Cave Refuge-Chapter 203 - 202: The Chaos Brought by Death _1
Dong Tianyu had only come over a couple of days ago, so during tonight’s dinner with his parents, they simply chatted for a little while. He also casually mentioned to Mrs. Thompson that he had found someone, adding that his new love interest was a twin, although he didn’t dare confess that he was dating both of them at once.
As Dong Tianyu peacefully chatted with his parents in the tent, chaos had broken out at the West City District Command Post.
Li Minghao had not left his house all day. At noon, someone came looking for him, but seeing him asleep on the table, they didn’t dare to disturb him and ultimately left.
It wasn’t until the afternoon, when an important document requiring his signature was brought to him, that the cleric discovered Li Minghao still sleeping. As the document was urgent, he went forward to wake him.
Initially, the clerk gently patted Li Minghao’s shoulder. But when there was no response, he shook him more forcefully, only to have Li Minghao topple over, not reacting at all.
It was only then that the clerk sensed something was wrong. Calling for help, he waited until the emergency doctor arrived and checked Li Minghao, only to find that he had already passed away.
Due to the harsh weather, it was impossible to accurately determine the time of death. However, based on accounts from those who had seen Li Minghao, he had been in his usual state in the morning. But by noon, he was already face-down on the table. Thus, his death could have happened in the morning.
Li Minghao’s sudden death sent the West City District into a state of turmoil. Firstly, Li Minghao was the eldest son of the esteemed local faction leader, Smith. Even though the local faction was now somewhat divided without their noticeable leader, he was still a significant figure.
So, the local faction blamed the Airdrop Faction for breaking rules, claiming they were responsible for Li Minghao’s death, given that currently, a majority of the Airdrop Faction’s members stationed in the West City District had already been sidelined.
But what the local faction didn’t know was that Li Minghao, secretly, had been in touch with the Airdrop Faction for a long time, having been already considered one of them. So, Li Minghao’s death was definitely not orchestrated by the Airdrop Faction.
On the contrary, the Airdrop Faction believed that someone from the local faction must have discovered Li Minghao’s treachery. To save Smith’s reputation, they opted for assassination as the method to handle Li Minghao.
This move not only kept Li Minghao’s reputation intact but also served as a rallying call for the local faction members against their mutual enemy.
Despite the Airdrop Faction members holding senior positions, most of the orders were actually being executed by local faction members. Therefore, it was likely that only they could have pulled off such a perfect assassination.
By this point, conducting an autopsy to confirm the cause of Li Minghao’s death seemed unnecessary, and there was no need to look for evidence. The only relevant fact was that Li Minghao did not die naturally, and from that, one could infer the identity of the killer.
Given Li Minghao’s status, who specifically killed him is irrelevant. After all, evidence can be forged, and the killer could have been hired. Confirming the beneficiary of Li Minghao’s death would suffice in determining the murderer.
Li Minghao secretly assigned Captain Wu to attack Dong Tianyu. To make the whole operation look authentic, Wu picked up his gear posing to be on another suppression mission. The mentioned mission was real, but the refuge center plagued with riots was long deserted, only an excuse to get hold of the gear.
Quite a few members of Wu’s special forces knew about the situation at the refugee center, but they all tacitly kept it a secret. This provided them with a cover for obtaining gear for unofficial missions or a way to cover up the sale of gear.
That’s why nobody paid attention when Captain Wu and the special forces crew did not show up as expected. Everyone just assumed that their mission was running longer than expected and paid no mind to linking their absence with Li Minghao’s death.
In order to prevent other people from finding out that he had violated the unwritten rules by directly targeting Dong Tianyu, Li Minghao didn’t reveal his arrangements to anyone, thereby clearing Dong Tianyu of any suspicion.
Dong Tianyu had no idea that his simple, quick five-minute assassination had triggered a schism between the local West City District faction and the Airdrop Faction.
In the afternoon, Dong Tianyu didn’t stay for dinner. As everyone knew, young people tend to be lovestruck when they’re newly in love. To establish a significant presence in Dong Tianyu’s heart, both Walker Violet and Jasmine Anderson were pulling out all the stops.
As soon as Dong Tianyu boarded his ship in the afternoon, he was attacked by two police officers. Although Dong Tianyu reacted swiftly and drew his weapon for a counterattack.
Perhaps because the two officers were so well-coordinated, the fight took them from the living room to the gym, then to the recreation room, and ended dramatically on the ship’s deck due to the fierce combat.
(Click to unfold the detailed battle course)
However, in the end, Dong Tianyu proved to be the superior fighter. Looking at the two enemies sprawled unconscious on the deck, he picked them up one by one and tossed them into the bedroom.
After the intense fight, Dong Tianyu was somewhat hungry but too lazy to cook. He took out pre-ordered food from the Shadow Space, food he’d ordered from a restaurant before catastrophe struck.
Unbeknownst to him, it had already been two or three years since the onset of the disaster. If one were to consider the period since the disease outbreak, it had been seven or eight years.
In other novels, such a global disaster would have resulted in total societal collapse and the rise of a new, post-apocalyptic order.
But Dong Tianyu didn’t know about other city-states; in Daxia, the old order had not collapsed. There weren’t even self-governing states like during the Warring States period on this land.
The imperial court was still in power, with governance carrying on as usual. Be it the armed forces possessing immense firepower or the police maintaining regional stability, they all followed the orders of the court.
Even in places like the West City District, where the tension between the local and Airdrop Factions was high, such matters would barely make a stir in Kyoto. Even if the provincial department wanted to mediate, or even to replace all the officials in Pengcheng, it would only cause minor inconvenience.
"If you have food in your hands, you don’t worry." This old proverb aptly described the current situation in Daxia. As long as survivors had food to survive, few would stir up trouble to seek more benefits.
The slogan ’Would you rather be a king or a nobleman’ was generally just a catchphrase uttered by young people. As they grew older, most people eventually matured.
