Chapter 489: There

"The car park was wiped out?"

"Fuck!"

"How could this happen?"

Zhang Su, Liu Yao, and Yang Xinqi spoke at once, staring at each other in shock.

"No!" Yang Xinqi lunged forward to Ma Xiyu, urgently saying: "Explain clearly—what exactly happened?"

"Quick, stick to the important parts!"

Zhang Su pressed him, and Yang Xinqi was frantic—he was even more frantic. If the Absolute Justice bunch went on a killing spree and killed more than twenty-six members of the Tianqi Team, his challenge mission would be completely ruined!

Ma Xiyu's back was drenched in sweat, nervously saying: "Lao Cao contacted me via coded message, but before he could say two words, a stranger snatched the radio and said…"

"Finally, Absolute Justice told us to bring supplies to the development zone to ransom the hostages. I thought… a hundred bullets, three pistols… maybe, plus three hundred jin—no, three hundred liters of pure water, and a hundred jin of food!"

"I'll give them three hundred jin of shit! Absolute Justice has gone insane!"

Liu Yao leapt into the air, cursing furiously toward the southwest: "You fucking bastards, you dare touch my brothers? Fuck—"

Mid-curse, he suddenly remembered he was no longer the boss. His voice cut off. He turned to look at Zhang Su, whose brow was tightly furrowed: "Boss Zhang, what do we do?"

"Boss Zhang… please save my poor brothers!"

Yang Xinqi pleaded with a face full of despair.

Zhang Su looked at Zheng Xinyu, filled with frustration—he felt he'd made a mistake.

On the way here, he'd asked Zheng Xinyu whether to tackle the hardest problems first or start with the easy ones. She'd said to handle the hard ones first. At the time, he'd thought recruiting the Survivor Alliance was the hardest task, so he'd rushed straight to Letao Mall. But now…

Looking back, if they'd gone to the car park first, Absolute Justice could never have pulled this off.

He realized he needed to ask questions more clearly next time—no more letting subjective judgment cloud his judgment. Just then, he spotted a shadow flicker past in the distance.

"There's someone over there!"

Zhang Su pointed toward the residential gate.

Everyone followed his gaze and saw a timid figure peering nervously from the guard booth.

"Lao Cao!"

Liu Yao recognized him instantly and shouted: "Lao Cao, come here, quick, hurry!"

Shouting wasn't enough—he shoved through the crowd and sprinted toward the guard booth.

Inside the guard booth, Cao Duoliang was drenched in sweat, his lungs cold with every breath. Even with the skateboard's help, the nearly four-kilometer sprint had drained him completely—he was sixty years old, no matter how well he trained, he couldn't match his youth.

When he first arrived at Xinglong Huafu, the scene inside shocked him. If not for four months of surviving the apocalypse, he'd have thought the neighborhood was hosting a wedding—the bridal procession had arrived…

He'd crept cautiously into the guard booth, but before he could investigate further, he was spotted! Cao Duoliang jumped at shadows—he panicked when seen. But when he saw Liu Yao running toward him, half his burden lifted. His legs trembled as he stepped out of the booth, tripped over the skateboard, yet didn't curse—he righted the skateboard that had helped him so much.

"Commander Liu…"

"Lao Cao, what the hell happened to you?"

Liu Yao reached Cao Duoliang and saw him filthy, hair wild, no coat on in minus twenty degrees, just a wool sweater, snot frozen on his upper lip—utterly miserable!

The funniest part? He was pushing a skateboard. Anyone seeing him would think a crazy old man had wandered in.

"Come on, quick, let's get back to the kindergarten to warm up!"

"Holy shit…"

Liu Yao jumped at the voice behind him—he hadn't even noticed Zhang Su had followed.

"You're…"

"Lao Cao, this is…"

"No introductions now—just go, hurry!"

Zhang Su saw Cao Duoliang's dazed eyes and knew his condition was dire. He quickly took off his down jacket and draped it over him. At his age, if he caught hypothermia, he'd be lucky to survive.

"So Lao Cao was an undercover agent for Tianqi Team? I thought he'd really defected!"

"I thought so too. Damn, we were naive. Quick, stop talking, make way!"

