There is no concept of time in the building, and the outside seems to be a night that will never light up.
In this dim environment, people easily feel drowsy.
Jiang Mingran and Uncle Bing left Shao Lan’s room, each returning to their own rooms to rest for the night.
Jiang Mingran was exhausted. Even though the wooden plank bed without sheets or quilts was frighteningly hard, he lay down and fell asleep instantly.
Not knowing how long he had slept, he was suddenly startled awake by a chill near his temple.
“Get up,” an unfamiliar male voice said. “If you don’t want to die.”
Jiang Mingran opened his eyes in shock.
It wasn’t a dream. At this very moment, a nail gun was pressed against his head.
The power of a nail gun isn’t comparable to a handgun, but from this close, Jiang Mingran could already imagine his skull being pierced and his brains flying everywhere.
“Who… who are you?” Jiang Mingran asked. “What are you doing…”
Before he could finish his sentence, a machete heavily slashed across his shoulder, and blood spurted out instantly.
In agonizing pain, Jiang Mingran fell to the floor and wailed.
He was still in his own room; two people had simply broken in from outside.
The two men standing in room 803 right now were one tall and one short. The tall one was holding a cleaver, and the short one was holding a nail gun.
“Kid, do as I say, or I’ll smash your head right now.” The short man pressed the nail gun against Jiang Mingran’s head. “Walk over to the vending machine.”
Jiang Mingran had no choice and could only do as the short man said.
He came in front of the screen, and the screen immediately performed facial recognition on him.
“Hello, property owner Jiang Mingran, what would you like?”
The tall man walked up to the screen: “Brother Nan, what do we want?”
Brother Nan said, “Check his balance.”
The tall man tapped the screen a few times: “He still has over four hundred left.”
“Not bad, I just like newcomers like you who save up their money.” Brother Nan tapped Jiang Mingran’s temple with the gun. “Whatever amount you saved up, I’m going to spend.”
“You pick out the food, and get two bottles of alcohol as well.”
“Red or white wine?”
“White liquor, and get some dishes to go with it.”
Jiang Mingran clutched his shoulder in pain, watching the two men echo each other.
He understood now; these two men were here to rob supplies.
The tall guy was named Zhang Fang, who was the second-in-command, and his boss was this monkey-like, short man named Xu Nan.
“Alright, go ahead and pay.” Xu Nan kicked Jiang Mingran.
They selected items worth a little over four hundred yuan—all things Jiang Mingran hadn’t dared to buy earlier—which happened to entirely use up Jiang Mingran’s remaining balance.
At this moment, a flash of light swept across the hallway outside.
The property management woman was holding a flashlight, walking slowly past like a security guard on patrol.
Hope suddenly surged in Jiang Mingran’s heart.
“Help!” he screamed, “Save me!”
He was prepared to be beaten after shouting, but strangely, Xu Nan and Zhang Fang showed no intention of stopping him at all, standing by and watching the show with grins on their faces.
Outside, the property management woman acted as if she hadn’t heard anything, holding her flashlight and walking slowly away.
A deep sense of despair welled up inside Jiang Mingran.
Why isn’t she doing anything…
“Newcomer, you clearly don’t know the rules here.” Xu Nan said with a smile. “In this building, as long as it hasn’t been explicitly forbidden, everything is permitted.”
Jiang Mingran’s face lost all color.
The property management woman had indeed never said that theft and robbery were prohibited.
She hadn’t even said that murder was forbidden.
“Starting to get it now?” Xu Nan said with a smile, hitting Jiang Mingran’s head lightly with the nail gun. “If you don’t obey, I can kill you at any time, and nobody cares at all. Hurry up, hit pay.”
Jiang Mingran rasped, “If I obey, won’t I still be killed?”
Once he pressed pay, he would be completely out of money. Who knew if they would just kill him on the spot afterward?
Xu Nan stopped smiling, saying, “Do you take me for a patient man?”
Before he could finish speaking, Zhang Fang heavily hacked his knife into Jiang Mingran’s wound.
The excruciating pain nearly caused Jiang Mingran to pass out. Zhang Fang grabbed Jiang Mingran’s right hand and directly snapped his fingers.
Dragging Jiang Mingran like a dead dog, he forced his hand directly onto the screen.
