Qin Sang found this pretty funny. Those jade pieces were the payment she’d asked for. If that counted as fraud, then Qu Meijing’s zero-yuan shopping spree was just plain theft.
“So what if I did? So what if I didn’t?” Qin Sang said indifferently.
Qu Meijing was momentarily speechless, but she knew she had no standing to argue. After all, those items had been acquired for free. Still, thinking about the value of those jade pieces—if even a few of them could grant someone a blood-recognized space, what a fortune in supplies they could trade for! Online, rich folks were offering huge bounties for all kinds of jade. Not that she lacked supplies, but who would turn down more?
“Aren’t you afraid I’ll tell everyone about the jade?” Qu Meijing tried to threaten her.
Qin Sang chuckled. “Go ahead! See who believes you. And if they do, then your zero-yuan shopping spree will be exposed. I hear that group is being forced to carry bricks at construction sites these days.”
Lately, all kinds of criminals who’d been caught were being thrown into infrastructure work. Those without spaces worked as cement mixers; those with spaces had to transport steel bars and bricks using their dimensions. These people earned no points. The authorities gave them just enough supplies to keep them from starving.
Rumor had it they’d keep working like that until they died.
So don’t think the punishment was light.
Hearing Qin Sang threaten to report her, Qu Meijing—even knowing there was no evidence—felt a flicker of fear. The apocalypse was almost here. If she got caught and forced into hard labor, her rebirth would be a complete waste.
“Forget it. Pretend I never said anything.” Qu Meijing reluctantly dropped the matter and slunk away.
Qin Sang rolled her eyes. This reborn woman wasn’t very smart, was she? What good did it do her to pick a fight right now?
—
On July 23rd, the Survival app’s online mall opened as usual. Many supplies were available for purchase, but Qin Sang didn’t buy anything. Earlier, when she’d helped verify the village’s population data, she’d received a subsidy of 200 points. One point could buy one catty of rice. With her points, she could only get 200 catties of rice.
But the main reason she wasn’t buying anything was that she didn’t want to go outside.
Not even a full day had passed since the murder case, and the people online shouting “let’s kill someone and try it” weren’t joking. Some had actually started killing space owners. These madmen, obsessed with the idea of getting rich overnight, specifically targeted space owners they knew—acquaintances or relatives.
The number of such people wasn’t large, but the country’s population was huge. Plus, with the heat keeping everyone indoors, everyone was online. So every little incident got posted to the internet, and the authorities couldn’t delete them fast enough.
This had led to no one daring to go outside, afraid of being killed at random.
The authorities were trying to figure out how to handle the situation. They’d issued multiple announcements, repeatedly stating that killing a space owner wouldn’t make their space or supplies drop. But that still didn’t stop those who wanted to try. In the end, all they could do was urge everyone to stay indoors as much as possible—especially space owners—and wait for further instructions.
What instructions could the authorities give?
Some suggested releasing some jade pieces for exchange on the Survival app mall. That might give these killers a glimmer of hope and reduce the random killings.
But no one knew how effective that would be. The main issue was that if they opened exchanges, the cost would be very high.
Compared to that, killing someone was much easier.
Of course, the authorities could also do nothing at all. If these killers murdered enough space owners, they’d eventually figure out on their own that killing didn’t make the space or supplies drop.
But that was only theoretical. The authorities couldn’t just stand by and let innocent people be killed.
And so, a grand hunt and counter-hunt began.
Qin Sang thought this had nothing to do with her. But that very night, something happened at home.
—
Lately, because of the heat, everyone had been pushing back their bedtime quite a bit. But by two or three in the morning, there was no one moving around in the village. Most people had already drifted off to sleep.
Qin Sang was also asleep. But she wasn’t resting soundly—probably because she’d witnessed a murder scene firsthand. So when she heard movement in the yard, her eyes snapped open. She could hear someone walking around outside.
She got out of bed immediately and quietly went to the window facing the yard. Carefully lifting a corner of the curtain, she didn’t see anyone in the moonlight. But she had definitely heard something.
Qin Sang was confident in her instincts, and her intuition was telling her danger was near.
Without any hesitation, she pushed open her door and walked into her parents’ room. Seeing that they were fast asleep, she sent them into her space.
Then she took out a crossbow from her space and loaded it. She pulled out her phone and checked the security cameras.
There were cameras at the front door, back door, and on every floor. But when she opened the feed, every single camera had lost signal.
Qin Sang knew this wasn’t a coincidence. She was dealing with someone serious.
She wasn’t the type to take unnecessary risks. So she sent an emergency signal to the village patrol.
But before the patrol arrived, the danger was already closing in.
Even though she couldn’t see the cameras anymore, Qin Sang once again thanked her increasingly sharp hearing. She could actually hear someone walking up the staircase.
Whoever it was, they were bound to be frustrated. Because not only did her house have a stairwell door on the first floor, there were stairwell doors on every floor. And since the disaster was approaching, all those doors had been reinforced with a thick iron door. That meant there were two heavy iron doors for each floor.
