Chapter 140: You Can Be The One To Tell Her

Wei Guang looked exactly the same since the last time Chenghai had seen him.

Older, sure. More tired around the eyes. A little harder in the face than the man he remembered from their squad days, but still built like a man who expected the world to get out of his way if he stared at it long enough.

The colonel stopped several feet from the porch and looked Chenghai over from head to slipper-covered foot. His gaze paused on the coffee mug, then moved to the mansion behind him, then back to the coffee again.

"You have got to be fucking kidding me," Wei said.

Chenghai lifted his cup before he took another sip. "Good morning to you too."

Wei stared at him for another second before letting out a short laugh that didn’t sound amused as much as disbelieving. "I gave you information, supplies, and enough warning to keep your head attached to your body, and this is where you ended up? Drinking coffee on a mansion porch in slippers?"

"You say that like you willingly gave me the info. If I remember correctly, I had to give back one of the favors you owed me. Besides, what is wrong with a cup of coffee when it’s not even fuck-you-in-the-morning early yet?" he muttered, taking another sip.

"You always were an asshole."

"At least I’m an asshole with coffee. You still look tired."

Wei snorted, but the familiar rhythm eased something in the air between them. The soldiers near the gate didn’t lower their weapons completely, but a few of them shifted their grips when it became clear their colonel wasn’t speaking to a stranger. Chenghai noticed every movement anyway.

Old habits didn’t die because a man wore fuzzy slippers.

Behind him, Lingyun leaned against the doorway. "So this is one of yours?"

Chenghai didn’t look back. "Former squad leader."

"Former?" Wei repeated, one brow lifting.

"You kept the uniform. I didn’t."

Wei’s expression shifted for half a second. Not guilt. Not pity. Just acknowledgment. He knew exactly why Chenghai wasn’t wearing one anymore, and he had been one of the few who knew the dishonorable discharge had said more about the command than the man.

Neither of them brought it up.

Some things didn’t need to be dragged onto the porch at dawn.

Wei stepped closer and lowered his voice slightly. "You called me before everything broke."

"I did."

"I answered."

"You did."

"And now I’m here."

Chenghai’s eyes narrowed. "With six hundred people."

Wei’s mouth tightened. "About that."

Behind Wei, the cul-de-sac continued changing too fast to pretend this was a quick stop. Soldiers moved in clean lines between vehicles. Engineers unloaded portable barricades. Communications crews were already dragging cable across the street like they owned the pavement. A dog handler pulled a snarling shepherd away from one of the broken RVs while two mechanics popped the hood and started arguing over smoke.

This was not rest.

This was deployment.

Chenghai looked past Wei toward the nearest group of soldiers moving toward the neighboring house. "What are your men doing?"

Wei followed his gaze. "Securing the area."

"That wasn’t what I asked."

"It’s the answer you’re getting."

Chenghai slowly lowered his mug from his mouth. "Wei. We can be friends, or we cannot. But I will not be kept in the dark for no reason."

The colonel rubbed one hand over his jaw, and that told Chenghai more than any report could have. Wei only did that when things were truly fucked, the kind of fucked where even a good plan was just the least stupid option available.

"We got pushed off the highway," Wei said. "Massive infected blockage. Human variants, birds, snakes, at least one tiger. We couldn’t punch through without burning half the convoy."

Lingyun made a sound behind Chenghai. "A tiger?"

Wei glanced toward him. "Dead one."

"Was that before or after you killed it?"

Wei Guang just gave him a blank stare.

Chenghai looked toward the long line of vehicles still crawling into the street. "You were heading to Rongdu."

Wei’s eyes sharpened slightly. "You keeping up with military routes now?"

"Do I have to? It’s the only place around here that could deal with all this..." Chenghai waved his hand in a circle, making sure not to spill any of his coffee.

Wei let out another rough laugh, but it died quickly. "Rongdu downtown research district. That is where we were supposed to be by tomorrow night."

Chenghai’s gaze shifted to the reinforced RVs. "Scientists."

Wei didn’t deny it.

"How many?"

"Enough."

"That means too many."

Wei looked back at the mansion. "Thirty-two primary researchers. Additional assistants, tech support, comms, logistics, medical, cooks, cleaners, engineers, dog units, and escort personnel."

"Six hundred people."

"Closer to five hundred and eighty after the highway."

Chenghai’s jaw tightened slightly.

Wei noticed. Of course he did.

"We lost men," Wei said quietly. "Good ones."

"I figured."

"I am not here because I wanted a scenic neighborhood."

