Chapter 189: The Rewards Are Worth The Risk

"Stop here."

The barked orders coming out of Chenghai’s mouth managed to catch everyone off guard, but for some reason, Yuche slowed the SUV immediately and went in the direction the other man was pointing in.

I wanted to argue, to point out all the ways that this was going to blow up in our faces, but I also refused to waste another breathe.

The SUV rolled toward the curb before stopping in front of a long row of dark storefronts. I looked at the damaged signs over top and realized that there was everything a survivor could possibly want.

We had parked in front of the corner pharmacy store, with a convenience store to the left, then an outdoor supply shop beside that, and then an electronics/ Best Buy type store.

Even I felt my eyes light up at the possibilities. But then I noticed something else that was important.

Not a single one of these stores seemed to have been broken into... damaged... or otherwise ransacked.

They were so perfect that they practically screamed "I’m a trap, run away and go watch TV."

But apparently, what I could hear and what Chenghai could hear were two completely different things.

Chenghai was studying the buildings like they were whispering sweet nothings in his ear.

"We are starting on the right side and hitting every store we can," he announced after a moment. "Medicine first, food second, and anything useful after that." He gave me his full attention as he spoke the next few words. "We need to prepare to eventually leave the house."

The fuck he said?!?

He was more than welcome to get out of my house. I wasn’t locking the door and keeping him in.

I raised my chin just a bit and put a sarcastic smile that I normally saved for the military on my face. "You do you," I replied.

He nodded his head before pointing toward the pharmacy first. "We move fast. No unnecessary noise."

Yuche nodded once as he briefly looked at me for confirmation. However, Zhenlan was already opening the SUV door.

Absolutely fucking not.

I looked between the two men before leaning back deeper into my seat. "You know, when normal people walk into horror movie situations like this, they’re usually trying to win a Darwin Award."

Neither man reacted, but Lingyun looked at me with his typical humor nowhere to be seen.

"We keep going until there are no supplies left. If it comes to it, we can sleep in the SUV when the sun goes down," Chenghai continued.

Nope.

I sat upright so fast my seatbelt locked.

"...Excuse me?"

"We can’t look a gift horse in the mouth," was Chenghai’s excuse. He wasn’t waiting around for my reply. Before I could even open my mouth, he was already out of the car and standing beside Zhenlan.

"We can’t look a gift horse in the mouth," I repeated slowly as Yuche and Lingyun stiffened their backs. "But when something seems too good to be true... then we’re trusting it?"

Zhenlan’s jaw tightened slightly as he turned to look at me. He was standing just outside my door and it was clear that he could hear everything that I was saying. "The rewards are worth the risk."

And there it was.

The exact sentence people said right before everything went horribly wrong.

Lingyun looked just as unimpressed as I felt. "I would like the record to show that I also think this is a terrible idea."

"Noted," Yuche replied as he shut off the SUV.

The engine died instantly.

Silence settled over the street again.

I hated it immediately.

"There is only one way we are going to survive this," Yuche said under his breath as he looked at me dead in my eyes. "We’ll follow you."

I closed my eyes and felt my shoulders drop. At least I had two men on my side.

When I nodded my head, Yuche grabbed one of the empty duffle bags from the backseat and waited for my next instruction. "You know this is how people die, right?"

"That’s why we follow you. If things go south, we forget about Zhenlan and Chenghai. We’ll come back here, and get the fuck out," he said, and Lingyun nodded with the plan.

"Fine," I grunted. Who was I kidding? I was almost as bad as Zhenlan and Chenghai when it came to getting supplies.

The three of us finally got out of the SUV, but Chenghai was already heading toward the pharmacy while Zhenlan checked the front windows carefully before stepping inside.

After a moment, when there was no screaming, Yuche, Lingyun, and I followed in after them.

Rows of shelves stretched beneath dim emergency lights while advertisements still played soundlessly across several small televisions mounted near the pharmacy counter.

Half of the products were still sitting exactly where employees probably left them months ago, and it was like a prepper’s wet dream.

Medicine, bandages, soap, toothpaste, bottled water stacked near the entrance. You name it, it was waiting for someone like Zhenlan to come and take it.

Completely untouched.

Lingyun looked around slowly as he stepped farther into the store. "Okay... this is weird."

Thank you.

Finally.

Someone with functioning survival instincts.

Chenghai ignored both of us completely and grabbed one of the shopping carts near the entrance.

The wheels squealed loudly against the tile floor and for a second, everybody froze again.

But there was still nothing coming out of the shadows to eat us.

Yuche moved toward the shelves next, grabbing medicine and tossing it into the cart while Chenghai headed straight for the back storage area like he’d done this a thousand times before.

Honestly?

That part bothered me too.

The way he moved through the city.

The way he immediately focused on scavenging.

Like this place wasn’t deeply wrong.

Zhenlan disappeared briefly down one of the aisles before returning with several first aid kits and batteries.

"The back shelves are untouched," he said quietly.

Chenghai nodded once. "Take everything useful."

And just like that, everyone started shopping during the apocalypse again.

Absolutely ridiculous behavior.

I wandered toward the snack aisle instead.

Because priorities mattered.

Several bags of chips still hung from metal hooks while entire shelves of candy bars remained untouched behind glass displays.

Not for long.

The second nobody was looking, everything disappeared neatly into my space.

If these idiots were determined to die in haunted downtown Rongdu, then I was at least getting paid for it.

Lingyun walked past me carrying bottled water before stopping suddenly.

"...Does anyone else feel weird?"

I looked up immediately.

"Weird how?"

He frowned slightly. "I don’t know."

Very helpful.

Chenghai shoved another box of supplies into the cart before finally speaking again. "We move to the next store in five minutes."

He said it like this was normal, like we weren’t standing inside one of the creepiest cities on earth.

I looked toward the dark street outside again.

Then toward the untouched shelves.

Then toward Chenghai and Zhenlan calmly preparing to continue deeper into downtown Rongdu.

"The rewards are worth the risk," I muttered quietly.

Yeah.

Right.

The rewards were never worth the risks.