The First Order

Finally, after an indefinite amount of time, the stronghold’s gate opened slowly. The heavy gate was pulled up by a rope hidden within the walls as the huge machinery behind it made loud, grinding noises.

Ren Xiaosu immediately turned around and looked inside the gate. This was the first time he so strongly desired to have a clear look at the inside world.

Stronghold 113’s gate would often open as well, but Ren Xiaosu had always restrained himself from looking at what was inside. That was because there were good days and bad days in these times, and he was afraid he would end up constantly thinking about it if he saw what it was like on the other side.

Yan Liuyuan had wanted to sneak a look inside, but he was stopped by Ren Xiaosu. At that time, Ren Xiaosu said he would definitely take Yan Liuyuan to live inside the stronghold in the future, but he didn’t actually believe that himself.

And now, they were going to be part of that world soon.

When a large group of people came out of the stronghold, a handsome, middle-aged man strode forward. He smiled at Luo Lan in greeting. “A warm welcome to you, Boss Luo. Sorry for not welcoming you at the gate!”

However, Luo Lan’s face darkened. “Is an apology enough for making me wait out here for so long?”

Lu Yuan smiled and repeatedly apologized. “I immediately sent someone out to pick you up after receiving Boss Qing Zhen’s instructions. However, I lost contact with them as well. Otherwise, I would’ve been waiting out here for you for a long time.”

Luo Lan did not say anything else and walked into Stronghold 109. He waved the truck in. “Drive in!”

All of a sudden, Lu Yuan said loudly, “Wait a minute, who are those people in the truck? Shouldn’t they get out for inspection?”

Not a second later, Luo Lan turned around and landed a loud slap on Lu Yuan’s face. “Don’t overstep your boundaries! How dare you try to conduct a spot check on our Qing Consortium’s truck!”

Everyone was stunned! This was Lu Yuan, the overseer of Stronghold 109!

Ren Xiaosu was a little surprised. He didn’t expect Luo Lan to have such a violent outburst. It wasn’t until this moment that Luo Lan finally had the bearing of an organization’s “big shot” like he had imagined. But in reality, he knew this was not Luo Lan’s nature after spending some time with him on their way here.

Rather, Luo Lan was just trying to protect himself with that appearance. He needed others to be afraid of him. It was no wonder that people in Stronghold 113 so revered Luo Lan when they heard his name.

In reality, Ren Xiaosu did not know that the fate of Stronghold 113’s overseer, Old Liu, had been decided by a word from Qing Zhen. He had already died on the way to Stronghold 178 after being exiled there.

But Ren Xiaosu suddenly found Luo Lan to be quite interesting as he was only doing this so they could get into the stronghold. There was nothing in the truck besides Ren Xiaosu’s group of six, as well as Jiang Wu and her 28 students.

The middle-aged man who was slapped in the face stood there for a long while without saying a word. Luo Lan smiled ambiguously at him and said, “What’s the matter, Lu Yuan? Have you forgotten your place?”

Lu Yuan lowered his head. “No, I didn’t forget. Boss Luo, please enter.”

He didn’t even ask Luo Lan why the people he sent out did not come back with them. But that was not actually important to him.

Ren Xiaosu sat in the truck and watched quietly. So this was the authority and power of an organization.

At this moment, another few people came out of the stronghold and said respectfully to Luo Lan, “Boss Qing Zhen ordered us to wait here for you.”

Luo Lan raised his eyebrows. “You’re my younger brother’s men?”

“Yes, sir.”

Luo Lan beamed. “Alright, lead the way.” After that, he turned to Lu Yuan and said, “Carry on with whatever you were busy with. I’ll get someone to send you the ID information this evening. Print around 40 stronghold ID cards and send them over to us.”

“Alright, I understand,” Lu Yuan said politely.

Luo Lan then got into the off-road vehicle that had been sent to pick him up. Ren Xiaosu watched from the shadows in the back of the truck as it slowly drove into the stronghold. Lu Yuan looked like he was thinking about something as he quietly stood outside the stronghold.

When the vehicles got into the stronghold, Yan Liuyuan leaned out of the back of the truck and sighed. “Bro, the streets inside the stronghold are so clean!

“Bro, the buildings inside the stronghold are so tall!”

There were only one-story houses and no tall buildings in the town, but they could see buildings with two or three stories everywhere in here. Some of the taller buildings even had five or six stories.

However, Ren Xiaosu wanted to tell Yan Liuyuan he had seen even taller skyscrapers in the abandoned city inside the Jing Mountains. They were so tall they looked like swords poking the sky.

Having witnessed that sight, Ren Xiaosu realized the high-rise buildings in the stronghold didn’t exactly seem that tall anymore. After all, human civilization had regressed a lot.

Jiang Wu quietly looked at Yan Liuyuan as he got dazzled by the sights. But she did not find anything humor in this. She only felt that the life they were used to was way too different from what the refugees knew.

“Bro, there are a lot of plants here inside the stronghold, and they can also be seen on both sides of the roads. Wait a minute, there’s even a large meadow over there!” Yan Liuyuan exclaimed.

“That’s a park.” Jiang Wu explained to Yan Liuyuan, “The stronghold’s residents can stroll there after dinner, and there are even some aunties who go dancing there at night. In this era, tape recorders are considered rare. So if any auntie has a cassette and a tape recorder to play music with, she becomes the most dazzling person on the dance team.”

Yan Liuyuan nodded. “Bro, look at that father and daughter sitting on the lawn. They’re feeding each other food. What a loving scene…. Wait, why have they started kissing?”

Jiang Wu said with a odd expression on her face, “They aren’t father and daughter….”

At this moment, a strange car sped past the truck. As it passed by, the engine made loud roaring sounds. A balding, middle-aged man was sitting in the car.

Ren Xiaosu asked Jiang Wu, “Why doesn’t that car have a roof?”

Jiang Wu thought for a moment before answering, “That’s what we call a convertible. It’s a car that only the rich can drive and is also a status symbol inside the stronghold.”

Ren Xiaosu lamented, “How nice it is to be rich. Even their head is a convertible.”

Jiang Wu was stunned. She simply did not know how to respond!

Ren Xiaosu finally understood that it was no wonder celebrities like Luo Xinyu existed inside the stronghold. So it was because the stronghold’s residents were leading a much more luxurious life than them!

These people neither had to face wild animals nor get drenched in sweat carrying buckets of coal out of the mine. They only needed to work decent jobs within the stronghold in order to earn their pay.

The refugees outside the stronghold were like worker ants supporting over a 100,000 queen ants.

Ren Xiaosu had heard from Zhang Jinglin before that the refugees outside Stronghold 113 were considered few in number. In some other places, a large number of refugees would gather together to grow crops and work in manufacturing industries. There were even large human colonies entirely made up of refugees.

Naturally, those large human colonies were also controlled by the organizations.

All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu saw several rail lines laid within the ground. “What are these things?”

“Those are trolley tracks.” Jiang Wu said, “The residents can take the streetcar to work and back home every day.”