Just as Wen Qian was building a shelter on the spot at the fastest speed, no one immediately broke in from the entrance or windows.
This was quite fortuitous, as after enduring the winter from south to north, the fugitives were left with only six people.
When they arrived here in the rain, they split into two groups - two went to scout near the Big Jin Family, while the other four headed towards Wen Qian's home.
They thought Wen Qian's home looked quite wealthy, with such a high and sturdy perimeter wall, so the living conditions inside must be decent.
That's why the group going to Wen Qian's home had more people; they walked around the wall once before deciding to enter through the iron gate.
The bolt on the small iron gate wasn't locked, or even if it was, they could easily break it open.
But as they were slowly pushing the bolt open with a knife, they accidentally made a mistake and let the wind blow the gate wide open, making a huge noise.
Their first reaction was that they had already startled the prey, so they didn't immediately enter the courtyard, but waited outside the iron gate instead.
If the occupants didn't hear the noise, they would sneak in quietly; if they did hear it and came to check, that would be even better.
In that brief moment, Wen Qian had already placed two large rocks behind the door and stacked sandbags behind the glass window next to it.
She stored the table in her spatial storage, stacking the sandbags from the ground up, higher than she could reach, essentially blocking the entire window.
Only a narrow gap was left at the top - she figured the intruders wouldn't be able to enter from there.
She then went back to the bedroom and similarly sealed the window with sandbags. The door between the kitchen and bedroom was closed, so Wen Qian could only stack sandbags behind that door too.
When the gang noticed no one coming out of the house, they assumed the wind and rain had drowned out all noise, and the occupants hadn't heard them.
The first person approached the house cautiously, with the last person standing guard at the gate.
They quickly reached the stove but found the door closed - and it was one of those extra thick, burglar-proof doors too.
The window curtains were drawn, so they couldn't see any movement inside and could only sneak down the hallway.
Since it was a burglar-proof door, their first choice was to break in through the windows.
But the curtains on both windows were tightly drawn, the deep, thick curtain fabric blocking any light from entering.
Wen Qian couldn't tell where the intruders were from inside, just as they couldn't see what was going on inside either.
This situation made the thugs anxious too; they looked at each other, seemingly discussing something.
Were the occupants just in the habit of drawing the curtains, or had they done so after detecting the intruders' arrival?
But even if they had noticed, what could they do except lock themselves in? They couldn't escape anyway.
With that thought, their mood lightened - if the doors and windows were locked, it meant the occupants were afraid.
So the thugs let down their guard, thinking their prey was already in the bag.
Thunder roared as the rain poured heavily. The thugs approached the window next to the burglar-proof door and began to break it.
There was a security grill outside the glass window which they tried to remove, easily bending the stainless steel grill.
They then smashed through the old wooden window behind it, firing a volley of shots into the house as they broke in.
Wen Qian was crouched in the corner of the bedroom window, hearing the gunshots and the sandbags being hit with a 'puff' sound.
While bullets could penetrate steel plates, they may not get through sandbags - she had constructed a similar shelter before when encountering a bear on the road.
This time, she had prepared more sandbags, stacking them two layers high at the window - meaning normal bullets wouldn't be able to get through.
Only close-range, large-caliber sniper rounds or small artillery shells could penetrate directly.
Both the kitchen and bedroom windows were fired upon, but the thugs outside realized there was no movement inside at all.
Logically, the bullets entering should have hit something, and even if not a person, there should have been sounds of objects shattering.
But why was there only a 'swishing' sound?
One person used his gun to pull back the tattered curtain and discovered sandbags lining the window, stacked up to block it.
No wonder there was no sound - they had been prepared here, and this infuriated the thugs.
This wasn't an ordinary residence anymore; they wondered if it was some kind of fortress.
Carefully, one climbed onto the windowsill and saw there was still a gap above the kitchen window, as the sandbags didn't reach the ceiling. So he decided to toss in one of his prized tear gas canisters.
He figured tear gas could force the occupants out.
When the canister hit the floor, Wen Qian thought they had thrown a bomb at first, before realizing it was just the consecutive 'bangs' of tear gas.
She heard the intruders say it could smoke people out, so she put on her gas mask.
Yes, she had one - when buying face masks earlier, she didn't fully trust them and bought a gas mask too.
Who knew it would come in handy now?
The bedroom window was sealed to the top, so she didn't have to worry about anything being thrown in.
The thugs waited for the occupants to painfully cry, cough, even suffocate - but there was silence, still no movement.
They quickly realized this too and became puzzled. If even tear gas could be endured, there must be no one inside, right?
That would also explain the sandbags lining the windows - what normal person stacks sandbags to block their own windows? It was clearly not a spur-of-the-moment act.
"Boss, what if there's no one?" someone thought. Maybe the sandbags were to prevent bears from entering, and the residents had gone hunting but got stuck out by the heavy rain.
The more the thugs thought about it, the more sense it made. Smoke from the tear gas was seeping out the window gaps as they coughed.
One accomplice scolded the person who threw the tear gas canister, saying he had wasted such a valuable weapon.
The people in this courtyard might have gone bear hunting in the mountains and wouldn't return for a few days, essentially wasting that last canister.
Wen Qian's heart was still racing, with smoke filling the adjacent rooms, but she didn't move carelessly either.
She worried the slightest sound would alert the people just on the other side of the wall.
"So what do we do now? The windows are all sealed, and the door is a burglar-proof one - what a hassle!"
So they fired at the door lock in an attempt to break in, damaging the lock, but they still couldn't open the doors.
The few of them then started ramming the door, feeling as if even the house was shaking, but the large door showed no signs of retreating or loosening.
That was because Wen Qian had placed landscaping stones behind the door, the kind typically seen in parks or at the entrances of companies, or in large public squares.
Massive solid stones, Wen Qian had collected quite a few, storing them in her spatial pocket.
Her original intention was to use them as cover or to throw stones at people in the future.
As a result, when placed behind the door, the floor tiles were crushed under their weight.
One can only imagine how large and heavy these stones were.
She had picked out two squarish ones that could be stacked and placed them behind the door.
Listening to the synchronized ramming sounds from outside, she felt they wouldn't be able to break through even if they rammed until their bones broke.
This was probably a case of using an egg to strike a rock.
Although the stones and sandbags prevented others from invading, they also limited Wen Qian's counterattack.
She wondered if they would leave if they couldn't get in, or if they would go to the Big Jin Family instead.
Or perhaps they had come from the Big Jin Family?
