Chapter 96 Chapter 96 This is so un-Liang Zhao
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The third floor is a good floor, far away from noise sources such as engines, and has an appropriate height, a wide field of vision, and the best viewing platform. Therefore, in addition to infrastructure, the third floor is basically presidential suites, executive suites, and luxury suites.
In short, there are only a very small number of villagers living on the third floor, so of course the good places are reserved for their own people. This floor can be said to be the base camp of the younger brothers.
Time was short and the task was heavy. Zhou Jing did not rashly lead people into the third floor for rescue. Instead, he chose to go around the side open deck to the safe passage and climb the stairs directly to the fourth floor.
Two groups of people had gone downstairs earlier, and the entire third floor was abnormally quiet.
The steps were wide and the stairs were flat, making them easier to walk on than those in ordinary homes. Perhaps because the light was too dim and there was deathly silence all around, the atmosphere inexplicably became heavy and depressing.
A huge group of twenty or thirty people were climbing up the stairs. Their footsteps were so light that even the voice-activated lights in the stairwell were not on. There was only the sound of increasingly rapid and heavy breathing that came one after another, spreading with the breeze.
"cough!"
A light, restrained cough that had obviously been held back for a long time was heard. Everyone in the stairwell paused and turned around to look at the person who made the sound.
The lady blushed when being stared at by everyone, feeling embarrassed and ashamed. She buried her head in her chest and wished she could find a crack in the ground to crawl into.
Obviously aware that the atmosphere was too tense, Zhou Jing, who was walking in the front, turned around, raised the corners of his mouth and chuckled, lowering his voice and saying: "Don't be so nervous, don't be too tense, move a little more slowly--"
“—Squeak!”
It seemed that the security door was opened by someone, and a long and slightly dull sound came from above my head.
Everyone pricked up their ears, still wondering what the sound was, when a burst of messy footsteps sounded again.
It wasn't just one or two people. Although they deliberately moved lightly, the distance between them was very close and one could tell from the sound that the footsteps of at least a dozen or twenty people were overlapping.
Zhou Jing’s first reaction was to retreat, but when he remembered that there was a third floor below the stairs, he immediately changed his mind, raised his machete and waved at everyone, silently signaling: Get ready for a fight!
The powerful chainsaw was still in Gu Mengran's hand. He grasped the starting rope with one hand and decisively went up the step and stood beside Zhou Jing. As long as that group of people showed up, he would kill them in seconds!
The sound was getting closer and closer. Dozens of people were staying in the stairwell, but the voice-controlled lights above their heads didn't light up for even a second.
Thick darkness enveloped the people. In less than thirty seconds, a tall figure walked out from the shadows around the corner. Gu Mengran immediately withdrew his gaze and started the chainsaw, but the next second, his fingertips paused slightly and he looked up at the figure almost eagerly.
Gu Mengran's eyes, which had adapted to the darkness, gradually saw the person coming. His pupils lit up instantly. During this brief moment of distraction, a cool breeze blew beside him, and Zhou Jing suddenly rushed up with a machete in his hand.
The action is too fast...
Gu Mengran was startled and quickly reminded: "No, we are one family!"
The overhead light suddenly lit up, and the dim stairwell turned into daylight in an instant.
The machete, gleaming with silver light, paused in mid-air. Zhou Jing, who saw who was coming, suddenly stopped in his tracks. The villagers behind him who were eager to try were also stunned. The expressions on their faces changed from vigilance to surprise, and then to joy at a speed visible to the naked eye.
"Xiao Zhou? Xiao Dong?"
"Fang, Sister Fang!"
"Uncle Zhou! Aunt Li!"
"mom!"
The battlefield with swords clashing turned into a family reunion scene in seconds, and the tense and depressing atmosphere suddenly became extremely relaxed.
The villagers came forward one after another, and Gu Mengran stood there without moving. He stared at the most conspicuous tall man in the crowd, and his eyes felt inexplicably hot.
In the blink of an eye, Liang Zhao had walked past the villagers and came to Gu Mengran's side.
He smelled of blood, had bruises on the corners of his mouth, and had multiple scratches on his arms. He was wearing black clothes so it was hard to tell where he was bleeding. So just as Liang Zhao stood in front of him, Gu Mengran immediately reached out and lifted up his shirt.
"What happened? Did you fight with others? Are you injured elsewhere? Why is there such a strong smell of blood?" Gu Mengran hurriedly lifted up his clothes and carefully examined Liang Zhao's waist and abdomen.
In front of everyone, he almost stripped the man of his clothes. Liang Zhao grabbed his hand in time and comforted him softly, "I'm fine. It's just a minor injury."
"Can--"
"What's going on here? Who hit you?" Liang Zhao grabbed Gu Mengran's wrist, his eyes fixed on his slightly red and swollen arm, and his eyes instantly sank.
"It's okay, it's just a minor injury. The person who hit me is probably dead."
Gu Mengran glimpsed Liang Zhao's increasingly solemn expression and quickly changed the subject: "Okay, okay, let's not talk about this anymore. Let's talk about you guys. What's going on upstairs?"
We are still in enemy territory, so it is not the time to reminisce.
Liang Zhao calmed his breathing, held Gu Mengran's hand tightly, and explained the situation roughly.
Just like on the second floor, the villagers on the upper floors helped each other and escaped one after another. During this period, they also encountered the patrol team in the cabin and had a direct conflict with them.
