“Brother-in-law, let’s talk about this when we get back. We’re at Old Shen’s house!” Zhang Heping said in a low voice.
"Heh, so it's Yanming's family who's here!" Li Zhaozhao's gaze swept over everyone, as if they all owed him something: "What, a secret meeting? What are they talking about? Is there anything I can't hear?"
Everyone fell silent.
Shen Yanming toyed with Bi Qiaoan's hand, his heart turning completely cold.
Li Wanwan panicked and quickly said, "Brother, it's nothing. We just heard that Brother Yanming is back, so we came to visit him."
Li Zhaozhao glared at her: "I don't have a sister as disloyal as you! Once you're married, you completely change your surname, right? Have you ever thought about whether your father, mother, brother, sister-in-law, and nephew can live a good life?"
Li Wanwan felt quite unhappy when she heard this. She thought to herself, "We're all struggling in the apocalypse. How much better off can I be than you?"
"Brother, there's money at home... but I'm not able to help, I'm sorry."
She didn't explain it very clearly, but Li Zhaozhao understood.
"You think we can't finish that stuff? It's been decades! When will this damn apocalypse end?!" Li Zhaozhao cried out, then burst into tears. He cried so hard his voice was hoarse.
Bi Qiaoan felt a stinging pain in her eardrums and shouted angrily, "What are you making a scene for? If you can't speak properly, then get out! Don't you know whose house this is!"
Li Zhaozhao was so embarrassed by these words that he pointed at her nose and yelled, "You little wench, I'm talking to my buddy, what are you doing interrupting?"
"You get bullied by your wife at home, but you can act like a big shot outside?" Shen Yanming mocked without any politeness. "My wife is in charge at home. If you can't stand it, feel free to leave."
"Yanming, Yanming! We've been friends for decades, how can you just watch your brother die!"
As Li Zhaozhao spoke, he tried to hug Shen Yanming, which disgusted Old Shen so much that he pushed him away.
"What's wrong with you? Get to the point!" Shen Yanming sensed that Li Zhaozhao was acting strangely.
He was rambling incoherently, almost as if he had been drinking.
Shen Yanming was getting a headache from the noise and was about to see the guest out when Old Man Li suddenly knelt down in front of him and said, "The cave has been destroyed, and everything inside is gone!"
Shen Yanming: "...You suspect I moved out? Ha! I was still in Suzhou back then! Officer Wen, Captain Qi, Captain Liang, and hundreds of brothers can all testify for me!"
Old Li hurriedly waved his hands: "No, no, that's not what I meant. It's just, it's just..."
They had initially suspected it, but the information from the guards told them that it was impossible for Shen Yanming to steal.
Moreover, according to the information he gathered, Shen Yanming, though lacking real power in the guard team, was quite influential. Even Wen Mengguan gave him some face.
So he thought about seeing if he could get Zhao Zhao into the team.
Now that farming is impossible, Li Zhaozhao and Xu Yajing are practically unemployed. They've been idling around, surviving on the supplies they stockpiled before the apocalypse.
But over time, the resources were depleted too quickly. Now, they've been discovered by a team searching for space stones. He doesn't know how he's going to survive.
Shen Yanming helped the man up and said, "The base provides food every day, so no one will starve."
“It’s not good to eat! My grandson has never eaten those coarse foods since he was a child, he can’t get used to them!” Old Man Li said without thinking.
Shen Yanming was so angry he laughed, shaking his head and saying, "Well, there's nothing I can do about it!"
As soon as Li Zhaozhao's son, Li Jinnian, heard the adults talking about food, he started wailing, "I want chocolate! I want lollipops! Mom, I want milk!"
Xu Yajing hugged him tightly, feeling sorry for him: "Son, our family is gone. Why don't you go and beg your Uncle Chen?"
Li Jinnian's eyes lit up, her fake crying stopped abruptly, and she ran over to Shen Yanming, asking, "Uncle, can I have some chocolate?"
He vaguely remembered that the person in front of him seemed to have given him candy when he was a child.
Shen Yanming shook his head: "I don't have any candy!"
Li Jinnian was somewhat disappointed and was about to go back when he heard Xu Yajing loudly question him: "How come you don't have any candy? Even the brat from Wanwan's family gets candy, why don't you give my baby any?"
Shen Yanming looked at Xu Yajing with disgust, unable to understand how, after not having contacted her for several years, this person had become even worse than a country woman or child. Could the power of environment really be so great?
"If you don't have it, you don't have it. If you do have it, you can give it to your son."
"Impossible! I've caught the girl eating candy several times! Xiao Shen, you're Zhao Zhao's brother, you can't just ignore him now that he's in this state, can you?"
“What do I need to do? Am I his father or his son? I have no obligation to raise or support him.”
"Not to mention that I don't have those things, even if I did, wouldn't I save them for my An'an and Nuannuan to eat? Li Jinnian is a treasure in the Li family, but in my Shen family, he's nothing."
The four members of the Li family found this explanation hard to accept, except for Li Jinnian, who looked completely bewildered and didn't understand what had happened.
"Alright, go back. Use your brain, you should know that twenty years have passed. Even if the food didn't spoil, it would all be gone. Do you think I'm a god who can conjure things up for you?"
Everyone's the same now, earning food through labor. If you want to eat better, go work at the base.
“There’s hardly any work to be done these days, what do you want us to do?” Mr. Li asked, dissatisfied.
"It seems the task of clearing the city's ruins hasn't stopped yet. I heard there's meat, and you can even eat your fill."
"Old Shen, it's one thing if you don't help your brother, but why treat me like this! Is that kind of work something someone like me should do?" Li Zhaozhao said with resentment, as if Shen Yanming had done something that angered both heaven and man.
"What kind of person are you? A noble young master of the Li family?" Shen Yanming sighed, "Zhao Zhao, Zhao Zhao, how come you're getting more and more backward as you get older?"
Li Zhaozhao remained silent, only looking at Shen Yanming with a resentful expression.
"Go back and think carefully about how you're going to live from now on!" Shen Yanming felt he had done everything he could.
Li Zhaozhao wiped his face and shamelessly said, "Then give me a space stone!"
Shen Yanming was taken aback, only then realizing that the two space stones on the table were gone.
Thinking that Qiao An might have put it away, I didn't think much of it.
"Didn't I already give you one?" Shen Yanming asked, frowning.
Li Zhaozhao's eyes flickered: "It's lost."
"Do you think space stones are like cabbages? There's only one, and once you lose it, it's gone."
Li Zhaozhao didn't believe it: "How could there be none! So many of you went out and came back looking radiant. Nobody would believe you didn't get anything!"
"Even if I had it, why should I give it to you?"
"I'm your brother!" Li Zhaozhao's eyes widened, and the veins on his neck bulged.
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