Immediately after saying this, his voice still echoed in the narrow stairwell when the door to the stairwell suddenly opened. Wang Zhaoyang, holding a bag of trash, met eyes with the Kunpeng member.
"You..."
Wang Zhaoyang glanced at the two unconscious people on the ground, his gaze lingering for a moment on one of the broken wrists, then looked up at him.
The trash bag fell to the ground.
"Listen to me, I can explain..."
"Ow!"
Wang Zhaoyang let out a strange cry and scrambled back into his home, slamming the "door" shut behind him.
"Hello... hello? What's wrong with you?"
Hearing the strange noise from the other end of the phone, Zhang Wei frowned and asked.
"Nothing, it's just that I was discovered by the protection target, a small problem..."
...
Zhang Wei said nothing, and hung up the phone with a snap.
The criminal organization's people hadn't been trained yet, and their Kunpeng training wasn't fully complete either...
What kind of situation was it to be discovered by the protection target!
They were currently providing covert protection, and Wang Zhaoyang was merely bait. The idea was to make Wang Zhaoyang believe he was not in danger, thus attracting wave after wave of criminals, and they only needed to knock them out and throw them in jail repeatedly.
This method of entrapment was actually tried and true. Although using people as bait was a bit inhumane, it wasn't something they could decide, was it?
The key was, if the bait discovered he was bait, how could they still catch the fish?
The Kunpeng member here, hearing Zhang Wei hang up the phone, also felt a headache. Putting his phone away, he looked at the two people on the ground, then at the direction of the stairwell door.
Maybe... go knock on the door and explain?
...
In the evening, after school, An Chen brought Su Xiaojiu out from Ye Xinning's home.
In just one day, Su Xiaojiu and Hong Shan had become close card buddies. When they parted, they even shouted about fighting another two hundred rounds tomorrow.
However, Hong Shan suddenly remembered that they could play cards online. The two simply added each other as friends, and Su Xiaojiu was still playing cards with Hong Shan as she walked.
"This old guy's card playing is terrible!"
Su Xiaojiu complained, watching her opponent on the screen play a bomb. She reluctantly chose to pass, watching helplessly as the other side finished, and all of her and Hong Shan's Happy Beans evaporated.
"It's fine to play against him, but playing two-on-two with him is worse than killing me!"
Su Xiaojiu exited the game, sent a message, then turned off her phone and caught up with An Chen, who was walking ahead and almost leaving her behind.
"An Chen, you're good at cards. Why don't you play with me? I think if we play together, our Happy Beans will definitely skyrocket!"
An Chen gave a wry smile.
"What's the use of playing that? Happy Beans can't be exchanged for money, and whether you can win doesn't entirely depend on your card-playing skills. A large part of it depends on whether the System gives you good cards. It's impossible to keep winning."
"This thing can be rigged?"
"Why not?"
An Chen spread his hands.
"As long as it wants you to lose, you can't win."
An Chen walked with quick strides.
Su Xiaojiu didn't understand why An Chen's pace had quickened, so she could only speed up as well.
"Why are you running so fast?"
"There are strangers."
Su Xiaojiu was utterly confused.
"Isn't it normal to have strangers? Even if you can remember everyone, that's only a small fraction of the world's population. It shouldn't be strange for strangers to appear, right?"
They had already reached the bottom of the apartment building. An Chen led Su Xiaojiu into the elevator lobby, pressed the button to call the elevator.
"Outside the community just now, there were two unfamiliar faces. These two people haven't appeared before. I saw them once this morning, lingering around our community."
An Chen only spoke again to explain once they were inside the elevator.
"Then... what if they're new residents who just moved in?"
"Are you the only one who wanders outside all day instead of staying at home?"
Su Xiaojiu tilted her head.
"No... is that not allowed?"
An Chen covered his head.
What a redundant question to ask.
Someone like Su Xiaojiu could theoretically be called a socially idle person; it didn't seem surprising for her to wander the streets every day.
During the days he was in class before, had Su Xiaojiu been wandering outside like this the whole time?
An Chen sighed.
"Who's like you, being supported by someone? Most people have their own jobs, their own things to do. Who would wander outside the community every day... Moreover, they weren't wandering aimlessly. Both times, I noticed them intentionally or unintentionally observing the entrance of our building, seemingly waiting for someone to pass by."
Su Xiaojiu was about to speak, but An Chen tapped her and continued:
"This is clearly staking out. They are waiting for their target to appear, but it doesn't look like it's the two of us..."
The elevator arrived. An Chen quickly walked out. At his doorstep, he took out his key, paused for a few seconds, and then felt confident enough to unlock it.
There was no abnormality at the door, and the fire door of the adjacent stairwell showed no signs of being opened. No one should have come to his doorstep.
The two quickly entered the house.
An Chen walked to the window. From this position, he could clearly see the two people who were staking out the entrance earlier. At this moment, the two seemed to be strolling aimlessly; one would walk around the community while the other stayed put, and then they would alternate.
Their coordination wasn't very good; they likely hadn't undergone professional training, and they even left a window of opportunity. If their target passed by the entrance during that time, their stakeout would have been for nothing.
Moreover, trained individuals shouldn't be so foolishly stubborn in their stakeout. From morning until now, their positions had barely changed, which was why An Chen immediately noticed their abnormality.
More importantly, he could sense the aura of an Awakened from them. This aura was very faint, so faint that even Su Xiaojiu hadn't noticed it, and he hadn't noticed it in the morning either.
It was only when he deliberately observed them just now that he sensed it.
The difference between Qi Refining First Stage and a Mortal was actually not very significant. As long as one learned to breathe and could absorb Spiritual Qi into their body, they were considered to have entered Cultivation, but in terms of aura, the manifestation was not obvious.
But no matter what, An Chen was certain that the two were Cultivator.
Two Cultivator staking out his doorstep was not a good sign.
"The target isn't me..."
If their target wasn't An Chen and Su Xiaojiu, then there was only one possibility.
Zhou Limin.
At least in his building, An Chen only knew of him as a Transcendent.
Just then, An Chen suddenly saw Zhou Limin's figure appear at the community entrance. He was smiling and greeting the security guard in the guard booth. The two people behind him suddenly turned around and followed him, entering the community.
An Chen immediately turned back and instructed:
"Use a Stealth Talisman. We're going downstairs, quickly!"