It was late at night in the wilderness. Whenever strangers appear in the camp, they would always attract curious pairs of eyes.
Almost everyone around the bonfire looked at the middle-aged man and the teenager from a distance.
The teenager threw his bag heavily on the ground, and there was a thud. Everyone could hear how heavy the bag was.
The middle-aged man didn't seem to have any intention to help at all but simply found a stone and sat down, waiting for the teenager to light a fire and start cooking.
The young girl always felt that this teenager was not the son of a rich family as his brother said but more like the middle-aged man's servant.
Seeing this scene, the old man Qin Cheng said, "That boy should not be from a rich family. I can tell from the sound that the bag should weigh at least 25 kilograms155lbs, and we're more than 100 kilometers away from our nearest city. The nearest Federal advanced base is 40 kilometers from us. Who in the three upper districts would want to endure the pain of walking more than 40 kilometers with 25 kilograms on their back?
At this time, the teenager had skillfully pulled out a small folded stool from his bag.
The middle-aged man sat firmly on the stool while the teenager took out an e-reader from his bag and handed it to him.
Beside the bonfire, the young man Qin Tong hesitated for a moment and said, "He sure doesn't look like those from the rich families."
While he was talking, the teenager took out a silver thermos cup from the bag, and then filled a cup of tea with the lid and handed it to the middle-aged man.
The middle-aged man nodded with satisfaction and continued to look at the reader in his hand as if nothing was more important than the news on his e-reader.
The teenager finally got a moment to take a break…
However, he only sat on the stone for a few seconds before taking an ax from his bag and picking the thinnest tree branches nearby to chop off. He then brought some dry branches and pilled them together.
He even neatly set up a tripod on the pyre with branches and hung a small pot to prepare for cooking.
"He seems to have done this a lot," said Qin Tong, who was beside the campfire. "But that's also very strange. This teenager's skin is light in color, much like a person who rarely comes out to the wilderness."
Compared with the middle-aged man and the teenager in the distance, Qin Tong and Qin Cheng have darker and rougher skin, showing how they live in a harsh environment all year round.
The intense UV rays peeled their skins off layer after layer, leaving them with tough skin.
That was also why they thought otherwise when the teenager just appeared.
His fair and delicate appearance was rare in the wilderness.
The girl sat by the bonfire and watched silently. Her eyes seemed to be deeply attracted.
She saw the teenager take out a small, long box and pick out six black needles from it.
While they were talking, the teenager stood up a piece of wood and used the back of the ax to drive the six black needles into the top of the firewood one by one, until all the black needles sank into the wood.
Soon, the black needles began to heat up, and thin white smoke wafted from the firewood.
Qin Tong looked at the old man, "Dad, it's Qing Corporation's nanotechnology."
Qin Cheng nodded, "I've seen that thing before."
Anyone who experienced surviving in the wilderness knew that firewood was difficult to ignite.
Sometimes, it would take more than an hour for the firewood to spark. After the sparks come out, one would still have to keep blowing air into it, and the smoke would often blind one's eyes and blacken one's face.
However, these six black needles could absorb the force from hammering them into the wood and continue to heat up directly in the center of the firewood. In just 10 minutes, firewood could be ignited.
Qin Tong said, "The last time when I went to the City 18 to look for outdoor gears, I saw this nano-product, which, if I remember correctly, is called Thor. I asked for the price that time, and it sure was very expensive. Just six thin needles worth as much as my mechanical limbs."
But at this moment, Qin Tong realized that what he thought was very expensive seemed to be nothing much in the eyes of these two mysterious people.
The old man Qin Cheng opened the pack of cigarettes that the teenager gave him earlier. He took one out, put it under his nose, sniffed it, and put the cigarette back in again.
This pack of cigarettes could sometimes be exchanged for a lot of goods in the wilderness, such as sketched maps, beasts furs, and life-saving herbs.
One could even exchange it for information on the characteristics of some strange animals in the forbidden land.
Unlike the city, the wilderness was packed with unknown dangers.
Money is not very useful here; only these staple goods work the best.
The girl by the bonfire silently watched the teenager busy doing work while the middle-aged man had no intention of helping at all, just like a pampered boss.
The teenager poured some white rice and water into the small bot and started making porridge.
Not only that, but he also added raisins and red dates to the white porridge, making it look very delicate.
But the teenager did not drink the porridge himself. Instead, he sat silently next to the fire and nibbled on a boring synthetic protein bar.
This kind of protein bar mainly was made for people trying to meet their basic survival needs in the wilderness. One bar had enough nutrients for an entire day and the teenager ate four in a row.
After the porridge was cooked, the teenager carefully brought it to the middle-aged man…
The girl was a little resentful, "Couldn't that man do it himself? Why does everything have to be done for him."
At this time, the girl beside the bonfire suddenly found that the teenager sat down on the ground and had taken off his hiking boots. His white socks were stained red with blood.
The boy slowly took off his socks, and his feet seemed to be full of wounds and blisters.
The teenager wiped the wound clean with alcohol and cotton swabs before applying some medication to it.
During this process, he was frowning from the pain but did not say a word.
Moreover, his expression just then seemed normal, and he wasn't limping at all, almost as if the wound on the foot did not exist.
Thinking of the teenager suffering in pain while serving the middle-aged man, the girl felt a little distressed.
The girl suddenly said, "Should I go and help him, Dad? His feet are wounded, and he still has to do all the heavy work."
Qin Cheng frowned and said solemnly, "He is a servant, and that is his duty. Stay out of it for me; if you tell me you start to like that servant, you're hopeless. People like him don't have freedom, do you understand?"
The girl was a little aggrieved but said nothing.
She just watched them from a distance.
At this time, the teenager was sitting on the ground, continuing to deal with the wound on his feet.
Although the jacket collar covered most of the teenager's face, the girl somehow felt that the person must have a handsome look.
"Dad, you said he was a servant?" asked the girl.
"Yeah," the old man Qin Cheng nodded, "You have seen this kind of person in the city too. People sell their lives to the rich, and they can't escape the fate of being chained for the rest of their life."
The word servant was not unheard of in this world. It was almost equivalent to a slave.