WS - Chapter 120

Chapter 120

Earlier in the woods, Song Shiyue had said a lot. At the time, Yu Nianbing's heart was heavy, and she didn't respond, but she listened and took it all in.

As Song Shiyue had said then, no matter what Zhao Da and Zhao Er really thought, or how much they held back. At least on the surface, they were still willing to coexist peacefully and share the labor, or even more than others. So just borrowing the map, rather than asking for one, probably didn't warrant an exchange.

Yu Nianbing had some unpleasant suspicions. If they turned out to be true, there might still be a need for the jerky later, so she naturally wouldn't take the initiative to be generous now.

As Yu Nianbing had thought, borrowing the map from Zhao Da for a look was not as difficult as Song Shiyue had feared.

With the map in hand, Yu Nianbing took advantage of the still-unfaded daylight to begin memorizing it.

A paper map, unlike the ones commonly used on StarNet that could be zoomed in and out at will. Zhao Da's map only outlined the general route they would travel over the next ten-plus days, with mountains and rivers marked. Beyond the route, it only roughly extended a circle, with nothing more.

But Yu Nianbing wasn't in the mood to examine more right now. Just those dozen-odd hilltops, the winding route, and the marks of key water sources were enough for her to memorize.

Relying only on her brain, of course, wouldn't work.

Yu Nianbing borrowed two medicine boxes from Ni Jinghe. She couldn't borrow a pen, so she had to do as Song Shiyue had that night: go to the campfire, pick up small twigs, and wait for them to burn into charcoal sticks to use.

Everyone was utterly exhausted. After the night watch arrangements were made and the campfire was lit, no one really wanted to talk or even move.

Yu Nianbing's moving about, borrowing this and that, was inevitably a bit conspicuous.

Once she got the charcoal sticks, Yu Nianbing tore open the medicine boxes, copied the map onto the blank spaces inside, then took a white T-shirt from her bag and traced another copy, placing it in a sealed bag. Just as she got up with the map to return it to Zhao Da, Captain Yang, who had stood up, blocked her way.

"Let me have a look at the map too," Captain Yang said, his attitude very casual and not particularly polite, though still much better than the bossy arrogance of the first day.

Yu Nianbing didn't hand it over immediately. She first glanced at Zhao Da. She had noticed that ever since they reached this resting spot, Captain Yang had been competing with Zhao Da in assigning tasks, as if trying to assert dominance. Yu Nianbing had no interest in getting entangled in their strange dynamics; borrowing and returning was proper, so she let Zhao Da decide.

Zhao Da was sitting cross-legged on the ground, and happened to meet Yu Nianbing's gaze directly. He naturally couldn't pretend not to see what was going on between those two.

He tapped his fingers a few times on his leg, then nodded.

Without a moment's delay, Yu Nianbing thrust the map into Captain Yang's hands.

With so few people and the situation as it was, she really didn't understand why they were fighting over authority. Couldn't they just muddle through and wait for the Yaoxing Storm to pass...

Starting from Yu Nianbing, then Captain Yang, the originally unnoticed map suddenly became a hot commodity. As soon as one person finished, another or even several would stand up to borrow it next. It was hard to say whether they were really thinking about something, or just following the crowd because they saw others had it.

Those later weren't as particular as Yu Nianbing. When they finished looking, they just passed it to whoever asked, and no one bothered to seek Zhao Da's approval again.

Originally, they were all one team. With only so few people on Wilderness Planet, what was yours was mine, and what was mine could be yours... To survive the hardship together, why should a map need to be so strictly segregated?

Most people thought that way. If Yu Nianbing hadn't been reminded so much by Song Shiyue in the woods earlier, almost brainwashed into heightened vigilance, she would probably have felt that sharing was perfectly normal now.

Of course, sharing is normal— but only among... true teammates.

On this key point, Song Shiyue was seven years ahead of them.

Zhao Da looked on coldly as his map passed from hand to hand. Ni Jinghe's paper medicine boxes had long been borrowed out; those who couldn't get the twigs to burn into usable charcoal sticks even went to consult Yu Nianbing.

Really...

Quite interesting.

Seeing that it was getting dark and some people in the group who had finished looking at or copying the map were starting to doze off, Zhao Er took advantage of the gap before the night watch began to pull Zhao Da aside for a personal matter.

This was the first time since the earthquake that they had a chance to leave the group entirely and have a proper brother-to-brother talk.

Zhao Da glanced at Guan Yongyi, who was sitting by the campfire peering at the map by firelight, then nodded and followed Zhao Er into the woods.

After walking far enough and patiently waiting and listening for any movement from the direction they came, Zhao Er let out a long breath, stretched his limbs, and lowered his voice: "After my watch ends, I'll wake you and Mu Xingzhou. I won't sleep either. Later, tell him to go take a piss with you. When you make your move, I'll help."

"The two of us on watch, and then both of us leaving the group?" Zhao Da looked at his somewhat simple-minded younger brother, shook his head, and smiled. "Don't be too impatient. It's only the first day. There will be better chances later."

Zhao Er was puzzled. "If you're not making a move tonight, why are you on watch with him?"

"I have some questions I want to talk to him about," Zhao Da paused, then asked in return, "Did you notice? He seems very familiar with that unconscious Feng Qianqian."

