The moment the footsteps stopped, the lazy smile on Su Qiao’s face vanished completely.
Her body made no unnecessary movement. She was like a cheetah awakened in the darkness, instantly shifting into combat mode.
She silently slipped off the bed, her bare feet touching the carpet without making a sound.
With a thought, a black, baton-shaped stun gun appeared in her hand.
This was one of the most effective non-lethal weapons for dealing with humanoid creatures in the apocalypse. The instant high-voltage current was enough to render a fully grown man incapable of moving.
She slowly walked behind the door, pressing her body against the cold wall and bringing her ear close to the door.
Outside, two men were deliberately lowering their voices as they spoke, but in the dead-silent hallway, their conversation was still clearly audible.
“This is the place. No mistake. Sun Cuifen said that woman lives alone, and she’s quite a looker. Prettier than any woman in a painting.”
The rough voice was filled with disgusting lust.
“Big Brother, we’d better be careful… Her husband is a soldier, and a pretty high-ranking one at that…” The other voice sounded hesitant.
“What the hell are you afraid of?” The rough voice spat. “Her husband is stationed thousands of miles away. By the time he finds out, the two of us will have already had our fun! Besides, Sun Cuifen gave us fifty yuan just to go in and scare her and make her hand over her money. She didn’t tell us to do anything else. And even if we did, who would know?”
“She’s just a woman. What can she possibly do?”
Su Qiao’s eyes instantly turned cold.
Wang Dafen—so it really was Sun Cuifen.
She truly never learned her lesson. She had just suffered a setback during the day, yet by nightfall, she had already spent money to hire people to come after her.
And the conversation between the two thugs had exposed Sun Cuifen’s even more vicious intentions—she actually wanted to ruin her!
Very well.
There was a road to heaven that she refused to take, yet she insisted on barging into hell.
The corners of Su Qiao’s lips curled into a cold smile. Instead of rushing out, she deliberately nudged a nearby stool, producing a faint clang.
Then she pinched her voice, imitating a frightened, delicate woman who had just been awakened.
“Who… who’s out there?”
The two thugs outside exchanged glances. Excitement and viciousness flashed in both their eyes.
“There’s movement! It’s a woman’s voice. She sounds so soft!”
“Do it!”
A faint metallic scraping sound came from outside—the sound of a piece of wire being inserted into the lock.
The old-fashioned lock from this era was practically useless in the hands of an experienced lockpicker.
Su Qiao tightened her grip on the stun gun and adjusted her breathing. Every muscle in her body entered a strange state of relaxation while remaining fully poised to strike.
She calculated the distance, the angle, and the optimal attack route she would have the instant the door was pushed open.
Click.
The sound of the lock cylinder being manipulated came through.
The door was suddenly shoved open from the outside!
Moonlight streamed in alongside two dark figures.
The thug in front still had a lecherous grin on his face. He was already imagining the beautiful woman inside screaming and crying.
But the scream he expected never came.
Instead, a black blur flashed toward him at incredible speed!
Su Qiao gave him no time to react. With a swift side kick as fast as thunder, she struck the thug squarely in the abdomen.
Bang!
The dull impact sounded like a kick against a torn sack.
The burly man, who weighed at least 160 pounds, did not even have time to grunt. His entire body curled up like a cooked shrimp, his feet leaving the ground as he was sent flying backward!
He slammed heavily into the hallway wall before sliding to the floor like a pile of mud. His eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets, and his throat produced a wheezing, breathless sound. He could not even scream.
The other thug was completely dumbfounded.
The smile on his face froze, and his mind went blank.
What was happening before his eyes was completely beyond his understanding.
The “little woman” who was supposed to be trembling, screaming, and begging for mercy—how… how could she?
Before he could figure it out, a hand shot out like lightning and seized the wrist of the hand holding the wire.
The hand was slender and fair, almost beautiful in the moonlight.
But the strength contained within it was like forged steel!
“AHHH!”
A pig-like scream finally tore through the silent night!
Su Qiao said nothing. She grabbed his wrist and twisted it outward with force.
Crack!
The crisp sound of breaking bone was enough to make one’s teeth ache.
The thug’s wrist bent at a grotesque angle. The unbearable pain instantly broke him. Tears and snot streamed down his face.
