Since the small supermarket opened, Ye Zhou has only been there twice. Almost all his time is spent on little Zou Ming, and the rest of his time is shared with Zhao Qing and his group of top people in the base. Although he rarely goes to the supermarket, Ye Zhou is still very busy without a moment of free time.
Just as he had thought before, Zhao Qing indeed found Ye Zhou again on the third day after the banquet.
And this time he didn't come alone, but brought Zhao Lei with him.
When Ye Zhou opened the door and saw Zhao Qing and Zhao Lei, he was speechless for a moment, but he still politely invited them to come in and sit down.
It just so happened that there were only him and Sarah at "home" at this time. Zou Ming went out again, and Cao'er had to go to work.
"No need to change shoes." Ye Zhou said to the two people who were bending down to take off their shoes after he entered.
He would rather clean up after them than smell their feet.
It was the first time that Zhao Qing entered Ye Zhou's residence. Although he knew that Ye Zhou had spent a lot of money to renovate the house, he was still shocked when he first came in. It was not only because of the air conditioning and decoration, but more importantly, there were a lot of green plants in the house.
Even in the richest bases, the transformed soil will be used to grow crops rather than green plants.
Such a few green plants are just for looks and have no practical value. They are also ridiculously expensive. The most extravagant base rulers can use ice and water at will, but they will not use them to improve the soil.
"Sit down. I'll go get you some water." Ye Zhou took them to the living room. Sarah, who was watching cartoons on the sofa, turned off the projector. After looking at Zhao Qing and Zhao Lei, Sarah said, "Boss, I'll go."
Ye Zhou did not refuse, but he did not treat Sarah as a real child just because of her appearance.
However, Zhao Qing looked at Ye Zhou strangely - he thought Ye Zhou didn't need to let the "child" work.
However, Zhao Qing quickly figured it out. If Ye Zhou was a completely good person, he probably wouldn't have such a family background.
Maybe Ye Zhou had done something even more vicious than him before.
Only those with capital can afford such heavy "kindness".
Zhao Lei didn't say a word the whole time, but his expression didn't look good, and his eyes were always on the decoration inside the house.
"I brought him here this time to apologize to you." Zhao Qing looked at Ye Zhou sincerely, "He has a bad temper and is straightforward, but he's not a bad person."
Zhao Qing glanced at Zhao Lei: "He came here mainly to buy things."
Ye Zhou took the water cup from Sarah. Sarah didn't make tea. She only brought three cups of boiled water. But Zhao Qing and Zhao Lei didn't feel that they were despised. Zhao Lei drank most of the cup in one breath, and then said to Ye Zhou: "I need water."
"Our previous agreement was not to sell water to anyone other than you." Ye Zhou looked at Zhao Qing. He knew what Zhao Qing was going to do, but he was not opposed to making things difficult for Zhao Qing. "If I sell water to him, is it you who violated the contract or me?"
Ye Zhou smiled and said, "Why don't you buy some water from me and share some or sell it to him? This way it won't violate the contract and it won't be troublesome."
Zhao Qing still smiled: "I can't stay in the base all the time in the future. I have to go out occasionally. Zhao Lei will take over the base's affairs when I'm not around. It's better for the two of you to contact each other directly instead of going through me every time."
Ye Zhou raised his eyebrows and looked at Zhao Qing with a smile, and Zhao Qing also smiled.
They seemed to have reached some kind of consensus in just a few seconds.
Only Zhao Lei was unaware. He looked annoyed, but he suppressed his impatience and put down his water cup only after Zhao Qing and Ye Zhou finished speaking.
But he was not prepared to speak throughout the whole process, and instead let Zhao Qing be his "spokesperson".
Ye Zhou didn't even know whether he was lazy or simply had a low IQ.
"How much do you want?" Ye Zhou asked Zhao Lei, "Now we can only sell by the box, 24 bottles in a box."
After a few seconds of silence, Zhao Lei finally said, "One thousand boxes."
Ye Zhou: "Okay, prepare the money."
Ye Zhou smiled, but his eyes were serious: "If the money is not in place, the goods will not arrive."
Zhao Lei nodded absentmindedly.
This huge deal of this era was reached so easily.
After talking about business, there is nothing else to talk about.
Ye Zhou sent the two of them out.
But not long after they left, Zhao Qing came back alone and knocked on Ye Zhou's door.
This time Ye Zhou asked Sarah to go back to the room and talk to Zhao Qing himself.
Zhao Qing leaned on the sofa without paying much attention to his image, crossed his legs and said, "Did you see it?"
Ye Zhou didn't say anything.
Zhao Qing didn't care whether Ye Zhou spoke or not, but continued: "He has always been like this, ready to challenge me and push me down at any time. You see, people are like this. When I was in the most difficult time, he dug me out from the pile of dead bodies and carried me back."
