26

When they saw that Auntie Lin wouldn't respond no matter how they shouted, the neighbors finally realized—they had been duped by her!

In an instant, the neighborhood chat group was flooded with "warm greetings" for Auntie Lin.

But from the moment she decided to deceive her neighbors, Auntie Lin had already thrown away her shame. Naturally, she didn't care what the neighbors called her.

However, someone had already set their sights on the supplies she tricked out of everyone.

Someone like the street thug—Chen Zhenghao!

Although it had been five days since the apocalypse began, people still didn't really know what was happening outside.

So things hadn't yet escalated to the point of fighting to the death over supplies.

In Zhang Ye's memories, Chen Zhenghao eventually led a group of underlings, looting people's supplies everywhere and even killing without hesitation.

But for now, he hadn't resorted to robbing his neighbors yet.

After all, not every thug is a madman—he had some brains.

Even when Zhang Ye shot his leg and left him disabled, Chen Zhenghao hadn't dared barge into his house again without certainty of victory.

Now, the supplies in his home were running low.

People like him usually didn't have the habit of stockpiling anything at home.

There was plenty of beer in the fridge, sure—but it had all frozen solid. It couldn't fill his stomach, and if he wanted to drink it, he'd have to smash it open and gnaw on ice.

Auntie Lin's actions made his eyes light up.

She had clearly claimed she was collecting supplies for "unified distribution."

Though he had scoffed at her words, it was now obvious that Auntie Lin had tricked some of the neighbors out of their goods.

That gave him a perfect, righteous excuse to go and take them for himself!

Even if things blew up after the snow thawed, Auntie Lin, who was in the wrong, wouldn't dare do anything to him.

So Chen Zhenghao picked up his phone and dialed Auntie Lin.

At that moment, Auntie Lin was happily sharing some biscuits with her grandson Xiaohu at home.

Instant noodles had to wait for the brief daily electricity window to boil water.

Suddenly, her phone rang sharply.

"Grandma, phone call!" Xiaohu pointed at the phone and said.

Auntie Lin snorted, her eyes full of disdain.

She assumed it was one of the neighbors she had tricked calling to complain.

She felt no guilt toward those fools—in fact, she thought they were complete idiots.

But when she looked at the caller ID, her face immediately showed fear.

"Chen Zhenghao? What does he want with me?"

Chen Zhenghao was infamous in the neighborhood. Not only did he have many thugs under his command, but he also supposedly had powerful connections.

Someone like her, a mere neighborhood committee worker, couldn't afford to mess with him.

Auntie Lin picked up the call.

Chen Zhenghao's voice came through, "Hey, Auntie Lin! You've really got skills, huh? Managed to collect everyone's supplies all for yourself."

The word "supplies" instantly made Auntie Lin tense up.

She coughed lightly. "Ahem, as a committee worker, it's my duty to manage and allocate supplies for the community."

Chen Zhenghao let out a cold chuckle. "Heh, perfect. Our house is running low on stuff—so go ahead and deliver some over!"

Auntie Lin's expression froze. She never imagined this thug would come extorting her supplies!

She seemed to forget that she had used underhanded tricks to swindle those supplies from her neighbors in the first place.

Though she didn't dare provoke Chen Zhenghao, she wasn't willing to hand over the supplies either—not when her and her grandson's survival depended on them.

She bit her lip and said, "These supplies still need to be sorted and processed. Plus, some households haven't turned in theirs yet, so distribution isn't possible at the moment."

Chen Zhenghao was growing impatient.

This old woman really didn't know her place—trying to fob him off with such nonsense?

He cursed angrily, "You old hag! Don't try to play games with me!"

"Bet you've already pocketed everything for yourself, huh?"

"Listen up. Be a good girl and hand it over, and we'll call it even. Otherwise... heh, I'll come take it myself!"

Auntie Lin turned pale with fear, trembling and unable to speak.

She had always bullied the weak and feared the strong. She could be vicious with regular residents…

But she had no idea how to deal with someone like Chen Zhenghao.

She could only muster the courage to say, "What do you want? I warn you—don't do anything rash! I'm a community official!"

Chen Zhenghao laughed even harder. "Pfft! Community what? You think that means anything to me?"

"If you won't give it to me, I'll come take it myself!"

With that, he hung up the phone.

Due to the cold weather these days, he had called all his men to stay at his place.

On the one hand, it helped them stay warm. On the other, several of them had fallen ill after getting doused with cold water by Zhang Ye, so someone needed to take care of them.

Third, Chen Zhenghao, though a thug, had some smarts.

He had already sensed something was off with the situation and decided to consolidate his people.

When the time came, having manpower meant having power—he'd have the final say!

But feeding so many mouths was a problem.

After hanging up, he immediately summoned his men, and a whole group of them marched toward Auntie Lin's home.

Chen Zhenghao hobbled on a mop used as a makeshift crutch, holding a baseball bat in the other hand, swaggering up to Auntie Lin's door.

The whole scene was clearly visible to Zhang Ye through his surveillance cameras.

He lounged on the sofa with his legs on the coffee table, munching potato chips while watching the "show" on his monitor.

"Well, well—looks like a good ol' dogfight is about to begin!"

Zhang Ye said with a grin.

It was only the fifth day of the apocalypse, and already things were getting this exciting—and both parties were people he hated.

Zhang Ye was thoroughly entertained.

Suddenly, he thought of the gullible neighbors who had been tricked by Auntie Lin.

Based on his past life and what he knew of these people…

Even after this incident, more would still fall for her lies.

Why? Because people always had a shred of hope—and thanks to thousands of years of Confucian influence, many Chinese instinctively obeyed authority figures like Auntie Lin from the neighborhood committee.

And so, she'd keep fleecing them, layer by layer.

Zhang Ye stroked his chin. "If I post this footage in the group chat, I wonder what would happen…"

A smirk crept across his lips. "It would definitely be... spectacular!"

He pressed the record button.

When Chen Zhenghao and his men reached Auntie Lin's home, they started banging on the door, shouting for her to open up.

Yuelu Community was a mid-range housing complex, and every household had security doors.

But everyone knew—security doors only stopped thieves, not thugs.

And Auntie Lin's door wasn't like Zhang Ye's reinforced setup.

You could see she was desperately trying to block the door—but the locks couldn't withstand a group of greedy thugs.

They used bats, steel rods, and crowbars to smash at it—and it wasn't long before the lock gave way.

Clearly, this wasn't their first time doing something like this.

Once the lock was broken, the furniture Auntie Lin used to barricade the door—a table and a sofa—was no match for them.

Through the camera, Zhang Ye could see the sheer terror written all over Auntie Lin's pale face.