"No. You’re here because one of your RVs died in front of my gate."

Wei’s expression flattened. "I am here because I need to keep the most important people in this convoy alive long enough to reach a working lab."

"Your lab is in Rongdu."

"Our road to Rongdu is blocked."

"That sounds like a military problem."

"It became your problem the second we stopped here."

Chenghai stared at him.

Wei stared back.

For several seconds, the only sound between them came from idling engines, barking dogs, shouted orders, and the low mechanical whine of portable floodlights being lifted into place.

Then Wei said the thing Chenghai had known was coming.

"You owe me."

Lingyun straightened behind him, but Chenghai didn’t move.

Wei didn’t look pleased saying it, and that made it worse.

If he had sounded smug or entitled, Chenghai could have thrown him off the property without feeling a bit of guilt. But now?

Chenghai let out a long sigh. There was a line that he wouldn’t... couldn’t... cross. Anything else was on the table.

He took another sip of coffee, buying himself two seconds he didn’t really need. "You want fuel? Repairs? A place to park for a few hours?"

Wei’s gaze moved to the house again and Chenghai’s grip tightened around the mug. "Nope. Not happening."

"Chenghai—"

"No."

"You haven’t heard the request."

"I heard the wheels turning and that was more than enough."

Wei exhaled sharply through his nose. "The largest structure on this street is yours. It is fortified, elevated, intact, and centrally positioned. It can hold the primary research team, senior command, and communications staff in one secured location."

Lingyun started laughing under his breath. "Oh, he’s dead."

Wei ignored him.

Chenghai didn’t. "Go inside."

"Absolutely not," Lingyun replied.

Chenghai kept his eyes on Wei. "My house is occupied."

"I can see that."

"Then find one that isn’t."

Wei’s expression tightened.

Before he could answer, a communications officer hurried up the driveway with a tablet in hand. "Colonel, General Sun wants housing allocation confirmed. This estate is the most efficient placement for research leadership. Surrounding homes can support escort divisions and operations staff. Engineering is already marking utility access points."

Chenghai turned his head slowly toward the officer.

The man stopped talking instantly.

Good survival instinct.

Wei closed his eyes briefly like he had developed a headache in real time. "Stand by."

"Sir?"

"Stand. By."

The officer retreated two steps.

Chenghai looked back at Wei. "You are already assigning houses."

"We are stabilizing a convoy."

"You are taking a street."

"We are preventing the collapse of a national priority operation."

"You are standing on private property."

Wei’s eyes flashed. "Private property ended when people started eating each other."

Chenghai stepped down one porch stair.

The shift was small, but every soldier within sight noticed it.

Wei did too.

His voice dropped. "Careful."

Chenghai’s mouth curved without humor. "You first."

For a moment, the old squad leader and the dishonorably discharged soldier stood facing each other across the front walk while the remains of a nation tried to build itself around them.

Then, from inside the house, Rouxi’s voice drifted out, muffled but clear enough.

"Chenghai?"

His eyes closed.

Of course she was awake now.

"Yeah, Princess?" he called back.

"Why does it sound like the government threw up on our street?"

Lingyun lost the fight and laughed out loud.

Wei’s brows drew together. "Who is that?"

Chenghai looked at the colonel over the rim of his coffee. "The homeowner."

Wei stared at him.

Then he looked past him toward the mansion again.

"She owns this?"

"Yes."

"And you were going to mention that when?"

"When you stopped trying to requisition her living room."

Wei’s face changed just enough to tell Chenghai he understood the problem had gotten worse, not better. A soldier could argue with another soldier. A colonel could pressure an old subordinate. But a private civilian homeowner with unknown defensive capacity, a fortified estate, and Chenghai standing on her porch in front of him was not a clean logistical problem anymore.

From inside the house, Rouxi spoke again. "If they break my internet connection, I’m killing someone."

Wei stared at Chenghai.

Chenghai lifted his mug slightly. "She means that."

The dead RV coughed again down the street, followed by three mechanics swearing at once. A signal flare went up from the rear of the convoy, painting the cul-de-sac briefly in red light as more vehicles rolled into place and soldiers continued spreading through the surrounding homes.

Wei looked toward the flare, then back at Chenghai. His shoulders dropped. "It looks like we’re going to be neighbors," he said.

Chenghai looked at the vehicles, the soldiers, the scientists’ RVs, the cables crossing the road, and the military men already turning the street into something that would be very hard to remove.

Then he looked back at Wei.

"No idea how you’re going to survive telling her that."