Before they set off, Lin Wanqiu approached Shen Ye and got straight to the point. "Captain Shen, now that you've switched to an RV, what are you going to do with your old Volvo?"
Shen Ye's gaze settled on her pretty face, and the corners of his mouth lifted slightly. "Why? Do you want it?"
Lin Wanqiu nodded without hesitation, then explained, "The headlights on the car An Ning and I share are broken, so traveling at night is really inconvenient. Besides, it's too cramped to live in comfortably..."
Shen Ye adopted a look of realization. Just as her face filled with anticipation, he immediately dashed her hopes. "Why should I give it to you just because you want it?"
But a moment later, he changed tack. "Of course, I really don't have any use for it anymore."
"The Dawn Convoy follows the rule of equivalent exchange. If you can offer something that satisfies me, these keys are yours."
As he spoke, he took out the keys and waved them.
"Something that satisfies you?" Lin Wanqiu looked bewildered.
She thought it over, but couldn't come up with anything she currently owned that was worth offering.
The bank cards in her wallet held over a million in savings, but in the world as it was now, money was no different from wastepaper.
At this point, the only thing she had that might interest a man was probably her body.
She was no fool. Considering his age and the way he had looked at her earlier, she quickly arrived at that conclusion.
Lin Wanqiu had absolute confidence in her figure and looks.
Although she had been divorced once before the apocalypse, she had still had plenty of suitors.
But how could I trade my body?
Anxious and embarrassed, she unconsciously let her gaze drift back to Shen Ye.
With his handsome face, its hint of wickedness, and his tall frame of over six feet, he would have been exceptionally good-looking even before the apocalypse.
If I did that with him, I wouldn't really be losing out. And I'd get a more comfortable SUV in return.
That thought seemed to make her feel a little better.
After an internal struggle, Lin Wanqiu clenched her fingers and finally forced out the words she could barely bring herself to say.
"If you don't mind a woman who's already been married, then in exchange, you can do whatever you want."
"But only once!"
She held up one finger, unable to meet Shen Ye's eyes. A faint blush rose to her cheeks, lending her pretty face a shy innocence rarely seen in a woman her age.
Shen Ye froze for a moment.
He genuinely hadn't been thinking along those lines. He had simply wanted to uphold the convoy's rule of fair trade, even with a teammate who had been through life-and-death situations alongside him.
Still, the soul residing in his body belonged to a man in his thirties.
Before transmigrating here, Shen Ye had already been an old hand with women.
Whenever he completed an employer's assignment and collected his reward, he made plenty of visits to various red-light districts.
He had a clear-eyed view of relations between men and women.
Even before the apocalypse, beautiful women had been a scarce resource.
After the apocalypse, that quality had been magnified without limit.
A person's body? Their dignity?
In this world, they weren't even worth as much as a packet of instant noodles or a bottle of water.
His gaze swept over Lin Wanqiu's face, then traveled down to her tightly pressed thighs.
Though Lin Wanqiu's looks fell slightly short of Song Shiya's, her figure was unquestionably the best among all the women in the convoy. Being in her thirties also gave her a fully ripened allure.
Under his burning gaze, Lin Wanqiu's thighs trembled slightly, and her face grew hotter still.
Before the apocalypse, she had devoted herself to her career and those cultural relics. She couldn't remember how many years it had been since she'd felt this way.
When Shen Ye merely continued looking her over without speaking, she grew anxious instead and hurriedly added, "Don't worry. I'm clean..."
"My ex-husband was the only man I've ever been with. And... his sexual orientation was an issue. He hardly ever touched me. That's why I divorced him."
Her explanation made Shen Ye's eyes brighten further.
Although he had no particular hang-ups about a woman's sexual history, being clean was definitely a plus in his book.
If he still played coy at a time like this, could he even call himself a man?
"Come see me when we stop to rest tomorrow."
With that, Shen Ye handed her the Volvo's keys and left her with a meaningful smile.
Lin Wanqiu looked at the keys held out before her. After a moment's hesitation, she took them and gripped them tightly.
That meant her second deal with Shen Ye had officially been sealed.
She wouldn't regret it.
Compared with doing that, having another car now gave her an extra measure of security for her life, as well as more say in her future dealings with An Ning.
Besides, he wasn't bad-looking. If she'd had to submit to Zhao Biao, the man who had coveted her before, she would have been better off dead.
Just think of it as getting pricked by a needle. It'll be fine.
Shen Ye took out the RV keys he had just acquired. The moment he opened the door, an awful mixture of cigarette smoke and sour sweat hit him in the face.
He frowned and instinctively waved a hand in front of his nose. Only after the smell had dissipated a little did he begin moving in the supplies he had unloaded from the Volvo.
The RV's interior was more spacious than he had expected.
The vehicle had been a luxury RV to begin with. After taking it over, Zhao Biao had hired someone to remodel and upgrade the interior, maximizing every bit of usable space.
A broad, dark brown leather sofa sat behind the driver's seat, with two unwashed black tank tops draped over its back.
Several opened packets of snacks lay scattered across the coffee table in front of the sofa, alongside an ashtray overflowing with cigarette butts and a few pieces of women's underwear in assorted colors.
Behind the cab stood a folding dining table, with a bloodstained knife resting on top.
The sofa had been modified into two stacked double beds. The sheets were rumpled, their originally white fabric covered in dark red stains.
Judging by how widely the stains were spread, Shen Ye didn't need anyone to tell him what kind of blood it was.
A smartphone whose battery had long since died and two gold chains lay beside the pillow.
He opened the storage compartment at the head of the bed and took a look. It was stuffed with all kinds of jade, gold jewelry, and expensive cigarettes, along with several hair clips and earrings that clearly belonged to women.
After looking through it, Shen Ye shook his head and sighed inwardly. Comparisons really are infuriating. What kind of miserable life have I been living?
He had nearly lost his life just trying to get something to eat and drink, while this man had already started collecting things with no practical use in the apocalypse.
Looking farther toward the windows on the right, he found a modified kitchenette. There wasn't even a pot on it, only an electric kettle and an unwashed metal bowl beside it, with a little leftover instant noodle broth inside.
The water pipe beneath the kitchenette connected to a bathroom barely large enough for one person to enter and exit.
Shen Ye continued following the pipes and discovered that the water in the RV's tank was actually drinkable mineral water.
"That bastard really knew how to waste things."
Seeing several empty, discarded mineral water bottles beside the tank, he couldn't help clicking his tongue.
It was no exaggeration to say that, out there now, a single bottle of mineral water could buy a person's life.
Then again, Zhao Biao had burned, killed, and plundered his way here. Supplies and drinking water were the last things he lacked, as the storage area at the very rear of the RV made clear.
The large storage area still held cases of mineral water, instant noodles, sausages, and canned meat.
It was enough to feed an ordinary person for a month.
A moment later, his gaze landed on a black plastic bag tucked into the farthest corner. Curious, he opened it.
Shen Ye was instantly dumbfounded.
It was filled entirely with women's erotic lingerie, and even contained a few little toys.
He had initially intended to throw away all the clothing in the bag, but then he remembered the deal he had just made with Lin Wanqiu. Thinking it might come in handy later, he decided to keep it.
Before you continue