Chapter 144: Good News!

“Boss!” Dao Yinping raised his voice a bit through gritted teeth, then said ingratiatingly.

“Damn it, Dao Yinping! You’ve got some nerve, huh? Not answering my calls for half a day?!” Ma Longbiao’s harsh, grating voice crackled through the walkie-talkie.

Jiang Yan frowned and listened carefully. The background on the other end was very quiet, with faint sounds of rain.

It seemed the other party was indoors, probably near a window.

“Sorry, boss, I was just handling something earlier, you know how it is.” Dao Yinping swallowed his pride and kept up his fawning tone.

Naturally, Ma Longbiao unleashed another round of cursing and scolding.

Su Dai and the others exchanged glances:

Is this Dao Yinping really the number two in their gang?

Why does it seem like he’s treated worse than a low-level lackey?

“Those cowards on the 32nd floor haven’t left their place these days, right?!” Ma Longbiao burped, as if picking his teeth.

Dao Yinping glanced awkwardly at Jiang Yan and the others. “No, they’ve all been holed up at home.”

Suddenly, Sun Jingtao got up and tiptoed quickly into the master bedroom.

He soon came out, holding a hard-cover notebook about A5 size and a marker. He’d written a line on it:

[Ask him where he is and when he’s coming back.]

Dao Yinping gave a bitter smile for a few seconds, then, after some meaningless small talk, changed the subject: “Boss, where are you? Are you coming back soon?”

“You think you can ask about my whereabouts?!”

“No, of course not, just concerned about you, boss...”

“Forget it, I’ll tell you—I’m not coming back for a while! You’d better keep a close eye on Qianshui Bay! If anything goes wrong, I’ll come for you first!”

Not coming back for a while?

Jiang Yan and the others frowned.

That was both good news and bad news.

After all, lying in wait is much easier than going on the offensive.

Ma Longbiao sounded energetic and arrogant, as if he’d found some powerful backer.

After another round of vicious cursing, he abruptly hung up the walkie-talkie.

The room fell silent.

“Awo—”

Before Dao Yinping could say anything, Ye Qing knocked him out with a karate chop.

Su Dai tugged at Sun Jingtao’s sleeve, worried. “Honey, that Ma Hei isn’t coming back for a while—so what do we do?”

“If he’s not coming back, then we’ll take the fight to them! As long as these scumbags are around, we’ll never have peace!” Sun Jingtao said, glancing at Jiang Yan and Ye Qing.

Ye Qing nodded. “Exactly, the sooner the better. I suspect that after meeting that Xue Shao, they got something out of it.

Or maybe, with the heavy rain, their safe house is about to be flooded, so they’re moving supplies, women, and children to the base.”

“But the problem is, it’s a flood out there, and still pouring. If we’re not careful, we’ll get lost. Where would we even go?” Su Dai glanced out the floor-to-ceiling window and pursed her lips.

“Hold on, I’ll charge up the phone and see if offline navigation still works.” Sun Jingtao picked up the hand-crank power bank Jiang Yan had confiscated and checked it.

Only one little green light was showing—probably not much power left.

It would take a while to fully charge it by hand.

But for now, the little green light should be enough to power the phone for a bit.

Su Dai looked at her husband. “Offline navigation? Isn’t the network down? Even if we have navigation, it probably doesn’t work anymore.”

“The network’s down because the ground base stations are out, but for offline navigation, as long as we have satellite signal, it’ll work—unless we’re really unlucky and even the satellites are gone.”

As Sun Jingtao spoke, he plugged in the phone.

Seeing the red lightning charging icon on the screen, Su Dai and Ye Qing got a little excited.

After all, the phone had been dead for ages.

Jiang Yan actually knew the satellite signal was gone.

Otherwise, when she went to look for those jewels earlier, she wouldn’t have had to painstakingly draw coordinate axes and use a sextant and compass.

But she couldn’t say anything.

The more she said, the more likely she’d give herself away.

When the lightning icon finally turned green, Sun Jingtao impatiently turned on the phone.

“How is it?” Three heads crowded around.

Seeing the blank map app, everyone froze.

“Trying to load... It’s useless, no satellite signal either.” Su Dai sighed.

Everyone’s mood grew heavy.

It was like a spark of hope had just been doused by rain.

Jiang Yan, who’d been quietly watching, thought for a second and spoke up:

“Without navigation, finding their base is definitely harder. But it’s not impossible.”

Since the walkie-talkie could reach them, they could at least narrow down the general area.

Also, Ma Longbiao’s group would have stored their supplies above the waterline.

Right now, the water had reached the 22nd floor.

They needed space not just for supplies, but for prisoners and themselves.

That meant their hideout had to be at least on the 25th floor or higher.

Third, since their safe house was prepared in advance, it couldn’t be in an old neighborhood or one already occupied by residents.

Most likely, it was in a newly completed but not yet delivered apartment or office building.

Such places had all the facilities, and after the disaster, hardly anyone would pay attention to them.

With this reasoning, the search area shrank considerably.

As for pinpointing the location, if she could find jewelry stores dozens of meters underwater, finding something above water would be a piece of cake.

She’d just need to spend some time drawing up coordinates.

With Huabao as her “stealth navigator” and living map, finding the place would be easy.

“What’s your plan?” Su Dai asked, puzzled.

In her view, with no navigation or map, and heavy rain outside, and only two rubber boats, even finding the nearby shopping center would be a challenge.

Sun Jingtao and Ye Qing frowned in thought. They had some guesses, but wanted to hear Jiang Yan’s idea.

Jiang Yan shared her analysis.

Her thoughts matched Sun Jingtao and Ye Qing’s, but were more detailed.

“I remember Tian Jiliang used to work at a listed real estate company, and he’s in investment, so he should know about these buildings. I’ll go ask him now.” Sun Jingtao volunteered and went downstairs.

In less than two minutes, he came back, face full of excitement:

“Good news! There are only three buildings that fit the criteria!

And they’re not far from each other—though they’re a bit of a distance from us!”"