It turned out the old beggar guarding the seventh gate had a standard tactic: releasing a hallucinogenic nerve agent into the air. After Zhao Rong’s group entered, the old beggar wanted to confirm they had succumbed to the gas, so he used his smelly old leather shoes, a hairdryer, and a power bank to test their reactions. If the test confirmed they were poisoned, he wouldn’t need to proceed to his second step, as the first was lethal enough to kill them.

However, Zhao Rong had already seen through the ruse. He decided to play along, ensuring the old man wouldn’t resort to his second, far more vicious tactic: releasing a super-concentrated cloud of hydrogen sulfide gas. Anyone caught in such a high concentration would die instantly, much like touching a high-voltage wire. They would have no reaction, offer no resistance, and wouldn’t even realize they were breathing poison before dropping dead. Knowing how dangerous it was, Zhao Rong played along until he felt the act had gone on long enough, at which point he dropped the pretense. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

After hearing Zhao Rong’s explanation, the assistant and the three women understood, but they still had questions. The assistant stepped forward and asked, "Brother Zhao, even if you expose the old beggar now, can’t he still use his second plan to release the hydrogen sulfide gas?"

Zhao Rong smiled. "Because I just threw him off his game, he wasn’t prepared to implement the second step. Even if he starts preparing now, it will take at least ten minutes. As long as we use those ten minutes to take him down, his plan will be in ruins."

With that, Zhao Rong swung a brick at the old beggar. He moved so quickly that the old beggar had no time to react before being knocked to the ground. The old man struggled to his feet, reaching for the deadly belt gun at his waist, but before he could draw it, Zhao Rong’s second brick slammed into him and knocked him down again. Just like that, the once-arrogant old beggar was thoroughly humbled by two swift blows.

Bleeding from his head, the old beggar knelt on the ground and pleaded for mercy. "Zhao Rong, Assistant, Lili, Yu Lan, Xuelian, please spare me... I’m just a retired worker. I was bored, so I took up plaza dancing every day... But one day, after I met a fashionably dressed old woman, my life changed..."

The assistant asked curiously, "Why do you say your life changed after meeting that old woman?"

The old beggar struggled to find the words. "You don’t understand. That stylish old woman and I often danced together, and over time, we got to know each other... One day, I took her to my house, and... something happened. A while later, I suddenly developed a high fever, and red spots appeared on my body. I went to the hospital to get checked... When I got the results, I was nearly scared to death. I had been infected with the disease of love by that woman from the plaza dance..."

Hearing this, Lili stepped forward, finding the story bizarre. "Old beggar, since you randomly met a strange woman while plaza dancing, why didn’t you wear a condom when you were intimate with her?"

The old beggar wept. "We were both old. We figured we couldn’t get pregnant even without a condom... so I didn’t think much of it... Who would have thought I’d get it on the first try, and the disease of love, no less..."

Lili shook her head and sighed. "No wonder more and more elderly people are contracting the disease of love these days. It seems that because they’re older and not worried about pregnancy, they lack basic knowledge and awareness about it. They meet strangers while plaza dancing, start relationships they shouldn’t, and get infected. It looks like we really need to educate the elderly about the disease of love. Otherwise, the consequences will be unimaginable..."

Just then, Yu Lan stepped forward, unable to connect the dots. She asked, "But what does contracting the disease of love have to do with you guarding the seventh gate in Badatong Alley, working as a henchman for the villains Hong Ju and Zhou Xiaoer? The two things seem completely unrelated."

The old beggar cried bitterly. "You have no idea. After I got the disease of love, I lost all hope and just lay in bed waiting to die. But one day, the old woman who infected me came to find me. She told me that if I went to Badatong Alley to find the wealthy tycoon Hong Ju and her son, Zhou Xiaoer, I would be saved. She said their pharmaceutical company had developed a Divine Medicine that could cure my disease. So, I came here..."

Yu Lan wiped the cold sweat from her forehead and couldn’t help but exclaim, "Damn, this story seems completely nonsensical and pieced together from unrelated parts... But somehow, through a series of bizarre coincidences, it all fits together perfectly..."

Then, Xuelian stepped forward and asked the old beggar with concern, "Old beggar, after you listened to that old woman and came to this so-called Badatong Alley to find the so-called tycoon Zhou Xiaoer and his mother, Hong Ju, did they actually use the new medicine from their factory to cure you?"

The old beggar shook his head in misery. "You don’t understand. The moment I set foot in Badatong Alley, I knew I’d been tricked. They not only confiscated my ID and household registration book, but they also took all the cash I had on me. On top of that, they implanted a chip in my body to monitor and control me..."

Hearing that the villains had implanted a chip in the old beggar, the group asked in astonishment, "Old beggar, if you disobey their commands, does the chip in your body transmit everything you do, say, and even think to their computers, letting them know you’ve turned against them?"

The old beggar suddenly collapsed to the ground, foaming at the mouth. He began to convulse as he said in agony, "You don’t know... The chip they installed in our bodies is actually a poison pump... As soon as we disobey, they immediately activate the pump, and it begins to inject a lethal poison into our bodies to kill us..."

Before the old beggar could finish his sentence, he breathed his last.