Chapter 205: She, About to Kill Someone Again

With a shared "faith," the two had a conversation that made it seem as if they were blood relatives in this apocalypse. When Liu Mu left, Qian Kesheng not only had his bodyguards bring her plenty of good things, but also warmly invited her to be sure to visit the Haiyang Base on the other side of the mountain at her next stop.

"If you don't need to stay too long, we could also go together."

His invitation did not win Liu Mu's agreement. She said, "Brother Qian is currently striving to become the top decision-maker over there, so I cannot go with you. On the outside, we still have to pretend we aren't close; otherwise, those hostile to you will surely seize on it as leverage to cause you trouble."

As she spoke, she sighed in a feigned manner, "My identity is still a bit too sensitive; otherwise, I could go directly to Haiyang Base to help you."

"How could this be blamed on you, Sister? You are doing great things at the Barrier, so you need not worry about my side. Once I take down Haiyang Base, I will be able to become a help to you in the future."

After "recognizing their kinship," Qian Kesheng stopped putting on airs with his "this humble one" talk, instead repeatedly expressing his determination for an alliance and making plans to seize power together.

Liu Mu did not expose him, but she found his words useful and also hinted in her speech that she would give Qian Kesheng a hand.

After she left, Qian Kesheng wiped the smile from his face, shivered in the wind and snow, and turned to enter the large house.

"Freezing to death, what kind of hellish weather is this," Qian Kesheng said, having the butler take off his overcoat, and asked, "Where is that idiot?"

"Locked in the basement. The Old Matriarch is very dissatisfied. Would you like to go upstairs and take a look, Master?"

This set of titles in the Qian Family was something Qian Kesheng had specifically commissioned an old imperial loyalist to devise after he made his fortune; even now, for the sake of a bit of verbal prestige, it had not been abandoned.

Qian Kesheng pinched the bridge of his nose in great annoyance, the amplitude of his raised hand just enough to reveal one-third of the golden Rolex on his wrist... "Mother, sigh, now all the burdens are pressed onto me, the head of the family; they aren't even afraid I might collapse from exhaustion one day."

"You are in good health, Master. That they can enjoy themselves like this is all thanks to you, the head of the family." Having been with Qian Kesheng for many years, the butler naturally knew how to flatter him, "Was the person who just left really one of our own?"

"Could that be fake?" Qian Kesheng was surprisingly not suspicious in the slightest, "If they were trying to swindle me with other methods, they might be after money or supplies. Not to mention the identity that person holds outside is right there, even the Golden Butterfly that symbolizes internal status is something I've only seen for the second time in all these years. We will follow her from now on; there will surely be great prospects."

"You will naturally have a grand future, Master; the century-old legacy of the Qian Family is all tied to you," the butler had doubts in his heart, but that didn't stop him from obsequiously supporting Qian Kesheng, who was about his own age. As for whether there was actually a problem with Liu Mu, what did that have to do with a butler who earned five hundred Contribution Value a month?

……

Liu Mu's convoy was to spend the night in this small village. That evening, the villagers enthusiastically cooked sweet potato porridge for them, and each person was also served a few slices of smoked meat and some salted fish.

Things that few people liked in the era of peace were now all good things.

Sweet potatoes, also known as yams by northerners, were planted in the Barrier's farms, but the quantity was truly too small, and they were all kept as seeds, so they couldn't be eaten yet.

Rice had been distributed a few times in the Barrier, but after entering collective life, it was all ground into powder to make gruel; otherwise, there really wasn't enough to go around.

The fragrance and sweetness went without saying; just having a hot meal made the people in the convoy quite moved. In the ice and snow, they had been gnawing on Compressed Biscuits and drinking cold water, and were about to get sick from the cold.

At night, there was no need to sleep outside, and everyone was no longer diligent about taking shifts; no one wanted to leave their warm bedding. When Liu Mu left, not a single person—neither those sleeping nor those dozing by the fire—noticed.

Unlike during the day, the large house at night concentrated its heating in the second-floor bedrooms. After only a few hours, a thick layer of frost had condensed on the door frames of the living room.

Liu Mu watched for a while; the only people in the entire villa were the two bodyguards roasting themselves by the fire in the security booth, and they had no intention of coming out to patrol.

