It couldn’t be Yu Chaohui’s group. If one of her own teammates was approaching, they would have told her through the wrist communicator.

So these people were Ye Chong and his companions.

Arriving so quickly, with such an aggressive sound—making no effort whatsoever to conceal their movements. Then why had none of Yu Chaohui, A’Shalina, A’Long, or Zhang Yu noticed? Why had not a single one of them given her advance warning?

It seemed a little late to be thinking about that now.

The footsteps grew closer. Bai Youwei set down her wheelchair and fixed a cold gaze in the direction of the sound. Then she drew out a toy starter pistol.

Bang!

A burst of startled cries erupted from within the dense forest.

Bai Youwei smiled coldly, turned, and ran into the trees in the opposite direction—vanishing in moments.

…

“What’s happening?!” Tian Li bellowed as he sprinted wildly through the forest. Branches and weeds lashed across his face, burning with pain!

The muscle man was also running uncontrollably, screaming, “I don’t know! My legs won’t stop! Someone help me! Help me!…”

Han Lu tripped and fell, her legs twitching and kicking like they had a life of their own. Terrified by her own body, she sobbed, “I can’t run anymore! I really can’t run anymore…”

Xiao Qi slammed into a tree, head spinning—yet he kept running!

Ye Chong grabbed hold of a branch and forced himself to stop, looking around. The entire group had fallen into chaos!

“What are you panicking about?! It’s just a tool! Everyone stop!” he barked.

The command worked. One by one, the others shook off the starter pistol’s effect and finally came to a halt, all of them drenched in sweat.

Including Ye Chong himself.

The brief loss of control had drained what little energy they had left.

They arrived at the base of the hillside. Bai Youwei was nowhere to be found—only her wheelchair sat at the bottom of the slope, as if silently mocking them.

Tian Li stared in disbelief. “Isn’t she crippled? How did she run?!”

Running away was one thing, but if it enraged Ye Chong, they’d all suffer for it.

Xiao Qi cautiously glanced at Ye Chong and asked, “…Should we chase her?”

Ye Chong’s expression darkened. “Chase? Where exactly do you plan to chase her? The forest is enormous. The vegetation is dense. There’s no telling where she’s gone. If she’s already taken shelter in a safe house, going after her would be a complete waste of time.”

Xiao Qi said nothing.

No one else dared to speak either.

“It’s fine… She can’t hide forever. Sooner or later she’ll have to come out…” Ye Chong surveyed the surrounding terrain and said slowly, “Both elephants are gone now. The highest-ranking animal left is Bear. Tomorrow noon, we eliminate their Bear. After that, the rest can be dealt with one by one…”

Xiao Qi couldn’t help asking, “What if the others hole up in their safe houses and refuse to come out?”

Ye Chong smiled, the corner of his mouth curling upward. “Then we guard the entrances. Either they come out… or they starve to death inside.”

…

White Gloves returned empty-handed to the northern forest.

Bai Youwei’s situation had not improved much because of his departure. This escape was like a fish breaking free of the net for just a moment—a brief, fleeting struggle.

She gathered all her remaining teammates: Yu Chaohui, A’Shalina, A’Long, and Zhang Yu.

Bai Youwei got straight to the point. “It seems there’s a traitor among us.”

Silence fell, and everyone looked at one another.

Yu Chaohui raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

“Traitor, mole, spy—whatever you want to call it, it amounts to the same thing.” Bai Youwei’s voice was flat. “Ye Chong led his people straight to the hillside, which clearly means he knew my location in advance. How? And even if we generously assume he has extraordinary intelligence and analytical ability and somehow guessed I’d be alone on the hillside—how do we explain the fact that not one of you gave me advance warning when they were coming?”

—