Chapter 19 p1
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The first thing Ji Yang did was toss the bloodied Tang sword into her space. The blood on it had frozen, so she would have to thaw it in the living space to clean it properly.
The environment there could also directly purify the dirty blood.
Then, she washed her hands, disinfected them, and picked up Xixi, praising it, “Xixi is such a good boy, you didn’t move when I told you not to!”
Xixi immediately went limp like it had no bones, rubbing against her and letting out little “ying ying ying…” whimpers.
Seeing this, Ji Yang’s smile became even more gentle.
She didn’t look like someone who had just shed blood at all.
Before she had made her move, she had instructed Xixi not to bark or go out. Although this kind of shepherd dog could fight wolves, Xixi hadn’t grown up yet, and humans used tools. She was afraid Xixi would get hurt.
As for herself, she would definitely be fine.
This group of people had just entered the apocalypse from a peaceful era. They knew nothing, had no powerful weapons, and were even less likely to harm her. Otherwise, her rebirth would have been pointless.
After petting Xixi, Ji Yang yawned.
She still hadn’t slept enough.
Perhaps she had slept too little in her previous life. In her past life, although Ji Yang had teamed up for missions, she usually lived alone. A single woman was always a target, no matter where she was. She never slept soundly at night, and her real rest was only three or four hours a day.
At that time, she had even complained that she would one day die from overwork.
But in the end, she had died in an earthquake.
So, in this life, Ji Yang had thought of getting a dog, mainly for guard duty, so that she could sleep peacefully. Who knew that once she enjoyed it, she would really want to sleep for twelve hours.
The memories of her past life flashed by, and Ji Yang quickly calmed down. She took off her heavy outer clothes and climbed into bed. Ever since the temperature had dropped to minus fifty or sixty degrees, she had started using an electric blanket.
The temperature in the living room was still quite high, but there was no fireplace in the bedroom, so there was much less heat. Therefore, she needed two heaters and an electric blanket to sleep comfortably.
Before long, she fell into a deep sleep again.
In her dream, after the snow disaster, the world had returned to normal.
It was so beautiful that when she woke up and looked at the familiar house, she was a little dazed.
She glanced at the time again. It was ten o’clock.
Her stomach was already growling. She was usually very regular, going to bed at nine or ten at night and waking up at eight in the morning. Today, her biological clock was a bit messed up, so her stomach was protesting.
She quickly got up to add some firewood to the fireplace. After a whole night, there were only a few embers left in the fireplace, so she had to sprinkle a layer of wood chips on top, which was very good for starting a fire.
By the time she had brushed her teeth and washed her face, the two fireplaces were burning again.
As the temperature slowly rose, Ji Yang took off her heavy cold-proof suit and took out today’s breakfast from her space: beef noodles, a portion of beef potstickers, and the dipping sauce that came with it.
This beef noodle shop had an excellent reputation. She had loved it in her previous life and often went there to eat. The top layer of the large bowl was covered with beef slices, and below were noodles and green vegetables. They were still steaming hot. She took a sip of the soup first, which warmed her from head to toe, then took a bite of the noodles and a potsticker. The taste was superb.
Who was living more comfortably than her?!
Hmm?
There were quite a few.
This was just the beginning.
There were many rich and powerful big shots. Many of them had quickly gathered supplies after noticing that something was wrong, which later became their bargaining chip with the base.
After moving into the base, they also lived in the best detached villas, drove cars, and had a bunch of servants at home, making people drool with envy.
So, there was a person who specifically targeted them to fleece.
Unfortunately, at that time, Ji Yang was still an unlucky person who survived by doing missions. She didn’t have the energy to pry into the games of these big shots. She only occasionally heard some gossip during her breaks, about which family in the villa area had gotten something good, how much grain they had spent, and so on.
—
While she was enjoying her food here.
Other places were in chaos.
The couple from 702 finally got up, still wondering what the noise outside was this morning. They were about to open the door to ask someone, but when they did, they saw their own father/father-in-law lying on the ground, his face pale and bluish, and even covered with a layer of frost.
A closer look revealed bloodstains on his abdomen and hands!
“Dad!” A wail rang out in the corridor.
The others who had participated in this matter and had heard about it all shivered. No one dared to come out and say anything.
