“Pretty good, yeah.” Xiao Xingzhi arched a brow, his deep-pool eyes narrowing slightly. “Would’ve been even better if it’d been you lot getting caught at the start, instead of someone jumping off a building.”
Zou Yue laughed softly. “He jumped himself. What’s that got to do with me?”
“I didn’t force him, either.”
Zhang Xiangyi simply stepped back half a pace and let Xiao Xingzhi do the verbal sparring with Zou Yue up front, that really was more his department.
“You didn’t force him, no, just threatened him a little.” Zhang Xiangyi sorted through what she knew. To make a person of upstanding character jump of his own accord, in an environment like that, she truly couldn’t think of any reason other than a threat.
The one who jumped, of course, wasn’t the real Fugui, just a swapped face.
All of Apartment 44 was under Zou Yue’s control, running its crimes.
The police had surely caught on long ago, but with no evidence and the other side too powerful, they hadn’t dared act rashly, and could only chip away at it slowly.
In the meantime, how many good people had died?
Zhang Xiangyi didn’t want to dwell on the number. Nobody wanted to go looking for their own misery.
“Since you all understand it perfectly well, then you also understand that I won’t be letting you out today.” Zou Yue fixed her gaze on Zhang Xiangyi, her face full of appreciation. “If you’re willing to come work for me, I can give you the number-two seat. The condition, of course…”
“Kill him with your own hands.”
The Xiao Xingzhi being pointed at: “……”
Am I just a prop in your little game?
“Why him?”
By rights, shouldn’t she be telling her to kill all of these people?
“You’re a couple, after all. As for those others, you’d dispatch them happily enough.” Zou Yue propped her chin on her hand, the smile never leaving her lips. “Do you know how I caught on to Li Yi?”
“Mm…” Zou Yue paused, then helpfully added, “The one who jumped, I mean.”
“He and Zhou Lan were a couple?” Zhang Xiangyi raised an eyebrow, slowly coiling the whip in her hand and tossing it to Zhong Ziqian beside her, then strolled to the very front.
Xi Zirui said not a word.
Xiao Xingzhi was very displeased and yet very pleased, the conflicting, contradictory emotions making the expression on his face shift back and forth.
“Yes. Zhou Lan hadn’t been exposed either, neither of them had. But love, you see… sometimes it really is such a pity.” Zou Yue shook her head, picked up the teacup from the table, and took a slow sip. “What’s love worth? If you come work for me, men… as many as you want, any type you want. And if you’d rather have women…”
“That can be arranged too.”
Xiao Xingzhi: ???
“My girlfriend would never agree to you!” Xiao Xingzhi grabbed Zhang Xiangyi, shot Zou Yue a hard, defiant glare, then turned to Zhang Xiangyi with a wronged, pitiful look. “Babe, you wouldn’t agree to her, right?”
Zhang Xiangyi swept him an indifferent glance, flung off his hand, and agreed with Zou Yue: “It does sound very tempting.”
Zou Yue clapped her hands, and the men beside her tore open their clothes in perfect unison, baring sculpted muscles. Zou Yue crooked a finger at one of them, and the man stepped up and crouched before her, an ingratiating smile on his face.
Zou Yue laid her hand on him, slender, fair fingers against a wheat-tanned pectoral, the red of her manicure sliding lightly across it. “Which one do you like? If this style doesn’t suit you, there are others.”
The moment Zou Yue finished speaking, men of all different types stepped forward to show off their physiques.
It was a full-on fan-service buffet!
Zhang Xiangyi had to admit, this really was quite alluring.
Zhang Xiangyi’s silence threw Xiao Xingzhi into a panic. Don’t tell me she actually likes this sort of thing?
He had muscles too, just not as brawny as these guys. Managing to stick with the gym at all in normal times was already an achievement for him. But if she really liked it… maybe he could put in more time training when they got back?
“That guy whose chest she’s touching won’t do.”
