Suspicion began to intertwine and multiply.

A deeper sense of doubt shadowed Wang Chen’s heart. He glanced to the left and right at the corpses strewn across the processing workshop, pressed his headset, and said, "Chen Cheng, go bring Tian Maocai over here."

Deciding to have Tian Maocai identify the dead, Wang Chen turned to the few people beside him and instructed, "Everyone, lend a hand. First, flip all the face-down male corpses over so it will be easier for Tian Maocai to recognize them when he arrives."

A moment later, Chen Cheng escorted Tian Maocai to the workshop entrance. The instant Tian Maocai crossed the threshold and saw corpses blanketing the ground—many of them bearing familiar faces—he simply collapsed onto his backside. Pointing at the dead bodies everywhere, his lips quivered and his cheeks shook, rendering him utterly speechless.

Chen Cheng, standing behind him, instantly grew impatient. Without a word, he delivered two kicks to Tian Maocai. Seeing that had no effect, he followed up with a pair of slaps, effectively shocking the terrified old man back to his senses. Trembling all over, Tian Maocai negotiated his way through the sea of corpses, finally arriving before the sterile room where Wang Chen and the others stood.

Before Wang Chen could even speak, Tian Maocai dropped heavily to his knees, kowtowing repeatedly while wailing, "Blind dog Tian had eyes and failed to recognize Mount Tai, offending the commander’s majestic wrath! Dying a violent death is what he deserved! Captain Wang, please spare this wretch! Spare my dog's life! Spare my dog's life! Spare my dog's life!"

As it turned out, Tian Maocai assumed that this fiend Wang Chen was employing the same old tricks again—having personally slaughtered everyone in the workshop, sparing not even the civilians, and bringing him inside just to tie up loose ends. Terrified out of his wits, his kowtows were entirely sincere, drawing blood from his forehead. Wang Chen figured that if he didn't stop him soon, Tian Maocai might literally kowtow himself to death on the spot without any outside help.

"Cut it out! One more bow and I really will slaughter you!" Wang Chen snapped in a sharp, stern voice. "I brought you here to identify the dead! See if Boss Tian and his two brothers are among these corpses!"

Shocked back to his senses by Wang Chen’s rebuke, Tian Maocai scrambled up from the ground. Hunching his waist without daring to stand straight, he rapidly searched through the bodies. After inspecting over twenty corpses, he first pointed to a pale-faced body and confirmed, "This is Tian the Second, no doubt about it."

Immediately afterward, he pointed to a medium-built male corpse with a square face and large ears. "This is Boss Tian! Definitely him! If you strip off his upper garment, you'll even see the remaining half of a Guanyin tattoo on his back. Boss Tian once said he planned to laser it off and walk the straight and narrow once he retired."

Such tasks required neither action nor even words from Wang Chen. Chen Cheng stepped forward on his own initiative, flipped the male corpse over, pulled out a military dagger, and sliced open the clothing. Sure enough, on the dead man's back was an image of Guanyin, mutilated to just a single half.

Presumably, Tian Maocai wouldn't dare lie about this; it appeared the man truly was Boss Tian.

Since the masterminds were all dead here, what on earth had transpired? Had the poisoned wine taken effect before they could flee, leading to an internal firefight with their subordinates?

Wang Chen carefully inspected Boss Tian's remains. Unlike the other corpses, Boss Tian was clutching a knife in his hand. His stiffened fingers gripped the handle with immense tightness. Wang Chen had to snap the dead man's fingers to pry the weapon loose. Facing the light, he carefully examined the blade and the tip—there was no blood. Could it be that this wasn't a firefight?

"C-Captain Wang," Tian Maocai said timidly from the side, "can I..."

"Speak," Wang Chen replied in a flat tone, not petty enough to bicker with a frightened old swindler.

"I looked carefully. Tian the Fourth is not among the bodies."

"Oh?"

"That Tian the Fourth is the strongest fighter among the three Tian brothers—over one hundred and eighty centimeters tall, broad-shouldered, thick-waisted, with a fierce face and a scar on his chin. If these people died in a turf war, his chances of survival would be the highest."