Zhao Er nodded, but was even more puzzled, his expression unhappy. "If I'd known you weren't going to do it tonight, why would I have agreed to take a watch? Those people haven't been doing much work all day; let the ones who haven't worked do the watch. I'm wasting my effort! And that Feng Qianqian, are we going to carry her all the way to the Old Castle? I think we might as well deal with Mu Xingzhou tonight. Tomorrow we won't need to pretend to be good guys anymore. We take those who can walk and leave behind those who can't. Wasn't that the plan from the start? As long as we keep a few alive, we can all go back as heroes."

"Not tonight. How do we explain it if we act now? It's only the first night; blaming a beast attack wouldn't be very realistic. We discussed this before. We already missed the first optimal spot, the cave. The next most suitable should be when we get an aftershock, or at that river crossing point after the next camp." Zhao Da patted Zhao Er's shoulder and continued, "The Feng Qianqian matter is what I want to ask about tonight. I have a feeling... from Mu Xingzhou's earlier reaction, maybe they're in a secret relationship. If not, their relationship is definitely out of the ordinary. Then we can't just abandon Feng Qianqian. What if we abandon her and Mu Xingzhou stays behind too? Wouldn't we have to double back to deal with him? Besides, who we ultimately need to protect... we still need to reconsider."

"What's to reconsider? Didn't we say we'd first see who was still alive after the Yaoxing Storm and earthquake? Among the survivors, pick the most famous and least injured to protect; the rest can take their chances." Zhao Er began counting on his fingers. "I think we only need to remember to protect Yu Nianbing, Ning Chuyang, and Zhuang Jiachuan. The others can be handled depending on the situation."

"Times change..." Zhao Da pressed down Zhao Er's counting fingers. "Everyone's injuries aren't that serious; maybe they can all keep up. If there are no mishaps, lending a hand isn't out of the question."

"Hah, then when only Mu Xingzhou dies, it'll be like a glaring target." Zhao Er scratched his head. "Don't be too optimistic. How long did we walk today? Try walking a full day tomorrow. If all your strength goes into carrying people, how are you going to deal with Mu Xingzhou? That Wang Daming isn't a good sort either; making him carry someone tomorrow will definitely cause more trouble. By then, without us even egging them on, they'll be the first to give up on Feng Qianqian. If Mu Xingzhou stays behind too, what do we do? Stay behind and carry people as well?"

...

Zhao Da and Zhao Er had deliberately chosen a quiet spot. Even though they later argued a bit, their lowered voices couldn't be heard back at the group.

What they absolutely never imagined was that somewhere above Zhao Da's head, a small camera recorded everything clearly and instantly transmitted it all across StarNet.

From the sharp stone slipping from Zhao Da's hand after he encountered Mu Xingzhou in the cave, to later when Song Shiyue and Yu Nianbing whispered in the woods about how they hadn't put in full effort when rescuing Feng Qianqian from the rocks...

And now...

Zhao Er's eagerness to kill was practically oozing from the screen.

The two of them were like picking items, selecting the people they would bring out of Wilderness Planet to serve as proof that they had faithfully performed their bodyguard duties.

Earlier, Zhao Da had even said that helping others wasn't out of the question, which had momentarily softened his killer persona.

Who knew that the conversation would then turn, and they would start talking about Song Shiyue.

"There's another problem now: Song Shiyue... she ruins things too easily. When we act against Mu Xingzhou, it's best to find a chance when Song Shiyue is separated." Although Zhao Da knew his brother was too impulsive, there was no one else to discuss with at the moment. "But this afternoon, Song Shiyue seemed very tired. Otherwise, given her usual style, she would have helped carry the person for a while. If she's still this tired tomorrow, we'll see if there's any place along the way where we can tamper with things."

Too many survivors, too many eyes— it gave Zhao Da pause before acting. But Song Shiyue being tired was indeed a good opportunity.

Being an assassin was truly too difficult.

"I don't know what's up with the intel they gave us. Didn't it say Song Shiyue was just a crybaby pampered princess? But she turns out to be so capable." At the mention of Song Shiyue, Zhao Er also felt a bit intimidated. "No matter what, when we make our move, we really have to avoid her, or it could be very troublesome."

"Mm." Zhao Da nodded. "Yu Nianbing is strange too. The intel said she was very self-centered and aloof, cold and impossible to get close to. But she sticks to Song Shiyue like a dog eyeing a bone. You saw tonight: after Song Shiyue fell asleep, she even ran back and forth to the campfire to get a twig. And she actually knew to ask us for the map to copy it— quite interesting."

"Could it be..." For once, Zhao Er had a clever thought, "Could it be that she's discovered us..."

"No." Zhao Da waved his hand. "I'm just marveling at her cautiousness. So, these people are harder to deal with than we imagined. Don't let your impatience show on your face. Remember, we want his death to look natural, not to put ourselves on the suspect list."

"What do you mean, 'these people'? The others are pretty much as the intel described." Zhao Er grumbled under his breath, but he was ultimately convinced by Zhao Da and didn't press to quickly finish off Mu Xingzhou.

The StarNet audience was so shocked by the two men's words that they couldn't sit still.

Although they didn't say who provided the intel, combined with several hot topics on StarNet that were now topping the charts, how could anyone not guess?

At this moment, it was truly as Ye Liu had wished; the livestream delivered the solid proof.

And Ye Liu, who was watching the livestream, now recalled those several documents she had seen earlier in the underground media room of Mu Xuhong's villa...

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