Chapter 471 - White paper crane (1/2)

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.”

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.