Chapter 142: Zhang Ming, Captain of the Second Squad

Jiang Miaomiao and Shen Mei heard that Qin Sheng had returned from the Zombie Forest and had even brought A Chi a gift. The two of them leaned over beside A Chi to take a look, and when they saw what the gift really was, the expressions on their faces were exactly the same as A Chi’s.

A Chi stared at the teeth of the unidentified creature in her hand, then looked at Qin Sheng with a smile that did not reach her eyes. “You didn’t pull this zombie’s teeth out of the Zombie Forest and bring them back for me, did you?”

Jiang Miaomiao had no idea how to smooth things over for Qin Sheng either. The stiff smile on her face twitched.

She truly could not understand Qin Sheng’s reason for giving such a gift.

“A Chi, you don’t happen to have some strange hobby, do you? Otherwise, Qin Sheng wouldn’t have given this gift to you specifically.” Shen Mei gathered her thoughts, seriously suspecting that A Chi had a penchant for collecting things like this.

“For heaven’s sake, I enjoy collecting handsome men, but I don’t have any hobby of collecting teeth!” A Chi immediately protested. She had no idea what this was supposed to mean, so she could only ask Qin Sheng again.

Qin Sheng raised her brows slightly, looking almost smug. “These are Zhang Dong’s.”

That explanation only left A Chi and Jiang Miaomiao even more bewildered.

The tooth in A Chi’s hand belonged to Zhang Dong—or, more precisely, it was one of Zhang Dong’s prominent front teeth.

Jiang Miaomiao seemed to realize something. She looked at Qin Sheng and cautiously asked, “If Zhang Dong’s tooth is here, then where is he?”

She had not seen Zhang Dong at the assembly that day either.

Could it be…?

Just as Jiang Miaomiao had suspected, the moment she met Qin Sheng’s eyes, she understood what had happened to Zhang Dong.

“He’s dead.”

Whenever Zhang Dong was mentioned, Qin Sheng’s expression became noticeably colder and more disgusted. If not for something A Chi had said before, she would never have touched Zhang Dong’s corpse.

“I remember now!” A Chi had been racking her brain, trying to recall everything she and Qin Sheng had said about Zhang Dong before Qin Sheng went to the Zombie Forest. At last, she had some idea.

It was almost certainly the time Qin Sheng had visited her in the hospital after Zhang Dong beat her badly enough to put her there.

A Chi had angrily remarked that if she ever got the chance, she would pry Zhang Dong’s front teeth right out of his mouth.

It had sounded like nothing more than an ordinary joke, but Qin Sheng had remembered it.

Although the method was certainly difficult to understand, A Chi’s heart still felt warm. The Zombie Forest was fraught with danger, yet Qin Sheng had gone to the trouble of remembering a remark that had only been made in jest.

Only then did A Chi feel somewhat less repulsed by Zhang Dong’s tooth lying in the handkerchief. Her hatred for Zhang Dong, however, remained unchanged.

“I’ve handed it over to you. What you do with it is up to you.” Qin Sheng glanced at A Chi, who seemed lost in thought, said this simply, and then went downstairs.

Qin Sheng had little interest in the men’s dormitory, so she went straight down to the first floor and planned to take a casual look at the other two rooms.

The two rooms beside the building were more like a large open-plan apartment. One of them gave Qin Sheng a pleasant surprise: it contained a fairly complete set of exercise equipment. It had probably been tossed into the room when the safe zone was first established. The equipment was still relatively new, though covered in dust and in need of a thorough cleaning.

Qin Sheng turned into the other room. There was nothing inside at all, and she had yet to think of a use for it.

She was considering whether to tidy it up and turn it into a small kitchen when noisy voices came from outside.

Her thoughts interrupted, Qin Sheng had no choice but to leave the room and see what was happening.

The moment she stepped outside, she saw Wang Qiang, Yu Yong, and Little Pang returning with several daily necessities and supplies. None of them looked particularly happy.

“What happened?” Qin Sheng asked.

As soon as the three heard Qin Sheng’s voice, they immediately hid their sour expressions.

“Captain, nothing happened. We’ve finished collecting the supplies and come back,” Yu Yong said first, clearly intending to conceal whatever had just occurred from Qin Sheng.

Wang Qiang nodded as well. “That’s right, Captain. We’re fine.”

Little Pang, however, looked so aggrieved that he could not bear it. Seeing Wang Qiang and Yu Yong pretending that nothing was wrong, he could only remain silent.

Qin Sheng knew from their expressions alone that something must have happened while they were collecting supplies at the core base.

“Little Pang, you tell me.” Qin Sheng knew exactly what sort of men Wang Qiang and Yu Yong were, so she directly questioned Little Pang, who was filled with resentment but could only endure it.

“Captain, I…” Little Pang had not expected Qin Sheng to ask him outright, and he hesitated.

“Tell me everything exactly as it happened.”

In the end, Little Pang succumbed to Qin Sheng’s authority and recounted every detail of what had happened at the core base.

“Captain, that’s everything. Nothing else happened.” After finishing quickly, Little Pang secretly glanced up at Qin Sheng, then lowered his head again.

Qin Sheng’s expression was extremely stern. Even Wang Qiang and the others felt a little uneasy under her gaze.

“You were robbed and came slinking back just like that? That doesn’t sound like any of you.” Qin Sheng frowned in confusion.

Wang Qiang pressed his lips together and sighed. “It’s not our style. But it was your first day as captain, and we didn’t want to cause you trouble.”

