Not long after Oudick threw the grenade, he fell into a predicament of constantly sneezing. He then fainted for a short period of time.
Thus, he had no impression of the anomaly at South Street; he only had a vague understanding of it. The situation was urgent, so he naturally couldn’t care less about obtaining other information from Castellan Xu Liyan.
Oudick shook his head and said, “I’ll ask now.”
As Oudick spoke, he picked up his phone and dialed another number.
Jiang Baimian took this opportunity to squat down and search the fake Father’s body to see if she could find any useful clues.
She quickly took out a note from the fake Father’s pocket. It was written in Ashlandic and Red River language at the same time: “This is a special permit issued by the Castellan.”
Apart from these words, there was nothing on the paper. There wasn’t even a signature, much less a seal.
Jiang Baimian said in amusement, “He easily entered North Street using such a pass?”
“This actually works...” Shang Jianyao’s eyes lit up as if he felt a little tempted.
Jiang Baimian sensed something and turned her head to scold him jokingly. “Don’t try it. You don’t know Hypnosis.”
Even if Shang Jianyao wanted to try, he had to, at least, find a carrot and use it to stamp the note.
At this moment, Oudick ended the call and said to them, “There’s a riot among the nomads outside the city. They’ve already rushed in; it’s chaos everywhere.”
“As expected...” Jiang Baimian took off the walkie-talkie hanging from her belt and tried to contact Bai Chen and Long Yuehong.
But it didn’t succeed.
“I’m out of range...” Jiang Baimian exhaled and said to Oudick, “We have to return to South Street and find a few friends. This is to prevent any accidents from happening to them during the riot.”
Oudick was very understanding. “Drive my car and take these two away.”
“Alright, how do I return it to you later?” Jiang Baimian didn’t waste any time being polite.
“If the riot ends soon, drive it to the guild. If not, head to Castellan Manor. The car also has a special permit,” Oudick said simply.
Shang Jianyao and Jiang Baimian didn’t say anything else. They carried Lei Yunsong and Lin Feifei on their backs and ran to First Hospital’s entrance. They then used the key that Oudick gave them, opened the door, got in the car, and drove away.
It was only at this moment that the Castellan Guard assigned to this area arrived.
As they had a special pass, Shang Jianyao and Jiang Baimian easily crossed the encirclement and left North Street, entering Central Square.
At this point, the gunshots became increasingly obvious. They came from all directions, and there were countless corpses on the ground. Some were in their prime, some were children, some were men, and some were women. Some were neatly dressed, some had tattered clothes, some had incomplete corpses, some looked like they had been strangled to death, some looked like city guards, and some held guns like ordinary hunters...
Their blood had splattered on the ground, reflecting the large number of bullet holes on them.
Many people were also sitting near the alley, stuffing cornbread into their mouths. They watched the commotion dazedly, neither joining in nor resisting.
Upon seeing this, Jiang Baimian and Shang Jianyao temporarily fell silent.
After a few seconds, Jiang Baimian took out the walkie-talkie again and tried to contact Bai Chen and Long Yuehong.
This time, there was an answer.
“Where are you?” Jiang Baimian tried her best to maintain her tone so as not to make her team members panic and nervous.
Bai Chen’s voice came with a noisy background. “We’re rushing to Ah Fu’s Gun Shop. We were still on East Street when the nomads rushed in; we immediately found a place to hide. The first wave of rioting nomads has already dispersed, and a large number of people are no longer concentrated in one place.
“We plan on returning to move the supplies in our rooms to the jeep before driving to pick you up. We’ll leave through East Street’s city gate and return to the city after the situation stabilizes.”
“Alright, we’ll meet in the alley outside Ah Fu’s Gun Shop.” Jiang Baimian praised Bai Chen and signaled for Shang Jianyao to drive Oudick’s red SUV into South Street.
Clang! Clang!
The occasional bullet that flew over was blocked by the thick steel plates and bulletproof glass installed on the vehicle.
The situation at South Street was worse than in Central Square. Blood even flowed down the street.
A large number of people had died on the street. Corpses were everywhere, and some had their eyes open, filled with indignation and confusion.
From time to time, one or two living people could be seen, but most of them were about to die. They only instinctively moaned in pain.
As Jiang Baimian swept her gaze across the area, she suddenly pointed at a spot. “Drive over.”
It was the first restaurant they ate at after coming to Weed City—Time-Honored Noodle Restaurant.
Back then, Jiang Baimian and the others had a deep impression of the boss’s mixed accent and persistence in borrowing books from the library to teach his grandson how to read.
The delicious, spicy oil-drenched noodles similarly left an impression.
At this moment, the noodle shop was in chaos.
The boss with gray sideburns was on the ground. There was a large hole in his forehead, and blood dyed his clothes red—he was no longer alive.
The boss was in front of a wall corner. A seven-year-old boy was squatting there, trembling.
Several books—which mostly contained pictures—were scattered around them.
On the other side of the noodle shop, two people sat at the only table that hadn’t been overturned.
One was a man in his thirties, and the other was a seven-year-old girl.
They buried their heads and ate the noodles in the large bowls, ignoring the chaos and gunshots outside.
After Shang Jianyao stopped the car, Jiang Baimian immediately opened the door and jumped down. As she raised her hand to aim at the noodle-eating man, she quickly approached the noodle shop owner and the boy behind him.
She didn’t need to conduct any other inspection. She could tell that the boss was dead from the electric signals.
The man—who was eating the noodles—quickly scooped the remaining scallions inside the bowl into his mouth. He then licked the tip of his chopsticks and stood up reluctantly, shielding the little girl behind him.