Lin Chong said, "I think we should find lodging first."
I'm really at my wit's end. It seems Song Jiang's absence is a real problem. This group is seriously disorganized and undisciplined, not even using Lu Doubao as rations. Someone in the crowd said impatiently, "Why don't we split up? Just give me a place name and we'll meet up tonight."
I saw someone walk past me, so I grabbed him tightly and shouted, "Brother, let's go back to our place first before we have free time. That place is a bit remote..."
The man I grabbed struggled violently, and I pleaded with him, "Can you come back to my place with me first?"
The man said, "No, I have a girlfriend..."
I looked at Lu Junyi, and Lu Junyi looked at me too. I said, "Boss, why don't you try to persuade him?"
Lu Junyi said somewhat awkwardly, "We can't help you with this."
"Isn't he one of yours?"
Lu Junyi looked behind him: "All of us are here."
...
I had to coax them a lot before they agreed to come back to my place with me. The guy who was waiting for his wife also got her out. He quickly left me his business card and went to reunite with his wife, saying before he left that he really wanted to join our club.
I led these 54 people through the train station to the nearby long-distance bus station and rented a bus. I stood at the door and counted them one by one. When I got to 53, they were gone. I broke out in a cold sweat. When I asked, I found out that Dong Ping, the Double Gunner, had climbed in through the window because he was too hot.
I was relieved after counting everyone again, and then I understood the pain our teachers went through. It was a school trip organized by my elementary school, and I really shouldn't have caused so much trouble along the way. I was standing at the front of the bus, about to say something, when a thin man suddenly stood up, clutching his pocket and shouting, "Where's my wallet? My wallet's gone!" I rushed over to ask him what happened.
"It was just in my pocket..." As he said this, the skinny man suddenly reached his hand out of his pocket, revealing that someone had used a razor blade to cut open his wallet and steal it.
I comforted him, "It's okay, I'll pay you back however much you lost."
The person sitting behind the skinny guy chuckled: "This kid actually got robbed, isn't he ashamed to even mention it?"
I jumped up in surprise and asked the skinny man, "What's your name?"
The skinny man said awkwardly, "Shi Qian..."
I almost burst out laughing: the ancestor of thieves was robbed by his grandson. But this is good, it's a good thing, it'll give these people a heads-up, let them know that times are progressing and technology is developing, train stations are full of hidden dangers, and if they're not careful, they deserve to suffer.
Shi Qian said dejectedly, "My ID card is still inside."
I asked in surprise, "Where did you get your ID card?"
Shi Qian whispered, "Liu Laoliu made fakes for us."
The old man in front of Shi Qian turned around and said, "It's alright, I'll find a radish and carve another one for you, and then have Xiao Rang write something on it. I guarantee no one will be able to tell the difference."
I looked at the old man with a questioning gaze, and the old man nodded slightly to me: "Nice to meet you, Jade Arm Craftsman Jin Dajian." Then he pointed to the pale-faced man beside him, "This is the Divine Hand Scholar Xiao Rang."
You know what, these two are a perfect match. They offer a one-stop service for seal engraving and certificate processing, so apart from buying some plastic sheeting, you don't need to ask anyone for anything.
Well, this time all the talented thieves and petty thieves from Liangshan have come.
When the car arrived, the tents of 300 Yue Fei's soldiers were immediately visible. At first, I was quite surprised, but then I realized that they now had a mentor, so it was probably inconvenient for them to display their military discipline.
As soon as the 54 heroes got off the bus, I pointed to the construction site not far away and said to them, "That will be our hideout from now on." Hu Sanniang pouted and said, "This is too remote. How long will it take to buy clothes?" Wu Yong looked at the terrain and said, "Why not build it against the mountain? This place is isolated and vulnerable, easy to attack but difficult to defend." These bandits really see things differently; they always want to hide in a safe place and then cause trouble for others.
Zhang Shun then asked, "Is there any water nearby?"
I called Lai Zi over and said to him, "Isn't there an abandoned pond on campus that some guy from our hometown abandoned? Turn it into a swimming pool for me, extra charge." Then I glared at him, "You're the one who leaked this whole 300-student thing, aren't you?"
