Chapter 87#

The Disabled Big Shot’s Stepson#

Why would the Lin family’s drone be shot down with a gun?

Lin Xiaodong dared not imagine what this represented.

Moreover, with Ye Shiyuan and his team’s efficiency, the fact that they hadn’t sent someone to check or sent a signal immediately after the surveillance went wrong must be because something unexpected happened at the base camp as well.

He immediately woke everyone up and told them what might happen next.

The children’s expressions were all panicked, but Lin Xiaodong soothed their fears with a quick and firm tone and assigned tasks to everyone—now was not the time to collect flags. Most importantly, they must first find out what happened on Lin Pei’s side and ensure the personal safety of these children.

“From now on, when you go to the toilet, do not go more than ten meters away from the camp, and you must go in pairs,” Lin Xiaodong looked at them seriously. “Immediately alert your companions with a shout if you find a stranger approaching, heard me?”

He scanned the group and suddenly his eyes focused: “Wait a minute, where is Lin Qi?”

Several children looked at each other.

“His bag is gone!” The pageboy haircut was the first to run to Lin Qi’s tent and reported to him.

“Damn it!” Lin Xiaodong understood immediately. Lin Qi was worried about being discovered for taking a mobile phone into his tent to secretly photograph the map, so he took the lead and left the team to work alone. If it were normal times, Lin Xiaodong would be too lazy to bother with him, but now is a critical moment. If he’s alone, he’ll probably…

“Mr. Ye entrusted you all to me; I’ll go find him.” After thinking for a moment, he made a decision decisively.

“I’ll go too!” The pageboy haircut and Lin Shanshan spoke up at the same time.

The pageboy haircut had been very active since entering the castle, but Lin Shanshan always managed to get ahead of him. One was a perennial second place, the other was always first. They exchanged a look and both saw defiance in each other’s eyes.

So they both looked at Lin Xiaodong at the same time, letting him make the decision.

But Lin Xiaodong was thinking about whether to break these children up.

“Without weapons, if discovered, it would be a wipeout,” he said solemnly to the system. “Those people have guns and are definitely professional mercenaries or something. Finding us is only a matter of time. So if the team is split up and act separately, maybe a few can survive.”

System: “How can you be sure those people are coming for you? It could also be an attack aimed only at Lin Pei.”

“You tell me, for those people, is there any difference between killing one and killing a dozen?” Lin Xiaodong curled his lips and showed a bitter smile. “The most important thing is, I dare not bet.”

However, judging from the fact that they only shot down one drone, indeed the focus of the attack was on Lin Pei’s side, wanting to use this trick to lure the man to disperse his main force, otherwise their side wouldn’t have remained in a peaceful state until now. Although Lin Xiaodong really wanted to go to the bus to take a look, carrying more than a dozen little kids, his heart was willing but his flesh was weak. He could only find Lin Qi first.

“I’ll go alone.” He steadied his mind and said to the pageboy haircut and Lin Shanshan, “You two stay and help me manage the team. When I’m away, everyone is entrusted to you.”

It’s not too late to consider how to break the deadlock after he finds Lin Qi.

Fortunately, they found that Lin Qi’s disappearance was not far off. Following the footprints and the map, Lin Xiaodong soon came to the place where the first red flag was planted. Now there was only a bare base left. It seemed Lin Qi had already been here.

“Further ahead is the cliff,” as they walked, the system suddenly spoke, “the place where Lin Qi pushed ‘you’ down originally.”

Lin Xiaodong’s footsteps slowed slightly. He looked up at the exit of the dense forest ahead. There was plenty of sunlight and an open view. In the distance were endless fields and villages. Who could have imagined that it would be the site of a murder?

Just because of jealousy and malice, all the future and dreams of a youth were completely buried.

“He’s in front?” He looked down at the map. A flag was indeed marked on the cliff’s location.

“Yes,” the system replied, but soon added, “but more than just him.”

Lin Xiaodong’s breathing hitched. He instantly lay down and hid behind a tree root, cursing in his heart that the system didn’t say such an important thing earlier. And when he carefully peeked out a pair of eyes, he saw a masked man in a black uniform with a gun on his waist, choking Lin Qi’s neck with one hand. Despite his desperate struggle, the man questioned him in an emotionless voice: “Where is Lin Pei?”

“Wh… I don’t, know…”

Lin Qi desperately clawed at his wrist with both hands, trying to get a breath of air. However, a face was gradually becoming purple and terrifying due to lack of oxygen, and the struggling movements also began to become soft and powerless.

