"Wake up, Mingpeng, the food is ready."

    Mingpeng slowly opens his eyes, only to see Yueyue and Xiaoyun standing in front of him.

    "Let''s try to walk to the kitchen, okay?"

    Xiaoyun held Mingpeng''s hand. Slowly, the two headed to the kitchen, step by step. With only a few occasional trips, Mingpeng quickly got used to walking again.

    When the three arrived in the kitchen, everyone was already sitting there waiting.

    "This is the boy you''re talking about?" Leyan curiously asked.

    "Yeah... We found him at 304... You don''t want to hear the rest, but he''s here now."

    Leyan nodded in agreement, but it triggered Nami''s curiosity even more.

    "Come on, just tell us what happened at 304. There''s nothing to do besides sitting at home all day."

    Xiaoyun and Yueyue looked at each other for a second, then decided to discuss what happened to Mingpeng.

    "I''ll explain it... So me and Xiaoyun today went to 304, and we found this boy who was being... eaten by man——"

    Before Yueyue could finish her sentence, all three of the girl''s faces dropped in shock.

    "Man? You mean like a cannibal?" Lily asked in a concerned voice.

    "Yeah, like a cannibal. But we were able to save Mingpeng just in time," Yueyue explained, choosing to hide some of the details.

    "We also interrogated the man, and he told us that Mingpeng was captured by people in 309. Mingpeng, can you introduce yourself?"

    Xiaoyun looked over to Mingpeng, who was a little nervous sitting at the dining table.

    "H-Hello, my name is Mingpeng, and I am ten years old. I go to Pinglin Elementary School, and I used to live in Louping community No 309."

    Mingpeng went back to silence and resumed eating his food.

    "Besides the info on Mingpeng, we also were able to learn that a gang was set up in 309... The boss of the gang has a gun and used to work for the triad."

    Xiaoyun paused for a second to chew, then continued.

    "And they had been clearing the mansions one by one. Consider the man we interrogated got to 304. That means they had cleared the houses from 310 to 305... That''s all the info I was able to gather from him."

    As the table fell into silence for a short second, Yuqi decided to ask a question.

    "What happened to the man you guys interrogated? You guys didn''t just send him back, did you?"

    "We——"

    "He won''t be able to travel back. You don''t have to worry about it."

    Xiaoyun ended the conversation before Yueyue could say anything, which made Yuqi let out a sigh of relief as Yueyue''s face turned a little dark.

    "What should we do? Are they going to come to us at some point?" Leyan raised her concern.

    "They are definitely going to get to here... It''s only a matter of time."

    Hearing Xiaoyun''s answer, the atmosphere on the table suddenly got a lot heavier.

    "How many people do they have?" Yuqi asked.

    "Around nine gang members... Mingpeng, do you know how many people are in there exactly?"

    Everyone at the table turned their attention to Mingpeng, who suddenly started shaking as if it had triggered something awful in his head.

    "It''s okay Mingpeng... You don''t have to force yourself——"

    Before Yueyue could comfort Mingpeng, he suddenly looked much more determined, as if he made up his mind.

    "They have six people that do manual labor. My mom is also a part of it. But they won''t fight back."

    Mingpeng quickly added the last part, not wanting them to be targeted as enemies.

    "So, there are sixteen people total... Mingpeng, do you know what kind of weapon they use besides the boss?" Leyan curiously asked.

    "They use mostly metal pipes and knives... They all have empty guns or fake guns since the boss only gives them bullets when it''s time to go search for supplies in the cities." Mingpeng explained.

    "Shit... That man was lying even when he was about to die," Xiaoyun murmured, realizing the man had given him fake information.

    "So the boss of this gang doesn''t trust his crew. That''s a good thing we can manipulate when we attack them," Yuqi added.

    "Do we really need to attack them? It seems very risky... why don''t we try to negotiate first?" Nami proposed.

    "Nami, we can''t do that. They are gangs. We can''t negotiate with them when they run their base like medieval kings." Leyan pointed out.

    "We need to get a map of their house layout and know their patrol timing before we attack them. We can''t go in blind." Yuqi adviced.

    "They don''t have night patrol. They always fall asleep when they get assigned night duty on the roof.

    The boss has complained many times, but they all group up to go against his wish." Mingpeng chimed in, wanting to give Xiaoyun as much info as possible.

    "That''s even better... Now we need to decide when to attack them."

    Xiaoyun paused for a second to think, then continued.

    "The longer we wait, the more people will suffer under them... Also, it''s only a matter of time before they notice one of their men went missing.

    So if we want to keep the element of surprise, we should attack as soon as possible, which is tonight." Xiaoyun explained his plan.

    "But we don''t even know what 309 looks like. Shouldn''t we at least scout it for a day first? Then we can attack the day after or something."

    Nami instantly argued against Xiaoyun''s idea as she felt it was a little bit too rushed.

    "Nami is right. We can''t just rush in. What if they start night patrol tomorrow? What if they have hidden scouting units that hide in the dark?" Yuqi added.

    Both Leyan and Yueyue nodded in agreement to Nami''s idea as they both felt it was way too rushed.

    However, Mingpeng was fully in support of Xiaoyun''s plan, as the longer it took, the longer his mother had to suffer under the gang members.

