Chapter 103: Daylight Assault
November 20th, Wednesday, 1 PM. It’s a good day for travel, relocation, and burial, with the joy deity in the northwest. Area P is located in the northwest of City C. Though it is far from the central urban area of City C, housing prices here are not low, reflecting a small glimpse of the city’s expansive growth and real estate boom.
Perhaps the pace of rural-to-urban migration surpasses urban infrastructure development, or perhaps the delayed housing reform policies, or maybe the locals are still holding on to a mindset of waiting for the right price for relocation, which has left what should have been a new neighborhood development in the urban village still cluttered and densely packed with a dilapidated style.
Despite the dissonance, there is a lively atmosphere here.
Restaurants, inns, vegetable markets, auto repair shops, hair salons, KTV, bathhouses, home appliance stores, grocery stores, and even schools… almost all the essential scenes of daily life are present, and the foot traffic is plentiful.
Thousands of households squeeze into this small, outdated area of less than one square kilometer, coming and going, living simply yet vibrantly.
The black-haired girl in a cream-colored trench coat, with buttons fastened and a belt tied, has a lace shirt peeking out from the collar and mid-heeled black fabric boots showing beneath the coat, exuding an elegant and composed style.
Jiang Yan walks alone through the crowded streets of the urban village, occasionally glancing around, curiously admiring the colorful shops and roadside stalls, sometimes squatting to pick and choose from the stalls, or sidestepping a group of boisterous children, all the while wearing a smile.
At the end of the small street ahead stands a four-story inn, with a small restaurant occupying the street-facing ground floor, and a narrow staircase leading directly to the inn’s front desk on the second floor.
Behind the small inn is a dirt alleyway less than two meters wide. On the other side of the alley, there is an abandoned factory, the tall factory building blocking nearly half of the daylight, making the alley appear quite dim.
Arriving at the bottom of the small inn, the nearby restaurant seems to have changed owners a couple of days ago, transforming into a hot pot restaurant. Now, the narrow steps in front of the restaurant are filled with flower baskets celebrating its grand opening, numerous in quantity, with strings of firecrackers dangling on either side of the entrance.
A young girl is sitting at the entrance of the newly opened hot pot restaurant, smiling as she watches the black-haired girl approach, discreetly waving her hand to indicate that everything is set and pointing to the nearby inn entrance, making an “OK” sign.
Su Xiaomeng’s signal indicates that all preparations are in place. Jiang Yan nods with a smile and walks into the inn’s hallway.
As Jiang Yan’s figure disappears at the entrance of the hallway, Su Xiaomeng quickly takes out a lighter, lights a string of firecrackers, and screams as she covers her ears, rushing into the hot pot restaurant.
Instantly, the deafening sound of firecrackers erupts in the narrow street, reverberating off the surrounding buildings of varying heights, layering the sound waves until they become painful to the ears, filling the air with panic and celebration.
Su Xiaomeng still has six more strings of firecrackers in hand, clearly well-prepared.
Nearby shopkeepers, passersby, and children all cover their ears and gather to watch the newly opened hot pot restaurant, though most do not have high hopes for it.
A restaurant of this kind, which clearly exceeds the local average consumption level, isn’t likely to turn a profit. With little knowledge of the local consumption ecology, it’s likely to close down in a month or three, a basic certainty.
……
As a whole four-story building, the first floor is occupied by street-facing commercial spaces, while the small inn only occupies the upper three floors.
To avoid the unlucky number, the second floor, which is meant to be the inn’s front desk, has been forcibly labeled as the first floor, followed by the second and third floors above it.
On the top floor, in a large room converted into a card room and tea hall, four plainly dressed men are engrossed in playing automated mahjong. Scattered in front of each of them are bills of varying amounts, and in the corners of the room, miscellaneous items have piled up along with an eye-catching safe.
Perhaps due to its remote location, the inn has few guests, making any business from the card room nonexistent. After long periods of no proper management, aside from the automatic mahjong table before the four men, other tables and chairs are covered in dust, and even a dead rat can be seen decomposing in the corner.
