Song Youzhi supported Song Youyi as they walked in, his face grim.
He was now truly thankful he hadn’t let Ningning and the others follow them to that chaotic shantytown.
That filthy, dilapidated, and lawless place was simply beyond words!
"It’s nothing, not serious. Just a scratch."
Ji Taixian had already taken out styptic cream, iodine, gauze, bandages, and other items from his Space.
"Should we ask Xiao Yu from next door to come help bandage it?"
"I’ll do it." Xie Ning calmly glanced at her uncle’s head wound, then began to treat it with practiced hands.
She’d lost count of how many times she’d had to treat these kinds of simple wounds on herself before.
"What on earth happened?" Song You’ai asked, lowering her voice.
"That shantytown is a gathering place for lunatics." Song Youzhi’s stomach burned with anger as he spoke. "Youyi and I had only checked a few tents before we were targeted."
"A group of them blocked our way, demanding to know what we were looking for and what our intentions were."
"Youyi tried to explain for the longest time until his mouth was dry, but they wouldn’t listen."
"Then they all rushed forward, trying to search us."
"It’s ridiculous. We just went out for a bit. We didn’t have any bags or carry anything with us, so what could they possibly find?"
"So then, we started fighting them."
"At first, we had the upper hand. But then I sent a guy flying and spitting blood with one punch. And I just..."
"You held back and were too scared to act." Xie Ning looked at her eldest uncle. "In a situation like that, instead of using your strength to fight your way out, you intentionally went easy on them?"
"It’s no wonder they ganged up on you."
Song Youzhi was also filled with regret now. When those people injured his brother, he had flown into a rage, slamming several of them to the ground without caring if he broke their bones.
"Uncle, Mom, this isn’t the pre-apocalypse world anymore. Back then, everything was bound by law and order. This world has none of that. Absolutely nothing."
"I want everyone to take what happened to Uncle today as a cautionary tale."
"You have to remember, letting others walk all over you will only hurt those who love you and delight your enemies. You absolutely cannot afford to be soft-hearted."
Song Youzhi heaved a heavy sigh. "I know. Once you’ve seen a ghost, how can you not be afraid of the dark? It will never happen again."
"So you’re saying you never even found Tent 1126?" Song You’ai paced back and forth in front of the sofa. "What are we going to do?"
Xie Ning said calmly, "Nobody think about anything right now. Everybody go to sleep. We’ll get up at 4:30 tomorrow morning. Shijun and I will go to the shantytown to find Auntie and the others."
"You can’t go! How can you go to a place like that?" Song Youyi quickly waved his hands in protest. "You’re just a young girl, don’t go."
Their trip today had been nothing short of torture.
There were strange noises everywhere, and the women walking around in tattered clothes were alarmingly exposed, with their chests and backs bare!
But the most unbearable part was the stench of the shantytown, which was simply overwhelming.
Due to the scorching heat, all sorts of smells mingled together.
Xie Ning drew three Metal Spikes from between her fingers and gave her family a small smile. "Don’t worry. No one in the shantytown will dare to stop me."
"I’ll kill anyone who gets in my way."
And then, everyone felt there was nothing more to say and silently went upstairs to sleep.
"Sister, I wanna go too! I wanna go too!" Song Kexin shouted excitedly for a moment before her dad grabbed her by the scruff of her neck and hauled her upstairs.
...
Xie Ning was up before five.
When she came downstairs, she found that everyone except the elders was already sitting in the living room. Song Shijun even eagerly handed her a prepared breakfast.
White congee with a boiled egg, plus a pitifully small amount of pickled vegetables!
"I want to eat egg and pork floss pancakes, and some stir-fried pork."
Song You’ai chuckled and patted her daughter’s head. "Be good. Finish up quickly and go find your auntie. Mom will make it for you tomorrow, a big, hearty meal."
Xie Ning wolfed down her breakfast in a few bites, then turned and beckoned to Song Shijun with her finger. "Let’s go. We’ll be quick. Back in twenty minutes."
Song Kexin rolled her eyes dramatically at the ceiling.
"Don’t believe her! Don’t believe her! When she says twenty minutes, it usually means an hour and a half." Song Kexin jumped onto the sofa. "If you let me go supervise her, maybe she’d actually be quick!"
Song Youzhi gave his daughter a light smack on the back of her head. "Go practice your Fire Ability. Stop dawdling all day. It takes you ten minutes just to heat up some bathwater."
"I’m already very fast!" Song Kexin said indignantly. "It usually only takes five minutes, as fast as an electric kettle."
"A good electric kettle is more reliable than you."
Xie Ning left the noisy chatter of her family behind her. She knew they were all extremely anxious, so she led Song Shijun away at a quick pace.
As they passed the base entrance, Xie Ning glanced back.
She saw a dozen or so military vehicles filing out of the main gate, followed by several large military trucks loaded with supplies.
’Those young men are leaving Lanshan Lake Base today. Mom’s going to be muttering about "Xiao Gu this" and "Xiao Lu that" for a while...’
"Sis, the shantytown is just ahead." Song Shijun pulled two masks from his pocket and handed one to Xie Ning. "My dad said it smells bad. We should probably wear these."
It would also help to cover his stunningly beautiful sister’s face; otherwise, she would attract too much attention.
But in truth, even with both of them wearing masks, they still caused quite a stir the moment they entered the shantytown.
The two of them were dressed in clean clothes and had no strange smell about them.
The boy was tall and thin, with a baseball cap pulled down to cover half of his fair face. He wore a watch and leather shoes, giving him an air of clean-cut wealth.
The girl was about five-foot-five, with a slender figure.
A crisp white T-shirt paired with a beige sun-protection jacket, and black skinny jeans below. Such a simple combination was casual and comfortable, youthful and beautiful.
Although her face was seventy percent obscured by an oversized mask, one could glimpse her true beauty from her large, lively eyes.
Every man and woman in the shantytown was disheveled and filthy.
People hadn’t seen such a clean and fresh young man and woman in a long time, and for a moment, they all stared, dumbfounded.
"Brother Biao, a fresh little thing just showed up at the entrance. Pretty and clean, looks like she’s looking for someone with her little brother."
Inside the tent, Brother Biao, who was embracing a beautiful woman on each side, lifted a face with a knife scar by the corner of his eye. "How fresh?"
"Brother Biao, you’ll know when you see her." The short man with thinning hair and a sleazy expression grinned lewdly.
Sang Biao got off the wooden plank bed, his arms still around two curvaceous women. "Let’s go, we’ll take a look."
"Brother Biao," one of the beauties purred, leaning against Sang Biao’s chest. "You’re not going to forget about us old things now that there’s someone new, are you?"
"You little vixen, how could Brother Biao forget you?" Sang Biao laughed heartily and planted a rough kiss on the woman’s face.