68: The neighbor seems a little guilty?

"This is on ice! Are you trying to kill us all by throwing a bomb?!"

"I used to throw them all the time, I forgot the environment is different now. It's all this damn weather's fault! After the flood, it still has to freeze! Hurry up and check on the others!"

The two men bickered.

Jiang Fei cautiously walked towards the sound.

In a large ice pit, an SUV was overturned, and another vehicle was damaged similarly to the pickup truck.

Four men in overcoats were rescuing people from the overturned vehicle.

Jiang Fei crudely raised her submachine gun and sprayed bullets.

Before long, the four men gasped their last and fell to the ground.

Discovering that the remaining people were trapped in the car and couldn't get out, and the ice pit had a slope, Jiang Fei took out her ice skates, put them on, and slid down.

Of the five people in the car, three were unconscious, and two were injured, stuck by their seats.

Without even a chance to speak, Jiang Fei swiftly shot and killed them, then began to loot.

These bastards almost blew her up; taking their lives and demanding some compensation wasn't too much, was it?

The overturned car made searching difficult, so Jiang Fei knelt beside it and reached through the shattered window.

A sniper rifle.

She reached in again.

Several palm-sized, square, silver foil vacuum bags.

Jiang Fei tore one open to look.

Inside was a milky white, viscous substance, odorless.

She'd keep it for now and find a small white mouse to test if it was edible when she got back.

After searching the SUV, Jiang Fei went to search the other vehicle.

In total, she found one box containing 20 foil vacuum bags, over 100 bullets, eight handguns, and two folding outdoor shovels.

Other supplies were either smashed or too damaged to be used.

What a shame about those two heavy machine guns.

Jiang Fei simply stripped the overcoats, leather hats, and scarves from the corpses.

She'd go back and start a fire; she wasn't leaving anything for these people.

But as she was pulling off a scarf, she saw a tattoo on the corpse's neck.

A black and white lily, with a skull in the center whose facial features grew into slender stamens.

She had seen this tattoo before, at the small shopping mall.

Recalling Lu Yu's reaction just now, Jiang Fei was certain they knew each other.

What their exact relationship was, or why they were chasing Lu Yu, she didn't know.

Temporarily suppressing the speculation in her heart, Jiang Fei was about to take out her tractor and climb up when Xu Qianyao's voice came.

"Jiang Fei? Jiang Fei?"

Jiang Fei could only switch to using a flying tiger claw to climb the ice.

When she climbed onto the ice surface, Xu Qianyao and the others had also found the spot.

Xu Qianyao quickly checked Jiang Fei's body. Seeing her lively and without any scrapes, he was stunned: "I just found Lu Yu lying on the ice over there, unconscious, half his face covered in blood. How are you so far away and unharmed after the explosion?"

"I came here myself and dealt with those people."

Hearing this, Xu Qianyao felt relieved.

He had thought Jiang Fei had mutated and gained an indestructible body.

Xu Qianyao had his teammate carry the unconscious Lu Yu and asked Jiang Fei: "We parked the car two streets away; it will take almost half an hour to walk there. Can you walk? Do you need me to carry you?"

"No need. Weren't you affected by the explosion?"

Xu Qianyao felt lingering fear: "Thanks to Lu Yu telling us to take the small path to the south, we only felt the ice surface vibrate a few times."

"You and Lu Yu are really lucky. I saw the pickup truck in the ice pit was flattened."

"But there was no heavy object in the pit. Why would the pickup truck be flattened like a pancake?"

Jiang Fei immediately coughed, about to feign discomfort to change the subject, when several violent coughs echoed from the ice pit not far away.

"Good samaritan... please save me..."

Taking out her pistol, Jiang Fei and Xu Qianyao walked over.

In a small ice pit, a motorcycle lay overturned.

A man in a white mink coat lay leaning against the motorcycle, his right hand bloody.

Jiang Fei remembered this person.

The weapons dealer from the black market, who knew Lu Yu.

Su Liuyuan also saw Jiang Fei above, his peach blossom eyes curving slightly: "Do you mind taking me with you?"

"Lu Yu and I are brothers. My name is Su Liuyuan, and he will repay you for me."

If he hadn't heard Lu Yu's name, Su Liuyuan would never have asked for help.

Xu Qianyao borrowed climbing equipment from Jiang Fei, went down, and brought Su Liuyuan up.

"Bear with it for now. I'll bandage your wound once we reach a safe place."

To avoid any accomplices of the SUV's occupants showing up, Xu Qianyao finished speaking and helped Su Liuyuan walk, no longer concerned about why the pickup truck was flattened like a pancake.

—

An abandoned residential building.

Jiang Fei and the others found an empty room to rest.

Xu Qianyao retrieved charcoal and a first-aid kit from the car.

The teammates were in charge of starting a fire, while Xu Qianyao helped Su Liuyuan take off his mink coat.

The blood on his right arm had already coagulated and was stuck to his sleeve.

"There's no anesthetic. Bite this stick."

