The First Order

Chapter 627 Li Shentan gets pursued

In an old Daoist temple more than 600 kilometers away from Luoyang City, Li Shentan, who Ren Xiaosu had been looking for, was looking at the campfire in front of him with a melancholic expression. He also added some firewood to the fire as he watched it burn.

A cataclysmic event had caused human society to collapse, yet this temple was still standing here fine. At least, it did not collapse.

Si Liren looked at Li Shentan eagerly while pointing at the pheasant roasting over the fire. “Can I eat yet?”

Li Shentan looked back at Si Liren and saw her dirty face. He sighed and said, “What the hell did I do to deserve that girl’s relentless pursuit? I wasn’t the one who caused them to miss out on reuniting. Speaking of which, I even made an effort to bring them back together.”

“But she doesn’t know that.” Si Liren muttered, “She doesn’t know what we did, nor does she know that Ren Xiaosu was at Luoyang City. I keep getting the feeling that she’s only hunting you because she doesn’t like you.”

“Do you have to be so honest?!” Li Shentan glared at Si Liren. He tore off one of the roast pheasant’s legs and gave it to Liren. “Be careful, it’s hot.”

But Si Liren did not care. She was famished. After running around aimlessly with Li Shentan for more than half a month, her little face had slimmed down even more!

“Why aren’t we getting back at her?” Si Liren asked after taking a bite of the drumstick.

“If we had really tried to fight her, we would be in big trouble.” Li Shentan sighed and said, “There’s some people we can go against, and some we shouldn’t, understand? That girl is really strong. She’s so elusive that it’s almost impossible to guard against her. But I haven’t seen any signs of her for a week already, so I guess she doesn’t have time to waste with me anymore. After all, looking for Ren Xiaosu should be the priority for her.”

“Since she’s not pursuing us anymore, how about we return to Luoyang City?” Si Liren was still thinking about the roasted sweet potatoes in Luoyang City. It was particularly difficult for these two people who did not have many wilderness survival skills to make it out here.

Li Shentan shook his head. “Luoyang City has become a troublesome place, so we can’t go back there now. Grandpa Hu Shuo sent us some information and said that a lot of supernatural beings have gathered at Luoyang City in the past month. He was the one who told us to quickly leave that place.”

“What’s Grandpa Hu Shuo doing now?” Si Liren asked.

“He couldn’t idle around any longer and went back to his old profession. He’s set up an intelligence network, and I even heard he’s adopted some refugee orphans to raise them,” Li Shentan answered.

“Why did those supernatural beings go to Luoyang City?” Si Liren grumbled, “I can’t even enjoy my sweet potatoes now!”

“A person’s talent will arouse the envy of others.” Li Shentan sighed and said, “Think about it. For a single stronghold to control more than half the satellites that are still in service, it’s only normal that there’s people hankering after them. Grandpa Hu Shuo said that some very determined people are after those satellites this time. The satellites seem to be very important to them, although he doesn’t understand why.”

“Then where can we go if we can’t return to Luoyang City?” After Si Liren finished eating the drumstick in her hand, she greedily eyed the one in Li Shentan’s hand.

“Why don’t we head south to see the sea first?” As Li Shentan handed his roasted drumstick to Si Liren, he thought for a moment and said, “Didn’t you say you wanted to know what the sea looked like? I’ve never seen the sea before either. Apparently, it used to be very lively there before The Cataclysm, but now, the consortiums avoid it. I think it’s because typhoons are a common occurrence there now. Those typhoons are so strong they can blow us away.”

“Alright, let’s go and see the typhoons then!” Si Liren said firmly.

“Silly Liren, typhoons only occur in the summer.”

“Then we’ll stay there until summer!”

“This is the first time I’ve heard someone get so excited about seeing typhoons….”

…

Inside Luoyang City, Ren Xiaosu spent almost half the night searching for Dong Funan. In the end, he didn’t know where that female vampire had ventured off to, as he did not manage to find her again.

“Forget it, let’s stop searching for now. We can’t check into a hotel, so we’ll have to stay in a residential area.” Ren Xiaosu said, “It’s too eye-catching to stay in a hotel at this time. We’ll definitely attract attention that way.”

Ren Xiaosu was also aware there had to be a lot of people with ulterior motives gathered at this special stronghold in the Central Plains. Outsiders were forbidden to enter Luoyang City. Currently, the people looking to stay in a hotel would either be young couples looking for a room or non-residents.

Ren Xiaosu definitely did not want to catch the attention of others. He was even more unwilling to room with Zhou Yingxue.

Moreover, there were still Wang Yuchi and the others. With so many people in their group, they would easily attract attention.

Ren Xiaosu had wanted to find a bridge and make do with sleeping underneath it. If he were alone, he could definitely settle down for the night just like that. But the problem was that Wang Yuchi and the others were also traveling with him.

Of course, Wang Yuchi and the others were no longer pampered children like before, so it would not be a big deal for them to sleep outside. But these students were about to face a specially arranged admissions exam. It was a critical period for studying, so Ren Xiaosu did not want them to copy him and sleep under a bridge.

“Let’s go and look for the Qinghe Group.” Zhou Yingxue muttered, “We’re here to help them, so they should at least take care of our meals and accommodation, right?”

“If we get too close to the Qinghe Group at this time, wouldn’t that be as good as revealing ourselves to everyone?” Ren Xiaosu said, “I’m not even planning to turn up for the dinner appointment with the Qinghe Group’s president tomorrow night. We absolutely cannot put ourselves out in the open and get targeted.”

Zhou Yingxue thought to herself that her master was really cautious. However, she would not have to think too hard anymore in this case. All she had to do was tag along and rely on her master.

“Then where are we going, Master?” Zhou Yingxue asked. “It’s too late to buy a house now.”

“I’ll give Qin Sheng a call later to see if he has any good suggestions,” Ren Xiaosu said.

This time, in order to contact Ren Xiaosu more easily, Qin Sheng had even purposely given him a satellite phone. Furthermore, the phone was an encrypted one the Qinghe Group members used. This way, there would be no worries that the content of any conversation would leak.

In the end, Qin Sheng gave Ren Xiaosu a satisfactory answer. They could head to Junmin Alley where there was a secluded courtyard house that was recently vacated. As it was still occupied yesterday, it would not arouse any suspicions if they were to move in.

After Ren Xiaosu hung up, he sighed and said, “The Riders are still quite dependable. They’re simply flawless in their planning. I feel that the people causing trouble this time might not be able to take advantage of the situation at all.”

Ren Xiaosu told Wang Yuchi and the others, “Study hard when you get to the house. There’s no need for y’all to think of anything else. In our group, only the few of you have the potential to be intellectuals, so y’all have to treasure this opportunity.”

Wang Yuchi nodded his oath.

When they arrived at the courtyard house, Ren Xiaosu had just flipped on the lights in the living room when he heard the telephone beside the couch ring. He answered the call in confusion and said something along the lines of “OK, no problem” before hanging up.

Zhou Yingxue asked, “Master, was that from Qin Sheng?”

“Oh, no.” Ren Xiaosu said, “Someone said he wanted to take tomorrow off because he can’t go to work.”

Zhou Yingxue said in a daze, “Then, Master, did you approve of his leave just now?”

“Yeah, who cares who he is. I’ll just approve it. I consider that as doing a good deed,” Ren Xiaosu said nonchalantly. That person was not his employee anyway.

Furthermore, he even received four gratitude tokens for it when the person on the other end of the line thanked him profusely.

Zhou Yingxue was speechless.