They had thought that Old Zhu’s son and daughter-in-law would do something, but after they had cried and wailed, they silently dragged their father into the house, and that was it.
Some people complained that the son was unfilial, while others felt that they had done the right thing.
If it were them, they wouldn’t dare to go head-to-head with the girl on the fifteenth floor either.
She had a knife and she would really stab!
They still wanted to live.
They had thought that this matter would be over, and because of it, no one in the entire building had gone out today. But that afternoon, another piece of news came.
Tang Fang’s husband and brother had been found!
Under the corridor window!
After last night, they were buried by the snow, but not deeply. Tang Fang was rescued and woke up, crying and begging people to go and see. Everyone had originally robbed her family’s grain, so they were actually a little guilty. In addition, her sister-in-law was also crying and begging on the side, so a few men reluctantly went down.
And when they did, they found them.
The bigger discovery was—the cause of death for both of them was a bullet to the center of the forehead!
They had long heard that there was a gun-wielding big shot in their community who had killed the people who had come to rob the community. Now, it turned out that he was in their building?!
“Could it be the fifteenth floor?” someone asked tremblingly. He was also one of the participants before, and had been incited by Tang Fang to go into Ji Yang’s house to take a look and take the opportunity to get some food.
After all, that girl ate well every day. What was the big deal about giving them a little?
He just hoped he hadn’t been targeted by the big shot.
Qiao Huijun’s face was grim, and he didn’t say anything.
He didn’t have the confidence to nod or shake his head.
But a man frowned and said disdainfully, “How is that possible?! Didn’t you hear what the fifteenth floor said? Her door was specially modified. These two didn’t even pry it open. They probably wanted to pry other doors, like the ones upstairs, the sixteenth or seventeenth floor. I remember a single old man lives on the seventeenth floor? I heard he was a soldier. Maybe he has a gun!”
Qiao Huijun’s brows relaxed. Compared to a girl having a gun, he was more willing to believe that a man had a gun. “Indeed, that’s more likely.”
The other men also agreed, and some even looked excited. “No wonder! The old man on the seventeenth floor probably took action because he didn’t like these two, just like last time when he saw the people who came to our community to collect protection fees. As expected of a soldier!”
“So cool! If only I had known, I would have gotten on good terms with this old man. In this situation, it would be great to have a big shot to rely on.”
“I was just saying, how could a woman have a gun? How did she bring it back into the country? If she really had that kind of connection, would she be living here? She would have gone to Pingchao Garden… Speaking of which, that woman is really something! Don’t let me find an opportunity, otherwise…”
Pingchao Garden was where the dignitaries of Changnan City lived. It looked ordinary, but in reality, everyone who saw it had to bow and scrape.
Tang Fang, who was crying while holding her husband’s body, heard this, and her crying stopped. She touched her broken leg and then continued to cry.
She was sure it was Ji Yang!
No wonder she was so ruthless. She must have been in the underworld before and had a gun.
If it were before, Tang Fang would definitely not be convinced, but now her leg bone had been broken by Ji Yang. Thinking of that scene, she was so scared she couldn’t move, not to mention knowing that she also had a gun.
But she wouldn’t say it.
This group of people had robbed her family’s supplies, which was as good as cutting off half her life. She couldn’t kill them, so of course, she hoped that this group of people would go and die themselves!
All of them should die!
It would be best if they and Ji Yang were both seriously injured and died together!
—
This group of people talked a big game, but they were all cowards.
They all thought that the single old man on the seventeenth floor had a gun and wanted to latch onto him, but no one dared to really go. They hadn’t reached a desperate situation yet, and the other party had already killed nearly twenty people. They were still more afraid.
Some people also felt that this old man was probably an upright person, so for a while, they were a little scared because they had robbed 602, afraid that the old man would come down to find trouble with them, and they didn’t dare to go upstairs to find him.
After holding it in for two days, they felt that everything was as usual and finally breathed a sigh of relief.
But because of this, the building unexpectedly entered a period of peace.
There were often sounds of robbery in other buildings, and the nature of it became more and more vicious, but Building 9 was quite honest. Every day, a group of people went out to look for supplies.
However, as resources were depleted, the supplies they found became less and less.