The bedroom on the east side of the second floor had unstable lighting, red in color, which made one unable to help but think too much.

When Liu Mu first learned of the Nun Society's sacrificial rituals, her worldview had also been severely shaken. Based on this, she hid in the nearest abandoned house, not wanting to get close for a long time.

If she happened to see something that would hurt her eyes, it would be a huge loss.

As for the purpose of coming here in the cold of night—she was going to kill someone again.

Before leaving, she had to deal with this hidden danger; it was still that same point she made to Qi Fengxia—who knew when she would be able to come back next time.

As it happened, Liu Mu had taken a liking to this house; at the very least, it was enough for half the village's residents to escape the cold.

As for the other half, hadn't they already dug some burrows? With the two places combined, it was enough.

Qian Kelong, who had been thrown into the basement for confinement, hadn't even reacted when Liu Mu slipped in like a puddle of water before he was force-fed a mouthful of Red Mist.

By the time he let out a beast-like roar, his body had already reached its limit and burst open.

"Mutation failed, what a pity." Liu Mu was naturally not afraid of him succeeding in his mutation, because this basement did not have enough energy replenishment to support the mutation process.

"There, this is the end for those who do evil and bully others. Remember this; you mustn't be a bad person in your next life."

She watched quietly as the man gradually turned into pus before her eyes; the head that had already swollen into a pig's face was gone in the blink of an eye.

This kind of deathbed education was naturally not to comfort the painfully dying Qian Kelong, but for Liu Mu to maintain her own precarious humanity.

Killing, after all, always requires a reason; otherwise, what would she become? A non-human monster that loves slaughter? No, no, no, New Humans are also humans, and besides, she was just a "Merchant" doing business.

【Host, why must you make things so difficult for yourself? This person had already done many bad things and had quite a few lives on his hands.】

"So what? I am a human."

【Is the concept of humanity really that important to you?】

"What else? 'Not a human' is an insult."

Having killed the person silently in an energy form, Liu Mu did not leave immediately, but instead strolled through the villa in a relaxed manner.

Even though Qian Kesheng had sufficient wealth before the disaster, he now had no electricity to power anti-theft and surveillance systems; this could be seen not only from the surveillance cameras that never lit up, but also from the fact that they used wood for heating.

Entering the night, the villa's Generator stopped.

There were sixteen basements in total, divided into three levels.

Qian Kelong, this "Second Young Master," was naturally not locked on the bottom level, and the so-called confinement room was even furnished with thick bedding and sufficient warm supplies.

The first level down had five rooms, filled with large amounts of clothing and bedding; they should have been for taking refuge.

The second level had two rooms, storing large amounts of fuel, weapons, as well as daily necessities and medicine.

Just as Liu Mu was curious if the third level would be all weapons, she pushed open the door to see a massive warehouse without partitions.

The floor area of the three levels was the same, so one could imagine just how large this warehouse was.

Fresh vegetables and meat were frozen, and rice, flour, grain, oil, and instant foods went without saying; there were even quite a few beverages. As for the seasonings the Qian Family matriarch wanted, there were twenty or so boxes of them here.

The quantity of food alone was more than double what had been under Liu Mu's previous Scrap Station.

The key was that she had been hoarding intentionally, and the Qian Family had this much too; it could only mean that Qian Kesheng was telling the truth during the day—the people from the Nun Society really had given him the "Ten-Day Burning" forecast.

However, a considerable portion of these items were not from that time; looking at the dates marked on them, many had been stocked in recent months, and there were even some supplies distributed by the Barrier to the Base.

Liu Mu remembered a friend once mentioning to her that disaster relief supplies in many places could remain for seven or eight years after a disaster—not because the disaster continued, of course, but because some were hidden away by "parasites" or sold off; the rest, even if they expired or rotted, would not be given to the ordinary people who needed them.

It didn't seem strange that the Qian Family had the Barrier's supplies.

People, after all, make fortunes from national disasters during wars and from refugee disasters during catastrophes; what did these count for now?

This time, Liu Mu only took half of the spare ammunition and medicine; she didn't take anything else.

Soon, very soon, these things would reach the hands of the people who truly needed them, just like this large house.

When the light of day brightened, movement came from the Qian Family, and Liu Mu, who had slept for less than three hours, poked her head out of her sleeping bag, "What is it, why is it so noisy?"