    "How about I go scouting it tonight to make sure? Then we attack tomorrow night." Xiaoyun offered a compromise as the conversation stalled.

    "No!"

    All four of them said at the same time, not moving an inch back at all.

    "Fine, fine... Then let''s just go with Nami''s plan——"

    "That''s a Valid point. I guess we just need to flesh out the details, and we can skip the scouting part."

    As everyone sat still, thinking of a plan, Yuqi was able to come up with one first.

    "I have a plan... Actually, two plans."

    "What is it, Miss Yuqi?" Yezi curiously asked.

    "Well, assuming they don''t have night patrol outside as Mingpeng described, we can just completely sneak inside through the back entrance, walk upstairs through this floor to this hallway, and then to the boss room."

    Yuqi first pointed the path that they could take to the back entrance, then suddenly shifted her finger to the hill from which they could directly see the boss''s room.

    "Alternatively, we can stand at this hill right here and try to assassinate the leader straight up. You have a rifle, right?"

    Everyone considered Yuqi''s plan in their head for a second until Yezi spoke up against it.

    "Your first plan makes sense... But your second plan is way too impractical. Shooting at night is extremely hard.

    Even the best sharpshooter can''t shoot that far at night unless they have night vision or a heat detector."

    Yezi''s professional military experience made Yuqi nod in agreement, abandoning the second plan altogether.

    "Wait, I got a plan."

    Nami pointed at the front gate, then further inside the house.

    "We can overwhelm them from the front. We have rifles and pistols to shoot right through their defense, even if they have two people standing in front.

    Since they don''t have bullets before going to the cities, they can''t fire back. All we need to do is get all of them before they can get to their boss to hand out the guns.

    "That''s way too risky."

    Leyan and Yuqi both instantly at the same time, with the rest joining in as well.

    "Whatever..." Nami backed down as she began to realize how naive her idea was.

    With everyone on board with Yuqi''s idea, there was now one last question to the plan.

    "How are you guys going to get there? Are we walking over several miles at night? Or are we driving there?" Leyan pointed out.

    "I think we should walk there. Driving is too much noise." Yueyue suggested.

    "No, that''s too far. We should definitely drive there—at least halfway. Perhaps we can park our car at 308. Wait, Mingpeng. All of them stay inside 309 when they sleep, right?" Xiaoyun asked.

    "Yeah, everyone stays at 309 to ensure nobody gets attacked by a wandering zombie or something since it''s still close to the city."

    "Okay, then we can drive to 308 and walk up to 309. They won''t be able to see us at night, and the windy leaves will fully cover the car noises anyway."

    With Xiaoyun''s reasoning, no one could find any flaw, so they all nodded in agreement with the plan.

    But another question suddenly arose that everyone had completely forgotten about.

    Who''s going?" Lily curiously asked.

    "Me, Yueyue... Yezi, is your leg good?" Xiaoyun asked in a concerned tone.

    "My leg? I mean, I can''t run, but I still can walk. I am a good shot, so don''t worry."

    Despite saying it out loud, Xiaoyun noticed Huayi looked a little concerned for Yezi''s health.

    "Okay, just Yueyue and me then——"

    "What? I''m a better shot than all of you. Why can''t I go?" Yezi asked, despite knowing what Xiaoyun''s response would be.

    "If the plan goes wrong and we need to run, your leg injury will drag us behind."

    After a short standoff, Yezi backed down.

    "Fine, how about letting me be the driver?"

    "Sure, you can be the driver."

    "Wait, I want to help, too," Yuqi added.

    "Yuqi, do you remember the last time you ran with us? Your planning is enough to help, okay?"

    Xiaoyun patted Yuqi''s head in front of everyone, unaware of how weird it looked to Yezi and Huayi.

    Yuqi quickly pushes Xiaoyun''s hand away, but she doesn''t ask to join again as both of their faces start to blush a little.

    "Anyway, Yunyun, Yezi, and I are going tonight. How about we go at one o''clock? It''s the best time to strike, the exact time when people fall deep asleep."

    "Sure, Huayi and I will come back later here then... Thank you guys so much."

    The two bowed in gratitude before leaving the house and getting into their car. But Xiaoyun stopped them before they drove off.

    "Wait! Mingpeng, do you want to stay in your uncle''s house?"

    Mingpeng nodded in agreement as he went over to Yezi''s car and joined in.

    "Thank you, mister Xiaoyun and Miss Yueyue!"

    Mingpeng waved goodbye inside the car as Xiaoyun and Yueyue waved back.

    "Well, everyone can go to sleep now. Yueyue, can you set an alarm and wake me up later?"

    "Sure." Yueyue nodded.

    As Xiaoyun and Yueyue headed back inside the house, the four of them were all looking at the two.

    "Well, I am going to go take a nap——"

    Suddenly, both Yuqi and Leyan ran up to Xiaoyun and kissed him on the cheek.

    "Stay safe, honey/babe, okay?" The two said at the same time.

    "Don''t worry, I will stay safe."

    Xiaoyun hugged the two and kissed them back, but before he could go upstairs to sleep, Lily and Nami ran up to him.

    "Okay, okay. That''s enough."

    After hugging the two, Xiaoyun finally headed upstairs to his room.

    "So many death flags today... Surely it''s just a coincidence, right?" Xiaoyun thought to himself as he quickly fell asleep on the bed.