“Don’t know?” the man said in a voice without any fluctuation, “Then forget it.”

He dropped Lin Qi directly down the cliff and left without looking back.

Lin Xiaodong tightly covered his mouth, hiding behind the tree root and not daring to move an inch. Fortunately, the man didn’t seem to notice there were onlookers and didn’t stay here for too long, leaving soon in another direction.

A minute later, Lin Xiaodong slowly walked out from behind the tree root.

The direction the man left was not the direction the camp was located. It seemed their main force was still at the bus, and they hadn’t found Lin Pei yet. Lin Xiaodong breathed a slight sigh of relief, walked to the edge of the cliff with a complex mood and peeked over, but was surprised to find that Lin Qi was actually still alive—

His backpack strap was caught on a protruding rock. When he saw Lin Xiaodong above his head, he immediately broke into tears and cried out loud:

“Brother, save me!”

The rock was less than half a meter away from the edge of the cliff and could be reached with a single hand. But Lin Xiaodong just knelt down and quietly looked at Lin Qi, who was shaking all over with agitation, without making a move for a long time.

“Brother, brother, I was wrong,” sensing the loosening of the backpack strap, Lin Qi’s gaze gradually became frantic and desperate. He tried his best to look up at Lin Xiaodong above him, abandoning all self-esteem and begging him wildly, not even knowing what he was saying himself, “I know I’m a scoundrel, I’m the ungrateful one, our whole family let you down, really brother, please, save me… I want to live…”

“I’ll go back and tell my parents to return all the property to you! The house and the car will all be given to you—ah!”

Because his body suddenly slipped, he let out a terrified, high-pitched scream that had lost its tone from his throat.

Just when Lin Qi was about to fall into complete despair, a hand grabbed his backpack strap and pulled him up with a jerk.

“Cough… cough cough, brother, I…” At the moment his feet stepped on solid ground, Lin Qi’s legs went soft. He knelt in front of Lin Xiaodong with a thud, clutching his throat, which had been choked purple, and coughed desperately. Tears and snot were all smeared on his face, looking quite pathetic.

“Ding, Good Person Card +1.”

Lin Xiaodong said nothing, just glanced down at him and prepared to leave.

—But at the moment he turned around, the sound of a sharp blade cutting through the air came from behind.

Sure enough, he sighed in his heart.

Lin Qi, with red eyes, tightly held the Swiss Army knife in his hand and stabbed viciously towards Lin Xiaodong’s side, truly without leaving any shred of sentiment. However, the youth in front of him seemed to have eyes in the back of his head. He stepped aside a step ahead, caught his wrist with a backhand, and performed a clean and neat shoulder throw. Lin Qi gave a loud cry, the army knife in his hand fell to the ground instantly, and his body, which had lost its balance, rolled towards the edge of the cliff again.

He quickly grabbed a vine. However, this time, no one would come to save him anymore.

“Lin Qi,” Lin Xiaodong stood at the edge of the cliff looking down at him, calmly looking at him, “I know, you are only fourteen years old and still a child.”

Lin Qi nodded desperately, still thinking of surviving by begging like last time. but Lin Xiaodong curled his lips and showed him a smile that was no less than a devil’s in Lin Qi’s eyes at this moment:

“So, I gave you a chance.”

“But only once.”

This time, he never looked back again.

After walking about five hundred meters, the system told him: “Lin Qi fell down.”

Lin Xiaodong responded nonchalantly, without any fluctuation in his heart.

With the height of that cliff, even if Lin Qi didn’t die after falling, he would be a quadriplegic for the rest of his life. It would be better to die quickly.

But, a person who does many unrighteous deeds is bound to kill himself. This was brought upon by himself, no one else could be blamed.

“Who!?”

After seeing a figure, the children in the camp were in an uproar. The pageboy haircut immediately ordered everyone to be ready to retreat at any time. However, Lin Xiaodong’s appearance immediately swept away the tense atmosphere in the camp. Everyone couldn’t help cheering and surrounded him.

“Keep it down, shh.” Lin Xiaodong quickly told about his encounter with the masked man, but omitted the thing about Lin Qi in the middle, only saying he was taken away.

“Then what should we do now?” a boy asked worriedly.

“I found a village nearby. Just keep heading north and you’ll reach it.” Lin Xiaodong said, “Lin Shanshan, you have the best sense of direction. Lead the team to the villagers’ homes quickly to call the police for help, heard me?”

But Lin Shanshan stared at him and asked: “Then what about you?”

“Me?” Lin Xiaodong smiled and reached out to ruffle the little girl’s hair.

