783 Lin Jing's Whereabouts

"Did she leave by herself?" Lin Qiao asked him.

"It looks like that. I haven't found out about the reason yet," Lin Kui shook his head and responded frustratedly.

Lin Qiao thought for a moment, then looked at him and said, "Are there still people living around her flat?"

"Yeah," Lin Kui nodded and said.

"Let's go and ask them if they know anything about her," said Lin Qiao.

Soon, Lin Kui guided Lin Qiao back to Lin Jing's building, opened the locked door, and headed upstairs. On the fifth floor, they sensed the scents of living humans from two of the dozen studios.

Lin Qiao walked toward one of the two studios with Duan Juan, knocked on the door rhythmically, then asked through the door, "Is anyone home?"

She knew that some people were in there, but she asked anyway. Also, she knocked on the door neither heavily nor too lightly. She did that to let the people in the studio know that she had no bad intentions.

She spent a short while waiting, but heard no sound through the door.

She patiently knocked on the door again and said, "I know you're in there. Please open the door. I have a favor to ask."

More than one person were in that studio.

As those people still refused to open the door, Lin Qiao had no choice but to change her tone of speaking, "We're gonna break in unless you open the door now."

She threatened them, but didn't really break the door. Instead, she stayed quiet and waited for another while.

About ten seconds later, she heard footstep sounds from the studio.

Soon, the footstep sounds came to the door, followed by a series of unlocking noise. After that, the door was opened slightly, exposing the face of a woman who looked about thirty years old.

The woman looked at Lin Qiao and Duan Juan alertly, asking them with a low voice, "What do you want?"

"Don't worry. We're not coming in. We just want to ask you a few questions," Lin Qiao said with a warm smile, "A girl named Lin Jing used to live over there. Do you know her?"

The woman behind the door first observed Lin Qiao's face, then looked at where she was pointing. After a short hesitation, she said to Lin Qiao, "Who are you? Why do you want to know about her?"

Lin Qiao looked at that woman. In fact, she had already gotten the answer she wanted from that woman's mind. With a smile, she said, "She has a brother. They had parted years ago. Now, her brother has asked me to find her."

Lin Qiao detected no negative intention toward Lin Jing from that woman's mind. Lin Jing was a nice person, so she got along well with her neighbors.

Earlier on when Lin Qiao mentioned Lin Jing's name, that woman immediately turned vigilant. She planned to cover for Lin Jing if Lin Qiao turned out to be a bad person.

"That's impossible! She told me that her brother died in the Apocalypse." The woman popped her eyes and said with disbelief.

Lin Qiao grinned, then started making up stories. "No, he didn't die. Lin Jing didn't watch him die, did she? He was in bad condition at that time, because his superpower was waking up. In fact, he has been protecting Lin Jing secretly all these years. I assume you know about that. A mysterious person has been protecting Lin Jing."

"If it were her brother, why didn't he come out to talk to her? Why did he hide?" Clearly, the woman didn't want to believe Lin Qiao, but also found what the latter said was very likely to be true.

"Because he was disfigured," Lin Qiao continued the story that she made up, "He thinks that he's too ugly to see people now. That's why he didn't dare to see his sister."

Lin Kui, who was hiding in a corner nearby, was a little speechless when he heard that.

The woman blinked as she looked at Lin Qiao with doubts. "Is it really her brother? What's his name then?"

"Lin Kui," said Lin Qiao.

"That's his name!" The woman's eyes glowed. "But, didn't you say that he has been secretly protecting her all the time? How come he doesn't know where she is now?"

Lin Qiao had no choice but to keep lying, "Because he was injured badly earlier. He only recovered recently. Now, he came to find her as he heard that Huaxia Base is under a massive zombie attack. He didn't know that her flat was empty for so long."

"She left. Before, she was working as a maid in a family. But half a year ago, the husband was drunk, and he might have offended her in some way. Lin Jing quit the job after that. However, the wife had been seeing her as a pain in the a*s since long ago. So, when that thing happened, she firmly believed that Lin Jing had seduced her husband. She brought a group of people here to cause Lin Jing trouble a couple of times. Thankfully, Lin Jing was smart enough. She hid in her flat and didn't give that woman any chance to harm her." After hearing Lin Qiao's patient explanation, the woman finally sighed and told her about what happened to Lin Jing.

In fact, Lin Qiao had learned that from her mind.

As that woman and her people had come to her flat a couple of times, Lin Jing was aware that she couldn't stay in Huaxia Base. Her previous employer was a superpowered man, and was an official in the base. He was afraid of his wife, as his father-in-law was more powerful than himself. He let his wife do whatever she wanted as he didn't want to offend her family.

Therefore, Lin Jing's life became difficult. It was harder and harder for her to survive in Huaxia Base. At last, in order to stay alive, she hired a few superpowered people with all she had, and asked them to escort her to Mongols Base, which was the closest base from Huaxia Base.

"What happened to her after that? Did that woman hurt her?" Lin Qiao asked the woman, then slightly turned her head to give Lin Kui a glance.

"No, she found an opportunity to run away. Back then, that woman's people were guarding downstairs. She begged us to find a few superpowered people for her, and then she left with them. I heard that she was heading to Mongols Base. Mongols Base isn't as good, but it's the nearest base from here," said that woman.

Lin Jing was only able to afford to go to Mongols Base. The condition in Mongols Base might not be good, but at least she had no enemy in that place. She might be facing dangers in that completely strange base too, but it would always be better than the threats from that woman in this base.

"She went to Mongols Base? Alright, I get it. Thank you! These are for you. Please take them," Lin Qiao got all the information she needed, so she took out a few level-three zombie nuclei and two level-four nuclei before giving them to the woman.

Three was the lowest-level of all zombie nuclei she had, and she had plenty of level four and five nuclei. However, she didn't dare to give the woman too many, as she was worried that those nuclei might bring disaster to that common woman.

She could sense that four people were in that flat in total, including the woman in front of her. They were all commoners.

Seeing those zombie nuclei, the woman hurriedly waved her hands and said, "No, no, I did nothing for you but talk. I can't take these precious nuclei from you."

"Don't say that," Lin Qiao said, "Just take them. Come on, don't let the others see them. Alright, we'll go!"

She put those nuclei on that woman's hands while speaking, then made a step backward as she turned and left with Duan Juan.