The First Order

“Liuyuan, don’t you go running out by yourself again these days.” Xiaoyu said in the pitch-black room, “How am I going to answer to your brother if something happens to you?”

“Don’t worry, I won’t do it again,” Yan Liuyuan promised. Recently, he had gotten increasingly trustful of Xiaoyu because she continued caring for him even though she had the opportunity to leave him behind.

As he was running a high fever several days ago, Xiaoyu could have just taken the money and left, but she did not do that.

While he was sleeping, there would always be a fresh and cool towel wiping his face and armpits to keep his temperature down. Yan Liuyuan even heard a gentle singing voice that felt like a warm ocean and reminded him of a child being held in its mother’s arms.

Yan Liuyuan had never experienced any of these feelings before. Even though Ren Xiaosu also provided him with a lot of warmth and care, it felt like he was always chasing after his elder brother. It did not feel like an embrace.

“OK.” Xiaoyu felt reassured after hearing Yan Liuyuan’s promise. She thought of something and said, “Since you’ve recovered from your illness, you have to attend class tomorrow to catch up.”

Yan Liuyuan paled at the mention. “Big Sister Xiaoyu, surely that’s unnecessary. My brother isn’t around anyway!”

“That won’t do.” Xiaoyu said, “It’ll be my fault if Xiaosu comes back and finds out that you’ve fallen behind on your homework. He told me before he left.”

“When did he tell you that?!” Yan Liuyuan wailed, “I never heard him mentioning anything about it at all!”

Xiaoyu giggled while lying on the bedroll. “Anyway, I don’t care. You must be obedient.”

Yan Liuyuan lost the will to argue as he stared at the ceiling, but there was a slight smile on his lips. At this moment, he heard someone jump into the courtyard, and it was not just one person!

Xiaoyu also heard the sound. But the usually gentle and timid Xiaoyu took out a bone knife from under her pillow. She clenched her teeth and said, “Stay still!”

In the dimly lit room, Yan Liuyuan could see Xiaoyu trembling a little. They both knew that someone leaping over the yard’s wall at such a late time must have come with evil purposes. But as Ren Xiaosu was not around, Xiaoyu felt that she should bear the responsibility of protecting Yan Liuyuan.

A second later, three burly men kicked open the door to their room. Two of them tried to hold Xiaoyu against the ground while the other man stabbed at Yan Liuyuan, who was lying in bed with a bone knife.

Although Xiaoyu was also holding a bone knife, her strength as a woman was a lot weaker compared to that of an adult man.

When one of the burly men jumped her, he let out a groan like he had been stabbed by her bone knife. However, the other man kicked it out of her hand!

Yan Liuyuan looked at them with the aid of the moonlight. In that instant, he recognized that these three men were some of the idlers in town. He had never unexpected they would target the school!

Perhaps they thought Ren Xiaosu had earned some money after opening the clinic some time ago. Furthermore, Ren Xiaosu was not in town at the moment, so they started getting ideas to commit a crime.

Xiaoyu was very cautious whenever she spent any money during this period. Every time she bought her groceries from the market, she would haggle over the price for a long time. She would even resort to picking wild vegetables so she could pretend she was broke.

However, Yan Liuyuan needed nutrition when he was ill. In the end, she still bought some meat, and that attracted the attention of others.

This was what was scary about a home without a man. Although Yan Liuyuan was also a man, he was too young to be intimidating to others.

As Yan Liuyuan and Xiaoyu likely had a lot of money with them now, not even the thought of this being a school could hinder the robbers from targeting them.

At the same time, Yan Liuyuan heard the door beside their room being kicked open. It seemed like someone else was attempting to kill Zhang Jinglin! These people were so reckless they even dared to touch the schoolteacher. They wanted to silence everyone so no one would know who the culprits were.

However, right at this moment, a gunshot rang through the night. The idler who had rushed at Yan Liuyuan stared disbelievingly at the black muzzle of the pistol before him. Then he looked down at his bleeding abdomen. He couldn’t understand why Yan Liuyuan had a gun in his hand!

If they knew that Yan Liuyuan had a gun, they would definitely not have taken the risk to rob them. In fact, guns were prohibited in town. Some people had built their own guns before, but they were all confiscated by the stronghold.

Everyone in the room looked at Yan Liuyuan in surprise. Even Xiaoyu had not expected it.

In an instant, six gunshots were fired off. After Yan Liuyuan killed one person, he did not get frightened. Instead, he shot the two idlers who had rushed Xiaoyu and killed them as well.

Every time Yan Liuyuan fired a shot, he felt like a darkness in his heart was pulling him slowly into the abyss. In this world, if you want to live, you must know how to kill!

He jumped out of bed and ran out of the door. The two idlers who had just barged into Zhang Jinglin’s room next door ran out when they heard the gunshots, but it was already too late!

Another two gunshots rang out. Yan Liuyuan had opened fire and killed five people in the space of one minute! The sound of the gunshots cracked through the air and spread outwards like a howling roar!

Mr. Zhang walked out of the room next door and gazed at Yan Liuyuan, who was standing next to him, as though he was getting to know this young man again.

Zhang Jinglin knew that Ren Xiaosu was a ruthless person and even knew that Yan Liuyuan had been deeply influenced by Ren Xiaosu over the years. Although Yan Liuyuan belonged to the youngest batch of students in the school, the older children did not dare provoke him and were even afraid of him.

But whose 13-year-old child would know how to shoot and kill?

He stood there panting in a pool of blood outside the room. As his expression was always calm, you would only realize he was actually afraid if you saw his hands trembling slightly.

Xiaoyu came out of their room as well. She hugged Yan Liuyuan and said, “Don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid.”

It was obvious that Yan Liuyuan had stepped up to save everyone. But for some reason, Yan Liuyuan felt relieved when Xiaoyu embraced him. Her warm touch dispersed the coldness throughout his body.

The loud and crisp gunshots had jolted the entire town awake. Everyone came out and looked in the direction of the school, but they still did not know what had happened.

It was clear that the stronghold’s residents had already returned into the stronghold. So why were there gunshots? Based on the refugees’ knowledge, only the important people of the stronghold could possess firearms.

Zhang Jinglin looked at the gun in Yan Liuyuan’s hand and said with a sigh, “Did Ren Xiaosu leave that gun for you? You went out in the afternoon because you wanted to retrieve it?”

“Yes.” Yan Liuyuan said, “I’ll leave town with Big Sister Xiaoyu right away. We won’t burden you.”

When Ren Xiaosu left town, he broke away from the team for a while to go to the place where the gun was buried. But instead of taking it away, he marked the spot where it was buried and left it to Yan Liuyuan.

Before he departed, he quietly told Yan Liuyuan to retrieve the gun after he went away. If he encountered any danger that he could not fight against, he should use the gun and then escape into the wilderness. He had prepared a secret cave somewhere in the wilderness for Yan Liuyuan to take refuge in.

When Ren Xiaosu was finished with his business, he would go and look for him.