ALL NOVEL Chapter 79 - Talking About Life
“What exactly do you want?” Pan Xiaoxuan was seething with anger, wanting to slap her right there on the street.
“Xiaoxuan, how can you turn your back on me like this? We were still good sisters just a few days ago…” Su Qianying looked like she was about to cry, her tears welling up instantly, no need for any emotional buildup.
Passersby on the street stopped and looked in their direction.
Pan Xiaoxuan took a deep breath, barely managing to suppress her anger. “Su, why do you always have to interfere in other people’s relationships? They’re not just a couple—they’re officially engaged and even made it into the newspaper. Can you just stop and leave them alone?”
“I… I just want to get to know them…” Su Qianying’s tone was full of grievance, with tears rolling in her eyes but not falling. “I didn’t mean to break them up, is it really that wrong to make more friends?”
Pan Xiaoxuan hesitated, thinking for a moment, and then asked cautiously, “You don’t know them?”
She and Tang Ruo were schoolmates, and the first time they met, she wasn’t sure if Tang Ruo looked familiar or not—so not recognizing her wasn’t a big deal. But Su Qianying, who used to argue with Tang Ruo every day before the apocalypse, didn’t recognize her?
Wait…
From Tang Ruo’s reaction earlier, it seemed like she was avoiding her like the plague. But her reaction was so different from the usual confrontational attitude she had, where they would always argue on sight…
At that moment, Su Qianying asked, “Do I know them?”
Pan Xiaoxuan frowned, quickly changing the topic before she got caught in her own words. “You’re such a big shot, I didn’t expect you to not know someone.”
Su Qianying dragged Pan Xiaoxuan to a corner, pulling out a few bags of seaweed from her small bag and handing them to her. “I just want to get to know that man. Since we’re good sisters, you’ll help me out, right?”
Pan Xiaoxuan gave a cold laugh, looking around briefly. Seeing that no one was paying attention, she quickly stored the seaweed in her space. “Sorry, I’m not really close with that guy, so I can’t help you.”
“You…” Su Qianying’s face twisted with anger. “How can you be so untrustworthy? You took my things, but now you’re refusing to help me…”
“Why should taking your things mean I have to help you?” Pan Xiaoxuan shrugged, shaking her arm free. “Let go of me, or I’ll scream and say you’re mugging me right here.”
“You…”
Pan Xiaoxuan noticed a few patrolling officers walking by and took a breath, preparing to shout.
Su Qianying saw them too, and immediately let go of Pan Xiaoxuan. “Just you wait, the base is so small, we’ll definitely run into each other again!”
It was unclear whether she was referring to herself and Pan Xiaoxuan or herself and Bai Qi.
Pan Xiaoxuan just clicked her tongue and had no desire to ask further.
What she really wanted to do now was find Tang Ruo and ask if she recognized Su Qianying.
Before Bai Qi and Tang Ruo arrived at the villa, Pan Dawei and the others—Hu Haotian and his group—had already gotten there.
They were currently interrogating the two people who were tied up with tree vines on the ground.
Actually, there was no need for much questioning, as these people had already confessed everything when Pan Dawei had been educating them outside.
They were members of the “Red Dust” team. Zhou Shao had used the blue crystals, which could enhance abilities, as a price to have them follow the “Casual (Whatever)” team.
Pan Dawei signaled for Hu Haotian to build a dirt wall on the ground.
Although Hu Haotian didn’t understand, he complied and did as instructed.
Pan Dawei then turned to the two individuals and said, “Use all your abilities and try to break it.”
Under the watchful eyes of the caravan, one of the strength-based ability users struck the dirt wall with a powerful palm. The strike was imposing, creating a gust of wind, but the wall only cracked a few small fissures and remained standing, unbroken.
The people in the caravan didn’t think anything was off, but the two strength-based ability users were dumbfounded, standing there in disbelief. “H-how is this possible…?”
“Impossible…” the second strength user shouted, striking the wall again. The dirt wall cracked a few more times, but still didn’t collapse.
Hu Haotian sneered, “With abilities like that, you guys are still out here playing the bad guys? Has the bar for being a villain dropped so low?”
“This is impossible!” The first strength user yelled, “We’ve absorbed over a hundred blue crystals, how can a regular dirt wall be this tough…?”
Blue crystals… over a hundred…
The people in the caravan seemed to have caught a very important piece of information.
“This is what I wanted to tell you,” Pan Dawei said to Hu Haotian.
