"Motherfucker, who slashed me?"
"Ah, my back, it hurts!"
"We are going to be crushed!"
The men who fell at the very front were not so lucky. The sudden chain reaction made the people behind them lose their grip, and blades flew from their hands. Unlucky ones were chopped in the skull and across the back. Screams burst out in waves.
Hiding at the very back, Brother Da Bi also toppled into the men ahead. A sharp pain cinched his ankle and he could not move another step. He was bound in place.
"Damn it, what is this?" Brother Da Bi yanked with all his strength to no effect. His fingers touched something icy. A steel collar was clamped tight around his ankle.
An urge to turn and run rose in Brother Da Bi. They had already lost more than twenty men here. Every brother had a weapon, yet they still had not even seen the people inside the villa. That bastard Gou Yitian had said it was only a little girl's family. Did Gou Yitian ever mention all these traps?
They must have kicked a steel plate.
"Where is my knife?"
In the pitch dark he had no idea where it had flown. His flashlight had skittered far away. Using Lao Zhu's back to stand, Brother Da Bi felt something slick in his hand, hot liquid pulsing between his fingers. "B-blood. Lao Zhu, Lao Zhu, are you alright?"
Chaos erupted again.
The front runners, hearing the screams from behind, thought another group was attacking. They turned to look. The moment they did, a whoosh cut past their ears and three huge nets crashed down, knocking another wave to the floor.
Spikes, thumbtacks, and small sharp knives were lashed to the nets. From above came a rain of glass shards, lime powder, chili powder, and all manner of nasty surprises, leaving the men under the nets temporarily unable to fight.
Jing Shu burst out from the chicken pen and shouted, "Aim at the doorway!"
With their minds going blank, the family let bolts fly, twang after twang. They were not accurate, but with bodies jammed together, somebody was going to get hit. The ones in front had the worst luck, turning into pincushions. The villa courtyard filled with howls.
The remaining repeating crossbows from the Cube Space loosed several more volleys into the men trapped under the nets, until Jing Shu was sure this dozen had completely lost the ability to get up.
In the dark, Jing Shu calmly tracked the remaining silhouettes.
Some were panicking. Some misstepped and fell into the fishpond. A few stragglers with machetes crept across the vegetable beds, crouched and edging toward the house. Others had already tried to retreat, but the doorway was jammed with men caught and immobilized.
Jing Shu lifted her crossbow. After half a year of practice, Jing Shu could finally hit moving targets. "One. Two. Three."
The screams in the courtyard rose even higher.
"Cluck cluck cluck!" In the darkness, Xiao Dou's eyes glowed green. At Jing Shu's hand signal, Xiao Dou launched in a blur, driving the stainless steel spike home, yanking it free, and stabbing again. After a flurry of thrusts, the man was a sieve. Even Jing Shu winced, teeth aching at the sight.
With one target down, Xiao Dou prowled for the next.
In the unfamiliar terrain of the villa, these men were like loose sand. Not one could fight.
The battle lasted less than a minute. Not a single robber in the villa was left standing.
"I-is it over?" Su Lanzhi choked up, trembling. Had they survived this disaster? "Jing Shu, Jing Shu, where are you?" Su Lanzhi's legs shook as she stepped down the stairs.
"I am here. Do not come out yet." Jing Shu left the chicken pen and flipped on two rows of lights.
The pitch black courtyard bloomed into light. A bloody tableau lay bare. The sight of gore across the yard made Third Aunt retch up her dinner on the spot. Su Lanzhi stumbled back a step in fright.
At the door, more than a dozen men stared wide-eyed at bright red apples, white apricots, and a whole pool of water.
Three large nets covered those men at the entrance. They lay on the ground half dead, bodies bristling with bolts, blood pooling beneath them. The unlucky ones had nails or glass shards driven into their temples and passed out on the spot.
Some in the nets had their eyeballs pierced by nails and squeezed out.
In the vegetable beds lay several men stabbed into sieves, their blood watering the soil.
Two who had fallen into the pond never surfaced. A few stragglers groaned in the middle path. Jing Shu had tagged them with well-placed shots. They were not dead yet.
"Cousin, take them inside. It is safe outside for the moment."
What came next was not for them to see. Jing Shu had survived ten years of the apocalypse. Jing Shu had witnessed too many ugly deaths. She did not want scars etched into her family's hearts.
Wu You'ai nodded with a flicker of excitement and helped Grandma Jing, Third Aunt, and Su Lanzhi back in to rest. Jing An came out to repair the traps. "There is another batch. We have to be ready."
At the key moment, Jing An could be relied upon. In front of his family, Jing An was willing to risk everything and harden himself.
"I will help fix the traps. What about the dozen outside?" Grandpa Jing had steadied himself too.
"No rush. I will clean our courtyard first." Jing Shu bared her white teeth in a cold smile.
By "clean," Jing Shu meant something very simple: drag every corpse to the doorway.
Dead or not dead, Jing Shu twisted each neck. Now Jing Shu did it smoothly. Using a knife would splatter the villa again. Too much trouble.
The dead felt nothing. The not-yet-dead endured agony in their ruined bodies and the terror of waiting for the end. Waiting to die is the cruelest thing. One caught in Jing Shu's hands chattered his teeth, words stumbling from his mouth as he stared at Jing Shu. "P-please, do not kill me."
Crack.
Jing Shu snapped his neck and tossed him onto the pile by the door. The body landed with a thud. The dozen who were still alive turned ashen at the sight.
Jing An and Grandpa Jing ignored it all. Earlier, when they had caught Gou Yitian, Jing An had urged Jing Shu not to kill because murder was illegal. And the result? If they had agreed to kill Gou Yitian then, none of this would have happened.
These men all deserved to die. If they did not die, their family would. Jing An could not bear to imagine the scene if the roles had been reversed.
A few in the middle began to crawl toward the door, fouling themselves as they dragged a smear of blood along the ground. "Brother Da Bi, help. Call Brother Da Ri. Help."
Brother Da Bi's hands shook as he searched his whole body for his phone. Suddenly another body thumped beside him. Heat flooded down his pant leg. Brother Da Bi finally broke down and cried.
Jing Shu dusted off her hands and stepped out. "There are twenty-three bodies inside. That makes the set complete. Those outside, choose your way to die."