Chapter 54: Slaughter

The kitchen is located in the northeastern corner of the villa.

Not small by any measure, it is divided into a Western-style and a Chinese-style section.

The Western kitchen connects directly to the dining room in an open-plan layout. Behind it lies the Chinese kitchen, separated by a full wall of cabinetry and a single glass door. The Chinese kitchen is long and narrow, with a small door on the eastern side leading directly out to the garden. Above the long countertop against the northern wall stretches a massive glass window. Right now, however, that window is shattered into the intricate pattern of a spiderweb.

Though the glass is not bulletproof, it is certainly sturdy enough that a random tossed stone couldn't break it. Yet the disturbance that drew them over in the first place was not the shattering of the window, but the sound of bowls and dishes smashing all over the kitchen floor. These items, which should have been stored neatly inside the cabinets, now lay scattered across the ground in a myriad of fragments.

There was no one inside the kitchen, though the small eastern door stood ajar.

The three men who had come to investigate the situation exchanged glances after taking in the scene. Then, one of them took the lead and walked toward the small door.

Reaching the back of the door, he pressed his ear against it and listened for a moment. Hearing no suspicious sounds, he reached out, gripped the doorknob, and slowly pushed it outward.

The door swung open silently, inch by inch.

The wind from the mountain forest gently swept in.

His face taut, he raised his gun, pushed the door open with a sudden, forceful shove, and leaped straight out of the house into the open air.

Yet, in the dim gloom of the night, aside from himself, there was not a trace of another living soul.

The other two men followed closely behind him. Just as one of them was about to speak, something suddenly dropped down from the roof right behind their backs.

Before either could turn around, two hands clamped firmly onto their heads. With a sudden, synchronized wrench—bang!

Hearing the sound, the man in the lead spun around sharply. In the blink of an eye, a figure squeezed violently between his two companions and materialized right in front of him. One hand seized the wrist of the arm holding his gun, while the other grabbed a handful of his hair. Before he could even process what was happening, his entire face collided forcefully with the adversary's rapidly rising knee.

A searing, blinding sourness flooded his nasal cavity. Before the pain could even register, a gush of fresh blood burst from his nose.

A wave of intense dizziness followed instantly. Then came a sharp, searing pain in his neck, and his sluggish thoughts ceased entirely.

All of this—from the moment Zhong Yuan's cell phone began ringing outside the door until now—had actually taken no more than five or six minutes.

Yet to the people in the living room, whose nerves were already stretched to the breaking point, it felt as though an eternity had passed.

The woman called Sister Na frowned and asked softly, "Brother Hong and the others have been out there for a while now. Do you think something's happened?"

As her voice trailed off, someone dismissed the concern offhand: "What could possibly happen? In this part of Bangkok, who would dare come here to make trouble! If you ask me, it's just that Li fellow playing tricks!" Even so, despite his dismissive words, he made no move to put away the gun clenched tightly in his hand.

Sister Na glared at him with displeasure. "If you say so, why don't you go out and take a look yourself!"

"Go out it is!" The man snorted, cast a sideways glance at his companion, and the two of them headed toward the main entrance together.

"Two of you, go check the kitchen as well!" Sister Na added.

The remaining few looked at each other before two of them stepped forward and headed toward the kitchen.

Watching them walk away, Sister Na pondered for a moment before suddenly turning to summon another young girl nearby, instructing her in a low voice: "Go downstairs and give Brother Hai a heads-up. Tell him that Li Hua's older brother has brought people here looking for him!"

Hearing this, the girl hesitated, looking visibly reluctant.

Seeing this, Sister Na's face turned icy. "What is the meaning of this? You're just being sent to deliver a message, what is there to be afraid of!"

The girl lowered her head and muttered under her breath, "Then why don't you go? You're just scared Brother Hai will lose his temper!"

Sister Na narrowed her eyes, then lashed out with a sharp, vicious slap. The force of the blow knocked the young woman completely off balance, sending her sprawling to the floor.

