The First Order

As it turned out, he could not just lie there and not move an inch. He still had to adjust his posture from time to time to prevent his joints from going stiff.

It wasn’t until early next morning that another sparrow flew under the pot. This happened when Yan Liuyuan was getting so sleepy that his eyes were about to close!

Yan Liuyuan immediately pulled on the rope, and the metal pot held up by a stick fell to the snowy ground with a thud.

Yan Liuyuan could feel that his joints were all stiff as he clenched his teeth and pounced on the pot. Fortunately for him, he had the nanomachines.

He pinned the metal pot with his entire mass and only dared to put his hand in after he was sure that the sparrow was not struggling anymore. But when he put his hand in, he got nipped by the sparrow so hard he could feel a searing pain!

This was different from what Ren Xiaosu had told him! Yan Liuyuan let out a low growl. After much effort, he finally wrung the sparrow’s neck and broke it.

But after breaking its neck, he was left with three bloody punctures on the back of his hand! Yan Liuyuan sat down on the ground with the sparrow in his arms and immediately started crying. With no one around in the vicinity, he cried even harder.

He did not feel grief for himself but rather for Ren Xiaosu.

Ren Xiaosu had always told him how fun the wilderness was and that hunting was extremely easy. Yan Liuyuan knew all along that he was lying.

But humans could not relate to other people’s joys and sorrows. Yan Liuyuan initially thought he could understand how much hardship Ren Xiaosu had suffered during the most challenging time of their lives. But he didn’t expect to realize that Ren Xiaosu had actually suffered much more at that time than he could imagine.

He finally realized the burden that Ren Xiaosu had to bear for him all those years after his own experience, and why Ren Xiaosu never allowed him to go out and hunt in the wilderness.

The young man who was his brother did not even have any nanomachines or gloves he could use during those times.

Yan Liuyuan wiped his tears and headed back towards the campsite. When Xiaoyu saw the blood flowing down his hand, she quickly dressed his wounds with her heart aching.

“Is my brother awake yet?” Yan Liuyuan asked.

Wang Fugui frowned and shook his head. “Since there’s no doctor around, we don’t even know where he’s hurt. We can only deduce that some parts of his body are fractured. But we don’t know what other internal injuries he might have sustained.”

Earlier, Xiaoyu had crushed some antibiotics and mixed it into a solution before feeding it to Ren Xiaosu. This would prevent his wounds from getting inflamed, or stop him from getting a fever, cold, or cough if his immune system resistance dropped.

At first, everyone was worried about Ren Xiaosu being unable to open his mouth for them to feed him the medicine. They thought of having Jiang Wu feed him mouth-to-mouth, and she had no objections either. After all, saving his life was the priority.

Fortunately, Ren Xiaosu did not close his mouth tightly. He swallowed the solution from the spoon when it was placed in his mouth.

Yan Liuyuan handed the sparrow to Xiaoyu and said, “Big Sis, can you boil some soup for my brother?” He then sat down in a daze next to Ren Xiaosu.

Wang Fugui said to Yan Liuyuan, “You don’t have to worry too much, your brother’s hardy, so he’ll be alright.”

Yan Liuyuan also firmly believed that. Since Ren Xiaosu had the physical fitness of a supernatural being, he would not get tortured to death by an illness as long as he did not suffer a fatal injury. Besides, he also made a wish for Ren Xiaosu to recover. For now, he could only wait and see what backlash he would suffer. Usually, Yan Liuyuan would determine whether Ren Xiaosu was safe based on the severity of the backlash he suffered.

Xiaoyu finished plucking off the sparrow’s feathers and even placed the offal off to the side. When this woman first started living together with Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan, she would scream in fright when she had to kill a chicken, and Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan kept making fun of her for it.

But these days, she had become very proficient in handling food. Life really made one grow up. Xiaoyu was willing to change herself for Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan.

After the water boiled, she placed the sparrow into the pot. As soon as the sparrow was inside the pot, the aroma wafted out, carried by the boiling steam.

As it was early in the morning, many of the escapees were suddenly awakened by the smell. They looked over with surprised looks on their faces.

When these escapees fled the stronghold, they only thought of bringing their valuables, such as watches, jewelry, gold and silver, as well as cash.

On the other hand, Xiaoyu and company were very experienced in escaping. They knew exactly what they needed most in the wilderness. Old Wang had already exchanged his money for medicine that was easier to exchange for cash and only had a small amount of gold and cash on him.

In war, gold was not as precious as medicine.

At this moment, someone strolled over to Xiaoyu and her group. The escapees had been hungry for the whole day, so their stomachs were rumbling now.

The middle-aged man said, “Why don’t you give me a bowl of soup too?”

The man did not even bother asking nicely. Xiaoyu shot him a glance and said, “Get lost.”

Yan Liuyuan stared coldly at the stronghold residents as he knew well the kind of people they were. All who dared to approach their group were shameless people. The honest and kind would remain seated where they were, because they knew how precious the soup was at this time, and they would be too embarrassed to ask for some.

A plump, middle-aged man came over with some other people following behind him. When he saw Jiang Wu and the others, his eyes lit up. Jiang Wu was a beautiful woman, and those around her were all her female students.

Furthermore, the people in this group were either old men like Wang Fugui or the wounded like Wang Yuchi and Ren Xiaosu. Since Yan Liuyuan looked really young, their group looked like pushovers.

The fatso said haughtily, “I’m a director at Stronghold 108’s Logistics Division. My name is Xu Shiduan.”

Yan Liuyuan sneered as he stood up and walked over to Xu Shiduan. “You aren’t welcome here.”

Xu Shiduan got so angry he laughed. “Where did this little kid come from? Get out of the way. We’re under wartime regulations, so your food has been expropriated “

Before he could finish speaking, Xu Shiduan stared blankly at the dagger in his chest. He had not expected this young man before him to stab him without any warning.

Yan Liuyuan slowly pulled the dagger out and let the blood from Xu Shiduan’s wound splatter onto his face. Everyone around him was stunned, then they retreated in fear.

Yan Liuyuan said calmly, “I’ll only say it once. No one else is to come near us.”

Ren Xiaosu once told him not to be afraid of causing trouble while they were still living back in town. In this wilderness, you could only live longer if everyone was fearful of you. But he also needed to have some discretion when making trouble. He should identify the culprit first and not get too many people involved. In that way, the culprit would be abandoned by the others, and they would not take revenge on him either.

The nature of people was such that they cherished their lives. When the residents who were used to leading a comfortable life in the stronghold realized that some people were capable of killing others and were more ruthless than them, they would subconsciously choose to step back.

In the past, Ren Xiaosu was the one to do such things. Now that he was unconscious, Yan Liuyuan would do the same on his behalf, just like what Ren Xiaosu did for him.

The escapees started retreating far away. Xiaoyu walked up to Yan Liuyuan and helped him wipe the bloodstains off his face with her sleeve.

Yan Liuyuan suddenly sighed and said, “Big Sister Xiaoyu, today has made me fully understand the burden that my brother has been shouldering all along.”