Dividing the Bread

Aboard the Hope.

A middle-aged couple was arguing.

"Honey, didn't we agree to split it evenly?"

"Huh? Isn't that what we did? It's perfectly fair!"

The man's face fell as he held a piece of naan noticeably smaller than his wife's, wanting to cry but unable to. "How is this fair? Yours is obviously so much bigger than mine!"

The woman immediately grew displeased at that.

"Seriously, you're a man. What's the point of quibbling over every little thing?"

"But, but you ate more yesterday too! I went hungry all day yesterday, and today I really don't have any strength left..."

"Pah! Useless! Why don't you take a good look at yourself? How come Wang could catch a fish, but you couldn't?"

"Team Leader Yang is already a Transcendent at such a young age. What about you? Why can't you awaken and let me enjoy some special treatment too?"

"All these years, your car wasn't as good as my best friend's husband's, your house wasn't as big as my male best friend's husband's, and your salary wasn't as high as my sister's husband's. Have you even been trying?"

"And you're complaining that this piece of naan isn't enough! It's not the naan that upsets me. It's that I'm almost forty and still have to quibble over a piece of naan!"

The machine-gun barrage of attacks left the man utterly deflated.

He held that smaller piece of naan with an ugly expression, as though even his appetite had diminished somewhat.

The man's face was livid, and the woman was panting heavily from all her cursing. At this tense moment, Qin Mao walked over wearing a peacemaker's smile.

"Come on, you're husband and wife. Getting along is what matters most. What's there to argue about?"

"What fucking business is it of..."

Halfway through her curse, the woman saw that it was the Transcendent who had just joined the fleet, and a handsome young man at that. She immediately changed her tune.

"Boo-hoo, it's you, Qin! Come settle this for us. It's just one piece of naan, but this damn husband of mine insists on nitpicking and saying I didn't divide it fairly!"

She tossed her hair in what she considered a seductive gesture, unaware that it was all tangled and had no beauty to speak of.

"Honestly! How could he do that? Nothing in life pleases me more than upholding fairness. Let me divide the bread for you!"

"Yes, yes! Thank you in advance, then, young Qin!"

The woman winked flirtatiously and thrust out her chest.

She thought Qin Mao must be interested in her, and dividing the bread was just an excuse.

She had seen plenty of pickup tricks like this before.

At a time like this, fidelity couldn't fill her stomach. If she could catch this Transcendent's eye, not only was his boat roomier, but he was bound to have more supplies too!

Besides, he was better-looking and had a better body...

The woman's imagination began to run wild.

As for the man, since his wife had already agreed, he timidly nodded too, out of awe of the Transcendent.

The Transcendent on the neighboring ship was frightening enough, bringing a skeleton around all day. Who knew what this Qin fellow was like?

But he said he liked fairness and upholding justice... presumably his character should be trustworthy?

Qin Mao couldn't care less what the couple thought. He had already grabbed both pieces of bread, turned his back on them, and gotten busily to work.

"All right, ta-da-done!"

Two minutes later, he turned around.

He held up a piece of bread in each hand.

A small chunk had been broken off the man's piece, while a large chunk had been broken off the woman's.

Now the man's piece was a little bigger than the woman's.

"That's not fair! His is bigger than mine! That's not fair!" the woman cried urgently.

"All right, I'll divide them again."

Qin Mao nodded in wholehearted agreement, turned around, and began moving his arms back and forth, gesturing away again.

This time took longer-a full five minutes.

"Have you finished dividing them yet?"

The woman fidgeted anxiously. He guessed that Qin Mao might be measuring them with a ruler and magnifying glass.

"Done! This time it's absolutely fair and impartial!"

Qin Mao smiled faintly and turned back around.

He held one piece of bread in each hand.

The two pieces were exactly the same size.

Only perhaps they could no longer be called two pieces.

"Two bites" would have been more appropriate.

Each was smaller than a child's palm.

"Qin... young Qin, you're joking, right?"

The woman stammered out her question.

"I'm not joking! What, didn't I divide them fairly?"

"F-fairly," the woman forced out a smile. "Then what about the leftover scraps? I want those scraps."

"Oh, I took care of those for you, free of charge."

Qin Mao wiped the corner of his mouth and patted his stomach.

A gun barrel peeked out from inside his coat.

The couple exchanged a glance. Both had seen the gleaming gun barrel, and their expressions filled with fear.

Neither dared say anything more. They could only swallow their displeasure and accept the loss.

Losing the bread meant going hungry for a day at most. Angering a Transcendent might cost them their lives.

"Um, all right, it's very fair. Please give us the bread. Thank you."

The man licked his lips and reached out to ask for the tiny remaining bite of bread.

"Oh! My memory!"

Qin Mao suddenly slapped his forehead.

"Aren't there still the notarization and judgment fees? Normally, I charge fifty percent of the bread by weight, but it's the apocalypse now, and everyone has it hard. I'll just take these two bites!"

With that, he stuffed the bread into his mouth, chewed and chewed, then swallowed.

The couple was completely dumbfounded.

"Oh, right, I haven't asked you two yet-was my judgment fair?"

Qin Mao pressed a step closer, narrowing his eyes and slipping his right hand into his waistband as danger radiated from him.

"Ah! Fair, fair, very fair! Neither of us has any objections!"

The woman instantly threw herself into the man's arms, clinging tightly to him and trembling.

The next moment, [Just Verdict] stirred with apparent extreme reluctance, and the master-binding ritual's progress jumped considerably again.

"Two happy events at once! Looks like I have a chance of fully subduing this gun today!"

Qin Mao turned away in delight, returned to the Eerie Coconut, and gulped down several large mouthfuls of mineral water.

Behind him, the man was left gnashing his teeth in furious frustration before unleashing his anger on the woman.

"Bitch, this is all your fault! What the hell did you ask him to uphold fairness for?! If you hadn't insisted on taking advantage and giving yourself more in the first place, would any of this have happened? Now neither of us gets to eat. Happy now...?"

His objective achieved, whatever happened afterward had nothing to do with Qin Mao.

"I'm choking to death, choking to death!"

Naan was soft fresh out of the oven, but after a day, it could crack walnuts.

After sitting around for so long since the apocalypse began, it was a miracle it hadn't spoiled, never mind how hard it was.

It was only thanks to being a Sequence Transcendent with a strong physique that he had managed to gnaw through it in a few minutes.

Even so, it had nearly choked him.

Having eaten and drunk his fill, Qin Mao felt more comfortable than ever before.

"Where should I go next...?"

Qin Mao's gaze shifted back and forth between the [Hope], the [Rose], and the [Yaximu], scanning them again and again. He also listened intently, hoping to hear something that needed judgment.

Unfortunately, both of Qin Mao's judgments had caused far too much commotion.

On the [Yaximu], spectators had crowded around in rings, even drawing the fleet captain over and leading to a new ship rule being issued.

This time on the [Hope], everyone aboard had also heard about it.

The [Rose] was sandwiched between the two ships, so its survivors had watched the spectacle twice in a row.

Basically every survivor now knew that this newcomer, Qin Mao, was a lunatic who liked self-righteously upholding fairness but was actually underhanded beyond measure.

If you dared let him uphold justice, you would lose even the underwear off your backside.

As a result, everyone still on deck without a dispute was silent as a mouse, while even those with disputes kept their mouths shut like quails, bottling it up and enduring it.

They were all terrified of attracting that pervert Qin's attention.

In this society that had already lost its order, the Hope Fleet had actually become unusually quiet and orderly.

It had to be said, that was a miracle too.