Dimensional Store: Welcome to the Apocalypse Apartment - chapter 95

From the way Qian Duoduo talked around it, Gu Huaiwei figured Xiao Youqi probably wasn’t doing so great either.

“Aren’t you two friends?” Gu Huaiwei remembered their relationship being good.

Qian Duoduo let out an “oh,” giggling-though there was a sharp edge of mockery in it. “Yeah. And that’s exactly because we’re good friends that we can betray each other and get more out of it. Try pulling that kind of thing on a stranger-who’d even bother with you?”

Hurting someone close to you was, of course, far easier than hurting a stranger.

Gu Huaiwei fell silent. So their friendship had cracked.

She didn’t have the mood to care what had happened to Xiao Youqi.

Right now, Gu Huaiwei was surrounded. Behind the thick lenses, her dark eyes flicked around as she calculated how to get out.

There were ten armed security guards behind Qian Duoduo. If she took Qian Duoduo hostage, she’d have a chance to escape.

So Gu Huaiwei put her hands behind her back.

“Fine. Let’s talk this through.” She feigned surrender and stepped forward.

Gu Huaiwei was “trying to talk”-about how to blow Qian Duoduo’s head off.

“Talk? Sure. But I’m not interested in you at all. Someone else wants to talk to you.”

“Anyone’s fine. I’ll cooperate completely.” As the distance closed, the corner of Gu Huaiwei’s lips lifted slightly.

The instant she entered striking range, Gu Huaiwei snapped into motion and pulled a gun from the Jade Bracelet.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

She fired several shots at the guards opposite her, then rolled and darted into her sister’s office.

Qian Duoduo yanked a guard beside her into the line of fire to shield herself. Used as a human shield, the bodyguard was soon drenched in blood and collapsed in a miserable heap.

Qian Duoduo shoved several people forward in quick succession. Moving fast, she dodged the bullets and searched for cover to the side.

“Hurry up-grab that woman! The professor wants her alive! Whoever catches her gets permanent residency in the Upper District, and there’ll be a huge reward!”

Furious and frantic, Qian Duoduo directed the remaining guards. She absolutely could not let Gu Huaiwei get away.

The guards disliked Qian Duoduo’s methods, but they held the “professor” in deep awe and didn’t dare slack off.

After Gu Huaiwei rushed into her sister’s office, she went straight to the window and looked out. The floor was high, and the institute’s exterior walls had no ledges or protrusions-there was no way to climb down from outside.

She quickly forced herself calm and scanned the room for places to hide.

First, she shoved the desk over to block the door.

Then Gu Huaiwei stepped on the office chair a couple of times, leaving dust and footprints.

There was a ventilation duct overhead. It was narrow, but just barely wide enough for one person.

Gu Huaiwei opened the vent, dragged the chair directly beneath it, tossed one shoe into the duct, then slipped into the storage cabinet in the room and held her breath.

Leaving aside where the ventilation duct even led-if she actually went in, with this many people chasing her and only a single route through the ductwork, they’d definitely drag her out in no time.

She needed to win by surprise.

Gu Huaiwei decided to hide right here in the room.

After the guards smashed the door open, they immediately spotted the chair and the open vent.

“She ran through the duct!” a guard shouted.

Qian Duoduo entered, but she didn’t rush to check the ventilation duct.

The curtains fluttered in the wind and the window was open. She leaned out first, craning her head to look outside.

Qian Duoduo was disappointed. She didn’t see Gu Huaiwei anywhere.

“Miss Qian, that woman probably escaped through the ventilation duct.” A young guard pointed at the vent cover that hadn’t been put back properly, trying to remind her.

Qian Duoduo ran her fingers over the footprints on the chair and sneered. “What’s the point of standing there yapping? Get a few people in there and drag that woman out for me-now!”

“Uh… the opening’s too small…”

The young guard was male, with a larger build. He simply couldn’t squeeze into the ventilation duct.
Several of them went up to try, but they got stuck the moment their shoulders reached the opening.

Seeing how useless these security guards were, Qian Duoduo’s tone turned nasty. “If you’re too big, then dislocate your arms! This is driving me insane. I’m raising a whole bunch of you, and every last one of you is useless.”

“Miss Qian, strictly speaking, it’s the institute that pays our wages, not you.” The young guard couldn’t hold his temper and said it straight.

His colleague tugged his arm, then shook his head, signaling him to stop talking.

Qian Duoduo’s eyes darkened in an instant. “What? Just because I’m not the one paying you, you think I can’t order you around?

Don’t forget, it was my idea. That’s how Professor Feng was able to lure that woman here from the hotel. I’m a VIP guest your professor invited. You should be a little more polite to me.”

“… ”

The moment Professor Feng was mentioned, the guards fell silent.

Hidden inside the cabinet, Gu Huaiwei listened to the exchange outside in silence.

Arms folded, Qian Duoduo sounded impatient. Her gaze swept over the guards before she finally forced herself to ask, “Who’s smaller? Crawl in up there. Be proactive-don’t make me pick.”

“Uh…”

The guards looked at one another.

Then, all at once, they looked at Qian Duoduo.

Out of everyone present, only Qian Duoduo-her body shriveled by radiation to the size of a child-was the best fit.

“So you’re saying you want me to crawl in?” Qian Duoduo’s temple throbbed.

No one dared to speak, but that was exactly what they meant.

The young guard who’d just spoken out-bolder than the rest-saw that nobody else dared to say anything. He forced a smile and stepped forward to perform again. “How about… we call a few more people over for you?”

The colleague who’d tried to stop him stared at him in horror, then quickly lowered his head, pretending he was blind and deaf.

“By the time you get them here, it’ll be too late!” Qian Duoduo spoke viciously, but she wasn’t stupid. This wasn’t the time to blow up at her underlings and hand Gu Huaiwei a free chance to escape.

“Unbelievable! Something this small, and I still have to do it myself!” Qian Duoduo climbed onto a chair with her tiny body and looked down at the guards beside her. “You lazy trash, hurry up and lift me. I can’t reach.”

The guards scrambled together and hoisted Qian Duoduo into the ventilation duct.

A short while later, Qian Duoduo’s voice echoed from inside the duct. “The rest of you, don’t just stand there-search the room!”

Gu Huaiwei stayed quiet, listening to the sounds of drawers being yanked open and things being tossed around.

Then someone opened the cabinet. In that instant, Gu Huaiwei drove her foot hard into the person’s stomach, kicking them flying. She fired around her to cover herself, trying to break for the door.

Qian Duoduo had just grabbed the shoe Gu Huaiwei had thrown into the duct when she heard gunshots erupt in the office.

“It’s a trap!”

Qian Duoduo hurled the damn shoe away and tried to turn back.

But the narrow ventilation duct didn’t give her room to pivot or get out quickly.

All she could do was brace herself and inch backward.

After wounding several guards, Gu Huaiwei spotted Qian Duoduo’s short little legs sticking out of the vent.

This was exactly what she’d been waiting for!

Gu Huaiwei bent her knees, coiled her strength, and sprang up like a loaded spring. She grabbed Qian Duoduo by the ankle. With Qian Duoduo’s startled scream, Gu Huaiwei yanked her brutally out of the duct and forced her down onto her knees.

The next second, the black muzzle of Gu Huaiwei’s gun pressed against Qian Duoduo’s head.

Gu Huaiwei brushed aside the bangs that kept stabbing her in the eyes and flashed the others a victorious smile. “Everyone, don’t move. From this moment on, if anyone dares to fire again, I’ll blow her pitiful little brains out.”