Chapter 39: Big Brother is the Best

Because of her pounding heart, Zhang Qiqi’s legs were trembling so badly that she could only grip the stair railing with both hands and slowly make her way down, step by step.

It took her quite a while before she finally stumbled back to apartment 701, as if in a daze.

As soon as she walked in, a message from Zhang Qiming popped up right on cue.

Zhang Qiming: [Dear Qiqi, the owner of 3201 is named Jiang Yan. She’s the daughter of that “Missing Woman” from Anming City that was all over the internet a while back—worth billions! You have to keep this a secret for me! Once this heat wave passes, there’ll be benefits for you!]

“Jiang... Yan?!”

Staring at the name, Zhang Qiqi’s pupils shrank, her mind going blank with a loud “boom” as everything finally clicked into place.

So the person she’d run into really was that little bitch born to Li Meizhen!

No wonder she’d humiliated her in public yesterday!

And it was her own fault too—she’d been so flustered yesterday that she’d completely missed the connection!

Zhang Qiqi leaned back against the door, taking several deep breaths, her fists clenched tightly.

All the humiliation she’d suffered in front of Jiang Yan, the deaths of her younger brother and her son’s biological father, Song Deming, and her long-standing jealousy toward Jiang Yan and her mother—

All the old and new grudges piled up, and Zhang Qiqi was itching to storm up to the 32nd floor and settle things once and for all.

But she knew she was no match for Jiang Yan in a direct confrontation.

Luckily, by tomorrow night at the latest, all the residents of Qianshui Bay would be moving into the underground parking garage.

By then, everyone would be sleeping in a big communal space. With everyone fast asleep, taking her out would be as easy as pie.

A day ago, she might have worried about the police or the consequences of committing a crime.

But now, overnight, the neighbors had started tossing corpses out of windows and all sorts of other things.

Chaos and disorder, the collapse of morality—it had all quietly begun at some point.

They say if you don’t pull weeds out by the roots, they’ll grow back in the spring.

This time, she was determined to eliminate the problem once and for all!

With that in mind, she opened the chat and sent Zhang Qiming a message.

The gist was to ask him, when arranging the sleeping spots in the underground garage, to put her as close to Jiang Yan as possible.

Zhang Qiming: [Why? I remember you two were getting along just fine upstairs yesterday...]

Zhang Qiqi: [Brother Zhang, to tell you the truth, I’m actually her fan. Sigh, it’s better to make friends than enemies. I didn’t recognize her before, otherwise I wouldn’t have dared mess with her. Now that I’m living next door, maybe I can get on her good side.]

Upstairs, Zhang Qiming was still basking in the afterglow of their earlier time together.

At this point, if Qiqi asked him to go east, he wouldn’t even think to say no.

Zhang Qiming: [Alright, the accommodations are being coordinated by property management. I’ll go ask the property manager about it?]

Zhang Qiqi: [You’re the best, big brother! Love you, mwah~]

After hitting send, she covered her mouth and dry-heaved.

Just then, Song Xiaofei wandered out of the bedroom, still groggy from sleep.

Seeing this, he asked timidly, “Mom, am I going to have a little brother?”

Zhang Qiqi: “...”

*

Apartment 3201.

After finishing her strength training in the gym, Jiang Yan spent another half hour on the elliptical.

Once she was done, she stretched for a bit.

Sweating all over, she quickly took a shower.

By the time she finished, an hour and a half had passed.

She changed into a comfortable sports outfit, tied her hair up in a high ponytail, and headed straight to the multi-purpose media room next door.

After setting up the holographic shooting range, she focused her mind and retrieved a set of 4D training gear from her [Inventory], provided by an arms dealer and designed to work with the holographic system.

Once she put on the gear, it could simulate the smell of gunpowder, the 1:1 recoil of firing a real gun, and even the sensation of getting shot during combat scenarios.

In short, this simple set of equipment was packed with cutting-edge tech.

Jiang Yan started practicing with the smallest, simplest handgun.

She already had real shooting experience, so following the tutorial was a breeze.

But knowing how to shoot and actually being able to aim and hit the target were two different things.

She buried herself in practice all morning.

Her yacht training and excavator lessons for the afternoon were postponed.

You have to prioritize.

That goes for learning and training, too.

Besides, a gun is a life-saving tool at critical moments—she had to master it first.

She kept practicing until 4:30 in the afternoon, stopping only when her right index finger was sore.

She’d only spent about half an hour on combat scenarios.

She suddenly regretted spending so much time playing Honor of Kings in the past—she should have played PUBG or CS instead.

If she could combine gaming with real-life training, she’d probably improve a lot faster.

But there’s no medicine for regret.

Jiang Yan turned off the holographic system, grabbed a white towel to wipe the sweat from her forehead, and went downstairs to the living room.

Outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, the sun was shining and a gentle breeze was blowing.

She took a bottle of NFC orange juice from the fridge and sipped it leisurely as she turned her phone back on.

The anti-intrusion system on her tablet hadn’t triggered any alerts all day.

That was within her expectations.

So, it was essential to check her phone for updates from the residents’ group and the news, to get a sense of what was happening outside.

But the news app was still full of old headlines.

Jiang Yan thought it was a bug and refreshed several times, but nothing changed.

She tried posting a status update.

“Duang! Server error, please try again later!” A red error message popped up.

Jiang Yan frowned, a sense of unease creeping in.

She opened the residents’ group chat.

Property management had posted a string of important announcements.

She skimmed through them—it was all about arrangements for the temporary underground shelter at Qianshui Bay. In summary: