I don't know how long I slept, but I felt like I slept exceptionally soundly. I checked my phone and immediately sat up. It was already past 11 p.m. I remember we got back around 4 or 5 p.m. Ji Lin'an and I moved into the master bedroom. I slept in the bedroom and he slept in the study. I saw that the study door was not closed, so I got out of bed and quietly walked to the door and peeked inside. I didn't see Ji Lin'an. I went downstairs to the bottom of the stairs and saw Ji Lin'an sleeping on the sofa. He must be exhausted today too. I've tried driving when I'm under a lot of tension, and the moment I relax, all I want to do is sleep for three days and three nights.
I walked up to Ji Lin'an, squatted down, and gently patted him. Ji Lin'an woke up instantly, looking at me with red eyes: "You're awake. I'll go heat up some food for you."
After saying that, Ji Lin'an got up to go to the kitchen, but I immediately stopped him, pointed at him and then at the upstairs, and made a sleeping gesture. Ji Lin'an forced a faint smile: "It's okay, I'll heat up your food. After you finish eating, we'll go upstairs to sleep together."
I shook my head, pointed to myself and made a gesture of eating, telling him to go upstairs to sleep. Ji Lin'an still wanted to go, but I immediately pretended to be angry, frowned, pouted and glared at him, pointing heavily upstairs. Seeing that he couldn't persuade me, Ji Lin'an smiled helplessly: "Okay, then remember to eat, eating more will help you recover."
I nodded and pushed Ji Lin'an to the stairwell, watching him go upstairs. After he went up, I went to the kitchen. Ji Lin'an had made soup and porridge in the rice cooker. I wondered where he got the ingredients. I stirred the pot with a ladle—it contained pigeon and dates. I ladled out a bowl of porridge, slurped it up a couple of times with a small spoon, and found shrimp and mushrooms. He really made the most of my stockpiled dried goods, though the pigeon must have been from Ji Lin'an's treasure chest. I brought it to the dining table, where a bag of straws was thoughtfully placed—the thick straws for bubble tea. Ji Lin'an knew I had trouble opening my mouth, so he had specially prepared straws.
I was full but not sleepy, so I lay on the sofa. Zhu Chen and the other guy had escaped during the day, and I didn't know what had happened to the people in the gray SUV. I turned on the surveillance camera, but there was no one in any of the shots. When the camera panned to the area outside Ji Lin's villa, I saw flickering flames. The fire was huge, and there were several figures standing in the distance, but we didn't have any surveillance cameras there, so we couldn't see who they were. The house was destroyed, which was an undeniable fact. For now, we could only try to figure out who was alive. I turned on the surveillance playback and reviewed several shots to confirm that it was Zhu Chen, Ah San, Tiger, and the man who had chased the car and brandished a knife at us in the previous future shot.
The most crucial figures, Zhu Chen and Tiger, are still alive. Keeping these two ruthless characters alive means we're definitely not safe. Even though we've moved far away, according to the tropes of novels, those who always reappear and survive are usually the big bosses. I continued watching the surveillance footage. The fire had subsided considerably, but the visibility inside the house was very low, filled with thick smoke. This was much bigger than the fire we saw in the future footage; it was clear they were determined to kill us.
Another hour passed. Ah San took several fire suits from the trunk of the black SUV behind them and handed them to Tiger and the others to wear. Tiger gestured for Ah San to go in. Ah San climbed over the wall, opened the garden gate, and let Zhu Chen and the other two in. "We took the solar panel protective netting, but the power is gone, and the alarms on the doors and windows are also not working," the man with the knife said. He returned to the car, took an axe from the trunk, and it looked very heavy. He dragged it into the front door and smashed it open with a few blows. The group went inside and searched the whole house. A few minutes later, they returned to the living room. Ah San came downstairs and said, "Tiger, there's no one upstairs."
Zhu Chen also ran up from downstairs: "There's no one downstairs, and there are no supplies at all."
The man wielding the knife pointed to the garden: "I see a door at the back, and all that's left is a pile of dirt and a few dozen fruit trees. The rest looks like it's been dug up."
Tiger slammed his fist on the table: "Damn it, they got away! How could they have moved everything in just one afternoon?"
The man wielding the knife said cautiously, "They left their car near where Ah Gou and the others died. What are they going to use to move things?"
Tiger glared at the group: "Maybe they already discovered you two were spying on them and have already quietly moved their things away."
Zhu Chen shook his head: "Impossible. We've been keeping a close watch on them these past few days. We only saw them come out during the day today; we haven't seen them come out at any other time."
Tiger glanced at Zhu Chen sideways: "Then where do you think they went?"
Tiger grabbed Zhu Chen by the collar and said, "You brought us all this way with your 'I know them' statement, and caused the deaths of two of my brothers. Now we have nothing. Tell me, what use are you to us?"
Zhu Chen bowed and scraped, gently patting Tiger's hand: "Tiger, Tiger, calm down. They ran away, but look, there are still more than a dozen fruit trees. They were so well prepared, they must have a lot of supplies. If we can find them, we won't have to go out and risk our lives to find supplies every day. With so much stuff, they can't just run around everywhere. Maybe they've set it up nearby. Anyway, we're looking for supplies, so it wouldn't be a loss if we found them by chance, right? Don't worry, I'll definitely do my best to help you find them every day. Think about it, if we find supplies and women, will we still have to worry about life?"
After Zhu Chen finished speaking, Tiger Brother loosened his collar and glared at Zhu Chen fiercely: "It had better be that way, otherwise you'll be our next meal."
Zhu Chen hunched over, his head almost tucked into his collar, and followed Tiger into the vegetable garden. There were no security cameras in the garden, so it was unclear what they did there. When they came out, Zhu Chen had a bunch of strawberries in his clothes. "My strawberries, I'm so sorry, you all ended up in a dog's stomach."
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