Chapter 132: Just Plain Absurd

Jiang Yan’s brows furrowed slightly.

It seemed that Ma Longbiao, despite his unremarkable appearance, was sharp and well-informed.

But when a bad person is too clever, that’s never a good thing.

Luckily, if things were as Dao Yinping said—if Ma Longbiao was out attending some “Young Master Xue’s” birthday party and wouldn’t be back until late, or maybe not at all—then they still had plenty of time to prepare.

A birthday party, though—at a time like this, people still had the nerve to throw a big celebration?

Honestly, it just sounded absurd.

Jiang Yan had a lot of questions about this so-called “Young Master Xue.”

But with a few unfamiliar residents standing nearby, it wasn’t the right time to interrogate Dao Yinping. She decided to wait until they’d finished searching Ma Longbiao’s lair.

“Tao-ge, there’s nothing in 2904,” said two men, each holding a fruit knife or a kitchen knife, as they walked over from next door and addressed Sun Jingtao and Jiang Yan.

Jiang Yan didn’t really know these two, but she vaguely remembered seeing them on the surveillance footage—they were old residents from Building A.

Sun Jingtao nodded.

“What are the other two rooms used for?” Jiang Yan glanced at 2904, whose door was wide open, and at 2901, whose door was tightly shut and blocked by a pile of junk obviously meant to hide it. She looked at Dao Yinping.

That dining table from earlier had been dragged out of 2904.

“2904 is Ma Longbiao’s and our room. 2901 is a storage room…” Dao Yinping, who had calmed down by now, was full of resentment.

He really didn’t want to answer.

But with Ye Qing’s gun right there, he had no choice.

“A storage room? What’s inside?” Jiang Yan raised an eyebrow.

Dao Yinping cocked his head with a careless, defeated look. “Everything and anything.”

“Jiang Yan, Lao Liu and the others checked 2904—nothing there. Why don’t we just check out 2901?” Sun Jingtao said, then led Ye Qing toward 2901.

“You two go ahead, I’ll be there in a minute.” Jiang Yan nodded.

She decided to do a quick sweep of 2904.

Lost in thought, she found herself at the door.

Unlike 2902 and 2903, which had been cleared out and turned into open dormitories, 2904 hadn’t changed much.

Aside from the missing dining table, the original furniture and bedding were all still there.

The beds in all three bedrooms were a mess, with quilts piled up in heaps, and cigarette butts scattered on the floor.

There was even a small brazier in the middle of the living room.

At first glance, there really wasn’t much of anything.

Jiang Yan walked over to the brazier, picked up a thin metal poker from the floor, and started poking around the room.

To her surprise, she actually found a few things in the master bedroom’s wardrobe:

A hand-crank power bank, a box of mints, a box of coffee candies, half a bottle of leftover Moutai Prince liquor, two unopened bottles of Jinjiu, a roll of nylon rope, several boxes of cigar matches, half a tin of imported cigars, and half a pack of Huazi cigarettes.

These days, people who could still enjoy such luxuries in Anming City were few and far between.

Most likely, these were spoils from the “zero-dollar shopping” spree during the heatwave.

In the nightstand drawer, there were also some unspeakable items—clearly someone’s twisted sense of humor.

Jiang Yan tossed the Huazi and the rest into her backpack, gun in one hand and the poker in the other, and left 2904.

Sun Jingtao and the others were already at the door of 2901, having cleared away the junk blocking it and now hacking at the door with a fire axe.

Of the four apartments on the 29th floor, all the others were open—only this one was locked up tight.

Dao Yinping was trembling in a corner.

His wrists, where Ye Qing had severed the tendons, were now tightly wrapped with two ragged strips of cloth to staunch the bleeding, at least for now.

After all, they still needed him for a bit longer.

If he bled out from three wounds and passed out, it wouldn’t help with the upcoming interrogation.

“Lady, why don’t you just kill me!” Whatever Ye Qing had done to him earlier, seeing Jiang Yan approach, Dao Yinping nearly dropped to his knees.

He wanted to kneel, but physically just couldn’t.

Talk was cheap, but Ye Qing really had been ruthless.

Still, for scum like him, a hundred times harsher wouldn’t be too much.

Every step Dao Yinping took pulled at his wounds.

Back in ancient times, this would have been enough to send him straight to the palace as a eunuch.

Not to mention, his dignity as a man was gone.

The pain was so excruciating it made him wish for death.

He could only inch forward, step by agonizing step.

And honestly, he really did want to die.

If he didn’t die at Jiang Yan’s hands, once Ma Longbiao and his gang came back, they’d make him wish he was dead anyway.

Jiang Yan didn’t even look at him, just let out a cold laugh. “Kill you? That’d be letting you off easy!”

“Exactly!” Su Dai, standing nearby, shot Dao Yinping a fierce glare.

Dao Yinping glanced at the wall, gritted his teeth, and gave up on the idea of smashing his head against it.

“Oh, right, Jiang Yan, we found this walkie-talkie in the hallway. It still has power. There’s no network now, so I don’t know what they could use it for.” Su Dai handed the walkie-talkie to Jiang Yan.

“Obviously, for remote communication,” Jiang Yan said, taking it and turning it over in her hands.

There were no markings on it, but it looked like a military-grade walkie-talkie.

Regular walkie-talkies only worked for two or three kilometers.

But these military ones—good models could cover forty or fifty kilometers, easy.

Su Dai was incredulous. “Huh? But isn’t there no signal now?”

“Walkie-talkies don’t need a network signal to work,” Jiang Yan smiled. “You know, walkie-talkies were first invented during World War II.”

Su Dai: “What?!”

“By Motorola,” Jiang Yan added.

This time, Su Dai’s mouth formed a perfect O.

“Hold onto it. If they try to call, let me know right away.” Jiang Yan turned the volume up to max and handed it back.

“By the way, who are those people outside?” Jiang Yan glanced at the fire door to the 29th floor, which was now shut.

Behind the door stood several men with weapons, bracing themselves against it with their backs.

From the sounds of it, people in the hallway outside were crowding up to the fire door.

Judging by the noise, it seemed that the residents from upstairs, armed with weapons, were holding the line.

There was loud shouting and arguing on both sides, some people crying and wailing—it sounded like a marketplace.

The sheer number of people and the chaos took Jiang Yan by surprise.

Su Dai explained, “The ones with weapons are the people who didn’t get caught by Ma Longbiao’s gang—they all retreated to the 30th floor together.

When Sun Jingtao came down, he called them to join us.

The folks from the 31st floor should be coming down soon too, but their hallway is blocked with a lot of stuff, so it’ll take time to clear.

They’re all part of the small group Tian Jiliang organized to resist Ma Longbiao. When Tian Jiliang woke up and heard we were coming down, he said if the time was right, we should call everyone together—there’s strength in numbers.”

Jiang Yan narrowed her eyes. “So who are the unarmed ones?”"