The First Order

“All the cigarettes supplied to the private army were delivered from other locations by the Qing Consortium. You’ve seen the fleet of trucks before, right? The supplies they delivered were none other than cigarettes.” Luo Xinyu said, “Actually, the same thing’s happening in the other strongholds. Although the various strongholds’ overseers know they’re puppets, there are always a few who try to break free of their strings.”

Ren Xiaosu nodded. It looked like he could not measure the consortium’s power based on the private army’s strength. Ren Xiaosu had learned enough from Luo Xinyu for the day and had to digest all of this information.

“I’ll ask one final question.” Ren Xiaosu asked, “Why did you choose a person like Liu Bu as your manager?”

Luo Xinyu was not exactly stupid either, so why did she choose Liu Bu?

Luo Xinyu explained, “He’s the younger brother of a unit chief in the stronghold’s Logistics Division.”

Ren Xiaosu could more or less understand some of the reasons behind this, but he didn’t exactly know what kind of authority a unit chief in the Logistics Division had.

Luo Xinyu felt her relationship with Yang Xiaojin and Ren Xiaosu had become a little closer. She hesitated for a moment before saying, “Can you help me make it out of this place alive? I have nothing left out here in the wilderness and can only depend on the two of you.”

Ren Xiaosu shook his head and said, “It’s not like you have nothing left.”

Luo Xinyu was taken aback. “What do you mean?”

“You still have the cheek to ask me to get you out of here alive.” Having said that, Ren Xiaosu ignored Luo Xinyu.

Luo Xinyu was left confused by Ren Xiaosu on this dark and rainy night. She still had something left? She still had the cheek to ask him for something?

What fucking language proficiency is this? Are we even speaking the same language?

It was at this time that Luo Xinyu realized that her “close relationship” was only an illusion.

In reality, Ren Xiaosu found Luo Xinyu to be quite pitiable. She was all alone in the wilderness with no one to trust and had no one who was willing to help her. She was even surrounded by these ruffian soldiers who kept trying to take advantage of her.

But who wasn’t pitiable? Yan Liuyuan, who was suffering in town from the pain brought on by the side effects of his wish, wasn’t he pitiable?

If Ren Xiaosu promised to help get someone out of this place, that would be irresponsible towards Yan Liuyuan.

As long as Ren Xiaosu relied on his luck, Yan Liuyuan was bound to suffer even more from the side effects.

Although Yan Liuyuan would usually only get a headache or fever after making a wish, the problem was that if Ren Xiaosu used his luck to avoid death, Yan Liuyuan would not only be suffering simple side effects like a headache or fever!

This was a power governed by the law of conservation. If one party got luckier, the other would become unluckier.

The moment Yan Liuyuan made a wish for Ren Xiaosu, he had placed his life in Ren Xiaosu’s hands.

Therefore, for Yan Liuyuan’s sake, Ren Xiaosu could not promise anyone that he would help them get out of here alive.

The other people’s lives were not as valuable as Yan Liuyuan’s.

When Yang Xiaojin woke up in the middle of the night, she looked at Ren Xiaosu and said, “It’s your turn to sleep.”

Ren Xiaosu nodded. Then he closed his eyes to get some sleep. He had not gotten any rest for nearly 30 hours. Even that was too much for him to bear in his current shape.

Ren Xiaosu kept thinking about a couple questions while in a semiconscious state. ‘What exactly is Yang Xiaojin’s identity? Does she belong to the so-called combat brigade of the Qing Consortium?’

No, that couldn’t be right. If she were from the combat brigade, she wouldn’t have to hide her identity to join the team, right? Besides, she even had to pay Luo Xinyu to join them.

In Ren Xiaosu’s opinion, if the Qing Consortium’s combat brigade stationed at Stronghold 113 were to send someone to join them for the mission, wouldn’t the soldiers from the private army revere her like a god?

After all, that was the authority that really had the power to control life and death in the stronghold.

