Before Xiaoyun could push the door open, he stopped as he could hear footsteps coming up.
Looking down, it was a soldier whom he had told to keep Wuli's men downstairs. More importantly, Yueyue was right behind him.
"Mr.Xiaoyun, is there something wrong?"
"Nothing."
As Xiaoyun quickly pushed the door open, they were met with another room that had no one inside.
There was only an office desk and a chair in the middle, with a bunch of paper and documents scattered all over the floor.
"This mouse chase is getting really annoying," Xiaoyun commented as they walked past the office and towards the staircase.
Yezi quickly took the initiative to lead as he walked in the front, going up the fifteenth floor before noticing the door was already open.
He quickly took a peek around the corner, only to see a bunch of empty crates with nothing inside.
"Of course, they are empty. They were just bluffing," Yezi murmured as everyone looked a little relieved seeing it.
For some reason, Xiaoyun was having an odd suspicion that it wasn't just a bluff. His mind felt something was a little off.
"Maybe they just put it somewhere else. Let us not get ahead of ourselves."
This time, Xiaoyun took the lead as he walked up with his gun in hand, carefully checking the staircase until they reached the sixteenth floor.
The door was already open once again, so he carefully peeked around the corner, only for him to instantly duck back down.
A bullet was just shot where Xiaoyun's head was earlier, with a bullet hole on the wall, telling everyone that he somehow miraculously dodged the bullet.
"Shit, we can't get in there without getting shot at," Xiaoyun murmured as he quickly slammed the door shut.
"There's no other way in."
Yezi pointed out. The staircase ended here, just like every other staircase in this building that, for some reason, happened to be across the room.
With no other option, Xiaoyun opened the smallest gap, just enough to have his voice heard inside.
"Surrender now, and we will let you all go! We are here just for the head boss." Xiaoyun yelled.
"Don't believe him. He'll kill all of us. Do you think what we did is forgivable? Don't even think he'll let us go for free."
As a voice from the inside yelled out, it was clear the henchmen inside were already infighting against the boss inside.
"How about you step in here, and we can talk? We won't shoot you." The voice inside suddenly suggested.
"Why should I do that?" Xiaoyun yelled back.
"If you don't come in, we are going to shoot all the hostages here and blow up the entire building."
Xiaoyun quickly took a glance inside, only to see five men standing there with the hostages all tied up.
More importantly, he could see boxes of TNT lying right next to them, with a young man pointing a gun right at the cardboard boxes.
"When I say open sesame, you guys rush in and shoot anyone that has a weapon, okay?" Xiaoyun quietly whispered.
All of the soldiers nodded, despite none of them knowing what the inside situation was.
"Wait, Xiaoyun, you're not going in, right?" Yueyue questioned as her face immediately looked a little worried.
"Of course not... Wait, please don't blow up the building. I'm sure we can talk about this."
As Xiaoyun opened the door wide and raised his hand into the air, everyone in the room was shocked as they didn't expect him actually to follow through with it.
Even Yezi and Yueyue were shocked, as they didn't expect him to break his promise the moment he finished talking.
"Who the hell are you? Where is that Wuli whore?" One of the men inside the room yelled out loud.
"I have no clue who you are talking about. I'm here because you guys sent people to attack my town."
Seeing all of them looking a little confused, Xiaoyun quickly added one extra piece of information.
"Don't you guys have a guy with an RV?" Xiaoyun asked, walking right into the middle of the room with his hands raised.
"Ah, you're from there... It doesn't matter. You killed all our men. Throw your gun away, or else we will make you pay."
The man who was pointing at the TNT ordered. His fancy suits and only one with hair gel clearly indicated that he was the boss of the entire operation.
"Very well."
Xiaoyun threw his pistol far to the side, dragging all of their attention away as they all looked towards the pistol.
Seeing this opportunity, he immediately lunges toward the men in the middle as a brand new gun appears in his right hand out of nowhere.
"Drop your damn gun! Or I'm going to kill your boss!"
Xiaoyun threatened out loud as he pointed his new pistol at him, his life gambling on the hostage before him to be the boss.
A few of the men hesitated for a moment, but Xiaoyun's gamble paid off as the man he held hostage realized what they were thinking of.
"Drop your damn gun. Do you want me to die? I'm your boss! Without me, you guys are nothing!"
The henchmen still refused to drop their guns, but it was enough as they shifted their attention away from the hostages to Xiaoyun.
It was time to activate his plan B.
"Open sesame!"
Within seconds, the door immediately burst open as all the soldiers rushed in with their rifles.
Before the men had time to redirect their guns towards them, several gunshots were fired.
All of them dropped dead, except the hostages further back and Xiaoyun, who still held the boss in the middle.