"But now, if you give him the chance, he will shoot me without hesitation."
"There are no such things as eternal friends," Zhao Qing said with a smile, "only eternal interests."
Ye Zhou said noncommittally: "I don't care about your private affairs. You don't have to tell me about your base. I will deal with whoever does business with me."
Zhao Qing did not continue to follow Ye Zhou's words, but changed the subject: "The people in the base have been doing well recently. I heard that one of the things you sell in your store contains water? This is not good."
"Really?" Ye Zhou pretended to be stupid, "Why don't I know?"
"There are too many products in the supermarket. I can't possibly know everything." Ye Zhou, "Find out what they are and tell me, and I won't sell them."
Zhao Qing sighed, "I'm not a heartless person. I'm not selfish for not letting you sell water. You don't know what life was like for the people in this base before I took over. Many people died every day, and the various forces would fight each other whenever they had the chance, and no one would submit to the other."
"If you give those people in the slums enough food and water to drink, they will start to have other ideas."
Zhao Qing: "Everyone wants to live a good life, but if everyone lives a good life, the base will not be stable."
"When conflicts arise and fighting breaks out, the lower classes will surely die the most. They don't even have weapons, and many have never even killed anyone. Their lives may be a little harder now, but they have a place to live and won't starve to death."
Zhao Qing glanced at Ye Zhou and hinted, "Sometimes you have good intentions, but what you do may not necessarily be good."
Ye Zhou raised his head: "I understand what you mean. I am not interested in controlling the situation of your base. As long as you give me enough money, I can leave immediately."
"I don't have many employees." Ye Zhou restrained his smile, "I know what to do."
"After all, changing the boss won't do me any good. Who knows if the next boss will have a good brain and know that it will be more beneficial not to attack me?"
This hidden compliment made Zhao Qing laugh out loud: "Right, right, right, these people can only see the immediate benefits and can't think about the long-term. If they could think about the long-term, they wouldn't have been beaten like that before."
"By the way." Ye Zhou suddenly said, "I want to build a staff dormitory on the vacant land of the supermarket."
Zhao Qing: "It's up to you."
Ye Zhou: "I will also hire some temporary workers in the slums, but the current manpower is barely enough. It depends on you whether you can hire them."
Zhao Qing asked casually, "Zhao Lei's matter..."
Ye Zhou: "It depends on what you mean. Anyway, I don't want the base to change its boss."
The two looked at each other, smiled, and each got what they wanted.
This time Zhao Qingcai really left here and returned to the RV.
The RV where Zhao Qing lives is parked downstairs of the building. Since he moved down, people are no longer allowed to live upstairs. Those followers of Zhao Qing who originally lived on the ground floor have to move to other buildings.
Except for necessary activities, Zhao Qing would never leave the RV.
Since the RV does not need to be driven, the electricity can be provided by the solar panels on the roof.
With the induction cooker, there is no need to light a fire to cook. The small refrigerator is filled with beer and ice cream bought from Ye Zhou, and there are many kinds of food. After being the boss for so many years, Zhao Qing feels that he is finally enjoying the treatment of a boss.
Zhao Qing walked into the RV, closed the door, stripped himself naked, and sat on a chair while the air conditioner turned on.
The woman quickly took out beer from the refrigerator, brought it to Zhao Qing, and then looked at his expression.
After making sure that Zhao Qing was in a good mood, the woman said cautiously: "Boss, my parents..."
Zhao Qing glanced at the woman and remembered what he had casually promised her. He had not intended to fulfill it, but he had just set a trap for Zhao Lei and developed Ye Zhou into his ally, so he casually said, "Well, I'll have someone prepare a house for them."
The woman smiled and immediately leaned over to massage Zhao Qing's arms and shoulders.
She could see Zhao Qing's neck as soon as she lowered her head.
At one point, she wanted to just bite it.
But she quickly looked away and concentrated on massaging Zhao Qing.
·
"Building staff dormitories?" Zhou Yuanhe cheered a little when he got the news. "Can it be made into single-person dormitories?"
He has been living with a female employee recently, and it has been really exhausting. He has to dress neatly every time he leaves the room, which is really painful for a lazy guy.
Only a few people came to the meeting this time, all of whom knew Ye Zhou's identity. In front of them, Ye Zhou didn't need to pretend, and didn't need to worry about the collapse of the personality he had worked so hard to build up.
"No, this time we're going to make it a dormitory," Ye Zhou said, "based on families."
Chen Shu thought it was unnecessary: "We can't hire so many temporary workers."
“It wouldn’t be of much use even if it was built.”
