Chapter 217: Finding Su Qian
Zhang Xiao could no longer look at the charred human meat hanging from above, his torch continued to shine towards the darker and deeper part of the house. Inside stood a tripod made out of logs and pegs on top of a board. The board was made using a thick wooden plank and nails and the original wooden veins had been completely covered by black blood. Vaguely seen were some yellow and fine powder in the crevices of the board, it was a board previously used by villagers to make food from flour and had been used for plating and sharing purposes.
The light from the torch followed down, revealing the damp ground that stored rice straws. The yellow rice straws had turned black with a whiff of feces smell coming from further in. By the side of the patch of rice straws was a stone trough used by villagers to feed pigs, inside it contained some loose soured slop with a few grain chaffs on top and a few broken bones. There were even moldy grains inside. Looking at the food that even pigs would not dare to touch, Zhang Xiao Qiang became curious, exactly what is being reared in here?
The light continued to move inwards, revealing a drier space in the deepest part of the room where a bunch of dried and yellow rice straws was placed together. Zhang Xiao Qiang’s torch continued to shine, but there was no irksome presence.
It was extremely dark and cooling here, causing Zhang Xiao Qiang, who was wearing a single layer of clothing, to feel cold. He was about to turn his head and leave when he heard some rustling from inside the grass. Zhang Xiao Qiang shone his torch towards the area and pulled out his pistol.
He advanced slowly, carefully stepping on the clean rice straws that had not been polluted by manure. Zhang Xiao Qiang looked at the unmoving rice straws, then suddenly kicked at it. His military boots knocked onto something as a figure immediately came out.
A woman without a strand of air with all sorts of dirty things slipping on her body, her face stained with black spots appeared. She knelt on the ground and trembled incessantly, with faint bruising all over her body.
Zhang Xiao Qiang looked at the woman in front of him and a sense of cold air flooded his insides. It was Su Qian, the lovable girl that massaged his foot, the Su Qian that made him run round in circles, the Su Qian that used the Type-81 AR and shot Chen Yi many times.
Looking at her, all the anger he had towards her completely disappeared. The punishments and pain she had gone through was something Zhang Xiao Qiang could only imagine. He felt deep respect for her as well, even at such at a predicament, she was actually able to persevere to live. If it was him, he would have knocked himself in the head and die.
Su Qian never dared to lift her head, she did not know that the person before her was Zhang Xiao Qiang, her heart had died a long time ago, she had no idea why she was still living, maybe towards the hopes and expectations of her family that had long passed. Being abused and watching her own sisters being cut apart to be cooked into meat, and having to look at them every day, she had long fallen into despair.
She had been degraded into a walking corpse, she lived on quietly, waiting for the perverse Liu Tou to toy with her then turn her into charred meat. She used to be most afraid of being eaten by others, but she was no longer afraid of it. She ate her sisters as she waited for her own life to end….The bearded man could no longer take it and handed his rifle over to Three who had a look of rejoice, then looked at Zhang Xiao Qiang with some resentment, clenched his teeth, then stepped forward with no second thoughts to Su Qian and carried her body that was defiled with pee and manure and walked out.
Zhang Xiao Qiang and Three, the man rejoicing in Su Qian’s calamity followed behind the solemn and bearded man. Zhang Xiao Qiang was a man who was extremely ferocious towards outsides but shielded and protected his own, even if the person who USED to be in his group but betrayed him. Zhang Xiao Qiang had no thoughts of killing Su Qian, he was prepared to bring her back to camp, but whether she lived or die after that did not matter to him. He had done everything that he could do for her.
Upon leaving the house, the bearded man carrying Su Qian increased his pace and ran to the outside, then threw Su Qian on the ground and screamed in rage while pulling out some clothes from the trunk on the side of the road and rushed into a house.
The sun had risen not long ago, the morning sun was not as hot as the afternoon, and the warmth of the sun felt extremely comfortable. All of the ladies who had been recognized by Zhang Xiao Qiang immediately ran over and gave Su Qian a bath.
Some of them cried while bathing her, Su Qian was in the most pitiful situation, not knowing that their other sisters that ran with them had been turned into meat. Looking at the numb and depressed Su Qian, they started to worry about their own future.
Su Qian sat on the ground and allowed the women to dress her wounds and wrapped her up. Maybe it was the warmth of the sun, something temporarily drove the despair in her heart, she looked at the familiar women around her and spoke with a hoarse voice: “You guys….you guys are still alive?”
Seeing Su Qian regain her senses made it look as though the other women found their backbone. They all started to narrate the situation and when Su Qian realized that it was Zhang Xiao Qiang that had led people to occupy the land, she no longer said anything else. Even when she looked as though she was on her last breath, she never spoke a word.
This would continue until right before her death did she hand a piece of paper over to her son and had him hand it over to Zhang Xiao Qiang. On it, three words were written: “I was wrong!”
The fleet that had expanded by three times set out once again. Zhang Xiao Qiang sat back in his own Hummer with Shangguan Qiao Yun as his driver. Zhang Xiao Qiang slept in the back and although it would not be a long sleep, he could not help but fall asleep the moment he went in. Shangguan Qiao Yun did her best to drive steadily and gave him more comfort.
In less than an hour, the fleet returned to the prison entrance. Zhang Xiao Qiang did not get off the vehicle and got Three to establish sentries while got others to prepare to eat while he continued sleeping.
Just as Shangguan Qiao Yun brought Zhang Xiao Qiang his breakfast, he woke up. He accepted the food and looked at his watch, which revealed that it was close to 10. While eating, he looked into the distance and noticed the cloud of dust from afar, another long fleet of vehicles was driving over.
Yang Ke’er held her mace and rushed down from a large bus and pulled Zhang Xiao Qiang to the side and inspected him carefully before heaving a sigh of relief, then threw down her mace and hugged Zhang Xiao Qiang as she bawled her eyes out. Zhang Xiao Qiang felt dizzy from her actions.
He patted Yang Ke’er on the back, then turned and stared at Old Frank and Zhang Huai An, the two of them instantly frightened by his eyes. Old Frank pushed Zhang Huai An forward to Zhang Xiao Qiang.
Zhang Huai An turned back and cast an angry look at Old Frank, raining curses on Old Frank in his heart, then turned and gave Zhang Xiao Qiang an awkward laugh, then started to talk with his glib tongue….