"I-I lost..."
The boss murmured, dropping his pistol onto the floor as all of his men were now dead. He didn't even dare to shoot the TNT just as Xiaoyun had expected.
"Go to hell, you filthy trash!"
Before Xiaoyun could react, Yezi rushed forward and stabbed the boss several times with his knife, killing him on the spot as his body dropped onto the floor.
"You... never mind."
Just as Xiaoyun wanted to ask him why, he quickly remembered that this boss was the reason why Yezi's old friend died.
"Shuli!"
Wuli suddenly came up from downstairs, running to one of the hostages as the rest of her group ran to untie the rest of the hostages.
"Huh. Shuli and Wuli... Why does it sound so familiar?" Xiaoyun mumbled as he didn't stop the people from reuniting with the hostages.
"Wait, isn't that Mom's friend?"Yueyue quietly pointed out, her mind quickly realizing that what they were saying sounded so familiar.
"Oh, right, they are her two best friends... Fuck."
Xiaoyun facepalms himself as memories of the past begin flooding inside his head. Ones that made him and Leyan both a little embarrassed.
"You okay, Shuli? They didn't hurt you, right?" Wuli worryingly asked as she quickly untied the rope on her hand.
"They just left us here for two days. They haven't done anything with us yet, but I heard they were planning to sell us yesterday."
Shuli replied, her face seemingly calmed despite being a hostage that almost had a stray bullet hit her in the face.
"Don't worry, we are safe now," Xiaoyun reassured the other hostages, who still seemed a little scared.
---
A few minutes later...
After everyone calmed down, the soldiers checked the last two floors, which had just turned out to be empty.
Wuli's group headed straight back down to the first floor, opting to let Xiaoyun gather all the loot as they felt they had done nothing in the fight.
The most valuable part of the entire trip was the TNT, as they were more than enough to blow up whatever he wanted.
"Thank you so much for today. We can never repay you for what you have done for us."
Wuli and her entire group bowed down in gratitude, thanking Xiaoyun's soldiers as they got onto the bus.
"No problem... Actually, do you want to move to our town? We can definitely accommodate you all."
After a short consideration and looking back at their situation, she quickly nodded in agreement to Xiaoyun's offer.
"Are you sure? We have around fifty people in total." Wuli warned.
"We can definitely handle that many people, although it will take two separate bus trips," Xiaoyun replied.
"Hm... sure, then. You can come to the same hotel tomorrow. We will be waiting for you guys."
As Xiaoyun entered the bus and sat down at one of the seats, Wuli's group walked straight into an alleyway and disappeared.
"Well, it looks like we are finally going home," Yueyue murmured as she was sitting right next to him.
"Yeah..."
---
A short drive later...
Fortunately, there was no major incident on the way back besides several cars driving by.
The only scary part was the explosives that kept bumping into each other, which made everyone extremely scared as they felt it could ignite at any time.
"Where do we put all these when we get back?" Yezi asked curiously as they finally arrived back at the base.
"Maybe we should just throw it away... we really don't have a safe place to store it," Yueyue suggested.
"I don't think so. Maybe these will come in handy one day... Let's ask Yiming where to put it," Xiaoyun decided.
Another few-minute walk later.
When Xiaoyun found Yiming and told him about it, he instantly knew how to store them safely.
With everything put away, Xiaoyun, Yezi, and Yueyue were all walking back home as the sun set on the horizon.
"Yezi, you are bringing your wife out of our house. No more overnight missions, do you understand me?" Xiaoyun warned.
"Why?" Yezi curiously asked.
"Huayi was so upset when you left without saying a word. You know how hard it is for me to sleep alone rather than with my wife?"
"Yeah, yeah, I fucked up. I will apologize to her." Yezi replied, with barely any energy inside his voice.
As Xiaoyun took out his key and was about to open the door, Leyan opened it and greeted the three of them inside.
"You two are finally back home! Oh, hello, Yezi. Come on in."
The moment Yezi stepped foot inside, he was met with a warm hug as Huayi rushed into his arms.
"I'm sorry——"
"It's okay. There's no need to apologize. As long as you got home safely, it's all good... Please don't abandon me without saying a word."
As the two warmly hugged each other on the doorway, Xiaoyun was a little annoyed by it.
"Ahem, sorry to interrupt the two of you having a moment, but can I go inside my house?"
"Oh, sorry... Yezi, let's go home now. Thank you all!"
The three of them watched as the two walked off into the distance with their hands held together.
"I'm so hungry!"
Yueyue immediately complained as neither of them had eaten anything since breakfast, and the sun was already setting on the horizon.
"Don't worry. I already cooked dinner. Qiqi and Mimi are already eating inside."