When the kindergarten staff saw Zhang Su and Liu Yao helping Cao Duoliang back, they quickly cleared a path. Once they entered, the rest surged in after them—Xinglong Kindergarten had its busiest day since the apocalypse.

The Yanluo Army couldn't all crowd in—they had too much to do: guarding the flamethrower zombie vehicle, keeping watch around the perimeter—nothing could be neglected at any time!

"I'd just finished cleaning the kitchen pots and pans and was about to prepare lunch when I heard a commotion outside. I peeked out—my god! Over ten vehicles crashed into the camp, and a gang of bandits stormed out, armed, some with guns, beating people down—brutal, utterly brutal!"

In the kindergarten's middle-class classroom, Cao Duoliang sat before a stove, clutching a steaming enamel cup, his face still pale with shock, recounting the morning's ordeal.

He thought those people were worse than zombies. When zombies attacked, he could hide—but against humans, there was nowhere to run. "How many of the brothers died?"

Yang Xinqi, frantic, shook Cao Duoliang's shoulder.

"Commander Yang…" Cao Duoliang looked at him, ashamed: "I'm sorry for your trust in me. I actually…"

"Stop blabbering—I don't have time to blame you. Just answer my question!"

"I saw three dead—no, four. When they stormed the car park, they killed Xiao Kan, Big Nose, and Xiao Hong. Then Lao Zhuang died trying to protect Jiajia… sigh."

Cao Duoliang sighed deeply at the end.

"AHHHH!"

Yang Xinqi exploded in rage: "Why? Why did this happen? Why did Absolute Justice strike the moment I left the car park? Why?!"

"Because there's an Absolute Justice mole inside the team…"

Cao Duoliang answered weakly, his voice unsteady—he himself was the mole.

Yang Xinqi nearly spat blood. He'd suspected Liao Youzhi of the Survivor Alliance, never imagining his own team was infiltrated. It was agonizing—but he had no one to blame but himself. He'd been too careless taking in survivors.

"Who? Who's the Absolute Justice mole?" Yang Xinqi growled.

Cao Duoliang shook his head helplessly: "They didn't name anyone. Only that someone among us is a mole."

A mole's identity is never revealed unless the team is completely destroyed—otherwise, he might still be useful.

"Son of a bitch, you're inhuman!"

Yang Xinqi clenched his fists, pacing frantically.

"Ma Xiyu said Absolute Justice wouldn't let you go—how did you get back?"

Zhang Su asked the key question.

"Yeah, Xiao Ma said they wanted us to go to the development zone to ransom you—what's going on?"

Liu Yao finally caught on.

Cao Duoliang had just raised the enamel cup to his lips. Hearing their questions, he set it down, his face twitching, frowning: "The guy demanding ransom was an idiot—called himself Lei Zi. He was like he'd taken speed, completely nuts. He snatched the radio from a guy surnamed Huang, yelled his demands, then smashed it. They nearly came to blows…"

"Then Huang talked sense into the nutjob, saying their boss didn't want a direct clash with the Eagle Society—because if the Eagle Society was gone, they'd have to face the Survivor Alliance head-on. Something like that. So they let me go…"

His story was messy, but everyone present understood the meaning.

"Fuck, they're thinking ahead, huh? Well, now they don't have to face the Survivor Alliance—they've got something far worse waiting for them. Fuck!"

Liu Yao cursed, sneaking a glance at Zhang Su, who frowned, face grim—clearly furious.

Zhang Su felt Liu Yao's gaze. He took a deep breath, steadied himself.

He hadn't even enjoyed victory, his challenge mission wasn't done, and now Absolute Justice had stirred up trouble—this was infuriating.

"I'm Zhang Su from Tianma Yu. The Eagle Society and the Survivor Alliance no longer exist. This is the Tianma Yu Kindergarten Branch. Strictly speaking, you're part of Tianma Yu now. Save the chatter for later, Lao Cao—when you left the car park, what was the situation there?"

Zhang Su asked carefully.

"Huh?!" Cao Duoliang froze—he'd just heard something earth-shattering.

"Huh your head, talk!" Liu Yao shoved Cao Duoliang's shoulder.

"Oh oh… I overheard them talking. They planned to drag Tianqi Team's members to their camp as laborers. The women with looks… they'd…"

Cao Duoliang didn't finish—but everyone knew what fate awaited those women.

(End of Chapter)