The First Order

Before getting assigned the mission, Ren Xiaosu was actually very worried the Anjing House would not accept their act of stealing the mission.After all, even a fool would know that “Zhou Yingxue” had kidnapped Yang Lichen three days ago to prevent others from completing the mission.

This method was clearly somewhat against the rules.

However, it seemed the Anjing House did not really care about who completed the mission or how it was completed. The other party only wanted one outcome—a dead Yang Lichen.

Ren Xiaosu thought about it and felt it made sense. After all, the Anjing House only refused to let Zhou Yingxue take the mission because they were worried it would affect the current escort mission she was doing.

However, since Anjing House did not mind him stealing the mission, there would be more opportunities for him in the future.

Ren Xiaosu asked Zhou Yingxue to kill Yang Lichen and take a photo to send to the Anjing House, but Zhou Yingxue curled her lips and said, “But I’ll see blood, and that’s so gross! Master, why don’t you kill him instead?”

Ren Xiaosu frowned and looked at Zhou Yingxue. “Have you forgotten that you are a hitwoman?!”

Zhou Yingxue smiled cutely and said, “I was just spoiled by you, Master.”

After Ren Xiaosu killed Yang Lichen and let Zhou Yingxue take a picture of the body, he secretly carried Yang Lichen’s body out of the stronghold so no complications would arise.

The Zhou Consortium was probably starting to look for Yang Lichen. If the Zhou Consortium were worried about the Southwest, then Yang Lichen would prove very useful to them.

The next night, Li Ran held a mini-concert to meet her fans. Ren Xiaosu and Zhou Yingxue were standing offstage at the venue and wearing earpieces like the other ten plainclothes guards, ready to deal with any danger that might arise.

During the concert, the host even formally introduced Zhou Yingxue’s identity as a superhuman, causing the fans in the audience to gasp and cheer.

The introduction described Zhou Yingxue as a fan of Li Ran, and she had joined the concert tour to protect Li Ran out of love.

Ren Xiaosu was really impressed with how the celebrities created hype.

However, after the concert, Li Ran still ignored Zhou Yingxue’s security advice. Just as they had said earlier, Zhou Yingxue’s presence was just to help boost Li Ran’s image and standing.

The tour group set off again. Zhou Yingxue took stock of the supplies in the vehicles and found the group was not carrying any extra food or gasoline.

She then suggested replenishing these supplies before moving on. However, Fang Zhi said they would be arriving at a new stronghold daily and could just restock those supplies when they were there. The distance between each stronghold was at most 300 kilometers, so a full tank of gas was definitely enough.

Zhou Yingxue frowned and did not say anything more. Indeed, it was not a problem to travel 500 kilometers on a full tank of gas. But what if something unexpected were to happen?

In fact, Fang Zhi patiently explained he had already considered that they might get into an accident in the wilderness. However, there were just enough vehicles in the convoy, and there was no more space to store any additional gas.

But after they set off again, they really got into an accident. No one knew who had deliberately scattered some nails on the road, but several cars at the front of the convoy got flat tires all at the same time. With this, even the spare tires they were carrying were insufficient to fix the problem.

Fang Zhi thought for a moment and decided to send someone to call for a vehicle recovery team at Stronghold 78 to come and change their tires. The fees were negotiable.

Li Ran said angrily in the minivan that was rendered immobile, “Why doesn’t the Zhou Consortium ensure the wilderness is taken care of? Someone must’ve deliberately scattered the nails in the middle of the road.”

“It’s not easy to manage considering how big the wilderness is.” Fang Zhi smiled and said, “But it’s alright. We’re only about a 100 kilometers away from Stronghold 78. The tow trucks will definitely arrive soon.”

But as he finished speaking, Fang Zhi saw that Ren Xiaosu and Zhou Yingxue had already started setting up their tents.

Li Ran was stunned for a moment. “Why are you two setting up the tents?”

“Oh.” Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, “I’m afraid the tow trucks won’t be able to make it here by today, so I might as well set up camp in the woods.”

“Why won’t they make it here by today?” Li Ran said angrily, “Stronghold 78 isn’t that far away. Even if the road isn’t in a good condition, they’ll be here in at most three to four hours!”

Ren Xiaosu smiled but did not say anything, because he understood the work efficiency of those in strongholds. It was not like this was the Wang Consortium’s stronghold where it was Li Ran’s home territory, so rescue would definitely not arrive that quickly.

It was already evening. The journey here would take three to four hours, and another three to four hours to get back. In addition to the repair time, the entire rescue would last late into the night.

So based on the attitude that the strongholds’ vehicle recovery team had, they would definitely be more willing to set off after waking up the next morning.

In any case, Ren Xiaosu was quite familiar with deeds like scattering nails.

In the early years, when the Southwestern and Northwestern wildernesses had not become dangerous yet, some refugees would specifically target caravans using the same method. They would puncture the tires of the merchant vehicles first, then come around to peddle their old tires at night.

This was a scam some groups of people depended on to make their fortunes.

But as it got more dangerous in the wilderness, those groups started to disappear.

Of course, it wasn’t to say that the people who were involved in the scam today were those Ren Xiaosu knew back then. Ren Xiaosu guessed that since traders could travel freely in the Central Plains, there would definitely be no shortage of such people here as well.

The people in the tour group did not believe Ren Xiaosu. They felt that as long as they mentioned who they were, the vehicle recovery team would definitely rush over immediately. After all, this had always been the case for them in the Wang Consortium’s strongholds.

But six hours later, there was still no sign of the vehicle recovery team.

The people from the tour group sat in their vehicles in a daze. As every stop of their tour was a stronghold, they did not even bring enough supplies for the road. After all, they were always able to get to the strongholds on time. With the food much better in the strongholds, there wasn’t even a need to consider what to eat while they traveled there.

Li Ran was gritting her teeth as she looked at Ren Xiaosu and Zhou Yingxue. The two of them were sitting at a campfire not far away, eating and drinking. Moreover, they had set up two tents as well, so they could go inside to sleep anytime.

Li Ran asked Fang Zhi, “Do we have tents?”

“No.” Fang Zhi shook his head. “Our plan was to arrive at Stronghold 78 by tonight, and there weren’t supposed to be any days where we’d have to camp outside in the wilderness. Why don’t I approach them to give up a tent for you?”

“No need.” Li Ran said coldly, “I’ll just sleep in the car.”

Her minivan was still quite comfortable, and the soft seats could even be reclined flat into a bed.

It was already late fall, so the nights would get very cold. It could even reach as low as two degrees Celsius, so the heater would have to be turned on in all of the vehicles.

After a while, when Zhou Yingxue saw that everyone in the tour group had fallen asleep in their vehicles, she got up.

Ren Xiaosu asked, “Where are you going?”

“You’ll know in a bit, Master,” Zhou Yingxue said.

Zhou Yingxue walked to the side of the minivan and knocked on Li Ran’s window. Li Ran opened her eyes sleepily and heard Zhou Yingxue say, “Do you feel dizzy and a little nauseous?”

Li Ran instantly sobered up a little. “What did you do to me?!”

Zhou Yingxue smiled and said, “I’m not doing anything to you. It’s just that you shouldn’t keep the heater on when your vehicle is idling. You’re being poisoned by carbon monoxide, so hurry up and get out of the car.”