Chapter 52: The Enemy's Probe

Inside the apartment.

Knock, knock, knock!

The sound of knocking echoed.

Ye Feng remained entirely unmoved.

Nan Shiyin, however, felt a twinge of panic and quickly looked to Ye Feng for guidance.

Ye Feng replied calmly and softly:

"Don't worry, I have everything under control."

Knock, knock, knock!

The knocking continued.

"I'll handle this!"

With those words, Ye Feng stood up and walked over to the door.

"Who is it?"

...

Outside the door, Wang Dazhuang and Monkey exchanged awkward glances.

Monkey spoke in an earnest tone:

"Hello, we're survivors from around here, and also teachers at Jiangcheng University. My name is Li Fenghui."

"We smelled you... it seemed like you were having hot pot..."

"Could you please spare some food for us? We'd be very grateful..."

Ye Feng bluntly refused:

"No!"

"Please leave!"

At that moment, Nan Shiyin walked over to stand beside Ye Feng, peeked through the peephole, and whispered:

"I recognize this person. It really seems to be... Teacher Li."

"Oh? And what do you think we should do?" A flicker of thought crossed Ye Feng's mind.

Nan Shiyin pondered for a moment before saying:

"I think, for our own safety, we shouldn't open the door."

Ye Feng nodded in approval:

"Shiyin, you're entirely right!"

"In this apocalypse, there's no reason to pity others. After all, human hearts are treacherous!"

Outside the door, Monkey's voice persisted:

"Fellow student, please..."

Ye Feng said coldly: "Get lost!"

Hearing the absolute rejection from inside, Wang Dazhuang and Monkey exchanged glances and decided to change their approach.

"Fellow student, can we trade some rice and bread with you for some of your hot pot ingredients...?"

"Rest assured, we won't let you lose out on the quantities..."

Hearing the people outside still chattering endlessly, Ye Feng turned to Nan Shiyin and said:

"I'll open the door and chase them off..."

Nan Shiyin thought for a second and said:

"Then I'll step away for a moment, so as not to cause you any unnecessary trouble."

With that, Nan Shiyin stood up and retreated into the bedroom.

Though Ye Feng felt it was completely unnecessary, he didn't stop her.

"Come on, student, this trade is a massive bargain for you..."

Before he could finish his sentence, Ye Feng pulled the door wide open.

As soon as the door swung open, Wang Dazhuang and Monkey's eyes lit up instantly.

A rolling wave of fragrant hot pot steam billowed out from the room, making their mouths water uncontrollably.

The dining table was crowded with an astonishing variety of food.

Sliced beef and mutton, napa cabbage, mushroom and pork meatballs...

Ye Feng glanced over Wang Dazhuang and Monkey.

One was powerfully built, while the other was short, thin, and wiry.

A thought flickered in his mind.

A grain-sized, invisible, and transparent bug quietly fluttered out from Ye Feng's sleeve, gently landing in Wang Dazhuang's hair roots.

This was the eavesdropping bug Ye Feng had recently acquired.

Invisible, colorless, and minuscule in size, it was nearly impossible to detect, and its function was to intercept and listen to the conversations of those nearby.

Ever since acquiring it, Ye Feng had never had the chance to use it.

Current circumstances provided the perfect opportunity to test it out.

Wang Dazhuang and Monkey swallowed hard.

After deploying the eavesdropping bug, Ye Feng said coldly:

"I told you to leave. Do you not understand human speech?"

Monkey raised the plastic bag in his hand.

"Fellow student, I'm willing to trade what I have here for a bag of napa cabbage and half a box of beef. What do you say?"

Just in terms of sheer quantity, the two of them had indeed brought quite a lot.

There was easily over ten pounds of rice, seven or eight pieces of bread, and three ham sausages.

Clearly, Ye Feng would come out ahead in this trade.

However, Ye Feng cared nothing for such meager scraps.

"Not interested!"

"Get lost!"

Hearing the refusal, the two men weren't particularly surprised.

Wang Dazhuang said: "C-Classmate, think about it, it's a very generous deal..."

"Get lost, or you die!"

A chilling murderous intent radiated from Ye Feng's body.

The two men shivered involuntarily. Monkey opened his mouth to say something more, but Wang Dazhuang grabbed him by the collar.

"Fine! We're leaving right now!"

Wang Dazhuang hauled Monkey away by the neck of his shirt.

Seeing them leave, Ye Feng slowly closed the door.

Nan Shiyin walked out, a look of worry on her face.

"Ye Feng, do you think they'll come back to cause us trouble?"

"After all, there's an old Chinese saying: do not flaunt your wealth..."

"This hot pot meal wouldn't have meant much before, but nowadays..."

Ye Feng placed a hand on Nan Shiyin's slender waist and murmured by her ear:

"Rest assured, Shiyin, I have my own plans."

"Don't waste your energy on irrelevant people. You don't need to worry about these scum for now."

Ironically, we should finish eating these things quickly so we can get down to business...

A delicate blush crept onto Nan Shiyin's cheeks, and she nodded obediently.

The two of them sat back down to continue enjoying their hot pot feast.

...

Meanwhile.

Wang Dazhuang and Monkey returned to their room.

Sun Weixin eagerly hurried forward to meet them.

"How was it? What did you find out?"

Monkey thought for a moment and summarized:

"There should be two people in there, a man and a woman."

"The hot pot ingredients are extremely lavish—beef, mutton, meatballs, all kinds of vegetables..."

Hearing this, everyone present began to drool.

Monkey continued:

"Anyway, there's a lot of food and a great variety..."

"If we ration it, it's easily enough for us to have three consecutive meals without any problem..."

"However, the guy is dressed in designer clothes, clearly hasn't suffered, and speaks with a lot of confidence. I suspect he might be an esper just like you, Boss..."

"As for the woman, we didn't see her, but I vaguely heard her voice. It was extremely sweet, so she's probably a beauty too..."

Sun Weixin nodded repeatedly as he listened to these words.

"Very good, you two did a good job."

He stood up, glanced around at the people gathered before him, and said viciously:

"As the saying goes, how can one allow others to snore beside one's couch!"

"I've decided to launch a surprise attack on these two and take them down in one fell swoop!"

"What do you all think?"

Not a single person in the room raised an objection.

After all, those who had opposed Sun Weixin had already been killed by him.

Not to mention, the tempting prospect of the hot pot was driving their desires.

Sun Weixin nodded with satisfaction.

"Splendid, we'll time the raid for tonight... Now, let's discuss how we'll execute the ambush..."

...

Inside the apartment.

Ye Feng ate his hot pot while listening to the information relayed back by the eavesdropping bug.

"A sneak attack?"

Ye Feng sneered, put down his chopsticks, and looked at Nan Shiyin:

"Shiyin, I'm going out to take care of something."

"Just stay right here and wait for me to return."

With that, Ye Feng picked up his keys and walked toward the door.

It wasn't until Ye Feng opened the door that Nan Shiyin snapped back to reality.

"Ye Feng, are you going to..."

The words reached the tip of her tongue, but she checked herself with a second thought.

What right did she have to question Ye Feng's decisions?

Changing her phrasing, Nan Shiyin said:

"Ye Feng, I will unconditionally support any decision you make!"

"I only ask that you be careful and look after your own safety!"