Interrogation

Jiang Jie, Cui Lie, and Xia Kai flipped the three men over. One appeared to be in his thirties or forties, while the other two looked to be around twenty.

Judging by appearances, the man in his thirties or forties was Brother Liu.

“Rong Jie, the medicine you gave us is really something; it knocked out all three of them immediately,” Jiang Jie said excitedly.

Jiang Jie had set the trap, and the medicine was provided by Rong Xianxian.

Speaking of the medicine, Rong Xianxian was still influenced by her past life. At that time, she had specifically sought out an anesthetic spray from the Ji Shi Hall.

There were many toxic herbs in traditional Chinese medicine. Rong Xianxian had gathered quite a few, but most were used to make traps. No matter how tough a monster’s skin, it couldn’t withstand poison that could pierce through organs.

If a problem could be solved by cunning means, there was no need for direct confrontation. This aligned well with Rong Xianxian’s cautious and prudent nature.

“Quick, find a rope and tie them up. This anesthetic works fast but wears off quickly. Tie those two young ones together and the older one separately,” Rong Xianxian instructed the three to bind the captured thieves.

Their fumbling around accidentally roused the three men who were on the verge of waking as the drug’s effects faded.

Brother Liu had triangular eyes and droopy eyelids, expressionless, but his mind was racing. Hearing the two young men groan and stir, he realized they were awake. Fearing they might say something reckless, he quickly spoke, “Why are you tying us up? We thought no one lived here, so we came looking for a place to stay. Since there are people here, we’ll just leave.”

“Yeah, yeah, we thought no one lived here and wanted to use this as a refuge,” the two younger thieves chimed in, catching on quickly. One of them, with narrow, slitted eyes, even put on a pitiful expression, making it seem as if he were genuinely wronged.

Impressive. Jiang Jie and Xia Kai exchanged a glance, admiring the three for their acting skills.

“Nonsense! If you just wanted a place to stay, why didn’t you knock or call out, and instead sneakily pick the lock? How did you know no one was home? You were planning to catch us off guard and attack,” Rong Xianxian said as she pulled out her usual folding medical kit.

The kit was compact and neatly arranged with gleaming surgical scalpels of various sizes, gold needles of different lengths and thicknesses, and other medical instruments.

“We’re used to lock picking and sneaking in. I’m a thief, after all. I know stealing is illegal. You can call the cops to arrest us if you want,” the slitted-eyed man stammered nervously upon seeing the medical tools, as if he had some psychological fear of doctors.

Brother Liu wanted to tell him to shut up. Now’s not the time to make things worse.

“Bold enough to provoke me. Try calling the police and see what happens!” Rong Xianxian said with a half-smile, fixing her gaze on the slitted-eyed man.

She didn’t want to waste time on their chatter. Flicking her scalpel between her fingers, she asked, “Who should I start with?” Her eyes swept over the three men.

Brother Liu’s heart sank. When they had encountered Rong Xianxian and her two children, the two rookies—though quick-witted and skilled at petty theft—were inexperienced cowards. If they hadn’t been short on manpower recently, these two wouldn’t have been brought along.

This woman was far more formidable than he had imagined.

Just as Brother Liu was about to speak, Rong Xianxian gave Cui Lie a signal. Cui Lie clamped a towel over Brother Liu’s mouth.

“Mmmph mmmph,” Liu struggled with his mouth gagged and kicked wildly as Cui Lie dragged him into the treatment room.

The treatment room’s four wide-open doors revealed hospital-standard pale blue disposable sheets spread out.

On the sheets lay shattered flesh and bone fragments, tendons with skin attached, stained with dark red blood. Cui Lie threw Brother Liu onto the sheets and turned back to the two thieves with a grim smile. “I’ll have some fun with this one first. Don’t rush.”

The two thieves shuddered in fear. The slitted-eyed man struggled to hold back his urge to urinate, trembling as he said, “I beg you, don’t kill me.”

The other thief kicked him and retorted, “What are you saying? We don’t want to work on construction sites. We steal a bit here and there. So what? The military cleared the area, making it safer. That’s why we came.”

The slitted-eyed man glanced at him. They exchanged some silent communication. Rong Xianxian didn’t understand it, but the slitted-eyed man, who had been about to confess, suddenly retracted.

Rong Xianxian calmly set down her scalpel and pulled out a large syringe from the medical kit.

“Do you know? My first lesson as a medical student was anatomy, and the first thing we learned was how to euthanize rabbits,” she said, filling the syringe fully, eyes gleaming with a mix of amusement and menace as she stared at the other thief.

“To euthanize a rabbit, you only need one syringe of air, which causes an air embolism and kills the rabbit quickly and simply by injecting air into its ear vein. I wonder how many syringes of air it would take to euthanize an adult human? Maybe one has to die before the other speaks clearly. Which one of you wants to die first?” Rong Xianxian smiled at the two thieves.

The slitted-eyed man swallowed nervously. He glanced at his companion who was about to speak, and hurriedly said, “Your photo and information are on a list. We wander around the safe zone looking for people on that list. We happened to see you that day and reported it.”

“Brother Liu was about to make a move when he found you gone. Later, after asking the woman next door and those who moved to the safe zone, we got this address. Afraid something else would happen, we hurried here,” the other thief said, eyeing the large syringe in Rong Xianxian’s hand but still trying to hold his ground.

“Who gave you the list? How many people do you work for?” Rong Xianxian frowned, questioning them sharply.

“We got the list from Brother Liu and report only to him. We don’t know anything else,” the slitted-eyed man replied crisply, with the other nodding in agreement.

Rong Xianxian knew they were likely telling the truth. They were probably hastily recruited personnel after the apocalypse. The key was Brother Liu.

In her past life, Rong Xianxian never wandered around the safe zone and never encountered these two. She stayed in the field hospital and never left.

Of course, she never had disputes on the tenth floor or attracted attention by hunting for treasures on the rooftop.

So she didn’t even know if anyone had secretly put a bounty on her.

Who was the person behind this list? Why target us mother and children? Did Ning Qingyun know anything? Apart from her connection with Ning Qingyun, they were just ordinary people among the masses. Or was this person facing some trouble of their own?