Ye Zhou waited until they finished speaking before saying, "It's not for the supermarket business."
Chen Shu understood immediately, but she was not very hopeful: "Boss, Zou Ming is still young. Even if you give him help, he won't be able to control him."
"Even if we wait until he's seventeen or eighteen, he's still too young."
Zhou Yuanhe nodded beside him.
Ye Zhou had already made up his mind: "I have confidence in Zou Ming's ability."
"It would be dangerous to only leave him supplies and not manpower."
Chen Shu and Zhou Yuanhe looked at each other. They both knew that they couldn't change Ye Zhou's mind. After all, they were employees. The boss had made the decision, and there was nothing the employees could do except give their opinions.
"It's a good opportunity to provide some jobs." Ye Zhou smiled.
He wanted to give Zou Ming a tiger skin and fully arm Zou Ming. At least when Zou Ming was still weak, this tiger skin could protect him.
Ye Zhou: "It will probably be very busy later."
Chen Shu stretched his arms and said indifferently: "I took a break for a while before, and I haven't had anything to do recently."
Zhou Yuanhe asked cautiously, "You won't let me treat everyone in the slums, will you? I'm not a machine."
Ye Zhou and Chen Shu looked at Zhou Yuanhe together.
Zhou Yuanhe: "...I knew it."
Anyway, he is either extremely idle or extremely busy; there is no middle ground.
He now wanted to strangle Zou Ming to death, because it was Zou Ming who tricked him into coming here and said that he would definitely not live long.
Employees also got the news quickly.
Chen Shu had to drive over all the materials for building the staff dormitories from the real supermarket.
Ye Zhou was not planning to actually build a building for the staff dormitory. After all, there was no shortage of open space for building houses. One floor would be enough, or at most two floors. He could build a few more, but there was no need to build a building with more than two floors.
"I'm responsible for recruiting people?" Chen Shu pointed at his nose. "That's fine, but what if you encounter problems, boss?"
Ye Zhou waved his hand: "There is also Sarah. If there is really no one else, I can do it myself."
Chen Shu had no choice but to say, "Then remember to bring more bullets with you."
While Ye Zhou and Chen Shu were discussing, the boy came to the slums again. He went to the supermarket first, said hello to Cao'er, and then walked on the road in the slums with his small backpack.
Although it was daytime, the slums were not as dead silent as before. There were many people walking on the roadside, and some even set up small stalls to sell things that were not sold in supermarkets. Both buyers and sellers used "money" to make transactions.
Because supermarkets sell necessities and everyone needs food, the "money" in supermarkets is so easily recognized and even truly serves the function of paper currency.
"How much is this?" The boy stopped in front of a clothes stall.
These clothes are very tattered, but they are barely wearable and at least can cover the key parts.
The stall owner was an old man with gray hair, but he didn't look old. Perhaps he hadn't sold anything for a long time, so he said unenthusiastically, "Ten yuan for a shirt and twelve yuan for pants."
The boy looked at the straw shoes next to him.
This time the old man was much more enthusiastic: "These shoes are five dollars a pair."
Although it was cheap, the boy took out five dollars from his pocket and bought a pair of straw sandals that were much bigger than his feet - the shoes here are all one size fits all.
Instead of changing his shoes, the boy put them in his backpack.
The old man looked at the boy's clean and intact clothes and the large backpack on his back with envy.
There was another knock on the wooden door, and the boy gave his name after hearing a familiar voice.
After the woman opened the door, the boy saw a tin house that was completely different from the last time he came. After no longer worrying about food and clothing, the woman cleaned the tin house and replaced the rickety tables and chairs with a set of tables and chairs that still looked simple, but at least they were not rickety.
"Please sit down." The woman warmly invited the boy to sit down.
Ever since the tin house was rearranged, the woman seemed to have found a little passion for life.
She now deals with the supermarket's garbage during the day and comes back to sleep at night. She no longer has to reverse her day and night schedule. Even though the slums are noisy at night, she can always fall into a sound sleep.
Although people still break in, the woman doesn't think it's a big deal, it just takes some time to clean up every time.
The boy sat down and took out some water from his bag.
The woman naturally picked up the bottle and buried it in the corner.
"Zhao Lei is back." The woman said, "He was outside before, and I heard that he robbed several small bases."
The woman said to herself, "But he hasn't come yet. I heard from others that Zhao Lei has been busy recently and no one has seen him in the slums."
The boy nodded. He was not in a hurry. He had come this far over the years and there was nothing to rush.
The woman added, "But his subordinates come here every day."
The boy looked at the woman: "Who are they?"
Woman: "I don't know their names. Zhao Lei's men change all the time, so there's no point in remembering their names."
"But it shouldn't be the group that followed him when your mother died."