Su Qiao remained expressionless.
With one hand, she grabbed the thug by the collar and dragged him effortlessly toward his companion, who was still groaning in pain on the ground, as if she were dragging a chicken to slaughter.
Thud.
She threw him onto the floor, then lightly placed one foot on his face, which was twisted with fear and pain, and slowly ground it down.
“Who sent you?”
Her voice was soft and flat, without the slightest trace of emotion.
But to the two thugs, it sounded more terrifying than a demon whispering from hell.
The thug beneath her foot had a broken wrist, and whatever courage he had left was shattered as well. Looking at the woman standing above him, her eyes so cold that she barely seemed human, he trembled uncontrollably.
A warm stream suddenly spread from his crotch.
He had actually been scared into wetting himself by a woman.
“I’ll talk! I’ll talk!” he sobbed, completely devoid of dignity. “It was… it was… Fen! Your aunt-by-marriage, Sun Cuifen! She gave us fifty yuan and told us… told us to come scare you and steal your money… Boo-hoo…”
Su Qiao pressed her foot down harder.
“Just scare me?”
“No… no! She also said… said that if we could… could ruin your reputation, she’d give us another fifty yuan!” The thug spilled everything like beans from a tipped-over sack, confessing every detail.
Having obtained the answer she wanted, the last trace of warmth disappeared from Su Qiao’s eyes.
She withdrew her foot and could not even be bothered to look at the two pieces of trash again. Raising her hand, she gave each of them a jolt to the back of the neck with the stun gun.
Bzzzzt—
A faint electric crackle sounded.
The two thugs jerked violently before collapsing unconscious without even a groan.
The entire process was clean and efficient, without the slightest hesitation.
Su Qiao dragged the two men out of her home like dead dogs, one in each hand.
Then, as if she had done this countless times before, she dragged the two unconscious pieces of “trash” all the way to the doorway of another apartment building in the military family compound.
It was the place Sun Cuifen was renting.
She tossed the two men onto the doorstep, arranging them in twisted, pathetic positions.
After finishing, she dusted off her hands, turned around, and walked to the public telephone booth in the courtyard.
She picked up the phone and dialed the county Public Security Bureau.
When the call connected, she once again switched to the soft, frightened voice she had used earlier.
“Hello? Is this the police? I’d like to report a crime! There were thieves in our military family compound. Yes, two of them! They looked vicious and were trying to pick my lock… I was terrified and screamed, and they ran away… I think I saw them heading toward Building Two…”
After hanging up, Su Qiao’s figure disappeared into the darkness.
She did not say that she had caught the thieves.
She only said that the thieves had run in the direction of Sun Cuifen’s home.
The rest could be left for the police officers to discover themselves.
Early the next morning, the entire Xingfu Li military family compound erupted into chaos.
The police had come the previous night. There had been no sirens, but the red and blue lights had flashed for most of the night.
In the end, three people were taken away from the residence rented by Sun Cuifen—Su Qiao’s aunt-by-marriage!
Besides the two men who had tried to pick the lock, Sun Cuifen herself had been taken away as well!
Apparently, the two thieves had been beaten nearly half to death. One had several broken ribs, while the other had a fractured wrist. They had been dumped at her doorstep.
When the police questioned them, the two men immediately broke down crying and named Sun Cuifen as the person who had ordered them to do it.
The suspects, the evidence, everything was there.
This time, the direction of the gossip completely changed.
“My goodness! Captain Gu’s wife is incredible! How did she do it?”
“I heard she screamed, and that scared the thieves away?”
“No, no, no. I heard from someone at my husband’s workplace that those two thieves were beaten terribly! One burly man took them both down with one hand!”
“Who? Who’s that amazing?”
“Who else could it be? Obviously Captain Gu’s wife! Think about it—she was alone at home, and her husband wasn’t there. How could she survive without being tough?”
And so, the bizarre yet thrilling rumor that “Captain Gu’s seemingly delicate wife took down two burly men with one hand last night” spread throughout the entire military family compound at astonishing speed.
Those family members who had originally wanted to see Su Qiao make a fool of herself, or who thought she was unworthy of Captain Gu Changfeng, now looked at her completely differently.