Quick Travel: Save the poor little villain

Chapter 2892 Town Infrastructure Construction in Full Swing 11

Two groups of people stood clearly separated in the middle of the Silent Bridge.

To the north were seven teenagers, led by Hu Zi, while to the south were a few more, about ten, all of similar age, and they were also filled with rage. The leader of the group had a cut on his forehead, and blood smeared half of his face.

When Huo Zhaoye and Jin Chen arrived, this was the scene that was tense and ready to fight.

Jin Chen almost thought he had stumbled into some kind of gathering of delinquent youths.

Lu Jun arrived a little later, walking briskly from the direction of Nanzhen, his brows furrowed.

"What's going on!" Huo Zhaoye's voice wasn't loud, but it was as authoritative as ever, instantly drowning out the boys' noise.

The two boys were even more excited when they saw their leader arrive, as if they had found their pillar of support.

The boy from South Town, his forehead bruised, was the first to cry out, "Boss Lu! The people from North Town are being unreasonable!"

"We were just walking on the bridge when they came up and started hitting us!"

"Bullshit!" Tiger, the leader of Beizhen, jumped up to retort, clutching the shattered, crude weather vane model in his hand, his eyes red with anger.

"You guys were the ones who started this mess! You ruined our homework!"

He held up the tattered model, "Teacher Jin said she'd check it tomorrow! We've been working on it for days! Fine, you don't study, but why are you ruining our stuff!"

The little boy next to Tiger also shouted, "That's right!"

"That's a lie! With just a few broken pieces of wood, how could you possibly know when it will rain or the sun will shine? You're kidding me! Not only are you poor in Beizhen now, you've also learned to brag!"

"You're the one bragging! Our Teacher Jin is the one who knows! He taught us!" the boy from Beizhen retorted.

"Our Boss Lu can fight wild beasts! He can kill two with one punch! He's much better than your teacher who can only play with wood!"

"Our teacher Jin persuades people with reason! What do you know! You've never been to school, you're illiterate! Utterly illiterate!"

The teenagers got so into a heated argument that they started saying all sorts of outrageous things.

The adults from both North and South Towns who were watching were speechless, wanting to laugh but feeling it wasn't the right time.

Jinchen: "..."

Lu Jun: "..."

If we don't stop them, they'll be able to fly into the sky.

"Little Tiger".

Tiger, who was arguing so loudly that his face turned red and his neck was thick, suddenly stopped. He shrank his neck and tried to hide the broken model in his hand behind his back, but then realized he couldn't hide it, so he had to lower his head.

"Teacher Jin..."

The other boys from Beizhen wilted instantly, like eggplants struck by frost. They hung their heads and called out in unison, "Teacher Jin..."

The boys from Nanzhen, who had been making a racket, were taken aback by the sudden silence and instinctively fell silent as well.

They looked at the young man walking onto the bridge with curiosity and a touch of amazement.

Although he was wearing old clothes similar to those of other people in Beizhen, he still had an inexplicable air of cleanliness.

Tsk, Beizhen is really lucky. Boss Huo is already eye-catching enough, and now they have a teacher like him.

The boys in Nanzhen were thinking to themselves.

“Admitting your mistake isn’t cowardly.” Jin Chen grabbed Hu Zi’s collar and felt his hand was sweaty. He paused, quickly wiped his fingers on Hu Zi’s clothes, and withdrew them, instead tapping Hu Zi’s head.

Tiger: "But Teacher Jin! They ruined our homework first! I just wanted them to apologize! They wouldn't apologize and even pushed Xiaodouzi! That's why...that's why..."

"Okay, then why did they ruin your craft project?"

Tiger complained, "We were practicing recording the wind direction on this side of the bridge when they came across it and gathered around to watch!"

"I said this was taught to us by Teacher Jin; it allows us to read the wind and know when it will rain! That's Ah Mao,"

He pointed to a dark-skinned, thin boy from the South Town Youth League, "He yelled loudly, saying we were lying! He called us lying monsters! He even tried to snatch it! When he couldn't, he threw my weather vane on the ground and stomped on it twice!"

Tiger got angrier and angrier as he spoke, pointing to the scattered pieces of wood on the ground, "Look! They're all crushed! I was so angry that I pushed him..."

"You're all lying! You people from Beizhen are just big talkers!"

"Yes, you can! Our teacher Jin knows how! He taught us!"

As the argument was about to escalate, Jin Chen and Lu Jun were once again speechless.

Huo Zhaoye rubbed his forehead, feeling a headache coming on.

Lu Jun rubbed his temples and looked at Huo Zhaoye. "Huo Zhaoye, asking for some medical compensation isn't unreasonable, is it?"

Huo Zhaoye frowned, and first heard Jin Chen speak.

"Lord Lu means that damaging someone else's property and provoking them first shouldn't be investigated, and only the medical expenses of the person who attacked later should be compensated? Perhaps we should also do the math: the wood needed for these teaching aids, though not valuable, takes three days to produce. We'd exchange it for half a day's work for an adult in Beizhen, plus the losses from the delayed teaching progress..."

Unable to respond, the illiterate Lu Jun: "..."

What on earth is this person babbling about?!