When Lai Zi saw another group of people suddenly arrive, he said uneasily, "Brother Qiang, what are you trying to do? Why do I feel so uneasy?"
I waved him away. That scoundrel actually has a son in elementary school; he's from the late 60s. He dared to mess with me, a post-80s guy? The old rogue got his comeuppance, didn't he? But now I avoid post-90s kids—the post-2000s generation will get their revenge.
Then it was time to solve the food problem. Actually, I was going to take them to eat first, but I changed my mind after I discovered they liked listening to Cao Fang and Xu Wei's songs. That legendary paradise of Hainan has already forged this group into a group with a strong sense of bourgeois taste; these guys are as picky as a bunch of tourists who only eat at tour groups. Taking them to eat fried pancakes would just mean waiting for them to close the shop and let Duan Jingzhu (the golden retriever) out.
I can still afford to treat myself to good food, but I've realized I need to be more careful with my spending. Thankfully, I didn't buy the Hummer, which eased things a bit. For the first time, I understand why money is never enough. If a billionaire lived in an apartment building, drove a Jinbei van, and used Safeguard soap and Blue Angel perfume, they certainly wouldn't run out of money. Each level of lifestyle has its own way of living. For example, I've switched from smoking Baisha to Hongyun cigarettes.
Fortunately, we had plenty of food, and we'd bought vegetables from Lai Zi's second uncle. Pots, pans, and utensils were all ready. I was just planning how to get the heroes to cook when Zhang Qing said to me, "Don't waste your time. Look at any of us, who knows how to cook?" It was then that I realized these people, though called bandits, were actually high-ranking officers, each commanding thousands of men. They couldn't possibly be like those country bumpkins like Zuo Shan Diao, whose daily needs for clothing and food were naturally taken care of by their henchmen.
Lin Chong looked at Yue Fei's army who were cooking and said, "Tell them to cook more, we'll go over and eat in a bit." Judging from his tone, it was already a huge favor for them to come over and eat.
Later I learned that Lin Chong had indeed spoken out of kindness. The heroes and Yue Fei's army had minor conflicts in the underworld, and although they had never fought each other or met in the Song Dynasty, one side was a surrendered bandit, while the other was a regular government army; it was normal for them to harbor resentment. Lin Chong genuinely came up with this solution because he saw my predicament, which made the heroes feel quite aggrieved.
When Xu Delong met the Liangshan people, he came over to greet them, his intention clear: he hoped the two sides could coexist peacefully. The Yue Family Army, obviously unwilling to cause any trouble, was focused solely on completing their unknown mission. After I told Xu Delong about the meal, he smiled and said, "It's nothing, I'll send someone to deliver it to them later."
Another problem arose with the tent allocation. The standard tent size is for 5 people, and I bought 100, thinking that would be enough. However, the leaders of Liangshan were used to sleeping in their own tents even when marching and fighting, so they simply wouldn't listen to the claim that the tents could sleep 5 people.
With 300 soldiers and 5 tents used as storage, only 35 tents remained. This time, I didn't care anymore; that was all I had, and I couldn't let them get away with it any longer! Finally, the last group pushed me to my limit, and I jumped up and down, shouting, "No tents, take your life!"
The heroes were taken aback for a moment, then laughed: "So you're one of us too!"
Chapter Forty-Seven: Third Sister
After finally settling the heroes in, I went to the central command tent of Yue Fei's army, only to find it empty. Inside, there was only a small blackboard painted black, on which was written in clods of dirt: "A crow is thirsty, searching everywhere for water..."
I asked Wei Tiezhu, who was on guard duty, "Where is your teacher, Yan?"
Wei Tiezhu subconsciously straightened his military posture and said, "Yan Zhuang... Teacher went to the township clinic."
I asked, puzzled, "What's he doing there? Does he have an upset stomach?"
Wei Tiezhu said, "More than a dozen people came in the morning. At first, we didn't know what they were doing—and later we still didn't know. They started fighting with Teacher Yan after only a few words, and they even broke the glasses that Teacher Yan was wearing."
I was taken aback and asked, "And then?"
"Later, Teacher Yan accompanied them to find a doctor, to some kind of clinic."
I quickly asked, "Is Teacher Yan badly injured? Why did those people beat him?"