As the "killer" who accepted the order, Xing Bi made the right decision to set off immediately to complete the task.
At this time, even the ordinary people who were worried and fearful had fallen asleep, and the group of evil people who had no psychological burden at all naturally went back to their nests to rest. After all, it could be seen that except Li Rui, no one in this area dared to resist.
The evil leader and his house were blown up by Sang Fan. The chaos created made all the evil scum rush up to protect their master. However, they were blocked from top to bottom by several biochemical creatures and were all controlled within a few minutes.
As for how to deal with this group of people, Qiu Shi gave the decision-making power to Li Rui.
"Third Master," Qiu Shi looked at him and the group of followers behind him who had just rushed over after hearing the noise, "We have completed your mission, and the extra ones are for you. It's up to you to decide how to deal with them."
Li Rui glanced at him, tilted his head towards the followers behind him, and walked towards the prison.
Xing Bi and his team had already evacuated the scene and came back from the back.
There was a person standing quietly in the darkness. It was Li Rui's sister, a thin figure. If Qiu Shi had not seen the small bright spot on the map, he would not have noticed her next to him.
"Sister." He greeted.
"Where are you from?" asked my sister.
"As for Donglin." Qiu Shi still didn't mention Yuncheng. After all, the threat from Yuncheng has not been completely eliminated yet.
"Are you going back?" my sister asked again.
"Yes." said Qiu Shi.
There were some confused shouts from the prison, followed by screams and a moment of silence.
Qiu Shi turned and looked towards the prison gate.
Li Rui came out covered in blood, holding a knife.
"Can you take him away?" said the sister.
Qiu Shi was stunned.
"He's only fifteen years old," said the sister. "If he continues to stay here, he will either die or become one of the people inside, and then die."
Qiu Shi was silent, and Xing Bi and the others also remained silent.
Li Rui walked up to them and said only one sentence: "Thank you."
"Killed them all?" Qiu Shi asked.
"Yeah," Li Rui responded, lowering his head and walking back, "If you don't kill them, those monsters will now know it was you who did it, and it will be difficult for you to cross the bridge tomorrow."
Not hearing any movement from them, Li Rui took two steps and turned back: "Let's go, my brothers, let them release the people they caught now. Everyone will know that it was me who did it. Then my brothers and I will have a foothold in this area, and no one will dare to cause trouble to my sister in the future. It's a win-win situation."
Li Rui spoke steadily, but Qiu Shi could see that his hand holding the knife was shaking, and he didn't even notice that his sister was standing next to him.
There were a lot of looted things in the prison, which seemed worthless to Qiu Shi. But when his followers carried the things back bag by bag, they were all excited.
"There are plenty of food and clothes," said a follower. "Master Diao, you want a pair of boots, right? I'll find you a pair."
"Please wear it." Li Rui said, "I find it hurts my feet now."
"Master Diao," a tall and strong follower came over, not carrying a big bag, but holding a small bag in his hand, "Can you see if there are any matching lines here?"
Li Rui immediately went over and took out the things inside.
It was a bunch of wires and small square plugs. Qiu Shi was familiar with these things. They were used by old antiques to charge small appliances such as mobile phones.
Li Rui probably has some stuff from ancient times.
But these lines all looked the same. Li Rui flipped through them and was a little disappointed: "No."
"There are so many, but not even one can be used?" The strong follower was a little surprised.
"I want the one with a flat, oblong opening," Li Rui said, and then he thought about it and sighed, "Forget it, I won't look for it anymore. I don't need it."
Qiu Shi glanced at him.
"Big Bear," Li Rui stood up and patted the strong follower on the shoulder, "Come here."
After the two of them went out, Qiu Shi looked at Xing Bi who was leaning against the wall. Xing Bi was watching with great interest the group of people counting the spoils in excitement.
"Hmm?" Xing Bi's voice came from the headset.
"This eagle doesn't intend to live anymore." Qiu Shi said in a low voice.
"I can see that." Xing Bi said.
