The First Order

When Yan Liuyuan shouted to Ren Xiaosu, some people who did not notice Ren Xiaosu turned to look at him as well.

The escapees did not quite understand why Yan Liuyuan’s group had not ridden their bicycles when they clearly had them. Instead, they just pushed their bicycles along with the crowd without any panic. But now, everyone realized this group of people did not escape as quickly as possible by cycling because they had been waiting for someone.

But where had this young man who just walked over from the frozen, snowy land outside gone before this? Surely he could not have just escaped from the stronghold, right? After all, the stronghold was filled with terrifying Experimentals, so who could possibly escape from there? They should be the last wave of people who’d fled from there.

Suddenly, a girl in the crowd realized she knew Ren Xiaosu. Wasn’t that the scoundrel who deliberately caused her to score badly on her exams?! This girl was Li Mo, and she had sat behind Ren Xiaosu during the final exams. After the exams were over, she had gone to Ren Xiaosu’s class to seek revenge on him. However, she did not even manage to confront him. Furthermore, the students in Class 12-7 really pissed her off when they claimed they were actually protecting her by stopping her from taking her revenge!

Amid the escaping crowd, she saw Ren Xiaosu walking over from the wilderness. For some reason, she felt those students might have been telling the truth and had not deliberately been trying to piss her off.

As Ren Xiaosu passed through the crowd, he knew a lot of people were looking at him. However, he was not exactly bothered by it. He had been walking in the frozen, snowy land for a long time and almost lost his way. It was not that he had bad wilderness survival, but that he could not even get landmarks to use as a reference in the heavy snowfall. He only found Yan Liuyuan and company because of his strong sense of direction!

He really should have been smarter and hitched a ride with Yang Xiaojin’s group. If he had, he wouldn’t have had to go through all this trouble.

When Ren Xiaosu sat down next to the campfire, Yan Liuyuan immediately handed him some hot water and porridge. “Bro, did you manage to save the ruler of Womanland?”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned. “Who’s the ruler of Womanland?”

Yan Liuyuan chuckled. “Big Sister Xiaojin.”

Ren Xiaosu was confused. ‘Wait, when did Yang Xiaojin become the ruler of Womanland?!’ He looked at Chen Wudi. “Did you give her that nickname? Stop talking nonsense!”

Chen Wudi smirked. “Only names can be given wrongly. How can nicknames be called wrong?”

Yan Liuyuan kept a straight face and told Ren Xiaosu about the “Zixia” incident that happened earlier. Ren Xiaosu was also amused. “Wudi, will you still look for Zixia in the future?”

Chen Wudi froze. “Zixia? Who?”

“Oh, so you’ve already forgotten about her.” Ren Xiaosu said with a sigh, “How amazing that you can switch versions of yourself. Hey, didn’t you used to insist on looking for Zixia?”

Chen Wudi said in seriousness, “Master, I’m crazy, not stupid.”

Ren Xiaosu pondered what he just said but couldn’t figure out the difference even after a long time.

At this moment, an old lady walked towards them with a child in hand. Ren Xiaosu turned around and had a look at them. He thought that if they wanted to share the campfire to keep themselves warm, he could make some space for them. It was really cold out, after all, and they were an elder and child.

But when the old lady came up to them, she said to Ren Xiaosu, “You people should take the initiative to share your food with the elderly and children. I’ve been observing you all for some time. But as a group of young people, you all aren’t even virtuous enough to respect the old and care for the young. How did your parents teach you?”

Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. To be honest, he had not expected such a twist. No one in town had ever mentioned anything about respecting the old and caring for the young before. Like refugees would be so free to discuss virtues and whatnot! So he didn’t expect someone would act so righteous to get them to share their food with the elderly and children.

It was getting late into the night, and the temperature dropped rapidly again. It was really not easy for an elderly person to take care of a child while escaping. If this old lady had just asked nicely for some food to be shared with them, Ren Xiaosu would have given it to her. But since she spoke with that attitude, Ren Xiaosu couldn’t help feeling disgusted. To be honest, he could not understand how someone like her managed to escape from the stronghold.

The child pointed to the golden circlet on Chen Wudi’s head and said, “Grandma, I want that.”

Yan Liuyuan mischievously explained, “That can’t be removed.”

“I don’t care, I want it!” the child said selfishly.

The old lady looked at Chen Wudi. “What’s the big deal with letting my grandson play with your hairband for a while? And why is a grown man like you even wearing a hairband?”

Ren Xiaosu wanted to laugh aloud. Then a woman next to them said, “What’s wrong with you people? Can’t you let the child play with it?” Saying that, she removed a hairpin from her hair and gave it to the child. “Here, play with Auntie’s hairpin instead.”

However, the child slapped the hairpin to the ground and started crying. “I don’t want yours, I want his.”

Ren Xiaosu threw another two pieces of firewood into the campfire and said with a smile, “Y’all better get lost while I’m still in control of myself. In a world like this, you still dare to boss people around? I feel that you might not get to the next stronghold.”

The old lady said with a stuck-up look, “I’m an ancillary family member of the Li Consortium. Even though one of our strongholds has been lost, the Li Consortium’s forces from the other strongholds will definitely come to our rescue soon. So don’t think you can behave as you like, all lawlessly.”

“Get lost,” Ren Xiaosu calmly said.

The child got afraid when he saw Ren Xiaosu’s calm expression. He hid behind the old lady and said, “Grandma, let’s go. I’m scared.”

After saying that, he dragged the old lady back into the crowd. It was as though he wanted to get as far away from Ren Xiaosu as possible. Even while the old lady was leaving, she was still scolding and swearing at them.

Chen Wudi wondered, “Master, why are there people like her in this world?”

She was clearly in the wrong, yet she acted as though she were the righteous one and took advantage of her seniority by emphasizing “respecting the old and caring for the young.” Ren Xiaosu sighed. “Wudi, I know that you want to be a hero and uphold justice. But if you think that everyone in this world has goodness in their hearts, then you haven’t met everyone yet.”

“Bro, where are we headed next?” Yan Liuyuan said, “If we keep going north, we’ll end up in the Qing Consortium’s territory. These Li Consortium residents probably don’t even know where they are right now. Even if the Li Consortium really sends reinforcements over, they won’t bump into them.”

Ren Xiaosu gave it some thought and replied, “Let’s go to Stronghold 88.” “Stronghold 88?” Yan Liuyuan was stunned. “Whose territory is that? Why should we go there?”

Ren Xiaosu thought for a while and said, “Uh, I have an acquaintance there. If we go to Stronghold 88, it’ll be easier for us to obtain legal resident statuses and whatnot. You can even attend school.”

After chatting with Qing Zhen, Yang Xiaojin, and Luo Lan, Ren Xiaosu really wanted to learn more about this world through education. He might not even need to go to school since Yang Xiaojin mentioned there was a huge library in Stronghold 88.

“OK, whatever you say.” Yan Liuyuan asked, “But where is Stronghold 88?”

A bolt of lightning struck Ren Xiaosu. ‘Oh, right! Where is Stronghold 88?!’