Tian Jiakai and Yuan Jiaojiao were finally starting to feel afraid.
They stood at the fifth-floor landing, not daring to go any farther.
Smiling, Jiang Ci gently beckoned to them. "Come on, big brother, sister-in-law."
The smiles all over Jiang Ci's face only made their skin crawl.
With trembling hands, Tian Jiakai forced a stiff smile onto his face. "Little sister, your sister-in-law and I just remembered we have something else to take care of. We'll head back first."
Every roll of fat on Yuan Jiaojiao's body trembled slightly. The stifling weather, her inner terror, and her breathlessness from climbing the stairs combined to make her feel as though someone had seized her throat.
Her lips trembling, she opened her mouth, but still couldn't get a word out.
Tian Jiakai grabbed Yuan Jiaojiao's hand, turned, and tried to run downstairs.
They had barely taken two steps before Jiang Ci blocked their way.
The young woman had gone downstairs faster than them and planted herself in front of them.
Arms folded across her chest, she stared at them with a smile on her face, but there was a chill in that smile.
Her voice remained as friendly as ever. "Don't leave, big brother, sister-in-law. Let's go upstairs first."
Her tone was clearly gentle, and she looked perfectly amenable, yet Tian Jiakai and Yuan Jiaojiao didn't dare resist at all. Obediently, they climbed back up to the fifth floor.
Seeing them obey, Jiang Ci couldn't help chuckling. After following them up to the fifth floor, she gave a nearby apartment door a gentle push and easily pushed it open.
She strolled inside at her leisure and even kindly invited them in. "Don't just stand in the doorway, big brother, sister-in-law. Come in."
Si Beichen stood by the wall, staring at them with piercing eyes. Tian Jiakai and Yuan Jiaojiao could only feel that this man and woman were a pair of devils.
They were now sick with regret. If only they had known, they would have stayed downstairs and waited quietly for Zhang Qiang and Zhang Shuai. Why had they gone and provoked these two demons?
But there was no medicine for regret. They were now fish on someone else's chopping block and could only suppress their fear as they dawdled into the apartment.
Si Beichen didn't know what Jiang Ci intended to do, but he had some idea.
He followed them inside and then closed the door.
The sound of the door closing made Tian Jiakai and Yuan Jiaojiao shudder in unison.
Their legs trembled so badly that they hardly seemed to belong to them anymore.
Jiang Ci casually pulled over a dining chair and sat down.
She asked offhandedly, "Big brother, sister-in-law, do you remember who lived here?"
The two trembled even harder, and Yuan Jiaojiao sank onto the floor and began crying.
Actually, that day, she had only come out to throw away some trash and wander around. Then she had seen four people sneaking into this residential complex and followed them out of curiosity to take a look.
And that had led to her seeing something.
Without even looking at them, Jiang Ci continued on her own. "It was an old couple who loved each other dearly."
"Unfortunately, they were unlucky. They didn't die in the extreme heat, but were killed by a few petty thieves who came to steal from them."
"Big brother, sister-in-law, tell me, do those murderous little thieves get scared when they go to sleep every night? Aren't they afraid that old couple will come looking for revenge?"
"Have their consciences ever stirred, even for a moment, and made them feel regret?"
"My guess is that they don't regret it at all. Of course, it takes a villain to deal with villains."
"A villain like me, for instance."
As Jiang Ci spoke softly, she suddenly pulled a handgun from her hiking backpack.
Si Beichen stared at the gun in Jiang Ci's hand in surprise. He could tell at a glance that it wasn't a toy gun meant to scare people, but a real one.
And it was a handgun with powerful recoil-a Desert Eagle.
Clinging to hope, Tian Jiakai thought it was probably a toy gun meant to frighten them. This young woman surely wouldn't dare actually kill anyone. She just wanted to scare him.
Their opponents were two young people, and there were two of them as well. What's more, they had experience killing people.
Why was he so afraid? He had no reason to be afraid. If it really came to a fight, he wouldn't necessarily lose.
At that thought, he suddenly felt unafraid. His confidence returned, and even his back straightened.
He pulled Yuan Jiaojiao up from the floor and snapped, "What are you crying for? What are you afraid of? All we did was kill a few old geezers who already had one foot in the grave."
Then he looked up at Jiang Ci and Si Beichen and said harshly, "You two youngsters shouldn't get so cocky. So what if you saw us? What proof do you have? If you really piss me off, you won't get off easy either!"
Jiang Ci truly hadn't expected him to keep talking so tough with death staring him in the face.
He was practically provoking her!
She couldn't be bothered wasting any more words on them. She simply took a suppressor from her hiking backpack and fitted it to the handgun.
Without hesitation, she shot each of them once in the head.
Bang! Bang!
Before Tian Jiakai and Yuan Jiaojiao could react, they were already lying in pools of blood with their heads blown open.
Jiang Ci casually tossed the handgun back into her hiking backpack. In reality, she had thrown it into her space.
She stood, stepped over their bodies, and said to Si Beichen, who had been unusually quiet from beginning to end, "Let's go, big brother."
Hearing her call him big brother, Si Beichen couldn't help remembering how affectionately she had just called those two big brother and sister-in-law. Now they were lying on the floor, their bodies already cold...
This little sister of mine really is terrifying...
He nodded and went out first.
Jiang Ci closed the door again behind him.
Outside, it was so dark they couldn't see their hands in front of their faces.
The rundown residential complex was inhabited entirely by the old, the weak, the sick, and the disabled. It was very quiet, with only two flashlight beams shining on the ground.
"Do you have anything you want to ask me?"
"No."
The government supermarket was still open, but there was practically no one inside. The cashier had nearly fallen asleep waiting when two customers finally arrived.
Jiang Ci and Si Beichen entered the government supermarket with their hiking backpacks on.
They checked the prices. They were more than three times what they had been before.
But neither of them was concerned about the money, and they split up to shop.
Rice, flour, all kinds of canned food, self-heating hot pots, dried noodles.
They filled their hiking backpacks and put them on, then carried one large bag of food after another in their hands, only stopping when they genuinely couldn't carry any more.
Si Beichen paid, and they headed home laden with bags.
Si Beichen stayed vigilant the whole way, worried they might be robbed. Fortunately, they made it through without incident.
As they neared their building, sharp-eyed Jiang Ci spotted two figures wandering around downstairs.
She reckoned they were probably Tian Jiakai's two accomplices.
As they drew closer, the more Jiang Ci looked at them, the more familiar they seemed.
They looked a lot like the two petty thieves who had stolen fuel in the parking lot.
One of them also had a build like Li Weiwei's boyfriend.
As Jiang Ci and Si Beichen walked past, the two men discreetly stole glances at their backpacks and the supermarket bags in their hands.
Jiang Ci and Si Beichen ignored them and went up the stairs without looking their way.
Only after the pair were far away did Zhang Qiang and Zhang Shuai begin muttering quietly.
"Those two look pretty well stocked."
"They've got money. Didn't you see their supermarket shopping bags? They bought that stuff at the government supermarket."
"What floor are they on?"
"I thought that woman just now looked like Weiwei's neighbor."
"Ask Li Weiwei about it later."
"Yeah. Why hasn't Tian Jiakai come down yet? It's hot as hell. Are we still waiting?"
"No. It really is hot. Let's head back."