You were supposed to hoard supplies, why the heck did you hoard zombies!

And for Peng Yue, dealing with these fruits was clearly not so easy.

He did not have a factory.

At most, he could find a few people to take advantage of these days' relatively ample sunlight to work overtime to dry some fruit leather, but that was barely a drop in the bucket compared to his orchard of over a thousand acres.

Therefore, if he could not handle these fruits in a short time, the final outcome would be to watch helplessly as this precious food rotted on the trees.

If he was lucky, maybe he could find a few worms in the rotten fruit to eat.

Consider it a protein supplement.

But if it's about supplementing protein, why not exchange for some canned food instead?

The shelf life is longer, and it's more nutritious and delicious.

"What about the canned food?"

"How do you plan to trade?"

Peng Yue no longer dared to be the first to set a price.

With these two people playing off each other, the moment he dared to speak up, he feared in the next second, half of his offer would be chopped off.

Zhang Ye saw his expression, full of fear of being fleeced by a crafty merchant, and almost felt pity for him.

But remembering the workers at the breeding farm who were painstakingly raising rats and mutant chickens and ducks, sigh, for the sake of his lovely staff, he must harden his heart!

Even though it was mostly zombies doing the work, didn't zombies have rights too? Stay tuned with My Virtual Library Empire

Every now and then, they would get several fingers bitten off.

Once a finger was bitten off, they definitely couldn't do the delicate work of breeding anymore and would have to be sent to construction sites to do heavy lifting and miscellaneous tasks, where they would likely end up with their heads smashed by falling bricks.

They have a hard life, don't they?

The price had to be pressed down!

"As for canned food, it really depends on which type Big Beard Peng wants."

"Which type?"

Peng Yue paused, then remembered that Big Beard had mentioned before that the company produced more than just the two types of canned food they'd eaten the other night.

So he quickly asked, "What kind of canned food do you have?"

Zhang Ye's eyebrows raised in response, ready to answer, when Liu Qingqing next to him already began to list the options with her fingers.

"The cheapest is rat meat canned food."

"Next are dog meat canned foods, about half again as expensive."

"Finally, there's chicken meat canned food, which is more than twice the price of rat meat canned food and is only circulated among the company's internal staff."

As Peng Yue listened, he felt something was off.

Rat meat canned food?

Were they made from rats?

Suddenly, he thought of the strange creatures he had seen in an abandoned garbage station in the city. Were those edible?

And there was also dog meat canned food?

From the name itself, it was surely made from those Mutant Canines.

As for the last chicken meat canned food, this piqued his interest.

There was a breeding farm nearby in the suburbs, but the chickens and ducks there had run off to who knows where, leaving only some finely crushed bones.

Peng Yue had once thought that these fragile animals had been completely devoured by the zombies.

Unexpectedly, he was hearing about chickens again here.

But surely these chickens hadn't mutated too?

Could they still be safe to eat?

Zhang Ye, noticing the worry in his eyes, turned to look at the woman beside him, and Ai Bing immediately said:

"You don't have to worry about safety."

"The meat of Mutant Beasts can be processed for consumption."

"We have already had it tested."

"Tested by who?"

Peng Yue was suddenly curious.

But as soon as he asked, he already thought of the answer.

At the same time, Zhang Ye across from him also smiled and glanced out the window, "Yes, by people."

"When people are starving, even if they know the food before them is poisonous, they will still stuff it into their mouths without hesitation."

"Compared to that, what's a few pieces of meat?"

"Don't you think?"

Peng Yue had no idea what to say anymore.

Before this, he had never been tempted by the meat of those Mutant Beasts—after all, who knew if one might mutate on the spot after eating it?

The settlement could not tolerate any accidents.

A single mishap could easily cause the seemingly robust walls to collapse from within.

There were countless precedents for this.

"In addition to that, we also have the seafood cans that were just stocked recently; they are the most expensive."

"Which cans would you like?"

On the other side, Liu Qingqing had already finished reporting the list of goods and was looking at him with full anticipation.

She used to be an accountant before becoming the logistics chief.

Everything was self-produced and sold.

Truly dull.

Now after pining for stars and moons, she was finally looking forward to doing business with outsiders, and her excitement was unspeakable.

Having just suffered a loss, Peng Yue was naturally much more cautious at this time.

"The cheapest one... how much?"

He remembered the business vouchers very clearly.

One yuan equaled one package of instant noodles, which was just right for setting a price standard.

"Twenty yuan a can."

"How much!"

Peng Yue shuddered at the number that popped out of the girl's mouth.

He was so frightened that he almost jumped out of his chair.

Twenty yuan a can?

One yuan could buy five pounds of apples.

Twenty yuan... That's a hundred pounds of apples for a single can?

Thinking this, the middle-aged man in his forties trembled, realizing these people were blatantly robbing him!

He subconsciously wanted to argue, but the shrewd woman opposite him, wearing glasses, was looking at him with a half-smiling expression.

Clearly, she had already prepared retorts to refuse any haggling.

It would probably be the same old phrase.

Take it or leave it?

If not, then wait for the fruits to rot on the trees!

If so, then cut the chatter and hurry up and accept our terms!

A strong sense of humiliation stayed with Peng Yue all the way until he left the safe zone and returned to his own fleet's compound without uttering a single word.

His companion, Peng Liu, was unusually excited, chatting with several brothers about their experiences in the safe zone from time to time.

"You guys didn't see it!"

"They cut off the entire street with that wall!"

"And the electric fences—they're all high voltage. Zombies touch it and fall down, and there are people specifically dealing with those bodies!"

"That Zhang Ye's place—it's a villa!"

"A villa!"

He said this with a hint of regret.

Besides Peng Yue, the others could only stay outside.

Although they too enjoyed a sumptuous lunch, it obviously seemed less significant compared to Peng Yue, who had personally been inside the villa.

The only thing worth boasting about was that Peng Liu personally visited the villa's storeroom.

Mountains of stockpiled goods dazzled his "dog eyes."

Neatly categorized, they had everything one could need.

There was even a dedicated room for keeping safety TTs. It was said that the extra-large sizes were specially provided for the chairman; others had no use for them.

As for the content of the trade, Peng Liu was very open about it.

That was just his nature.

In addition to the two Peng family brothers, a few others also returned with them.

They were none other than Big Beard and Hou Shubin, who had leaped into the role of head of the intelligence department.

Their new mission was to establish an office on the grounds of the Peng family brothers, to be known as the Jiangbei District Special Office.

Their main task was to handle trade negotiations with the Peng family brothers.

In passing, they would also use this place as a base to understand the nearby situation.

From now on, this would be the company's stronghold!