Chapter 91: A Midnight Visit
So, when Liu Qiang personally led his men through the door, they found the pitch-black living room, and someone was actually waiting for them.
“Visiting at midnight, do you all have some special hobby?” Zhuang Mingxu asked as soon as everyone entered the door.
The lights in the hall suddenly blazed, illuminating the dozen or so men Liu Qiang had brought, leaving them nowhere to hide.
Liu Qiang only panicked for a moment. Seeing that there were only two people opposite him, one of whom was in a wheelchair, he immediately calmed down. Then he stood boldly opposite Zhuang Mingxu. “I am Liu Qiang of Military Shield. It seems my men are indeed in your hands.”
Compared to the dozen tall and sturdy men Liu Qiang brought, Liu Qiang himself was rather short and thin. Of course, this thinness was relative, not the gaunt kind, but a lean build like Lin Yimu and Ning Yuan, solid and wiry.
Zhuang Mingxu smiled and said nothing. In just this short time, Li Zhuang and Antonio had already walked down from the top of the stairs. Footsteps could be heard upstairs, and everyone else had woken up.
“Are they still alive?” Seeing that Zhuang Mingxu wasn’t speaking, Liu Qiang didn’t bother with useless words and made his purpose clear from the start.
“That depends on how Boss Liu chooses,” Zhuang Mingxu remained unfazed in his wheelchair, facing a dozen people.
Lu Weiyi stood beside him, a vine coiling around the armrest of his wheelchair, moving back and forth, occasionally teasing Zhuang Mingxu’s fingers.
Zhuang Mingxu thought this was Lu Weiyi playing around, indulging him while a hint of tenderness couldn’t help but appear on his face. But in fact, Lu Weiyi couldn’t particularly control the small green branches in such subtle movements. It was as if it had an independent consciousness unless Lu Weiyi issued precise commands in his mind.
“You dare to silence them by killing them?” Liu Qiang seemed to have heard a joke. “My Military Shield has a total of eight battalions and dozens of squads, with over a thousand people. And you have a total of fifteen people. Even if a few of you have good skills and abilities, most are mediocre, not to mention a child and a cripple…”
With a “snap,” the small green branches coiling around Zhuang Mingxu’s wheelchair instantly lashed out towards Liu Qiang. The speed was so fast that Liu Qiang only saw a blur. Relying on his extremely strong sixth sense, he suddenly dodged to the side, avoiding the attack. When he looked back, a handgun was already pressed against his head, and the dozen or so men behind him were all choked by something invisible around their necks, their eyes rolling back as they lay in a heap.
Lu Weiyi had always been concerned about Zhuang Mingxu’s leg. The moment Liu Qiang said “cripple,” he manipulated the small green branches to attack. Noticing Liu Qiang’s dodging stance, he quickly threw a handgun from his waist towards Li Zhuang behind him, letting the small green branches tie up all the lackeys behind.
Li Zhuang was incredibly cooperative, quickly approaching and pressing a handgun against Liu Qiang’s forehead.
“As long as we kill you, the remaining people will immediately be annexed by the police and Longteng. Where will there be any Military Shield?” Zhuang Mingxu was also surprised by the tacit understanding between Li Zhuang and Lu Weiyi, but his face didn’t show it, as if everything just now was within his expectations.
Almost instantly defeated, Liu Qiang finally believed what Cheng Ying had said back then. He looked at the three calm people opposite him and finally compromised. He reached out to push away Li Zhuang’s gun and asked, “What will it take for you to release them? Name your conditions. Supplies or something else?”
“Conditions?” Zhuang Mingxu smiled very innocently, but his tone was arrogant. “I want Military Shield to block the police, no matter what means you use.”
“When you leave?” Hearing this, Liu Qiang understood what he meant, after all, he had his own plans. “You overestimate our Military Shield. The police are the top authority in the base after all. If we could do that, this base would have been under my Military Shield long ago. How could we possibly be subservient to Zhang Xun?”
“I believe you can do it, it’s just a matter of blocking them for a bit,” Zhuang Mingxu didn’t listen to his excuses. “I don’t care how you do it, I just want the result. Anyway, you’re not in a position to negotiate with me right now. Think about the lives of your five battalion commanders.”
Ordinary five subordinates might not be anything, or he could abandon tasks unknown in private, but it happened that all eight battalion commanders were present during the deployment, and after a day of loudly searching for people, all the captains and deputy captains of Military Shield knew what they had gone to do. If he abandoned them at this time, Liu Qiang’s authority in Military Shield would definitely be affected, inevitably leading to dissent in private.
“Boss Liu, have you thought it over?” Zhuang Mingxu waited for a while, and when he still didn’t answer, he urged.
“Okay, but you have to tell me your plan,” Liu Qiang bargained, thinking that after learning their plan, he could think of other options.
“No,” Zhuang Mingxu had already seen through his little tricks, but he gave a time, “We’ll leave at six o’clock tomorrow morning. Boss Liu just needs to stop the people following us.”
“Even if I stop the police, Longteng will still have people following you,” Liu Qiang said.
“That’s no trouble for Boss Liu to worry about,” Zhuang Mingxu said politely, but with an air of everything being under control.
“Alright, then when can I see my men?” Liu Qiang asked.
