The group struggled for nearly five minutes, using up three flasks of precious drinking water, before Ning Zhe's temperature finally came down.
"Huff, huff!"
The red glow fading from his eyes, Ning Zhe suddenly sat up from the ground, gasping for breath. Seeing the state he was in, and the anxious faces of the others around him, he swallowed hard. "Did I have another attack?"
"Yeah! You nearly scared us to death! Good thing it happened here. If it'd hit you in the middle of a hunt, I don't even want to think about what could've happened!" Lin Xun knew that every time Ning Zhe had an attack, he lost all memory of it. Seeing him recovered now, Lin Xun let out a breath of relief.
"This place isn't safe. Let's go, everyone, let's take care of business first." Hearing some unknown beast's roar out in the wasteland, Ning Zhe picked his clothes up off the ground and led the others toward the left fork in the path, all the while trying to recall what had just happened. But he had no memory of it at all, only a lingering weakness in his body, and a tearing kind of pain.
Before long, the group climbed the slope and pushed open the door into a lit wooden cabin. Inside were two men, one a burly fellow with a curly beard, the other a young man in his twenties. Since most people in the refugee zone rarely washed their faces, everyone was so grimy it was hard to make out anyone's true features.
"Brother Zhe, let me introduce you. This is my cousin, Li Bin! Cousin, this is Ning Zhe, the one I told you about!" As soon as Li Dongbao stepped inside, he pointed to the young man in the room and made the introductions.
"Hello! My cousin's told me about you plenty of times before. All these years, you've looked out for him, thank you." Li Bin smiled and gave a greeting, then got straight to the point. "Friend, the thing we asked for, did you get it?"
"And the rice?" Ning Zhe shot back.
"Don't worry, people like us always keep our word!" With that, the curly-bearded man reached over and lifted a blanket in the corner, revealing several burlap sacks underneath.
"Xiao Xun, give him the thing." As Ning Zhe spoke, his stomach let out a couple of growls.
"Brother, looks like Dongbao wasn't exaggerating, you really do have some skill!" Li Bin took the chip, his eyes lighting up, then pointed to a backpack on the table. "There's roasted meat in there that I brought for you all. You've all been at this a long while, you must be starving. Have a bite first."
"Cousin, now that's thoughtful! Hunting's gotten harder and harder lately, it's been ages since I've had any real meat!" At this, Li Dongbao crossed to the table in a few strides and pulled out several fist-sized chunks of meat from some unknown animal. Seeing this, the rest of the group gathered around too.
"We're all just people scraping by, looking out for each other is only right. Go ahead and eat, I'll step out for a moment. We can talk once you're done." Li Bin smiled, gave a nod, then walked out of the room.
One of the hunters tore into the roasted meat, eyes bulging as he nearly choked on it. "Dongbao, this cousin of yours is all right! He even thought to bring us food!"
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"Of course he is, my cousin was raised by my parents from the time he was little. Before my parents passed, he swore an oath at their grave that he'd take care of the two of us brothers!" Li Dongbao said, gnawing at the meat with a proud look on his face. "Eat up, everyone. I'll go talk to him in a bit, see if he's got any other work lined up for us. I'll try to make sure you've all got padded trousers to get through winter this year!"
Outside the cabin.
"Now that we've got our hands on this thing, our hard days are finally over!" Big Beard took the water purification chip from Li Bin's hand, his eyes burning with excitement. "Once the drug kicks in on those people in there, we just rush in, take them out, and we're set for good!"
"Can we spare my cousin's life? His parents did raise me, after all, I owe them that much." Hearing Big Beard's words, a flicker of conflict crossed Li Bin's eyes.
"You know exactly what happens to people who steal from Black Horse Company, don't pretend you don't. Even if these people live, they won't escape being hunted down, and for us, they're an enormous liability. This chip can only buy a limited number of slots to get into another stronghold. If you really want to keep him alive, your only option is to stay behind with him in the refugee zone."
The big man lowered his head and lit an old-world filtered cigarette. "If you really want to protect him, I won't force you otherwise. But as a friend, let me remind you of something: surviving on this wasteland, don't go setting moral limits for yourself. Otherwise, in the end, the one who suffers for it will be you."
"Whew!"
Li Bin fell silent for a moment, then lit a cigarette of his own: "When it's time to act, I'll send him off myself."
"Once you're inside the city, endless good things are waiting for you. Be a little more ruthless, and you'll live a lot longer." Seeing Li Bin make his choice, Big Beard's face broke into a smile. He drew a flashlight from his waist and flashed it twice toward the darkness in the distance.
A moment later, several shadowy figures began creeping through the dark toward the cabin.
"Tell them, no guns! There are too many beasts out here, we don't want to draw in something we can't handle." Li Bin took a drag of the cigarette, his eyes lit by the glow of the coals, no longer holding a trace of pity.
Inside the cabin.
Lin Xun glanced over at Ning Zhe, who had wrapped up his portion of roasted meat and tucked it into his pocket, looking a bit puzzled. "Brother Zhe, how come you're not eating?"
"Save this piece of meat, it can be used as bait to catch more game." Ning Zhe gave a small smile. "And why aren't you eating either?"
"There's a bad drought in the refugee zone this year, there's less and less to eat. I want to save this piece and turn it into dried jerky once we're back. Going hungry now beats going hungry come winter!" Lin Xun, copying Ning Zhe, wrapped his own piece of meat in a torn cloth, then walked over to the corner, meaning to grab a couple handfuls of coarse rice to chew on and fill his stomach. But the moment he opened the sack, he froze. "Brother Zhe! Something's wrong! This isn't coarse rice! It's sand!"
"What did you say?!" At this, Li Dongbao stiffened upright at once. When he got a clear look at the yellow sand inside the sack, his eyes went wide with shock. "There's no way my cousin would lie to me! I have to go find him and get an explanation!"
"Thud!"
Li Dongbao had barely taken a step when his legs suddenly gave out, and he crumpled to the ground in a heap.
"The meat's been drugged!" Right then, another hunter felt his whole body go weak too. He struggled to get up, but instead collapsed stiffly to the ground.
"Bang!"
At that same moment, the cabin door was kicked open, and seven or eight thugs with triangular cloths covering their faces burst in, wielding knives and axes, hacking at anyone in sight.
"Whoosh!"
A burly man, seeing that Ning Zhe and Lin Xun were still on their feet, raised the fire axe in his hand and swung it straight at Ning Zhe. Seeing the move coming, Ning Zhe ducked low with practiced ease, dodging the blow, then rammed his shoulder into the man's chest and drove his knife into the man's ribs three times in a lightning-fast strike.
At the very same moment, another man's bone knife stabbed in from the side toward Ning Zhe's body. From this angle, there was no way for him to dodge it at all.