Chapter 42: Prying the Door at Midnight

Chapter 42: Chapter 42: Prying the Door at Midnight

Zhang Qiang looked toward Chen Momo’s apartment again and whispered, "Bao Long, let me tell you, the two women living across the hall... tsk tsk, they’re quite the beauties. Especially the divorced one with the kid—she’s a real looker!"

The tattooed man scoffed, entirely unconvinced. "A divorced woman? Even if she’s pretty, how good could she really look?"

Zhang Qiang gave a lecherous smile. "Bao Long, that’s where you’re wrong. Haven’t you heard that mature women still have their charms? What’s so great about young girls? It’s the young wives who really have that special flavor! Besides, this woman isn’t old at all. She looks no different from a young girl!"

The tattooed man’s interest was piqued. "Hearing you say that, I’m actually getting curious!"

Zhang Qiang leaned close to his ear and muttered a few words. The two of them cast a malicious glance at Chen Momo’s door before walking away with loud laughter.

Inside, Chen Momo cursed, "Those two bastards, Zhang Qiang and the tattooed man, are definitely scheming something again."

Xu Xiaoka walked out of the kitchen. Seeing her grim expression, she asked with concern, "Sister Momo, what’s wrong? You don’t look too good."

"Zhang Qiang has another man with a tattoo over at his place," Chen Momo warned her. "The two of them were whispering about something, and I don’t know what kind of nasty trick they’re plotting. Xiao Ka, make sure you stay away from them. If someone knocks on the door during the day when I’m not home, absolutely do not open it. Keep the deadbolts locked from the inside, and remember to carry your self-defense tools whenever you go out."

Xu Xiaoka nodded. "I understand, Sister Momo!"

After dinner, Chen Momo took the radio out to the balcony and tried to catch a signal. It went much smoother this time, and she quickly tuned into that mysterious broadcast.

Gu Rongjin’s voice came through the channel. "Based on the current situation, we have preliminarily selected ten major cities across the country. These ten cities are: Beijing City, Shanghai... Han City..."

Hearing Han City mentioned put Chen Momo’s mind at ease. Then, she heard Gu Rongjin announce the construction site for Han City—just as expected, it was at Guan Shan Kou Men’s Vocational Technical College, right across from Dongfang Garden. She breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed this life wouldn’t be much different from her previous one!

The shelter center in Han City was scheduled to begin construction once the snow stopped. Based on her past experience, the heavy snow would cease in just a few days. All they had to do was wait peacefully at home and move into the shelter base the moment it was finished!

That night, Chen Momo heard loud laughter echoing in the hallway. She went to the door and pressed her eye against the peephole. She saw the tattooed man and Zhang Qiang walking toward apartment 1601, chatting and laughing together again.

"When are you going to get rid of your wife’s body?" the tattooed man asked. "It’s been in the apartment for days. Sleeping in the same room as a corpse every night is pretty creepy."

Zhang Qiang was dismissive. "Creepy? Bao Long, did I hear that right? You’ve actually killed people before, and you’re afraid of a corpse?"

The tattooed man laughed heartily. "That’s different. I killed a man. Your wife was a woman, and she was heavily pregnant at that. Two lives lost at once—who knows if her ghost will come haunting us in the middle of the night!"

"I’ll get her out of here in a couple of days and find a snowdrift to bury her in," Zhang Qiang replied. "Damn it, to be honest, sleeping in that room makes my skin crawl too. Bao Long, once the snow stops, let’s figure out a way to get Yang Hong out together."

Still chatting and laughing, the two men entered apartment 1601.

A while later, Chen Momo heard sounds from across the hall—CLATTER AND BANG—likely the noise of them cooking in the kitchen. With his dead wife lying right there in the apartment, Zhang Qiang and the tattooed man were still cooking, chatting, and laughing as if nothing had happened. Their minds were truly twisted!

Chen Momo carefully locked her door and slid all the deadbolts into place from the inside. She filled several hot water bottles, giving two each to Xu Xiaoka and Chen Xiaobao. She placed two electric heaters in the living room and two more in the bedroom she shared with Chen Xiaobao, making sure to lay out the electric blankets ahead of time. After finishing her busy routine, she finally returned to her room to get ready for bed.

Meanwhile, Xu Xiaoka unfolded the folding bed in the living room. She laid down a thick mattress pad, covered herself with three heavy quilts, and prepared to sleep. Sleeping at Sister Momo’s house meant she could sleep soundly and sweetly every night. It wasn’t like before, when she used to wake up freezing three or four times in the middle of the night.

In the dead of night, while everyone was deep in slumber, a sudden RUSTLE came from the front door. Sleeping in the living room, Xu Xiaoka was instantly awakened by the noise. She sat up in bed on high alert, only to hear someone turning a key in the lock outside!

Not even bothering with her slippers, she ran barefoot to Chen Momo’s room and said anxiously, "Sister Momo, someone is picking our lock!"

Chen Momo, roused from her sleep, snapped to attention. She immediately flipped her pillow over, grabbed the Swiss Army knife hidden underneath, and walked out with Xu Xiaoka.

Low curses from Zhang Qiang drifted through the door. "Motherfucker, this door is deadbolted from the inside! I didn’t expect this bitch to be so vigilant!"

Then came Bao Long’s voice. "Deadbolts are easy. Let me handle it."

Soon after, a sharp iron wire slid in through the crack of the door. It hooked onto the deadbolts on the inside, flicking them open one by one.

Xu Xiaoka hurriedly ran over and grabbed a knife from the table.

"Xiao Ka, let’s move the table over there together!" Chen Momo ordered.

Together, the two of them dragged the table to the entrance, wedging it firmly against the back of the door.

"Damn it, they seem to be awake," Zhang Qiang swore from outside.

The tattooed man chimed in, "So what if they’re awake? Are we going to let a sure thing slip through our fingers?"

Chen Momo shouted through the door, "Zhang Qiang, do you have a death wish?"

Zhang Qiang burst into loud laughter outside.

The tattooed man laughed even more sinisterly. "Little chili pepper. Quite spicy."

As soon as he finished speaking, there was a loud BANG, and the door was rammed open. However, Zhang Qiang and the tattooed man found that it could only open a crack—there was a table blocking it from behind!

"Getting inside is really a fucking hassle," the tattooed man cursed.

Chen Momo raised her pepper spray and sprayed it directly at the two men. The tattooed man dodged, and the blast caught Zhang Qiang squarely in the eyes.

Zhang Qiang let out a piercing scream. Clutching his eyes, he collapsed to the ground.

The tattooed man glanced back at him and kicked him in disgust. "Useless."

With that, he pulled a pair of sunglasses he had prepared beforehand from his pocket and put them on. He delivered a vicious kick to the door, knocking the table over, and squeezed his way inside.

"Get out!" Xu Xiaoka screamed.

The tattooed man didn’t say a word. He just grabbed Xu Xiaoka by her hair. Seeing the electric heaters and lightbulbs blazing in the apartment, he let out a cold sneer. "You two sure know how to live it up in here! Don’t just keep all the fun to yourselves—let me enjoy it a little today, too!"

He burst into roaring laughter.