Chapter 106: 106, Engines roaring

Before the wolves came, almost everyone thought Ren Xiaosu was being overly cautious, as if he hadn't escaped danger yet, why insist on rushing forward?

But when the wolves came, they finally understood how Ren Xiaosu had survived all these years in the wilderness.

"Run!"

"If you don't want to die, hurry and run, don't fall behind!"

At this moment, most people stood up and ran toward Ren Xiaosu with their heads down, finally remembering the fear they felt when they saw the human-faced worms before!

It had been less than a month since the wolves last destroyed a factory. The barrier's administrator had ordered refugees to bury the bodies inside the factory, and many refugees vomited on the spot after seeing the bloody scene.

Even these refugees, who were used to seeing life and death, couldn't bear that sight. The refugees who cleared the bodies from the factory that day numbered over a thousand, yet not a single one was intact; all had been gnawed by the wolves.

Ren Xiaosu had already left the settlement at that time, so he didn't know about it, but the refugees already had a shadow of fear toward the wolf pack.

However, these refugees now wanted to run faster, yet they couldn't seem to speed up at all.

In the distance, Ren Xiaosu was sitting by the bonfire adding wood, and because they were far away, they hadn't heard the wolves' howls at all.

A small pot was hanging over the bonfire, bubbling with heat. Ren Xiaosu cut two pieces of the cured meat that Xiao Yu Jie had smoked and threw them in. The originally clear porridge immediately released a meaty aroma, and Wang Dalong stood by eagerly watching.

Ren Xiaosu glanced at the others and said, "Don't just stand there, hurry up and massage your muscles. We still have to continue our journey tomorrow."

"So fragrant," Yan Liu Yuan sniffed his nose.

"I saw some wild coriander on the roadside just now. Let's tear it up and throw it in later—it'll be even more fragrant," Ren Xiaosu said with a smile.

The coriander sold in the settlement was always young shoots, tender and soft. In reality, coriander could grow over half a person's height, and when it grew large, many people wouldn't even recognize it as coriander.

"Coriander?" Wang Dalong froze, his mouth puckering: "I don't eat coriander!"

"Don't eat coriander?" Ren Xiaosu paused: "It's so fragrant, why not?"

"Don't you think coriander has a stink bug smell? It makes you want to vomit just smelling it," Wang Dalong said: "How can you eat it?"

Ren Xiaosu looked at the coriander in his hand and said thoughtfully: "Maybe because we've never eaten stink bugs."

Wang Dalong: "???"

I haven't eaten them either, damn it!

Wang Fugui, annoyed, first served Wang Dalong a very small bowl of porridge, then said to Ren Xiaosu: "Just put the coriander in, can't you stop grossing out my baby son?"

Ren Xiaosu chuckled a couple of times, but he noticed that Wang Fugui had given Wang Dalong very little porridge, and deliberately didn't serve any cured meat, leaving all the meat for the others.

"Old Wang," Ren Xiaosu said seriously: "I really appreciate you standing up for Yan Liu Yuan that night, and you've always taken care of me when I sold my prey. I've kept that in my heart, so there's no need to be polite when we're all escaping together."

As he spoke, Ren Xiaosu took Wang Dalong's small iron bowl and added some porridge, then picked out a piece of cured meat for him.

Xiao Yu Jie had brought a few iron bowls. In this early winter season, everyone held an iron bowl, waiting for the porridge to cool while warming their hands.

Ren Xiaosu often sold sparrows to Old Wang, and he would often use selling to Old Li's grocery store as an excuse to pressure Wang Fugui into raising prices. But later, Ren Xiaosu went to Old Li's grocery store and found that Old Li also bought sparrows for 900, while Wang Fugui sometimes gave him 1200.

Every time winter was approaching, Wang Fugui's price for sparrows would be a few hundred higher, and that few hundred was usually the price of a cotton jacket.

Sometimes Ren Xiaosu wondered, even in this era, there would always be people who shone like charcoal in snow.

Wang Fugui sighed, looking at the cured meat in Wang Dalong's bowl: "You two brothers are something else."

Although Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liu Yuan were infuriating, Wang Fugui knew these two brothers were deeply sentimental.

"Don't worry, Uncle Fugui," Yan Liu Yuan smiled: "When we reach Barrier 109, we'll help you reopen the grocery store!"

"We're fugitives now, why talk about the past?" Wang Fugui waved his hand and laughed.

In fact, Wang Fugui was more open-minded than Ren Xiaosu imagined, as if he didn't have any special attachment to his business at Barrier 113.

But at this moment, Ren Xiaosu and the others heard footsteps coming from afar, as if over a hundred people were running toward them. Ren Xiaosu drew his gun and looked at the others: "Hurry up and finish your porridge."

Yan Liu Yuan and the others didn't care if it was hot or not, immediately drank the porridge in one gulp as instructed by Ren Xiaosu. Fortunately, the porridge had cooled a bit, otherwise everyone's mouths would have been blistered.

Ren Xiaosu frowned, looking at the hundreds of people running over: "Something's wrong. These people are fleeing too. We should leave quickly!"

At first, Ren Xiaosu was a bit curious. Why had this crowd suddenly set off again? Weren't they supposed to rest at the gravel yard for one night?

But he quickly realized that the only thing that could make these people move again was danger!

Ren Xiaosu and the others were decisive. Before the crowd could get close, they had already started running again.

The crowd behind them had sore waists and legs and hadn't eaten, while they had each massaged their muscles and drunk hot porridge. Though both were fleeing, their states were completely different.

Moreover, in the true moment of crisis, Ren Xiaosu carried everyone's luggage on his back, allowing the others to be relatively lighter.

Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu turned around and saw on a distant hillside the silver wolf king he had seen before, gazing down at the fleeing crowd on the wilderness as if quietly watching his prey.

The wolf pack was accustomed to trailing behind their prey, waiting until the prey was exhausted before launching their final attack.

If this crowd kept fleeing in fear, it wouldn't be long before they completely lost the strength to escape. Then would be the wolf pack's hunting time.

Ren Xiaosu frowned: "We need to stay away from these people. Though it sounds harsh to let them shield us from disaster, we have no choice."

Wang Fugui quickly said: "Using others to shield us from disaster is just fine..."

But as soon as he finished speaking, Ren Xiaosu suddenly heard the sound of a car engine behind him. He froze—how could there be a car here?

The engine sound was jarring in the wilderness, like a beast's roar.

Then Ren Xiaosu suddenly realized—this was people fleeing from the barrier!

It seemed the direction of escape for those in the barrier was also this way, but he didn't know how many had actually escaped.