"I'll ask you one more time: are you going or not?"

Clutching her face, the girl scrambled up from the ground and stammered, "Sister Na, I was wrong. I'll go!"

"Then get a move on! What are you standing there frozen for? Do you need me to escort you?" Sister Na glared at her and scolded.

Panicked, the girl spun around and scrambled toward the stairwell.

The two men remaining in the living room looked at Sister Na, whose face was still dark with murderous intent, and shifted uncomfortably.

A moment later, the heavy silence of the house was abruptly shattered by a dull, muffled thud.

The sound came from the direction of the kitchen.

It sounded as though something heavy had crashed violently against the cabinets.

Sister Na narrowed her eyes, gestured to the two remaining men, and then strode quickly toward the kitchen.

Meanwhile, the two men who had already reached the outside of the main entrance looked around left and right, but failing to see Brother Hong and the other two, a sudden sense of unease gripped them. One of them pulled out his phone and called Brother Hong.

The ringing tone chimed from the shrubbery not far away to their left.

Hearing the ringtone, the men felt a growing wave of panic. Exchanging a nervous glance, one of them shouted toward that direction, "Brother Hong!"

There was no response.

"Damn it! Something's definitely happened! What do we do?"

Just as the two of them stood there at a loss, a figure glided out from behind like a phantom, silencing moving up behind one of them in a flash.

Next, an arm locked tightly around the man's neck while the other hand cupped his head and gave it a violent twist! With a faint *crack*, the man's body went completely limp.

The other man turned his head to look, but before he could even process what was happening, his companion—eyes still wide open and not yet entirely dead—suddenly slumped forward against him. Reacting on instinct, he reached out to catch him, only for a hand, vast and blocking out the light, to slam down viciously over his face. With a force that left no room for resistance, he was shoved backward. In an instant, his entire body was slammed into the ground, the back of his head crashing hard against the stone tiles with a heavy, muffled thud.

Fresh blood seeped out in silence, quickly pooling outward from beneath his skull.

Then, a flash of cold steel sliced across his throat.

Any possibility of survival vanished instantly.

Inside the kitchen, two corpses lay in silence.

The eastern doorway leading to the garden was wide open, and the wind continued to pour in relentlessly.

Suddenly, a face appeared against the glass door leading to the Western kitchen. After peering inside for a moment, the glass door was pulled open.

Two men stepped inside one after another.

Seeing the corpses on the floor, both were startled. One of them turned back to shout at Sister Na in the distance, "Sister Na, Little K and the others are dead!"

As his voice fell, the other man added, "We don't see Little Cai and the others! But the eastern door is wide open." As he spoke, this man walked over to the eastern doorway and prepared to poke his head outside.

Standing by the glass door separating the Chinese and Western kitchens, Sister Na was now staring at a few drops of fresh blood on the floor, her expression turning grim.

Among those few drops of blood, one had landed right here in the Western-kitchen area.

She whipped her head around, raised her handgun, and swept the area with the muzzle, but found nothing suspicious.

At that exact moment, a muffled groan issued from within the Chinese kitchen.

She spun around instantly, lunged forward with a long stride, and dashed straight into the Chinese kitchen. As she moved, she dropped into a crouch and raised her gun. Yet the Chinese kitchen was entirely empty, and the eastern door stood slightly ajar, obscuring anything happening outside.

Sister Na's heart sank.

This was a master!

Without a moment's hesitation, she retreated from the Chinese kitchen and bolted straight toward the basement.

There had been fourteen of them in total, but now only she and the girl sent to deliver the message remained. And their adversaries likely numbered only around four people.

The most critical factor was that her side had lost twelve people, including Brother Hong and Little Cai, who were both fairly capable fighters. Yet so many men hadn't even managed to fire a single shot, which meant the enemy's strength far exceeded theirs. Her people couldn't even last three moves in the enemy's hands!

That being the case, with only her left alive, there was zero chance of killing the enemy. Why throw away her life for nothing?