Everyone turned to look at Xi Zirui. He was utterly composed. “Don’t forget, I’m a doctor.”
Zhong Ziqian started to speak, then stopped: You’re a doctor, sure, but there are a lot of kinds of doctors.
Yuan Sheng stood at the very back. There was no place for her in a scene like this, all she could do was stand in the rear and rest, so that when the fighting started she wouldn’t be dead weight.
Xiao Xingzhi smiled and sidled up to Zhang Xiangyi. “Don’t worry. I’m plenty capable.”
Zhang Xiangyi: “……” Is now really the time to be saying that?
“Men don’t matter to me.”
“Is that so…” Zou Yue waved a hand, and the bare-chested crowd retreated and put their clothes back on, leveling their guns at the group again.
The one Xi Zirui had pronounced “no good” glared at him with bitter resentment, the muzzle of his gun pointed at an unmistakable target.
“I like money.” Zhang Xiangyi was counting the time in her head, her palms sweating nonstop. With this many people in front of them, the few of them couldn’t possibly win, all they could do was pray the police came fast.
“Money?”
Zou Yue blinked, then burst out laughing. “Money is the one thing I never lack. However much you want, you can have it.”
Zhang Xiangyi pressed her lips together. She didn’t expect to ever hear those words.
All at once she understood how a certain someone had felt upon hearing the same thing, especially since she really was very poor.
Xiao Xingzhi was poor too, and at the words he wept poverty-stricken tears inside. When would he ever get to say something that domineering?
“Really?”
Zhang Xiangyi tapped her toe lightly. Seeing this, the others tightened their grips on their weapons, and Yuan Sheng at the back blinked, then quietly clenched the iron rod she’d picked up on the way.
Zhang Xiangyi drew the knife from her waist, found her angle, and hurled it forward with all her strength. “Go!”
“Bang!”
“Rumble, rumble—”
The sounds came almost at the very same instant.
She’d thrown it straight at Zou Yue, but with this many people in front, there was no way it would hit, yet as her strike landed, the rolling shutter behind Zou Yue blew open.
“Everyone, drop your weapons! This is the District 44 armed—”
The voice was loud, repeated three times, enough for everyone to hear.
Zhang Xiangyi and Xiao Xingzhi fell back, while Xi Zirui grabbed Zhong Ziqian, who’d been about to charge forward.
Yuan Sheng obediently stuck close to Zhang Xiangyi.
Zhong Ziqian: “? Didn’t you say ‘go’?”
Zhang Xiangyi was speechless.
“Go ahead, charge. If you get hit by friendly fire and die in here, we’ll find a chance to burn some paper money for you when we get back.” Xiao Xingzhi’s lips curled, a half-smile that wasn’t quite a smile. “It’s so chaotic right now, you could even fish in troubled waters.”
Zhong Ziqian: “……” He’d only been doing as he was told…
His crime hardly warranted death.
The police came in great numbers and quickly put everything down.
The five of them stood in a corner without taking a single scratch.
A capable, no-nonsense middle-aged woman, on seeing them, walked over. Two familiar figures trailed behind her.
At the sight, Xiao Xingzhi stepped in front of Zhang Xiangyi, blocking the way.
It was all over, why was this person still showing up?
Wasn’t he with the fire brigade?
“Zhang Xiangyi, come on, come on, let’s get out of here.” Xiao Xingzhi took the hand of the person behind him, glancing back with a wronged little blink. “Okay~?”
Zhang Xiangyi: “……Fine……”
With those words, a mechanical screen appeared before each of the four. Zhong Ziqian hurriedly said his goodbyes, answered the questions, and left.
He never wanted to come back here again.
The horror of it!
Out of habit, Xi Zirui pushed up his glasses. “If anything comes up, you can find me at Jiangcheng First People’s Hospital.”
After saying it, he suddenly remembered the situation in the real world and paused. “Or rather, let’s meet again if fate allows.”
