NOVPUB65: 53rd Chapter: Missing
65: 53rd Chapter: Missing
Days were moving forward in a disordered manner, that day Gu Yanzhi and Song Zhao had just returned from the plantation and found Zhang Qian anxiously pacing at their doorstep.
Upon seeing Gu Yanzhi and Song Zhao, Zhang Qian’s eyes lit up and she rushed towards them, nearly falling over, but Gu Yanzhi reached out to steady her.
“Sister, you’re finally back, Grandma Gao and Gao Siyang have gone missing!” Before she could steady herself, Zhang Qian dropped the bombshell.
“What did you say, when did this happen, where did they disappear?”
Hearing that Grandma Gao and Gao Siyang had vanished, Gu Yanzhi also became anxious.
The three elderly people from building 10 were very nice to her, and after spending so much time, Gu Yanzhi had come to respect them as elders.
“Today, Grandpa Li and Grandma Gao were at the market, buying chicken…” Due to her anxiety, Zhang Qian’s words were somewhat incoherent, but Gu Yanzhi still managed to gather the information she needed.
After the polar night arrived, encouraged by the government, many street markets had sprung up in city C.
The electricity had also somewhat been restored, enough to support mobile payments.
The government had introduced a new payment method, somewhat similar to the pre-apocalypse bank card payments, where each person had a score storage card linked to their information, and by swiping it on the vendors’ machine, the payment would be processed successfully.
There was a market near their building as well, located right at the entrance of the Jinxiu Thunderbolt community where building 10 used to be, approximately 500 meters from their block.
The market had been open for quite some time after confirming it wasn’t dangerous, and the children of the three elderly people agreed that they could occasionally walk around and browse the market—it was simply too cruel to confine the three elders to child-minding at home every day.
The elderly folks were bored at home too, and now that it was relatively safe outside, there was no hurt in taking a stroll.
The market was open for the four hours each day when the government supplied power to the streetlights, the dim light from the lamps helped reduce the occurrence of malicious incidents.
Grandma Lin, due to her own mobility issues, found it too cumbersome to maneuver her wheelchair up and down the stairs and only occasionally went out with her old sisters.
Grandpa Li and Grandma Gao, carrying young Gao Siyang, had planned to visit the market and invited Grandma Lin, but she had declined.
Today, a rare chicken vendor appeared at the market, drawing most of the crowd’s attention with the frozen chicken, despite the cold.
Some vendors even stopped setting up their own stalls and jumped in to buy the chicken.
Holding the child made it difficult for Grandma Gao to jostle through the crowd, so Grandpa Li asked her to wait outside the crowd while he went forward and managed to secure a considerable amount of chicken meat, which they could split and also share with everyone in building 10.
Knowing everyone was busy with work and had little to no time to visit the market, the three elderly people would always bring back something rare to share with every household in building 10.
Everyone had jobs and wasn’t short on points, but they indeed lacked someone responsible for grocery shopping.
The market was not open when they went to work and had ended by the time they clocked out.
Now as the country was striving for recovery, it felt like one person in government departments had to work as two, and there was no such thing as a lunch break anymore.
Thus, the actions of these three elderly people deeply touched everyone in building 10.
Over there, just as Grandpa Li had paid with his points and was squeezing out of the crowd with the heavy chicken meat, he couldn’t see Grandma Gao anymore.
Grandpa Li searched the entire market, and even when it dispersed, he still couldn’t find Grandma Gao.
Grandpa Li was immensely guilty, he reported to the police, then ran a long way to find his daughter at her workplace to inform her and asked her to hurry and find help.
When Grandpa Li arrived at Sister Li’s workplace, in this dark and cold weather, he was covered in sweat, and the sweat had frozen into icicles in his beard due to the cold.
After receiving her father’s message, Sister Li swiftly contacted everyone in building 10, especially Liu Sisi and Gao Zhi, the couple.
Now, everyone was out searching, leaving only Zhang Qian at home waiting for news, and she was also assigned to inform Gu Yanzhi and Song Zhao.
“Okay, I’ve got it.
You go back and wait for news, don’t rush, I’m heading out to find someone now.”
After hearing about the situation, Gu Yanzhi didn’t even try to appease Zhang Qian, and he just sent the person away.
Once Zhang Qian had left, Gu Yanzhi and Song Zhao quickly went inside to change into their gear, strapping on guns and daggers and tying illumination tools around their heads before heading out.
It wasn’t hard to deduce that Grandma Gao definitely hadn’t left on her own; removing that option meant she must have been kidnapped.
Since they had been focusing on the Yan surname issue, Gu Yanzhi and Song Zhao were keeping an eye on all the major criminal gangs in City C.
They didn’t yet know which gang was responsible, so they decided to start checking the nearest ones one by one.
The nearest suspect gang was in the adjacent residential complex.
When Gu Yanzhi and Song Zhao got down there, they knocked loudly on the windows a few times, but there was no response from inside.
Gu Yanzhi directly took out a hammer and smashed the window.
After jumping through the window, there was no one guarding the first floor.
The two of them walked up one level, still with no signs of anyone.
They quickly went up to the top floor where they vaguely heard sounds of celebration and cheering.
At the top floor, they didn’t need to specifically search as the loudest noise was coming from the door right across from the stairwell.
The door wasn’t tightly closed, and colorful lights leaked out from the gaps.
Gu Yanzhi kicked the door open, interrupting the revelers inside.
“Who’s there?”
“Yo— there’s a beauty, come join us in the fun—”
Under the multi-colored lights, the boss, surrounded by people, momentarily became alert upon hearing the noise.
Seeing Gu Yanzhi’s enchanting face, he immediately got lustful and teased her in a frivolous tone.
Hearing this disrespectful voice, Song Zhao’s killing intent practically spilled over into reality.
He raised his hand and “BANG”—a bullet created a bloody hole in the boss’s forehead, causing him to fall backwards.
“Aaaaah!”
The rest, previously muddled by alcohol, finally sobered up fully and realized that these two were troublemakers.
They fumbled for their own weapons, shakily pointing them at the two intruders.
The boss’s left and right arm companions, both girls, hugged their heads and crouched in a corner, shivering violently.
“BANG”
“BANG”
Song Zhao raised his hand and fired two more shots, taking down the only remaining two who had guns.
The others only got more terrified, their weapon-wielding hands trembling like sieves.
“CLANG”
“Ah, I was wrong, please don’t kill me, I was forced, I was so hungry—”
A young man holding an axe dropped his weapon heavily onto the ground as his hand trembled, then he hugged his head and ceaselessly begged for mercy, loudly.
A puddle of liquid, with a faint urine smell, formed under him.
Gu Yanzhi, disgusted, covered his nose.
