Chapter 72: Chapter 72: Is the Person Living Across From You Your Brother?

Kloer kicked the door open, dropping the fox he was carrying and the small dog slung over his shoulder onto the floor.

"Alright." He clapped his hands and said to the little Mixed Breed following behind him, "It’ll be a while before they wake up. I’ll help you move your stuff over first."

Gu Ning watched him toss them onto the hard floor and pointed at the sofa in the living room.

Kloer tutted. "Their fur is so thick, they could lie in the snow for a day and not freeze to death."

Gu Ning decided to do it herself, moving to pick up Barto first.

But she hadn’t expected the little fox, who was only half her height, to be so surprisingly heavy. She had just struggled to lift him when Kloer plucked Barto from her hands, tossed the little fox effortlessly onto the sofa, and then grabbed Cook by the scruff of his neck and threw him over as well.

"Happy now?" Kloer asked, crossing his arms as he looked at her. "Let’s get this move over with. I have to get back to work. The boss has no idea how long it’ll take to clean up the mess you guys made, and we’ve got a lot to do today."

Gu Ning’s gaze swept around the tidy room, and she nodded.

She had originally planned to discuss the move with Barto first, but then they’d had the misfortune of running into their landlord just now.

「Fifteen minutes earlier...」

"Who the hell dares cause trouble on my turf?"

Kloer had just been hastily summoned by Alex when a Beastman appeared in the alley. He stopped a short distance away, pointing a gun at them. "Nobody move!"

Gu Ning: "..."

’That booming voice, that bushy beard... isn’t that the landlord of my building?’

The Beastman landlord looked at the people lying on the ground. The muzzle of his gun swept past Alex and Kloer before settling on Gu Ning, the "Mixed Breed."

Alex stepped in front of Gu Ning. "We’re from the police department," he said. "We just dealt with a few troublemaking Mixed Breeds. Everything’s fine now."

Leighton, standing to the side: "?"

He started to speak, but after a glance at the little Mixed Breed cowering behind Alex, he swallowed his words.

Seeing Leighton in his police uniform standing there without reacting, the Beastman landlord immediately believed Alex.

He turned his attention to the two Mixed Breeds on the ground.

"Isn’t this the guy who lives in my building?" The Beastman landlord quickly recognized the unconscious Dog Clan Mixed Breed.

Gu Ning had a bad feeling.

"I knew this guy would cause trouble sooner or later," the Beastman landlord grumbled, lowering his gun. "If his relative hadn’t paid another month’s rent for him, I wouldn’t have let him keep staying here."

Gu Ning was surprised to hear the landlord’s words. ’Cook paid the rent? Or a relative did?’

’So that’s why the landlord hasn’t been pestering them about the rent lately.’

’But a relative of Cook’s?’

Gu Ning was puzzled.

She thought hard. The only relatives of Cook she knew of were Barto and the brother he had mentioned.

’Could Cook’s brother have paid the rent for him? But isn’t his brother in the military district?’

She’d been with Cook for so long, but he’d never mentioned this brother to her, nor had she ever seen him contact his brother, or his brother contact him.

Hearing the landlord, Alex glanced back at Gu Ning, then casually asked the landlord, "Which relative of his paid you the rent?"

"No idea," said the Beastman landlord. "He had his face covered, dressed like a mercenary. Oh, and he lives right across the hall from him. I’ll have to go have a word with him later."

Gu Ning’s head snapped up.

’Something’s wrong!’

’Isn’t Cook’s brother in the military district? How could he be living across the hall from them?!’

’If Cook’s brother was living right across from them, how could Cook and Barto not know?’

Gu Ning thought of how her front door had been mysteriously opened a few days ago, and how they never found out who did it.

A chill shot up her spine.

’The person living across the hall... is it an enemy? Some perverted Beastman? Or is it really Cook’s brother?’

Gu Ning didn’t dare to assume the best. She had to move out now, no matter what.

Alex sent the Beastman landlord on his way, then had Kloer move the two police officers and Leighton to the patrol car.

Once he and Gu Ning were the only ones left in the alley, he asked her, "Is the person living across from you your brother? The one in the military district you told me about? Is he back from the military district?"

He had sensed something was wrong the moment he heard the landlord’s words.

Even if Gu Ning really did have a brother, the military wasn’t scheduled to enter Zone 19 for several more days. The entrances and exits were all sealed, and the outside was swarming with Mutant Species. How could her brother have gotten into Zone 19?

Gu Ning wasn’t sure, but her intuition told her this person probably wasn’t Cook’s brother.

She wrote a note and handed it to Alex: I don’t know

Alex glanced at the note, thought for a moment, and asked, "Do you want to move now?"

Gu Ning immediately began nodding frantically.

Alex saw her nodding like a chick pecking at rice, her agreement so decisive that he instantly understood.

’That person isn’t their brother. He might not even be a relative at all.’

He looked toward the building where Gu Ning lived, his gaze turning cold.

’Someone else has set their sights on the little female before I did.’

...

"You’ve got quite a bit of stuff."

Kloer stood in the living room, his eyes scanning the space. He saw an oven and a vase on the table, and potted plants by the window. He raised an eyebrow. "You guys really know how to live, huh?"

The small living room was decorated in a warm and comfortable style, with small, personal touches visible everywhere.

He was genuinely surprised that three Mixed Breeds could manage to live like this.

Although Alex hadn’t told him anything about Gu Ning’s identity and wouldn’t let him ask, he had more or less figured some of it out.

’Gu Ning was working in place of another Mixed Breed.’

’The reason was obvious. The real Mixed Breed named Cook had degenerated so much that he couldn’t possibly work at the construction site.’ 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

’He wasn’t an idiot. A little deduction told him that Gu Ning had started disguising herself as Cook and coming to the construction site on the very day Cook got injured in that fight.’

’The Beast Smell Agent on her... she probably used it to cover her own scent so no one would recognize her.’

’This little Mixed Breed is almost too clever for her own good.’

’No wonder the boss treats her differently.’

Gu Ning handed Kloer a note: You just pack up the living room, I’ll do the rest.

Kloer said, "Fine."

Seeing that he agreed, Gu Ning went back to her bedroom, locked the door from the inside, and then began packing in a frenzy.

First, she rolled up the rug. Then she wrapped up the things on her desk in the desk mat and stuffed them, along with all her important props, into an iron chest and locked it securely.

After packing all the books from the bookshelf into boxes, Gu Ning rearranged the desk and bookshelf.

Only when her bedroom showed no trace of being a filming set did she start packing her other things.

After all that frantic activity, she was a little sweaty and tired.

She sat in a chair to rest for two minutes, then continued packing everything else.

Half an hour later, Kloer knocked on the door from outside. "Are you done in there?"

Gu Ning paused in the middle of stuffing clothes into a box. ’Kloer finished packing the living room that quickly?’

She got up, opened the bedroom door, and looked out to see several Beastmen packing things up in the living room. They had nearly emptied the entire space.