Back at the Sinks, the damp air reeked of rust, stagnation, and absolute terror. Gu Chao's face was twisted in cold anger as he glared down at the shivering refugees kneeling on the slick, concrete floor before him.
Even though every single one of them had admitted under interrogation that they were only asked about the presence of an established shelter and who held power in the region, Gu Chao didn't buy it for a second. His paranoia, honed by years of surviving in a ruthless wasteland where weakness meant death, burned hot in his chest.
To him, the story was far too simple—a pathetic cover. Why would two perfectly healthy, immaculate men wearing high-grade tactical gear care about the shallow dynamics of a sewage-filled ruin? People who looked like that didn't ask casual questions; they scouted targets. They evaluated defenses. They prepared for slaughters. Gu Chao was convinced that the strangers were either scouts for a major military faction or mercenaries sent to strip him of his territory and butcher his crew.
And if these filthy scavengers weren't giving him the real answers, he would simply tear the truth out of them.
His interrogation methods were notorious throughout the Sinks, designed not just to extract information, but to break a person's psyche until they confessed to whatever he wanted to hear.
Gu Chao didn't just use crude beatings—he utilized the miserable environment of the reclamation plant to his advantage. First came the Water Cage, where suspects were bound hand and foot and suspended over the lower-level sewage vats, their feet dangling just inches above the toxic, chemical-laden sludge. The sheer fear of falling into the acidic waste broke most men within minutes.
For those who still held out, his men used Pressure Pinning. They forced the victims to press their faces against the ice-cold, vibrating high-pressure water pipes running through the dry levels, letting the deafening roar and bone-rattling vibrations shatter their senses until they couldn't even recall their own names.
"You're lying to me," Gu Chao hissed, stepping off the platform and dragging the tip of his heavy iron pipe across the stone floor with a slow, screeching metallic whine. "They gave you clean water, didn't they? They fed you warm food, and now you're protecting them! You think those clean bastards are going to save you from me?"
A young scavenger, his hands tied behind his back, wept hysterically, his forehead pressed against Gu Chao's boot. "I swear on my life, Boss! That's all the tall one asked! He just asked who ran the upper levels and where everyone slept at night! He gave me water and walked away!"
Gu Chao's eyes narrowed into slits. The fact that the strangers had handed out clean, sealed water without asking for anything in return only made his skin crawl further. In his mind, free gifts were the ultimate poison—a deliberate attempt to turn his livestock against him.
"Su Chen," Gu Chao called out coldly, not even looking back at his second-in-command. "Take this one down to the pipe line. Let him think about his answer while the midnight surge comes through. If he still remembers the same story by morning, we'll see if his friends are any braver."
"Please! Boss, no! I told you the truth! I told you everything!" the young man shrieked as Su Chen and two heavy-set men dragged him toward the dark, echoing stairwell leading to the lower pipes.
The remaining refugees cowered against the wet ground, weeping softly, completely helpless as Gu Chao paced back and forth like a caged predator.
His mind was spinning with frantic theories when Hen Chu walked up to him, his stride confident and unhurried, backed by two solid, capable-looking men at his sides.
Seeing him approach, Gu Chao's men parted like the Red Sea. They didn't move out of respect for Hen Chu himself, but out of an instinctive caution for what he represented.
"I thought we agreed to stop the torture?" Hen Chu asked calmly, stopping a few paces away. Without waiting for permission, he signaled to his two men. They immediately stepped forward, pushing past Gu Chao's thugs to slice the ropes binding the terrified refugees and haul them off the cold floor.
Gu Chao watched the rescue with a heavy frown, his hand tightening around his iron pipe until his knuckles turned white. For a second, he hesitated to stop them. He couldn't help but remember Hen Chu's prestigious background before the apocalypse struck.
Before the central grid collapsed, the Hen family was an elite military dynasty—a powerful faction with deep roots in armed defense and high-level logistics. When the world fell apart, rumors swirled through the Sinks that the Hen family was actively deploying armored retrieval units to rescue their bloodline. That single rumor had kept Gu Chao up at night for months, filling him with a quiet dread that if he pushed Hen Chu too far, a fleet of gunships would level the Sinks to avenge him.
If a family like that survived anywhere, Gu Chao thought bitterly, they're sitting pretty in a high-tech central fortress right now.
But then Gu Chao looked at Hen Chu's faded clothes, his lean frame, and the months of raw dirt and sewage they had both trudged through. Months had passed. No rescue team had breached the desert. Even the heavily armored reconnaissance squads that occasionally passed through the outer wastes had swept right past the reclamation plant without stopping once.
The hesitation in Gu Chao's chest evaporated, replaced by a surge of mocking resentment. He straightened his back, standing tall to maintain his dominance over the room.
"When?" Gu Chao asked, his frown deepening as he let out a harsh, rasping scoff. "When did we ever agree to that?"
He took a step toward Hen Chu, towering over him with a sneer. "Don't tell me you mean back then—when your little sister was running her mouth, bragging about your family's grand power?"
Gu Chao's mind flashed back to Hen Li, who had boldly claimed her family's forces would sweep in and wipe out anyone who laid a finger on them. Back then, Gu Chao had been cautious, granting them a quiet corner of the Sinks out of fear. But now? It felt like the ultimate con.
"Where are they, Hen Chu?" Gu Chao confronted him, his voice echoing menacingly against the wet stone walls. "It's been months! Not a single bird in the sky, not a single radio signal. Even these two military guys snooping around don't seem to know you exist. You lied to me. You and your sister used a dead name to buy yourselves free rent while the rest of these dogs bled for every drop of water!"