TSIAGBICATMWI Chapter 24

Chapter 24: It’s Hard to Be a Good Person

Seeing Lu Yunzhou’s figure quickly catching up with Xie YunChuan and the others, and about to disappear into the jungle, Lin Yi gritted his teeth, went back to pick up his bag, and said to Chen Zhiqiang, “I’m leaving too, goodbye.” After speaking, he grabbed Lin Yan and quickly chased after them.

Chen Zhiqiang picked up his bag and was about to follow when Wen Fan grabbed him. “Zhiqiang, they’re going to their deaths, are you going too? There must be something formidable in this dense forest, otherwise you wouldn’t have encountered so many corpses when you went in before. Don’t be reckless.”

Chen Zhiqiang said anxiously, “Teacher, stop talking. You guys should pack your things and leave too. Staying here is also death. It’s safer to go in with them.”

Wen Fan said sternly, “Nonsense. If there’s no food, you can look for it. Going in now is death.”

Chen Zhiqiang’s arm was tightly held, preventing him from leaving, while Lin Yi and the others had already disappeared into the green.

He deflated, put down his things, “Alright then, I’ll go look around nearby for something to eat. Anyone want to come with me?”

Hopeful eyes swept across the group, but no one responded. He turned his gaze back to Wen Fan, “Teacher?”

Wen Fan’s eyes darted around, avoiding his gaze. “You go. I have to watch over them here. What would it look like to leave three girls here alone?”

“Okay.” Chen Zhiqiang didn’t say much, and left in disappointment.

He knew it would be like this. Ever since they met in the apocalypse, he was the one who did the work, he was the one who found the food, he was the one who killed the zombies, he was the one who got injured, and he had to share the things he found with them. Wen Fan even always put on the airs of a teacher and secretly took advantage.

If he hadn’t met Lin Yi and partnered up with him, he would have died in some forgotten corner long ago.

He could excuse the three girls, since they were girls, and it was okay to take care of them a little, but Wen Fan, a grown man, did nothing all day. When zombies came, he would only hide behind. But when it came to dividing things, he stood up and said that he was the teacher and it was appropriate for him to do the dividing.

Damn it! Appropriate my ass. Those were all things he had worked so hard to find, why should he give them to him? Did he think he could just divide things as he pleased?

He had been yielding to his teacher’s authority all along, and that shameless old man even wanted to divide Lin Yi’s share equally at first. He was really giving him face. Fortunately, Lin Yi wasn’t as weak as he was.

He really wanted to leave with Lin Yi and the others just now, but he succumbed to Wen Fan’s authority once again. Ah! Accept his fate, who told him he couldn’t bear to ignore them?

He searched all around, but there wasn’t a single living thing nearby, not to mention food. He returned to the dilapidated house, exhausted. Four pairs of eyes looked at him in unison. “Did you find anything to eat?”

Chen Zhiqiang replied dejectedly, “No, I searched everywhere nearby, there’s nothing.”

One of the girls said quietly, “You didn’t secretly eat it all yourself before coming back, did you?”

Chen Zhiqiang almost choked. He said angrily, “What do you mean?”

Lin Jinshu rolled her eyes and said, “You know what I mean.”

Chen Zhiqiang said angrily, “Lin Jinshu, shut your mouth! You ungrateful bastards, I’ve been feeding you sparingly until now, you don’t even say thank you, and now you have the nerve to question me?”

Another girl retorted, “Is that what you call feeding us? We’re almost starving to death.”

Well, none of the three were good people.

After they had argued for a while, Wen Fan finally stood up hypocritically to scold the three girls, and said to Chen Zhiqiang, “Zhiqiang, they’re just starving, don’t be so calculative with them. You’re the only boy here, if you don’t take on more responsibility, who will? It’s okay if you didn’t find anything to eat, we’ll all just endure it, endure it and it’ll pass.”

Chen Zhiqiang really wanted to say: Aren’t you a man?

In the end, he held back, and was too lazy to argue with them. He sat down and said, “Didn’t we have some food left yesterday? We haven’t eaten anything for two days, let’s take it out and divide it.”

As soon as he said this, the four of them had strange expressions and didn’t say anything.

Chen Zhiqiang looked at Wen Fan, “Teacher? Take it out!” The last four words were shouted out, showing that he had reached his limit.

Wen Fan put on his teacher’s airs again, and said sternly, “Zhiqiang! How can you talk to your teacher like that? Have you forgotten to respect your teacher and value the Dao?”

“Okay, Teacher, I was wrong. Take out the food, I just want something to fill my stomach.” Chen Zhiqiang, the good old man, had his temper worn down.

Only then did Wen Fan say somewhat awkwardly, “Well, they were really too hungry, so I divided the food among them.”

Hearing him put all the blame on them, Lin Jinshu scoffed inwardly. This old thing, he clearly wanted to eat it himself. We only got a tiny bit. It all went into this old bastard’s stomach. This hypocrite.

The other two girls had the same thought, but they all kept silent. They would take the blame, because they were still counting on Wen Fan to pressure Chen Zhiqiang to find them food.

Chen Zhiqiang was truly heartbroken. He asked sarcastically, “So? You didn’t leave me a single bite? Would it have been too much trouble to leave me an extra portion when you were dividing the food?”

Wen Fan, with his old mouth and old face, said shamelessly, “I was thinking that you were going out to find food anyway, so we could just give you an extra portion of whatever you brought back. Who knew you wouldn’t bring anything back!” He unconsciously added a hint of blame in his tone at the end.

Chen Zhiqiang: “Good! Good! Good! It’s all my fault, right? It’s my fault for not being able to find food. Give me an extra portion my ass. I found it all myself, did I need you to give me an extra portion? Who’s taking advantage of whom, don’t you know?”

Lin Jinshu said quietly, “If it’s not your fault, whose fault is it? Blaming us for your own incompetence in finding food.”

“Jinshu, shut up!” Wen Fan scolded sternly.

Lin Jinshu sullenly shut her mouth, still with a disgruntled expression.

Chen Zhiqiang grabbed his backpack and said angrily, “Okay, it’s my incompetence, I’ll go find food myself, you guys live well.” After speaking, he walked into the night.

“Hey…!” One of the girls wanted to chase after him, but Wen Fan stopped her. “Don’t bother with him, this is the wilderness, he’ll come back when he cools down, where can he run to.”

“But he took his bag.”

Wen Fan dismissed it. “When you run away from home in a fit of anger, you have to take something to make it look like you mean it, right?”

Seeing that Wen Fan seemed so confident, the girl felt relieved and went back to her corner. It wasn’t that she was worried about Chen Zhiqiang, she was just afraid that if he really left, they would lose a free laborer, and a willing one at that.

Although they had been frightened along the way, they hadn’t really suffered much. At most, they were just hungry. Chen Zhiqiang did all the dirty work.