The man who had been climbing in through the window suddenly felt the support beneath him weaken. His foot slipped, and he nearly fell off the window frame.

But when he turned and saw the stern expression on the high-ponytailed woman’s face, he didn’t dare say a word.

He simply followed her gaze—but all he saw was a closed window.

“Sister Bai, what are you looking at? That new woman—do you know her?”

Bai Wei snapped back to attention at his words and rolled her eyes at him.

“How could I possibly know her?”

With that, she motioned for the man to keep climbing through the window. But beneath her lowered lashes, a glint of something flashed.

“Hurry up and get inside—I still need to arrange the next group.”

Seeing her bad mood, the man asked no more questions and climbed through the window as instructed.

Bai Wei took a quick count of the people, made a note in her logbook, and rowed her boat away.

The man stared after her retreating figure and snorted coldly:

“Arrogant outsider woman, got quite the temper.”

“Who are you talking about?”

Someone nearby asked. The man gestured with his mouth toward Bai Wei, who was already rowing away. “Who else could it be?”

“There was another outsider just now—someone suddenly appeared from Building 9. A woman too.”

Hearing this, the man hissed.

“All outsiders… That Bai Wei woman might actually know her.”

The people chatting inside the house didn’t spread the conversation further.

After sending off the group from the small hill base and locking her window, Lin Chu was just about to return to the shelter to rest when she heard arguing from behind the building.

Thinking of the two brothers who arrived earlier, her curiosity was piqued.

She walked to a window on the north side of the house, cracked it open slightly, and looked outside.

Sure enough, as soon as she opened the window a bit, she heard familiar voices shouting.

“What do you mean we left the team and acted on our own? We heard there were big blackfish around here and figured since the security team was busy, we’d help scout the area out of goodwill!”

Someone in the crowd wasn’t having it.

“Jiang Er, don’t make it sound so noble. We all know you and your brother went to Mayor Li multiple times to get this house.”

“You came here early because you wanted to seize this place for yourselves!”

The speaker’s voice was loud and aggressive, instantly shutting Jiang Er up. His older brother stepped forward to explain:

“We did see that the security team was busy with moving and missions, so we thought we’d help out. We just didn’t expect to get trapped here by the blackfish.”

His tone was calm and logical, making it hard for the angry crowd to keep shouting.

The person in charge of resettlement this time was still Wang Rui.

He looked at the two brothers in front of him and said impatiently:

“Jiang Da, Jiang Er, both of you come out. Mayor Li already assigned you a place—go to that one. Stop causing trouble here.”

Jiang Er hesitated, but Jiang Da responded immediately and pulled his brother out through the window.

Their sudden compliance caught even Wang Rui off guard.

These two had often relied on their connection to Assistant Wu to bully others.

They’d even had a falling out with Mayor Li over trying to claim Unit 601 in Building 5.

Now they had shown up early at Unit 601—everyone knew what they were up to. So why were they suddenly giving it up so easily?

Suspicion flashed in Wang Rui’s eyes.

But his priority now was assigning people to their rooms as planned. Everything else had to wait.

Jiang Da and Jiang Er climbed back into their small overturned boat.

Wang Rui and a few survivors had helped them flip it back over.

Although they hadn’t retrieved the oars yet, with several boats already settled, there were extra oars available for the brothers to borrow.

Once aboard, Jiang Er curiously glanced in Lin Chu’s direction, tugged on Wang Rui’s sleeve, and asked in a low voice:

“Brother Rui, what happened earlier at Unit 602 in Building 9? Why did it take so long? Even the mayor showed up, but no one moved in.”

Wang Rui shot him a look.

“Go do your job. Don’t stick your nose in where it doesn’t belong.”

“Aw, come on, Brother Rui…”

Jiang Er tried again, but Jiang Da pulled him back.

“Can’t you see he’s busy? All you do is ask questions.”

Chided, Jiang Er held his head and backed off.

Once Wang Rui walked away, Jiang Da turned to the survivors still waiting to climb through windows and quietly asked a few questions.

Throughout, his gaze kept drifting toward Lin Chu.

Lin Chu knew—if Jiang Da found out she moved in earlier than everyone else, he’d definitely be suspicious.

So she stayed where she was instead of returning to the shelter.

She waited until Wang Rui passed by her window after settling the last group, then called out to him.

“Captain Wang.”

Wang Rui turned at the sound of her voice. Seeing it was her, he smiled and rowed over.

“Doctor Lin, anything I can help with?”

Lin Chu waved a hand, speaking quietly, “I don’t need help—I just wanted to ask you something.”

Wang Rui immediately nodded in understanding and lowered his voice too.

“Doctor Lin, no worries. As long as it’s not confidential, I’ll tell you whatever I know.”

Seeing his openness, Lin Chu asked directly:

“I heard some commotion behind the building just now. Were those two also…”

Hearing her refer to Jiang Da and Jiang Er, Wang Rui scratched his head, looking a bit troubled.

“You mean those two? Yeah, they’re a real piece of work.”

“Oh? You know them?” Lin Chu asked, feigning surprise.

Wang Rui nodded. “They’ve been with us at the base since the start. Their cousin is Assistant Wu—the one who got bitten by the blackfish today.”

Then he remembered how Jiang Er had been asking about Lin Chu earlier and added:

“Those two are total bullies. You’d better keep your distance. I’m worried they might cause you trouble.”

Lin Chu nodded as she replied casually:

“So they’re Assistant Wu’s cousins. No wonder they got here before you and were rummaging through the building—it must’ve been on Assistant Wu’s orders.”

“Rummaging?” Wang Rui’s voice rose slightly at the word. That wasn’t what the brothers had told him.

Lin Chu glanced around, and Wang Rui followed her gaze, checking that no one was nearby before asking:

“You know what they were looking for?”

Lin Chu shook her head.

“Too far away—I couldn’t hear clearly. Just caught them saying something about searching for something while passing under my window.”

Wang Rui looked at the distance between buildings and nodded thoughtfully.

“Doctor Lin, thank you for telling me. But I’d like to ask you to keep this to yourself for now.”

Lin Chu agreed, and Wang Rui left.

As she watched his back fade into the distance, Lin Chu’s eyes darkened.

She had planted the seed of doubt.

Now it was up to the upright Wang Rui to see what he’d do with it.