The First Order

the qinghe group was located in the heartland of the central plains. but unlike other consortiums that often controlled several to over a dozen strongholds, the qinghe group had only ever controlled one. based on its sequence number in the alliance of strongholds, that should be stronghold 66.

but over the years, the people from the qinghe group did not care that it was called stronghold 66 and simply referred to it as luoyang city.

over time, other people also began to call that stronghold luoyang city.

it was unique just like fortress 178.

before the alliance of strongholds was established, the qinghe group had already shown they had a strong side. they had a fixed and stable organizational structure, and many technologies that had been preserved from the pre-cataclysm times. of course, they did not manage to preserve all of them.

at first, the other consortiums were constantly wary of the qinghe group. but after time passed, everyone realized they did not seem to be interested in expanding their territory at all.

moreover, the qinghe group had never gotten involved in the competition for resources in the central plains all these years. they seemed to only be persistently searching for something.

but there was something even stranger. the person currently in charge of the qinghe group was surnamed xu. the leadership role had been passed down from father to son through old xu’s family lineage. it was said that his ancestors used to sell sanitary pads. later on, a tech expert named xu nuo emerged, and he became wildly successful working under the big boss of the qinghe group.

however, it seemed that the big boss of the qinghe group did not have any offspring, so the xu clan took over stewardship of the qinghe group. however, they always insisted they were only minority shareholders. when they located the heir of the major shareholder, they would step down and make way for that person to take over.

this stand later became a joke that circulated around. who would step down to make way for others in this age of wastelands?

up to the present, the qinghe group had become a very special existence in the central plains. it was located between the wang consortium, the chen consortium, and the kong consortium. the wang consortium occupied the northwest section of the central plains, which connected to fortress 178. the kong consortium was located in the northeast that connected to the sea and guandong.[1] meanwhile, the zhou consortium was situated at the intersection of three rivers and spread downwards to the south.

although there were more than a dozen other consortiums in the central plains, these three consortiums were the most powerful here.

however, the qinghe group was special not because of its unique geographic location but because of how it conducted itself. luoyang city possessed the largest institution of higher learning in the entire alliance of strongholds, and it had a model of teaching that was closest to the pre-cataclysm times.

meanwhile, the establishment of universities in the other consortiums was done only to serve the research of their own technologies. all of them had a very utilitarian focus. as all the different research subjects were done for the sake of improving the power of the consortium someday, the children of other consortiums were not allowed to study at their universities.

but unlike other universities, anyone could take part in the exams for qinghe university. they taught a variety of subjects, and they even included the arts in this age of wastelands.

when such courses were set up initially, many consortiums jokingly criticized how there could be any space for the arts to survive in these times.

furthermore, when the other consortiums acquired the cultural heritage from before the cataclysm, they focused heavily on laboratory data and some technological research results. meanwhile, the qinghe group collected everything they could get their hands on and even sent their own people to look for such items. they seemed to be particularly interested in calligraphy, paintings, and antiques, claiming they were treasures of mankind.

a consortium like this was like a different existence in these wastelands. there really wasn’t another consortium that behaved like them in this world.

at this moment, the students at qinghe university just finished their classes. on campus, the students walked out of their classrooms happily with their backpacks. some of them rushed to the next building for their upcoming classes, while others who did not have any more lessons simply went to attend their club activities.

a girl wearing a cap walked out of the school alone with her schoolbag, her back straight.

someone behind called out to her, “yang xiaojin!”

yang xiaojin calmly looked back. “what’s the matter?”

there were a lot of people on the other side, and the person who spoke was a very tall college student. he was wearing a white shirt and had a very sunny smile on his face. he smiled at yang xiaojin and said, “we have a social this evening, and i’d like to invite you to join us. since school started, you’ve always been going around on your own. are you still getting used to the lifestyle in luoyang city?”

yang xiaojin shook her head. “i only came here to gain more knowledge. i’m not interested in any socials.”

the people behind the male student were whispering among themselves. someone who seemed to be cheering him on said in a low voice, “don’t be shy! hurry up and say it.”

the male student hesitated for a moment before suddenly saying, “yang xiaojin, i like you. can you give me a chance? i can—”

“i already have someone i like,” interrupted yang xiaojin.

that male student froze. he did not know what else to say and started to back down.

yang xiaojin shook her head and said, “see, your feelings for me aren’t even that deep. if i reject you today, you’ll just fall in love with another person tomorrow. your ‘like’ is just you trying your luck. once you hit a stumbling block, you immediately back down.”

off to the side, someone whispered, “she’s going too far.”

the male student struggled and said, “then who do you like? the president of the student council? or…”

yang xiaojin shook her head again. “he’s not in luoyang city. you think that the president of the student council is outstanding because you guys haven’t had a chance to see the outside world yet. the guy i like has never led a pampered life.”

however, yang xiaojin was not sure whether ren xiaosu was still alive or not. she had witnessed the scarlet red spear penetrate his body right before her very eyes. the saboteurs had promised to help her get revenge, but the condition was that she had to do ten things for the organization first.

for the past two months, she kept asking her aunt if there was any news of ren xiaosu. however, all she received was a negative answer.

in order to gain a clearer understanding of the qinghe group, her aunt arranged for her to continue with her studies at qinghe university. however, yang xiaojin was never just a normal student. she had killed people before and had also accompanied someone in building a future filled with hope in the wilderness until that hope was shattered.

but it didn’t matter to her. she believed that ren xiaosu was still alive, and she would locate him sooner or later.

yang xiaojin turned around and left. she walked along kaiyuan avenue back to her home in luoyang city. then she constantly stripped her sniper rifle and cleaned it.

after repeating the process several times, she personally reloaded gunpowder into all the different types of bullets that she had. if the students at school saw this scene, they would probably be shocked. this was not a toy a girl should have.

it was during this time that yang xiaojin slowly calmed down. actually, under her calm appearance, a warm heart was hidden within.

she went to the kitchen to cook a meal for herself. after she finished, she crushed the remaining onion she had and squeezed out the juice.

yang xiaojin took out a thin brush before retrieving a paper crane from her pocket and unfolding it. she dipped the brush into the onion juice and wrote a few lines of words on the paper. after that, she refolded the paper crane.

the paper crane spread its wings as though it had suddenly come to life. then it flew off into the west.

when the recipient received the paper crane, the handwriting inside would be revealed by slightly heating the paper over an open flame.

[1] guandong: often referring to northeast china where the three provinces of heilongjiang, jilin, and liaoning are located in china. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/northeast_china#names