The pot was something Xue Ling had brought back when her collecting habit flared up on the road. At the time, Wen Jiuzhe had even asked her why she was carrying back such a big black pot.
She tossed the pot in front of Wen Jiuzhe and urged him: Hurry, hurry, kill the goose, we’re eating iron-pot stewed goose!
And just like that, the goose was stewed.
As the fragrance wafted out, Wen Jiuzhe sat to the side with his legs crossed, the wind blowing through his hair that had grown long again to his neck.
Xue Ling couldn’t sit still and wandered around nearby, bringing back a handful of green grass and tossing it into the iron pot.
Wen Jiuzhe folded his arms and watched, not stopping her, only asking casually, “What is it.”
“Wild vegetables!” Xue Ling wrote.
Seeing her happily busy appearance, Wen Jiuzhe felt the urge to be obnoxious and deliberately asked in an inscrutable tone, “It doesn’t look like it to me. Are you sure?”
Being questioned by him like that, she became uncertain.
She had seen pictures online before; she shouldn’t have recognized it wrong.
Looking at the green leaves rolling in the pot, Xue Ling lost confidence.
“You recognize wild vegetables?” she asked.
“I don’t.” Wen Jiuzhe answered frankly.
If you don’t recognize them, then what are you talking about looking like or not! Xue Ling slammed the ladle into the pot, telling him to behave and shut up and eat.
Then she got up and went to pull several more handfuls of wild vegetables and threw them into the pot.
Before the goose even made it to their mouths, Wen Jiuzhe had already eaten half a belly of wild vegetables.
As the sky gradually darkened, the goose was finally stewed. Wen Jiuzhe sat by the pot, using chopsticks to pick up pieces of meat to eat.
Xue Ling sat beside him joining in the fun, directing him on which piece to eat, which piece was good, gaining a sense of participation.
The horizon at dusk displayed brilliant golden and orange-red colors, as if it were about to set the sky ablaze.
Burning away the sky, welcoming the night.
Wen Jiuzhe said for Xue Ling to keep watch, but after night fell, he didn’t let her stay alone, instead sitting beside her and keeping her company for a long time.
Xue Ling urged him to go sleep. He said, “I ate too much, I’m too full to sleep.”
“Digesting” all the way until midnight before sleeping.
༚༅༚˳ . . ˳༚༅༚
The next day was sunny. A vehicle came out from the base and gradually approached their car.
It was the convoy leader, who had dealt with Wen Jiuzhe a few times. They weren’t considered familiar, but he had come specially to tell Wen Jiuzhe about the Beizheng Base recruiting a special action team.
He explained the assessment difficulty and the benefits after passing, and finally said, “If you’re also planning to go, then enter the base and register.”
After thinking it over all night, the captain still chose to make a trip to pass the news to Wen Jiuzhe.
Firstly, Wen Jiuzhe had also come for the sake of treating his lover, so the two of them could be considered sharing the same hardship.
Secondly, the two of them came from the same place; if they registered together, maybe they could look out for each other.
Who knew that after hearing it, Wen Jiuzhe refused directly.
The captain didn’t understand. “You don’t want to get that vaccine, and you don’t want to treat your lover anymore?”
Wen Jiuzhe said, “Thank you for making the trip to tell me, but I have my own plans.”
After seeing the captain off, Wen Jiuzhe asked Xue Ling, “They’re planning to go to the Beizheng Base in a couple of days. What do you think, any instructions?”
“Do you want to go with them to take a look near the Beizheng Base, or should we split up here and find a place to settle down on our own?”
Of course, Xue Ling still wanted to go take a look at the Beizheng Base. Anyway, as long as she didn’t enter the base, she’d be fine.
The captain returned to the base and ran into several members of the team talking with the Sheng family’s grandson and granddaughter.
“Captain, how did it go? Is Wen Jiuzhe going to sign up with you?” one team member asked.
The captain shook his head. “He’s not signing up.”
The Sheng siblings had also learned from their grandfather about the special team recruitment. Hearing that the captain had gone outside the city to invite Wen Jiuzhe, they came over specifically to ask about it. When they heard that he had refused, they were both somewhat surprised.
Walking out of the small courtyard where the captain and the others were staying, the younger sister was still puzzled. “Wen Jiuzhe is so capable, why wouldn’t he go participate? Doesn’t he want to obtain the qualification to live in the Beizheng Base?”
The older brother said, “Think about it—what bases has he entered along the way? Last time, we hadn’t even gotten close before he chased us away. I guess there’s something strange about his girlfriend—she can’t be seen by others—so he keeps avoiding people with her.”
“Wen Jiuzhe is probably being held back by his girlfriend. Otherwise, if he were alone…” As the sister spoke, she noticed several gazes turning toward them, and her voice unconsciously lowered.
