Lan Jin reached behind her, using her thick winter coat as cover, and drew out the wooden gun Lao Gao had modified for her from the space on her back. She leveled it at the man across from her, her expression one of feigned confusion, as if she had not heard clearly.
"What did you just say?" she asked, voice edged with emphasis.
The leader clearly had not expected Lan Jin to be armed. His eyes widened for a moment before he planted his feet, turning his gaze toward Qian Jun.
But Qian Jun's guilty look was impossible to hide. It all but shouted to everyone present: "Yes, I knew she had a gun, and yes, I kept it to myself."
Calling for help but deliberately withholding such crucial information was outright sabotage. No matter how today ended, Qian Jun was unlikely to escape unscathed.
The leader glared at Qian Jun, then quickly forced a smile and said to Lan Jin, "Hello. My surname is Li. Out of respect, everyone calls me Brother Li. Miss, I think there might be some misunderstanding between us."
"No misunderstanding," Lan Jin replied coldly. "Someone is jealous of the wood we brought back. This isn't the first time someone's come to rob us. Today, you simply brought a few more friends."
Brother Li froze again. The news he had gotten from Qian Jun was entirely different from what Lan Jin had just said.
When Qian Jun had gone to them, he had been very clear: the people upstairs had four households, and their grain was piled like a mountain. His group had tried several times to take it, but failed. So he wanted help. And now, suddenly, it was about wood instead?
As Brother Li hesitated, Qian Jun, afraid Brother Li would resent him over Lan Jin's words, tried to cover himself. "They've got plenty of wood and plenty of grain. The thirty-second and thirty-third floors are packed with food and supplies. These four households haven't left their homes this whole time, so they must still have a lot of goods."
"So even if we did have plenty of grain, after all this time without going out, we would have eaten most of it by now." Lan Jin's voice turned sharper. "And besides, what does our food have to do with you? Whatever grain we have, we risked our lives to get it. If you want to take it, then be ready to leave your lives here."
With that, Lan Jin loaded her gun.
The sound had been specially modified by Lao Gao, making it nearly identical to a real firearm. Anyone wary of it would recognize the danger instantly. Those who were not would simply dismiss it as a bluff. Lan Jin had a fair idea which kind of man Brother Li was.
Sure enough, when he heard the click, Brother Li flinched. He immediately had his men step back and said quickly, "Wait, Miss, don't get excited. This thing can go off easily. We were misled, all of us. It was Qian Jun. Qian Jun said you had a lot of supplies. That the thirty-second and thirty-third floors, eight households total, were piled with food. At first, I didn't believe him. Who could have so much food these days? But he made it sound real…"
"So you agreed to come rob us. And after you robbed us, how exactly were you going to split it?" Ling Jiang asked curiously.
No one answered. They all knew answering would only invite trouble.
Not that staying silent would help.
Ling Jiang stepped forward toward the fire escape door. She stopped in front of Brother Li without a word and drove a fist straight into his nose. Before he could even cry out, she caught his arm, flipped him over her shoulder, and slammed him to the ground. As he hit the floor, she stripped the gun from his hand.
Ling Jiang turned the weapon over in her hands, smirking. "Looks real enough. But no bullets. So you were just bluffing."
With his bluff exposed, Brother Li went pale. Just because his gun was empty did not mean theirs were.
Lan Jin, looking every bit like a woman who had just been deceived, took a step forward, eyes hard. "You trying to scare me?"
Brother Li's bravado collapsed entirely. "No, no, Miss, I swear I didn't mean to scare you. It's just how things are outside now. Please, be careful, careful…"
Without a weapon, Brother Li's shoulders sagged. The men who had come with him stood frozen, unsure what to do.
That hesitation was all Ling Jiang needed. In moments, she had taken down every man still standing.
Lan Jin looked at the groaning bodies scattered on the ground and sighed. "You're too quick. Couldn't even leave a few for me and Nana."
At the mention of its name, Nana barked once, as if to say it was just as disappointed.
Ling Jiang gave a shrug as if to say, "I could handle it, so why would you bother?"
Brother Li looked at the mess, rage burning toward Qian Jun. In his mind, Qian Jun had led him into this trap.
But Qian Jun was thinking the exact same thing about Brother Li. The man had bragged about how skilled he was, how powerful his weapons were, and yet… not even a single bullet. His men were worse fighters than the people upstairs.
Seeing the tide turn, Qian Jun tried to slip away. The elevator was out of service, so the only escape was the stairs. But with Lan Jin still blocking the way, he had nowhere to run.
Brother Li saw him moving and shouted, "Qian Jun, don't run! This is all your fault. Without you, I wouldn't have lost so many brothers. Don't you dare run!"
Qian Jun rolled his eyes. "You said you were great. Turns out you're nothing. I went out of my way to bring you here, and you even took a bunch of meat from me. And for what? You lost men. I lost men. If you're not that capable, don't go around bragging like you are."
Qian Jun's tone was nothing like before. His words were blunt and cutting, as if he had nothing left to lose.
Brother Li, still sprawled on the floor, could not accept being blamed. He quickly turned the accusation back toward Qian Jun. "Miss, we were tricked into coming here. It was him. All him. He's the one who coveted your supplies and called us to your door. We didn't know the truth before. If we had known earlier, if we had known…"
"If you had known, what? That you wouldn't have come?" Lan Jin's eyes were cold. "No, you would have still come. The only difference is you would have come better prepared. That is human greed. You can't avoid it. Seeking death is still seeking death. Only the method changes."
…
With everyone subdued, the question now was what to do with them.
If it were only up to her, Lan Jin would have simply ended it here and now to avoid future trouble.
But Ling Jiang was still here. If she suggested something so final, what if Ling Jiang thought she was too ruthless?