Payment successful.
Food and wine dropped out from the exit, and Zhang Fang put them into bags one by one.
“Brother Nan…”
“Shh.” Xu Nan suddenly made a silencing gesture. “Listen.”
Zhang Fang listened for a moment, and his expression changed abruptly.
Intense sounds of fighting came from next door.
“Not good, that kid in 802 is putting up a strong fight. I’m going over to help Yellow-hair.” Zhang Fang got up and left.
Lying on the floor, Jiang Mingran felt wave after wave of helplessness.
He had been wondering how to warn Shao Lan, but now it seemed the robbery gang wasn’t stupid—they had launched their attacks simultaneously.
When Zhang Fang rushed to 802, he cursed inwardly.
There were three of them, and the target also had three people, so they had devised a tactical plan accordingly.
The disabled old man didn’t need to be worried about; he couldn’t run and couldn’t fight, so he could be dealt with last.
As for the remaining two, one looked sturdy and obviously into sports, while the other wore a white shirt and black pants, looking like an office worker. The former was obviously a much bigger threat than the latter.
Therefore, Xu Nan with the nail gun and Zhang Fang, the biggest and strongest, were assigned to handle Jiang Mingran, while the remaining Yellow-hair was tasked with ambushing Shao Lan.
He hadn’t expected Yellow-hair to hit a snag over here, failing to control the situation even with the advantage of a weapon and a surprise attack.
Zhang Fang rushed into the room to see Shao Lan slamming Yellow-hair against the wall with a back-body toss.
Damn it, has this kid had martial arts training?
A bad feeling arose in Zhang Fang’s heart, and he rushed forward with a cleaver.
At the same time, Shao Lan was feeling an even worse premonition.
He had also heard the commotion from next door, and Jiang Mingran was clearly heavily injured.
Their strongest fighter was already compromised, and Uncle Bing couldn’t even walk properly. In a three-on-one situation with the enemy holding weapons, Shao Lan had no chance of winning.
Dodging left and right to evade two of Zhang Fang’s knife swings, his own cleaver embedded itself into a chair and couldn’t be pulled out for a moment.
Good opportunity!
Shao Lan rushed forward and kicked Zhang Fang—
The sharp sound of metal tearing through the air rang out abruptly. A nail drove straight into the chair, with so much force that the entire nail sank completely out of sight.
“Don’t move.”
A chilling voice sounded from the doorway.
Xu Nan pointed his nail gun at Shao Lan, while his other hand dragged a half-conscious Jiang Mingran.
“Move again, and that nail will go straight into your bone.”
Shao Lan stopped and slowly raised his hands.
Zhang Fang and Yellow-hair seized the opportunity to recover, picking up their respective weapons.
Uncle Bing had already heard the noise and hurried over, trembling as he stood at the doorway.
Xu Nan couldn’t be bothered with him and looked straight at Shao Lan: “Go on. Face scan.”
Shao Lan stood in his place.
As long as he did a face scan, everyone would see that he still had a balance of over 10,000 yuan, and his trump card would be completely exposed.
“Are you going or not?” Xu Nan’s patience ran out as he raised the muzzle of his gun…
“Let’s make a deal,” Shao Lan said.
Xu Nan raised an eyebrow: “Don’t try any tricks.”
“It’s not a trick,” Shao Lan said. “Don’t take it all; leave me half, and I’ll split the earnings from my next trip into the dungeon with you fifty-fifty.”
Xu Nan smiled: “Are you trying to teach me a lesson about sustainable development? Instead of killing the hen for its meat right now, you want to keep it to lay eggs?”
Shao Lan replied, “If you want to put it that way, that’s fine too.”
Xu Nan smiled.
“Do I fucking need you to teach me how to do things…”
In a flash of lightning, a sharp weapon cut through the air.
Xu Nan’s eyes widened. He realized that Shao Lan had been quietly moving forward all along, taking advantage of the conversation and the visual blind spot created by the wooden plank bed.
“You don’t want to live anymore!” Xu Nan flew into a rage and pulled the trigger of the nail gun.
The nail flew past Shao Lan’s face. He lunged forward, the dagger in his hand slashing toward Xu Nan’s neck: “Your aim is pretty terrible, friend.”