"He is only fifteen. I thought he was a little younger than Hu Xiaoling, but at least seventeen or eighteen years old." Qiu Shi said.
"You want to save him?" Xing Bi asked.
"Don't you want to?" Qiu Shi glanced at him.
Xing Bi smiled.
"Did you hear what his sister said?" Qiu Shi said.
"Well," Xing Bi said, "but he certainly won't go with us."
"That's it." Qiu Shi frowned.
"I'll find a way," Xing Bi said, "you don't have to worry about it."
Li Rui's sister came over and sat on the chair next to Qiu Shi.
She didn't say anything, just looked at the group of young people quietly.
"How did your husband die?" Qiu Shi asked.
"We ran into vagrants when we went out to search for things," she said calmly. "Robbery and killing are normal, right? Li Rui blocked the knife and pushed me off the cliff, so I survived."
In Qiu Shi's opinion, the chance of dying by jumping off the cliff was not much different from the chance of being hacked to death by staying. If they fell half to death, it would be a long death in this world with almost no medical conditions. But they still chose to jump.
Qiu Shi recalled what Li Rui had said before, that all the women were gone, and then he thought of the vagrants he met when he first went to Donglin...
He glanced at his sister, wondering how to respond if she asked him to take Li Rui away again.
But she didn't talk about it again. Perhaps she knew that Li Rui would not leave her anywhere.
Li Rui's followers looked young and called the woman "sister". They were probably taken care of by her and her husband before.
Not to mention here, even in the outer cities where conditions are much better, there are not many refugees who can take care of a group of teenagers like this. This couple is a rare good person in this troubled time.
"Sister, what's your name?" Qiu Shi asked.
"My name is Li Xia," his sister looked at him, "Everyone calls me Sister Xia, Li Rui and the others call me Sister."
"Oh." Qiu Shi nodded.
This Li Xia is not an ordinary weak woman. She can survive in such an environment and is respected by everyone as "Sister Xia".
"Li Rui will probably arrange for you to leave when it's almost daybreak," Li Xia said, "The visibility on the river will be poor at that time."
"How does he plan to get there?" Qiu Shi asked, "Do you have a boat?"
"I don't know," Li Xia said, "He didn't even tell me he was going to take you across the river. I just heard it."
"Oh." Qiu Shi didn't ask any more questions.
After sorting out the spoils, Li Xia took some food and wine, and the group of people ate and drank happily in the store.
Qiu Shi did not participate and sat in the car outside with Xing Bi.
Just like Li Rui said, this is not a deserted city, there are still residents nearby. After hearing the noise from the prison, and the fact that all the prisoners were released, the news spread quickly, and suddenly a lot of people appeared on the street, all rushing to their store.
The lights on the floor had been turned off before, but they were turned on again. The flickering lights and the lively voices made the originally deserted street and this store with its eerie lighting begin to come alive.
Qiu Shi originally wanted to talk to Xing Bi about Li Rui again, but he felt that there was no point.
From Li Xia's perspective, he hoped to take Li Rui away. Life here was too cruel. Although according to Li Rui, this store was an equal transaction, his calmness when he wiped the blood off the can and his thoughts when he killed all the villains in the room, all destined him to be like Li Xia said, either die or become those people and then die.
But from Li Rui's perspective, unless he was tied up, Li Rui would not agree to leave. His concerns, all his life, the people he loved, the people he wanted to protect, were all here, and they could not take away his entire life.
Feng Zhi's voice came from the headset: "They are back and have pulled two large steel plates to the bridge over there."
"How many kilometers is it from here to the bridge?" Xing Bi asked, "Did they drag it there by hand?"
"It's a little over four kilometers," Feng Zhi said. "It's dragged by manpower, one person per piece, so it's dragged very slowly."
"They have a car, right?" Qiu Shi said.
"They might be discovered if they drove, so they took the small road," Feng Zhi said. "There are silent rollers under the steel plates."
"What are they going to do?" Qiu Shi looked at Xing Bi.
"Take us across the bridge." Xing Bi said.
