot of energy in the earlier “violent confrontation” with Liu Dahong’s group.

Now, with everyone hungry and tired, and without the right tools, it was a real challenge.

But with the electrical wire and woven sacks, they could tie everything together, making it much easier to carry.

It also made things less conspicuous.

As for the electrician’s tape, the heat had probably ruined the adhesive, but it could still be used as rope.

“Thanks, honey.” With everyone around, Sun Jingtao didn’t dare call her “baby” like he usually did, so he switched to a more neutral term.

The supplies were quickly divided up.

Some people, as soon as they got their share, couldn’t wait to open a bottle of water and take a big gulp.

They wanted to finish it in one go, but they all knew how precious clean water was.

They had to ration it.

Finally, everyone’s supplies were packed and bundled up.

Sun Jingtao, who lived on the same floor as Jiang Yan, was in charge of delivering her share.

Tian Jiliang, who lived on the 29th floor, volunteered to help him carry it.

He said it was to help, but everyone knew he was really there to supervise.

They were afraid Sun Jingtao might keep some for himself.

After all, Jiang Yan’s share was two or three times what anyone else got.

Everyone, carrying their bundles, faces full of excitement and joy, headed out.

Tian Jiliang led the way, but after just a couple of steps, he stopped in his tracks. “What the—?”

He put down the case of bottled water in his right hand and adjusted his glasses, thinking he must be seeing things.

One of the arms of his gold-rimmed glasses had broken during the earlier chaos, and he hadn’t had a chance to fix it, so he had to keep adjusting them as he walked.

“What’s wrong?”

Sun Jingtao, right behind him, stepped forward and took a silent breath.

The fire door in front of the stairwell was blocked by a crowd.

To be precise, it was a group of elderly people and children sitting on the cold floor tiles.

They ranged from three or four years old to sixty or seventy.

Most of them were familiar faces.

Before the disaster, they would have greeted each other warmly when they met in the neighborhood.

They were all relatively healthy.

The weaker ones had already died off during the earlier heatwave.

Behind these elderly people and children, the fire door—which was usually left open—was now tightly shut.

When they saw the group coming out of 1704 carrying food and water, their eyes flickered with fear, but then lit up.

The fear was because of the bloodstains on their clothes and the weapons they carried.

But the excitement was clearly for the food and water they saw.

Two of the children even swallowed hard.

“Auntie Ye, Auntie Zhang, what are you—” Tian Jiliang’s words caught in his throat as he realized what was happening.

It was obvious: when their group had come down earlier, they’d been spotted.

Outside, it was still pouring rain, thunder and lightning flashing.

No one had spoken as they’d come down, and they’d used the stairs, so their footsteps shouldn’t have been too noticeable.

But the earlier chaos on the 32nd floor must have drawn the attention of residents from other floors.

Of course, there were probably people from the 17th floor here too.

So it wasn’t surprising that they’d become a target.

But since the group had weapons, the neighbors didn’t dare confront them directly.

So, they’d resorted to a ruse of self-sacrifice.

Ye Qing glanced around at everyone, her usually clear eyes now clouded with a faint mist.

As the only woman in the group, Su Dai smiled gently and stepped forward politely:

“Uncles, aunties, we need to go upstairs. Could you please let us through?”

Sun Jingtao stayed silent, watching.

His instincts and professional experience told him that besides these elderly people and children, there were definitely adults hiding behind the fire door.

And those adults probably had weapons too.

Su Dai’s gentle words fell, but the elderly didn’t move.

“This mountain is mine, this tree I planted. If you want to pass, you must pay the toll!” A little boy of three or four stood up, hands on his hips, and declared in a childish voice.

Everyone: “...”

How could a kid that age know to say something like that? Obviously, the adults had put him up to it.

Su Dai couldn’t help but laugh and cry. “Little one, that’s what bandits say. Didn’t your parents tell you that?”

“Auntie, I’m hungry. I want candy.”

The little boy ignored her question, stretching out his skinny hand and staring intently at the box of dried fruit she was holding.

The box was square and wouldn’t fit in the woven sack.

It wasn’t heavy, so Su Dai had just taped it up and carried it by hand.

The colorful packaging made it look like candy at first glance."