After hearing the woman’s words, both Jiang Nian and Li Sheng thought of Xia Weiwei. No one else in the Southern City base claimed to be Jiang Wenwen’s sister—she was the only one.
A scent of smoke mixed with perfume drifted over, surprising Jiang Nian when he caught it. It turned out to be a blend of agarwood and white musk.
The blend of the two scents was quite harmonious, carrying a subtle hint of desire. However, it didn’t suit the surroundings at all.
Since his superpower had awakened, he had become sensitive to energy auras and his sense of smell had sharpened. He could identify scents he had come into contact with before.
“…”
After quietly observing the woman standing in the doorway for a moment, Jiang Nian asked,
“Besides her sister, did you have any particular impression of the others who came looking for her? How many people were there? Were they in a group?”
“Hah…”
Blowing a lazy plume of smoke from her red lips, the woman shrugged.
“Besides her sister, there were about four or five others. All of them were wearing hats, sunglasses, or masks. They weren’t together, but they didn’t look like good people either. They were too covered up. They knocked on the door and asked questions. I just answered them. I didn’t dare ask more.”
Jiang Nian looked at her suspiciously.
“You just opened the door when strangers knocked?”
There was a peephole in the thin wooden door, enough for someone to see outside. Normally, people wouldn’t open the door if they saw strangers.
But the woman snorted.
“Handsome men, they were offering credits. Why wouldn’t you open the door to answer a few questions for a few hundred points?” Anyway, life and death are up to fate, wealth is decided by heaven, blessings can’t be forced, and disaster can’t be avoided. It’s not easy for us to live out here, unlike you, driving a Hummer and staying in the central district.”
How could a wealthy, handsome man understand the suffering of the poor on the outskirts?
“… ”
Jiang Nian didn’t want to argue with her, nor did he want to engage in a conflict with a woman. He fell silent and dropped the subject, thinking to himself:
Jiang Wenwen had said that after the apocalypse, she mostly acted alone. Except for him, she hadn’t made any close friends in the Southern City base.
She’d always wanted to join their team and hadn’t been close with any other superpower groups. She was cautious and preferred to stay clear of trouble.
But now she had disappeared, and so many people were looking for her. No matter how you looked at it, it wasn’t normal.
“…”
After searching the entire room, Li Sheng found nothing suspicious and said:
“It looks like she left on her own—to avoid Xia Weiwei, someone else, or maybe for a reason we don’t know.”
“…”
Jiang Nian stared calmly at the woman who hadn’t come back out after speaking. He thought for a moment and said,
“Yeah, I was probably overthinking it. She suddenly dropped contact, so I wondered if she’d been kidnapped.”
“The base’s rules are strict. It’s not easy to kidnap someone, plus she has a superpower.”
The woman sneered when she heard Jiang Nian’s words. After speaking, she flicked her hair over her shoulder, twisted her waist, and went back inside.
“In that case, I’ll ask Xia Weiwei later.”
Li Sheng said this and glanced at Jiang Nian. The two of them left Room 1120 quickly.
Speaking of superpowers, Jiang Nian had only sensed one in Jiang Wenwen’s dorm—his own.
As they walked out of the alley, they passed a tall, thin man in a short-sleeved camouflage shirt.
Jiang Nian subconsciously turned his head and saw the man knocking on the door of Room 1121.
The woman who had just been outside opened the door while holding a phone in one hand. With her other hand, she pulled the man inside. She shot them a glance before shutting the door.
Jiang Nian: “…”
He had basically guessed it already, but still…
Seeing Li Sheng’s reaction, he appeared perfectly calm, as if he knew what was going on but was simply turning a blind eye.
Come to think of it, forget about the end of the world. When order collapsed, this sort of thing happened, even in times of prosperity. People were always living with danger hanging over them. There was no need—and no one had the energy—to care.
Li Sheng glanced back briefly, then asked,
“Jiang Nian, do you not believe what that woman said?”
He rarely handled matters like this personally, and in his view, the woman’s story sounded normal enough.
“Yeah.”
Jiang Nian didn’t deny it. He looked straight ahead and replied in a slightly lower voice.
“What she said sounds reasonable, but sometimes things that sound too reasonable aren’t normal. She was too friendly and forthcoming. I met her before I came to the base, when I brought Jiang Wenwen back. She didn’t like us then…”
He then explained some of the reasons and past events to Li Sheng.
Even a kind stranger or someone he’d interacted with casually would have been easier for him to trust.
But after the woman failed to morally blackmail him, her ungrateful nature was plain to see. She wasn’t the type to act like that.
Li Sheng understood after hearing this. “So that’s how it is…”
“…”
Jiang Nian thought for a moment and added,
“Besides, the cigarette she was smoking and the perfume she was wearing were completely out of place…”
“…”
Li Sheng hesitated.
“I don’t know much about perfume, but tobacco isn’t cheap in the Southern City base. Still, it’s possible someone gave them to her. You saw how she was coughing.”
Jiang Nian explained seriously.
“She was smoking agarwood cigarettes and wearing white musk perfume. From what I know, a 30-milliliter bottle of white musk perfume and a pack of women’s agarwood cigarettes cost about three thousand credits—far more expensive than before the apocalypse.”
“Ah? That’s…that’s really expensive!”
Li Sheng’s voice rose in surprise. That was almost equal to a month’s wages for a frontline rescue worker.
Jiang Nian smiled.
“Yeah, you’re always working in the office or the central area. It’s only natural that you wouldn’t run into these things or know about them. I happen to have some. I brought them back to trade a while ago, so I remember the prices.”
Perfume wasn’t something they’d prepared beforehand. Brother Jing had brought it back from a perfume shop in Qingyun City after the end of the world. There was a decent amount, all of which were relatively high-end brands.
They hardly ever used it in daily life, only occasionally to set the mood.
The whole world stank, but Brother Jing had always said that the room itself should smell good.
“Now that there are more people in the base, we have plenty to do in the central area…”
Li Sheng sighed and smiled, then said,
“Even though I don’t understand why disposable luxuries that don’t solve livelihood problems are so expensive, as long as there’s a market and a price, that’s market demand—and the market doesn’t make mistakes.”
Some couldn’t feed themselves, while others squandered wealth. Some struggled just to survive, while others prospered and made fortunes in hard times.
Every creature was different, no matter the era.
With this in mind, he could understand why Jiang Nian was suspicious of the woman.
Three thousand credits wasn’t much for the wealthy, but it was out of reach for someone living in an outer district boarding house.
In other words, people who could afford such luxuries usually wouldn’t live in fringe dormitories.
It wasn’t about hobbies or anything trivial. Safety was always the biggest issue, and trouble often came with scent.
“… ”
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