Chapter 46: The Ruthless Woman

Just as Qin Chong was about to leave, he heard Liu Shan sneer: "Wang Chunfen, you needn't lecture me. You claim to have the heart of a Bodhisattva, but yesterday when that young girl came looking for her mother, you wanted to steal her boat so I could row it to save your husband. You seized the moment when her guard was down and pushed that young girl out, causing her to fall into the sewage downstairs..."

Qin Chong's body shuddered, a mix of shock and fury surging within him. The young girl in Liu Shan's words was, without a doubt, Xiao Yingyong!

Hearing this news, rage ignited in Qin Chong's chest. In a burst of blinding fury, he kicked fiercely against the glass double doors. The doors trembled violently, but they did not give way.

Only then did Qin Chong notice a U-shaped lock securing the handles from the inside—a precaution the occupants must have set up to prevent zombies from breaking in.

Yet such defenses could only stop the undead, not Qin Chong. With a slight frown, he brought his saber down in a ruthless slash, shattering the glass doors into countless fragments.

"Speak! Where is that young girl?"

Charging straight in, Qin Chong grabbed the woman named Wang Chunfen by the collar and demanded.

Inside the reception hall, Wang Chunfen, Xiao An, and Liu Shan had never expected anyone else to be out there. Qin Chong's abrupt breach through the glass left them completely paralyzed with terror.

"Tell me now!"

At Qin Chong's thunderous roar, Wang Chunfen finally snapped back to her senses. "She... she fell into the water. I don't know where she drifted off to."

Hearing this, Qin Chong's pupils contracted slightly. This was the sixteenth floor. A fall from this height—even with accumulated water below—could easily knock someone unconscious, and in a worst-case scenario, prove fatal.

The mere thought that Xiao Yingyong might already be dead filled Qin Chong's eyes with bloodshot veins. His grip tightened around the hilt of his Miao saber until his knuckles turned white.

Seeing her mother grabbed by Qin Chong, Xiao An shrieked and lunged forward. "Let go of my mom! Let go right now—"

Qin Chong simply raised his leg and delivered a swift kick to Xiao An's abdomen, sending her flying several meters away where she collided with a corner and passed out.

"Stop right there!"

Noticing the murderous intent in Qin Chong's eyes, Liu Shan felt a chilling breeze sweep across the back of his neck and cried out, "The girl isn't dead! I saw her swim away!"

Liu Shan's shout came just in time. The tip of Qin Chong's saber stopped dead less than a centimeter from Wang Chunfen's throat. He fixed his cold, piercing gaze on Liu Shan. "Do you know the consequences of lying to me?"

A bead of sweat rolled down Liu Shan's forehead, but without a moment's hesitation, he blurted out, "It's true, it's true! I'm not lying! I... I swear!"

After a brief hesitation, Qin Chong flicked his wrist and struck Wang Chunfen's cheek with the flat of his blade. Half of her face instantly swelled up, bright red. Wang Chunfen let out a miserable screech, rolled her eyes back, and fainted from sheer terror.

***

Having just regained consciousness, Xiao An saw her mother pass out and came crawling frantically across the floor, wailing and shrieking, "Mom! You killed my mom! I'm going to kill you!"

Her tender concern for her own family member and her utter ruthlessness toward others were displayed in her with a seamless, jarring lack of dissonance.

"Shut your mouth!"

With his head throbbing from Xiao An's relentless crying, Qin Chong wore a grim expression and bellowed, "She's not going to die! One more sound and I actually will kill her!"

Xiao An trembled violently, completely cowed by Qin Chong's fierce and menacing aura. She clamped her mouth shut, huddled close to Wang Chunfen, and wept in silent, trembling fear.

Qin Chong swept his gaze over the three of them and let out a cold laugh. "You'd better pray that Xiao Yingyong is still alive. Otherwise, none of the three of you will make it out of here alive!"

There was not a shred of warmth in his laughter, chilling the air like a winter gale and causing both the conscious Xiao An and Liu Shan to shiver from head to toe.

"She's alive, she's alive, that young girl is definitely alive."