Qin Sheng knew without guessing that this was the reason.

The safe zone’s guard force was dominated entirely by Guo Jun and his team. For Team Two to dare behave so recklessly at the core base and openly seize supplies from Team Seven, they had clearly made a habit of it. On the first day of her appointment, they were obviously testing her limits and temper—

checking whether she had the courage to stand up to Guo Jun, who held absolute power.

Unfortunately for them, they had no idea that Qin Sheng had been at odds with Guo Jun since the very first day she arrived at the safe zone. Why should she let this matter go?

Qin Sheng gave a cold laugh and continued, “Do you know which team those troublemakers belonged to?”

Yu Yong answered honestly, “Team Two.”

Qin Sheng nodded thoughtfully. “Is the captain of Team Two close to Guo Jun?”

She asked without the slightest attempt to hide her bluntness.

Yu Yong nodded. “I wouldn’t call it a close relationship. Every captain merely curries favor with Guo Jun.”

Qin Sheng folded her arms. For some reason, she thought of Yang Lin, the captain of Team Five. His Tiger Team seemed rather different from the others.

“What about the captain of Team Five?” she asked, more out of curiosity than anything else.

Yu Yong shook his head. He only knew the general situation among the guard teams. On the surface, everyone fawned over Guo Jun, but who knew what they truly thought in private?

Qin Sheng nodded knowingly and curved her lips into a faint smile. A hint of coldness entered her eyes.

“Arm yourselves and follow me.”

Before the three could ask what Qin Sheng intended to do, she had already disappeared from sight and headed toward the dormitory building to retrieve her sword.

Little Pang pressed his lips together anxiously. “Brother Qiang, did I cause trouble for the captain?”

Wang Qiang shook his head and first comforted Little Pang. They did not have any proper weapons anyway, so each of them picked up a large sledgehammer.

When Qin Sheng came out with her sword strapped to her back, she saw the three men holding sledgehammers. She froze for a second, realizing that she ought to equip them with swords.

That could wait until they returned.

Qin Sheng looked helplessly at the sledgehammers in their hands. After pursing her lips, she said, “Forget it. You’d better not bring those.”

The weapons had only been meant as a deterrent. After all, the safe zone had rules forbidding internal fighting.

Taking sledgehammers along made it look far too much like they were going to start a brawl.

The three men had no choice but to give up and return the hammers to where they had been.

“Uncle Yu, do you know where Team Two is located?” Qin Sheng turned and asked Yu Yong, who seemed more familiar with the safe zone.

Yu Yong shook his head helplessly. He had arrived at the safe zone at the same time as Qin Sheng and had no authority to enter or leave the areas assigned to the guard teams. The only reason he knew those men belonged to Team Two was that he had seen them at the assembly hall earlier that day and remembered their faces.

Qin Sheng drew a deep breath. She decided that obtaining a map of the safe zone was essential. Otherwise, she would not even know where to go to settle the score.

Just as she was about to return and ask whether A Chi knew, Shen Shi appeared at some point and leaned against the doorway of the dormitory building.

“I know where it is. I’ll lead the way.”

After exchanging a glance with Qin Sheng, Shen Shi walked out first, leading Qin Sheng and the others toward Team Two’s area.

Qin Sheng had forgotten that Shen Shi was still around.

When it came to knowing the safe zone, Shen Shi was the most familiar person in Team Seven. He was, without question, a living map.

Within a few minutes, they arrived at the area where Team Two operated.

They had stood at the entrance for less than a minute when the blaring music coming from inside had already made Qin Sheng, who was accustomed to quiet, irritable.

The entrance was already so noisy. One could only imagine what the inside was like.

Qin Sheng frowned, then opened the door and walked in.

There were no members of the guard team stationed at the entrance. Clearly, they were all inside, dancing and partying.

Suppressing her discomfort, Qin Sheng walked farther inside with a frown. Unlike Team Seven’s layout, Team Two’s quarters resembled a large courtyard. There were fewer rooms than in Team Seven’s area, but each room was considerably larger.

Two members shared a room, much as they did in Team Seven.

The moment Qin Sheng pushed open a door, the smell of tobacco drove her back two steps.

Wang Qiang was tall enough to look inside. The room could only be described as thick with smoke. Even he, a man, could barely stand the overpowering stench.

Qin Sheng knitted her brows tightly, her face full of impatience, and kicked open the door in front of her.

The tremendous crash startled Wang Qiang and the others, as well as the members of Team Two who were smoking inside.

“Which damn brat kicked in my door?!” came the room’s immediate chorus of curses.

Shen Shi leaned close to Qin Sheng’s ear and reminded her, “The one with the accent is the captain of Team Two, Zhang Ming.”

Qin Sheng gave a slight nod. A moment later, Zhang Ming came out, his clothes in disarray. When he saw the familiar insignia on Qin Sheng’s uniform, he hurriedly pulled his clothes together.

“So you’re Captain Qin?” Zhang Ming said in heavily accented, rather halting speech.

Qin Sheng immediately put on a stiff, unnatural smile. Clearly, he knew perfectly well that she had done it on purpose. Smiling, she said, “Captain Zhang, this room is certainly thick with smoke. I couldn’t see where I was going the moment I entered, so I accidentally ran into the door. You won’t hold it against me, will you?”

Zhang Ming glanced at the enormous hole in his door. It was obvious that she had done it deliberately, but there was nothing in Qin Sheng’s wording that he could criticize. He could only force a smile and say, “It’s fine. As long as you weren’t hurt, Captain…”