"Yang Taozi?" A captivating voice came through.

Yang Taozi froze for a moment. Wasn't this Li Xuan's apartment? Why was there a woman's voice?

Could it be that Li Xuan was keeping a mistress hidden away?

Using food and water to force a beautiful married woman to submit to him?

How despicable! How enviable!

Yang Taozi gritted his teeth, lowering his voice as much as possible to conceal his emotions. "It's me. Where's Li Xuan? Yun Lan wants to see Li Xuan. Can you pass along the message?"

"Oh~ Wait a moment." Yun Xiuzhi woke up Li Xuan.

"That person named Yang Taozi said he drugged the Long-Legged Woman and wants you to go enjoy her. Are you going?" Yun Xiuzhi said.

"He's inviting me to enjoy her? Given his personality, would he really do something like that? Most likely, the Long-Legged Woman is his prey. A hunter doesn't give away his prey before catching it," Li Xuan replied.

Yun Xiuzhi shook her head. "No, no, you misunderstood me. I meant that after killing Yang Taozi first, you could freely enjoy the Long-Legged Woman."

Li Xuan fell silent for a moment, his expression complex. "You have quite the bloodthirsty streak."

"I've read many dark novels before where the villains all do this. After reading enough, I learned it too. Anyway, Yang Taozi isn't a good person. Killing him wouldn't bring any guilt, and it would help Yun Lan escape her suffering. When you think about it, us killing Yang Taozi would be doing a good deed," Yun Xiuzhi declared with righteous conviction.

From her demeanor, Yun Xiuzhi wasn't lying—these were her genuine thoughts.

Li Xuan opened the surveillance feed, clearly seeing Yang Taozi outside aiming a nail gun at the peephole. Because Yang Taozi wasn't tall, he had to raise his arm high, a position that required considerable effort. Yang Taozi's arm was trembling slightly.

"He's coming after me because I didn't lend him food?"

"Um... probably. Good thing we didn't lend him any. He's seeking revenge even when we didn't lend him anything. If we had lent him food, he would've definitely taken advantage and ultimately resented you anyway." After saying this, Yun Xiuzhi added another criticism: "This guy is a bit stupid. He didn't even notice the camera above the door. The Long-Legged Woman didn't tell him either."

Li Xuan nodded. From the video, Yang Taozi indeed looked foolish.

So he chose to ignore Yang Taozi, quietly watching the surveillance feed.

Yang Taozi waited for a while, sweat dripping from his forehead, his arm sore and aching. "Is she coming? I really am Yang Taozi. If you don't believe me, look through the peephole!"

"Where are you! Li Xuan! Hurry up! If you don't come soon, the drug's effects will wear off!"

Sigh...

After five minutes, Yang Taozi finally couldn't hold it any longer. The moment he lowered his arm, the door swung open—fast.

With a bang, the door slammed into Yang Taozi's forehead. His mind went blank, vision blurry.

Dimly, he saw a flash of white light rushing toward him.

Instinctively, he crossed his arms to block. The next moment, piercing pain shot from his arms to his brain, jolting him awake instantly. His eyes widened.

He saw the true nature of that white light.

It was a Large Machete!

Deeply embedded in his arm! The wound was bone-deep, flesh torn outward!

"Ahhh! Li Xuan! You bastard! I brought you a woman! And you try to kill me!" Yang Taozi let out a piercing scream.

"Idiot, there's a camera above my door."

Li Xuan continued swinging the blade, striking Yang Taozi's shoulder. Blood splattered, a few droplets landing on his sleeve, adding texture to the pure black fabric.

Blood blossoms bloomed; slaughter proceeded in the night.

Yang Taozi kept backing away, trying to block with his arms, but took another slash. After that, he didn't dare block anymore—he turned and ran.

Unfortunately, he couldn't outrun Li Xuan normally, let alone after being slashed three times. With massive blood loss and rapidly declining stamina, he hadn't gone more than a few steps before Li Xuan caught up.

Li Xuan moved fluidly, like a leopard, quickly closing in behind Yang Taozi. He swung the blade without technique, relying purely on brute force.

The cold steel gleamed strikingly under the moonlight.

The blade passed; blood flowers sprayed.

The edge struck the spine. Yang Taozi thudded forward, collapsing face-down on the ground.

"Don't kill me! Please, don't kill me!"

"I'll give Yun Lan to you! I don't want anything anymore, just let me go!"

Yang Taozi struggled to extend a hand, pushing his upper body up, inching forward like a worm.

The elevator was right there, but he needed to stand to press the button.

Li Xuan strolled behind him, the Large Machete in his hand stained red, droplets of blood falling from the tip, leaving plum blossom patterns on the floor.

Moonlight streamed through the corridor window, half of Li Xuan's body shrouded in darkness, half bathed in lunar glow. Crisp footsteps echoed in the hallway, like a demon emerging from hell toying with human lives, offering wicked souls to the lord of the underworld.

"Although this question is rather redundant, I still want to ask—why target me?" Li Xuan's low voice emerged from the darkness.

Yang Taozi trembled all over. Massive blood loss had left him pale—perhaps the palest he'd ever been in his life.

"You sampled my prey, didn't you? That was my prey. Jianghu rules—you don't steal another's hunt."

"Boring. This isn't the Jianghu anymore; it's the apocalypse," Li Xuan said.

"Spare me! I don't want to die!" Yang Taozi begged for mercy.

Li Xuan completely lost patience and swung the blade down.

Blood sprayed. Yang Taozi's eyes dimmed, life extinguished.

Truthfully, even if Li Xuan hadn't delivered the final blow, Yang Taozi would have died anyway.

Yang Taozi's injuries were too severe, his blood loss too great. Even before the apocalypse, survival couldn't be guaranteed. Now, with the hospital system collapsed, no doctors or medicine, mortality from excessive blood loss due to injury was one hundred percent.

Yang Taozi didn't understand this, so he kept begging until the end.

Unit 1701. In the dim room, the Long-Legged Woman Yun Lan lay spreadeagled on the bed, staring blankly at the ceiling.

She had been so happy before. Why did things turn out like this?

Yun Lan didn't understand; she couldn't comprehend her deceased husband's thought process.

"The door opened? Did he go out? Or let someone in?" Yun Lan abruptly sat up, checking if the door was locked.

She genuinely feared Yang Taozi might sell her out.

Having lived with Yang Taozi for so long, she knew him fairly well. Aside from taking responsibility for raising his younger brother in his youth, he was an utter scumbag.

Laziness, greed, and slyness were thoroughly embodied in him.

She pressed her body against the door. After a long while, no sound came from outside—an eerie silence.

Yun Lan called out softly for Yang Taozi but received no response. Carefully, she opened the door a crack, peeking through the gap.

"Where did he go?"

Yun Lan took out her phone and messaged Yang Taozi. No reply. A possibility occurred to her: maybe Yang Taozi went to the eighteenth floor alone to borrow food.

So she sent a message to Li Xuan.

A moment later, Li Xuan replied.

[Come up and collect the body.]

Yun Lan's arm jerked, nearly dropping her phone.

After steadying her emotions, her fingers flew across the screen.

[Yun Lan: You killed Yang Taozi? Why did you kill him?]

[Li Xuan: He tried to kill me, so I killed him. I didn't kill you because you weren't involved.]