Su Lei had wanted to find an opportunity to kill Wang Ergou after getting back to town. He was a ruthless person trying to achieve great things, so he would definitely kill Wang Ergou if he said so and had already discussed this with Cui Qiang while on the way back.
In the end, it was even Cui Qiang who reminded him that since he had to kill Wang Ergou sooner or later, he should just kill him as soon as possible.
Otherwise, when they returned to town, Wang Ergou might get other ideas and collude with the other bandit groups to steal their business opportunity. If that happened, it would get very troublesome.
After all, Wang Ergou knew the details of their next transaction. What the investor from the grasslands mainly wanted was just goods; he did not care who delivered them.
Su Lei knew he was not that important to Yan Liuyuan yet. Therefore, before he managed to establish a true “friendship” with Yan Liuyuan, he could not let any of the other bandit groups know where the business deal would take place.
As such, Su Lei decided to personally kill Wang Ergou.
At this moment, Su Lei looked at the other party coldly after being questioned. “Wang Ergou decided to seek his relatives’ help in the Central Plains, so I thought that since he had such a promising future, there was no need for me to stop him, right?”
But the other party did not believe Su Lei’s explanation at all. Instead, he retorted, “I think you must’ve killed him, right? Since when did Wang Ergou ever have relatives in the Central Plains?”
The other party thought Su Lei would fly into a rage after being humiliated like that, but Su Lei laughed out loud instead. Su Lei looked around. “Since when have y’all cared about other people’s lives? So what if I killed Wang Ergou? Do y’all want to avenge him? Have y’all thought about the consequences?”
Su Lei understood everything about this group of people. So what if he killed the guy? Wang Ergou did not have any friends, so he was not afraid of anyone coming to seek revenge!
There was a tense atmosphere among the onlooking bandits surrounding them.
Seeing that no one was going to speak, Su Lei sneered and said, “I’ll spend the night in town and set off for Fortress 178 with my men tomorrow. Since this place won’t accommodate me, I won’t force it either. But as I, Su Lei, have found a path out now, if anyone dares to ruin my plans, I’ll make sure this path of mine becomes all of your deathbeds. Cui Qiang, let’s go!”
With that, Su Lei led his men into town. They had only returned this time to pack their belongings.
Ren Xiaosu was muttering in the house, “These bandits are such a mob. Besides, why do I feel like these bandits are all trying to get onto the right path?”
“I have the same feeling as well. It looks like it isn’t easy being a bandit anymore, so they’re all looking for other ways to survive.” Yang Xiaojin pondered things for a moment and said, “Are we still gonna kill them then?”
“Let’s wait and see.” Ren Xiaosu sank into thought and said, “I think that this Su Lei person is quite interesting. What he’s doing now is equivalent to helping Fortress 178 connect the trade route to the grasslands.”
Yang Xiaojin glanced at him. “As expected of Fortress 178’s future commander. You’re always looking out for Fortress 178’s interests.”
“Ahem, married couples should not speak so sarcastically to each other!” Ren Xiaosu said.
“Ren Xiaosu!” Yang Xiaojin raised her voice. “We’re only putting on an act, so don’t get too into character! I haven’t even agreed to anything yet!”
“Alright then.” Ren Xiaosu stared down the dark barrel of the sniper rifle in front of him and reluctantly shut his mouth.
He recalled the situation Fortress 178 was facing. Actually, Ren Xiaosu also roughly understood from his conversations with the Great Hoodwinker that Qing Zhen and Zhang Jinglin had suddenly formed an implicit alliance so they could deal with the Wang Consortium in the future.
Since the Qing Consortium and Fortress 178 could work together, could the Northern Plains also be used as leverage for that cause?
Unknowingly, Ren Xiaosu’s thoughts were already starting to align with Fortress 178’s standpoint.
This outcome was probably what the Great Hoodwinker had hoped for when he kept nagging Ren Xiaosu back then.
He had unconsciously changed his mind regarding some matters.
Ren Xiaosu thought about it. Actually, if he wanted to borrow the strength of the nomadic tribes, he would not even have to form an alliance with them. He would only have to secretly provide them with weapons so they would have the capital for an expedition south. After that, the nomadic tribes would automatically start journeying downwards themselves.
Ren Xiaosu had learned about the nomads that lived before The Cataclysm from the library in Stronghold 88. Due to the cold weather in the North and a shortage of supplies, it was common for cows and goats to freeze to death during winter. This caused the nomadic tribes’ livestock numbers to shrink and food to become scarce.
In order to maintain the stability and balance of the tribes, the leaders of the large tribes had to direct the conflicts towards the Central Plains. This was also a tradeoff they had to employ. During wartime, the nomads would always treat the South as their granary.
Therefore, if the enemies of Fortress 178 and the Qing Consortium really turned out to be the Wang Consortium in the future, Su Lei, who no longer wanted to be a bandit and was capable of doing business with the nomads, could become a key turning point at this moment.
Almost tacitly, Yang Xiaojin looked at Ren Xiaosu. “Are you planning to recruit this Su Lei?”
“Recruit him for what?” Ren Xiaosu sighed and said, “I already have enough people to take care of! It’s too tiring to take care of everyone by myself, so I don’t want to add any more burdens.”
Yang Xiaojin was taken aback. “Don’t you still have me?”
Ren Xiaosu immediately said happily, “It’s not that I’m doubting your ability, but it’s mainly because I don’t know this Su Lei well enough and have no intention of interacting with him too much. I’m just thinking of pointing him towards a clear path that he can pursue. As long as he goes to Stronghold 144 and mentions my name to Zhang Xiaoman, Zhang Xiaoman will definitely report Su Lei’s story to Mr. Zhang. Then Mr. Zhang will naturally understand my intention of guiding Su Lei there.”
Fortress 178 did not lack for basic firearms. By taking this seemingly pointless step now, who knew when it might become useful in the future?
Sometimes, Ren Xiaosu was especially envious of Qing Zhen, because he did not even know how Qing Zhen’s brain worked. He was always ten steps ahead at any point in time.
Ren Xiaosu knew he could never be as flawless in planning as Qing Zhen, so he could only try his best to think harder sometimes.
However, Ren Xiaosu did not feel inferior in the slightest. He believed he had his own strengths as well.
With Su Lei’s appearance, Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin’s plan to wipe out the townspeople was temporarily shelved. To normal people, this plan would have seemed incredulous. The two of them wanted to wipe out a town with over a 1,000 people in it? That was a joke, right?
But for Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin, neither of them doubted this plan would fail.
They had also thought there might be supernatural beings in this town, but neither of them really cared.
After all, not that many supernatural beings could survive against the combined pursuit of Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin.
However, the atmosphere in town was starting to feel a little odd. Su Lei quietly looked out from his house and was surprised to find the townspeople were starting to hang around the vicinity of his residence, whether intentionally or otherwise. They did not do anything, and it felt as though… these bandits were scouting before taking action!
Su Lei said sternly to Cui Qiang, who was behind him, “I was too careless this time. We shouldn’t have returned here. I wanted to come back to pack up before we left, but it looks like we can’t leave anymore.”
Su Lei had come back to town to retrieve something very important to him, his parents’ wooden memorial tablets.
Only something like that could make Su Lei risk coming back here.
