Be it Hu Shuo or Zhou Yingxue, the two of them dealt with the thugs and superhumans like it was nothing. They went back to what they were doing after the battle, and it was as though there wasn’t any pressure at all.
The only difference was that Wang Yuchi and the others got to have a few more pieces of potatoes with their chicken soup.
These three consortiums thought they had found a way to break the deadlock. But instead, they somehow zeroed in on the two monsters in the stronghold who had wanted to isolate themselves from the world.
Regarding Zhou Yingxue, Ren Xiaosu was the one who had ordered her to stay home and not to go out. She was to ensure that Wang Yuchi and the others were safe.
But the thugs had gone overboard with regards to Hu Shuo. They just had to go looking for trouble when Hu Shuo was teaching the children how to write secret messages. Even if they managed to defeat him, what would they have done if Li Shentan and Si Liren came to avenge him?
Actually, the Xu clan representative was not wrong. It was indeed suspicious for Yang Ruilin to vacate his house and the Riders to suddenly disburse funds to the orphanage right before the big battle happened.
Moreover, they had indeed located Ren Xiaosu’s family too. If Zhou Yingxue had not been around, they might even have succeeded in their mission.
But “ifs” did not matter in this world.
The three consortiums’ representatives were waiting silently for good news from the operatives in their secluded residence. It was different from the tense atmosphere earlier. At this moment, all of them were more relaxed and even touched on the topic of wine tasting.
Second Brother Kong said with a smile, “There’s a bottle of Suntory Whisky hidden at my place. I wonder which rich family from the Pre-Cataclysm times that wine cellar belonged to. The seals on the wine bottles inside are all very well-preserved.”
The young man from the Wang Consortium, Wang Wenyan, glanced at him. “I still prefer Maotai.”[1]
As time ticked by, the three of them got the feeling that something was off. Second Brother Kong looked at his watch. “It’s been more than 40 minutes already. Why isn’t there any news yet? Go and contact the field teams and find out their current progress.”
However, the subordinate ran back immediately after he went out. He said with a sense of unease, “We couldn’t get in contact with them!”
“Which team can you not contact?” Wang Wenyan asked with a sullen face.
“We couldn’t contact either of them.”
The three representatives immediately raised their eyebrows. They had thought something had happened to one of the teams. But now it seemed that both teams might have perished.
“Send someone to check out the vicinity!” Second Brother Kong said.
The three of them sat down again, but the unease inside them only got stronger.
Ten minutes later, the person who went to check came back and said, “The people who went to Junmin Alley to investigate the situation have all disappeared. I also saw from a distance away people from the Qinghe Group clearing the corpses of our people at the orphanage. From the looks of it, they were all killed before they could even get past the entrance!”
Second Brother Kong clenched his teeth and said, “Bring the Xu clan members to me!”
He had been quite polite with the Xu clan members, but not anymore.
When the Xu clan members were brought into the house, they looked utterly confused. “Is there something you all want from us?”
Second Brother Kong was so angry he laughed. “You’re still trying to feign ignorance? Your clan’s Xu Ke and schemes! He actually set up an ambush and got the few of you to lure our people into this trap to weaken our strength.”
The Xu clan members were stunned. “What are you talking about?”
“Hehe.” Second Brother Kong sneered, “You’re all good men. You clearly know you can’t escape after setting the trap for us, yet you still dare to come here and be a double agent. I’ll grant you a swift death then. Take them out and execute them!”
The Xu clan members protested, “Could there be some misunderstanding between us? I don’t even understand what you’re talking about! Didn’t we already agree that once the matter is settled, you will only take the satellites while the assets of Luoyang City will go to us? We don’t want the money anymore. Can’t you spare our lives!”
As they spoke, the Xu clan members started sobbing.
Unfortunately, no outsiders could hear them anymore. The entire neighborhood in the vicinity was occupied by the three consortiums’ people.
Actually, they also could not be sure it was the people from the Xu clan who had deliberately set the trap for them. After all, they were the ones who had allowed the people from the three consortiums to come into the stronghold over the years. They even did it very secretively. If they had betrayed them, it would not make any sense at all.
It was likelier that Xu Ke had predicted the Xu clan members would sell him out. Therefore, he deliberately let slip seemingly flawed information to lure them into the trap.
But it did not matter anymore. The people from the Xu clan had already become disposable, and the three consortiums had not planned on splitting Luoyang City with them anyway.
But what they did not know was that Xu Ke had not plotted this at all. Even if he did, it would not be in these areas. The reason why those two field teams and two superhumans they dispatched had died was purely because they were unfortunate enough to hit a brick wall.
Rather than describing it as a brick wall, they had crashed into two granite blocks.
At this moment, the people from the Qinghe Group were cleaning up the corpses of the consortiums’ people that were left at the doorstep of the orphanage. Several dozen thugs had died here, and there was even one superhuman among the dead.
There was no way that Hu Shuo’s identity as a superhuman could be kept secret anymore with what happened. However, the Qinghe Group had never mistreated superhumans, nor would they do anything bad to them. Therefore, he did not care whether his identity was exposed.
When Qin Sheng arrived at the orphanage, Hu Shuo came forward to explain he did not know why the thugs would come here. Hu Shuo was not lying. He really did not fucking know why!
“It’s probably because we Riders have placed the orphanage under our jurisdiction, making the malicious take notice.” Qin Sheng sighed, “I was worried about this, but I didn’t expect the enemy would be so crazy to not even spare an orphanage. Please rest up. This was all thanks to your help. In the future, the funds for the orphanage will be disbursed on time. In fact, the sum will be increased by a lot. Consider it our Riders’ gratitude to you.”
“Alright, I still have to get ready for my lessons with the children, so please do what you need to do.” Hu Shuo waved his hand and closed the door of the orphanage. It was as though he did not care about what had happened at all.
When Qin Sheng told Xu Ke about this, Xu Ke got the feeling he had secured the victory of a distant battle without even needing to do anything.
However, everyone knew they had not won yet. Before the end of the night, the consortiums definitely still had more trump cards left to play.
In the secluded residence, Wang Wenyan said calmly, “This is still the Qinghe Group’s territory. There are too many things we don’t know about. Our opponent has been running the place for so long, so it should be expected that they also have something up their sleeves. I think everyone here should stop hesitating. It’s no longer possible for us to keep our casualties to a minimum before the end of the battle. It’s time to go all out and make our move. While creating chaos, we can take down Xu Ke at the same time.”
Before this, the three consortiums had attempted to find ways to take advantage of the situation over and over again, such as capturing Jiang Xu or finding a way to break the deadlock. It was not that their strength was inferior to the Qinghe Group, but the three consortiums wanted to reserve their strength to deal with the other two consortiums after destroying the Qinghe Group.
Second Brother Kong got up and sneered, “Then let’s do this! Everyone will have to depend on their own capabilities now.”
[1] Maotai or Moutai is a brand of baijiu, a distilled Chinese liquor (spirit), made in the town of Maotai in China’s Guizhou province. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maotai
