Strongest Worker

Li Qing's hearing is excellent. Standing more than 20 meters away, he can still hear the girl washing her body with water.

He tried to divert his thoughts from behind. He took two more steps forward. A clump of grass caught his attention. Several grass leaves were much darker than others.

Li Qing squatted down and twisted up the leaf to look at it carefully. He was finally able to determine that it was a long dried up blood.

"It's estimated to be five or six days." he sighed softly. "Fortunately, it hasn't rained recently..."

After more than ten minutes, Xinya, who was dressed again, came back. Her wet hair came down and set off her white face, looking quiet and beautiful.

The two continued to turn around, and Li Qing found bullet marks on several trees.

So far, he can finally confirm that there has been a gunfight here, and someone must have been injured. But whether anyone died is unknown.

"Go back." Li Qing said faintly, taking Xinya back to meet Du Huasheng.

Du Huasheng was lying on the ground with his face ugly and extremely weak.

"I found blood in the woods and bullet marks on the trunk."

"Yes." Du Huasheng replied dully, as if he was not interested in it at all.

Li Qing was a little confused. He was alive just now. Has he become like this in such a short time? Is it because Xinya doesn't want to stay with him, so she is devastated?

He kicked gently and asked, "what are you doing?"

Du Huasheng sat up, looked at Xinya with his head askew and said, "did you take a bath?"

Xinya blushed and nodded her head.

"Good luck." Du Huasheng glanced at Li Qing obliquely, still looking dejected, "thank you for going upstream, otherwise..."

Li Qing looked blankly: "what do you mean? Did you pee downstream?"

"That's not true." Du Huasheng raised his hand and grabbed the dirty hair. "We've drunk all the fresh water we brought, so I just drank a lot of water from the river."

"Well, then? How did you become so weak?"

Du Huasheng narrowed his eyes and asked, "don't you smell anything?"

Li Qing couldn't help but be stunned and immediately sniffed carefully: "it seems... There is a little smell, a smell, but it's not too heavy..."

Du Huasheng pointed to the river covered by dense weeds not far away and yawned lazily: "go and have a look by yourself."

The remaining two people looked at each other and walked towards the place he pointed out, where a small area had been flattened.

"Ah!" Xinya went to the riverside, stretched her little head and took a look. In an instant, she screamed and retched back.

In that river, there was a dead body, which was covered with dense leeches, which made people's scalp numb.

Li Qing suddenly changed her face and took two steps back with her teeth: "can't you say hello in advance? At least don't let Xinya see..."

"Are you satisfied?" Du Huasheng shouted angrily, "I've drunk a lot of water. Can you imagine how disgusting it is? I almost didn't spit out my stomach."

"Are you sure who it is?"

"There are only two possibilities, either Kuzhi bandits or the United Army." Du Huasheng spread his hands. "Anyway, I'm not interested in going through his things. If you have this hobby, you can come."

Li Qing looked at Xinya who had just vomited with concern and slowly shook his head: "forget it, it's good to prove that we've found the right place. As for the identity of this brother, I'm not interested in knowing."

"What bad luck." Du Huasheng sighed. "I thought it would be easier to get close to the water source, but now this situation... Really disgusting."

Li Qing silently picked out the filled bottle, looking obviously unnatural.

Du Huasheng's face eased a lot, looked at him and asked with a smile, "what did you think of?"

In this way, it is like a person who has just experienced misfortune, has not recovered from his own pain, and hurried to appreciate the suffering of others.

Li Qing held his temple with his fingers and said reluctantly, "if they really walk along this river... I can't imagine drinking water soaked by dead bodies all the way."

"People who can't see don't feel anything. Such rivers in the depths of the mountains often soak up the bodies of some wild animals. On the contrary, some people say that the water on the mountain is sweet and clear..." Du Huasheng's words are more like comforting himself. "We can only blame us for staying here and finding the body."

Li Qing picked up his canvas bag and said, "I'll load water upstream, and then we'll go."

"Hey!" Du Huasheng shouted at the top of his voice, "how can you be sure there is no body upstream?"

"Shut up!"

Loaded with clear water, the three continued to walk downstream along the river. They can't find the mountain road, but they can see many traces left by human activities. And these traces are getting newer and newer, as if they are gradually approaching the target.