"How big are the steel plates? The fracture is more than ten meters long. How big are the two steel plates?" Qiu Shi asked.
"Two meters by four meters." Feng Zhi said.
"Fuck, no wonder they called the strongest follower. If he was thinner, it would be hard to hold him up without falling down," Qiu Shi frowned, "That's not enough."
"That's enough." Xing Bi said.
Qiu Shi looked at him and thought about it five times how to connect the two boards to fill the gap of more than ten meters, but he still couldn't figure it out.
“Has the teaching quality in refugee schools become so poor that we can’t even notice it?” Qiu Shi said.
"You take a rest for a while." Xing Bi smiled.
Qiu Shi closed his eyes and reclined his chair. He really needed to sleep for a while. He was not a biological body. Even if he had been strengthened, he was still a human who needed sleep.
He was worried about Li Rui. He didn't know how Li Rui and his people could get seven cars across the bridge. He also didn't know whether what Li Rui said before about exchanging his life was true. But he believed in Xing Bi. They must cross the bridge, and Xing Bi would not allow ordinary humans to die in order to cross the bridge for them.
As for taking Li Rui away... they probably have to give up on this. If these people are still here when they come back, Qiu Shi will definitely tell them that if they are willing, they can go west with them. Although Yuncheng is not good enough and it once made him feel dark and desperate, there are more people there, which will make this sanctuary a real sanctuary one day.
It felt like I didn't sleep for very long. Before dawn, there were two knocks on the car window.
Qiu Shi lowered the car window and saw Li Rui standing outside, wearing a coat that looked about 80% new. His expression contained a tragic feeling of fear that could not be concealed.
"Let's set off immediately. Tell your people to get ready and drive directly to where you came in yesterday and turn right. We will start leading you there." Li Rui said.
"Well," Qiu Shi looked at him, "You don't wear a helmet anymore? You don't wear a bulletproof suit anymore? Those are better, right?"
"It's inconvenient to move," Li Rui said, "Remember what I'm going to say next."
"Well, Third Master, you say so." said Qiu Shi.
Li Rui looked at him and smiled: "Keep a good distance from us, leave enough space for acceleration, and when you see that we are ready, you can rush your car. Don't worry about anything, just rush, understand?"
"Leave some space for acceleration, and charge when you're ready." Qiu Shi repeated.
"Yes," Li Rui nodded, and took out a flat object wrapped in a leather case from his coat and handed it in through the window, "This is for you, it's an antique, you can read it, there are many stories in it, but it's out of power, my charger is broken, and I can't find a working one. You are very capable, you will definitely find it."
Qiu Shi took it and felt very bad. His mood was falling.
"You can watch it after charging. The stories in the past are very interesting, beyond our imagination." Li Rui's eyes were bright when he mentioned this. He looked at Xing Bi again, "You know it, right, Brother Qianwei."
"Yes, there are many interesting stories." Xing Bi stretched out his hand, "Let me introduce myself formally. My name is Xing Bi."
"Li Rui." Li Rui stretched out his hand and shook hands with him.
Qiu Shi was about to open the car door and say a few more words to him, but he pushed the door back: "Let's go, I'll wait for you at the intersection." Li Rui went around the back of the house and ran all the way east.
The soldiers who were resting on the second floor also came out, quickly and quietly packed their equipment and got on the car.
"I don't feel well." Qiu Shi turned his head and looked at the bar on the first floor. There was no one there now. He wanted to say goodbye to Li Xia, but he didn't see her.
Li Rui probably didn't want her to know what he was going to do, so he didn't alarm her.
"What's wrong?" Xing Bi asked.
"Is this considered a relic?" Qiu Shi looked at the thing Li Rui gave him. It was a flat board with a screen on it.
"We have a charger that can be used for this thing," Xing Bi answered irrelevantly, "It's the same charger that you use for the little stick for listening to music."
Qiu Shi glanced at him and said nothing.
"Let's go," Xing Bi said, "When you see the Third Master, keep your speed up and follow him."