Liu Shan raised one hand high into the air as if taking an oath. "I saw with my own eyes that the girl is an excellent swimmer. She swam underwater to dodge the zombies and made it across to the building directly opposite us."

......

"Really?"

Before Liu Shan could answer, Qin Chong rushed across the corridor in a few strides, shoved open a window facing the opposite building, and yelled, "Xiao Yingyong! Xiao Yingyong! Answer me if you can hear me!"

His voice echoed sharply between the towering structures, but seconds ticked by with no reply—only a dozen or so zombies down below raising their heads and letting out hollow, groaning moans in response.

Unwilling to give up, Qin Chong called out several more times, still receiving complete silence. With a bitter knot of frustration, he turned back toward the hall and glared viciously at Liu Shan. "Why is no one answering? Are you lying to me?"

Liu Shan scratched his head, looking somewhat perplexed himself as he muttered, "That shouldn't be right. I definitely saw her cross over. With a voice as loud as yours, she should have heard it. Why isn't she answering? Could she be asleep?"

Thinking it over, Qin Chong realized that was entirely possible. After a brief pause, he pointed his finger at Liu Shan. "You, come with me."

At those words, Liu Shan shrank his neck and asked cautiously, "B-Big brother, if you make me come out... you're not planning to kill me, are you?"

"What? If you stay inside, do you think I can't kill you?"

Qin Chong raised his crossbow, swiftly locking his sights on Liu Shan with a grim, chilling tone. "Want to test whether this can kill you?"

***

"Don't!"

After a momentary freeze, Liu Shan raised both hands high. "I'm coming out, I'm coming out! I'll go with you to find her across the way, but you have to swear not to kill the three of us."

Without hesitation, Qin Chong nodded. "It's a deal!"

Fidgeting nervously, Liu Shan stepped out. "B-Big brother, that girl's small boat is in another room. There's stagnant water everywhere outside; maybe we should paddle across."

Qin Chong didn't speak, merely nodding. Just as Liu Ann was about to leave, his eyes drifted toward Xiao An and the unconscious woman. Hesitating for a moment, he carried the fainted Wang Chunfen into an empty room, brought in two cases of eight-treasure porridge, and ushered Xiao An inside as well.

Stepping back out, Liu Ann pulled a key from his pocket to double-lock the door from the outside, then handed the key to Qin Chong. "You can rest easy now. They won't be able to escape."

Qin Chong watched everything Liu Shan did in silence before accepting the key and muttering a single word: "Despicable!"

Naturally, he knew Liu Shan hadn't done this to offer any kind of reassurance, but rather because the man himself couldn't let go of his own anxiety, terrified that the mother-daughter duo might flee while his back was turned.

Facing Qin Chong's mockery, Liu Shan possessed the rare fortitude to swallow insults with a smile. He simply grinned, stepped out of the reception hall, and led the way to a room secured with a heavy security door.

Inside sat the inflatable dingoy that Xiao Yingyong had paddled over in. The reason it had been locked away in this room was, of course, to guard against the possibility of Xiao Yingyong sneaking back to reclaim her property.

Qin Chong glared fiercely at Liu Shan. Together, the two men lifted the dinghy and, guided by Liu Shan, headed toward an elevator shaft.

The door to the elevator shaft had already been prised open, revealing a pitch-black, narrow space. Qin Chong flashed his
flashlight inside, spotting a thick rope hanging down and extending all the way into the lower depths.

Liu Ann explained, "This leads straight down to the sixth floor. When the disaster struck, the elevator happened to stop right there. I made a few modifications so we could make use of it."

Without wasting words, the two men first tossed the inflatable dinghy down into the shaft. Fortunately, the boat was compact enough to fit.

Following that, the two of them slid down the rope one after the other to the sixth floor. Emerging through the open elevator doors into the sixth-floor corridor, Qin Chong, who was in the lead, was met by three rushing zombies due to the commotion.

Without a second thought, Qin Chong raised his crossbow and dropped the two leading zombies with a swift "shua, shua," before executing a sliding step, drawing his Miao saber, and severing the legs of the third.

Placing a foot squarely atop the zombie's skull, Qin Chong gripped the hilt of his saber with both hands and brought it down in a brutal arc, severing its head cleanly from its shoulders.