Qin Cheng and his family silently stared. At the moment, the young man felt like a completely different person from the one they initially met.
When they first saw him, the boy had been quiet as a stone, but the current him was like a knife.
Zhang Tongdan was famous around the area, many traders had to pay tolls to his team.
But today, he died in the hands of an unknown teenager.
"What city dweller, he doesn't seem like one, he's more similar to us people of the wilderness." Having lived in the wilderness for years, Qin Yiyi had long regarded herself as a person of wilderness and preferred it more than the city. Patting the dust off her body with a smile, she asked across the bonfire, "Did you get injured?"
"No," Qing Chen shook his head. He pried the gun from Zhang Tongdan's hand and looked at Li Shutong. "Teacher, I'll keep this."
"Okay," nodded Li Shutong, "It'll be of use later. There should be some ammo on him, don't forget to collect them."
Since Qing Chen had already gone through a life-and-death situation, as a teacher, he didn't really mind his use of firearms.
After all, both the Knights and Heng Society were very pragmatic organizations — achieving greater benefits at the least cost was the choice a smart person should make.
To keep insisting against Qing Chen using a gun would mean he was intellectually challenged.
"The goods I handed to Zhang Tongdan should still be nearby, I'll go look for them," said Qin Cheng, proceeding to bring his son into the woods after he spoke.
Qin Tong quietly led him to a corpse and squatted down. "Dad, take a look at the body, it's very strange."
Qin Cheng went over to inspect it. "How weird, just what kind of method was used to be able to hit a person ? And with such a heavy strike, how come we didn't hear anything when it happened?"
Standing up, he rubbed the tree trunk with his crude mechanical palm. "Even such a sturdy bark was smashed to pieces."
Currently, a single question occupied the minds of both men: how exactly did he do this?
"Let's put it aside for now," sighed Qin Cheng, "We've underestimated the middle-aged man, he definitely has the strength of a B-level. The last time I saw a B-level in action was half a year ago, one person abolished an entire camp, it was seriously terrifying."
"Dad," Qin Tong's eyes were shining, "I think that teenager might be his disciple. Yiyi likes that boy so much, and that middle-aged man also seems quite approving of Yiyi…"
Qing Chen and Li Shutong constantly talked to each other in low voices, so although they had surmised that the boy wasn't a servant, they couldn't determine the exact relationship between the two.
Just as Qin Tong continued speaking, a smack resounded…
Qin Cheng used his mechanical hand to swat the back of Qin Tong's head, the slap sending his own son seeing stars.
The old man berated him in a hushed tone, "The Qin family relies on nature to survive, why do you think we walked out of the city, isn't it so that we won't have to suffer from indignity? Even if Yiyi remains unmarried for the rest of her life, she can still live well, our family doesn't need to sell off daughters to seek wealth."
"But Yiyi really likes that boy," Qin Tong aggrievedly said, "and you didn't talk when I got married, you said if I married Wenwen, our life in the wilderness would be more convenient."
Wenwen was the eldest daughter of a tribe leader in the wilderness. After Qin Tong married her, their business had indeed turned for the better.
Furthermore, while other traders were charged a toll fee of four bottles of antibiotics, the Qin family only had to pay for a single bottle.
However, Wenwen didn't own a legal city residence permit, so whenever they entered the city, she could only stay back and wait in the wilderness.
Qin Cheng told Qin Tong, "You're the eldest son, if you don't make sacrifices, then who will? And Wenwen is so good to you, when you got hurt last year, she kept vigil in the car for three months to take care of you!"
"I'm not saying Wenwen isn't good, Wenwen and I love each other. Don't sow discord between us, Dad." Qin Tong widened his eyes.
Old man Qin Cheng lowered his voice, "No matter how much Yiyi likes that boy, that's her business, we shouldn't get involved, understand?"
"Yes, yes," Qin Tong heaved a sigh, "I was just saying."
"Alright, let's quickly look for the goods first."
Back at the campsite, Qin Yiyi used her towel and poured hot water on it to help Qing Chen wipe off the bloodstains on his clothes.
The windbreaker was made of waterproof fabric, so all the traces were cleaned with just one swipe.
When Qin Yiyi was about to wipe his face, Qing Chen hurriedly took the towel and dodged.
Meanwhile, Li Shutong fished out a black box from Zhang Tongdan's pocket. When he opened it, the six sticks of Thor were lying inside perfectly still.
From the very beginning, he knew Zhang Tongdan would return them back to him.
Qing Chen looked at him and whispered, "Teacher, did you purposely incite them by giving the box of Thor?"
Li Shutong acquiescently smiled with a hint of coldness in his expression. "A teacher needs material to teach his student a lesson. I can't bring any teaching material on our trip since we're keeping our load light, so I can only wait for it to be delivered to the door. This lesson is to teach you not to reveal your wealth outside because you never know what's going on in another person's mind."
He used more than ten human lives in order to teach this lesson.
But as the current leader of the Knights, Li Shutong didn't seem to care in the slightest bit.
Just like the Qing Family patriarchs, who never changed a thing from generation to generation despite knowing the cruelty of the shadow competition.
Everyone had learned to face this world with a vicious approach.
"What if he simply went away after taking the Thor?" asked Qing Chen.
"Then just let him go, it's only a box of Thor anyway, I won't consider it a pity," Li Shutong smilingly replied.
This sentence could be described in two words; rich, and willful.
"Won't it mean that your plan failed?" Qing Chen kept asking.
"That's why I didn't tell you about it. Had it failed, I'll just take it as I never made this plan in the first place," answered Li Shutong confidently.
At this time, Qin Cheng and Qin Tong were carrying the four boxes of goods back to their campsite while the other family members went into the woods to fleece all the usable things they could find from the corpses.
Shoes, men's clothing, guns, and ammunition, as well as some odd stuff from the wilderness.
It wasn't that the Qin family was poor to the point of having to wear dead men's clothes, but they could trade these things for leather and medicinal materials with other wilderness people.
The medicinal materials, in this case, referred to wild ginseng, cordyceps, deer antler, deer penis, and the likes. Even when the Inner World's technology had completely surpassed the Outer World, the men still couldn't get rid of their superstition over such healthcare products all the same.
Li Shutong thoughtfully told Qin Cheng, "I've caused you to fall out with the team you used to trade with, and it might bring you some repercussions in the future. How about this, when you return to City 18, go to Chunlei Street no. 13 in the ninth district and look for a person named Su Xingzhi. He'll help you take care of everything and also find a new trading partner for you."
"Thank you," Qin Cheng earnestly said.
Qing Chen quietly asked, "Teacher, you treat them this well not only because you felt apologetic, right? It seems like you personally know them."
Li Shutong nodded, "Qin Cheng is the elder brother of an old friend of mine. That old friend died because of me."