"You've got it wrong. It's not me who's frightened, it's Young Master He."
Zuo Ling didn't want to beat around the bush with Bai Hongwei.
Bai Hongwei, seemingly oblivious to the impatience in Zuo Ling's eyes, smiled and said:
"Don't worry, sister. He Guiqi has joined the army and won't bother you anymore."
He gets more and more comfortable calling her "sister" the more he calls her that.
Zuo Ling thought he was just being cheeky and didn't take the title 'sister' seriously. She was quite surprised that the He family sent their young master to join the army so quickly.
"Look, I've brought gifts to your door, won't you invite me to come in and have a seat?"
"inconvenient."
Zuo Ling refused decisively, thinking to herself, "Don't you have any sense? Can't you see I don't want to deal with you at all?"
Bai Hongwei showed no embarrassment at being rejected. "It's okay, we live in the same neighborhood, there will always be opportunities."
He put down the gift, smiled, and said goodbye.
"Hello……"
Zuo Ling called out to Bai Hongwei, wanting him to take the things away.
But they knew Bai Hongwei would definitely not take it, and would even say something like, "Sister doesn't like it, just throw it away."
"Wait a minute."
Zuo Ling turned and went back into the house. When she returned, she had a bag in her hand: four bamboo tubes of rice, two bamboo tubes of wine, two bags of dried vegetables, and a Xuanwei ham.
She didn't want to owe Bai Hongwei anything, as it was only fair to reciprocate.
The gift was carefully selected by her, so presenting it now doesn't seem out of place.
Bai Hongwei was very happy, his eyes and brows revealing the joy of his little trick succeeding. He left without any hesitation, carrying the return gift.
Back in Building 2, the return gift was snatched away by Lin Wang and Li Mingli.
"Wow, wow, wow, bamboo rice, bamboo wine, where did they come from?"
Dried vegetables and Xuanwu ham were simply ignored, as the rich young man's family had no shortage of these two items.
Bamboo rice and bamboo wine might not seem like much before the apocalypse, but seeing them during the extreme cold and darkness is quite a sight to behold.
"It was given to me by Zuo Ling," Bai Hongwei said smugly.
"She gave it to you? Why did she give it to you? Are you two dating?" The two were very surprised.
I heard it was sent by Zuo Ling. He Guizi, look over here.
Bai Hongwei punched each of them. "What is Hu Ba talking about? I just went to calm her down and brought her some food. This is a return gift."
Lin Wang and Li Mingli glanced at He Guizi and thought to themselves, "You probably don't understand who's the one who's frightened."
He Guizi felt uneasy, vaguely sensing that Bai Hongwei's attitude towards Zuo Ling was strange.
Zuo Ling gave them rice in bamboo tubes as thick as a bowl, covered with an insulated bag, and they were still warm to the touch.
Lin Wang opened one, and a delicate fragrance wafted around.
"Wow, wow, wow."
Forgetting to find cutlery, he grabbed a handful and put it in his mouth. "Mmm, delicious, delicious."
He moved so fast that Bai Hongwei had no time to stop him.
Seeing the opportunity, Li Mingli grabbed one and, imitating Lin Wang, ate it with his hands.
He mumbled indistinctly, "Delicious, delicious, the fresh scent of bamboo has permeated it."
He Guizi was angry, so he also grabbed one.
I thought to myself, "You've tormented my brother to that state, I'd be doing him a disservice if I didn't eat anything from you."
In the blink of an eye, only one remained.
Bai Hongwei was speechless. He quickly grabbed the last piece, went to the kitchen, found a spoon, and slowly ate it.
Each grain of rice is plump and firm, and the diced carrots, corn kernels, green peas, and diced sausage are simmered to perfection.
The four young masters, accustomed to delicacies from land and sea, had to admit that bamboo rice was incredibly delicious and flavorful!
After eating the bamboo rice, He Guizi's dislike for Zuo Ling lessened considerably.
The three of them stared at Bai Hongwei with obvious intent: they hadn't had enough, so why didn't they ask Zuo Ling for a few more?
Bai Hongwei said irritably:
"I was planning to save one for my old man, but you all ate them all, so my old man didn't get any. Don't even think about it."
Privately, however, he was thinking about what to give Zuo Ling next time, and how to exchange two tubes with her.
Just when Zuo Ling and Professor Jin thought the screening of disaster victims was over, they were informed that the government had forcibly allocated another 1,000 resettlement places to Noah's Ark.
Bai Hongwei and the others were quite helpless.
The external situation is terrible. Unless there is absolutely no other way, the government will not force people to pay. No matter how unwilling you are, you have to accept it.
Fortunately, they had extraordinary means and somehow obtained a batch of shipping containers. They stacked the containers in two layers, which reduced the amount of housing space needed and allowed them to accommodate more disaster victims.
Even if a tenant has the ability to pay food taxes, their house can be forcibly taken back and redistributed.
Zuo Ling was very glad that she bought the house back then; otherwise, she would have had to squeeze in with others, which would have been inconvenient and, more importantly, a major safety hazard.
Especially for those who live alone, with no one to watch over the house, the moment they step out, there might be nothing left in their home.
The residents immediately began to complain.
Not only are the tenants dissatisfied, but the landlords are also unhappy.
A perfectly nice upscale residential area has been turned into a chaotic tenement.
Can the property management fees paid for living in a crowded courtyard be compared to those paid for living in a high-end residential community?
Many homeowners went to He Guizi to demand a reduction in the percentage of property management fees they were required to pay.
He Guizi readily reduced the property management fees by half for the homeowners, but then turned around and added the shortfall to the burden of the disaster victims.
Professor Zuo Ling and Professor Jin would rather deliver more grain than have so many people crowding into the community.
A single woman and an elderly couple occupy a 360-square-meter doomsday fortress-style apartment all to themselves; to anyone else, they're a prime target.
The widening gap between the rich and the poor, and the harsh living conditions, are all reasons for the disaster victims to hate them, which intensifies the three people's sense of crisis.
Several days passed, and no one came to investigate their possession of firearms. Zuo Ling returned the weapons and ammunition to the two elders.
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