Chapter 492 - Black marke (1/2)

zhou yingxue looked at ren xiaosu. “the girl you like is yang xiaojin, right?”

ren xiaosu stayed silent and did not answer her question.

zhou yingxue continued, “if it’s yang xiaojin, then i admit that she’s indeed much prettier than me. but didn’t you leave stronghold 88 with her? why don’t i see her around?”

zhou yingxue remembered that ren xiaosu and yang xiaojin were tasked with heading to the valley to the north to exterminate the bandits some time ago. but after that, yang xiaojin was nowhere to be seen.

ren xiaosu glanced at zhou yingxue. “mind your own business. have you heard any news regarding the saboteurs in the central plains while you were here?”

“no.” zhou yingxue shook her head. “although the saboteurs have been active in the central plains in recent years, their organization is much more secretive and vigilant than we thought. some people say they’re hiding behind another organization and giving orders remotely, but no one knows which organization it is.”

“alright.” ren xiaosu sighed. although he had already been in the central plains for two months, he still had not found any of them.

the fighting in stronghold 61 finally stopped. the refugees had already gotten tired of watching the commotion in the middle of the night, but they were somehow unable to fall asleep when they returned to their shacks. when they woke up in the morning to go to work at the factory, all of them had dark circles under their eyes and were yawning.

but on their way to the factory with the other workers, they were still discussing last night’s battle with great enthusiasm and speculating happily about how the battle might have broken out.

unlike the gloomy expressions on the stronghold residents, the refugees did not feel that the battle had anything to do with them.

the refugees and stronghold residents seemed to be living in two different worlds. there was even a clear distinction between their stand on matters and values.

ren xiaosu would often get emotional when he saw such things happening, but zhou yingxue did not care about these matters. the only question she had for ren xiaosu was, “why are we always eating potatoes for every meal!”

ren xiaosu said nonchalantly, “just make do with it. it’s great to even have potatoes to eat.”

then ren xiaosu untied the rope for zhou yingxue and stuffed two boiled potatoes into her hands. zhou yingxue took advantage of this rare free time to quickly stretch herself to prevent her joints from going stiff.

ren xiaosu was still rambling, “yesterday, you asked me why a supernatural being like me would live in a town? that’s because i was originally a refugee. you’re already getting sick of eating potatoes after having them for two meals. but did you know that the refugees in the northwest and southwest don’t even have potatoes to eat sometimes? who wouldn’t like to eat rice and noodles every day? but can they afford to have those?”

zhou yingxue was stunned. then she asked in a whisper, “do you usually only eat potatoes too?”

“no.” ren xiaosu shook his head. “i usually eat at the tavern since i have money.”

zhou yingxue was surprised. she wanted to smash the two potatoes in her hands onto ren xiaosu’s face, but she dared not do it as she really could not afford to offend him.

zhou yingxue said with a stern expression, “i want to eat at a tavern too.”

“i think you’re thinking too much.” ren xiaosu chuckled and said, “do you really think that the wang consortium’s people are all deadbeats? you’re gonna swagger around in town after creating trouble in their stronghold?”

zhou yingxue immediately felt aggrieved. why did she, a supernatural being, feel so powerless before ren xiaosu?

back when she was at stronghold 88, many young and talented people had tried wooing her. she was also one of the top performers in the yang consortium’s intelligence agency in terms of assassination, intelligence gathering, and infiltration. otherwise, she would not have been able to escape the stronghold while the other a-rank hitmen fought for their lives there.

but a supernatural being like her was now reduced to eating potatoes to survive.