Chapter 12: Being Merciful to the Enemy Is Being Cruel to Yourself

Behind the counter of the cheongsam store was a storage area, so the counter was built wide and long. If you didn’t look closely, you’d never guess there was an inflatable assault boat hidden inside.

Seeing the boat, Xia Xiaoman immediately sensed something was wrong.

“Where did you get that assault boat?” she asked, pressing the tip of her knife to the leader’s chest.

“I… I found it,” the man stammered.

“Found it? Where exactly did you find it? I’d like to go ‘find’ one too.” The knife edged closer to his neck, drawing a thin red line.

Pale with fear, the man mumbled, “In my residential complex. I saw the boat get swept into a corner by the water. No one was using it, so I took it for myself.”

Ye Xiaojie noticed something was off. “Xiaoman, what’s wrong?”

Without a word, Xia Xiaoman stabbed the knife into the man’s shoulder. “There are two bloodstained, slashed life jackets in that boat.”

Ye Xiaojie’s expression changed instantly. She yanked the man’s hair and yelled, “Did you kill rescue workers?!”

“N-no! I don’t know what you’re talking about…” he denied desperately.

“You don’t understand what we’re saying? That’s fine. As long as you can understand what you’re seeing.”

Xia Xiaoman dragged them one by one into the water, tying them with rope so that only their heads were above the surface.

Faced with the real threat of death, someone quickly broke, sputtering, “Please—cough, cough—don’t kill me! It was them! They killed the rescuers, not me!”

Turned out, these people were lazy gamblers.

A few days ago, when the rain hadn’t been that heavy, they got greedy and decided to try their luck looting a gold store.

Without a boat, they swam there, and on the way, ran into rescue workers who mistook them for flood victims and picked them up.

But once on board, greed took over. They pulled out knives and killed the two rescuers, stealing the boat.

They’d returned to the mall because there was a gold shop on the first floor. But with no diving gear, they couldn’t reach it underwater. So they settled for scrounging food—until they crossed paths with the wrong group of women.

Now that the truth was out, Ye Xiaojie asked, “Should we report this to the police?”

Xia Xiaoman shook her head. “Phone lines might not even work. Even if they do, the police may not have time to come.”

“Hey! Come help already!” Sun Qing huffed as she carried a gas canister on her shoulder.

“Forget them. Let’s focus on the supplies.” Xia Xiaoman left it at that and went to help with the gas tanks.

The mall had nine floors including the basement. Floors above the fifth weren’t flooded yet.

After sorting through the supplies, Xia Xiaoman left Ye Xiaojie to guard them while she helped Sun Qing upstairs to gather more gas canisters.

The upstairs restaurants had already been broken into. Sun Qing planned to take six canisters—two per household—to last until the floodwaters receded.

While Sun Qing wasn’t looking, Xia Xiaoman quietly hit two more restaurants and grabbed seven or eight tanks in total.

On the way out, Sun Qing pried open a women’s clothing store on the fifth floor, grabbed several sets of clothes, shoes, socks, and underwear.

The damp weather made drying clothes nearly impossible. Without more clean clothes, she and Ye Xiaojie would be stuck in wet ones for days.

Before leaving the store, she stared at the store name for half a minute, memorizing it. Once the floods were over, she planned to come back and support the shop.

The assault boat was built for six people and pretty heavy. It took all three women pulling, pushing, and dragging to finally get it out.

The three inflatable rafts loaded with supplies were tied to the rear of the assault boat. After securing everything, Sun Qing started the boat at minimum speed, slowly towing the rafts back to their residential complex.

“Hey! Hey! Cough! Don’t leave us! Let us go!”
The men dangling in the water shouted for help one after another.

Xia Xiaoman gave a firm slap to snap Sun Qing and Ye Xiaojie out of their daze. “Let’s go. Ignore them.”

Sun Qing hesitated. “If we leave them like that, won’t they drown?”

Though the rain had eased, water levels were still rising. In a few hours, those men could be completely submerged.

Xia Xiaoman wanted to say, Let them drown. Murderers deserve it.

But she held back, not wanting Sun Qing to see her as too cold-blooded. Instead, she said, “If you want to let them go, do it.”

“Once we unload the supplies, you can call for help or drive the boat out to find Uncle Hat and get them arrested.”

Of course, she had no intention of getting involved.

Her life had taught her:
Mercy toward the enemy is cruelty to yourself.

If Sun Qing wanted to show mercy, she could deal with the consequences.

“We live in a society ruled by law. They’ll be punished. But if we kill them, we could go to jail.”

Sun Qing jumped off the boat. “I brought my phone. I’ll take pictures of their faces. Once we unload, I’ll take the boat and find the rescue team to arrest them.”

She snapped photos, cut the ropes, and left.

With the motorized assault boat, they were free of rowing and returned easily, drawing envious stares all along the way.

When they got home, Xia Xiaoman went upstairs to call Zhou Qiuyang to help carry supplies.

Most of the building’s residents were out scavenging, so she didn’t run into many people.

After safely unloading, Sun Qing left to find the rescue team while the rest sorted supplies in the 7th floor hallway.

Just as they finished, Sun Qing returned.

She hadn’t gotten far before running into the team distributing supplies. She told them everything about the murder and theft, sent the photos, and was sent back to the complex.

Zhou Qiuyang zeroed in on one point: “There’s a rescue team handing out supplies?”

Sun Qing nodded. “Yeah. They said tomorrow we’ll get hit with severe convective storms—worse than the flood’s peak. So they’re distributing a week’s worth of supplies now and telling people to stay home.”

“Worse than the flood’s peak? Will it reach the 7th floor?” Zhou Qiuyang asked, worried.

The water had already reached the third floor after a week. If the storm lasted another week, the 7th floor could be in danger.

“I don’t know. Let’s hope not.” Sun Qing carried her share of supplies inside, muttering, “Crap! Why is the floor wet?”

Zhou Qiuyang was about to explain it might be backflow from the flood, but Sun Qing screamed again, “Crap! So many cockroaches! Crap, crap—rats! Huge ones! No, two huge rats!”

“You damn rats! Don’t run! I’ll kill you myself!”