A survivor? Wang Chen instinctively pulled out the military dagger strapped to his thigh. Ignoring Tian Maocai's shudder, he reversed the blade and drove it into Boss Tian's empty eye socket. Standing up, he ordered, "Chen Cheng, aside from the personnel on the high ground, take Shu Chang and comb the surrounding area, especially near the river channel. If there's a survivor who managed to evade the drones, anti-personnel radar, and satellite remote sensing, he must have escaped via the waterways, which means he's bound to have left some traces. The rest of you, help me process these corpses. We cannot give them any chance of turning into zombies."

"Understood, Captain Wang. Don't worry," Shu Chang and Chen Cheng replied in unison, turning and striding out.

Seeing Tian Maocai still standing nearby in a daze, Wang Chen simply tossed his military dagger toward him and bluntly said, "Stop standing there like a statue. Come help out too."

Tian Maocai had genuinely believed that once he lost his utility to the special operations team, he would be executed, buried in the barren hills, and reduced to a pile of white bones. No matter how one looked at it, he was, after all, an operative who had infiltrated the people's ranks to commit sabotage, and deserved to be dealt with severely! Those were Granny Hao's exact words; the old lady never tolerated any sand in her eyes.

Therefore, catching the thrown dagger reflexively, he watched as Wang Chen turned around, squatted down, and began processing the corpses of the felons and zombies, exposing a completely unprotected back to him. Suddenly, Tian Maocai felt that the sensation of being trusted was genuinely wonderful. It had been a very long time since anyone was willing to look at him that way. Without realizing it, tears began to stream down his face.

Of course, one could also say he was merely a survivor weeping tears of joy from a narrow escape.

An old man shedding tears was nothing much to look at, nor did anyone pay him any mind. Only Ma Tian noticed Tian Maocai standing there in a daze, and gave him a pat on the shoulder. "Old swindler, since Captain Wang has given you a chance to turn over a new leaf, don't waste it. Get to work, and stop kneeling at every turn—it's quite annoying."

Tian Maocai hastily wiped his face in a messy swipe, nodded repeatedly, and gripped the military dagger to get to work.

With nearly three hundred corpses divided among a few people, the processing was soon completed. The moment Wang Chen stepped out of the workshop carrying his military dagger and removed his gas mask, he instantly regretted it. Even though the windows had been smashed open and the ventilation was decent, the amalgamation of corpse stench, stale alcohol, the mild odor of decay, and the final breath expelled at the moment of death drifted together and wafted outward. Anyone catching a whiff would be under the illusion that they were standing inside a greasy cesspool.

The smell was simply too intensely evocative. Wang Chen held his breath and walked a few paces upwind, quickly pulling out a pack of cigarettes to distribute among Ma Tian, Tian Maocai, and several civilians. Breathing out plumes of smoke finally suppressed the strange odor.

As Ma Tian puffed on his cigarette and prepared to tease Tian Maocai about his earlier cowardice, Chen Cheng's excited voice crackled over the radio: "Captain Wang! The old swindler was right. We found a live one by the riverbank. It should be Tian the Fourth!"

Oh ho! Finding a live captive was fantastic. Wang Chen immediately dropped his cigarette, ground it out with his heel, and waved his hand. "Let's go, let's take a look!"

The riverbank wasn't far from the workshop. As Wang Chen approached, the surrounding civilians automatically stepped aside, revealing a man sprawled out in the mud. Without asking questions right away, Wang Chen first looked toward Tian Maocai. The latter nodded forcefully to confirm that this indeed was Tian the Fourth, prompting Wang Chen to step closer for a detailed inspection.

True to Tian Maocai's description, this Tian the Fourth was tall and robust, with a square face bearing a seven-tenths resemblance to Boss Tian. However, his face was even fleshier, and a centipede-like scar ran across his chin, clearly signaling to anyone meeting him for the first time that he was no pushover.

At this moment, however, Tian the Fourth was drenched from head to toe, caked in mud, and shivering uncontrollably from the cold. With his eyes half-closed, it was impossible to tell whether he had passed out or was simply too frozen to speak. Smudged across his pale, bluish face was actual feces—a brownish-solid mass interspersed with a few undigested enoki mushrooms—emitting an unpleasant stench.

"When you found him," Wang Chen asked, "was he alone?"