"You're startled, aren't you? That voice... it sounds familiar?"
The figures of the two people emerged from the shadows and into the light, their clear eyes fixing directly on Luo Xiaole. They seemed to know her quite well.
"See you again, big sis~" the two greeted her proactively.
Luo Xiaole gasped. Weren't these the twins she'd bumped into outside the Luocheng base?
...
At the same moment.
Zhou Shoushan, who had just entered the municipal building, keenly noticed a somewhat familiar black sedan parked in an inconspicuous corner on the ground floor of the municipal hall. A license plate number etched in his memory caught his eye. He squinted; this car belonged to the Qinglong Gang members who had escaped from the suburban villa. No wonder he hadn't been able to trace it before; it had been hidden by the Qinglong Gang. But its sudden reappearance... did it mean they were making their move today?
Zhou Shoushan, however, continued his steady ascent.
Before a simple, antique bronze-colored wooden desk, he was still poring over the Luocheng situation report that had been piled on his desk since early morning.
"Com... Commander, aren't you scared? Nervous?" his confidant was clearly on edge. At a time like this, Zhou Shoushan was still handling base affairs!
The weathered corners of Zhou Shoushan's eyes curved upwards in a gentle smile. The calluses on his hand from years of holding a pen had formed miniature hills.
"I'm used to it. As long as I'm alive for another day, these matters will always be more important than my personal ones." Without lifting his head, he continued to attend to the remaining administrative tasks.
"Tap—tap—" A peculiar sound of leather shoes on the floor echoed from the corridor. Step by step, filled with confidence and arrogance, the sound drew closer to Zhou Shoushan's office...
"Bang!" The office door was forcefully shoved open.
"Old man, long time no see~" Zhou Kaifeng greeted him with an irritatingly casual tone, a smug smile playing on his lips.
Zhou Shoushan's hand, turning a page, did not stop. The ink from his pen flowed as cleanly and smoothly as usual. After a long moment, he finally closed the document before him. His sharp gaze bore directly onto Zhou Kaifeng standing at the doorway.
"Oh, it's my honor that you'd put down your work to remember me, old man~" he said sarcastically, then clapped his hands. In an instant, over a dozen people, including Cheng Miao, surged in like a dark cloud, their oppressive aura filling the office.
...
At the pharmaceutical factory.
"Twins? What are you doing here?" Luo Xiaole was taken aback, her eyes wide as saucers.
"We're spatial ability users." Their answers were perfectly synchronized, as always.
Spatial ability users, rare even in the base! And two of them showed up at once! And they knew each other! Luo Xiaole was astonished.
"So, which side are you on?" Luo Xiaole's eyes were full of curiosity.
The twins exchanged a knowing glance and produced identity cards from their pockets. Each card bore a special watermark created by Zhou Shoushan himself, along with his personal signature. Luo Xiaole didn't dare to approach too closely, only examining the cards from a distance. The photos on them indeed showed the faces of the two brothers. She finally felt relieved, as no one could replicate that watermark now! It was definitely genuine.
"But what are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be protecting Commander Zhou?"
"This is a mission assigned to us by the Commander. Leave this place to us."
Luo Xiaole sighed, impressed that Commander Zhou had known about this so early...
"But Commander's communication device clearly showed he was in the municipal hall, and it suddenly malfunctioned just now!" The twins frowned, showing concern. If the Commander hadn't appreciated them and brought them secretly by his side, they wouldn't be where they were today... Closing the escape routes for the Qinglong Gang was a major undertaking.
"We were just about to go find Commander Zhou!" Luo Xiaole's voice was steady. "You stay here and deal with the spatial issues. Teleport us to the Commander!"
Everyone's eyes lit up; it was a good idea, provided it could be executed. The twins' eyes also sparkled.
"According to our deductions, there's definitely a spatial portal in the municipal hall," the two said, smiling at each other with perfect synchronicity. "If their important operation is tied to the municipal hall, they would inevitably set up a spatial waypoint there!"
Everyone considered it and found it made sense.
"Let's not delay any longer. The Commander's situation is likely not optimistic. First, teleport us to the municipal hall to try," Luo Xiaole decided firmly.
"No problem!" The twins clasped each other's arms.
"Brother, stop playing dead. Hurry up and explain how to use it," Luo Xiaole said with a grin, holding a silver needle and addressing the person who had been motionless for half a day. But the person remained completely still...
"Don't worry, after my acupuncture treatment today, you'll feel refreshed all over when you get back..." Luo Xiaole's hand, holding the silver needle, moved closer, deliberately emphasizing the word "refreshed." It was enough to make one imagine being pierced through!
A demon! A true demon! The person scrambled up with a swift鲤鱼打挺 (carp jump) and scurried off to guide the twins on how to use the ability sphere to traverse the spatial waypoints within the Luocheng base.
"Good job. I'll give you that acupuncture session next time!" Luo Xiaole, in a mischievous mood today, watched them with a smile. Standing with the others, amidst a faint orange glow, a soft halo rose from beneath their feet, and their figures gradually vanished from the pharmaceutical factory.
...
Thirty seconds later.
Luo Xiaole and the others appeared outside Zhou Shoushan's office, their eyes wide, looking at each other in disbelief. The spatial waypoint was set up right in the tea room where Luo Xiaole had been received! It was truly a case of "the light beneath the lamp." To be so close, they really had the nerve... They clearly didn't put the Commander in their eyes!
Conversations from inside the office carried clearly.
"Yo, the renowned Commander Zhou, we meet again~" Cheng Miao's grating voice rang out. "Back at the base, you had Luo Xiaole protecting you, but now? Look around you. Besides this little subordinate, who else is there? Where are all the familiar faces you knew?"
Zhou Shoushan lowered his head, his brow furrowed with gloom. Of course, he understood Cheng Miao's implication. The ability users he had sent to Fengcheng had all been dealt with by Cheng Miao and his crew.
"The municipal hall? Naturally, it's all our people too. Otherwise, do you think we could have entered so easily? Hahahaha!"
"Oh, and I forgot to tell you, I'm not very talented, but all the city defense forces in Luocheng base have now been replaced with my and Young Master Zhou's men."
"And your dear citizens, whom you've guarded so fiercely, have also abandoned you now..."
"Commander Zhou, everything and everyone you wanted to protect has, has, disappeared without a trace..."