When she saw the lion-head tattoos on those men’s arms, she grew even more afraid and moved a little closer to her brother.
These men, who had escaped from the Yishi Base, had arrived here more than half a month ago.
They were more skilled than ordinary people. Especially the leader, Fourth Brother, who had caught the eye of the base leader in charge of recruitment and was preparing to participate in this assessment.
This base had many rules. The few of them, having just arrived, had restrained themselves a lot—this couldn’t be done, that couldn’t be done—and they were almost bored to death.
Seeing a young and beautiful girl walk past outside the courtyard, two or three of the men couldn’t control their eyes, their gazes sweeping after her with a different kind of meaning.
Only one man, who looked steadier and more honest, frowned because of the name mentioned in their conversation.
“Wen Jiu?”
He stood up and walked over, asking the Sheng siblings, “Did you just say Wen Jiu?”
The sister said softly in fear, “No.”
The brother also didn’t dare provoke them and gave a simple explanation. “No, we were talking about Wen Jiuzhe, someone in our convoy.”
“I just heard you say he’s very capable? Where is he—call him out and let us take a look.” The honest-looking man had a pair of shrewd eyes, flickering with suspicion.
A younger man who had just been staring at the girl shouted along, “Yeah, what kind of impressive person is he? Call him out and let us see. Could he be more impressive than our Fourth Brother?”
The honest-looking man turned back and shot him a warning glance, then said to the Sheng siblings:
“I heard his name and thought it sounded a bit like an old acquaintance of ours, so I asked.”
“The one we knew was called Wen Jiu. He was very skilled—good with guns and proficient with short blades, tall, and good-looking too.”
Hearing this, the Sheng brother said, “That’s quite a coincidence. Wen Jiuzhe also uses a short blade. Maybe he really is the person you know.”
The man asking the questions turned back and exchanged a look with Fourth Brother, who was sitting on a stool smoking. He reached out and draped an arm around the Sheng brother’s shoulders. “Come on, tell us in more detail…”
After telling everything they knew, the Sheng siblings fled as if escaping.
Although they didn’t know much, those descriptions were exactly the same as the Wen Jiu they knew.
Fourth Brother’s expression darkened as he stubbed out the cigarette butt in his hand against the armrest of the chair.
“It’s him.”
“We searched for him for so long before. I didn’t expect to run into him here.”
After the upheaval at the Yishi Base, Fourth Brother had successively lost three sworn brothers. He blamed all of it on Wen Jiu and had issued a wanted notice for Wen Jiu in several nearby bases, but unfortunately there had been no news.
After failing in his bid for power, he could no longer spare the effort to trouble others. Like a stray dog, he took the few remaining brothers who still followed him and fled the Yishi Base, escaping north.
Even so, he had never forgotten his enemy.
He swore that he would make a comeback in the northern bases, and that one day he would repay all his enemies in full.
Right now, one of those enemies was right before his eyes. Fourth Brother didn’t want to wait even a moment longer.
“Let’s go. Go see whether it really is our old acquaintance.”
Fourth Brother stood up, brought several brothers with him, got into their own vehicle, and roared out of the base.
༚༅༚˳ . . ˳༚༅༚
Today, Wen Jiuzhe had driven a bit farther away from the base again.
Out in the wilderness where zombies could appear at any time, it was best not to stay in one place for two days.
So they left their original spot and, following the mandatory route toward the Beizheng Base, stopped on an open stretch of flat ground.
When Fourth Brother and the others’ vehicle came looking for them, Wen Jiuzhe was by the car packing things up.
At first, he thought it was someone from the convoy.
But the vehicle charged straight toward their direction without any intention of stopping, getting faster and faster, someone leaning out of the window.
Wen Jiuzhe’s eyesight was better than that of ordinary people. Seeing this scene, he suddenly threw down what he was holding.
Xue Ling came over carrying the big pot she had just washed clean, and he grabbed her with one hand, tossing both her and the pot onto the car together.
Wen Jiuzhe followed her into the car, started the engine, and sped forward onto the road ahead.
The car hastily crushed over an obstacle, jolting violently once. Xue Ling, who had fallen into the passenger seat still holding the pot, was abruptly thrown upward.
With one hand gripping the steering wheel, his eyes fixed on the pursuing vehicle in the rearview mirror, Wen Jiuzhe used his other hand to pull Xue Ling back, stopping her from crashing into the windshield.
The pot fell to the floor. Xue Ling grabbed the handhold and Wen Jiuzhe’s arm to sit upright, letting out a questioning sound.
Wen Jiuzhe said, “An enemy has come seeking revenge.”
Xue Ling: “……”
An enemy popping up in the middle of nowhere to seek revenge? Then you really do have quite a lot of enemies.
