Chapter 38: Never Suffer a Loss

The floor of the room was lined with all kinds of insecticides, chili oil, and toilet disinfectant sprays, all arranged neatly in rows.

Xia Xiaoman studied the ingredient lists and instructions carefully, finally selecting the strongest, most pungent-smelling ones to mix together and make a batch of improvised self-defense spray.

Next, she cleared away the bottles and replaced them with high-proof alcohol, glass bottles, and cotton. After a few experiments, she found the right proportions and made 50 Molotov cocktails.

Seeing the neatly arranged Molotovs gave her a bit of peace of mind, and her appetite returned. She took out some hot dry noodles from her storage, cooked and mixed them, added two grilled sausages and a marinated egg. A simple late dinner-cum-midnight snack was ready.

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Before 7 a.m. the next day, the thugs from Building 12 were already stationed in the building, not allowing anyone to leave unless they first paid the protection fee.

Wen Jianfeng thought it would be better to pay the fee once to buy time while waiting for the government to send people. So early that morning, he had already packed up the food.

Others had similar thoughts. By 7:30, they were standing in the hallway with their food, waiting for the collectors.

“Where’s Xiaoman? Still not awake?” Wen Jianfeng asked.

Sun Qing yawned. “I’ll go check.”

Just as she was about to knock, the door to unit 1504 opened. Xia Xiaoman came out dragging two crates full of bottles and jars.

Sun Qing helped her drag one crate. “What are these? They’re collecting food. They probably won’t take these.”

“They’ll take them whether they want to or not. Anyone who dares to rob Xia Xiaoman will pay the price!” Xia Xiaoman said through gritted teeth. She wasn’t the type to take a loss lying down.

Ye Xiaojie picked up one of the Molotovs and sniffed it. “Is this white liquor? Or ethanol?”

“Both. Light the cotton at the bottle’s mouth and throw it to the ground. It works just like a Molotov cocktail.”

Then Xia Xiaoman picked up another bottle. “This is homemade pepper spray—mixed with insecticide, chili oil, and disinfectant. If it hits someone’s eyes, it’ll maim if not kill.”

“These supplies were hard-earned. I won’t just hand them over for nothing.”

“If you’re willing, let’s take these bastards out.”

“If you don’t want to take the risk, that’s fine too. I’ll move to the 16th floor. If someone comes, just say we had a falling out and I moved out.”

“No way!” Sun Qing immediately objected. “We’re a team—we don’t split up like that.”

Xiao Zheyu nodded. “Exactly. Xiaoman-jie, we’re in this together. We’re not abandoning you.”

Su Ran added, “If we have Molotovs, maybe we can actually fight back.”

Zhou Qiuyang grinned. “I’m already living on borrowed time. Whatever you want to do, I’m in.”

Ye Xiaojie was more cautious. “We don’t know how many guns they have, or what other weapons they might be hiding. If we do strike back, I suggest saving our strength. Only use the Molotovs if they draw their guns.”

Everyone had voiced their stance—except Wen Jianfeng.

He was clearly torn. If he were alone, he wouldn’t hesitate to fight back. But he had kids. Twin toddlers. If anything happened…

Xia Xiaoman noticed his hesitation and said, “Rebelling doesn’t guarantee a win. But I’ve already prepared a fallback. We have climbing ropes. Let’s hang them from the balcony.”

“If things go south, we can slide down and escape into the water.”

With an escape route in place, Wen Jianfeng hesitated for a moment longer but eventually agreed to join the plan.

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Everyone went home to tie off their climbing ropes—two per person, just in case someone ended up in the wrong unit.

The protection fee was being collected from the lower floors upward. Since they didn’t know how many people were in each household, this first round was being collected door-to-door by people from Building 12, who were also taking headcounts to avoid underreporting.

By the time they reached the 15th floor, it was already past 9 a.m.

Seven people had come from Building 12 to collect. Only three went up to the 15th floor. Two stayed below to guard the food, and two more monitored the process as people carried their food downstairs.

The leader kicked at the door and shouted, “Hey! Open up in there—we’re here to collect the protection fee!”

Before the echo faded, a sharp knife stabbed into his neck.

The two men behind him stared in shock, but before they could react, two more knives pierced their chests.

Still not dead, they howled in pain.

Then the fire door was flung open. Ye Xiaojie darted out and slashed both of their throats in one clean motion.

Xiao Zheyu and the others rushed out, dragging the three corpses back inside and locking the door. The whole operation took less than five minutes.

About ten minutes later, the two men who had been moving the food returned upstairs.

Seeing the empty doorway, they grew suspicious and double-checked the room number—15th floor, no mistake. But where were the others?

Just as they were about to knock, a dagger and a hatchet simultaneously struck them from behind.

Two more blood-curdling screams.

Ye Xiaojie burst through the fire door and finished them off before they could turn around.

From her hiding spot around the corner on the 16th floor, Xia Xiaoman called out softly, “That should be all of them, right? Can we go back now?”

Wen Jianfeng responded, “Let’s go. I bet Building 12 will send reinforcements within the hour.”

Back on the 15th floor, Xia Xiaoman searched the five corpses. “None of them had guns.”

Ye Xiaojie nodded. “If they didn’t even send guns with the collectors, it means their supply is probably limited.”

Xia Xiaoman stood up. “I’ll go keep watch on Building 12 from the balcony. Xiao Zheyu, you guys take these bodies and toss them.”

He agreed and went with Su Ran to move the corpses.

Unit 1504’s balcony faced south—perfect for watching Building 12. Using binoculars, Xia Xiaoman could clearly observe what was going on.

It seemed like Building 12 hadn’t gotten word yet. Everything was quiet over there. Other buildings, however, were still moving food to inflatable boats, preparing to bring it back to Building 12.

After about 30 minutes, a seven-seat inflatable boat came from Building 12 and docked under Building 3.

Xia Xiaoman shouted toward the back, “They’re here—seven people!”

Sun Qing responded and called everyone to prepare for battle.

Xia Xiaoman didn’t leave her post. She kept watching Building 12. Only when she was sure no more people were coming did she set down her binoculars and head for the hallway.

“These seven might have guns. Otherwise, they wouldn’t send so few. Everyone, be careful.”