Chapter 273: Chapter 273: Brute Force Creates Miracles

Around three in the morning, all was still. Even the wind and snow had stopped.

At this hour, most people were deep in sleep, and it was as if the entire world had been put on mute.

Melody Summers lay on a large, soft bed, a fine woolen blanket beneath her and a comfortable comforter over her. Her breathing was steady—she was clearly having a sweet dream.

But the next second, a piercing alarm blaring from her phone jolted her awake!

The shrill alarm blared from the phone, and Melody Summers’s eyes flew open!

Startled awake, her heart began to pound wildly.

Melody Summers took deep breaths, trying to calm her racing heart, as she picked up her phone and opened the security app to check the situation.

The app indicated that someone was trying to tamper with the electronic lock on the balcony window of apartment 1606 in an attempt to break in.

All traces of sleep vanished from Melody Summers in an instant. She rubbed her eyes to clear her vision, then pulled up the security camera feed on her phone to get a closer look.

And there, on the balcony camera feed, she saw a dark figure clinging to the security bars on the other side of the window!

...

Half an hour earlier, Mrs. Vance had tied a safety rope around her waist, securing the other end to a cabinet on her own balcony.

Once the rope was tied, Mrs. Vance gave it a hard tug to make sure it was secure.

Then, she leaned out and glanced up toward apartment 1606, confirming it was completely dark.

She planned to climb onto Melody Summers’s balcony, open the window, and quietly steal some supplies.

Just as Mrs. Vance was tentatively starting to climb out, her daughter-in-law, Susan Warren, grabbed her and pulled her back.

Susan Warren looked at Mrs. Vance with a worried expression, shaking her head as she pleaded, "Mom! This is far too dangerous! Do you really have to do this?"

Mrs. Vance patted Susan’s hand reassuringly. "Susan, don’t you worry. Mom is still nimble! When I was young, I could scale five floors with my bare hands. This is only a single floor, and I have the safety rope. Nothing can go wrong!"

Susan Warren remained unconvinced. "No, Mom," she said, her face fraught with anxiety. "This is the 15th floor! If you fall, the consequences would be unimaginable! Besides, what makes you so sure they even have supplies in 1606?"

At first, Mrs. Vance hadn’t been so sure herself. After all, Melody Summers’s family was incredibly tight-lipped; no matter how much she pried, she couldn’t get any information out of them.

But last night, she had overheard Melody Summers mention that a family member worked at the materials supply point.

After her initial alarm, Mrs. Vance was filled with overwhelming temptation.

’A staff member at the materials supply point!’

’Someone who controls the supply distribution for all of The Metropolis Residences!’

’Melody Summers’s family must have food!’ Mrs. Vance concluded.

Having realized this, Mrs. Vance became conflicted. ’If I get caught stealing, we’ll have offended a supply administrator...’

’We’re a vulnerable family. If we offend a supply administrator, how will we survive?’

But then she thought, ’If I can successfully steal the items without being discovered, I’ll be able to get a lot of food...’

’To steal or not to steal?’

Mrs. Vance wrestled with this inner conflict all night. In the end, greed won out over fear, and she decided to steal some supplies from 1606.

Mrs. Vance looked at her daughter-in-law, Susan Warren, who was over eight months pregnant yet still looked like skin and bones. Her heart ached as she patted Susan’s back and replied, "Don’t worry. I’ve been watching them. I’m almost certain they have plenty of supplies. I’ll just steal a little to bring back and help nourish you and Bobby. I won’t get caught."

Susan Warren was still uneasy. She grabbed Mrs. Vance’s arm to keep her from going. "Mom, this isn’t right!" she pleaded. "It’s their property, and they need to eat, too. Let’s just forget it! Tomorrow, I’ll haul some more furniture to the secondhand market to sell. We can use the money to buy some rice and make porridge for Bobby!"

