SES Chapter 86 Part 2

Yan Hongsha looked uneasy. “But… the savage doesn’t understand what we say, right?”

“We’ll go the indirect route. That woman definitely understands us. We’ll make her translate.”

Mu Dai had his doubts. “But yesterday you already stirred up trouble in her place. What if she’s run away?”

Luo Ren smiled. “Run or not, it works either way. If she runs, it means she fears me, which proves she’s not that scary. If she stays, even better—saves us the trouble of searching the whole mountain.”

After a pause, he added, “Most likely she won’t run. Yesterday, after all, I was the one who barely escaped their joint assault.”

Yan Hongsha eyed him. “And then?”

“What do you mean, ‘and then’?”

“I mean… suppose everything goes smoothly. We catch the woman, lure in the savage, rescue Cao Yanhua and Yi Wan-san. What do you plan to do with that woman afterward?”

Luo Ren shot back, “What do you plan to do?”

Yan Hongsha fell silent.

In truth, though she believed her grandfather had brought his own doom upon himself, he was still her grandfather. Deep down, she carried the seed of vengeance.

Luo Ren looked at her, smiled faintly, then turned to Mu Dai. “I know you both feel some pity for her. From a personal point of view, I do too. But the Fierce Tablet is on her body. I’m taking it.”

Mu Dai sighed softly. “If you take it, she’ll die, won’t she?”

“She can hardly be called alive right now anyway.”

“The savage won’t stand by and let it happen, will she?”

Luo Ren nodded. “Exactly. Which means we’re in for one hell of a fight.”

Mu Dai fell silent.

That woman wanted revenge. The savage wanted to protect her. They, thinking of the bigger picture, wanted to take the deadly slip. None of it could really be judged as right or wrong.

But the things they were doing, and the consequences that would follow, weren’t simple at all.

She asked Luo Wen, “Are we going to have to kill that savage?”

Luo Wen said, “I’m not sure we even can. I don’t want to—but there could be trouble down the line.”

Mu Dai said, “What if we just never set foot in this mountain again, for the rest of our lives? Wouldn’t that solve it?”

“Mu Dai, the problem with consequences is that they often don’t fall on us—they fall on others. I don’t know if it’s that woman’s influence, but I can tell the savage harbors a certain hatred toward people. And if we indirectly cause that woman’s death…”

If the woman really died, the savage would go berserk with revenge. Even if she couldn’t reach them, sooner or later someone from the nearby villages would wander into the mountains, and then—who knows? Some poor soul might end up like the old man who became Old Yan’s scapegoat, suffering disaster for no reason at all.

They checked their weapons: two machetes.

Then they carved another batch of throwing darts—useless against the savage, but they might work on the woman.

Using a machete to carve darts was clumsy. Mu Dai casually asked, “Where’s your knife?”

“That day, when I fought that woman, I think I left it stuck in her.”

Mu Dai froze, then lowered her head without saying anything. Luo Wen came over, held her hand, and said softly, “Don’t worry. You gave it to me—I’ll get it back.”

“If it’s too dangerous, forget it. It’s just a knife.”

Even as she said it, she felt a pang of regret. After all, that was the first thing she’d ever bought with her own wages.

It turned out he had bought it with that money. Luo Wen chuckled. “Now I definitely have to get it back. If I lose it, I’ll never get another gift from you again.”

Mu Dai sighed. “I’ll never understand you people. What’s the point of throwing knives, anyway?”

Knives weren’t cheap. Once thrown, most were never retrieved. The enemy would run off wounded, knife still in them—a one-and-done deal, gone for good.

Luo Wen said, “Probably just because it looks cool.”

Mu Dai glared at him. “Next time I’ll buy you a hundred cheap watermelon knives from a street stall—two bucks each. Throw as many as you like. But the one I gave you, you’re not allowed to lose.”

Luo Wen slipped an arm around her. “That knife saved my life, you know.”

Mu Dai’s eyes widened.

He pulled her into his arms. “When I told you about what happened, I left out the details—but it was really dangerous. I didn’t want to throw away your knife, but she was about to claw the top of my head open. I had no choice but to let it fly. Lucky for me, it hit her…”

Mu Dai shuddered. “Really? Why didn’t you tell me that earlier? It’s just a knife—it doesn’t cost much. I’ll buy you another one next time.”

Luo Wen laughed, and as he laughed, he felt a swell of emotion.

He lowered his head, pressing against her soft, fragrant cheek, and whispered, “Mu Dai, you’re the easiest girl in the world to win over.”

Mu Dai snorted. “That’s only because I fall for your nonsense.”