[Xiaoshu Villa District]: "What am I supposed to prepare?"
Jing Shu's right eyelid kept twitching. She had a bad feeling, as if she had missed something.
With a sharp crack, Jing Shu snapped her chopsticks in two without realizing it, drawing everyone's attention. Wu You'ai tried with all her strength and could not break even one.
Su Lanzhi scolded, "You little menace, yesterday your shaky hands broke a bowl, and today you break chopsticks. What next, the sky? When you squander everything, where will you buy more?" Su Lanzhi turned and fetched a stainless steel pair from the kitchen. "Here, let us see you break these. Eat your noodles and stop staring at your phone. All you do all day is clutch that thing."
"Okay." Jing Shu took the chopsticks silently and shoveled ramen into her mouth while her eyes stayed on the group chat. The house slipped back into its usual dinnertime bustle. Third Aunt was sharing gossip from her job at the government cafeteria.
[Wang Qiqi No. 13]: "@Wang Xuemei No. 2??? What happened? Why are you talking like this? Are you unwell?"
Right after that, Wang Xuemei sent a short video.
When Jing Shu tapped it open, a naked woman under harsh light appeared, pinned roughly to a sofa by four or five men.
Red welts from a belt striped her body. Her forehead was bleeding from a blow. Finger-shaped splotches burned across her face. She looked into the camera with tears of despair, eyes that said the greatest sorrow is a heart gone dead, and the deepest grief is too heavy for words.
A crowd jeered and cheered in the background. Now and then a belt cracked against her skin with a sharp slap, followed by the woman's screams, then scenes that needed no description. The TV news droned somewhere behind them. It was 19:20, Wu City's brief window of power supply.
The woman in the video was forty-year-old Wang Xuemei.
With a single clang, Jing Shu drove the stainless steel chopsticks straight into the rosewood table. Every eye in the family snapped toward her.
The bustle in the dining room died at once. Silence so sharp a pin could be heard falling. Everyone stared at Jing Shu.
Jing An parted his lips and touched the rosewood table with a shaking hand. He loved this table. He checked her expression and decided this was a daughter he could not afford to provoke. He let it go.
Su Lanzhi finally sensed that something was wrong. The look in Jing Shu's eyes was deadly enough to kill.
More voice messages came in from Wang Xuemei.
A man's laugh, gloating and breathless, filled the speaker. Gou Yitian said, "Surprised it's me, huh? I'm back! You thought tying me up and leaving me to die would kill me? Lucky for me, our group was already planning to take over this community today. They knew my place and came straight to pick me up. As the saying goes, great fortune comes to those who survive catastrophe. Hahaha!"
Gou Yitian laughed until his face twisted with malice. He spat, then continued, voice cold with hatred. "Wang Xuemei, Jing Shu and your whole family, and Wang Qiqi, everyone in the community, none of you are getting away. I was going to take your grain and let you go, but I changed my mind. I will not spare a single woman. Especially you, Jing Shu. I will make you suffer ten thousand times worse than Wang Xuemei. I will make you my slave."
Gou Yitian spoke through gritted teeth. Gou Yitian's hatred for Jing Shu had sunk into his bones. Only grinding Jing Shu's bones to dust would calm him. Nothing attracts hatred more than making a man unable to be a man.
Thanks to Jing Shu's kick, Gou Yitian had not recovered after a long time. He had tested it repeatedly, tried every method, even on live subjects, and nothing changed. The little brother no longer worked. Gou Yitian was a ruined man.
"Relax. The main force is already heading to the villa district. Do not go anywhere. Wash up and wait. Every building with residents has guards downstairs. We will come one by one. Jing Shu, you are up next.
Do not struggle pointlessly, or I will make you beg for death. Calling the police is useless. They are swamped. The Zhetian Gang is raiding the police stations for guns. Once they have them, they will run Wu City. Our 'Bi Ri' will be the second power in Wu City.
Oh, and if anyone wants to defect, you can join us. All you have to do is go to the villa district and help kill that bitch's family."
The voice messages ended. The group chat fell into a stunned silence, as if no one could accept reality. A few days ago they had been friendly neighbors, standing together in lines at the supermarket. It had still been a society ruled by law where killing was a crime. Now none of it counted. Now killing could be done at will.
A bowl slipped and shattered on the floor.
Tension clamped the room. Jing An and Wu You'ai replayed the messages, reading and listening again. Su Lanzhi covered her mouth, tears spilling in silence. "No, this is not real. How can this be?"
Su Lanzhi pulled Jing Shu into her arms and choked out, "Do not worry. I will never let this happen. Do not be afraid. Mom will figure something out. The knife, where is the knife? Call the police, yes, call the police first."
Jing Shu sighed. Su Lanzhi had lost her composure. Su Lanzhi was terrified, yet still tried to shield her. They all deserved to die. Jing Shu clenched her fists.
Grandma Jing hurried over and tugged at them. "You young ones should run. Or find an empty apartment to hide in. The community is so big, how can they search every unit?"
Grandpa Jing snapped, "Nonsense. He said there are guards at the occupied buildings. If we scatter and one of us gets caught, what then? If we die, we die together as a family."
Grandpa Jing's hands trembled. "Before they arrive, drive and leave. They have men at the ground-level gate. Go out through the underground garage."
Jing An did not waste words. He typed in the group, "We have to unite. There are over a hundred of us in this chat. How many do they have? I just counted only a little over thirty showing themselves. They have knives, but so do we. Worst case, we fight."
"You can try." It was Gou Yitian's voice message. No one else spoke.
Jing An hurled his phone. It smacked the floor with a crack. "At the critical moment, not one person stands up." Jing An's heart went cold. On that day, Jing An had rushed out without hesitation to save people. Today, not a single voice answered.
Just then, Wang Qiqi sent a private message to Jing An. "Pull every string you can for police support. I called, and it was useless. The city is chaos. The only way now is self-rescue. I will contact a few trusted people to deal with the guards downstairs first, then head to you."
Di-di, di-di. The phone alarm chimed. Jing Shu's lips curved. It looked like the traps Jing Shu had spent half a year laying, and all those long hours of archery practice and stone-carving drills, would finally be put to use today.