71: Chapter 71 Goodwill Resulted in a Corpse

The Child watched helplessly as their mother was dragged away, their voice already rasped raw from screaming, the Child nearly collapsing from exhaustion.

"No! Let go of my mom!"

Once the bedroom door closed, the world seemed to be cut off.

But those sounds... the sound of the bed frame banging, clothes tearing, the men's heavy breathing, and the woman's pleas... remained clearly audible.

"Don't do this... I beg you, let me go... My Child is still outside..."

"Why are you screaming so loud? Keep it up and I'll kill you."

"You're not human!"

As the woman struggled, the bedroom door creaked open just a crack.

In that instant—

The Child outside saw their mother struggling to crawl to the edge of the bed, half-naked, her cheeks swollen, still desperately reaching out toward the door.

"Mom!"

The Child rushed in like a madman!

A small figure, like a moth flying into a flame.

"Let go of my mom!"

"You little brat, get out—"

"Don't bully my mom!"

The boy lunged at the nearest man, swinging his fists wildly, crying and shouting all at once.

That scene pierced everyone's soul.

But they didn't stop.

Instead, they were annoyed at having their "fun" interrupted.

Their anger turned into brutality—

The man with the crew cut picked up an iron stool from the side of the room and smashed it down with a backhand swing.

"Get lost and die!"

"Bang!"

The iron stool struck the Child's head!

With a loud crash, the small head was slammed against the wall, blood sprayed, and the skull nearly caved in!

Blood splattered onto the wall, the woman's face, and the floor—

The mother let out a soul-rending scream.

"Aaaaahhh—!"

She had gone mad, completely mad!

Roaring like a wild beast, she scrambled up from the floor, grabbed a shard of glass, and charged at the nearest man!

"I'll kill you! I'll kill you all!"

But she was empty-handed.

The five men swarmed her, pinning her to the ground, raining down punches, knees, and kicks, until flesh and blood flew everywhere.

She stopped crying, and she stopped struggling.

Her eyes just stared fixedly at the Child's small corpse on the ground.

Until she was beaten into stillness.

—Then, the body was tossed into the bedroom like trash, right alongside the Child.

The camera shook and focused back on the bedroom; the walls were painted with blood, and the floor was covered in footprints and claw marks.

In front of the screen at the top-floor Shelter.

The air was deathly silent.

No one spoke.

Zhao Wei clenched his fists, his eyes filled with pure murderous intent: "Sis, I'm going to go slaughter them."

Zhou Cheng had already pulled up the facial recognition, locking onto the identities of the five men while growling through gritted teeth.

"These bastards live in Room 307; they've only been here for less than a month."

"A few girls had mentioned being harassed in the group chat before... but the posts were all deleted."

Zhang Tianjin unsheathed his blade, his voice cold: "If you want me to go now, I'll have five corpses in the hallway in half an hour."

Inside the control room, the surveillance footage replayed over and over, the air so heavy it felt like being crushed under a sheet of ice.

No one said anything else.

Until Ye Nanxing's voice sounded again.

"Location locked. Target room: Phoenix City 307."

Zhou Cheng's fingers moved rapidly, his tone calm: "There's a surveillance system on the inside of the door. It's likely a civilian-grade security package with indoor recording and visual monitoring."

"I can hack it directly without triggering an alarm."

"Do it." Ye Nanxing said only one word.

Zhou Cheng accessed the surveillance backend. With a "buzz," the system image instantly popped up four windows: [Living Room] [Bedroom 1] [Bedroom 2] [Storage Room]

[Bedroom 1 · LIVE]

The lighting was dim.

On screen, five men formed a semi-circle, and one guy with a fleshy face was whipping a girl's arm with a belt.

The girl's clothes were torn, her cheeks swollen; she was curled up on the floor, her mouth gagged with a cloth strip, only able to emit suppressed groans.

"Alright, alright, don't whip her too hard. If she swells up any more, she won't be tender anymore."

A guy with dyed yellow hair lifted her chin: "Smile, little baby. The boys haven't had enough fun yet."

"You'd better be obedient this time, right? You three are resources we went through a lot of trouble to get. Do you know what a resource is?"

Another thin man wearing sunglasses kicked the girl and sneered.

"That dead woman yesterday didn't know what was good for her, causing our brothers to be too heavy-handed, and the kid ended up dead."

"But... this new one is even fresher than her."

The kneeling girl was trembling all over, her eyes on the verge of collapse.

In the corner of the room, two other girls were on the sofa, one on the left and one on the right.

On the left was the short-haired girl Lin Yao, and on the right was her younger sister, Lin Shuang.

Lin Yao sat with her legs crossed, munching on an apple, scrolling through her terminal without looking up as she said, "Finish up quickly. We have things to do today, don't drag it out."

"Shuangshuang, go get that bottle of medicine. Remember to mix it with some water; don't let her choke again."

"Sis, people like this are disobedient; it's a waste of medicine." Lin Shuang replied in a low voice, but still got up to go to the kitchen.

Ye Nanxing's eyes turned completely cold.

She had seen this type before—seemingly harmless, but actually vicious, "compliant accomplices."

They weren't being forced; they were just—"willing" to assimilate into this cruel new rule.

The yellow-haired man licked his lips and grabbed the girl's hair with one hand: "Come on, let big brother teach you the rules—"

Ye Nanxing and her group didn't continue watching the subsequent footage.

The screen switched to the storage room.

The locked-up girl heard the sounds coming from outside and curled herself up even smaller.

Her nails were dug into her palms, and the iron chain on her ankle was shaking.

Blood, rust, and suppressed sobbing.

From her twisted expression, it was clear: she knew what was going to happen next, but she also knew—she couldn't escape.

In the surveillance room.

Zhao Wei's face was terrifyingly pale: "These scum, they're worse than dogs."

Zhang Tianjin had already started dismantling his gun.

Sun Hao slammed his fist against the edge of the table and whispered, "Sis, why are we keeping things like this alive?"

Ye Nanxing took a deep breath, her eyes as cold as snow: "Keeping them alive... is just a waste of air."

"Zhou Cheng."

Her voice was as low as the back of a blade pressed against a neck.

"Pull up the full structural diagram for me. I want to see all ventilation shafts, side windows, and sewer exits within three minutes."

"I want to wipe them all out—without leaving a single one—before they can act."

Zhou Cheng: "Yes."

The wind and snow rolled silently, and the Phoenix City residential complex was submerged in a deathly silence like frozen earth.

The whole world was nothing but gray, white, and low temperatures.

And at this moment—

Inside the top-floor Tianlang Mountain Base, the master control terminal screen flickered with cold light.

Zhou Cheng's fingers tapped rapidly on the control console:

"Target Room 307, structural diagram calibrated."

"Five adult males inside, no signs of thermal weapons, all unarmed."

"Movement path confirmed. Entry route: Rooftop flue → Force entry through main door → Total suppression."

"Surveillance camouflage system implanted; current footage is set to a fake loop of last night."

"Signal jamming activated, external interference cleared, ten-minute lockdown window activated."

Zhao Wei stood at the door, having already set up a heavy battering ram, with a custom crossbow and suppressed pistol hidden under his thick tactical trench coat, his face expressionless.

"The targets have no guns, so that makes things easier."