“As for me, of course I’m going to be a hero saving a beauty.”

Until he finally persuaded Lin Shanshan to lead the large group away, Lin Xiaodong wiped the sweat from his forehead and said helplessly: “Little girls nowadays are really not easy to fool.”

System: “…I think this probably has nothing to do with little girls.”

It still didn’t understand what Lin Xiaodong meant by “hero saving a beauty” just now, but the youth questioned very seriously back: Lin Pei is good-looking, physically weak, and has a large amount of “dowry.” If he’s not considered a beauty, who else is?

System: “I can only say, I admire your courage to say the word ‘dowry’.”

In ancient times there was a greedy snake swallowing an elephant, today there is Lin Xiaodong’s insatiable greed swallowing… cough cough, the following content is not suitable for children, better not to say.

Lin Xiaodong, walking in the dense forest, suddenly felt a chill.

He questioned the system: “Did you just say something bad about me?”

“No.” The system immediately denied it and quickly changed the subject, “There’s someone in the two o’clock direction ahead of you, be careful.”

The effect was very productive. Lin Xiaodong’s attention was indeed distracted by its words.

“Lin Pei!?”

Looking at Lin Pei, who was surrounded by a group of masked mercenaries sitting in a wheelchair with an indifferent expression, he took a deep breath.

This is truly the worst situation. Lin Xiaodong bit his lower lip, turning his brain desperately, thinking of a way to break the deadlock. but now there was only him here, and Lin Pei was still in a wheelchair. Without helpers, wanting to take the man out of the encirclement and escape was simply a dream.

“Not a dream,” the system said suddenly, “don’t forget, you still have me.”

Lin Xiaodong was stunned, and then his eyes lit up.

“Right, system mall!”

Worried that there was still a drone monitoring overhead, in order to not have the system’s existence discovered, Lin Xiaodong followed the system’s instructions and slowly moved the backpack on his back to the front, and his right hand reached into the zipper—sure enough, his fingertips touched a cold and hard object.

“Close your eyes!”

He suddenly stood up and said with his mouth shape to Lin Pei, who suddenly looked up towards here, then before those people turned around and shot him full of holes, he used all his strength to throw an object down.

In the blink of an eye, a cluster of dazzling light like the sun lit up in the forest.

This was a flashbang Lin Xiaodong exchanged from the system using points from the previous world. The system is indeed a first-generation disciple who has deeply learned his stinginess, and even used its silver tongue to help Lin Xiaodong get a 15% discount, with a pair of 9.9 free-shipping sunglasses as a gift.

Lin Pei’s reaction was also very fast. At the moment he saw Lin Xiaodong stand up, he decisively rolled to the ground and used the remote control to drive the wheelchair rampaging through the crowd. These mercenaries were not professionals from the battlefield after all. In a situation where they couldn’t see anything, they didn’t dare to fire even if they heard sounds, afraid of accidentally hurting their companions around them.

Although the Fang family gave them enough money to assassinate Lin Pei, that kind of desperate person who doesn’t even put their own life in their heart was not that easy to find.

And Lin Xiaodong took this opportunity, put on sunglasses, dove down all the way from the slope, threw Lin Pei on his back and ran.

Although the man was tall, his weight was lighter than he expected. In the panic, Lin Xiaodong didn’t bother to care about directions. Anyway, he just sprinted in one direction. The physical exercises of these days played a huge role. Until the people behind were all thrown out of sight, Lin Xiaodong panted and slowed his steps, having time to stop and check on Lin Pei’s condition.

“Are you okay?” he turned his head and asked the man who for some reason seemed unusually quiet, his tone a bit worried, “Are you injured somewhere?”

Lin Pei shook his head in silence.

“What about the other children?” he asked in a hoarse voice.

“I told them to go to the village below to report to the police first. The police should arrive soon, don’t worry.” Lin Xiaodong looked at his gloomy face and after all didn’t dare to ask how Ye Shiyuan and the others were.

He thought for a while and changed to another question: “Who on earth are these people?”

“People hired by the Fang family,” Lin Pei said briefly, “don’t stop, keep going into the forest.”

Lin Xiaodong looked at the deep twilight in the distance and then looked at the unfathomable dense forest in front, and was momentarily hesitant.

“Scared?” Lin Pei looked at the hesitation on the youth’s face and instinctively softened his voice.

He shook his head: “It’s not that I’m scared, it’s just that I’m worried that if I encounter some beast in this deep mountain and old forest, I won’t have the ability to protect you.” Although saying so, Lin Xiaodong also knew that now was not the time to delay, so he braced himself and continued to walk forward carrying Lin Pei on his back.

