Chapter 62: Preserve your dignity
Translator: Legge Editor: Legge
The soldier Yang Xiaojin was pointing her gun at happened to be the one who hara.s.sed Luo Xinyu the most. Hence, Ren Xiaosu thought that Yang Xiaojin was finally going to help Luo Xinyu.
Previously, Ren Xiaosu thought that Yang Xiaojin was also someone who didn’t care about anyone other than herself. However, he never expected that she could not tolerate seeing Luo Xinyu being hara.s.sed by the soldiers. Perhaps that was the bottom line for women.
The people at the front looked back at this commotion and wondered if a violent clash would occur between Yang Xiaojin and the soldiers.
Ren Xiaosu looked at Xu Xianchu and saw that he had frowned but was not about to step in. It looked like Xu Xianchu also felt that these soldiers had gone too far.
Meanwhile, none of the other soldiers dared to step forward or speak up for the soldier. It was clear at a glance their team was not united.
However, Ren Xiaosu did not intend to act politely with them. He walked right next to the soldier and pulled out his gun from the holster. When these soldiers were escaping, they felt that their firearms were too heavy to lug around, so they threw away their rifles, only keeping their sidearms.
The soldier said coldly, “Do you know how serious of a crime it is to seize a gun from a soldier?”
Yang Xiaojin said calmly, “If you threaten me again, you just might die.”
Ren Xiaosu almost applauded when he heard that. She really was a decisive girl…
When he pulled the soldier’s gun out from the holster, the soldier used his right hand to clasp it tightly against his waist. He was attempting to quietly stop Ren Xiaosu from taking his gun. However, Ren Xiaosu’s current strength was so great that it was unimaginable. He forcefully pried each of the soldier’s fingers away. If this soldier hadn’t given in midway, Ren Xiaosu would have broken his fingers on purpose.
This was a gun! Ren Xiaosu could finally hold a gun openly. Ever since he acquired the Advanced Firearms Proficiency, he never had the opportunity to handle a gun so openly!
The soldier who had his gun seized looked at Ren Xiaosu. “Haven’t you already taken the gun from me? Why are you still touching me?”
“Where’s the magazine?” Ren Xiaosu asked.
The soldier was speechless. “It’s on the left side of the uniform.”
As he let Ren Xiaosu continue searching his person, he sneered at Yang Xiaojin and said, “Even if you give him the gun, does he know how to use it? He’s only a refugee.”
The others also felt that the soldier’s words were not wrong. Only Yang Xiaojin was slightly doubtful of that when she saw the way Ren Xiaosu held the gun.
Yang Xiaojin was undoubtedly the most knowledgeable on firearms of all the people here. Otherwise, the palace would not have evaluated her skill as perfect.
So when the others thought that Ren Xiaosu would not know how to use a gun even if he were to carry one, she had already noticed that his stance of holding the gun was very natural and proficient. Even with his arm was lowered, it was still placed at the most suitable angle to raise the gun in an instant!
This was not a skill a refugee should have. The others could not tell, but Yang Xiaojin definitely could!
But she didn’t dwell on this for too long. She just said to the soldier, “Get lost.”
Being stripped of their firearms was probably one of the greatest humiliations a soldier could experience. That soldier looked ghastly pale as he stood aside. When Xu Xianchu saw that the matter had been resolved, he said, “Let’s keep moving forward. We need to find a suitable campsite before sunset.”
Xu Xianchu did not want to get involved in the mess that was going on in the team. He had nothing else on his mind other than getting to the Jing Mountains.
Along the way, the soldiers drew a clear boundary between themselves and Luo Xinyu, Yang Xiaojin, and Ren Xiaosu. Both sides were keeping their distance from each other.
However, Ren Xiaosu was thinking about something. If Yang Xiaojin insisted on helping Luo Xinyu, or even offered to help her get out of this place together, he would probably have no choice but to abandon their temporary alliance.
At this moment, Luo Xinyu said to Yang Xiaojin, “Thank you for helping me. I hope that we can work together to get out of the Jing Mountains over the coming days.”
But Ren Xiaosu clearly noticed a moment of hesitation from Yang Xiaojin. Then Yang Xiaojin said to Luo Xinyu, “I’m not helping you for nothing. Give me back the money that I paid you first.”
Luo Xinyu was speechless for a moment. She took out 10,000 yuan from her bag and handed it to Yang Xiaojin. “Back then, you paid me 5,000 yuan. But I’ll return 10,000 yuan to you. Take this as my grat.i.tude to you.”
Yang Xiaojin evenly acknowledged her and pocketed the 10,000 yuan without standing on ceremony.
Luo Xinyu smiled when she saw Yang Xiaojin accept the money. “Then you’ll help me on this journey, right?”
“Let me correct that.” Yang Xiaojin said to Luo Xinyu, “I’ve never thought about helping you get out of the Jing Mountains. I can only ensure that you’ll get to preserve your dignity when you die.”
Luo Xinyu was speechless.
Listening to their conversation, Ren Xiaosu understood what Yang Xiaojin meant. She would only ensure that Luo Xinyu would not get violated by these soldiers. As for whether she would survive, she didn’t care much about that.
In reality, Luo Xinyu was also rather pitiable. Although she was the one who initiated their trip out from the stronghold, she couldn’t trust a single person anymore.
A fork appeared in the road. These were two mountain roads leading in two different directions.
The canopy here was so tall it covered almost the entire sky. They could not even tell the position of the sun and which direction led to the Jing Mountains.
Xu Xianchu turned around and asked Ren Xiaosu, “Which way do we go?”
At this moment, Ren Xiaosu heard the voice from the palace intone, “Quest: Give directions.”
Ren Xiaosu pondered it for a moment before saying, “Go left.”
“Quest complete. Awarded 1.0 Dexterity.”
Ren Xiaosu could feel that his muscle density getting firmer again. He could finally confirm something. ‘Strength and Dexterity combined are what makes up true muscle density. It’s not good enough to just increase Strength or Dexterity.’
At this moment, the soldier who had his gun seized said coldly, “Didn’t you say that you haven’t been out this far before? I remember you mentioning that you hid in the canyon for a few days before coming out. So how do you know which way to go?”
Ren Xiaosu said calmly, “I don’t.”
Xu Xianchu and Yang Xiaojin were speechless.
Everyone was left speechless. ‘If you don’t know the way, why did you tell us to go left?’
However, Ren Xiaosu was not under any pressure. He was only asked to give them directions for the palace’s quest. It did not say where he had to direct them. Whether or not he knew the correct way, all he had to do was point a way forward.
He did not know the correct path, but the quest had to be completed!
Xu Xianchu hesitated for a while and said, “Then why did you point to the left?”
Ren Xiaosu said, “Although I don’t know which way to go, I know that the Jing Mountains are on the left ahead of us.”
“OK.” Xu Xianchu nodded. “Then we’ll go left. You can tell me when you spot a suitable place to set up camp.”
When Xu Xianchu made a decision in the wilderness, he would habitually turn to Ren Xiaosu for his opinion. And as the facts had shown, his opinions were generally correct.
Ren Xiaosu would climb up any pine trees they came across along the way to pluck some pine cones and plump pine needles. The others had some misgivings. They could understand why he plucked the pine cones since those things were edible. But why did he pluck the pine needles? They saw Ren Xiaosu squeeze out a light green substance from the pine needles one by one and then lick it all up. He said to the others, “If you guys don’t wanna die of thirst, you can learn from me.”
Some of them hesitated as they did not know whether they should learn from him or not. In the end, only Yang Xiaojin and Xu Xianchu climbed up the pine tree without any hesitation.