Open the door!

Assistant Pan rehearsed the lines he had just made up, confirming he had memorized them perfectly, then knocked on the door of Apartment 401, Building 9, Angui Community.

The group passionately delivering their speeches suddenly fell silent at the sound of the doorbell.

Who would be knocking at this hour? Linghua frowned.

Before she could react, the knocking continued, and the person outside shouted loudly,

“Don’t hide in there silently. I know you’re home—open the door now!”

=_=|||

Was this guy some kind of joker?

Linghua, exasperated, gestured at the group, “Xu Qiang, come with me to open the door. Everyone else, go back inside and stay quiet!”

Her gaze lingered on Guo Jingyuan for a moment, signaling the elders to keep an eye on her, before she and Xu Qiang approached the door one after the other.

“Who is it?” Linghua called out but didn’t open the door. Instead, she peered through the peephole.

Outside stood a man in his twenties, dressed in a simple short-sleeved shirt and casual pants, wearing metal-framed glasses perched on his nose. He looked rather delicate but scowled fiercely, as if someone owed him five hundred yuan and hadn’t paid.

“I’m from downstairs. Open up!” Assistant Pan shouted angrily. “What, you can cause your place to leak water into mine but can’t open the door?”

“Leak water?” Linghua exchanged a glance with Xu Qiang. Seeing only one person outside, she opened the outer door. “What leak water?”

“Don’t pretend. Your bathroom has been leaking for days! You think I wouldn’t know if I didn’t say anything?”

Whether there was an actual leak or not, Assistant Pan didn’t know, but he thought Chen Ruowen’s ideas about “food delivery” or “checking the water meter” were unreliable. That young lady probably just saw a couple of jokes online. Who checks water meters in the middle of the night? And having a delivery without ordering food? That was suspicious.

Only the bathroom leak idea seemed plausible.

Before coming, Assistant Pan had confirmed no one was home in Apartment 301, and figured this bunch of petty thieves wouldn’t know the neighbors. Posing as a neighbor to investigate a bathroom leak made perfect sense.

Assistant Pan admired his own brilliant plan immensely.

“Our bathroom isn’t leaking,” Linghua said uncertainly.

These old, rundown complexes were prone to issues like leaks, so it was possible.

But she couldn’t just let a stranger in, so naturally, she refused to admit it.

“It’s not leaking? Then am I pouring water into my own place? Don’t deny it!” Assistant Pan said, trying to push inside. “I don’t buy your nonsense. I’m going in to see for myself!”

Linghua and Xu Qiang quickly blocked him, but though he appeared mild-mannered, Assistant Pan was surprisingly agile. With a subtle move, he slipped through the gap between the two and charged inside.

Assistant Pan stepped in cautiously, observing while loudly complaining.

“A bathroom leak in the middle of the night—how am I supposed to sleep? And it’s been days without repair. I’m going to complain to the community office about your place!”

“Stop right there!”

Linghua and Xu Qiang hadn’t expected to be outmaneuvered. Thankfully, everyone had already hidden back inside. If this stranger found anything suspicious...

Then they would have to silence him.

Assistant Pan’s face darkened as he entered. All three bedroom doors were closed; he had no reason to storm into them, so he shouted loudly, hoping Guo Jingyuan would recognize him.

In the smallest bedroom, Guo Jingyuan hid at the back of the group, head bowed, puzzled.

That voice outside...

Sounds like Assistant Pan...

Back in Nancheng, Assistant Pan was always with Chen Ruowen, so they were familiar. Could it be... after dropping her off, Assistant Pan didn’t return to the Chen household but followed her here to Beicheng?

Guo Jingyuan felt a flood of complex emotions.

She dared not make a sound, fearing that if Assistant Pan heard her, he would recklessly rush in to rescue her, putting himself in danger. Yet if she stayed silent, Chen Ruowen might worry. She was torn.

While she hesitated, someone pinched her arm. The young man who claimed to be Chen Ruowen’s assistant, Xiao Yan, silently shook his head and wrote three characters on her arm:

“Don’t go.”

Guo Jingyuan glanced at him, saying nothing.

Xiao Yan continued writing: “Wait until the day after tomorrow.”

Guo Jingyuan shivered.

She wasn’t sure if she could trust him, but the words Chen Ruowen had told her... he clearly understood!

The shouting outside ceased within minutes. By the time Guo Jingyuan gathered herself, it was impossible to rush out to check if the man was really Assistant Pan.

After all this commotion, the brainwashing session couldn’t continue. The day's work was mostly done, so they might as well get some sleep.

The next day, Linghua and the others hadn’t planned to let Guo Jingyuan out to handle her card. But at noon, Chen Ruowen called again, urging them, threatening that if they didn’t send the card soon, she wouldn’t lend money anymore. Reluctantly, Linghua’s group abandoned their plan to send her bank details and instead sent two people to accompany her.

At the Sunflower Bank, Guo Jingyuan noticed nothing unusual—no secret signals, no one hinting at rescue.

“Major, are we really not acting now?” After Guo Jingyuan and her group left the bank, a young man crouching at a street corner, pretending to smoke, put away his fake cigarette and approached a man leaning against a lamppost reading a newspaper.

The young major shook his head. “Wait. Tomorrow, we strike at the nest.”

“But Lieutenant Kang said—”

“Deputy Qin,” the young major folded the newspaper, “the bigger picture matters.”

“Yes, sir!”

...

As the anxious wait continued, the “day after tomorrow” Chen Ruowen mentioned finally arrived.

Guo Jingyuan’s phone was tightly grasped by Linghua, who stared relentlessly at the screen.

“If the transfer hasn’t come by three o’clock...” Linghua snorted coldly, “just wait and see!”

...

Below Building 9 in Angui Community, twenty fully equipped men hid among the bushes, each wearing wireless earpieces.

“Environment check normal. All units ready.”

“Countdown three minutes... 170 seconds... 160... 120... 80... 60... 15... 10, 9, 8... 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, move out!”

The twenty men formed two teams and stealthily crept up the walls to the fourth floor. Some quickly and quietly climbed to the fifth floor, while others crouched hidden in the stairwell between the third and fourth floors.

Only one man, wearing a bulletproof vest over casual clothes and holding a notepad, knocked on the door.

“Open up, checking the water meter.”