Chapter 262: Arrest by Order
Roman Rowe instantly got pissed. "What the hell does the White Family think they’re doing? Stirring up trouble every day. Will it ever end?!"
Frost Shaw was about to speak when she heard a commotion outside. All three of them turned to look.
A crowd carrying torches rushed toward the RV, the flames blazing conspicuously in the dark.
The surrounding customers were a bit baffled, but it was also business as usual. After all, if things were too quiet around Lily Hart’s place, that would be the strange part.
So, clutching their unscratched—or scratched but unredeemed—lottery tickets, they all backed away.
They settled in to watch the drama unfold.
The torchbearers were all men in black, covered from head to toe in pitch-black clothing.
Even their heads were wrapped up tightly, revealing only a pair of sharp eyes.
Lily Hart remained unmoved, feeling a bit tired and numb. ’This drama every day is so exhausting...’
She remained sprawled on the sofa. Seeing that she didn’t move, Frost Shaw and Roman Rowe naturally stayed seated as well.
They even tried to continue chatting, though their words were disjointed, their minds clearly elsewhere.
The men in black raised their torches and surrounded the RV. Two of them stepped aside, creating a gap.
A figure emerged from the gap—it was Chad Yates.
Despite having just been humiliated at Lily Hart’s hands, he still came forward fearlessly, as if he’d completely forgotten what had happened.
He plastered a profound-looking smile onto his otherwise ordinary face.
"Boss Hart, by order of Central Command, I am here to apprehend you!" he declared righteously.
In his hand, he held up a palm-sized token. It was exquisitely crafted, like a jade pendant, but made of wood.
Sprawled on the sofa, Lily Hart couldn’t be bothered to respond, content to let him have his one-man show.
Chad Yates was shut down again, but he seemed more confident this time. He repeated, "Lily Hart! By order of Central Command, I am here to apprehend you. Please cooperate."
Lily Hart hadn’t even reacted yet, but the nearby customers couldn’t hold it in any longer.
"He says ’apprehend,’ so how is Boss Hart supposed to ’cooperate’? Does he really expect her to let him slap on some handcuffs and take her back to Central Command?"
"No way! Boss Hart’s not an idiot!"
"Then this guy must be the idiot, thinking some bogus little token is enough to make Boss Hart cooperate?"
"Yeah, not the brightest bulb."
Lily Hart, for her part, continued to act as if she hadn’t heard a thing, even closing the side panels of the RV and shutting out the outside world.
Chad Yates’s face turned livid. He had expected a long war of words with Lily Hart.
Who knew she would simply refuse to fight and shut down all channels of communication?
For a moment, he was at a complete loss...
Suddenly, one of the torches went out. Then, one by one, they all started extinguishing.
Chad Yates glanced left and right. He knew this was Lily Hart’s doing. ’But just putting out the torches? That’s not her style, is it?’
’Shouldn’t she be unleashing some indiscriminate carnage?’
As these wild thoughts raced through his mind, Chad Yates failed to notice the token fly out of his hand.
"Urgh—" Chad Yates let out a muffled grunt. The token had been forcefully shoved into his mouth, all the way to the back of his throat.
He tried to gag it up but couldn’t. The end of the token was pressed against his throat, making him dry-heave uncontrollably.
He tried pulling it out with his hands, but it wouldn’t budge. The token was wide, with irregular edges, and it was lodged firmly against his back molars.
If he pulled too hard, he’d probably lose all the teeth on that side...
Chad Yates was having a mental breakdown. Why was it always his mouth that suffered? Last time, he was relentlessly kissed by a decapitated head.
This time, he was about to lose his teeth...
"Mmph, c’mere, ’elp me!" Chad Yates managed to shout, his words completely garbled.
A nearby man in black was still wondering how his torch had gone out. Just as he was about to relight it, he finally heard Chad Yates’s call.
’It’s over, it’s over,’ he thought in a panic as he trotted over, torch in hand.
"What’s wrong, Manager Yates?" the man in black asked anxiously. ’Why is he clutching his mouth?’
Chad Yates lowered his hand, revealing the token. Only the very end of it was sticking out of his mouth.
He was left in the miserable predicament of being unable to close his mouth, pull out the token, or swallow it down.
The man in black froze. "Th-that... I’ll help you!" ’No wonder he was covering his mouth,’ he thought. ’Why would you stick that in there for no reason?’
Full of confidence, he pried Chad Yates’s mouth open with one hand and grabbed the token with the other.
With his mouth forced open, Chad Yates couldn’t stop drooling all over the man in black’s hand.
After getting a firm grip, the man in black forced himself to ignore the sticky, disgusting saliva on his hand. "I’m pulling now!" he announced.
Chad Yates mumbled, "Be... be carful... my... my teef—AHHH—"
Before he could finish, the man in black gave a sudden, hard yank and ripped the token out.
With a short, sharp scream from Chad Yates, the token flew out, taking several teeth with it.
The roots were still gruesomely visible, dripping with blood and reeking of a foul, metallic odor.
Chad Yates clutched his mouth, gingerly probing the several empty, gaping sockets with his tongue...
They were pitted and uneven, like holes left after yanking carrots out of the ground.
His mouth was a bloody mess. He spat a few times, and each mouthful was a disgusting mixture of blood and saliva.
Chad Yates’s heart filled with resentment. The thing he was proudest of was his teeth—they were perfectly straight, with no cavities.
Even in the water-scarce apocalypse, he would wipe them with a cloth to prevent any tartar buildup.
The flash of teeth naturally revealed when he spoke was his trademark.
But now... he was even missing a front tooth. He couldn’t imagine how unsightly he would look when he talked!
After yanking out the token, the man in black leaned in and asked, "Manager Yates, are you all right now?"
Chad Yates shoved him away. "Get lost! You idiot! You useless moron who can’t do anything right!"
The man in black: ?? What did I do wrong now?
Inside the RV, Lily Hart snickered. ’That’s what you get for looking for trouble every day! I’ll just destroy the one thing you’re most proud of.’
She had noticed it the very first time she met Chad Yates. His teeth were exceptionally white, far cleaner than the average person’s.
Especially now, during the apocalypse. Who had the energy to worry about keeping their teeth clean?
People were lucky just to get a full meal.
Many people couldn’t compare even back in civilized times. Plus, every time he smiled, he revealed exactly six teeth.
Every single time, as standardized as a copy-paste job.
After chewing out the man in black, Chad Yates turned his fury on Lily Hart, all of his initial confidence gone.
"Lily Hart! Get out here! I’m going to apprehend you!" Chad Yates screamed, pointing a trembling finger at the RV.
Not stopping there, he turned to the crowd of onlookers. "Did you all know? Lily Hart’s blood has miraculous properties! It works on mutated plants, animals, and even zombies!"
Someone in the crowd asked, "What kind of properties?"
Chad Yates was struck speechless. How was he supposed to know? He was just repeating what his superiors had told him to say.
He spouted nonsense. "Maybe it... speeds up the evolution of mutated plants, animals, and zombies!"
The same customer shot back, "What kind of miraculous property is that? Are you saying we should let Lily Hart help them level up? Just so they can come and attack us?"
Chad Yates wanted to scream. ’Why so many goddamn questions? I’m not here to arrest you! You sure have a lot to say.’