The boy nodded slightly and didn't ask any more questions.
"Oh, right." The woman whispered, "When I went to the supermarket today, I heard them say they were going to build a dormitory for employees. Do you think it's possible for me to move in?"
The woman's eyes became fanatical: "You can see this, it's not safe here, and it's inconvenient to do anything. If someone breaks in and kills me, I can't help you."
The woman said to the boy, "If you let others ask about it, they will definitely betray you, and they will definitely be exposed if they ask about it. Only someone like me will not be remembered if I ask about it."
"They must think that I want to get something from Zhao Lei." said the woman.
The boy did not agree directly. He was rarely embarrassed. After a few seconds, he said, "I can't make the decision."
He himself was able to move out of the slums thanks to Ye Zhou. It would be ok for him to save some of his own water and rations and give it to Ye Zhou, but he couldn't make a request to Ye Zhou.
The woman said quickly, "You can, you definitely can! We all know how good that boss is to you. They also need to renovate the dormitory, so just mention it to him and tell him that we know each other, and he will definitely agree!"
The boy didn't say anything. The woman was afraid that he would not agree, so she grabbed his hand and said, "When a man likes you, he will not refuse you anything you ask him for, but only at this time, so you should seize the moment and ask him for everything you want."
These words made the boy withdraw his hand immediately. He grabbed his bag tightly, jumped off the chair and was about to leave.
The woman grabbed his wrist and asked confusedly: "What's wrong with you? Are you angry? Why?"
The boy didn't know why, but selling one's body for benefits and food was the way of survival for most people in the slums, not just women but men as well. Otherwise, he would not have said such words to Ye Zhou when he was first taken away by Ye Zhou.
But now, hearing such words from the woman's mouth, even though he knew she had no ill intentions, he still felt angry about it.
He almost gritted his teeth and said: "You don't understand him, the way he treated me... He is not that kind of person, he is different from them!"
The woman looked at him blankly, as if she didn't understand what he was saying.
The boy broke free from the woman's hand. For the first time, his expressionless face showed a look of disgust. He said in a cold tone, "Don't mention him."
The woman timidly said "oh", but still unwilling to give up: "You can ask me to do anything, I won't say anything you don't want to hear in the future, then, then the dormitory..."
The boy stared at her with his dark eyes for a long time before he said, "I'll ask for you, but I'm just asking."
The woman became happy again, but she didn't dare to show it too obviously. The corners of her mouth just kept rising.
After leaving the woman's tin house, the boy went to the door of another house. As soon as he knocked on the door, it opened by itself.
He pushed the door open and went in. Sure enough, he saw a skinny man in the room. The food and water he had left for the man had already been eaten and drunk.
But at this moment, the man was still lying on the ground, like a breathing corpse.
The boy squatted beside the "bed". After a long while, the man's lips moved: "Who are you?"
The man turned over but still kept his eyes closed. He had been sleeping for several days. He had never slept so contentedly in his life and even wanted to fall asleep like this.
But his body, which was full of holes and looked like it would collapse in the next second, was exceptionally strong at this moment.
"Give up." The man panted twice, "No one can touch him."
"Who can kill him, me, a loser with shrunken limbs who can't even walk, or you, a little brat who's not even as tall as his waist?"
The man finally opened his eyes and turned to look at the boy's face. He squinted and couldn't see the boy's appearance clearly: "I don't remember you."
The boy said calmly, "Your father gave me a piece of potato."
The man said "Oh" and was silent for a while before saying, "He has always been like this. He can't even fill his stomach, but he still has extra kindness to give away. He never thought that I am also hungry."
The boy could tell that the man did not love his father, nor was he grateful to him, and even hated him.
"This house is yours," the boy said. "I will come to give you food and water every three days."
Boy: "I won't force you to help me, just think about it."
As he was about to leave, the man stopped him and said, "Tell me, what do you want me to do?"
The boy stopped and turned to look at the man.
The man looked at the iron sheet above his head and said, "A piece of potato in exchange for you bringing so many things. My father has helped people all his life, but you are the only one bringing things."
He said calmly: "Those people he helped used to take care of my business."
"You see, good people are never rewarded. The final fate of good people is to go to hell and live a life like a dog."
The boy didn't care about his sad past and was not touched at all. He said, "I remember Zhou Yang liked you very much."
The man thought for a long time and finally remembered who Zhou Yang was.
The boy said: "Zhou Yang came back with Zhao Lei."
The man sneered, "Like? Like that I'm still here? Locked in a cage? His like is bullshit."
"At least he'll come to you." The boy approached the man.
The man still squinted his eyes, and this time, he finally saw the boy's face clearly.
A cold face, which looked vicious in such an environment, without any childishness.
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