The lumberjacks had to complete their tasks for the day before returning to the stronghold. In the meantime, Ren Xiaosu chatted with this group of workers while waiting for them to finish.
After Ren Xiaosu departed from the Razor Sharp Company without saying goodbye, he did not immediately venture deeper into the Central Plains from the Zong Consortium’s territory. Instead, Ren Xiaosu headed south and found the place where the flood occurred. From there, he marched all the way eastward while looking for tracks of Yan Liuyuan and the others along the riverbank.
The valley had formed a new river channel. Almost every year, the landscape here would be different from the previous year. The river that flowed downstream from the snowy mountains was like time washing away the familiarity of what used to lie here.
As he followed the river, Ren Xiaosu even saw the settlement where his family used to live and the place where Yang Xiaojin taught him how to use a sniper rifle.
But times changed, and things were no longer as they used to be.
Ren Xiaosu did not manage to find any leads with regards to Wang Fugui and the others even though he was about to reach Stronghold 61.
One of the lumberjacks sighed and said, “Kid, you sure are lucky! You actually came out alive after getting lost in the mountains!”
Ren Xiaosu asked, “What’s in the mountains?”
“There’s a herd of boars in there.” The lumberjack exclaimed exaggeratedly, “And they’re especially ferocious.”
Ren Xiaosu thought silently, ‘Is this lumberjack referring to the herd I ate for dinner a few days ago?’
But he did not say anything and just played along, “Ah, that was a close call then. Fortunately for me, I didn’t encounter them.”
He asked the lumberjacks as he sat next to them, “Bros, do y’all usually work around here?”
“Yes.” A lumberjack who just sat down to take a break said, “We’re chopping down trees for the Wang clan and have been working in this area for the past few months. Years ago, we were logging in the north. However, the Wang clan said that we had to practice sustainable logging and should not chop down trees in the same area. So we got sent here instead. The place where we used to cut wood in the north is being replanted with trees.”
Someone said with a smile, “Don’t you find it strange? After all that effort to chop down the trees, they’re replanting them? I wonder what on earth they’re thinking.”
Ren Xiaosu did not answer that question and continued asking, “Did you see anyone drifting down from upstream?”
The lumberjacks paused for a moment. “Are you looking for your family?”
“Yes.”
“In fact, bodies often drift down from upstream, probably due to the war in the Northwest. But we haven’t come across anyone who’s still alive by the time they drift all the way here.” A lumberjack shook his head. “This is the only river that we can still see bodies adrift on. Apparently, this river is formed by the snow melt from the mountains, so there’s no carnivorous fishes in it. If it were the other rivers, any bodies would’ve already been devoured by the fish.”
Ren Xiaosu’s heart stopped for a while and he said nothing more. In reality, he had always been afraid to hear about the bad outcomes. But it did not really matter since he would continue to look for them.
Besides, it wasn’t like these lumberjacks came here every day. Perhaps they might have just missed them? That was still plausible.
The lumberjack looked at Ren Xiaosu. “I’ll tell you now that although the Wang clan doesn’t reject those who flee here from the Northwest, nobody’s allowed to enter the stronghold. So former stronghold residents like you should be mentally prepared to become refugees like us. You’ll only be allowed to do menial work to support your family.”
Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, “Bros, I think y’all’ve gotten the wrong impression. I’m actually a refugee too.”
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When the lumberjacks heard that Ren Xiaosu was also a refugee, they turned friendlier and asked about the differences between refugees in the Northwest and those in the Central Plains.
In the end, the lumberjacks came to the conclusion that the refugees in the Northwest did not have a better life than them.
Although they were also tired from their constant busy lives, being a class lower than the stronghold residents, and distrusting their fellow townspeople, at least they did not have to worry about starving to death or eating moldy cornbread.
A lumberjack said with a smile, “After a busy day of work here, we can still head back to town and enjoy a bowl of hot lamb stew.[1] If we pay a little more, we can even get to eat a burger.[2]”
Ren Xiaosu was stunned. “The refugees here can afford to buy meat?”
“Haha, the lamb stew we have is only the broth, as if there’s any meat in it. It’s great that we can even enjoy meat broth.”
Realization dawned on Ren Xiaosu. It truly was great to even have meat broth to drink.
In comparison, the Central Plains was indeed wealthier than the Southwest and Northwest. This was true since ancient times.
In the evening, the leader of the logging team drove back to town with a truckload of wood. As the workers sat on the wood in the back of the truck, someone asked Ren Xiaosu, “Did you ever meet Fortress 178’s troops while you were in the Northwest? We heard from the stronghold residents who fled from the Northwest that the Fortress 178 troops are extremely strong, especially that company of soldiers who utterly defeated the Zong Consortium in the North. They even burned their granary!”
Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, “I’ve only heard about them. I haven’t met them before.”
“C’mon, tell us about ’em. Everyone in town’s been discussing what’s going on in the Northwest recently. It sounds even more exciting than the storyteller’s tales.”
Ren Xiaosu thought for a while and said, “I heard that the company of soldiers did not initially plan on crossing the river to the north, but they thought that it was not good to drag the war on for too long. As the saying goes, with great power comes great responsibility, so they felt that they had the obligation to cross the river to finish the war in the North. But even though the company is powerful, the most powerful one of them is still the supernatural being in their ranks. I heard that he’s extremely brave, mighty, and handsome…. Later on, he headed north by himself to Stronghold 146. That battle was a storm…. By the way, he’s that supernatural being y’all were mentioning earlier…”
As he continued relating the story to them, the lumberjacks got so engrossed they did not notice they were almost back in town. “Huh, we arrived so soon?”
But at this moment, a strong gust of wind blew past them. It seemed that there was something white flapping its wings in the sky, but it was pushed down by the wind. Ren Xiaosu felt that something was not right, so he jumped up from the truck and grabbed the white object with his hand.
When he opened his fist, he was surprised to see a small and exquisite paper crane. The paper crane looked alive and was wriggling its body and glaring at Ren Xiaosu.
Although this paper crane did not have any eyes, Ren Xiaosu had this bizarre feeling that the tiny little thing was really staring at him.
As the paper crane’s wings were extremely sharp, Ren Xiaosu accidentally cut his finger on one.
When Ren Xiaosu let go of his hand in pain, the paper crane started flapping its wings again and tried to escape. But before it could fly out of his palm, Ren Xiaosu caught it again.
Ren Xiaosu unfolded it curiously. Inside the squarish white piece of paper, a message read, “The war in the north has ended. The Qing Consortium has signed an alliance treaty with Fortress 178.”
‘Is someone trying to relay this information to the Central Plains?’ Ren Xiaosu wondered. However, even he did not know about the alliance between the Qing Consortium and Fortress 178.
Before he could figure it out, a lumberjack asked, “Why would that white paper crane suddenly fly here?”
The lumberjacks did not clearly see what Ren Xiaosu did with the paper crane. They just felt that it was a little strange to see it flying here.
[1] Paomo is a specialty of Shaanxi cuisine and is a typical food eaten in the city of Xi’an. It is a hot stew of chopped-up steamed leavened bread, cooked in lamb broth, and served with lamb meat, sometimes substituted with beef. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paomo
[2] Roujiamo, (Chinese: 肉夹馍; pinyin: ròujiāmó; lit.: ‘meat sandwiched in bread’) the Chinese hamburger, is a street food originating from the cuisine of Shaanxi Province and widely consumed all over China. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roujiamo