“Damn, that broken shop downstairs has changed owners again? What kind of business goes well here, opening a hot pot restaurant? Setting off firecrackers in the morning… thirty thousand!”
“Come on! Isn’t it time for a change of flavor? Why don’t we eat there for dinner! Whatever!”
“You’ve been playing too many cards, haven’t you? Stop with the dinner talk; we haven’t even eaten lunch yet! Nine tubes!”
As the most senior knight in the room complains, the other three rub their bellies, wearing wry smiles.
“Brother Li, I’ll have Sister Wu at the front desk bring us something; what do you want to eat?”
A servant chuckles as he pulls out his phone.
“Anything like stir-fried dishes or hot pots is fine, just bring more! Oh, and make sure she brings some cigarettes, we can skip the alcohol… After lunch, let’s take turns resting. The business has been good lately; we need to stay sharp tonight; maybe Brother Cao will contact us in the next few days.”
The senior knight’s words carry weight, and the other three hurriedly nod in agreement.
“Hey, Sister Wu… What? She has a bad cold? Who are you… Her niece? Alright, let me jot this down; please arrange for some dishes to be sent to the card room on the top floor… Yes, don’t mess up the portions, also bring a pack of cigarettes, within two hundred bucks…”
“Right, make sure to clean up our room on the second floor… Why are there so many unnecessary questions, hurry up!”
After hanging up, the servant wears a disgruntled expression.
“Sister Wu is sick; her niece is filling in. Her voice is quite nice, but I wonder what she looks like…”
Saying this, the servant resumes handling the mahjong tiles.
“Wu is sick? She was fine yesterday… Wait a minute.”
The senior knight’s brow furrows slightly as he sets the tiles down and walks over to a side window, glancing out at the abandoned factory across the way and the dark alley below, revealing a look of suspicion. A few seconds later, he closes the curtain.
On the other side, the piercing sound of firecrackers seems to be endless, penetrating the thick walls of the inn, making it particularly jarring in the empty card room, causing the four men’s voices to rise in volume.
“Damn, those firecrackers are still going off! Such a ridiculous business, making such a show for an opening! Ninety thousand!”
The senior knight grumbles, settling back into his position.
“Brother Li, it’s broad daylight; what’s there to fear… Heh, ninety thousand, I’ve won! Thanks for the money!”
The mid-level knight pushes over his tiles and grins at the senior knight: “The nearby police haven’t come once in a year.”
“Hmph… Are we afraid of the police? Let’s not forget about what Brother Cao did recently; I suspect the Wang family is turning City C upside down! Who knows what Brother Cao has bribed, daring to take out the Wang family’s outer line… Let’s just be careful.”
The senior knight scoffs, clearly more cautious.
Brother Li, compared to the other bosses, is rather good to his underlings; it’s said he got breakthrough drugs from abroad this time; there’s probably some for you, Brother Li… Sigh, once Brother Li breaks through to Baron, he’ll have to look out for the three of us!
A servant’s flattery strikes the perfect chord.
“Of course, we’ve been brothers for over twenty years. Now, as long as we dare to gamble, Brother Cao will be willing to invest in us! It’s hard to find a boss like this nowadays.”
The senior knight smiles smugly, his eyes involuntarily drawn to the safe in the corner: “Once we hit a million, we’ll deliver it to Brother Cao, and I’ll see if I can snag some benefits for you as well.”
“Ha ha, that’s just Brother Li being righteous!”
The four men in the room burst into laughter as a new set of mahjong tiles rises from the table.
……
Half an hour later, in the long hallway of the inn, Jiang Yan slowly pushes a food cart towards the card room.
The cart is covered with a white cloth, slightly steaming, indicating it contains a substantial amount of food.
Inside the card room, another round of mahjong has just concluded, and the senior knight has again called for a big win, feeling somewhat vexed as he tosses a few bills down and grabs a nearby cigarette pack, only to find the last cigarette was smoked several minutes ago.
Crushing the pack into a ball, the senior knight’s expression darkens, his brows furrowing.