"Got it." The lead car replied.
"Didn't Sang Fan get in our car?" Qiu Shi looked back and found that only Ji Sui was in the back seat.
"She and Feng Zhi are in the last car," Ji Sui said, "We don't know what will happen when we get there, so we should spread out to prevent it."
"Yeah." Qiu Shi nodded and adjusted the gun on the shooting port next to him to make sure he could shoot at any time.
The car drove along the original route to the intersection we entered yesterday, then turned right to the east.
The sky began to brighten a little. Li Rui should have chosen this time specifically. Compared to night, any light would make various objects clear because of the shadows, while they would be completely exposed during the day. Only in the early morning, there was a thin mist floating around, and the fog on the river was thicker. Everything was blurry and the vision was very limited.
In the thin mist, Qiu Shi saw two figures swaying in front of him.
One is Li Rui, and the other is Daxiong who went with him to drag the steel plate yesterday.
The map showed that they were the only two humans moving on foot ahead.
"Just the two of them?" Qiu Shi was stunned.
"Yeah." Xing Bi responded.
"Fuck." Qiu Shi cursed. With only the two of them there, it was certain that they were going to die.
"We won't let them die." Xing Bi pressed on Qiu Shi's leg.
Li Rui and Da Xiong started running in front, running as fast as they could, and the team behind them also started to speed up, following Li Rui at a distance not too far away. It must be said that Li Rui and Da Xiong's running speed was really good, and it was obvious that they could survive in such a harsh environment.
It is a little over four kilometers away from the bridge. On the other side of the bridge is Benquan City. It is a suburb, but the road is very wide. Although the road surface of that year has long disappeared, the previous planning can still be seen from these constantly crisscrossing straight roads and many buildings on both sides that can be called ruins.
This is indeed a big city.
From time to time, small bright spots belonging to humans can be seen flashing in the buildings on both sides. There are many people living here, and the source of supplies is a bit problematic. However, for avoiding the "jungle", the buildings are a good place. They are easier to be closed, have sparse vegetation, and have a greater chance of avoiding fungi. It is difficult to have a perfect choice between the two survival threats.
But everything here may change because of the arrival of the symbiote. The woods and grass by the river will become their camp...
Qiu Shi looked at the buildings flashing outside the window, and at Li Rui and Da Xiong running at full speed in front of him, and felt his heart was in a mess.
The buildings on both sides gradually became fewer, and two arc-shaped black shadows appeared in the fog in the air ahead, and then slowly the full picture was revealed.
This was the bridge that Qiu Shi had seen in pictures, the kind with cables on top. It was the first time Qiu Shi saw it with his own eyes.
According to the picture in the book, the bridge in front of him was not very big, but for Qiu Shi, it was still a shocking feeling. The world where his ancestors lived was gradually appearing before his eyes.
The convoy slowed down a little. Li Rui and Da Xiong in the front pushed up the steel plates they had placed here before, placed them upright on the pulley, and then pulled the chains tied to the steel plates and began to drag the steel plates forward.
When he saw the actual steel plates, Qiu Shi seemed to instantly understand the way they were thinking of crossing the bridge.
"Xing Bi." He suddenly turned his head and looked at Xing Bi.
Xing Bi grabbed his hand and shook it firmly.
"Pay attention to defense," Xing Bi said, "there may be an attack on the right."
The two upright steel plates that are being pulled forward are both on the right side. They are not only props for crossing the bridge, but also the only protection for Li Rui and Daxiong when they are attacked.
After their car passed, it would be almost impossible for Li Rui and Daxiong to escape from the bridge alive.
The bridge deck was damaged and covered with cracks, but it was still relatively flat. After they got on the bridge, their speed increased a lot, but they still heard gunshots.
At a distance of about thirty meters, Qiu Shi and his team's car was hit by a bullet, but it could be felt that the shooting position was remote.
The convoy's counterattack began the next second, and they began shooting intensively in the direction of the bullets on the right. It was both a counterattack and a way to provide some cover for Li Rui and Daxiong in front.
