Right at this moment, Xu Youyou and Zuo Lin'an both stopped what they were doing and looked toward the door together.
It was past five in the morning, and the sky had not yet begun to brighten.
Outside, everything was dead silent.
But then, the sudden sound of footsteps broke the silence.
The footsteps sounded somewhat disorganized, indicating that there were quite a few people!
What was going on?
Had they been exposed?
Just to be safe, Xu Youyou knocked out the man in front of him before moving to the door alongside Zuo Lin'an.
The two of them listened intently to the footsteps outside.
Sure enough, the footsteps gradually faded after drawing close to their villa. These people were clearly here for them, and they were currently standing right outside.
Zuo Lin'an immediately turned around to search his backpack, pulling out two sets of clean clothes and slipping into one of them.
Seeing this, Xu Youyou grabbed the other set. He had barely finished changing when a faint knock sounded at the door.
However, hearing such a soft knock made both of them feel quite puzzled.
If they were here to demand answers or had discovered their identities, bringing so many people meant they must be planning to kill them. In that case, it was impossible for them to knock so gently.
Could they... have some other motive?
Zuo Lin'an took the lead, stepping forward to open the door just a crack.
A man stood outside. He was a complete stranger whom Zuo Lin'an had likely never seen before.
Further down the path, several dark figures could be seen.
With a quick count, there were about eight or nine of them.
However, judging by their relaxed postures, they didn't seem aggressive, which suggested that their own identities had probably not been exposed yet.
“Who are you? What do you want?”
Upon seeing Zuo Lin'an, the man outside gave a soft chuckle. “Allow me to introduce myself first. I'm Wang Lu. I'm a bit older than you, so if you don't mind, you can call me Brother Wang.”
Zuo Lin'an frowned slightly. Why was this guy acting so overly polite and formal?
“What do you want?”
He asked once more.
Seeing his wary expression, Wang Lu continued, “Actually, there's no need to be so tense. We mean no harm. We just want to have a friendly chat with you.”
“Friendly?” Zuo Lin'an replied. “Then what do you want to talk about?”
After all, from his perspective, if they really just wanted a friendly chat, this Wang Lu wouldn't have brought so many people along.
But looking at the man's demeanor, he truly didn't seem like he was looking for trouble.
One shouldn't slap a smiling face.
His attitude softened slightly as well.
Of course, this change in attitude wasn't entirely due to that. He had just noticed Xu Youyou quietly slipping over to the side window and stealthily climbing out.
Needless to say, it was obvious that Xu Youyou intended to lie in ambush outside and wait for an opportunity to strike.
It was precisely because Zuo Lin'an realized this that he shifted his demeanor, engaging the man in conversation to buy as much time as possible for Xu Youyou.
To show goodwill, he even opened the door halfway.
At the very least, the people outside could now see his entire figure.
Noticing this detail, the smile on Wang Lu's face grew more genuine. “By the way, Wang Hu is quite lucky to have found two newcomers today.”
“I can tell you right now, there's no future in staying here. Boss Zhao's side is about to break one hundred and twenty people.”
“If you stay here, you'll only end up defeated and driven out.”
“Even if you manage to stay without being driven out, your treatment won't be very good. After all, you'd be on the losing side.”
Boss Zhao?
Zuo Lin'an recalled that this must be the Zhao Cheng whom Wang Hu had mentioned earlier.
It was the other small criminal settlement closest to this place.
A look of confusion appeared on his face.
“I remember Wang Hu saying that Boss Zhao only had a hundred and seven people on his side?”
Hearing this, Wang Lu chuckled. The newcomer had referred to Wang Hu by his full name, but when mentioning Zhao Cheng, he directly called him “Boss Zhao.” This attitude was already very clear.
With just a bit more persuasion, these two newcomers would definitely not refuse.
“A hundred and seven?”
“That was just Boss Zhao trying to lull Wang Hu into a false sense of security. In reality, their numbers have far exceeded that. The reason he hid it was because Boss Zhao was busy wining and dining others at the time, and he wanted to prevent Wang Hu from interfering...”
“And...”
“I've also been secretly persuading our brothers here to abandon the dark and join the light, so we absolutely couldn't afford to alert him.”
As he spoke, he pointed to himself, then to the nine dark figures standing not far away.
“Now, including me, there are ten of us in total.”
“We plan to defect to Boss Zhao. They've sent someone to meet us halfway. We originally intended to leave directly, but before we went, I suddenly thought of you two newcomers.”
“You've only just arrived here, so you're definitely not that close to Wang Hu. I figured I'd give it a shot. As long as you come with us, you'll receive quite a handsome reward once we reach Boss Zhao's side.”
“For example, plenty of food, clean drinking water, and better housing. Of course, we'll also get a share of the rice harvested from the paddy fields here. These are all benefits Boss Zhao has promised us.”
“How about it? Do you want to come with us?”
Wang Lu poured out a stream of information. Though it was a bit disorganized, Zuo Lin'an could easily piece it together.
It was nothing more than Zhao Cheng using fake numbers to deceive Wang Hu while quietly building his strength and poaching members. Now that he had grown strong enough, he was ready to lay his cards on the table.
Thus, he wanted to bring back all the members he had already poached beforehand to bolster his side's overall strength.
Zuo Lin'an feigned a look of surprise. “So, you're saying we leave right now?”
Wang Lu nodded. “Yes, right now.”
“Though, it's quite strange. I had clearly persuaded over twenty people before, but when I went to look for them tonight, I could only find this many. The others weren't at home.”
“I wondered at first if Wang Hu had found out, but after waiting for a bit, it didn't seem like Wang Hu was making any moves. Still, to avoid any unexpected complications, it's best to leave as soon as possible.”
“If Wang Hu catches us, we'll definitely wish we were dead.”
“After all, while you can't kill people in Sin Hunter City, nothing says you can't torture them, as long as you make sure they don't die.”
“Those who weren't at home might have gone to find Wang Hu. There's a high probability that our identities have already been exposed.”
Zuo Lin'an raised an eyebrow.
The people Wang Lu mentioned who weren't at home weren't with Wang Hu right now. Instead, they were in the villa's bathroom, as well as the side bedroom and guest bedroom on the first floor.
In fact, they had been completely disassembled, though if one were to carefully piece them back together, they might still manage to assemble a complete body.
And...
Perhaps the man currently tied to the pillar in the living room was also one of those whom Wang Lu had successfully poached?
Zuo Lin'an pretended to hesitate, but in reality, he was observing the situation outside.
Sure enough, he soon spotted a dark figure flashing past in the distance.
Rate on N.U.