“Once we leave, they will naturally go back,” Zhuang Mingxu said. “To ensure that our cooperation doesn’t have any unexpected situations, I’ve added some insurance. I hope Boss Liu doesn’t mind.”
Liu Qiang had a bad premonition. Sure enough, a moment later, two people walked in at the door, each holding two unconscious children in their arms. One of them was his son, and the other three were the children of the remaining three squad leaders.
Three of the people lying on the ground immediately struggled violently, and Liu Qiang was also visibly agitated. “What did you do to them?”
“Just knocked them out,” Lin Yimu said, standing behind Zhuang Mingxu with Ning Yuan, each holding two children.
Liu Qiang was somewhat angry. This anger stemmed more from the fact that he would now have to obey their arrangements. “You actually laid hands on children?”
Li Zhuang sneered, “Sounds like you didn’t lay hands on other people’s children last night.”
“You…” Liu Qiang had nothing to say, his face flushed with anger.
Zhuang Mingxu waited until he calmed down before saying, “Boss Liu doesn’t care about his own son, but I think others still care. I’ll take care of these four children for now. Once Boss Liu has taken care of things, they will naturally go home with the others.”
“Deal!” Liu Qiang said through gritted teeth. “Release them.”
Lu Weiyi glanced at Zhuang Mingxu and retracted the small green branches. The group stood up. Cheng Ying immediately staggered, wanting to come over, but Li Zhuang, who was closest, held a handgun across his path.
He raised his hands and coughed twice. “I’ll do it, I won’t play any tricks. Please don’t hurt my daughter. Her mother fed herself to the zombies so we could leave…”
As Cheng Ying spoke, he knelt down as if he couldn’t stand, tears in the eyes of the six-foot-tall man. “Please, please don’t let her get hurt. She’s the only bloodline my wife and I have.” He prostrated himself on the ground with a “thump,” kowtowing.
“Get up. Everyone is just trying to survive,” Li Zhuang glanced at Liu Qiang. “If you hadn’t been unrighteous, we wouldn’t have had to resort to this.”
Cheng Ying naturally knew what he meant. In retrospect, although their group had acted somewhat high-profile since arriving at the base, they hadn’t actually done anything to harm others. It was these factions in the base who had been greedy for their wealth, and they couldn’t blame others for kicking a steel plate.
Seeing Cheng Ying say this, the other two men whose children were also tied up looked at him. Liu Qiang helped Cheng Ying up from the ground and said again, “I will stop the police, but you can’t touch any of my men.”
“Rest assured,” Zhuang Mingxu said, his hands crossed and resting on the wheelchair, his calmness infuriating.
“Let’s go.” What he thought would be a smooth matter had turned into hitting a brick wall for two consecutive nights, and he even had to work for others. Liu Qiang’s heart was also filled with resentment. With hostages in hand, he couldn’t say anything and quietly left the villa again with the others.
“Put the children in our room,” Zhuang Mingxu said to Ning Yuan, then asked Lu Weiyi, “Can you put the gasoline from the tanker truck into the space first?”
Lu Weiyi nodded.
“Brother Mu, cover us. Try not to let anyone notice. Quietly empty the gasoline inside and leave the truck behind.” After Zhuang Mingxu finished speaking, he looked at Li Zhuang and Antonio. “Let them all rest well. Get up at four o’clock tomorrow morning, move quietly in the dark without turning on the lights, and don’t bring anything unimportant. We’ll leave early in the morning.”
At four o’clock the next day, everyone got up on time, packed their things, and came out. The things that had filled the living room had disappeared.
“Did your space really upgrade?” Antonio asked, stopping Lu Weiyi who was going upstairs to collect things.
“Yeah,” Lu Weiyi nodded, not wanting to talk much.
Antonio walked downstairs while manipulating his small flying knives, looking annoyed.
Dean knew what he was thinking, tiptoed and kissed him, comforting him, “You don’t need to worry, I know you’re the best.”
The two in front didn’t think anything of it, but Xi Shi, who was following behind, blushed deeply. Xiong Jie, seeing that he didn’t know where to look, smiled and put his arm around his shoulder.
“Yeah,” Antonio smiled and returned Dean’s kiss. “Don’t worry, I’ll catch up with them as soon as possible. I won’t let you go hungry or be wronged.”
“It’s okay, I’ll just learn from Xu and hug Lu’s thigh then. He’ll definitely take us in and we won’t go hungry,” Dean said, his little face full of pride.
“Do you even know what hugging a thigh means?” Antonio really wanted to ask what nonsense Xu Sa had taught his little boyfriend who had just learned Chinese.
“It’s just hugging… a thigh,” Dean said, even making a hugging gesture with his arms, causing Xiong Jie and Xi Shi behind him to burst into laughter.
Zhuang Mingxu sat in the pitch-black living room, turned on a small flashlight, the light facing the ground, so only a shadow could be seen.
Once everyone had arrived, he said, “Yesterday, we already spread the news that we’re going to look for medicine today. Using this news as a cover, we’ll all leave at six o’clock, driving one truck and one car. Some people will be in the truck’s cargo bed. I’ll cover the people inside to avoid inspection. Once we’re out of the base, we’ll head straight towards Ningping County.”
“But after we leave, the villa won’t withstand scrutiny. Anyone who comes will know we’ve left. It’s hard to say how many people might chase after us, so before we reach the Pingning Bridge, both vehicles must go at full speed.”
Thank you for the new chapter