At this moment, everyone, including the Riders and Ren Xiaosu, thought the Wang Consortium and the Anjing House had failed in their objective. After all, they had not seen Wang Wenyan transforming into a black mist and sneaking into the Qinghe Building. After that happened, the Qinghe Group’s satellites continued operating as usual, and there were no signs that hinted they might have been hijacked.
Only Yang Xiaojin knew Yang Anjing must have succeeded after plotting for so long. Otherwise, her aunt would not have remained so calm that night.
Over the years, the only person who had made the Saboteurs experience failure was Qing Zhen.
Now, Yang Anjing had found a way to keep Qing Zhen in check.
While Ren Xiaosu was thinking about this, he suddenly heard Yang Xiaojin say behind him, “Do you want to come in and bathe? You also haven’t bathed in more than a week, right?”
Ren Xiaosu asked in a trembling voice, “C-Can I?”
“Of course you can,” Yang Xiaojin replied. “Don’t you find yourself dirty?”
Ren Xiaosu was overwhelmed with joy. He said carefully, “I’ll be coming in then….”
“Yeah, come here.”
But when Ren Xiaosu climbed back over the slope on his hands and knees, he saw Yang Xiaojin, who had put on her clothes at some point, looking at him with a half-smile on her face. “Not bad, you’ve grown bolder than before.”
She was probably referring to the tent incident from before.
Ren Xiaosu was speechless. He did not even hear the sound of the water splashing, so Yang Xiaojin must have purposely been teasing him.
Sometimes, Ren Xiaosu felt he couldn’t accurately define the type of girl Yang Xiaojin was.
She was a Perfect Firearms Proficiency master who had killed many of her enemies. However, she also possessed many other childlike skills like jumping rope and singing nursery rhymes…
Yang Xiaojin was willing to make her way through a crowd to save him, but she was also capable of chasing him down for a week because he had taken in a maidservant. She could talk about things very seriously and help Ren Xiaosu understand this world better, but she would also tease him mischievously.
This girl always managed to bring some unexpected things to his life.
“Alright, that’s enough. Go and take your bath.” Yang Xiaojin beckoned him to the hot springs and walked off towards the mountainside. “Don’t use the pool that I used just now.”
“You think I want to? Seriously? Am I that kind of person?” Ren Xiaosu was speechless.
But as he was undressing, Yang Xiaojin’s voice came from the slope, “You’ve really got quite a nice body.”
Ren Xiaosu turned around in shock and saw Yang Xiaojin sticking her head over the slope to peek at him. Ren Xiaosu was so shocked he fell into the hot spring pool before he could completely undress. He roared, “What are you doing? Why can you look at me but I can’t look at you! This is unfair!”
“Then why didn’t you look?” Yang Xiaojin said.
With that, Ren Xiaosu backed off again.
“Let’s get back to serious topics. What do you plan to do next?” Yang Xiaojin asked Ren Xiaosu as she sat on the slope with her back facing him.
Ren Xiaosu gave it some thought. “Old Wang wants to do some business in the Northwest and the Central Plains. I think the Great Hoodwinker is very right about one thing. At the least, I still command some influence in the Northwest. When I fought against the Zong Consortium back then, I made some friends in the Northwest after going through thick and thin with them on the battlefield. Rather than being disliked by everyone here in the Central Plains, I might as well head to the Northwest. I don’t have much ambition, so it’s good enough if I can find a place to settle down at.”
Yang Xiaojin’s voice suddenly turned gentle. “Were you injured during the war?”
“No.” Ren Xiaosu shook his head and said, “As you know, I’m a very cautious person. I usually only make a move when I’m sure that I can succeed.”
“Mhm,” Yang Xiaojin acknowledged simply. She could imagine how dangerous it was back then. The survival of a person in a war was not something that could be decided by an individual. No matter how strong you might be, bullets on the battlefield do not recognize friend from foe. In a small battle, there would be hundreds of thousands of bullets flying around, so the probability of getting injured was extremely high. Although Ren Xiaosu did not get injured, that did not mean it was not dangerous.
In the end, she said, “I didn’t know you had survived. If I knew, I would’ve gone to the Northwest to help you.”
Ren Xiaosu could hear from Yang Xiaojin’s tone that she felt a little guilty.
“You don’t have to feel bad. Look, I’m fine, aren’t I?” Ren Xiaosu said with a laugh.
“Then do you plan to return to the Northwest?” Yang Xiaojin asked.
“I want to eliminate the bandits along the Northwestern trade route first.” Ren Xiaosu said, “Fortress 178 is also annoyed by those bandits. But because of the sensitive geography, they can’t deploy their troops to resolve the issue. In that case, why don’t I just help them clear out these obstacles? Once I’m done with this, I can rest assured that Old Wang can carry out his business on this trade route.”
“And then?”
“Then I’ll find Yan Liuyuan. Do you have any news of Liuyuan?” Ren Xiaosu asked.
“No, I went to chase after the person who attacked you at that time and didn’t pay attention to anything else.” Yang Xiaojin said, “But he and Big Sister Xiaoyu should be fine. At least, they weren’t caught by the floodwaters.”
“Mhm, I’ll definitely find them,” Ren Xiaosu said firmly. “By the way, where are you going next? What are your plans?”
“Me?” Yang Xiaojin pondered it for a moment. “I’ll go wherever you go.”
Too many words in the world could be used to confess love. For example, “the moon is so beautiful tonight,” or as a famous artist before The Cataclysm had sung, “I turn into a werewolf for your sake. / I go wild for your sake.”
But at this moment, Ren Xiaosu felt the five words Yang Xiaojin uttered sounded the nicest.
…
A small town that laid between the Northwest and the Central Plains was a very strange existence. This was a place that seemed to be completely independent of the stronghold system.
All the people who lived in these mountains used to be bandits. There was not really much interaction among the different groups of bandits, and they would always fight to the death when they encountered each other.
But later, when their “business” got worse, some of the bandits started moving down to live at the foot of the mountains. They traded their crops and game with each other, and gradually, the long and narrow strip of land at the foot of the mountain turned into a small town.
Due to the sensitive geography, the former Zong Consortium and the Central Plains’ Wang Consortium did not care about this place. It was just like a no man’s land that lay between the two consortiums, and this gave the bandits some respite.
Currently, most of the people here were no longer involved in banditry. Although most of them considered themselves bandits, they mostly only farmed and herded sheep as their daily activities.
There was no choice. Life got in the way.
The recent reopening of the trade route had finally caused a stir in the town. The townspeople here were divided into two factions. One faction felt that since merchants were going to appear, they should resume their old trade. The other faction felt that since they had not been involved in banditry for many years, they should just focus on their agriculture.
While everyone was having an intense discussion, a young couple arrived in town. They said they had gotten lost in the mountains and wanted to settle down here for a few nights.
They mentioned they would not be staying for free and that they had money on them. It was even money issued by the Wang Consortium’s banks.
Currently, the Wang Consortium’s currency was very strong. Anyone could go to the towns outside the Wang Consortium’s strongholds to buy a lot of things with it, and they could also use it to purchase items from the traveling merchants along the trade route.
