Chapter 54: The War of the Residential Compound

Chapter 54: The Battle of the Residential Compound

Three days later, in the morning, Gu Pan and Lu Ruisheng went to check on Shi Liang again. He had recovered quite a bit and was able to go outside now, which could be considered good news.

They also went out once more to trade for supplies. This time, their dimensional space increased by another hour and twenty minutes. Last time, there had been seven hours and thirteen minutes remaining until the space was filled; subtracting this latest hour and twenty minutes left them with five hours and fifty-three minutes.

When they returned and entered the residential compound, just as they reached the downstairs area, they saw people looking out from many windows of the high-rise buildings toward the plaza in the middle of the complex. There were loud sounds of shouting and fighting coming from the center of the compound.

Gu Pan and Lu Ruisheng did not rush over blindly. Instead, they went upstairs first to ask their people about the situation. After all, since they had just been away, they had no idea what had happened.

Once upstairs, Lu Ruisheng took out the walkie-talkie and asked what was going on.

Cheng Yang was the first to reply, "Brother, two factions in our compound are fighting. They are fighting for territory, and both want to control our compound by themselves."

Gu Pan also heard the voice from the walkie-talkie and asked, "Which side has the upper hand right now?"

Gu Pan had some impression of this battle. In her past life, although Li Dong had not sought her out and she did not know who the leaders of the two factions were, she had a very deep impression of this territory battle that left over a dozen people dead. After all, this was the first time such a bloody scene had occurred in the compound.

Cheng Yang said, "I'm looking from the 9th floor, and it's not very clear because there's a building blocking the view in front. I can only see a corner. But since you guys said we shouldn't rubberneck at such spectacles, none of us dared to go out."

Lu Ruisheng said, "You were right not to go out. We'll just wait and listen for news in a bit. Let's stay out of this matter."

Feng Zhekai also spoke up from his side, "Today they probably went out to settle the score. They're all carrying machetes, and in this weather, staying injured outside for half an hour basically means there's no saving them."

Chen Shaonan added, "Resources are getting scarcer and scarcer. I'm afraid things like this will only happen more often in the future."

Gu Pan carefully pondered some details from her past life. It seemed that the faction formed later had won and occupied the compound, and those people would be collecting protection fees from then on. However, this had nothing to do with Gu Pan and the others; protection fees still had to be paid, just to a different person, and they would still need to go out every day to scavenge for supplies. Therefore, Gu Pan did not have many memories regarding this.

This life was different, however. The faction formed later belonged to Li Dong. In her past life, Li Dong had no contact with them, but in this life, they had crossed paths. Li Dong clearly possessed the nature of a petty villain, so they had to be even more careful.

An hour later, the noises outside grew quieter.

Another ten minutes passed, and Feng Zhekai spoke over the walkie-talkie, "Someone from the third floor came to find me, saying their son was injured and unconscious, and they've carried him home. They promised me there are no outsiders there and begged me to come over and take a look. But since this involves a fight, I wanted to discuss with everyone whether I should go or not."

Unlike the previous incident with the pregnant woman giving birth, which was a personal medical issue, this potentially involved other complications.

Gu Pan said, "If you confirm with their family that there are no other people there, let's go take a look. We might also be able to gather some specific information."

After all, the people on the third floor were directly involved, and they knew more, which would be beneficial for Gu Pan and the others' future defense.

Gu Pan and Lu Ruisheng got dressed properly, went downstairs, and followed Feng Zhekai to the third floor.

When they reached the third floor, the doors of both households were open, and both Unit 301 and Unit 302 had injured people.

Feng Zhekai said, "Put all the injured people into one home, and then concentrate the heating in that one place. It will be better for the wounded." With that, he entered Unit 301.

Upon entering, he saw the injured person lying on the sofa. There were multiple stab wounds as well as a gunshot wound. At this point, the bleeding had mostly stopped, but the clothes were stained red, and the injured person was unconscious.

Feng Zhekai went over to examine the injuries, his brow tightly furrowed, and he remained silent.

At that moment, the injured person from Unit 302 was also carried over. Feng Zhekai examined them as well, and then said to the family members of both individuals, "Let's go outside to talk."

Hearing this, Gu Pan and Lu Ruisheng basically understood—there was no saving them. And naturally so; rather than being carried back immediately after being injured, these people had frozen outside for a very long time. It was indeed hard to save them now.

Gu Pan and Lu Ruisheng also came out and heard Feng Zhekai telling the families, "They were frozen outside for too long. If this were in a hospital's ICU, there might still be a chance, given the medical equipment. But with our current medical conditions, there is truly nothing I can do. Go back inside and spend the final moments with your family members."

The family members of both households wanted to argue further, but before the words left their mouths, they stopped themselves. Indeed, this place lacked medicine and instruments, and they couldn't even perform an intravenous drip. Giving the doctor a hard time was useless, so they could only express their gratitude and step back inside.

Feng Zhekai, Gu Pan, and the others went upstairs. It wasn't convenient to talk in the hallway, so they all returned to their own apartments and turned on their walkie-talkies to resume conversation.

Cheng Yang asked, "Did they say any useful information?"

Feng Zhekai replied, "Both are too far gone, unconscious, and didn't have a chance to speak."

Duan Shumei said, "Such a huge event in the same residential compound—it will probably spread very quickly."

"Let's wait for news. As long as we don't get mixed up in it, we'll be fine," Chen Shaonan said over the walkie-talkie from beside Duan Shumei.

After talking for a bit, to conserve electricity, everyone more or less turned off their walkie-talkies.

By dusk, the news leaked out. Just as Gu Pan remembered, the faction formed later had won—meaning Li Dong had triumphed.

Gu Pan pulled Lu Ruisheng down to sit beside her. "In our past life, we didn't know Li Dong, but in this life, we do. Li Dong failed to recruit us, so he will definitely have other ideas."

Lu Ruisheng said, "I have the same concern. But after fighting such a hard battle with so many casualties, they'll need time to readjust. As long as we keep an eye on their movements from the start, we'll be fine."

"Yeah. Previously, I just wanted to live quietly without competing or fighting for anything. But looking at it now, even if you don't compete or fight, others might still not tolerate you. So how do you think we can observe their movements more accurately?"

"Planting an insider, or bribing an informant."

"You're the professional one. Let's just bribe someone directly."

"Alright, then I'll go out for a stroll tonight."

"I'm going too. I have my dimensional space; I won't hold you back."

"I'm just worried it's cold at night and don't want you to go out."

"But I just like being with you."

Lu Ruisheng rubbed his wife's head affectionately. "Alright, then we'll go together."

That night, the two of them went out together and found out the gathering spot of Li Dong's group: the multi-story building at the far northwest corner of the compound. It had a total of six floors, and the entire building had been taken over by them. The original residents had been driven out and were now living in vacant apartments in other buildings. Since so many people had died, there were plenty of empty apartments available, so finding a place to live in the compound was not difficult now.

When they reached the front of that building, Gu Pan took a look. The location was favorable—easy to defend and hard to attack.

They observed for a while. There was only one person on duty at the entrance, probably shifting guard duty in rotations. Every now and then, a few people would come out of the building, but they were always in groups of three to five, never alone. It seemed their vigilance was quite high.

Therefore, they had no choice but to wait patiently until they found someone moving about alone.

Babies, Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!

(End of this chapter)