Chapter 476 - 472: You’ve Gone Too Far
Chapter 476: Chapter 472: You’ve Gone Too Far
"Judging by her voice, you wouldn’t think she’s old, but she’s so vicious and cruel. She’s an absolute she-devil!" The old hag started playing the victim, pointing at Xie Ning and rattling off complaints.
Xie Ning, who was tidying up her Gold Lock Chain section by section, suddenly lifted her head and glanced at the old woman.
The ceaselessly chattering old woman was suddenly struck silent, as if someone had hit a nerve point.
When she snapped out of it, the old hag wished she could turn around and give herself a hard slap across the face.
’Damn it, to think I was scared into silence by a little slip of a girl.’
The damned girl’s head and face were wrapped up tight, and all she did was give her a single, chilling stare from behind a pair of goggles.
The old hag fumed just thinking about how easily she’d been frightened.
’After all, she’d been bossing this town for decades. How could she let some wet-behind-the-ears brat intimidate her?’
Meanwhile, everyone from Hope Base was escorted over.
The old hag’s gaze swept over them, and her eyelid twitched violently.
She wasn’t sure if it was just her panic playing tricks on her, but it felt like there were far fewer people. ’Did we really lose nearly a third of them?’
’No... that can’t be right.’
The old hag snuck a glance at her son, Dazhuang.
But her boy was curled up and whining in pain, completely oblivious to the others from their base.
A moment later, Zhai Ruobai hurried over with his team. "Captain," he said, his expression grim, "we’ve investigated. These people seem to have broken away from Gushang Base three months ago to start their own."
"Three months?" Gu Chen swept his gaze over the Hope Base crowd, a humorless smile playing on his lips. "You must have been busy."
It was no simple feat to build a base on one’s own.
Coming out to stage a robbery in this freezing weather meant it was premeditated; they were likely repeat offenders.
This was a main artery for northbound travel. All they had to do was lie in wait, and passing vehicles were sitting ducks.
The man with the tattooed arms, Dazhuang, refused to say a word, only whimpering and moaning in pain.
His mother, however, glared with her shifty, triangular eyes, standing guard by her son. The moment anyone tried to pull him away, she would collapse to the ground, wailing and making a scene.
"Mom, Mom!" the tattooed man wailed, clutching his head. "Don’t hit my mom! Stop hitting her!"
Xie Ning stood to one side, observing everything with perfect clarity.
Though the tattooed man was shouting, "Don’t hit my mom," his body was shrinking back behind his mother’s frail frame.
’So he’s a little filial, but clearly not much...’
Two team members simply flanked the old woman and hauled her to her feet.
The old woman kicked and flailed, her feet dangling in mid-air as she shrieked, "Are you all dead? My Dazhuang took you all in, let you eat and drink your fill, and now you just cower in the back when it matters? Get up here! Save my Dazhuang! Dazhuang!"
Zhuang Xinyi clenched her fists as she watched the scene unfold. Unable to take it anymore, she rushed out and roared, "Don’t you go too far!"
Xu Yu, who was standing beside Zhuang Lei, had wanted to step forward and put a stop to this farce for a while, but Zhuang Lei’s large frame was blocking her, so she never got the chance to shine.
She never expected someone would beat her to the punch.
She couldn’t help but size up Zhuang Xinyi.
The girl was of medium height, dressed in a coffee-colored plush coat. A plaid scarf masked her face, revealing only a pair of large, sparkling eyes.
Xie Ning had already finished tidying up her golden lock chain and tossed it back into her Space, planning to reuse it later.
She looked up just in time to see Zhuang Xinyi burst from the crowd, yelling at everyone.
’Don’t go too far!’ Seems to be one of the classic lines in the Holy Mother playbook.
Xie Ning stood off to the side enjoying the show. Her gaze followed the path Zhuang Xinyi had taken, landing on Zheng Heng and Zheng Feina.
The Zheng siblings also had their faces covered with masks and scarves, making their expressions impossible to read, but the fury in their eyes gave a hint of their mood.
’Uh... shouldn’t they have seen this coming?’
’Judging by the Zheng siblings’ foul moods, it looks like bringing Xinyi BB along wasn’t their idea.’
"What more do you want? You’ve already killed so many people! They’re our compatriots!"
"We’re out here to save people, not kill them! What are you trying to do? Make rivers of our compatriots’ blood flow?"
Zhuang Xinyi’s face was a mask of indignation as she continued her impassioned speech. "You’ve hit them and you’ve cursed them, so this should be over, right? That poor old mother is on her knees begging you, how can every single one of you be so heartless?"
"You can’t treat an old woman like this! We’re all going to be old someday. If someone treated you this way then, wouldn’t you feel terrible??"
The crowd looked at her as if she were a lunatic.
Li Dawei and Li Xiang in particular looked like they wanted to rip off their masks and give Zhuang Xinyi a piece of their minds, but they ultimately restrained themselves.
The main issue was the fierce, sandy wind. They didn’t mind yelling at her, but getting a mouthful of sand in the process just wasn’t worth it...
"Captain Gu, Captain Lu, don’t we need to get to Gushang Base as soon as possible? Saving lives is what’s important, so why waste time holding onto this one old woman?"
Captain Gu, having no desire to engage with strange women, turned and walked right past the old hag. "Is the investigation team back yet?"
Zhai Ruobai replied, "They should be here any minute."
Gu Chen walked over to Xie Ning. "Get back in the vehicle. We’re done here."
"What about these people?"
Strictly speaking, this troop of middle-aged and elderly people in their grass skirts were hardly good Samaritans.
Gu Chen frowned. "There are too many of them. We’ll have to radio our superiors and have them send another team for the escort."
As the two of them were speaking, the investigation team returned.
"Captain."
"What’s the report??"
"Behind their base, we found a pile of bones. And... a warehouse full of... ’cured meat’." The young soldier’s voice wasn’t quiet, and everyone present heard him loud and clear.
Seeing the look of utter disgust on the young soldier’s face, how could anyone fail to understand?
A collective shudder ran through the crowd.
Li Dawei was the first to react, leaping up and kicking an old man in the back. "Fuck! You pieces of scum, are you even human?"
"What does that mean??" Li Xiang asked, looking back blankly at Xu Bailiang, Uncle Ge Liang, and the others.
Uncle Ge Liang’s face was grim as he explained in a furious tone, "It means that if we weren’t stronger than them, not only would our vehicles and supplies have been stolen, but we would have become their emergency food supply!"
Zhuang Xinyi heard every word, and her eyes widened in horror.
"Impossible!"
"Xinyi," Zha Peng said, rushing over to grab her arm. "Stop talking."
He’d wanted to stop her earlier, but she had run off too quickly for him to catch her.
Right now, the best thing to do was lie low and see how things played out.
Looking utterly devastated, Zhuang Xinyi allowed Zha Peng to pull her back into the crowd.
Her lips trembled, and she wore an expression as if the sky were falling. "Is... is what they’re saying true? No, it can’t be... H-how is that possible?"
Zheng Feina rolled her eyes so hard they nearly popped out of her head.
"What part is ’impossible’? Did you not understand what he meant? Or do you want to go see that warehouse of ’cured meat’ for yourself??"
Zhuang Xinyi slapped a hand over her mouth and ran to the back to throw up.