“What’s wrong, Brother Li? Having a rough day? How about I treat you to hot pot tonight?”
The mid-level knight pushes the mahjong tiles into the machine’s slot, grinning at the senior knight with a teasing tone.
“That’s not right… I remember that Wu doesn’t have a niece, only a nephew… Let’s go check it out together! We can’t be ambushed in broad daylight!”
The senior knight immediately stands up, growing darker in expression. The other three pause, then each stand up with indifferent expressions.
Another deafening blast of firecrackers goes off, sounding bizarrely out of place, making the faces of the four tense up.
Pushing the door open, the four move quickly, two in front and two behind, as they spot a young girl in a white trench coat approaching, pushing a food cart.
The black-blood tribe senior knight slows his pace, fixating on the girl in the trench coat, glaring intently at her just a dozen meters away.
There’s no abnormal sensory feeling, yet the girl in the coat, pushing the cart with an unwavering smile, inexplicably confounds him.
As the cart stops just eight meters away from the four black-blood knights, Jiang Yan smiles at the four men with differing expressions, lifting the cloth covering the cart.
“You… are a knight!”
Finally, at this distance, the two black-blood knights detect a faint wave of pheromone, clearly indicating that the girl has injected substances like internal and external hormone inhibitors.
The cloth flies up, releasing humid heat into the air, where amidst the swirling white fabric, Jiang Yan holds an MP5SD suppressed submachine gun in each of her hands.
In the chaotic sound of fireworks, a flurry of suppressed gunfire erupts, dozens of nine-millimeter silver bullets raining down in a matter of seconds.
The senior knight of the black-blood tribe leaps back at the first sign of trouble, but the mid-level knight and his two servants are out of luck, especially the two servants, who are hit directly by the submachine gun’s hail of bullets at such close range.
Caught in the bullet storm, their bodies twitch and contort, blood and flesh spraying into a cloud of black mist ignited by the coppery scent; one servant even has half his head blown off, with red, white, black, and yellow fleshy debris splattering everywhere, staining the hallway.
The mid-level knight, slightly behind, is hit in the abdomen and shoulder by a few bullets—his fast reaction saving him—but right after, he follows the senior knight back into the card room.
Sixty rounds fired, Jiang Yan tosses the smoking submachine guns into a vacant space below the dining room, lifts the hem of her trench coat, extracting a handgun and a dagger from either side of her enticing black silk-clad thighs, her eyes gleaming with bloodlust as she strides towards the card room door.
……
The only escape route for the two black-blood knights is through the card room’s window, though it’s a good ten meters above ground, yet they unleash their boiling blood to crash through the thin glass.
The mid-level knight, already wounded, desperately tries to control the muscle movement around his injuries, wrapping the bullet with the charred remains of his tissue. He cannot raise the boiling blood’s intensity any further; else, the fragmenting bullets coated in the silver compound would make him wish for death during the healing process with the circulatory bloodflow.
The senior knight, unscathed, crosses the threshold, bursting through the boiling blood’s threshold, disregarding who might see his warped body; survival is his only priority.
The alley is exceedingly narrow, more a gap between two rows of buildings than an actual path, nearly impossible for anyone to walk through.
The dry winter earth churns up dust as the senior knight presses onward, ignoring the wounded companion behind him, charging towards the bright exit of that small alleyway several dozen meters ahead.
A shadow slowly materializes, blocking the exit, forcing the senior knight to halt, his face darkening as he glares ahead, slowly raising his distorted arm like a claw.
Jiang Yao, clad in a lace-trimmed black long-sleeve gown, with long golden hair cascading over her shoulders and a Tang sword on her back, walks towards him like a dark princess, wearing a mischievous smile.
“Why did only your arm and half your shoulder change?”
Jiang Yao’s eyes turn red, a terrifying aura surging forth, pressing in the narrow alley like high-pressure steam with no means to release it, making the senior black-blood knight’s face turn even graver.
“Shit, it’s a baron… no, it’s a half-step baron.”