Ren Xiaosu could not figure out Yang Xiaojin’s motive, so he could only remain suspicious of her identity.

The hollow was completely quiet in the early morning. Yang Xiaojin was feeling energetic again after waking up. As she had received relevant training in this field, the way she slept was beyond most people’s imagination. She was actually able to stay alert while sleeping.

This was something that normal people could not understand, just like how normal people in the current day still could not understand supernatural beings.

The rain outside came to a stop. Just as Ren Xiaosu had said, the forest ground became quagmire of mud after the rain. Some people would probably fall behind during tomorrow’s journey.

Some of the soldiers in the hollow were still not asleep and were whispering about something. Meanwhile, Liu Bu was catching the dripping water with his mouth open. It was finally his turn to drink now that everyone else had enough.

Yang Xiaojin was opening the pine cones left over from the evening. She took out the pine nuts from within and put them into her mouth one by one to replenish the nutrients she needed.

Yang Xiaojin, who was sitting across from Ren Xiaosu, was looking at him sleeping as she ate her pine nuts. Was he really asleep or was he in a semiconscious state?

However, Yang Xiaojin heard Ren Xiaosu start snoring. She wasn’t the only one who heard it; the entire hollow heard it as well! The snoring was way too loud!

At this moment, two soldiers got up and said to Xu Xianchu, “We’ll take over the watch from you. You should get some rest now.”

Xu Xianchu nodded. “Be on your toes, don’t lower your guard.”

“Don’t worry,” one of the soldiers replied.

The two soldiers slowly walked to the entrance of the hollow, as though they were going to keep watch there.

Yang Xiaojin lowered her head and hid her gaze under her cap. When she saw the two ruffian soldiers, the corners of her mouth curled up a tad. This was because she noticed that Ren Xiaosu’s snoring had… stopped.

But the two soldiers did not seem to have noticed anything. One of them remarked, “I wonder if we can get back to the stronghold alive.”

“Who knows?” the other replied.

It seemed like the two men were having a normal conversation. But when they passed Yang Xiaojin and Ren Xiaosu, they sprang into action. As the rain had stopped, the hollow was completely silent.

The two soldiers, standing on the left and right side, whipped out their bayonets. They were actually thinking of sneak attacking both Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin!

Which would react faster within three steps? A person or a gun? This question had been discussed by many people before, and everyone felt that a person could probably react faster in the space of three steps. But right now, the two assailants were only one step away from Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin. Within such a short distance, it would be almost impossible for Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin to pull out their guns.

They were not foolish. Therefore, they waited until the wee hours of the morning when Ren Xiaosu had just fallen asleep and Yang Xiaojin was just waking up to carry out their plan. A person tended to have stiff muscles when they were just waking up from sleep. This was not due to being in bad shape, rather, the body’s mobility has not fully kicked in yet.

They had probably decided to launch a sneak attack on Yang Xiaojin and Ren Xiaosu for their guns, or their water, or for Luo Xinyu. However, they did not know what kind of opponents they were about to face!

Bang!

With a gunshot, the ruffian soldier standing before Yang Xiaojin looked at the bleeding wound in his abdomen in disbelief. He clearly saw that Yang Xiaojin had been peeling pine nuts, and her gun was not out. So how did Yang Xiaojin manage to react so much quicker than him?

Meanwhile, the assailant on the other side let out a pained cry. Just as he was about to use the bayonet in his hand, Ren Xiaosu sprang up and grabbed him by his neck in an instant, quick as lightning.

The assailant wanted to stab Ren Xiaosu with the bayonet in his hand, but he realized that Ren Xiaosu had already grabbed his arm. He could not move a muscle.

Ren Xiaosu lifted the adult man weighing 85 kilograms up by his neck with one hand. Then the assailant felt a great pain radiate from his back. In the blink of an eye, Ren Xiaosu had slammed him up against the stone wall with one hand!

The bayonet fell to the ground as the assailant could no longer grip it.