Volume 8: A Trip to the Sick Village Chapter 347: Who to Live For
"I'm going to find him." said Asano Akira.
"Are you going to the 'Sick Village' to find him?" Ke Lan confirmed with Asano Akira.
"Yeah." Asano Akira nodded.
"The 'Sick Village' is not as simple as you think." At this time, Ivan suddenly interrupted, "Four years ago, a colleague of mine who had a good relationship with me followed a mining company's supply ship to the 'Sick Village' to study radiation sickness..."
"And then?" Layton couldn't help but ask.
"He hasn't come back yet, and there's no news from him." Ivan said in a deep voice, "It's as if he disappeared from the face of the earth."
"Hiss...he wouldn't..." Leighton hesitated.
"I'm not sure." Ivan shook his head and said, "I'm just reminding you... Also, if you decide to go, take me with you."
"No matter what, there are always people living there... No matter how dangerous it is, can it be as dangerous as the ruins?" The Hound said, "Don't worry, Asano, brother. Once we have dealt with things here, we will go with you to find that person."
"Yeah." Ke Lan also nodded, "Let's solve the current problem first."
Chi Hanfeng has been taken away by the soldiers. With the dual protection of the army and the Security Bureau, at least his personal safety can be guaranteed. As for the other staff members of the Dark Crow Club, they have all been controlled and the final result can only be known after a detailed investigation and questioning.
Of course, these things are no longer important to Ke Lan and the others. Mann is dead, and the mystery between Valentina and Chi Hanfeng has been solved... However, when Ke Lan shifted his gaze back to Valentina, he found that she seemed to have lost her soul. She stood there stupidly, not moving, looking at the bloodstains left on the sofa and carpet.
"Valentina?" Ke Lan walked over and tried to call her, but got no response.
"She... seems a little bit abnormal..." Ye Yan said cautiously.
"I know." Ke Lan nodded, took another step closer and grabbed Valentina's arm. She did not resist, so Ke Lan simply took the opportunity to pull her out of the private room. During the pulling process, her eyes never moved away from the pool of blood.
Not until the bloodstain disappeared from sight did Valentina's body tremble violently. She looked at Ke Lan blankly, then slowly squatted down against the wall.
"Do you feel confused?" Ke Lan simply sat down cross-legged in front of her. "The feeling of revenge is not as satisfying as you imagined, right?"
Valentina shook her head, then nodded hesitantly.
Ke Lan waved to the Hound, who immediately understood his meaning, took out a cigarette from his pocket, lit it and handed it to him.
Ke Lan passed the cigarette to Valentina. She was stunned at first, then took it and took a deep puff.
“Thank you, thank you… cough cough cough…”
"Smoke slowly, this is the last one. After this one, you should quit smoking. A very good doctor will come to our place in a while. I will ask her to help you recuperate and find a way to deal with your old injuries and sequelae... You think you won't live long, that's because you have never received systematic medical treatment. Although it is very expensive, we have made a lot of money from this competition." Ke Lan said.
And this doctor was naturally Sakurai Na, who begged and pleaded to join the God Hunter Group that day.
Valentina was stunned, and she didn't even feel the cigarette butt burning her fingers - after years of fighting pain, her pain nerves had become extremely dull, and the pain that was unbearable for most people was just enough to make her frown.
"I... I don't know..."
"Don't know what?" Ke Lan stood up.
"I don't know... who I'm going to live for in the rest of my life... My only wish has been fulfilled. Although I didn't kill him with my own hands... but... I have no goals anymore..."
Valentina paused, lowered her voice and said, "Life is too torturous... I don't know what's the point of living for someone like me..."
"Idiot." Ke Lan cursed mercilessly and kicked Valentina to the ground. "According to the usual chicken soup literature or life mentors, I should tell you at this time that people should live for themselves, but I know that if I tell you this now, you won't listen and won't understand at all, so I might as well just--"
Ke Lan extended her hand to Valentina who was lying on the ground: "You live to help those 142 people experience a life they have never experienced before, do you understand? Among them, 141 people have died, and the remaining one is still in prison waiting for you to get him out in the future."
Valentina's lips opened slightly, and there was a hint of surprise in her blank eyes.
"Would you like to join the God Hunters? If we make any significant discoveries in the ruins in the future, we might be able to use this as a bargaining chip to trade Major Chi out of prison... After all, he didn't commit any heinous crime... He just killed someone who deserved to be killed."
"No one is here to help you make the choice now. Everything is up to you to decide." Ke Lan said, looking straight into Valentina's eyes.
"I... will join you." Valentina held the hand that Ke Lan extended, and the latter pulled her up from the ground with force.
"Ke Lan is right. We must find a way to get Lao Chi out later." The Hound said, "We can't let him stay in prison until he dies."
"The biggest resistance to rescuing him will probably come from the Adams family. After all, Mann is the only son of old Adams...Now that he has been beaten to death by Major Chi, the Adams family can only retaliate against him. I have already talked to General Maginot. Major Chi will be jointly detained by the Security Bureau and the field forces. It's called detention, but in fact it's to protect him to prevent the Adams family from attacking him in prison." Ke Lan said.
