The glow cast by the campfire was flickering and swaying. The woods rustled as the wind blew through it. It was the wonderful melody of leaves brushing against one another.
The black fish was a little too big, in fact. It was so big that Ren Xiaosu didn't think he could finish eating half of it.
But even if he could not finish eating it, it did not mean that he should get robbed at gunpoint by someone for it.
He saw Yang Xiaojin take out a small salt shaker from her tracksuit's shirt pocket and sprinkled it over the fish while holding a black pistol in her other hand. She was not being courteous with Ren Xiaosu at all.
Ren Xiaosu had tried guessing what kind of person Yang Xiaojin was. This reticent girl always looked calm and composed.
Ren Xiaosu guessed that the girl had a cold and callous personality, but he did not expect her to be so temperamental.
From the moment she sat down, Yang Xiaojin had only said one word: fish. Her temper was like a turbulent current hidden under the calm surface of a sea, frightening others.
When Ren Xiaosu saw that Yang Xiaojin had already sprinkled the salt evenly all over the fish, he couldn't hold it in any longer. He looked at Yang Xiaojin and asked, "Do you have any cumin?"
Yang Xiaojin looked up at him. "No."
Now, Ren Xiaosu took a careful look at the gun in Yang Xiaojin's hand. It was an M9, a simple and durable handgun. Of the knowledge covered by his Advanced Firearms Proficiency, it seemed like the M9 was still the pistol he was most familiar with.
Did that mean that Yang Xiaojin used the M9 the most?
Yang Xiaojin hands were not big, but she was able to hold the gun tightly in her hand without any signs of trembling. As such, there was something special about her when she was gripping the M9. The net weight of this gun fully loaded was only 1.2 kilograms, and it was made entirely out of an aluminum alloy. Perhaps that was the reason Yang Xiaojin chose to carry this gun.
After Yang Xiaojin finished sprinkling the salt, she turned to Luo Xinyu and said, "Come and eat the fish."
Ren Xiaosu was confused. 'I was only going to let you have two bites. Why would you invite someone else to have some?'
While they were conversing, Liu Bu and Luo Xinyu had gotten up happily and walked over to them. However, Yang Xiaojin pointed her gun at Liu Bu. "Go back, the owner of this fish does not welcome you."
Liu Bu stood awkwardly in place as he did not know whether to sit down or continue standing. He had not expected Yang Xiaojin to say something like that!
Ren Xiaosu was stunned. At this point, he could not tell what Yang Xiaojin's way of doing things was. She seemed a little interesting.
Yang Xiaojin turned to look at Ren Xiaosu. "We'll just have two bites each, nothing more."
Luo Xinyu sat down and curiously sized up Ren Xiaosu. The atmosphere seemed to have livened up a bit. She laughed and said, "I won't eat your food for nothing either. Here, I'll let you have two bites of this chocolate in return."
Luo Xinyu then took out a large piece of chocolate from her pocket and handed it to Ren Xiaosu. She looked to be making a trade.
Ren Xiaosu gave it some thought before taking the chocolate from her. This was his first time seeing the real thing. He had only ever heard Mr. Zhang talking about the high calorie food that could quickly replenish one's physical strength.
However, Old Wang's grocery store in town only sold ordinary white sugar, and it was extremely expensive too. There was no such thing as chocolate in his store.
It was as though "two bites" had become a tacit agreement between everyone. No one was allowed to eat any more than that.
Ren Xiaosu took the chocolate and removed the wrapper from it. Then he opened his mouth as wide as possible and stuffed all of the chocolate into his mouth in one shot.
Luo Xinyu was dumbfounded. Even Yang Xiaojin was giving Ren Xiaosu a blank stare.
After Ren Xiaosu finished slowly chewing on the chocolate, he thought for a moment, then said to Luo Xinyu, "You still owe me another bite."
Luo Xinyu was surprised. Yang Xiaojin was speechless.
The chocolate was delicious. Ren Xiaosu thought, 'Even the food in the stronghold is different from what we have in town.'
The crackers were so sweet and tasty, and the chocolate had a exotic taste with a bitterness before the sweetness set in.
Ren Xiaosu felt that he had to find a way to trade for more of such food with Luo Xinyu and the others during the journey. When he returned to town, he could let Yan Liuyuan and Xiaoyu eat whatever he brought back with him.
Luo Xinyu had wanted to get a little closer to Ren Xiaosu as she felt that he had a unique survival skill. If anything were to happen along the way, he could take care of her. People like Luo Xinyu were always smooth operators, tactful in their dealings. How else could they coax the genuine "big shots" in the stronghold into flocking to them?
But Luo Xinyu did not expect Ren Xiaosu to be so difficult to get along with. Rather, she always felt that there might really be something wrong with Ren Xiaosu's head.
Luo Xinyu took two small bites of the fish and returned back to her campfire. She took another piece of chocolate from the vehicle and gave it to Ren Xiaosu. He did not eat it, instead stuffing it into his pocket.
At this time, Ren Xiaosu turned to look at Yang Xiaojin. He saw her opening her mouth as wide as possible and chomp down on the fish, biting off almost a quarter of the remaining portion in one bite! Ren Xiaosu was shocked. 'As a girl, can't you be a little more reserved? Even Li Youqian, the strapping girl from town, does not eat with such manners, alright!'
Ren Xiaosu had had half a fish left after exchanging half of it for water. Now that Yang Xiaojin had taken two bites from it, there was only a quarter of it left. But for some reason, Ren Xiaosu felt that Yang Xiaojin wasn't putting on airs. Everything that she did was straightforward. It was so much better than how the celebrity, Luo Xinyu, acted.
However, when Ren Xiaosu saw Yang Xiaojin turning to look at him, he quickly licked the fish in his hands. "Want some more?"
Yang Xiaojin walked away with an expressionless face. "Don't carry the chocolate around on your person. It'll melt."
That night, everyone set up their tents and encamped. These people had brought along brightly colored tents in the vehicles' trunks. It was just enough for two people to share a tent. Only Yang Xiaojin and Luo Xinyu had personal tents.
Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu was focusing on dumping all of the fish bones and scraps at least a 100 meters away before returning to set up his own temporary bed.
The others sat in their tents as they curiously watched Ren Xiaosu, who was fussing around the campsite. They thought, 'So these are wilderness survival techniques? It does look like he is extremely skilled at them.'
They saw Ren Xiaosu shift the original campfire and build another one with a lot of pine twigs and logs of hardwoods that tended to burn longer. Ren Xiaosu had already extinguished and cleaned up the original campfire, and he'd covered the hot ground with plenty of pine needles.
These pine needles were readily available in the woods and could be found in the thick foliage all around.
"That kid even made himself a bed!" Liu Bu said as he watched Ren Xiaosu lying comfortably on the pine needles. As it was late fall, it must have been warm and comfortable on the extinguished campfire. Moreover, another campfire was burning beside him.
It looked really cozy.
In contrast, the soldiers' tents were set up tightly around the campfire, so the band members were forced to endure the cold with their tents situated further away from the campfire. Fortunately, though, they had blankets to cover themselves with. Otherwise, they didn't know how they would have gotten through the night.
Meanwhile, Yang Xiaojin had set up her tent beside Ren Xiaosu's campfire. She wasn't courteous to him at all.
Ren Xiaosu opened his eyes and looked over at Yang Xiaojin's tent. He saw that the flap of her tent was not closed. In this way, it would be convenient for her to observe any movements in the surroundings, and the gun in her hand was still pointed in Ren Xiaosu's direction.. No, it wasn't only that. There was another gun in her other hand as well, and it was pointed in the direction of the soldiers' tents!