Sitting before his monitor for the seventh hour in a row, Selva sighed.
"Can we please not make a habit of this? It fucks up my sleep schedule," Selva whined, dutifully performing his job regardless. He ran up the results of the tracking spirits as they filtered in.
"Bro, you're the real MVP," Joyce said appreciatively on the other side of the phone.
Mohan was making a distraction near the Northern part of the city, giving Ruohan time to evacuate the residents and gather her military coup team on the Eastern side. Even if Wu Peifu's shamans were on their highest alert, a giant flaming bird was much more noticeable than a bunch of trucks moving around. All in all, it was progressing ridiculously smoothly for a hastily thrown together plan.
"I get the feeling she's been planning this, or variations of this, for a long time," Selva said suspiciously. Joyce made a thoughtful noise.
"Interesting," Joyce said. "Why does that give me a bad feeling?"
"Um," Selva said in alarm. "Is that really something you should say right before a high-risk operation?"
"No, not really," Joyce said sheepishly. "Anyways, the military guys are actually gathering?"
"Yeah," Selva said. "You're clear for going straight to the meeting point."
"Dope," Joyce said.
All in all, the Flying Dragons could trust Ruohan as much as someone could trust a cracked toenail not to tear on moving day. Ruohan had proposed the coup that could help them take Wuhan, but Selva really didn't think that was Ruohan's only plan.
As a precaution, Joyce would head straight to the meeting point with a small group, while Spade circled in from a different route with the main force.
"Anyways," Selva said. "Be careful out there. This is a high-risk investment, so at least come back intact."
"Yeah, and hopefully with the gold," Joyce said. "Or we'll really have to rob Wu Peifu."
"Don't jinx it," Selva warned. He sighed as Joyce laughed on the other end of the phone. That girl really needed to learn how to stop tempting fate.
//////
"Is this really alright?" Kui asked Ruohan uneasily. She chuckled at his nervous expression.
"Yes," she said firmly before turning back to her phone.
"I don't know, it just seems like a bad idea," Kui said. "Crossing Wu Peifu was already bad enough, now you want to piss off an Apostle?"
"She can't come running to slice my head off with a giant sword or something," Ruohan said confidently. "The other two factions will stop her so they can get money from me, there's no way that kid could actually do anything to me."
Kui shook his head in exasperation. "That's assuming that they want to go against someone who could blow up the whole city, and also that they don't want to just kill you and appropriate your money anyways. I'm serious, Ruohan, this is a bad idea."
Ruohan waved aside his concern.
"There's no way I'm going to throw the whole Hu family fortune behind someone who would just rush into things like this," she said. "But don't worry, I've got a few safeguards in place. Since we're doing something that'll piss them off, we'll just throw each side a bone."
Kui groaned, dropping his head into his hands.
"Don't worry, if Wu Peifu's shamans are too busy with the Apostle, everything will be over within an hour," Ruohan said cheerfully.
"What about the bone for the Apostle?" Kui asked wearily.
Ruohan scoffed. "The Triple Alliance wins."
"That's not really a bone for her though," Kui said. "You know the other two factions will probably take all the credit, right?"
"Well, whatever," Ruohan said. "I just don't want to help her much. There's nothing I dislike more than arrogant idiots who overestimate their abilities."
Yutian chose that moment to make her presence known.
"Are you talking about yourself, Miss?" Yutian said. Ruohan and Kui screamed, whirling around to stare at Yutian in shock as the young woman daintily stepped in through the third-floor window in six-inch heels.
"How did you even get up here?!" Kui shouted.
"I walked," Yutian said innocently. "Miss, the evacuation is complete. The residents who live outside the designated zone are prepared to shelter-in-place."
"Good," Ruohan said. She stood up and stretched, looking out the window with a smug expression.
"Damn, I really want to see that brat's reaction," Ruohan said cheerfully. "I'm sure it'll be quite interesting."
"You have a terrible personality," Kui said. "Uncle is so unlucky."
"I pity the Master," Yutian said in agreement.
Ruohan ignored them. After all, things always worked out just fine.
////////
Joyce squinted suspiciously at the armored vehicles with Wu Peifu's insignia on them. She then squinted suspiciously towards the darkened windows of the surrounding buildings.