But after he finished this sentence, the man on his back didn’t make a sound for a long time.

Hot breath brushed past the side of his neck. Lin Xiaodong shrunk his neck somewhat uncomfortably. Seeing a slightly flat large rock not far ahead, he placed the man on it and also slumped beside Lin Pei, letting out a long sigh.

Being able to run so far carrying a big man, he thought with tears in his eyes, Lin Xiaodong, you’ve done well!

Night fell, starry fireflies floated in the forest, and the gurgling stream water and insect chirping rose and fell in his ears.

Lin Xiaodong found a tree hole that could accommodate two people as a place to stay tonight, but he didn’t dare to start a fire. Fortunately, the bottle he carried still contained half a bottle of drinking water. He drank a little himself and then handed the bottle to Lin Pei.

The man took it but didn’t drink.

“If,” in the darkness, Lin Pei’s low voice sounded in his ear, “if discovered by them again, remember not to be like today again.”

“Like what today?” Lin Xiaodong was absent-mindedly playing with a foolish firefly that walked into his trap, and even intentionally blew a breath at the firefly’s wings, making it mistakenly think it had encountered a strong wind.

Lin Pei squeezed the plastic bottle in his hand.

“Lin Xiaodong, can you not understand what I say?” he said with suppressed anger, “Do you know how dangerous the situation was today? Those people had guns in their hands! I… cough cough cough!”

He spoke too fast and couldn’t help coughing.

“Look at you, all like this, just say a few words less.” The youth turned his head helplessly and moved closer to Lin Pei again.

The space in the tree hole was narrow. They were already squeezed together knee to knee. Lin Pei only had a thin blanket on him that was better than nothing, but because of this warm young body beside him, he didn’t feel cold at all.

He even felt hot, too hot.

Lin Pei didn’t ask where the flashbang in Lin Xiaodong’s hand came from. He only saw that when he was in crisis, the youth risked his life without hesitation to stand up. When being carried on his back to escape, a radical thought even popped up in Lin Pei’s mind—

If today was his death date, then he would die without regrets.

And when Lin Pei finally came back to his senses, he was shocked to find that Lin Xiaodong had already rolled up his trouser legs at some point and started to move his hands up and down on his sensationless legs.

“What are you doing!”

Faced with the man’s seemingly shocked and angry but actually flustered and helpless questioning, Lin Xiaodong’s movements on his hands still didn’t stop.

“Mr. Ye said that you used to ask someone to massage your legs every night when you were in the castle,” he said without looking up, thinking Lin Pei felt his dignity was offended, “Now is a critical period. My technique is not professional, just bear with it.”

That was not the reason at all!

Lin Pei clenched his fists, his chest heaving violently. One hand originally wanted to grab the youth’s shoulder to stop him, but then as if being wary of something, didn’t dare to apply force, even his five fingers were trembling slightly.

Finally, Lin Pei had to admit—

He simply couldn’t push Lin Xiaodong away.

The man thought bitterly in his heart. He coveted this warmth, and even when seeing Lin Xiaodong bowing his head and seriously massaging for him, he felt a deep sense of satisfaction from the bottom of his heart.

This sense of satisfaction even surpassed all the admirable achievements, wealth, and power he had obtained in the first half of his life.

Using the deep night as cover, Lin Pei’s Adam’s apple rolled slightly, and the hand placed on the youth’s shoulder slid down carefully, finally turning into a somewhat awkward hug.

“A bit cold,” he whispered, his voice with a hint of caution.

The man’s pitch-black eyes stared unblinkingly at the expression on Lin Xiaodong’s face, with countless complex emotions surging in his eyes—greed, attachment, focus, desire… but finally they all returned to calm, like a seasoned hunter waiting patiently for the prey to take the bait.

Lin Xiaodong, however, took it for real.

He thought for a while, wrapped the two of them together with the only remaining thin blanket, and then put Lin Pei’s hand in his own bosom and rubbed it hard.

“Still cold?”

“…Hmm.”

The man’s voice, for some reason, sounded strangely hoarse.

“What to do then…” Lin Xiaodong was worried.

Hypothermia at night can kill people, not to mention with Lin Pei’s constitution, the conditions here are so poor, if he wakes up with a fever, it’ll be over.

“I heard that in the case of having a quilt, sleeping naked preserves heat more than sleeping with clothes on,” out of helplessness, he could only think of such a way. The youth pursed his lips and asked tentatively, “Then how about, I take off a few pieces, and you hold me to sleep?”