What Do You Have to Say?

In the afternoon, the bored Alice played Landlord with her two brothers, snacks and fruits laid out on the coffee table. Atticus and Blanche had their own way of leisure – playing chess!

Just then, the loud clang of the large iron gate being smashed echoed through. A rugged voice followed, "People from 1601, come out! Today, you must give us an explanation."

Alice put down her playing cards, calmly walked out. Allen family and the others followed closely. Standing on the steps, Alice looked through the small opening in the iron gate, observing the people outside.

There were quite a few of them – five men and four women, one of them being the daughter-in-law who recently came with three children.

"What do you have to say?" Alice guessed their intentions from the confrontation and fearlessly asked. Some of the men outside held knives, hammers, and sticks. The leader, banging his stick on the iron gate, grimly said, "Open the door, we have questions for you."

"Open the door for you to come up and attack me? Sorry, my intelligence didn't stop evolving in the era of primates," Alice retorted with a bone-chilling coolness.

The men outside, confronted with her blunt words, stiffened for a moment. The leader, not bothering to argue, stared coldly at Alice and said, "My mother had a heart attack because of you. She's lying in bed half-dead. How do you plan to resolve this?"

Getting back on topic, a few other men chimed in, "We can't go to the hospital now. The old lady's body is barely holding on. You're fully responsible for this."

In essence, it was an extortion attempt. Alice sneered, "What does this have to do with us? I haven't stepped out of this door from start to finish, just rejected their requests."

"What do you mean it has nothing to do with you? My mother-in-law was provoked by you. If you had a bit of decency, she wouldn't have fainted because of your provocations," the daughter-in-law who had come earlier angrily retorted.

Since you're being unreasonable and engaging in deliberate extortion, we have nothing more to say. Dream on if you think we'll compensate you for money or food!"

Don't think she couldn't see through it – these people aren't even a real family. They probably planned to come and take advantage.

The people outside the large iron gate seemed somewhat disappointed at her words. Except for the son and daughter-in-law of the old lady, the others were there to cheer them on, hoping to seize an opportunity for some gain.

They weren't completely blind to the situation. Allen family's group had a tough attitude, and the iron gate couldn't be easily opened. It was clear that trying to profit from them was unlikely.

The son and daughter-in-law of the old lady couldn't do anything against Allen family's group. They could only pound on the large iron gate in frustration, threatening, "Just you wait. This isn't over. I don't believe you can hide behind that gate forever."

With that, the group of people left.

Atticus glanced at the fierce determination on the son's face and calmly said, "That person probably won't give up. If he can't harm us directly, he might resort to some dirty tricks."

Alice replied, "Well, we'll just have to teach them a lesson and make them learn."

Alexander rolled up his sleeves, squinted his eyes, and pretended to be fierce, saying, "When the time comes, you hide behind the second brother. I'll handle the dirty work."

Arnold looked at her with gentle eyes and said, "How can a little fairy like you hit someone? Let the big brother protect you."

Alice raised an eyebrow but remained silent. With her skills, she didn't need anyone's protection.

After the power outage, the group had to use the stairs. A few women panted and complained, "The people on the sixteenth floor are a bunch of scoundrels. Don't be fooled by their civilized appearance. As long as the iron gate is closed, we can't do anything to them. It's a wasted trip."

In order to save food until someone came to rescue them, they could only drink a bit of thin porridge each day. Their bodies were on the verge of collapse, and the trip up almost exhausted what little they had eaten.

"Why rush? If they won't come out, force them out. Look at their family – rosy faces, full of energy. They don't look like they're starving. There must be plenty of food in their home," Erwin, the son of the old lady, said fiercely.

Erwin's wife chimed in, "You better think it through. After leaving now, don't expect to come back for food. You'll only be left envious."

Several people hesitated. Erwin was right – everyone on the sixteenth floor seemed well-fed, indicating they had enough food at home.

One person hesitantly asked, "Do you have a plan to force them out?"

Erwin motioned for them to come closer and whispered something to them.Not long after, there were suddenly dozens of messages in the property group.

In the East Zone, a building's Dominic said: "@East Zone, before the heavy rain, I saw that you guys bought a lot of food. Can you sell me some? I'll pay ten times the price."

He also posted three pictures, showing various food piled up in front of the door of 1601, including meat and vegetables.

The group exploded with reactions.

Everyone was mentioning Alice.

"Do you still have so much food at home? Can't you lend a hand to your neighbors?"

"We won't take it for free, ten times the purchase price, as long as you're willing to sell to us."

"My family's elderly and children are starving. From yesterday morning until now, they've only had a little plain congee. Please, sell us some rice."

"My house doesn't even have a grain of rice left, and my phone is running out of battery. Where can I buy food? Please let the neighbors know."

Some in the group blamed Allen family for being selfish, some were earnestly pleading, and others took pictures of their own pale and thin elderly family members and hungry children, posting them in the group.

After seeing the messages in the group, Alice frowned. She didn't expect someone to actually capture the scene where the supplies were delivered that day.

In the next two days, it seems that the area outside her house won't be quiet.