"...Roughly estimated, the compensation this young man from your town needs to pay is roughly equivalent to fifty eggs, or the equivalent value of Nanzhen's specialty bean products. Lord Lu, do you think it would be better for us to offset each other and not pursue the matter further, or should we calculate it in detail?"

Lu Jun: "..."

Okay, I understand now.

They need so many supplies for this piece of broken wood!

Huo Zhaoye, who was still feeling a bit guilty about the fact that the kids from his town had hit someone, turned his head to look at Jin Chen and chuckled when he heard her words.

Teacher Jin is usually not very talkative, but she has a knack for roasting people.

Quite cute.

Lu Jun was speechless for a moment, then touched his nose and chuckled awkwardly, "Ahem... Teacher Jin has quite the eloquence."

"Alright, alright, kids fighting, they don't know their own strength, let's give each of them fifty lashes, that's even, that's even."

Jin Chen remained noncommittal, then suddenly turned his gaze to Yan Genggu, who was standing a little behind him, and said, "Professor Yan."

He asked in a very serious tone, "Have you ever seen someone so unreasonable?"

Yan Genggu was observing the water flow under the bridge, pondering the slight abnormality he had noticed in the upstream water quality when he came over. He was taken aback when he was suddenly called out.

He followed Jin Chen's gaze and looked at Lu Jun, who seemed a little embarrassed.

Lu Jun: "???"

Although Yan Genggu didn't understand why Jin Chen suddenly asked him this, he looked at Lu Jun and recalled the argument just now, and answered seriously and truthfully, "No."

Lu Jun: "..."

I don't know why, but it felt like I'd been shot in the knee out of nowhere.

After all this commotion, the boys from Nanzhen, though still verbally defiant, began to have their doubts.

They understood; those strange wooden pieces and cardboard in Beizhen didn't seem to be toys at all, but rather things used to observe the sky.

If North Town really comes up with a way to predict the weather... that would be a great benefit to South Town as well.

Suddenly, many people's gazes toward the broken weathervane shifted from disdain to curiosity, and even a hint of envy. This was coupled with the recent rumors they had vaguely heard that the lifeless hillside in Beizhen seemed to have improved since Professor Yan's arrival...

Is Beizhen's luck a little too good?

The atmosphere subtly eased, but suddenly a terrified scream rang out from the old riverbank beneath the bridge: "A corpse! There's a corpse in the river!"

Everyone on the bridge was startled and rushed to the side of the bridge to look downstream.

A blurry object floated in the murky river water, rising and falling slowly with the current. Judging from its shape, it looked like a person.

"It drifted down from upstream!"

Upstream is a barren forest.

It was an old forest that was denser and more gloomy than the usual wilderness. The terrain was complex, the pollution left over from the old era was severe, and the appearance of mutated monsters was more frequent.

The two towns have an unspoken agreement not to venture too far unless absolutely necessary.

"Those who can swim, send two people down to check!" Huo Zhaoye ordered.

Young men took off their coats and jumped into the river, swimming vigorously toward the floating object.

Soon, the body was dragged ashore. It was a man in his thirties, but still recognizable.

Someone in Nanzhen immediately exclaimed, "It's Chen Si! Chen Si, who's been missing for several days!"

"Missing?" Huo Zhaoye looked at Lu Jun, his expression grave. "Someone has gone missing in your Nanzhen too?"

Lu Jun crouched down to examine the corpse closely. "Also? You have one in Beizhen too?"

"Yes!" Before Huo Zhaoye could answer, the monkey beside him blurted out, "Three have gone missing!"

"They've all been missing for the past few days; we've searched the entire neighborhood but can't find them!"

Huo Zhaoye: "Two of them went out to find supplies and never came back, and one of them got up at night and never appeared again. They were never seen alive or dead."

"It seems this is not a coincidence."

People have gone missing in both towns at the same time, and bodies have been found floating in from the direction of Shanglin...

The two exchanged a glance, and Huo Zhaoye said in a deep voice, "We must go in and take a look."

“My men will go too,” Lu Jun interjected. “But let’s be clear from the start: once we’re in the forest, it’s up to each of us to rely on our own abilities and take care of ourselves.”

"Okay." Huo Zhaoye nodded.

The two quickly selected a few people. Huo Zhaoye selected Monkey, Xiao Wu, and two other skilled fighters.

Lu Jun also selected four people from his side.

Having finished examining the body, Jin Chen stood up, wiped her hands, and looked at Huo Zhaoye, "I'll go too."

Without a second thought, Huo Zhaoye said, "No, the wilderness is too dangerous! We don't know what's going on inside, you can't go."

"Why?" Jin Chen looked at him with her light brown eyes. "Are you worried about me?"

"I……"

Huo Zhaoye was taken aback by his blunt question, his ears burning, and his wild and handsome face tensed up. "Yes! I said that once you come to Heping North Town, I won't let you get hurt. There are likely mutated monsters in the wilderness, and the environment is complicated."

Jin Chen looked at him with a smile for several seconds, then suddenly stepped forward and gave him a light hug.

That couldn't even be considered a real hug.

However, Huo Zhaoye was still startled and didn't react for a moment.

Jin Chen stepped back. "Alright, Lord Huo, please be careful."