pappabearbooks Chapter 12 Iron Law
Chapter 12 Iron Law
The sound of the loess being compacted seemed particularly dull in the dead of night; each "pounding" sound felt like a blow to the heart of a living person in the ditch.
Those two small mounds of earth, not far from the mouth of the gully, looked like two ugly scars on the barren land of the tenth year of the Xianfeng reign. The two refugees who had tried to exchange their dead child for meat were now part of this desolate land.
Li Qian stood beside the mound of earth, his military knife already sheathed. He lowered his head, feeling the stickiness in his palms—the unwashed, cold blood of the displaced. A gust of wind carried the stench deep into his bones, clinging to his skin like an indelible layer of sin.
He didn't wipe it away, because in this wasteland, blood was the only bright color.
The ditch was eerily quiet.
The wind swirled in from the ditch, whipping up a cloud of white ash. Awang huddled in the corner, his head buried in his knees, his shoulders trembling, like a lonely soul just squeezed out of the gates of hell. Old Zhao sat withered beside the remnants of the fire, his cloudy eyes filled with horror. He had seen famine and murder in his life, but this was the first time he had witnessed someone use a knife for a dead child, for that rotten shred of human morality.
In his eyes, Li Qian was not a hero, but a madman even more ruthless than the refugees.
Sun Deshan carried the broken half of the wooden stick and slowly moved back into the ditch.
The bloodstains on his face had dried into a dark purple, contrasting sharply with the prominent old scar running from the corner of his eye to the corner of his mouth, making him appear grotesque and ghostly in the pale moonlight. But when he was three steps away from Li Qian, this man, who had once traveled all over the country in the escort agency and was full of scheming, actually stopped, and then his back slowly bent down.
He bowed so deeply that his forehead almost touched his knees, showing even more respect than when he saw the county magistrate.
"Boss Li."
Sun Deshan spoke, his voice hoarse as if he had stuffed a handful of pebbles into his parched throat.
Li Qian didn't reply, but simply leaned quietly against the earthen wall. His body was trembling slightly, a physiological reaction after killing someone.
"Just now... I had a wicked thought, I admit it." Sun Deshan looked up, the usual sinister look in his eyes now washed away by an almost tragic clarity. "When those two beasts took out the pieces of meat, it felt like tens of thousands of fire ants crawled into my brain. I was thinking, since that kid's dead anyway, a change of food would allow me to walk another fifty miles. Just now... I wasn't human anymore."
Sun Deshan slapped himself hard across the face, the crisp sound carrying far into the night.
"It was that knife that woke me up," Sun Deshan gritted his teeth. "I've been a镖师 (bodyguard/escort) for ten years, and I've seen all sorts of people who betray their principles for profit, but I've never seen anyone like you who risks their life to uphold humanity. In this cannibalistic world, following those officials is waiting to die; following these starving bastards is courting death. Only by following you will I feel like a real man standing up to pee when I die."
Sun Deshan spat out a mouthful of saliva, which was tinged with a faint trace of blood, and then knelt down on one knee at Li Qian's feet with a "plop".
"You're in charge of my life from now on. You can tell me where to go, and I won't hesitate."
Li Qian looked down at the man before him. He knew that only at this moment had Sun Deshan truly transformed from a "fellow traveler" into a "lackey." In this apocalyptic world where even hair was considered food, a loyal follower was Li Qian's right-hand man.
"Get up." Li Qian pulled Sun Deshan's arm, the bloodstains on his hand clearly smeared onto the other's sleeve.
"In this world, if you don't eat people, you have to learn to kill ghosts." Li Qian looked around at the people in the ditch, his voice calm but carrying an undeniable weight. "From now on, in our team, I will find the food and set the rules. Anyone who dares to set their sights on things they shouldn't will have their hideout on this mound of earth."
Awang and Old Man Zhao hurriedly kowtowed in response. Wang's wife, clutching the blue cloth bundle, gave a long bow towards Li Qian's direction. Her child was saved, though it was just a corpse; it was her final dignity as a mother.
After dealing with the two refugees, Li Qian turned around, his gaze passing over Sun Deshan who was kneeling on the ground, and landing on Su Mo'er, who was huddled in the shadow of the earthen wall.
The woman's face was deathly pale; the bloody slaughter she had just witnessed had clearly terrified her. She clutched the hem of her clothes tightly, like a frightened quail.
"Su Mo'er," Li Qian called her name.
The woman trembled violently, raising her face, which was covered in grime yet still undeniably pretty, her eyes filled with terror.
"come over."
Li Qian's voice wasn't loud, but it carried a kind of oppressive force. Su Mo'er gritted her teeth and, as if moving a lead weight, inching closer to Li Qian.
Li Qian stared at her, then pulled out the last hard biscuit he had hidden deep inside his pocket and handed it directly to Su Mo'er amidst the sounds of everyone swallowing their saliva.
"Boss Li, this..." Awang's eyes turned red.
"Shut up." Li Qian glanced coldly at Awang, then looked at Su Mo'er. "You're from around here. Eat this pancake to get your strength. Tomorrow morning, you'll lead the way to that dry well you mentioned. If you can't find it, all our lives will be in your hands."
Su Mo'er held the dry biscuit, still warm from Li Qian's body, her palms burning. She understood that this was more than just a biscuit; it was Li Qian's "life-saving money" for her, and also a heavy burden weighing on her shoulders.
"I...I remember the location, it's behind that old willow grove to the south." Su Mo'er replied softly, her voice trembling, but it was a little more steady than before. "As long as...as long as the earth's core hasn't burned through, there should still be some muddy water left at the bottom of the well to help people survive."
Li Qian nodded, then looked at Sun Deshan: "Have you ever traveled this area as a镖师 (bodyguard/escort) before?"
Sun Deshan frowned, racking his brains for old grudges from his escort missions: "To tell you, Chief Li, I know the main roads well. But this desolate wilderness to the south has been abandoned for too long, and the official roads have long been buried in lime. If we don't take the main roads, I really can't recognize them as well as this girl. But as long as we're heading in the right direction, I can protect her from being eaten by wild dogs in the woods."
"Alright." Li Qian leaned back against the earthen wall and let out a long sigh of relief. "Tomorrow, Su Mo'er will lead the way, and Sun Deshan, you'll protect her from behind. Awang and the old man will guard the remaining things and take good care of Wang's wife."
When the topic turned to the Wang family's daughter-in-law, Li Qian's gaze lingered on the blue cloth bundle for a moment before he ultimately dropped the subject of the "corpse." With some principles firmly established, the rest was left to the luck of survival.
The desolate wilderness in the dead of night still devours all life.
The barking of wild dogs in the distance grew increasingly mournful, as if summoning the souls of the two refugees who had just died. But in this dry gully, something called "order" had quietly taken root in the bloodstained hearts of these refugees.
Li Qian closed his eyes, his hands still loosely gripping the hilt of the knife.
They killed their own kind, and in doing so, they also killed the last bit of weakness deep within their own hearts.
In this barren land, they began to resemble not pigs and sheep waiting to be slaughtered, but a pack of wild wolves licking their wounds in the darkness, preparing to devour their prey.
"Let's renovate..."
Li Qian silently recited Sun Deshan's oath in his heart.
Not only must we turn this world upside down, but we must start with these numb hearts and these hands covered in blood.
In this chaotic world where people ate each other, Li Qian finally brought out the first batch of people who, even as ghosts, would walk upright.