Melian’s smile turned sharp when I didn’t move or acknowledge her words.

She was always dumb enough to think that my silence meant she had gained ground, when all it really meant was that I was waiting to see how far she was willing to embarrass herself before someone else noticed.

To me, silence spoke louder than words. To Meilan, it meant that she was right.

And to her, she had already walked into my house, announced that it belonged to her, and told me to leave like I was supposed to take the words seriously because she said them loudly enough.

"Well Li?" sneered Meilan, turning her attention to the commander. "Aren’t you going to kick them all out?"

But Commander Li didn’t move.

He didn’t rush to reinforce her words, didn’t bark orders, didn’t send his men charging through the house to make her feel important. He simply stood a short distance behind her, his expression blank.

That surprised me until I remembered he liked Meilan almost as much as I did.

Only, since Meilan lived in her own world, she didn’t notice right away.

When I continued to stand there, relaxed and comfortable with Zhenlan at my back and Chenghai and Lingyun at my front, she finally turned her head toward the commander. "Secure the house," she ordered, as if his men were just another set of hands she could use because her father had handed her a title and called it authority.

Li didn’t even blink. "We’ve been through this house twice already," he replied evenly. "We’re good."

The silence that followed was beautiful.

Not because it was peaceful, but because it was the first time Meilan realized that the man standing near the door wasn’t as easy to push around as she had assumed. Her smile didn’t disappear, but the shape of it changed, tightening around the edges as she looked at him.

She had expected obedience. Instead, she got a wall with a uniform. It was... perfection.

"That wasn’t a suggestion," she announced, stomping her foot like that would change everything.

Only Li’s expression didn’t change. "Then I suggest you use your own people. You know, in case you wanted to make sure that it was done right."

I could have kissed him.

Not actually, obviously. Xu Zhenlan would probably take that badly, and I didn’t have the energy for that conversation.

But the thought was there, small and amused and quickly dismissed as I watched Meilan process the fact that she had been handed command of an operation without being handed Commander Li’s men.

Her five little puppies reacted before she did.

They looked at her first, then at each other, and I saw the argument forming before any of them opened their mouths.

In my last life, they had followed her like shadows. They were always there, always watching, always ready to move when she needed something done.

I had never paid much attention to their jealousy over who stood closest, who got thanked first, who received one of her bright little smiles like it was a medal.

Now, seeing them in my house, with all five of them trying not to look like they were competing for the same leash, I wondered how I had ever missed it.

"Go," Meilan said, snapping her fingers lightly toward the hallway. "Check the rooms."

No one moved.

Shen Kaiyang, the tallest one with the sharp eyes and controlled posture, stepped half a pace closer to her instead. "I’ll stay with you."

Tao Jun snorted at that and immediately shifted closer to Meilan. "No. I will."

"You stayed last time," Lin Cheng replied, his tone polite enough that anyone stupid might have mistaken it for calm. "It should be someone else."

"There was no last time here," snarled Shen Kaiyang, his spine straightening so much that I thought it would snape.

"There is always a last time with you."

Oh, this was fun.

I leaned back against Zhenlan, letting his arm settle more firmly around my waist as I watched the five of them argue in the middle of my living room.

Meilan’s face tightened with every exchange, but she didn’t stop them right away, which told me she liked it.

Of course she did.

She liked being wanted, liked being fought over, liked pretending their devotion was proof that she was special instead of proof that she had collected unstable men and trained them to orbit her.

Lingyun had gone very still where he stood, but his eyes were bright with the kind of amusement that usually meant someone else was about to suffer. Chenghai snorted as he looked at me over his shoulder and then at Zhenlan’s arms.

Shaking his head, his attention moved from me to where Yuche was standing in the kitchen, completely separated for the drama going on.

Instead of saying anything, Yuche stayed quiet and cold, studying the five men and Meilan like he was deciding which one would become a problem first.

I could have helped him with that.

All of them.

At the same time.

With Meilan in the middle pretending to be innocent.

Zhenlan didn’t look at them for long, instead, I felt his eyes on me like he was seeing me for the first time. My heart rate sped up and I started to worry that Meilan’s little story time did more damage than I thought.

But when he didn’t say anything, I let out a sigh, my shoulder dropping in relief.

It took me a second to realize what I was seeing, and I couldn’t unsee it once I had.

There was a major difference between the four men I had decided to help keep alive during the apocalypse and the five men in front of us.

Meilan’s men were fighting to be seen by her. Mine were watching me, trying to gauge where I stood with everything.

"Enough," Meilan snapped after a moment..

The five men stopped immediately, but the tension didn’t vanish.

Instead, it settled under their skin, tucked away for later, still alive and waiting.

Meilan lifted her chin, choosing two of them with a sharp look rather than bothering to remember that other people existed as something more than extensions of her will.

"You and you," she said, and I had to wonder if she even remembered their names after two lifetimes with them. Probably not. "Check the house. The rest of you stay with me."

Guo Renwang and Huang Zedong weren’t happy that they were being sent away, but they silently obeyed her command. Guo Renwang glanced toward the hallway with visible reluctance, and Huang Zedong looked at Meilan one last time before moving as if leaving her side required actual effort.

They didn’t ask permission from me. They didn’t ask Commander Li. They simply started toward the hallway like my house had already become a place they were allowed to move through.

I stepped aside before they reached me.

Not because I was letting them.

Because I wanted them to think I was.

Truth be told, I was almost giddy at the fact that they were planning on staying.