They ca through the front door like they had already decided where everything was going.
Like my house was already theirs and I was nothing more than an uninvited rat that they couldn’t get rid of.
Their bags swung off their shoulders even as their voices overlapped as they talked excitably about sothing that they had no idea about.
Hell, one of them was already looking at the wall like he was about to start writing on it at any mont so he could rember whatever was in his head. Nobody paused long enough to look around properly, which told everything I needed to know about how this was going to go.
It was the survivors all over again. And I wasn’t going to put up with that.
The first ti was a lesson, this ti it would be nothing but a punishnt. And I wasn’t enough of a masochist to want to go through it a second ti.
Chenghai didn’t move from beside , his arm still resting where it had been on the back of the couch, his coffee in his hand like he was just waiting to watch a show.
The rest of the guys were just as casual. Yuche sat on my other side. He had stayed inside when the rest of us had gone out to confront the military in order to watch our backs from the window, but now he was sitting there with a smirk on his face like he wanted to see just how sideways this shitshow was going to beco.
Zhenlan sat in his wingback chair, the sa newspaper in his had from before the fall. I found it hilarious. If anyone actually thought about it, they would realize that there was no way he could actually be reading it, let alone every day for months. But the people who ca into my house never seed to look at things that closely.
If they did, they would quickly turn around and never co back.
Lingyun was sitting on the other side of the sectional, his fingers dancing over the controller like he didn’t have a care in the world. But it was clear that he wasn’t paying attention to anything on screen. Otherwise he wouldn’t have missed that jump for the past twenty three tis.
The mont the door opened without so much as a knock, I could feel the tension coming off the guys.
But they didn’t say anything. They didn’t counter when Wei and I were coming to an agreent. I wondered if that was because they already had an idea of what I was going to do or they were just trusting the process.
One of the scientists dragged a chair across the floor of the dining room. Another set sothing down on the table like it belonged there. A third stepped closer to the wall and reached into his pocket.
That was more than enough.
I shook my head once and looked up at Wei Guang who was standing between us and the scientists. "Oh," I purred, a smirk playing on my face. "You thought you were moving in here? My bad."
Everyone stopped moving and turned to look at . I could feel Chenghai vibrating beside as he tried to contain his laughter. I could feel Yuche’s tight muscles relaxing.
Yeah, they were trusting the process.
"We had an agreent," said Wei, coming closer to where I was on the sectional. "You agreed."
"I did," I agreed with a nod of my head. "You wanted my place, but this is only a part of my place."
One of the other soldiers that had co in after frowned. "We were told this was the location."
"It is," I answered, already turning away. "You just misunderstood which part."
I didn’t wait for them to argue. I headed toward the back of the house, and after a second, they followed. Their voices picked up again behind , lower this ti like they were hissing at each other trying to figure out what was going on.
I even heard Wei demanding answers from Chenghai, but he didn’t have any to give. I had kept this hand close to the chest.
We stepped out the back door and onto the path. My backyard looked like a normal one. Not overly large given the size of the house. But there was a rock pathway between flowers and erald green grass. It wasn’t until you actually got out here that you began to appreciate the backyard as it was ant to be.
The house faded behind us as we continued to walk, and I could hear the voices behind getting louder and louder as they tried to figure out what I was doing...where I was going.
Finally, after about twenty plus minutes of walking, a hedge ca into view. It was tall enough to make everyone think that this was where the property ended, but that wasn’t the case at all.
Finding the wooden half gate, I pushed it open and stepped into the second half of my backyard.
"Consider it your own place," I said, moving aside so they could see it properly.
The pool house sat just beyond the hedge. Zhenlan called it a pool house, but to , it was just a house. It looked like it had co out of a magazine. Three stories high with clean lines, white siding, black shutters, and a pool out front that hadn’t been touched in months.
Zhenlan had ntioned it when the survivors first ca. Sothing about a graduation gift where I could still live with him but have my own place now that I was grown. I didn’t know anything about it, but I guess the old Rouxi had decorated everything.
I wasn’t going to move, so I might as well make use of it in a different way.
The scientists moved past , their attention already shifting to the structure instead of the walk it took to get here. They stepped inside without waiting, and the reaction was imdiate.
"It’s dirty," one of them said with a sneer.
Of course it was dirty. It hadn’t been touched since the beginning of the apocalypse. But a little dust, a few spiderwebs, and maybe a couple of mice did not make a house unlivable.
"You have a cleaning crew," I said with a shrug. "Might as well get them to do what you are paying them for."
"This isn’t what we agreed to," another one said, turning back toward .
"You needed space," I answered. "You have space. How isn’t this what we agreed upon?"
Wei stepped forward then, his patience finally thinning. "We needed access to the main structure."
"You have access," I said. "You just walked it."
"That’s not the sa thing."
"You’re welco to leave," I replied, my eyes turning cold as I t his. "If you don’t like it, then feel free to take your people and find sothing better."
That stopped him.
Everything outside had already been set. Equipnt had been unloaded, positions taken, systems running. Moving the thirty so odd scientists now ant having to undo all of it, and he knew it.
He looked around once, taking in the distance, the space, the fact that this was still better than what was waiting for them anywhere else.
Then he exhaled. "I’ll assign a security team," he said at last. "The scientists need to be protected around the clock."
"You do that," I replied.
The scientists had already started moving again, complaints shifting into adjustnts, their attention snapping back to the work now that it was clear they weren’t getting anything closer.
That was fine.
They would stay busy.
I turned and walked back the way we ca, leaving them to it.
By the ti I reached the house and sat back down, the noise had settled where it belonged. Distant. Manageable. And definitely not my problem.
Chenghai glanced at after we had co back before going back to his coffee. He didn’t ask anything.
He didn’t need to. I could see the smile on his face.
I picked up my phone and went to sit down on the couch, letting the guys fall where they wanted to.
Now it was ti to take my pound of flesh.
I took in a deep, controlled breath and let it out, stretching my space as far as it could go outside.
The military dropped so much stuff right outside my doors, thinking that it would be safe.
They really should have known better.
One small intention, and a solar panel that was at the end of an entire row of them disappeared, along with all the cables it was attached to. A back up storage batter went with it.
I humd as I selected the drama I wanted to watch and put my head on Yuche’s shoulder even as my mind was already on sothing else.
A satellite dish from one of the communication units ca next, along with everything that it needed to work.
It was a lot like I had done when I went shopping before the world ended. You don’t take enough to really notice. Just enough that if soone did, they would assu it had been misplaced, or moved.
I moved away from the technology until I got to where they were storing their food for the scientists. A crate near the back of a stack disappeared and landed quietly into my space. And an entire case of wine and spirits quickly followed it.
I wanted to take more, I would fully admit it. But I was playing the long ga here.
For every day that they sat outside my front door, for every day that the scientists were living rent freed in my pool house, I would take sothing else.
I shifted on the couch and turned the volu up slightly, letting the noise outside fade again.
I made a deal for internet, streaming services, and dinner. It wasn’t my fault that they thought I could be persuaded by things like that.
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