The hospital was a disaster zone, after all. He had no intention of sending anyone to their death.
「Apartment 44 (Beginner Instance) successfully cleared!」
「Confetti~」
「Teleportation channel opening—」
When Zhang Xiangyi opened her eyes again, the projected rabbit was before her, was it nodding off? She was still seated in the chair, and here, too, she was still alone.
「Game settlement in progress…」
「Game rating: S」
「Game points: 8,000 (100 RMB exchanges for 1 point)」
「Title acquired: Heartless Killer」
「Attention!!!」
The bold red characters made Zhang Xiangyi’s heart lurch, and a sudden ominous feeling came over her.
「As the player has destroyed the instance and harmed the NPCs’ psyches, rendering the instance unable to launch for some time, points shall be deducted accordingly to repair the instance and compensate the NPCs.」
「Calculating points…」
Zhang Xiangyi: ???
She hadn’t done anything, though?
She wasn’t the one who blew up the lab.
And later the police stepped in, she wasn’t the one who killed those people!
How was it any of her business?
She’d been diligent and dutiful, serving the nation and the people!
She’d wiped out a criminal den this enormous!
If they weren’t going to reward her, fine, but now they were docking her money on top of it!
And the NPCs’ psyches?
These things had psyches?
Looking at the exchange rate, Zhang Xiangyi felt a stab of heartache.
800,000?
Did she even grasp the scale of that?
She’d never had that much money in her life, never owned even an eighth of it, and now they wanted to dock it from her!
「Calculation complete. Deducting 10,000 points from player ‘Rich.’ This will be broadcast server-wide in 10 minutes. All players, take heed!」
“Hold on! I only have 8,000 points, how can you deduct 10,000?”
「Querying points…」
「Player ‘Rich’ points: -2,000」
Looking at the red number, Zhang Xiangyi couldn’t process it. “It can… go negative?”
Zhang Xiangyi clutched at her own heart, which gave a little throb of pain. One instance down, having gone through life and death, and she’d gotten nothing, and in the end she owed the game 200,000…
“I think there’s something wrong with this setup of yours…”
——Are you trying to file a complaint?
the rabbit asked.
Zhang Xiangyi’s eyes lit up. “I can file a complaint?”
——The game has no complaint function.
Zhang Xiangyi: “……”
What does it mean to have your mood swing wildly from high to low?
This is what it means!
「Software will be installed on your phone, allowing you to look up game-related information at any time.」
When the text on the screen finished displaying, Zhang Xiangyi had barely opened her mouth when she felt a shove and was flung out, given no chance whatsoever.
She crashed hard onto the sofa, and the pain made her shoot straight back up.
The sofa was one she’d picked out of a garbage heap, wooden, with a broken leg, thrown out by someone else. She’d hauled it home, found a piece of wood, and made a new leg for it herself.
There was just a layer of cloth thrown over the top.
So the sofa was exceptionally hard.
“Hghk—”
The door was being pounded, thump thump thump. There was no time at all for Zhang Xiangyi to discuss it with Xiao Xingzhi. The two of them looked at the table in front of them and lifted it together, piling everything up against the door.
Their every movement was careful, soundless.
They even wrapped their hands in cloths, carried the basin of water from when Xiao Xingzhi had first arrived and washed his face, and brought it to the door.
They stuffed the dirtied face towel into the gap beneath the door.
After waiting a while, the zombie finally left.
“We can’t keep going on like this.”
This place couldn’t possibly hold up to more than a few rounds of zombie attacks. The zombies were few right now, so they could fend them off, but what about later, when there were more?
The two of them wouldn’t even have anywhere to run.
Xiao Xingzhi fell silent for a while, then suddenly said, “I have a house.”
Zhang Xiangyi: “???”
She’d assumed the two of them were equally broke, so how did someone who’d been poor right alongside her suddenly have a house?
“You’re lying to me?”