Desperation, brutality, and surprise fill the atmosphere as the senior knight trembles, staring at the girl in black approaching slowly across the distance.
“Brother Li, what do we do?”
The wounded mid-level knight approaches, his expression frantic and uneasy.
The senior knight opens his mouth to speak but suddenly senses something unusual behind him; looking back, his face distills into pure desperation.
Jiang Yan descends like a goddess, landing amidst a cloud of dust, emerging from the haze in her white trench coat, a dagger in her left hand, and a handgun in her right.
“Two… two half-step barons… haha, what the hell, two half-step barons come to kill us in broad daylight?”
The mid-level knight is now so frightened he has lost all composure, even backing down his boiling blood, trembling uncontrollably, yet he bursts into a desperate, maniacal laugh.
Another explosion of firecrackers fills the air, with Su Xiaomeng growing addicted to the echoes.
At this moment, no one is aware that in a certain alley of the urban village, a one-sided slaughter is unfolding.
“You belong to the Wang family, don’t you? We surrender! We know everything about Brother Cao’s operations; we can tell you all!”
The black-blood senior knight slowly raises his hands, feeling an utter hopelessness.
Jiang Yan remains silent, coldly observing the desperate two black-blood knights, her eyes as frigid as ice, as she recalls the scene a few months prior when Jiang Yao fiercely resisted four black-blood knights during her period.
“Two fools.”
Jiang Yao grins, slightly parting her legs, her hands resting delicately on the edge of her skirt.
The senior knight’s face grows increasingly pale as he suddenly seizes the mid-level knight beside him, violently throwing him toward Jiang Yao while he himself roars, once again breaking through to boiling blood and charges rapidly at Jiang Yan.
He believes that the girl in the white trench coat, at least in terms of aura intensity, seems slightly weaker than the girl in black, making this his last desperate gamble, despite knowing she is still a half-step baron with overwhelming strength he has never encountered.
As the mid-level knight lunges towards Jiang Yan, screaming in terror, Jiang Yao lifts her skirt to reveal a shotgun that appears in her hand, racking the slide from seven or eight meters away.
Dozens of fragmented silver pellets explode out like a broom, striking the mid-air body of the black-blood knight sharply, turning him into Swiss cheese.
Half his head, an entire arm, and part of his calf are torn off in the shower of lead, with each wound spurting black blood mist, and the mid-level knight dies on the spot.
Meanwhile, Jiang Yan charges at the incoming black-blood senior knight, her silver weapon swiftly severing his distorted arm with bone claw, then advancing with unspent momentum as a knee strike collides with him.
Like a baseball being hit, the black-blood senior knight’s body is sent flying backwards at high speed, the shoulder wound splattering blood mist ignited by silver ions in mid-air.
As she drops the shotgun, Jiang Yao draws her Tang sword, her eyes locked on the swiftly approaching senior knight.
With a sudden explosive dash, Jiang Yao blasts forward like a cannonball, her skirt kicking up another cloud of dust as she charges.
In swift, simple strokes, the sharp silver alloy blade cleaves through the black-blood senior knight’s body in two, his arms and thigh flying away from his torso.
The severed pieces of the black-blood senior knight slam against the walls of the buildings on either side, like a child’s toy cruelly dismembered after growing boring.
The bloody and foul-smelling remains spill across the sides of the alley. Within mere seconds, the two black-blood knights attempting to escape have been executed in broad daylight, while the firecracker blasts echoing through the urban village still have yet to settle.
“Hey sis, that was thrilling!”
Jiang Yao saunters over to where the upper half of the senior knight’s body lies, glancing at the fading, charred face still breathing lightly, smiling with satisfaction.
“Miss Su, the matter is resolved; let’s go handle things… hmm, let’s thoroughly check the inn as well.”
“Wow, that was quick! I still have a couple of strings of firecrackers left to go! Don’t worry, I bought that inn yesterday, so no one will come in. Any spoils go to you guys!”
After hanging up the phone, Jiang Yan gives Jiang Yao a thumbs up, wearing the same joyful expression.