Hu Haotian and Pan Dawei exchanged a glance but didn’t ask further.
However, their thoughts were already racing far beyond, crossing mountains and spanning vast distances.
In the past half month, they had absorbed around a hundred or so crystal nuclei. If these crystals really enhanced abilities, then their abilities should be roughly on par with the ones they were facing. But…
Looking at the current situation, it seemed that the people in their caravan were all far stronger in terms of abilities than the others!
Why was that?
The caravan members had developed a tacit understanding by now: in front of outsiders, Hu Haotian would represent them. They could discuss things privately without issue, but in public, Hu Haotian, being more experienced and knowledgeable, should take the lead.
Just then, Bai Qi and Tang Ruo entered through the fingerprint-activated gate of the villa’s wall.
Hu Haotian immediately stepped forward. “Brother Bai, I heard from Xiao Tian that you were also being followed. Where are those people now?”
Bai Qi glanced at the unfamiliar faces still standing in the yard, staring blankly at the wall. “I let them go.”
“Let them go?” Hu Haotian furrowed his brow. “Won’t that just be letting the tiger return to the mountain? Those people can be troublesome… letting them go like this…” Then, he thought for a moment and deflated. “Damn it, if we don’t let them go, they’ll definitely come back for revenge later.”
Bai Qi looked around the yard. “This courtyard is quite big…”
“Huh?”
The others were still trying to process what he meant.
The two strength-type ability users immediately knelt down. “We… we’ve reformed,” one of them said, his voice trembling. “We promise, we won’t do anything to you again. We… we can also guarantee that we won’t harm anyone in your team…”
Pan Dawei’s previous ‘education’ had already left them in great pain, but this man in black was even more ruthless, clearly intending to silence them permanently and bury them!
Pan Dawei asked, “How many blue crystals does Young Master Zhou give you for each mission?”
The man answered honestly, “About fifty, and after that, it’s evenly split among the team. Each person gets about ten or so each time.”
Hu Haotian took out a black bag from his pack and tossed it in front of them. The bag opened, spilling blue crystal nuclei all over the ground. “There are about 200 or so here. Tomorrow, bring the people in charge of your team to us…”
The sight of all the blue crystals made their eyes widen.
So the ‘Casual Team’ also had this kind of resource, and it seemed like they had an endless supply of it! No wonder their abilities were far stronger than theirs!
The man couldn’t help but raise his head. “What do you want from us?”
Hu Haotian smiled faintly. “We’re offering you several times the amount of blue crystals. Isn’t that good enough for you?”
The man hesitated for a moment. “But Young Master Zhou…”
The blue crystal reward was one reason, but another was that Zhou Shuguang had powerful backing.
Things were no longer as they were in the past, when society had laws to follow. Nowadays, having someone in a high position made things easier, and they all understood this well, which is why they chose to work for Zhou Shuguang.
“What will Zhou Shuguang do…” Pan Dawei squatted down, noticing that they were hesitant to speak, then added, “How about we talk about life instead?”
“No, no, no…” The man immediately began to confess. “Young Master Zhou has a General Zhou behind him. If we betray them, there’s no guarantee they won’t find an opportunity to eliminate us.”
“Don’t act like we wouldn’t eliminate you if necessary…” Liu Bing cracked his knuckles, threatening as he approached. When he saw that the two on the ground weren’t afraid of him, he shot a few glances at Pan Dawei.
Pan Dawei stood up, glanced at Liu Bing, and clicked his tongue. “Young man, you have no manners. If you’re going to interrogate them, then just do it. Why act like you’re some big shot? The way you’re looking at me makes me not want to give you what you want…”
Pan Dawei’s thoughts were a bit scattered. One moment he was talking about integrity and a righteous worldview, and the next moment, he’d be discussing how the girls in a certain magazine had the perfect leg-to-body ratio.
Liu Bing: “…”
Wasn’t the plan supposed to be to maintain unity in front of the enemy?
The two men on the ground were overjoyed, thinking that they wouldn’t have to listen to Pan Dawei’s lecture anymore. “Uncle, really? No more talk about life?”
Hu Haotian squatted down. “Actually, I could talk about life with you too…”
The people in the convoy: “…”
The two men on the ground: “…”
It seemed like things were going to get even worse for them!
However, with the entire convoy watching with expressions of ‘good luck,’ the two men were indeed tied up by Hu Haotian and taken to the villa alone.