Hearing the commotion outside the door, Jiang Li silently took an electric baton out of her space. After glancing around the living room and confirming there was nothing unusual, she suddenly opened the inner door and looked at the three men outside. It seemed these were the same people everyone had been talking about before.
The people outside had not expected such a bold young woman. Seeing her standing there behind the iron security door, they were momentarily stunned before immediately speaking loudly.
“Well, well, little girl, you’ve got some guts,” Li Hu said as he looked at the delicate and fair-skinned young woman in front of him. Mainly because she was so pretty, improper thoughts immediately arose in his mind. Holding the axe in his hand, he said, “Little girl, it can’t be easy living alone. Just obediently open the door so you don’t have to suffer later. Otherwise the one who’ll suffer is still you. But if you follow me, I guarantee you’ll live well from now on, eating and drinking the good stuff. How about it?” As he spoke, he looked her up and down, becoming more and more satisfied the longer he looked, completely unaware that he had provoked someone he should not have.
“Boss, after you get tired of her, can you let your little brother have some fun too?” Er Gou said obsequiously to Li Hu.
“Haha, no problem.”
Jiang Li raised an eyebrow and looked at the three men who clearly did not take her seriously, then smiled.
“Sure.”
But the smile did not reach her eyes, though none of the three noticed.
The three men at the door had not expected Jiang Li to agree so easily. Thinking about how difficult it was for women to survive in times like this and that they could only rely on men like them, they became even more smug and carried away.
After turning off the electrified mechanism on the iron door, Jiang Li immediately thrust the electric baton through the bars toward Er Gou, who was standing at the front. Caught off guard, Er Gou was instantly shocked to the ground.
She then quickly pulled open the iron door and swung the electric baton toward Li Hu. At that moment, however, a strong and powerful fist suddenly shot out from the side and knocked Li Hu to the ground, causing Jiang Li’s baton strike to miss.
It was the neighbor from across the hall whom she had noticed before and remembered quite clearly.
Coming back to her senses, Jiang Li immediately used the electric baton to shock the fallen Li Hu, knocking him unconscious as well. The moment Zhang Rui saw Li Hu get taken down, he turned and fled toward the stairwell.
“I’ll go after him,” the man left behind those words and immediately left.
“Okay…” Before Jiang Li could even finish replying, he had already disappeared.
Not long afterward, the man returned carrying the unconscious Zhang Rui. Jiang Li used the electric baton on the three men again to make sure none of them would wake up.
“Do you have any rope? Let’s tie them up and deal with them tonight,” Gu Jin said to Jiang Li.
“Yes, wait a moment.”
After speaking, she went back into the apartment, closed the door, then pretended to take some rope out from inside.
While Jiang Li was inside, Gu Jin simply stood nearby. He did not find her behavior of closing the door strange at all. At a time like this, it was completely understandable. Even before all this, it was the correct kind of caution to have around strangers. When Jiang Li came back out, she handed him the rope in her hands, and the two of them tied the men up together.
“Thank you for today.”
“No need to thank me.” He glanced at the iron security door at Jiang Li’s entrance before continuing, “Your sense of safety is pretty good. My name is Gu Jin.”
“Jiang Li.”
“Looks like we need to find a door to block off this stairwell. Otherwise there’ll only be more trouble in the future.” Because of the power outage, the elevator was no longer working, so the stairs were now the only way to go up and down. Since the stairwell was a fire escape, its doors could not actually be locked shut.
“Wait a moment.”
Jiang Li went back into the apartment and closed the door. Then she placed some food in a corner of the kitchen, making sure that from outside only a small portion could be seen without revealing how much there actually was. After that, she went into the study next to it and took out an iron mesh door from her space that was about the same size as a security door. After checking the apartment once more and confirming there was nothing unusual, she walked out and opened the door.
“I still have an unused iron mesh door at home. I checked it, and the size should be about right, though you might need to come in and help move it.”
“Okay, I’ll come move it now.”
Gu Jin did not ask why there was such an iron door in her home. After entering, he also did not look around carelessly. He followed Jiang Li into the study, sized up the door and confirmed that it was indeed about the same size as the one outside, then carried it out on his shoulder. Jiang Li had originally wanted to help him move it, but seeing how effortlessly he carried it, she gave up on the idea.
“I’ll go get the toolbox.” Gu Jin glanced at the security door before returning to his apartment and bringing over a toolbox.
“You go rest over there. I’ll handle this,” he said as he turned to Jiang Li.
“Alright.”
Since she had provided the materials, it was fair for Gu Jin to do the labor. Besides, if she could rest, why wouldn’t she? She walked over and shocked the three men with the electric baton once again.