That afternoon, Du Huasheng killed a hare with a dagger.

The three picked up the dry branches, gathered up the fire, sprinkled the skinned hare with salt and roasted it. While sweating, they ate a delicious meal.

After the meal, it rained cats and dogs. They can only curl up in the plastic cloth and expect the rain to pass quickly.

Suddenly, Li Qing asked, "did you hear the sound?"

"Yes." Du Huasheng rolled his eyelids. "I'm not deaf to such a loud rain. How can I not hear it?"

"No." Li Qing frowned, "there seems to be gunfire."

"Did you hear it wrong? It must be the sound of rain. Raindrops hit the leaves and banged, just like shooting..."

Before he finished, Li Qing had drilled out and rushed into the rain curtain: "wait here, I'll have a look!"

Xinya also wanted to follow, but Du Huasheng grabbed her collar and dragged her back: "little ancestor, please have a rest. That silly fork has been stunned. Are you stupid?"

"He..." Xinya shrunk her small head and asked low, "can he find that woman?"

"Ah? It's raining so hard outside. Would you please speak louder?"

Xinya pursed her small mouth and stopped talking angrily.

Li Qing did hear the gunshot.

He galloped through the dense woods and followed the direction of the sound. But after those shots, there was no other movement. When he was full of doubts and even began to doubt his hearing, he finally found a camp.

A clearing was cut out in the woods, and more than a dozen tents were scattered around. In the middle, a group of soldiers in raincoats were crowded, shouting and disorderly, like bandits.

But they soon lined up and listened to the leader's instructions in the heavy rain. Then the team disbanded and couldn't wait to get into the tent.

Li Qing observed for a while and suddenly realized it. The gunfire just heard was the secret signal for the soldiers to return to the camp after they went out to search. Due to the dense vegetation of the original deep forest, it is difficult to distinguish whether the visitor is an enemy or a friend, so we can only communicate by firing a gun. This also shows from another side that the equipment of this team is not advanced.

He didn't act rashly, but secretly withdrew to find Du Huasheng.

After turning back, the rain became smaller and smaller. Li Qing's shoes were filled with water, but his heart was full of excitement.

"I found it!"

Du Huasheng wondered, "what did you find?"

"There is a camp ahead. There are probably enough troops of a platoon."

"Are you kidding? Did you find it?"

Li Qing nodded without hesitation: "of course, what I just heard was the gunfire of them returning to the camp."

Du Huasheng saw that the dense branches and leaves on his head had basically covered the decreasing rain, so he drilled out from under the plastic cloth and raised his hand to gently rub his chin.

He looked at Li Qing, who was wet but still excited, and asked, "what do you think? What does this team do?"

"Could it be the blockade of the coalition?"

"It's very possible." Du Huasheng sighed with relief. "If it's really a blockade, our current position should also be outside."

Li Qing squatted down, picked up a branch and drew an almost shapeless circle on the muddy ground.

"If, as you said before, the coalition forces are gradually closing the defense line..." he poked the branch into the circle and then out of the circle. "Mengdie should be inside now, and we are outside. As long as you cross the blockade and enter the circle, you can find her."

Du Huasheng frowned: "throw yourself into the net?"

"This is the rear blockade line of the United Army. The main purpose is to prevent the Kuzhi sea bandits from retreating. The defense should not be too tight." Li Qing added, "after we find Mengdie, we can continue to move forward and break through pengyou according to their original plan."

"What if we don't break through? The circle will be smaller and smaller, and finally everyone will be trapped inside." Du Huasheng said with his teeth. "This is a trick to catch turtles in a jar. I don't know who came up with it. I already know that another blockade must be on the road to pengyou."

Li Qing raised his head: "if only a few of us want to escape the blockade silently, it should not be a problem."

"You have made a very serious mistake. You always think you are looking for a woman. After you find her, you can easily take people away. But have you ever thought that she exists in an armed force and is a part of it. You can't separate her from this armed force."

Li Qing understood in an instant. His previous ideas were really too optimistic, and could even be described as "childish".

If you really find Lin Mengdie, are you sure to let her leave those companions who get along day and night? What if she insists on not leaving?

This novel has been translated by www.readwn.com and if you are reading this somewhere, they have stolen our translation.