The First Order

The Qing Consortium had sent Jiang Wu, Ren Xiaosu, Yan Liuyuan, Wang Dalong, and the students to a school known as 13th High. The full name was Stronghold 109 No. 13 High School ¹ .

When Ren Xiaosu heard the name of the school, his first reaction was to think of how large the stronghold was to have 13 high schools. No, there should absolutely be more than that.

In the enrollment form given to him by the Qing Consortium, there were recommendation letters, stronghold ID cards, enrollment grade, and basic student registration information, etc., to be filled in. Tang Zhou said the school would officially add him to the school roster only after he had reported for school.

Yan Liuyuan and Wang Dalong would attend 9th grade while Ren Xiaosu would attend 12th grade. When Tang Zhou said this, he also asked for Ren Xiaosu’s opinion on whether he would be able to keep up with the learning progress. After all, what could he have learned from the school in town? It would be embarrassing if he sat in class and not understand anything that was being taught.

However, Ren Xiaosu sneered at him. How could Tang Zhou possibly fathom a person as studious as him?

When Tang Zhou heard Ren Xiaosu say that, he did not say another word.

In reality, even though Ren Xiaosu and Luo Lan had grossed each other out, their short experience of teetering on the verge of death together brought them closer. Although everyone was saying they did not owe each other anything else, Tang Zhou was still very considerate of Ren Xiaosu and the others when doing things for them.

If not for Ren Xiaosu, Tang Zhou would have died in the wilderness.

According to Tang Zhou, there was also a university in Stronghold 109 that some students from other strongholds would try to qualify for.

However, Ren Xiaosu felt it was all in the past when the wilderness was still safe to go out into. Now, very few people dared to venture out of their strongholds.

When Ren Xiaosu mentioned this, Wang Fugui chuckled. He said that even though there were no large animals or the existence of wolves in the wilderness when he was young, there were still refugees who became bandits and killed others for gain. But even so, people would still risk their lives to travel through the wilderness to go between the strongholds.

Sometimes, he really could not understand what those people were thinking. Perhaps they were really brave or just stupid, but there had never been a lack of such people.

Ren Xiaosu was not in a rush to have Yan Liuyuan and Wang Dalong go through the school admission procedures. Instead, he decided he would take everyone on a tour of the stronghold the next morning after washing up. The six of them in their group were too unfamiliar with how things worked in the stronghold.

Rather than quickly getting down to making money, they wanted to see what this place they had been longing to see for so many years was really like.

The next morning, Yan Liuyuan suddenly shouted from the front yard, “Bro, come and take a look at this. There’s a note here.”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned before quickly walking over. He had had the feeling something was off since yesterday. First, he had briefly spotted a familiar figure in the streets, then sensed someone was staring at him the whole time. The feeling of being stared at instinctively made him shudder. And now, a note had appeared from nowhere. However, this might give him some answers to all that had been going on.

Ren Xiaosu took the note from Yan Liuyuan’s hand and saw a line of small words written on it: Don’t overstay your welcome in this eventful place.

“Bro, what do the words on the note mean?” Yan Liuyuan asked, “Who wrote it?”

“Where did you discover this note?” Ren Xiaosu asked back.

Yan Liuyuan pointed to the entrance and said, “It came from underneath the gap under the door. I think someone slotted it in last night. Could they be playing a prank on us?”

“No.” Ren Xiaosu shook his head as he was certain this was not a prank. Because… he recognized the handwriting on the note.

On his way back to the stronghold from the Jing Mountains, he had seen another line of small, beautiful words appear in the cave. At the time, Ren Xiaosu knew these words were left there by Yang Xiaojin.

And it was clear the handwriting on this note was almost identical to the one in the cave.

Together with the familiar figure he had spotted yesterday, Ren Xiaosu could finally confirm that Yang Xiaojin was also here in Stronghold 109. Furthermore, she left this note for him.

Was some kind of major incident going to happen in Stronghold 109? That actually made her persuade him to leave?

Ren Xiaosu was certain Yang Xiaojin was backed by a powerful organization that was supporting her actions. She had to know something and had come here with a specific goal in mind.

Was she going to assassinate Luo Lan? After all, Yang Xiaojin had attempted to assassinate Qing Zhen, so it was understandable if she wanted to assassinate Luo Lan as well. But it didn’t make sense. Currently, Luo Lan did not have that many soldiers or someone really powerful around him. It didn’t seem like it would be a difficult task to kill him. If Luo Lan were really her target, Fatty Luo would probably have died yesterday.

Ren Xiaosu wondered why Yang Xiaojin had come to warn him. When Yang Xiaojin left him, she even stole her dagger back from him. He didn’t believe Yang Xiaojin would be so kind. But Yang Xiaojin probably did not know Ren Xiaosu had returned to that cave. So she would also not know the note she had secretly slipped in had exposed her.

Everything that happened in this world was just this coincidental.

But where could he go if he left this place? Ren Xiaosu was a little aggrieved. Having just been allowed into the stronghold, he had to leave again before he could even find out the name of the street he lived on?

But more importantly, he couldn’t get out of this place!

Ren Xiaosu thought Luo Xinyu’s ability might be able to disregard the presence of the stronghold’s walls. In that way, she could come inside with Yang Xiaojin.

But what ability did Ren Xiaosu have that would allow him to phase through the stronghold’s walls?

“Let’s not worry about this for now.” Ren Xiaosu told Yan Liuyuan, “Don’t tell Old Wang and Big Sister Xiaoyu about it yet in case they get more worried.”

“OK.” Yan Liuyuan nodded.

“Do you need to catch up on sleep?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

“Nah.” Yan Liuyuan shook his head. “I’ve gotten enough sleep.”

Even though they were in the stronghold now, Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan still kept up with their habit of keeping watch last night.

It wasn’t because they thought there was any hidden danger around but that they were used to this routine.

If the stronghold’s residents learned about this, they would probably laugh at them for not knowing things. There were indeed some thieves in the stronghold, and some people would even occasionally stake out remote places in the middle of the night to rob others, but even that was exceedingly rare. There was no need for people to keep a night watch.

Living in a stronghold and living in the wilderness was different.

In the morning, Wang Fugui first went out to exchange the Qing Consortium’s currency they had. He inquired at the foreign exchange counter of the Li Consortium’s bank. But when he asked about it, he realized there was a transaction fee of 23% on the total amount exchanged!

Ren Xiaosu advised him not to exchange too much of the money. If they ended up having to go to another stronghold someday, wouldn’t the transaction fee all go to waste?

When Wang Fugui heard this, he felt a little nervous. “Xiaosu, you mentioned that we might end up having to go to another stronghold later? Where will we be going?”

“I didn’t say that we’ll definitely have to leave here.” Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, “But for now, we don’t really need much money. Just exchange it for some pocket money and save the rest for later.”

Ren Xiaosu already felt that they might really have to leave this place someday to travel to the next unfamiliar stronghold. But right now, he was more curious about why Yang Xiaojin and Luo Xinyu had come to Stronghold 109.

He wondered if he would get another chance to copy Yang Xiaojin’s skills.