NOVEL NEXT Chapter 597: Sly Dealings
="These are the family members of the ability users who joined the base. You know that Yu Miaomiao took them away when the ability users joined the army and relocated them under the pretext that she was worried that others would like to control the ability users by using their family members, right?"
Of course, she did. She had learnt it on the day when she heard Fox speaking to Chu Xia and the woman agreeing to go with him and relocate her family to one of the apartments where she would be away from Bai Feng and Bai Meiyue, hidden so well that even Bai Feng would have a hard time finding them.
"What about them?" Bai Meiyue questioned. It still didn't explain why this man was here or how he came here when the safe base was still under the attacks of mutated bugs. Just what was he doing here?
As if reading her mind, Bai Feng replied, "We have cleared some of the mutated bugs, and they have retreated. Though I am sure that they must have returned by now and are attacking the base again, it did give me enough time to escape from the safe base."
He paused and continued, "As for why I brought these people here. I hope that you will keep them here with you until we take over the safe base; if they stay somewhere else, the ability users won't be able to pay attention to the war that is coming. But everyone has seen your ability in the past few days, and they know that as long as their families stay with you, they will be safe."
"But–"
"I promise that I will send you fifty crystal nuclei for each person as long as you keep them with you."
Before she could reject it, Bai Feng threw in quite a tempting offer; she had to admit that getting fifty crystal nuclei without going out to hunt zombies was a really good deal. She was five months pregnant, and with her belly getting bigger and bigger, she could no longer run around as she did in the past.
Bai Meiyue raised her head and looked at the people Bai Feng had brought with him. There were more than thirty-five people in total. If she got fifty crystal nuclei for each one of them, then she would get one thousand seven hundred and fifty crystal nuclei every day, which was really a lot. Especially for someone like her who couldn't leave the mansion for the time being, with her swollen feet.
What was more, with the mutated chicken, goats and pigs running amok, she had so much meat that she could feed these people for free! Now that she was getting so many crystal nuclei in exchange, this deal was quite good.
"Very well. But I will clear one thing first: no one is allowed to slack off while living in this base. If you are old, then you are supposed to tend to the crops at the greenhouse; if you are young, you need to collect pigweed that we have grown at the boundary of the mansion and feed the pigs. Similarly, they also need to feed the chickens and goats. They also need to clean up the pig pens extra."
"As for the pregnant women, they are either supposed to sew or cook. They cannot expect me to treat them as my ancestors; even my mother, at her age, is cooking for everyone at the mansion. So these people can do that too."
She was not going to let freeloaders stay with her; this was Bai Meiyue's bottom line. If they were allowed to stay with just Bai Feng paying for them, these people might grow twisted. It was better to keep them busy, lest they lose their minds.
Even children as small as Meng Guo were working in the mansion by helping their mother in the kitchen, and the oldest child in this group was eleven years old; he could certainly work if Meng Guo could do it. Anyway, they were not the ones who were going out and hunting down the zombies. It was their family members who awakened as ability users. Since that was the case, these people needed to earn their keep as well.
She was not Yu Miaomiao; she would not keep these people for no reason. After all, she was not putting up with them just because she wanted to control the ability users. She had no such devilish intentions.
"You can use them as you want; I have already talked about this with them." Bai Feng nodded without any hesitation. "As long as these people don't get hurt, use them as you want. They understand where Yu Miaomiao's kindness was coming from, and they have no desire to live the same kind of life where they will become leverage for their loved ones."
Bai Feng was well aware of Bai Meiyue's conditions. He knew that she would never raise anyone who didn't work hard, so he had already told that to the people he brought along. They were willing to work hard as long as they could get enough to eat.
He turned to look at the soldier who came with him, and the man promptly stepped forward to put down the bag of crystal nuclei that he brought with them.
Bai Feng said to Bai Meiyue, "This is the first batch. You can count them, and if they are not enough, just note them down and let me know. I will make sure that the person in charge of collecting the crystal nuclei is given a good lesson for messing up."
Bai Meiyue curled her lips and remarked, "Are you not worried that I will cheat you?"
"You are a lot of things, Yueyue, but you are not a cheater," said Bai Feng. His eyes softened as he looked at Bai Meiyue. He was about to leave but then he paused and asked, "Do you have any supplies that you are willing to sell? Like rice, grain and vegetables?"