Chapter 138: The Blazing Flame Base

During the brief pause in the torrential rain, the official base sent boats to take away the youngest and strongest people from the neighborhood.

After the second wave of heavy rain hit, Ma Longbiao and his gang began to ruthlessly control and screen the remaining residents.

Having survived the extreme heat and the blood mosquito incident, everyone in the community was on edge. Coupled with a “not my problem” mentality and everyone keeping their doors shut, it didn’t take long for Ma Longbiao’s premeditated threats and bribes to quickly bring everyone under his control.

This group was cunning and devious, skilled at hiding their true nature. They didn’t show their real faces right from the start.

By the time some people realized what was happening and tried to unite others to resist, they discovered that everyone else’s food and any possible weapons had already been confiscated, just like their own.

Not to mention, the gang now had intimidating firearms in their hands.

The children and wives of the residents had also been taken hostage, becoming leverage to keep everyone in line.

Among the homeowners, there were even some, like the artist with the pigtail, who, just to save themselves and get food, personally pushed their wives into the hands of the thugs. They weren’t the only ones.

Later, as the water level kept rising and the available space shrank, Ma Longbiao’s gang started screening and relocating the residents.

Women under forty and children under sixteen were quietly sent away by them in inflatable boats.

As for where they were sent, it was most likely to that safe house they had outside.

The remaining residents—those who showed signs of resistance, those who didn’t cooperate, the old, the weak, the sick, and the disabled—without exception, were either sent to places like the 22nd floor or simply killed and thrown into the water.

The food and supplies looted from the residents’ homes were also carefully sorted. Anything of good quality, not moldy or spoiled, was packed up and taken away.

So, it seemed that Qianshui Bay was nothing more than a temporary base for Ma Longbiao’s gang to harvest their “crops.”

In just a minute or two, Jiang Yan pieced together, from Zhou Wei and Sun Jingtao’s words, a rough picture of how this gang had taken over Qianshui Bay up to now.

Still, she had many questions.

Jiang Yan pulled herself out of her thoughts and looked coldly at Dao Yinping. “Who is Young Master Xue?”

“Young Master Xue?” At the mention of that name, Sun Jingtao frowned slightly.

He hadn’t asked about this earlier, after all. He hadn’t been present when Jiang Yan and Ye Qing were eavesdropping, so he didn’t know there was such a figure among Ma Longbiao’s people.

“I—I don’t know…” Dao Yinping’s eyes darted nervously, stammering.

Only now did Jiang Yan notice the fresh wounds on Dao Yinping’s face.

A bruise at the corner of his eye, his right eye bloodshot, several teeth missing, blood at the corner of his mouth.

His right cheek and eyelid were both swollen.

Probably Ye Qing’s handiwork from earlier.

Ye Qing was always hot-blooded, and he’d been furious just now.

Given that, these injuries were actually pretty light—Ye Qing had held back.

If Dao Yinping hadn’t been useful, Ye Qing probably would have chopped him to pieces already.

“Do you really not know, or are you pretending?” As Jiang Yan questioned him, Ye Qing cooperatively pulled out his knife.

The blade gleamed coldly, razor sharp.

“I really don’t know! He’s very mysterious, really mysterious! He’s someone ordinary people like us can’t afford to mess with! I advise you not to dig into this or get involved, or you’ll die a horrible death!” Dao Yinping trembled all over, shaking his head like a rattle drum.

“Oh? That impressive? Now I’m even more curious.” Jiang Yan sneered, the corner of her mouth curling up. With a click, she cocked her gun and aimed it at one of his already battered body parts.

“Please, ma’am, could you just move the gun a little? I’ll talk! I’ll talk!”

Damn! This is nuts!

Dao Yinping felt like ten thousand alpacas were stampeding through his mind.

But he could only grit his teeth and confess:

“Our boss at Golden Shield Security is just a small fry trailing behind him. They say he’s got connections everywhere, with a powerful background and backing. That’s all I know, I swear!”

Jiang Yan raised her eyebrows.

Golden Shield had always been a company that operated on both sides of the law, even before the apocalypse.

That so-called security company was just a legal front for their real business.

As for their illegal activities—there were plenty.

Seeing her frown and the gun still aimed at him, Dao Yinping looked at her with tears in his eyes and pleaded:

“Ma’am, please, just give me a bullet! I’ll repay your kindness in my next life, even if I have to work like a horse or an ox!”

He really couldn’t take another second of this torture!

Jiang Yan’s eyes grew colder as she threatened:

“You’d better answer my questions honestly. Maybe I’ll reward you with a bullet when I’m done. But if you don’t cooperate, I’ll give you a whole magazine and make you wish you were dead!”

“Ma’am, I swear I’m telling the truth! May lightning strike me if I’m lying!” Dao Yinping regretted not smashing his head against the door and ending it earlier.

But now, dead either way, he just wanted it to be quick.

“I just remembered something—when the heatwave started, that Young Master Xue secretly set up a private base before the authorities did. I think it was called…” Dao Yinping squinted, trying to recall, then said:

“The Blazing Flame Base!”

“They say he can predict things, that he foresaw the heatwave and the torrential rain, said the apocalypse was coming! But I only found out about this a couple of days ago. At first, everyone thought it was Brother Ma who could predict the future. Later, we learned he was just following orders from higher up.”

Jiang Yan was shocked inside.

So, the real “reborn” one was this Young Master Xue.

Sun Jingtao and Ye Qing exchanged glances.

If Ma Longbiao’s gang were just lackeys for Young Master Xue, dealing with them would be much harder.

“Where is the Blazing Flame Base?” Ye Qing asked.

“That’s a secret, but it’s probably to the north.”

“The north?”

“Yeah. This city’s feng shui always said the south was for wealth, the north for nobility, the east for poverty, and the west for hardship. He really believes in that stuff, so he built it in the north.”

“Where’s Ma Longbiao’s safe house?”

“I—I don’t know. Every time he goes, it’s just him and Old Third. He never takes me.”

“Let me ask you, when Ma Longbiao goes to the safe house, does he contact you by walkie-talkie?”

Dao Yinping didn’t know why she was asking this, but nodded.

“So today, when he went to Young Master Xue’s birthday, did he contact you?”

Dao Yinping shook his head. “No, not once, all day. He’s usually super suspicious—whenever he’s not here, he checks on me every hour.

That’s what annoys me about him! He never trusts anyone, always checking on me, making me look like a three-year-old in front of the other guys!”

Jiang Yan ignored his complaints. In her heart, she’d already found the answer."