"Where are you going?" a man's voice rang out.
"To the restroom." It was Zhan Le's voice.
"Don't go together." The man hesitated. "Go one at a time, otherwise..."
"I'm just taking the child to the restroom!" Zhan Le raised her voice slightly. "What could the two of us possibly do?"
"Then hurry up." The man relented.
Before long, Zhan Le led Ye Ting around the corner and encountered Chu Han standing motionless where he was. The expressions on their faces were identically icy, without the slightest trace of surprise.
Then, Zhan Le moved her lips without making a sound.
Chu Han nodded and followed behind them, his footsteps silent.
Zhan Le and Ye Ting made normal footstep sounds, yet created an illusion. Though they were clearly heading left, the sounds they made suggested they had turned right.
Chu Han followed behind them with an amused expression. These two women, one grown and one young, were rather interesting.
He had long noticed that there was something off about this mother-daughter pair. Whether they were truly mother and daughter was definitely open to question. And the little girl named Ye Ting could read lips. Earlier, when they entered this rest stop, she had leaned over Ye Tianlong's shoulder and mouthed something to him. It had been rather interesting.
She had said: "Hey, do you dare kill someone?"
And just now, the woman named Zhan Le had also spoken to him in lip-reading, equally interesting.
She had said: "Hey, get over here with me!"
The three of them arrived before a locked door, and Chu Han instantly understood. This probably held the two women's things, and they wanted him to smash it open with his axe.
They were now far away from those people and quite some distance from Ye Tianlong's luxurious room. No one would hear them speaking normally here.
"What are your names?" Chu Han smiled as he hefted his axe. He did not believe that "Zhan Le" and "Ye Ting" were their real names.
"My name is Shang Jiudi! But—" The woman grinned, pointing at herself with an exceptionally bold gesture. Though her deliberately disguised, dirt-smeared face had not changed much, her temperament shifted in an instant. An arrogance seemed to radiate from her very bones.
"I prefer people to call me Ninth Master!"
Chu Han was slightly moved. What a domineering woman!
"What are you acting so arrogant for?" The twelve-year-old girl snorted coldly and cast Chu Han a sidelong glance. "Just call her Old Nine. I don't have a name yet, only a code name: Eighteen."
"Alright, Ninth Master, Eighteen."
The corner of Chu Han's mouth twitched. If he had not understood lip-reading, these two really would have fooled him. Life truly was like a play; it all depended on acting.
Holding the axe, Chu Han gestured toward the lock on the door with his eyes. "You need to be quick. The noise here won't be quiet."
The twelve-year-old girl called Eighteen curled her lips into a wicked smile. "Don't worry. No need for your concern."
Chu Han frowned. Could a twelve-year-old girl really speak with that expression and tone?
Shang Jiudi snapped at Eighteen, the veins on her forehead throbbing. "Don't talk for no reason!"
"Hmph!" The expression on Eighteen's childish face became even more wicked, making her look exactly like a little devil. "My half—what right do you have to order me around?"
Her half? Chu Han was stunned.
Oh, right. Nine was indeed half of eighteen.
But why did it sound so strange coming from Eighteen? It sounded almost like she was insulting someone.
Chu Han stood blankly for several seconds. He felt that he had probably run into lunatics!
Bang!
Chu Han's axe came crashing down, instantly smashing open the lock.
Whoosh! In the blink of an eye, Shang Jiudi and Eighteen pushed open the door first and rushed inside at incredible speed.
"What was that sound?!" Ye Tianlong, who had been enjoying himself, shoved Lu Wan away and grabbed his axe before he even had time to get dressed, rushing outside.
"Boss!" The people outside immediately gathered around him. "The sound came from the storeroom!"
Ye Tianlong's face turned cold. Someone had broken into the storeroom?!
Who dared touch his things? He would definitely chop them to pieces!
"Grab your weapons!" Ye Tianlong roared furiously, his face twisted. "Kill him!"
This was a dim room filled with all kinds of supplies.
Riiip—
The moment Chu Han entered, he heard the sound of packaging being torn open.
Shang Jiudi and Eighteen were desperately ripping open a pile of sanitary pad packages before them. Their fingers tore them apart at lightning speed, pulling out heaps of scattered parts that soon piled up high.
Click, click, click—
Two pairs of pale hands moved like machines, deftly assembling the parts before them, producing a series of sounds that grated on the ears.
Chu Han watched with his own eyes as the two women, one grown and one young, ignored everything around them and assembled that pile of scattered parts into two automatic rifles at an unbelievable speed.
They were real guns!
Eighteen was even faster. By the time she had found all the separately stored magazines, Shang Jiudi had only just finished assembling her gun.
Chu Han frowned deeply. Seeing something like this ten years into the apocalypse would not have been surprising; by then, everyone was intimately familiar with firearms. But today was only the fourth day since the apocalypse began. The scene before him was completely unreasonable.
At this point, the country had not yet dispatched helicopters to drop supply crates across various regions, so ordinary people could not possibly be carrying guns, much less two women when one of them was only twelve years old.
Judging by their assembly speed, they were clearly extremely familiar with guns and had practiced countless times.
Who exactly were they?
"What are you doing?!" A sudden furious roar sounded as Ye Tianlong charged over with five lackeys.
Click! Shang Jiudi's face was cold as she calmly loaded the magazine, the muzzle aimed straight at the doorway.
She stole a glance at Chu Han and saw him standing behind the door with his axe in hand, his expression calm and composed. Chu Han's position was highly professional. His seemingly casual stance allowed him to strike at the fastest speed while ensuring his own safety. This slightly surprised Shang Jiudi. And judging from his angle, the people he was guarding against were not merely Ye Tianlong and the others rushing in!
Shang Jiudi came to a conclusion. This man was the same kind of person as her, but stronger!
"You—" Ye Tianlong's furious curse abruptly stopped the moment he entered the doorway. The five lackeys behind him also halted, and two of them nearly turned around and ran.
"Where did you get that gun?"
Ye Tianlong stared in terror at Shang Jiudi, who was half-crouched on the ground with her gun aimed at him.
A toy? It could not be a toy either. He had inspected everything in this room!
Then Ye Tianlong's gaze fell on the pile of sanitary pad wrappers on the floor... Instantly, rage and shock surged through him! They had actually hidden them in there!
Ye Tianlong's eyes burned with fury. Whether the gun was real or not, he felt that his dignity had been challenged. He could not tolerate anyone hiding things right under his nose.
Suddenly, Ye Tianlong's gaze froze again, because he had seen someone who should not possibly have been there.
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