The fog on the river was very thick, and the shooting from both sides could only be in an approximate direction.
Qiu Shi stared at Li Rui and Da Xiong in front of him. Both of their steel plates had been hit, but because of the long range and thick steel plates, they were not injured.
All this should have been part of Li Rui's plan. He was not affected by the gunshots and just kept rushing forward.
Soon Qiu Shi could see the hole in the bridge deck that was blown up from the map.
The convoy kept a distance. Qiu Shi glanced at Xing Bi. They were about to reach the destination. He had already confirmed the method used by Li Rui. He didn't know how Xing Bi would save these two desperate people under such circumstances.
"They are the legendary secret guards, right?"
"It's the one with the strongest combat power among all the biological beings, the God of War."
Li Rui's words echoed in Qiu Shi's mind.
Yes, they are gods of war and they will definitely save you.
Li Rui and Da Xiong had already run to the edge of the broken bridge deck. They placed the steel plate flat on the bridge deck, with one end sticking out of the crack and the other end pressed into the cracked gap in the bridge deck.
Then the two men jumped off the broken bridge deck. The bridge deck was very thick, and the jagged sections had many places to stand.
Also here is the key to the success of their mission: two loose I-shaped steel frames. He and Daxiong had discovered them when they came here to look for some building materials. They were too big for them to move.
Push the steel frame onto the bridge deck and press it under the steel plate. The two steel plates will form two slopes, and the car can accelerate along the slopes and jump over the gap.
"Let's push together!" Li Rui shouted.
The big bear stepped on the exposed steel bars at the broken position and moved quickly to his side. The whistling wind was in his ears and the river water flowing with mist was under his feet.
"Don't look down," Li Rui said, "Go up!"
Daxiong and he lifted the crossbeam under the I-beam frame on their shoulders and pushed it up suddenly.
"Ah—" Li Rui yelled, "Push harder!"
"Ah—" The big bear also roared.
The horizontal frame above the steel frame just hit the protruding steel plate, and the steel plate was pushed up.
Seeing the two steel plates lying flat on the bridge deck being pushed up into slopes one after another, Qiu Shi felt his hair stand on end. Although he had guessed that this might be the method, he was still deeply shocked when the two children relied on their own strength to build a path for themselves to the other side of the bridge.
"Fuck." Qiu Shi cursed through gritted teeth, his nose feeling a little sour.
Two steel plates were placed diagonally in front of the fracture.
"Charge forward." Xing Bi gave the order, "Sang Fanfeng is here, get ready."
"Got it." Sang Fan said.
"Got it." Feng Zhi said.
Qiu Shi suddenly stood up, rushed to the screen in the driver's seat, and called up the rear surveillance video of the last car.
The first car accelerated up the ramp, drew an arc in the air, jumped over the crack in the bridge deck, and landed on the bridge deck on the other side.
Next came Qiu Shi's car. When he jumped over, Qiu Shi opened the window a crack and yelled, "Third Master—"
"Let's go!" Li Rui's roar was quickly blown away by the wind amid the dense gunfire.
Qiu Shi could feel the car shaking a little because the inclined surfaces of the two steel plates were of different lengths, but for a trained soldier, it was still controllable. If it were an ordinary person, he would probably roll over and fall through the big hole in the middle.
Their car also landed steadily on the opposite side.
Then one car after another jumped over the slope.
When the last car rushed up the slope, Qiu Shi stared at the surveillance camera and felt that his clenched fists were about to cramp.
Before the car reached the highest point of the arc, the back of the car opened, and Sang Fan and Feng Zhi jumped out of the car with thin steel cables tied to their bodies.
Qiu Shi watched in shock as the two of them fell to the broken part. He each hugged Li Rui and Da Xiong with one hand, and then, using the pulling force of the car rushing forward, he pulled the steel cable in, and the people in the car then pulled them back into the car.
The author has something to say:
To be continued tomorrow⊙▽⊙.
It was late for the past two days, so the earlier the better today, hehe.