Chapter 41: Discovering Good Stuff

Chapter 41: Chapter 41: Discovering Good Stuff

Zhang Qiang was still groggy from sleep. He only sobered up halfway down the stairs, turning to question the men "escorting" him. "What? Yang Hong fell down?"

"Yes! Your wife fell from mid-air!" the men replied anxiously.

When they reached the twelfth floor, Zhang Qiang showed no concern for his wife whatsoever. Seeing Chen Momo in the room, he even shot her a greasy wink.

Wang Jianguo was extremely anxious. He grabbed Zhang Qiang and dragged him to the window. "Hurry down and check on your wife!"

As he spoke, Wang Jianguo began tying a rope around Zhang Qiang’s waist.

Watching this unfold, Chen Momo couldn’t help but feel a chill in her heart. Everyone in the room was fraught with worry—except for Zhang Qiang. It was his own wife who had suffered an accident, yet he was somehow the most relaxed person there.

Zhang Qiang jumped out the window. It was only when he saw Yang Hong half-buried in a snowdrift, lying motionless on the ice with her blood staining the surrounding snow, that he finally realized the gravity of the situation.

"Oh, Yang Hong! I told you not to go, but you just wouldn’t listen. Now look what happened!" Zhang Qiang wailed in mock grief. He tried hard to squeeze out a few tears, but after failing to produce a single drop, he resorted to dropping to his knees beside her and fake-crying.

"Zhang Qiang, stop crying for now," someone nearby reminded him. "Carry your wife back to the room first! In this freezing weather, even if she could be saved, leaving her lying here will kill her!"

The blood had seeped from the back of Yang Hong’s head, freezing her hair fast to the surrounding ice and snow. In the end, Zhang Qiang had to use a pair of scissors to cut her hair before he could finally lift her off the ground.

A few more people pitched in, using all their strength to haul Zhang Qiang and Yang Hong back up. After a long struggle, the ordeal was finally over.

Yang Hong’s fate remained uncertain, but the supply run couldn’t be abandoned just because of this incident. Chen Momo securely tied the rope around her waist and jumped out the window, with the others following suit one by one.

After what happened to Yang Hong, everyone had become extremely cautious, making sure to wrap the ropes around their waists a few extra times and tie them as tightly as possible. Once everyone had made the descent, Wang Jianguo jumped down as well, and the large group headed across the way to gather supplies.

Upon arriving at the office building opposite theirs, Chen Momo noticed that many windows on the tenth floor had been smashed in, and the contents had already been mostly cleared out. She continued up the stairs, finding that a few doors on the upper floors had also been broken into, though plenty of supplies remained untouched inside.

She thought, "Well, this is convenient. It saves me the trouble of smashing the doors with a hammer."

She stowed her hammer into her spatial domain and leisurely strolled through the offices one by one, peacefully collecting materials into her storage. Food and water went without saying—she took every bit she saw. She also swept up plenty of office equipment, including computers, desks, and printers, taking as much as she could.

As she wandered, she arrived at an office on the sixteenth floor. The glass door was secured with two locks from the outside. It seemed whoever had been breaking down doors earlier had missed this one.

Chen Momo pulled a hammer straight from her spatial domain and, with a loud CRASH CRASH, shattered the glass door.

Clicking on her flashlight, she discovered that this suite contained a massive general manager’s office. Chen Momo walked in and spotted a desk displaying a high-end tea set and a canister of premium tea leaves. Beside the tea set laid a bundle of car keys.

She picked up the tea set and examined it under the beam of her flashlight. It was a celadon foliate-rim teacup and saucer set—a type that had once fetched over a million at auction. Chen Momo immediately stored the tea set into her spatial domain.

Next, she picked up the bundle of car keys and studied them under the light. She found keys for a Mercedes-Benz, a BMW, a Rolls-Royce, a Ferrari... and even a luxury RV.

It was apparent that the boss of this company hadn’t slacked on exploiting his employees’ surplus value.

Chen Momo tossed the keys aside and was about to turn and leave when a sudden thought occurred to her. Had the boss parked these cars in the underground garage? With so many luxury vehicles, if they were all sitting in the underground garage, she could just drive them away!

She immediately snatched up the bundle of keys and stashed them in her spatial domain. Although the blizzard had completely blocked the entrance to the underground parking lot, the snowstorm wouldn’t last much longer. Once the snow accumulation receded a bit, she could go down there and drive those cars right out!

Chen Momo did another sweep through the other offices, hauling in a massive bounty of items. Noticing that the two-hour mark was approaching, she headed downstairs to regroup with the main team.

That night, Chen Momo turned on her radio again, standing out on the balcony and trying to pick up a signal. She still wasn’t sure which frequency could actually catch a signal, so she had no choice but to keep trying blindly.

Just as she tuned the radio to a particular frequency, a sudden BUZZ BUZZ CRACKLE of static erupted from the speaker. This was followed by a man’s deep, cello-like voice broadcasting through the device.

"I recommend we construct bases in these ten locations. These are the most densely populated areas. By choosing these ten cities to build refuge bases, we can absorb a larger population."

Chen Momo instantly recognized that familiar tone—it was Gu Rongjin!

No wonder she hadn’t seen Gu Rongjin lately. It seemed he had gone off to execute a "secret mission." By a stroke of happy coincidence, she had tapped into the organization’s secret frequency.

Chen Momo wanted to keep listening, but the radio started to emit that BUZZ BUZZ CRACKLE of static once again. She had to press her ear directly against the device, only to be interrupted by a loud BANG echoing through the corridor outside.

Chen Momo immediately put the radio away and walked to her door. Peering through the peephole, she saw Zhang Qiang walking out of the apartment opposite hers, accompanied by a tall, heavily built man.

This newly appeared stranger was a hulking brute. A glaring tattoo was inked onto the exposed skin of his neck, and coupled with his fierce, menacing face, it was obvious at a glance that he was bad news.

"My wife is dead, so I’m finally free. I’ve been sick of that bitch for a long time, but I didn’t know how to shake her off. Luckily enough, she brought it upon herself and fell out of mid-air." After saying this, Zhang Qiang burst into uproarious laughter.

The tattooed man shot Zhang Qiang a glance. "Old Zhang, you have no conscience saying things like that. Your wife went through years of hardship with you without a single complaint."

Zhang Qiang scoffed. "Haven’t you heard? The three great fortunes of a middle-aged man: getting promoted, striking it rich, and the death of his wife. You should be congratulating me."

The two men looked at each other and then burst into hearty laughter.

Zhang Qiang then looked toward Chen Momo’s apartment and muttered quietly, "Bao Long, let me tell you, the two women living across the hall... tsk tsk, their looks are top-notch. Especially the divorced one with the kid—she’s a real beauty!"