Chapter 118: Boss Su Injured
Hearing the commotion, tenants from Buildings No. 2 and No. 3 rushed downstairs. They were all horrified by the scene in front of them.
Zhuang Wan also saw the corpse not far away and staggered back in terror. At the same time, she stopped Chen Xi and Chen Yang from moving forward.
As Chen Xi stepped back, her foot landed on a crumpled piece of paper. Curious, she picked it up, but when she saw the bloodstains on it, she shrieked and threw it far away.
Su Tao didn’t notice. She instinctively pushed Chen Xi and Chen Yang back, then turned around to help up Grandma Cen, whose limbs had gone weak.
The elderly woman’s face was deathly pale.
“I was passing by and heard a loud thud. I thought something had fallen from a balcony, so I went to check. But then… I saw a dead body! There were words carved into its face, covered in blood…”
Nearby tenants nodded in agreement.
“Yeah, I heard it too. It was really loud.”
“Me too! I thought the Blood Scythe gang was back to hack at our walls again.”
“Who is this dead person?”
…
Some of the braver tenants were about to step forward to check, but Su Tao immediately grabbed one of them.
“No! Everyone, back away! Don’t crowd around! Quickly! Chen Xi, Chen Yang, get out of here now!”
Her heart was pounding wildly, an ominous feeling surging within her. Her instincts screamed at her—this corpse couldn’t be touched. They needed to get away. Fast.
Just as she was about to help Grandma Cen retreat, Lan Lingling suddenly stumbled over. Under the moonlight, she caught sight of the corpse’s clothing, and her eyes widened in despair.
“A’Chi—!”
“No—!”
Beep, beep, beep— A countdown.
There was a bomb in the corpse!
BOOM!
Woof!
Su Tao instantly shielded Grandma Cen beneath her. A massive shockwave and scorching heat blasted against them.
The next second, she saw Xuedao lunging toward her.
Then, everything went black.
*
When Su Tao regained consciousness, a splitting headache wracked her skull. As soon as she opened her eyes, she saw Lin Fangzhi slumped over at her bedside, while Zhuang Wan sat beside him.
She seemed to be in a hospital room in Dongyang.
A corpse. An explosion. Xuedao!
“Su Tao?” Lin Fangzhi’s bloodshot eyes lifted. The moment he saw her awake, they filled with life again.
Zhuang Wan also jolted awake. She quickly pressed the call button for the doctor.
Her face was filled with lingering fear. “Thank goodness! You’re finally awake. Other than the headache, do you feel unwell anywhere else?”
“Where’s Xuedao?”
Zhuang Wan avoided her gaze. “It’s fine… just got a little injured…”
“What kind of injury?”
“Boss, the doctor’s coming. Maybe let them check you first?”
Su Tao ignored her. She yanked out the IV needle from the back of her hand and threw off the blanket, ready to get out of bed.
Zhuang Wan felt her scalp go numb and hurriedly confessed,
“Xuedao… hasn’t woken up yet. The preliminary check showed that only the hind leg is broken. With Dr. Zhong around, it shouldn’t be a big problem.”
Su Tao was fuming. A storm of rage built inside her.
“What about Grandma Cen? And the others? Were there any casualties?”
Someone had sneaked a bomb onto her own turf!
And they had injured Xuedao!
It was the first time Zhuang Wan had ever seen her boss look this furious—so livid she seemed ready to erupt like a volcano.
She was so terrified she could barely get the words out.
“Boss, calm down… Only Lan Lingling is seriously injured. She’s still in emergency treatment. Thanks to your quick evacuation, most people were far from Wu Feichi’s body when the bomb went off. The explosive was homemade, so its power wasn’t that strong. The only ones with minor injuries are you and Xuedao. Aunt Cen was protected by you, so she only has a few scrapes and bruises.”
“No one else was hurt at all. You… you—”
Hearing this, Su Tao finally exhaled a breath of relief, but the fire in her heart only burned hotter.
When the doctor arrived and saw that she had pulled out her IV, he started scolding her. But after noticing her icy expression and the freezing pressure in the room, he chose to shut his mouth.
After a round of checkups, there were no major issues, but she still had to stay in the hospital for another day under observation.
That afternoon, a huge group of Taoyang tenants crowded outside her hospital room, wanting to visit. However, the doctor drove them away.
“Seriously, I’ve never seen so many visitors at once. Figure out a schedule and come in groups—you’re blocking the entire hallway. Now, get moving.”
In the end, only Qian Lin, Aunt Cen, Old Mei, and Liu Panpan were allowed inside.
The moment Aunt Cen saw Su Tao’s head wrapped in gauze, her eyes turned red, and tears began falling uncontrollably.
“You silly child! You pushed everyone else away but came back for me? I’m old, already halfway in the grave. If I died, so be it—but you, you’re still so young…”
The flames of rage in Su Tao’s heart were instantly doused by half.
Aunt Cen couldn’t stop crying. She sobbed while furiously calling Cen Tianjiao. As soon as the call connected, she started cursing.
“You little brat! Why aren’t you back yet? My Tao girl was nearly blown up! You better hurry home and catch the bastard who planted that bomb! What’s the point of raising you if all you do is run around outside?!”
Cen Tianjiao froze. “What?! Boss Su got blown up?!”
Su Tao immediately felt that something was about to go very wrong.
Sure enough, someone snatched Cen Tianjiao’s communicator.
Aunt Cen didn’t realize it had changed hands and scoffed, “You’re the one who’s dead! My Tao girl is alive and well—”
“Aunt Cen, where is Su Tao? Is she next to you?”
Hearing Shi Zijin’s voice, Aunt Cen paused before replying, “Shi kid, yeah, she’s right here. Listen, the bastard who planted that bomb is getting too arrogant. They even left a note saying they’d kill all Taoyang people! You didn’t see the body—it had four bloody characters carved into the face: ‘Just a warning.’ This is a threat! A provocation! You guys need to do something. Find the animals who did this and take them down!”
Hearing this, Su Tao turned to Zhuang Wan for confirmation.
Zhuang Wan still felt chills when recalling last night’s events.
“Chen Xi picked up a crumpled piece of paper last night. At first, she got scared and threw it away when she saw the bloodstains on it. Luckily, it wasn’t caught in the explosion. After everything settled, we retrieved it. It had some really hateful words against Taoyang written in blood. I won’t repeat them, but they were vile.”
“At dawn, Pei Dong sent people to collect the body fragments. The tests confirmed—it really was Wu Feichi, the missing person.”
Su Tao wanted to ask more details, but Aunt Cen suddenly shoved the communicator into her hands.
“It’s for you. The person on the other end doesn’t sound too happy. You both better keep your tempers in check and not start fighting.”
Young people always had short fuses.
Su Tao took the communicator, racking her brain for a way to de-escalate the situation.
But before she could speak, the voice on the other end said, “I was too worried. You say you’re fine—good. But I can’t believe it.”
Su Tao felt a headache coming on. She was about to ask how exactly they wanted her to prove she was alright when suddenly, the air in the room shifted violently.
Out of nowhere, two hands emerged, tearing open an invisible rift in space.
Against the light, breaking through the constraints of distance, that person stepped forward—clad in bloodstained military uniform, having crossed an unimaginable expanse—appearing right in front of her.
Su Tao stood frozen.
It felt like something had taken root in her heart.
And it was beginning to sprout.