To get to the third floor, they’d have to go through six iron doors.
Qin Sang could only imagine how frustrated the intruder must be feeling—opening iron door after iron door, only to find more iron doors.
—
Qin Sang leaned against her front door, ears straining to listen to the stairwell.
The two doors on the second floor were about to open. She tightened her grip on the crossbow, finally starting to feel a bit nervous.
She knew some martial arts—in fact, many of the kids who grew up in their urban village had learned a few moves when they were young. Most people in their village had studied Wing Chun.
To be safe, Qin Sang decided to strike first.
Her front door also had two layers. The first was an iron gate with bars. The second was a heavy wooden door with a small square hatch. Qin Sang pulled the little hatch open, rested her crossbow on the ledge, and aimed it at the stairwell door.
And her approach was absolutely correct.
When the second door on the third floor was pushed open, Qin Sang didn’t hesitate—she pulled the trigger. With a faint whoosh, the bolt buried itself in the intruder’s chest.
But there were two shadows. One went down; the other, more alert, ducked behind the corner.
Qin Sang held her breath and shifted her position.
The motion-sensor light in the stairwell flicked on. Qin Sang could only see a body lying on the floor. But she was sure the person hiding around the corner hadn’t left—they were waiting to strike back.
Facing this kind of situation for the first time, sweat began to bead on Qin Sang’s forehead. Her long eyelashes caught the droplets, not letting a single one fall.
Because Qin Sang didn’t dare blink.
If that person refused to come out or leave, she couldn’t either. And she definitely wasn’t going to hide in her space—that would reveal her secret, and besides, she couldn’t spend her whole life avoiding the darkness of the world.
The world was about to undergo a massive upheaval. The sooner she adapted, the sooner she’d find her place.
Even as she thought this, she couldn’t help cursing Brother Fa in her head for being so slow.
But she was actually blaming him unfairly. It wasn’t that Brother Fa didn’t want to come—he couldn’t. She wasn’t the only one under attack that night. Several other households in the village that had space owners had also been targeted.
Her situation was actually better than most—no one in her family had been hurt. Other people hadn’t been as alert as Qin Sang, and they didn’t have her keen hearing to detect intruders early.
So by now, there had already been casualties.
But Qin Sang quickly realized something was going on outside.
She heard screams. And gunshots.
That meant the intruders weren’t only at her house. It also meant they had guns.
Maybe the commotion outside rattled the intruder still hiding on her landing. Gunshots rang out one after another. And then the intruder Qin Sang had been watching finally moved.
They must have found the right angle, because they opened fire.
A loud bang was followed by the whistle of a bullet and the smell of gunpowder. Qin Sang’s entire body tensed. Her extreme muscle control kicked in—and it made all the difference.
She stepped back and turned sideways, using the wall as cover. The whole movement took less than five seconds.
By then, the bullet had already arrived.
Seeing it embedded in her home, Qin Sang’s back broke out in cold sweat.
In that critical moment, instinct took over. She extended her arm holding the crossbow, eyes sharp. Through the two doors, she felt like she could see the savage face hiding behind them.
Then, in an instant, a shadow flashed past the small hatch. Qin Sang seized the opportunity and pulled the trigger.
A dull thud—the sound of something sharp sinking into flesh. Then a muffled grunt. Then the thump of a heavy body hitting the floor.
Qin Sang couldn’t be sure the person outside was incapacitated, so she didn’t open the door to check. Instead, she called the police directly.
From that call, she learned that her house wasn’t the only one hit—every household in the village with a space owner had been invaded.
At that moment, Qin Sang knew for certain that someone had leaked the village’s specific situation to outsiders.
The police and patrol arrived five minutes later.
The person outside wasn’t dead—when they saw the police, they tried to fight back but were subdued immediately.
Only when she heard the all-clear from outside and Brother Fa’s familiar voice telling her to open the door did Qin Sang finally unlock it.
“You okay?” Brother Fa asked, his face full of concern.
Qin Sang shook her head. “I’m fine.”
“Good. You have no idea—Yonghua’s mother was killed.”
Yonghua was Qin Yonghua, the high school student. His family was the one that had lent money to Qin Wenbang. And now, tonight, his mother had been murdered.
Qin Sang wanted to ask more, but a police officer stopped Brother Fa from continuing, so she held back for now.
The officers then came inside to take her statement.
Qin Sang’s parents walked out of their bedroom. Both looked shaken. Before she’d opened the door, Qin Sang had released them from her space. Grandpa Goose had gone ahead and filled them in on the situation outside.
So when the police questioned them, they simply said they’d been hiding in their room.
Qin Sang told them everything except the secret of her space. She emphasized that she didn’t know either intruder, but that both had seemed very familiar with the layout.
After taking the statement, the police warned her before leaving: “In these special times, the authorities aren’t regulating weapons like crossbows. But please use yours responsibly. Don’t hurt innocent people.”
Qin Sang nodded. “Okay. If you have any further information, please let me know. I want to know who in our village was targeted.”
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