The atmosphere in the building became tense again, and there were occasional troubles at night. At first, everyone turned a blind eye, until it got to the point where they couldn’t even form a team to look for supplies during the day.
It wasn’t just inside the building; it was also outside.
While they were out chopping wood and collecting supplies during the day, people from other buildings would form groups to come and rob them. They would rob and run, and if they couldn’t win, they would let go. For a while, this group of people didn’t dare to go out.
They were afraid that if they were not careful, their homes would be emptied when they came back.
But if they didn’t go out, they would have no supplies.
For a while, the atmosphere in the building was extremely low. Many people ran to Qiao Huijun’s house on the eighth floor to seek help. The old and the young cried and complained one after another. Qiao Huijun’s head was about to explode, but this reliance on him also gave him some ideas.
After sending away the people who had come for help, Qiao Huijun went straight to the twelfth floor, to the house of the deputy building leader, Liang Zhen. After a few pleasantries, he began to implicitly state his arrangements:
“This can’t go on. The people in the building are in a state of panic. We can’t unite to go out. We must integrate them. So, I propose that we form an extreme cold survival alliance. Everyone who joins the alliance will hand over a certain amount of grain as a deposit and a joining fee. Then, we will form groups in batches to search for supplies. A portion of the supplies found will be put in the alliance, and a portion will be distributed as rations. Old Liang, we are both building leaders, so we are the perfect ones to lead. If someone bullies us, with so many of us, we don’t have to be afraid!”
Liang Zhen frowned as he listened.
The idea was good, but some of the methods made him a little uncomfortable. He was an upright and gentle person, but not stupid. Under such circumstances, who would be willing to give away their life-saving grain?
And it was called a joining fee. Could they get it back if they quit in the future?
The probability was extremely small.
Without grain, their lives were in the hands of others. Then, they wouldn’t dare to resist whatever they were asked to do.
What was the difference between them and those who were forced to pay protection fees before?
Liang Zhen understood and said with a bitter smile, “Brother Qiao, I’m afraid that’s not possible. I don’t have any grain at home either. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have risked going out these past few days. I won’t be joining.”
Qiao Huijun’s eyes darkened, and he tried to persuade him, “Old Liang, we are good brothers. I won’t cheat you. If you join now, you will be a founding member, and you will still be the deputy leader in the future!”
Liang Zhen still refused.
After failing to persuade him, Qiao Huijun could only leave with a belly full of anger. He looked up and down, gritted his teeth, and went straight upstairs.
In these times, if he could win over the old man on the seventeenth floor, with a gun, it would be twice the result with half the effort!
Halfway there, Qiao Huijun even deliberately returned home to get a can of fruit before really going up.
The top floor seemed even colder. Snowflakes from the rooftop occasionally drifted in through the open doorway, and there was a thin layer of snow in the corridor.
There were no footprints on the snow.
Qiao Huijun’s heart skipped a beat. He quickly knocked on the door. He had done the registration before and had personally seen this old man go down to get grain. Nothing should have happened to him…
After knocking for a long time, there was indeed no answer.
Qiao Huijun’s heart burned. If this old man was dead, the gun in his hand… he took a deep breath and kicked the doorknob with all his might.
The door seemed to have been a little broken already, and it had become brittle from the extreme cold. It was actually kicked open by him.
He was ecstatic, feeling that heaven was helping him. He quickly ran in and, sure enough, saw the old man lying in his bed, already frozen stiff. The house was cold and empty, as if no one had been there for a long time.
Then, he began to rummage through the cabinets.
He found about ten jin of grain and some seasonings.
After searching and searching, in the end, he found nothing.
He had even searched the old man’s body.
Qiao Huijun sat down on the sofa in dejection and began to doubt life. Could it be that the person with the gun was really the little girl on the fifteenth floor?
It was too incredible!
Wait, if that was the case, then his plan could be implemented, and it could be changed a little.
Qiao Huijun’s eyes lit up, revealing a hint of greed.
Perhaps it was a stereotype. Although he was afraid of Ji Yang’s Tang sword and gun, he was not as afraid as he was of the old man before.
Facing an elderly soldier, he didn’t dare to have any covetous thoughts, unless the other party was dead.
But facing a little girl in her twenties, who possessed such a tempting weapon, he couldn’t control his greed.
—