Chapter 71: Married For Nine Hours
Zeyu found the newlyweds at the breakfast table.
Hanchuan had abandoned the seat he normally occupied at the head and moved beside Zhiyi. One hand rested against the back of her chair while the other pushed a plate closer whenever her attention drifted toward the tablet open beside it.
Zhiyi, on the other hand, was wearing Hanchuan’s white collared dress shirt and nothing else.
The sleeves had been rolled several times to expose her hands, but the fabric still reached halfway down her thighs. Her hair remained loose, her wedding rings caught the morning light and she appeared to be reading a warehouse inventory while eating pieces of fruit Hanchuan placed within reach.
Zeyu stopped in the doorway.
He had known Hanchuan for most of his life. He’d seen him negotiate billion-dollar acquisitions, dismantle hostile boards and convince men twice his age that surrendering control of their companies had been their own idea.
He had never seen him cut a strawberry into smaller pieces.
"Marriage has changed you," Zeyu observed.
Hanchuan didn’t look up. "Sit down."
That sounded more familiar.
Zeyu took the chair across from them and placed his tablet on the table. "You’ve been married for nine hours, and you’re already serving breakfast while she works."
"She’s eating."
Zhiyi looked at the strawberry on her fork. "Both statements can be true."
Zeyu smiled. "Thank you, Mrs. Pei."
"My name is still Qiao Zhiyi."
"Good to know."
Hanchuan’s hand moved from the back of her chair to the side of her neck. His thumb passed slowly beneath her hair before he directed her attention toward the rest of her breakfast.
"Finish eating. The warehouse will still exist in 20 minutes," he murmured softly into her ear.
Zhiyi examined the inventory as though verifying that claim. "The morning delivery window closes at ten."
"Zeyu can handle it."
Zeyu had apparently been summoned to breakfast so the bride could be prevented from returning to work before she finished eating.
He accepted the responsibility.
"The warehouses are fine," he assured her. "Most suppliers confirmed their delivery windows, and the first transfer trucks are waiting for Shichen’s approval. Nothing will collapse while you eat an egg."
"The Xiling warehouse received the wrong replacement filters."
"They’re being exchanged."
"The shipment to Nanshui contains cold-rated batteries, but the storage area isn’t temperature controlled."
"I redirected it 12 minutes ago."
Zhiyi finally closed the tablet cover.
Zeyu looked at Hanchuan. "You’re welcome."
Hanchuan pushed the eggs toward him.
The other three men arrived before Zhiyi finished breakfast. Shichen entered carrying updated construction schedules, Qinghe brought a medical inventory thick enough to injure someone if dropped, and Jingwei arrived with nothing visible except his phone.
That meant he had already completed whatever the rest of them were about to discuss.
Zeyu opened the warehouse report.
"We’ve reached the point where ordinary commercial orders start looking unusual," he explained. "Rice and canned food can pass through restaurant suppliers. 18,000 field rations cannot."
"Nobody questioned them," Jingwei said.
Zeyu turned toward him. "Because?"
"My companies ordered them."
That solved the appearance problem.
Jingwei’s security and mercenary operations maintained food for training exercises, disaster response and deployments lasting months outside ordinary supply routes. Purchasing military-style rations, freeze-dried meals and field kitchens required no explanation beyond a project number.
"How much did you order?" Hanchuan asked.
"Everything available domestically."
Jingwei unlocked his phone and sent the invoices to the shared display. Multiple suppliers had accepted orders for MREs, dehydrated food, water-purification tablets, field stoves and packaged meals designed to remain stable for years.
Several additional orders were processing internationally.
The quantities were enormous.
They were also believable when divided among companies whose employees might be sent into remote areas without functioning kitchens.
Zhiyi examined the distribution. "There are 23 meal varieties."
"Twenty-four," Jingwei corrected. "One contains mushrooms."
He had removed it because Hanchuan had made a passing comment that Zhiyi was allergic at some point in time.
And apparently, he had remembered it.
She looked toward him.
Jingwei offered no explanation and didn’t appear to expect acknowledgment. He moved to the next screen, which separated the rations between the Heat, Flood and Freeze warehouse networks.
The nutritional content varied by intended use. Heat rations emphasized electrolytes and foods that could be consumed without heating. Flood supplies included sealed meal packs resistant to moisture and contamination. The highest-calorie rations were assigned to Freeze.
Qinghe reviewed the totals. "These can support the emergency periods, but they shouldn’t become the primary diet for four years. Sodium and micronutrient balance will become a problem."
"They won’t," Jingwei replied. "They’re backup food."
"That’s exactly how we should use them," Qinghe agreed. "They give us something immediately edible during evacuations, infrastructure failures or periods when cooking systems aren’t available."
His gentle tone removed the criticism without weakening it. He began adjusting the medical and nutritional notes beside each shipment, identifying which supplements needed to remain with the ration stockpiles.
Zeyu moved to the transportation problem.
The first warehouses were filling faster than Shichen’s teams could complete secure storage inside the shelters. Leaving supplies in commercial buildings until construction ended created an unnecessary risk, but moving them too early exposed them to dust, workers and unfinished climate systems.
Shichen opened the renovation schedule. "The northern storage level at Luming will be sealed tonight. Jinhai’s upper-floor storage is ready now, and Beiyuan can receive the first loads tomorrow afternoon. The alternates need another three days before I’ll approve food or medicine."
"That gives us one ready property for each disaster," Zeyu said.
"It gives you one prepared storage section at each primary property," Shichen corrected in his normal, even tone. "The shelters themselves aren’t finished."
Zeyu could work with that.
He assigned the first transfer convoys to Luming Mountain Hotel, Jinhai Tower and Beiyuan Geothermal Station. Universal supplies would move first, followed by the specialized equipment already matched to each property.
No supplier vehicles would participate.
Zeyu’s trucks would enter the warehouses empty, load behind closed doors and leave under internal manifests identifying the cargo as construction or operational equipment. Different drivers would handle each site, and none of them would receive information about the other routes.
Zhiyi reopened her tablet.
Hanchuan’s hand settled over it before she reached the first report.
"You finished eating," she pointed out.
"You haven’t."
She looked down at the remaining half of her breakfast.
Qinghe noticed the delay. "You can review the routes after you eat. Taking another ten minutes won’t change the delivery schedule, and you’ll work more efficiently if you aren’t hungry."
That explanation succeeded where the instruction hadn’t.
Zhiyi set the tablet aside and returned to her eggs.
Zeyu began assigning vehicles while she ate. Refrigerated trucks went to medicine and temperature-sensitive supplies. Box trucks handled food and household products. Flatbeds were reserved for water tanks, generators and equipment too large for enclosed cargo areas.
The amphibious mobile base remained in production and couldn’t be used for transport yet. Zeyu had increased the fabrication teams without revealing why the completion date suddenly mattered more than every commercial contract attached to his company.
Nine days remained before the Heat began.
The wedding had consumed ten days on the calendar, but it hadn’t stopped construction, purchasing or deliveries. Hanchuan had planned the marriage with the same approach he used for survival: assign every task, remove every delay and spend whatever the result required.
By the time Zhiyi finished breakfast, the first three shelter convoys had departure times.
She reached for her tablet and Hanchuan released it this time.
"Now you can work," he said with a slight smile on his face.
Zeyu watched Zhiyi open the route plan while Hanchuan placed another strawberry beside her hand.
Marriage hadn’t changed either of them.
It had only made Hanchuan’s priorities impossible to miss.