Chapter 112: A Simple Dinner

Ji Huo furrowed his brow. "Big Brother, when the city plunges into chaos, many will surely be deceived and try to stop you. Can you really handle it alone?"

Ji Junhong's eyes remained calm. "It’s just a matter of killing more people."

"And your men?" Ji Huo glanced sideways, unconvinced that his elder brother had no one else under his command.

"The capital is in turmoil. Those I had hidden here were all deceived. Later, when the city became too dangerous, I stopped calling anyone over."

"What about Mr. Wen?" Ji Huo inquired.

Ji Junhong’s face was expressionless. "I worried he might cause trouble if deceived, so I knocked him out and tied him up. If a fight breaks out and he sides with that demon, it would be quite troublesome."

Ji Huo let out a dry laugh. "Fortunately, I prepared some men to hold them off for you. It shouldn’t be a big problem."

"You mean Little Red Sugar?" Ji Junhong asked.

"Yes. Speaking of which, where is she? I don’t see her." Ji Huo looked around.

That girl’s martial arts, combined with her red paper umbrella, made her formidable against all but the fiercest opponents.

"She finished the task I assigned her the day before yesterday and hurriedly left the city, saying she was heading east," Ji Junhong said evenly. "Oh, she also took several people from Qian Duoduo’s money house. Those should be your men, right?"

Ji Huo was momentarily stunned. "They are my men, but those from Qian Duoduo’s group weren’t deceived?"

"Little Red Sugar had already awakened them all. They’re fine," Ji Junhong replied.

"Wow!"

Ji Huo felt a great relief. Unexpectedly, that girl was quite reliable when it mattered. Otherwise, when he led the Earth Fiend squad to massacre the city, running into those kids would mean having to divert energy to knock them out, which would be troublesome amidst the chaos.

"How did Little Red Sugar manage that? Why didn’t you use the same method to wake your men, like Mr. Wen?" Ji Huo asked curiously.

Ji Junhong remained expressionless. "I asked her. She said she just slapped those people a few times, and they woke up."

"I wondered if a strong shock could awaken them, so I slapped Mr. Wen a few times myself, but it didn’t work."

Ji Huo’s mouth twitched, finally understanding the situation.

Theoretically, his elder brother’s guess was correct, but the strong shock meant those few slaps. The Earth Fiend and Heaven Gang squads had been slapped countless times by Little Red Sugar since childhood—their fear was etched deep into their bones.

So a few slaps were enough to stir the deepest fears within them...

But without Little Red Sugar around, the men he brought might not be enough. The danger was great—after all, with 600,000 living dead, who knew how long they could hold out...

Ji Huo’s face grew troubled, but Ji Junhong smiled and reassured him:

"No need to worry. There is no absolute certainty in this world. It’s already rare that we still have a chance to turn the tide in this incident."

He stood, hands clasped behind his back, gazing at the capital shrouded in demonic aura. His voice was calm but resolute:

"If everything were planned perfectly without a single interesting twist, life would be far too dull."

Ji Huo paused, then smiled. "Indeed."

Xia Ningshang listened quietly, sensing that Ji Huo had said something similar before. She shook her head, thinking these two brothers were rather unusual.

Ji Huo asked again, "Is there a specific time requirement?"

Ji Junhong answered, "Late at night. I have prepared a method to deal with that great demon at dawn. When the first light of day touches the earth, that will be the end of everything. Before then, you need to kill the national teacher and have the Flying Bear troops besiege the city to draw all the experts to those two events."

Both nodded simultaneously. Neither knew what means their elder brother had prepared to handle such a terrifying demon, but both chose to trust him.

With the plan settled and time still early, Ji Junhong smiled and fetched three bottles of white porcelain wine and a few simple dishes from the room.

"You just returned, and I haven’t had time to properly entertain you. I don’t trust the servants’ cooking here anymore."

"This afternoon, I made these dishes myself in the kitchen. They’re simple, but once everything is over, we’ll have a proper feast."

The dishes were everyday fare—Mapo tofu, pickled cabbage braised pork, fried fish mint with cured meat, and cabbage tofu soup.

Ji Huo was slightly surprised. These were flavors from western Sichuan, not typical of the capital’s palate.

Especially the fish mint; few could eat it, and fewer still in the capital had even heard of it.

He guessed his elder brother had purposely learned these dishes for him.

"How’s the taste?" his brother asked with a smile.

"Quite delicious," Ji Huo replied with a slight lowering of his eyes, smiling gently.

Xia Ningshang glanced at Ji Huo, sensing some subtle emotional fluctuation she had never seen before. She couldn’t quite identify what it was.

She picked up some fish mint and, before Ji Huo could say anything, took a bite.

"How does it taste?" Big Brother asked with the same smile.

"Strange, but quite tasty," Xia Ningshang said with surprise.

Ji Junhong’s smile grew wider, nodding approvingly. "Good."

Ji Huo guessed Xia Ningshang must have cooked for some time herself. If a dish was better than hers, she would enjoy it thoroughly.

Previously, whenever they ate at restaurants or street stalls, Ji Huo sometimes frowned at the food, thinking it barely edible. Yet Xia Ningshang always ate happily, easy to please.

Perhaps it was her childhood experiences or that culinary arts in the Dragon Kingdom weren’t well developed, leaving the child often hungry.

Suddenly, Xia Ningshang turned to him with a puzzled look. "Were you just thinking about me?"