"Are we really in the right spot?" Joyce asked her driver suspiciously.
"Yes, I'm sure of it," he said hesitantly. Joyce glanced around some more, ignoring Han Gai's nervous squirming.
"But the trucks are empty," Joyce pointed out. She rolled down the window and stuck her head out.
"The buildings are also empty," Joyce said. She frowned and opened the car door, ignoring Han Gai and the driver's protests. She slapped the side of the car.
"You take the car back a few blocks for now," Joyce said to the driver. She waved aside his protests.
"Dude, seriously, just back up a bit. The vibe's off here," she insisted. She repeated her message into the communication radio again, nodding in satisfaction as she saw her group's cars turn back obediently.
Joyce's phone rang with an incoming call from Spade.
"Yeah?" she said into her phone.
"What are you doing?" Spade asked in annoyance.
"Dude, the cars here are empty. The buildings are too. I have a weird feeling about this, okay? I think we should get ready to pull out," she said seriously. Spade made a choked noise on the other end of the phone.
"Joyce," he hissed. "Get back in your car then. We're leaving."
"How the hell did you even know about that?" Joyce asked.
"Han Gai sent me a plea for help and ten crying emoticons," Spade said in exasperation. "At least take care of your bodyguard."
Joyce sighed. "Alright, let's all get out of here," she said.
"Be careful," Spade warned her before hanging up. Joyce patted Han Gai on the shoulder apologetically, turning to look at the cars that had backed up quite a bit. Her driver gave her a questioning look. Joyce waved for him to keep backing up and began heading back towards the car.
"We're pulling out, Chairman?" Han Gai asked, visibly relieved and surprised. Joyce gave him an irritated look.
"What, can I not be overly paranoid and suspicious sometimes?" she asked jokingly. Han Gai grinned a little.
"Not at all, Chairman. I'm just glad, this is kind of scary," Han Gai said. Joyce glanced at the giant sword on his hip and the gun tucked neatly into his shirt.
"Yeah, sure," she said agreeably.
The trucks behind them exploded. The shitty ward Joyce had put up after getting off the car was nearly torn apart by the gust of hot wind that blew out the windows of the surrounding buildings.
"Holy shit!" Joyce screamed, making to run for the cars. Which actually had decent wards, or at the very least, better wards than what she could make. There was a strange gust of wind-spirits in the corner of her eye.
Joyce stopped, throwing up an arm to stop Han Gai from going forward either. She tossed up another ward of even shittier quality, channeling as much energy into it as she could.
"Chairman, we have to go!" Han Gai shouted. Joyce ignored him in favor of grabbing onto him and screeching like a banshee as a second explosion dropped half a building into the street in front of them.
"Oh my god!" Joyce screeched. Flames and rubble bounced off her ward, as well as a sizable chunk of the building. "Holy shit!"
She glanced around desperately and chose to head for the now-charred armored trucks instead. Joyce fumbled with the radio before pulling it to her ear, trying to hear over the roar of fire and bits of a building breaking off and crashing into the concrete below.
"Chairman! Chairman, are you alright?!" Joyce let out a sigh of relief as she recognized the voice of her driver.
"We're fine, is everyone ok?" Joyce shouted into the radio.
"Yes, sir! The wards are holding!" he shouted back.
"Yeah, you know what? Just get the hell out of here, I'll fly out or something," Joyce said. She ignored his protests. "That's an order, I have to call Spade. Bye."
She handed the radio to Han Gai, who was clinging to her arm like a cute girl on a movie date. The fact that he was too tall to huddle behind her without slouching significantly didn't really improve the situation. Joyce screeched and tried unsuccessfully to move out of the way of a flying television on fire. It shattered against the ward.
"Oh my god," she wailed, dialing Spade's number.
"Joyce!" Spade snapped into the phone.
"Dude, we are yeeting!" Joyce shouted.
"Are you okay?!" Spade asked.
"We're fine, you guys just get on out of here, we'll catch up on a spirit or something," Joyce suggested. Spade cursed and shouted something away from the phone.
"That's not possible anymore," Spade grit out. "We're being attacked by Wu Peifu's shamans."