Later, they met the people who had left the village earlier, namely Zhou Zhiqi's men. After learning about their plan and that the cab was on the fourth floor, Sister Fang did not act in a hurry, but chose to take people to the lower floors to help.
The ultimate goal is still the cockpit on the fourth floor, but the fourth floor is heavily guarded, all cabin doors are closed, and the safety passage is also locked.
They didn't know the specific situation inside, nor how many people were inside, so they planned to meet up with others first in case of shortage of manpower. They were also worried that the villagers on the lower floors might encounter unexpected accidents.
At first glance, it seemed fine, but the more Gu Mengran thought about it, the more he felt something was wrong. He looked at Liang Zhao with a hint of suspicion in his eyes, "Isn't that right? Weren't you assigned to the fourth floor? How did you get out when the security was so tight?"
"Cough." Liang Zhao coughed lightly with his fists pressed against his chest, and seemed to have inadvertently averted his gaze, "I...at that time..."
"Stop hesitating and just say it." Gu Mengran glared at him.
It's easy to lie but hard to cover up a lie. Liang Zhao touched his nose guiltily and confessed honestly, "In fact, I didn't go to the fourth floor at all. There were only a few people who sent us upstairs, and we dealt with them in the stairwell. Later, I followed Sister Fang and the others to the fifth and sixth floors and released the villagers who were imprisoned before us."
As he was talking, Liang Zhao suddenly held Gu Mengran's hand tightly, his eyes slightly drooping with guilt, "I'm sorry, Mengran, I didn't go back to find you in time, causing you to get hurt."
"Hey, I have to say something about this." Sister Fang, who was talking to Xiaodong nearby, heard the voice and quickly walked to Gu Mengran and said, "Xiao Liang has been thinking about you. He wanted to go to the second floor to find you the first time, but I stopped him."
Sister Fang patted Gu Mengran on the shoulder and sighed heavily, "You know, this is someone else's territory. If he acts alone, it's no different from committing suicide. I talked him down and made him promise again and again that I would come to the second floor to find you as soon as I rescued the villagers. Only then did he agree to act with us. Xiao Gu, you must not blame him."
Before he opened his mouth, someone spoke up for him. Gu Mengran laughed and looked at Sister Fang and said, "Sister, what are you saying? Am I an unreasonable person? I have to thank you. He was so impetuous, thanks to you for talking him down."
Gu Mengran was not being polite. He was glad that Liang Zhao did not act rashly. They had made too much noise on the second floor, which had already alerted the enemy. If Liang Zhao went downstairs alone at this time, it would be dangerous if he encountered reinforcements on the way.
Fang Jie just said one sentence, and she was obviously relieved. She pulled Xiao Dong back to their original position.
As soon as the person left, Gu Mengran, who was still smiling a second ago, immediately fell down and glared at Liang Zhao unhappily, "What are you thinking? Acting alone in someone else's territory, are you going to die?"
"Also, don't change the subject. You stayed with me the whole time before boarding the ship, and you didn't have the chance to communicate with Sister Fang and the others. You started fighting right away in the stairwell. Was it because of a tacit understanding? Or did you already know their plan?"
Liang Zhao stopped dodging his gaze and looked at Gu Mengran, nodding his head honestly, "Yes, I knew their plan a long time ago."
"When?" Gu Mengran's anger soared.
"In the evening, when Xiaodong came to see us." Liang Zhao knew everything.
At first, he was just wondering why Liang Zhao kept it from him, and when Liang Zhao got in touch with Sister Fang. But when he heard this, Gu Mengran immediately understood. What Liang Zhao clearly said at night was: give him some advice.
The plan of pretending to have an internal conflict and boarding the ship first and then seizing it——
Liang Zhaozhi’s trick?
Gu Mengran didn't say anything, but his mysterious look said it all.
Seeing her expression change, Liang Zhao didn't dare to hide anything anymore, and lowered his voice and said truthfully: "Sister Fang realized the danger and knew that this group of people would not let the village go. She originally planned to abandon some supplies and take the villagers into the mountains overnight, and then come out after they left."
"Her idea is very conservative. Losing money can avoid disaster. As long as people are alive, there is hope. But now is the end of the world. How long people can survive depends entirely on how much supplies they have. The rain is still falling and the water level continues to rise. They need a lot of supplies to survive, so that they have a chance to find a new place to live before the village is flooded."
"I didn't give you any random advice. I just helped analyze the pros and cons and explained that dangers and opportunities coexist. It's hard to find a boat that can carry a whole village. What they need, the other party happens to have."
As if he was worried about being blamed by Gu Mengran, Liang Zhao became less and less confident as he spoke.
Living a new life and getting to know each other again, after more than a year of getting along, Gu Mengran has already realized that Liang Zhao is not the kind-hearted and philanthropic person he thought, in fact, quite the opposite.
He is open-hearted to his own people and is not afraid to risk his life for them; but towards unimportant people or things, he lacks empathy and is almost ruthlessly indifferent, and can just stand by and watch.
After more than a year of getting along, the close neighbor Heng Rongsheng couldn't even occupy a place in Liang Zhao's heart. Would he give advice to the distant neighbor Shijin Village? This was not Liang Zhao at all, unless he had some ulterior motive.
In the dispute between Shijin Village and the cruise ship, they were always outsiders who were unintentionally involved. No matter who won or lost, the outcome would have nothing to do with them.
After thinking so much, Gu Mengran actually already had the answer in his mind.
Liang Zhao wanted Shijin Village to win, he wanted Dong Hongbo to die, he wanted—
To avenge Gu Mengran from the previous life.
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