Xu Qianyao first used a knife to cut the connection between the sleeve and the shoulder, handed the small stick to Su Liuyuan, and secretly winked at Jiang Fei.

If he tore it, Su Liuyuan would instinctively struggle.

He had to act quickly, catching the other party off guard.

Jiang Fei instantly understood Xu Qianyao's meaning and subtly moved closer.

The moment Su Liuyuan opened his mouth to bite the stick, Jiang Fei raised her hand and tore.

"Ah ah ah ah!!!" Su Liuyuan immediately let out a tragic cry, refusing to let Xu Qianyao touch his arm no matter what.

Jiang Fei pulled out her gun and pressed it against his neck: "Don't move."

"..." Su Liuyuan became obedient.

Xu Qianyao immediately disinfected his wound and applied medicine.

Su Liuyuan's arm was cut by a sharp object, deep enough to require stitches.

Fortunately, there were suturing materials in the first-aid kit.

"Don't worry, I have experience with suturing. Just don't move," Xu Qianyao began to stitch Su Liuyuan's wound.

With a gun pointed at him, Su Liuyuan not only dared not move but also dared not cry out.

His life was so bitter.

Injured and still being threatened with a gun.

After the wound was stitched and bandaged, Lu Yu, lying on the quilt, also woke up.

Su Liuyuan stumbled over, his clothes soaked with sweat, coupled with his pale face, making him look like a water ghost: "Your friend pointed a gun at me."

Lu Yu ignored him and retorted: "Why are you here?"

With outsiders present, Su Liuyuan sat beside Lu Yu and explained in a voice only they could hear: "I left that place not long ago."

"It's only been half a month, and those rats are chasing me."

"That place" referred to the organization Lu Yu and Su Liuyuan shared.

And "rats" were the people hunting him down.

Understanding Su Liuyuan's coded message, Lu Yu's gaze was deep, wishing he could punch the other party in the face.

He had thought the "rats" were coming to kill him.

Turns out he was implicated by Su Liuyuan.

But how did he faint?

It seemed... it was the neighbor?

Lu Yu couldn't help but look at Jiang Fei, who was sitting on a chair.

Suddenly meeting Lu Yu's gaze, Jiang Fei calmly averted her eyes: "I took the backpack out of the car. Nothing inside was damaged. Let's eat something."

Lu Yu took the backpack, grabbed some compressed biscuits, and shared them with Su Liuyuan, while also tending to the wound around his eye.

The neighbor... seemed a little guilty?

Xu Qianyao gave some disinfectants and gauze to Su Liuyuan: "We are the official Rescue Team, and we're going to look for medicine. We can't take you to a safe place, but you can come with us."

Su Liuyuan: "You're here for medicine?"

"Lincheng has a flu and schistosomiasis outbreak, and there aren't enough medicines. We have to split up and search various places."

Lu Yu glanced at Su Liuyuan.

We saved your life and almost got blown up because of you. Aren't you going to give us some compensation?

Zean County was considered Su Liuyuan's base of operations.

He was a dealer and had many enemies, so he built a safe house here as a warehouse, stocking many good things.

Understanding Lu Yu's meaning, Su Liuyuan's heart felt like it was bleeding as he told Xu Qianyao: "I have a lot of medicine at my house. You can go there and get it."

Xu Qianyao couldn't hide his surprise: "That's great! We'll go to your place in a bit!"

After eating, the group set off for Su Liuyuan's house.

Jiang Fei's car was broken, so she, Lu Yu, and Su Liuyuan got into Xu Qianyao's pickup truck.

More than an hour later, on the summit of a desolate mountain.

A two-story self-built villa was hidden in a forest of dead trees.

Behind the villa was also a low-rise large warehouse.

The mountain top was high and had not been affected by the flood, though there were many frozen corpses of snakes, insects, rats, and mosquitoes, all turned into ice sculptures.

Su Liuyuan opened the villa's front door, and a wave of warmth washed over them.

When Su Liuyuan pressed the switch and the indoor lights came on one after another, Xu Qianyao looked shocked: "How many generators did you use to power the entire villa?"

"Not many, about a dozen," Su Liuyuan said lightly.

"The medicine is in the warehouse. You guys warm up in the living room for a bit. I'll go change into some clean clothes, then take you to get it."

"There are drinks and food in the fridge; feel free to take whatever you want, don't be shy."

There were still dangerous items in the warehouse; he had to hide them in advance!

Su Liuyuan left the living room.

Afraid of dirtying the sofa, Xu Qianyao and his teammates sat on chairs, not wandering around, marveling at their surroundings.

"The crystal chandelier is so beautiful. It's so big, hanging all the way down from the second floor. It must be very expensive."

"I never thought I'd see lights again one day. I feel like I'm dreaming."

"I hope one day, every household in Lincheng can have their lights on again."

While Xu Qianyao and the others were chatting, Lu Yu came over to Jiang Fei, lowering his voice: "Come with me, I'll take you to get some good stuff."