Susan Warren truly didn’t want her mother-in-law to take such a risk. The fifteenth floor was just too dangerous.

Besides, it was stealing. Who wasn’t going hungry these days? Her conscience couldn’t bear the thought of it.

Mrs. Vance sighed silently. It wasn’t as if she *wanted* to steal.

Before the cataclysm, she’d been a law-abiding citizen!

But she knew that her grandson, Bobby, was a growing boy, and her daughter-in-law, Susan, was pregnant. Both of them desperately needed nourishment.

This was especially true for Susan. She was about to give birth, and living on nothing but sand vine cakes was not a solution.

Without proper nutrition, she wouldn’t even have the strength to give birth! And if both mother and child were lost... Mrs. Vance didn’t dare let her thoughts stray any further.

So Mrs. Vance insisted, "What else do we have left to sell? We’ve already sold everything we can. All that’s left are the bedframes... Enough. Don’t try to stop me. I am going tonight, no matter what!"

With that, Mrs. Vance bent down and scooped up the Chihuahua that had been lying quietly at her feet.

Mrs. Vance was wearing her hoodie backward, so she could place the Chihuahua right into the hood, which now rested against her chest. 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Once she was certain the hood was deep enough and the Chihuahua wouldn’t fall out, Mrs. Vance climbed out onto the balcony.

Seeing that her pleas were useless, Susan Warren could only grip the safety rope tightly, her face etched with worry as she watched Mrs. Vance climb off their balcony.

Mrs. Vance first peeked out cautiously, checking the balcony above. Seeing no one, she slowly straightened up, grabbing onto the frame of her own outward-opening window to hoist herself up.

Mrs. Vance carefully placed her feet on the window frame, inching her way toward the balcony above.

She grabbed the railing of the upper balcony, her body pressed tightly against the wall, each movement slow and deliberate.

Finally, her hand reached the security bars on the balcony of 1606.

She gripped the bars tightly, pushed off with her feet, and began to pull herself up.

Once she was in position, Mrs. Vance reached out a hand and began pushing hard against the balcony window of 1606...

...

Melody Summers watched the scene unfold on her security feed, utterly speechless.

’This Mrs. Vance is just baffling!’

’What is she doing climbing up to my balcony?!’

’Does she actually think she can sneak in through there?!’

’First of all, the balcony window is locked. It’s a newly upgraded electronic lock. Does she really think she can force open a locked window with her bare hands?’

’Second, there are security bars over the window. Even if she did somehow manage to push it open, does she think she can squeeze through the palm-sized gaps between the bars?!’

’Does she know the Bone Shrinking Skill or something?!’

Melody Summers was completely baffled.

On the camera feed, Mrs. Vance continued to push relentlessly against the window, as if trying to open it through sheer brute force.

With every shove, the alarm on Melody’s phone shrieked incessantly.

Melody turned the volume down to its lowest setting, but the noise was still giving her a headache.

She watched the screen, exasperated, a new curiosity taking hold. ’Even if she actually gets the window open, what could she possibly do next?’

’Is she planning to break through security bars made of reinforced steel?’

As the saying goes, curiosity killed the cat.

In Melody’s eyes, Mrs. Vance’s threat level was practically zero. Even if she somehow got inside, she wouldn’t pose any real danger.

So, with a few taps on her phone, Melody disengaged the electronic lock on the balcony window.

The next second, Mrs. Vance, still hanging from the security bars, was astonished to find that the window actually slid open under her push.

She was overcome with delight and muttered, "I guess brute force really can work miracles..."

Hearing this through her phone’s audio feed, Melody couldn’t help but snort with laughter.

Now that the window was open, Melody stared intently at the screen, eager to see what Mrs. Vance would do next.

On the monitor, Mrs. Vance clung to the security bars with one hand while her other reached into the hoodie pouch on her chest and pulled out... a Chihuahua!

Then, she shoved the Chihuahua straight through a gap in the security bars!