You were supposed to hoard supplies, why the heck did you hoard zombies!

This really wasn't Zhang Ye's fault.

He had intended to come off as an arrogantly flamboyant wastrel to dispel any suspicion regarding his true identity.

After all, with his vast family business, this wasn't like the old days when he would dare to step out escorted by just a dozen security guards.

Once his identity was exposed,

people with malicious intent wouldn't be as simple as a Chen Xiaoyong.

But who would've expected that the woman before him, looking all windburnt, would actually be his girlfriend?

The folks below immediately had their mouths hanging open in an O shape.

They were dumbstruck.

Tian Gou and Zhang Wei meanwhile, had their nerves tighten up once again. Their first task upon arriving here was to find out what sort of person the boss Chen Xiaoyong really was.

The answer was quite simple.

He was an incredibly ambitious man.

And ambitious men often share a common trait, that is, a strong possessive desire.

And women are precisely what best reflect a man's possessiveness.

The other party's face had already turned dark.

And his eyes, looking at Zhang Ye, were filled with the intent to kill.

You bastard! You just said someone touched your woman so you blew the guy's head off with a single shot!

And now you're grabbing my woman's ass with your own hands?

This is going too damn far!

But before Chen Xiaoyong could decide whether to blow his top, Zhang Ye, noticing the change in everyone's expressions, quickly responded with an apology:

"Ah, my apologies, my apologies, I thought she was a hooker."

No sooner had he spoken did he feel like something was not quite right.

Turning his face, he saw Chen Xiaoyong's complexion change from black to blue, and from blue to red, seemingly on the verge of losing control.

You just let it slide, and now you damn well call my woman a hooker?

I have to get some respect today!

"To show my apology, I'd like to personally offer Brother Yong two sets of protective gear and a spray gun."

"What do you think, Brother Yong?"

A spray gun?

It might be a bit outdated.

But it's better than nothing, isn't it?

Chen Xiaoyong immediately gestured magnanimously, indicating that he didn't care about such trivial matters at all, go ahead and touch all you want!

We're brothers; it's just a woman. I really don't mind!

The misunderstanding was quickly cleared up.

After the two sat down in the hall, Chen Xiaoyong immediately proposed his desire to further purchase weapons, equipment, and food supplies.

But this time, he didn't plan to trade with people but with raw materials instead.

A new subordinate had mentioned that there was a grain storage in a nearby village.

It hadn't been touched yet.

He planned to send some people to check it out soon.

If everything went well, there would be at least a hundred tons of raw and semi-processed grain stored there.

Subsequently, these grains could be collected by the company for processing.

The portion allocated to him would then be exchanged exclusively for weapons, equipment, and easily stored and carried goods like pancake and canned food.

Zhang Ye was inwardly chuckling, thinking how beautifully he had it all planned out.

You provide the grain and I do the processing?

And after all is done, I exchange it for other supplies?

Yet there's not a single word about the most important part—the processing fee.

Sensing the light chuckle in Zhang Ye's eyes, Chen Xiaoyong made an enlightened expression as if he had just realized something, then spoke up:

"Of course, the company can't work for nothing, right?"

"Let's go with the market price."

There's no market to speak of these days, so naturally, there isn't a market price as well.

So what he was referring to was the price under Ecological Park.

One pound of flour for two pancakes.

Five pounds of flour for a can.

As for other materials, they can naturally be converted following this standard to arrive at a general trading benchmark.

However, Zhang Ye's response left Chen Xiaoyong somewhat confused.

First nodding, then shaking his head.

What the hell?

Is it a deal or not?

Does it mean that the price for the former is okay, but not for the latter?

Just as Chen Xiaoyong was about to ask for some clarification, Zhang Ye had already smiled and started to explain:

"The price is okay,"

"But how we trade is up for discussion."

A glint in Chen Xiaoyong's eyes, he thought to himself that the company couldn't have sent someone useless for no reason.

Now it seemed, indeed he had come with certain intentions.

"Mr. Zhang, please feel free to state your conditions."

"As long as they're not too excessive, I can agree to them."

Weapons and equipment were too important to him.

These past few days, the scouts and looters he had sent out were frequently going missing.

Sometimes even an entire five-person squad would vanish without a trace on the road to their destination.
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He had quietly sent people to investigate, and they discovered signs of violent conflict at the scenes.

And the familiar tire tracks left by trucks.

There was no need to wonder who was responsible.

Peng Yue.

After the incident at the orchard, Chen Xiaoyong had intended to take advantage of his victory and wipe out these brothers.

But after much thought, he decided to wait a while longer before making a move.

After all, his own losses were not small.

He needed to regroup.

And the Peng family brothers had suffered even greater losses in this conflict, losing a vehicle, half their men killed, and the third brother was still locked in the basement being fed swill every day.

Under these circumstances, their choices were limited to two.

Either stay in and not venture out, or they had already left their original place, becoming one of the roaming gang bands in Jiangbei District.

Now it seemed it was the latter.

Only these bandits seemed to be much stronger than Chen Xiaoyong had imagined.

Most of the people he sent out didn't have guns, but bullet traces were found at the scene. What did that mean?

It meant Peng Yue didn't care about wasting a few extra bullets.

This would have been impossible in the past.

After all, under most circumstances, bullets were much more precious than guns.

Where the other side's bullets came from, Chen Xiaoyong didn't know. He only knew that his men couldn't continue to be devoured like this.

It was necessary for his people to get new equipment and enhance their strength.

And so the condition for this trade was set.

Even if Zhang Ye said the company required thirty percent of the raw materials as a processing fee, he would just have to hold his nose and accept it.

"You should know about the exchange coupons, right?"

The sudden voice brought Chen Xiaoyong, who was immersed in thought, back to reality, and then he saw a pair of inscrutable eyes staring at him.

"Yes,"

"I hear they're used in the safety zone," Chen Xiaoyong nodded in response.

In fact, he had seen this currency similar to paper money on the day Tian Gou and Zhang Wei came here.

Its function was similar to the playing cards Li Wanhao had come up with.

But its quantity was much more than the latter.

Zhang Ye's face showed a hint of satisfaction, then he continued, "As I've mentioned before, the price is acceptable, but we need to change how we make the trade."

He reached into his pocket, took out several exchange coupons of different denominations, and laid them in front of everyone.

"The raw materials from the granary will be uniformly converted into exchange coupons to be paid to you," he said.

Chen Xiaoyong's brother-in-law Lu Yong was also sitting nearby and became somewhat anxious when he heard this; he thought that nobody in Jiangbei would recognize these things.

If they really used these for the trade, wouldn't it mean that the company was taking the food in exchange for a few worthless pieces of paper?

Wasn't this a clear scam?