Chapter 29
by LhaoziChapter 29: Picking Them Off One by One
Another half an hour passed before a sudden clamor erupted outside the office building.
They were here!
Concealed in the darkness, Qin Xi and Qin Song exchanged a glance, listening carefully to the noise outside.
Standing by the guard booth of the nursery stock base, Chen Liang looked at the zombie draped halfway over the wall. The wound on the zombie’s head was unmistakably Qin Xi’s handiwork.
Having fled together through three or four years of the apocalypse in his past life, he still retained a fair understanding of Qin Xi’s methods for killing zombies.
He turned his head toward the quiet office building ahead, his resolve to eliminate the siblings growing even firmer.
Zhang Yuhao had already been killed by them; had it not been for his rebirth, he himself likely would have died at their hands early in this life as well.
Add to that the severed head of Wu Dashan discovered in the village earlier…
Chen Liang refused to believe Wu Dashan’s death had nothing to do with them!
At that thought, his already grim expression darkened even further.
There was no helping it—the deeds had been done and the grudge forged in their past life, so in this life, it could only end when one side was dead.
He opened his palm, and a clump of soil appeared in his hand. His supernatural ability hadn’t upgraded yet, so he couldn’t afford to take too big a risk.
And so, his line of sight slowly shifted toward the man who had guided them up the mountain:
“Wu Dongyan, since you’ve joined the team, the time has come for you to show your loyalty!”
Upon hearing this, Wu Dongyan stood frozen in place, not having fully processed it yet.
By the time he followed Chen Liang’s line of sight toward the tightly shut main doors—peering at the office building that looked pitch-black inside from the outside—his legs went weak in an instant.
Looking at Chen Liang, he shook his head repeatedly:
“N-No, t-that won’t do, Brother Liang! W-What if there are monsters inside there?”
Chen Liang, however, paid him no mind, merely jerking his chin toward the burly man beside him.
The burly man understood his meaning instantly.
He yanked a sickle out from the hand of a person next to him, grabbed Wu Dongyan like a little chick, hoisted him straight up, dragged him to the bottom of the steps, and dumped him onto the ground.
He then tossed the sickle onto his body.
Pointing the baseball bat in his hand at Wu Dongyan’s head, he snapped:
“You have two choices right now: one, pick up that sickle and go inside to scout the path; two, I’ll send you on your way right now!”
Wu Dongyan turned paper-white with fear.
Not daring to gamble, he could only pick up the sickle from the ground with trembling hands and stagger toward the main entrance.
Even standing outside the door, the lighting inside the office building was too dim to see any of the interior scenery.
Under the suffocating, gloomy sky, he couldn’t even make out the steps facing the lobby clearly.
Yet that burly man was watching him intently just a few steps behind.
He didn’t dare retreat. In the end, with shaking hands, he gritted his teeth and pushed the door open.
The instant the glass door shut behind him, Wu Dongyan felt his entire body freeze!
He felt cold all over, his hands and feet numb, while a strange smell entered his nostrils.
For a moment, however, his confused mind couldn’t recall what that smell was at all!
Planning to just walk through the first floor and hurry back out, he turned around, heading down the hallway to the right first.
Yet right at the moment he turned, a ghost-white face suddenly appeared before his eyes, at a distance of barely a fist away!
His eyes widened in an instant, opening his mouth to scream!
Before any sound could come out, however, something was shoved into his mouth, after which something wrapped around his waist. A powerful force yanked him, dragging his entire body into the dark!
The torrential rain continued to pour down.
Having waited outside for nearly twenty minutes, Chen Liang began to grow impatient.
“Brother Liang, what’s going on? It’s been so long with no sign of him and not a peep of noise. Did he run out through the back?”
The burly man from earlier couldn’t hold back and spoke up to ask.
Listening to him, Chen Liang’s brow creased gradually; he felt things wouldn’t be this simple.
Still, he spoke to the man:
“Leizi, take two guys and go keep an eye on the back.”
The burly man named Leizi nodded right away, a flattering smile appearing in his eyes:
“Got it, Brother Liang!”
With that, he singled out two men, turned around, and left.
On this end, Chen Liang had lost his patience and designated two more men to go inside.
Except this time, he equipped the two with an explosion-proof flashlight collected from the city last night.
However, the beam of the flashlight quickly vanished from sight after the two walked past the hallway corner.
This wait lasted another half hour.
Chen Liang finally sensed that something was wrong!
It suddenly struck him—could these siblings be trying to pick them off one by one?
Judging by the current situation, things were indeed heading in that direction.
Believing he had seen through Qin Xi and Qin Song’s scheme, Chen Liang felt an immediate surge of excitement.
Thinking further about the information obtained from Wu Dongyan earlier, even counting that boy and girl, their group only had four people at most.
Qin Song likely hadn’t found many teammates up on the mountain either.
After all, if their team had a large headcount, they wouldn’t resort to such hide-and-seek tactics.
With that line of thought, Chen Liang grew even more convinced of his deduction.
And so, he decided immediately to stop probing.
Picking up the walkie-talkie in his hand, he called back the three men at the rear of the building.
Right now, his team had eighteen people in total, all strong and healthy men—more than enough to handle four people!
He decided to launch a direct assault inside!
At the exact same time, inside an office within the building…
Standing behind the window curtain, Qin Xi watched Chen Liang lead his men up the steps. The corners of her lips curved up as she turned her head to look at Qin Song, whispering softly:
“They took the bait!”
Her gaze then shifted toward Wu Dongyan and the other two bound beside them.
She had intentionally made Chen Liang believe she wanted to pick them off one by one.
Only that way could she lure him inside.
Otherwise, if those scouting men went back out and leaked the fact that the building was filled with gasoline, what then?
Now, the timing had arrived.
Qin Xi reached out, slowly grasping Qin Song’s hand hanging at his side; the man’s broad palm was dry and steady.
He slowly held her hand in return, while with his other hand—under the terrified gazes of the three bound captives—he slowly raised a lighter.
At the exact same time, the main doors of the office building were pushed open, and a crowd of people filed inside in single file.
The ground beneath their feet was somewhat slick, but no one paid it any mind, assuming that water had leaked in after raining for so long.
As they walked further inside, however, the strange smell in their nostrils grew increasingly pungent.
Chen Liang finally realized what that strange odor was!
Sensing immediate danger, he turned around to run toward the main doors, shouting out loud:
“Not good—it’s gasoline! Run!”
As his words fell, the crowd panicked instantly, spinning around one after another!
Yet right at that moment, a brilliant flash of white light abruptly burst before everyone’s eyes. A massive explosion erupted, shaking the valley as the entire two-story building collapsed in an instant like a castle of sand!
The sound of the explosion reverberated across the mountain peak for a long while. Thick black smoke billowed in the torrential rain, making the scene look all the more like the apocalypse.
Yet standing in stark, jarring contrast to these surroundings was a small thatched cottage sitting quietly right in front of the collapsed building.
As the explosion subsided, Qin Xi and Qin Song stepped out of the thatched cottage.
Qin Xi stored the safe house away, looking at the expanse of ruins before her as a stroke of gratification flashed across her eyes.
Just as she turned around, however, she heard a faint groan rise softly from within the rubble:
“H-Help… help me!”
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