At this time, Zofia suddenly walked behind Ke Lan, took one of Ke Lan's arms, and said in his ear: "Maybe the Adams Family will not take revenge at all."
"Why?" Ke Lan looked at Sofia with some curiosity, and didn't even realize that Sofia's entire upper body was leaning on his arms... This posture, from the perspective of others, was extremely ambiguous. Valentina, who was closest to the two of them, even took a few steps back and looked away awkwardly.
As for the hound guy, he patted Layton and Ivan's buttocks and showed a somewhat obscene smile.
"What's going on? We were just talking about business. Why did Miss Soma suddenly get into Ke Lan's arms?" Zhuo Ligetu scratched his head in confusion. "This... this is in the corridor. Isn't this bad?"
"What's wrong with that?" The Hound glanced at him and said, "Everyone else has left anyway, so let's get away as well. I don't want to be a shining light bulb."
Several people tiptoed away from Ke Lan, only Ke Lan herself was still thinking about why the Adams family would not take revenge.
"Do you know how old old Adams is now?" Zofia did not wear high heels today, but chose a pair of flat Martin boots, so that her cheek could rest on Ke Lan's shoulder.
"How old?" Ke Lan asked. The Adams family's influence is basically in the military, and they are not well-known in the business world, so Ke Lan knows very little about this family.
"He's ninety-seven years old. Mann was born to his fourth wife when he was in his fifties, so he was considered a late-born child. That's why old Adams doted on his son so much... And now that Mann is dead, who do you think will be in charge of the Adams Family?"
"I don't know who it could be, but if you say so, it definitely can't be old Adams." Ke Lan thought.
"That's right. Old Adams could only rely on the medical cabin to sustain his life a year and a half ago, and he was awake less and less every day... If Mann hadn't died, it would not be long before the power of the Adams Family would fall into his hands. But now that he is dead, the happiest people are naturally his uncles and cousins... They can't even thank Major Chi enough, so how could they take revenge on him?"
"That's true." Ke Lan nodded in agreement.
If this happened to another family, no matter how happy those who benefited from Mann's death were, they would still have to put on a show... After all, blood is thicker than water. In name, the deceased was a member of their clan, and Chi Hanfeng was just an outsider.
A member of the family was killed by an outsider. No matter how fierce the competition within the family was, it was reasonable to avenge this vengeance...
However, now that the whole thing has been made public, Mann's reputation has been completely ruined. These people are already too busy trying to distance themselves from him, so how could they possibly avenge him...
As for the only person who was willing to avenge Mann…his father, Old Adams, probably didn’t even know that his son was beaten to death…
"This saves a lot of trouble. Hey, where are they?" Ke Lan noticed at this time that there were only himself and Sofia left in the corridor.
"Maybe he went to eat?" said Sofia.
"What time is it now? Are we going to eat already? I still have something to say to them..." Ke Lan glanced at her watch. It was only four o'clock in the afternoon, and there were still more than two hours before dinner time.
"Is it urgent?"
"Well...it's not urgent. It's related to the subsequent actions..." Ke Lan said. There are still many details that need to be discussed about the trip to the sick village. Although that place is not as dangerous as the high-level ruins, based on the information Ke Lan knew, it is definitely not a good place.
"If you're not in a hurry, why don't you accompany me for a walk?" Zofia suggested. She moved closer. Ke Lan turned his head away awkwardly, not daring to look her in the eye at close range - he was still wearing an anti-gravity suit for driving a mecha. This kind of suit is basically tailor-made to fit the driver's body shape perfectly... If there was any strange reaction, Zofia would discover it instantly.
"Uh... where should we go? On the ship?" Ke Lan asked. Although the interior of the "Zulong" super airship was very large, most of the cabins were identical, and there were only a handful of entertainment options available to passengers. Ke Lan really couldn't think of what was interesting to see on this ship.
"No, I want to go downstairs," Sofia said softly.
"Down there? The abandoned sandstone city?"
"Well, I've never been to the ruins of the Alpha civilization." The closest she had been to the ruins was probably when she was on the "Pioneer", but to be precise , Ke Lan didn't know how far the underwater city was from the Pioneer at that time - the ruins seemed to be suspended under the sea, but also seemed to be hidden in another space.
"Ruins...what's so good about it? Besides, the ruins have already turned into ruins, and the valuable things inside have long been taken away by hunters and exploration teams..." Ke Lan muttered.
"Have you heard of the ruins of the ancient city of Pompeii on Earth? Ruins have their own beauty. Every weathered rock and every collapsed wall hides a unique story... I once thought that if I was not born into the Soma family, I might have chosen to become a relic hunter."
"Ruins hunters are not archaeologists, nor are they writers or artists... This industry is not as romantic as you describe." Ke Lan glanced at Zofia and said slowly, "We are tomb robbers, scavengers, robbers, thieves, and robbers... Hunters will not appreciate the beauty of ruins. We only want to save our own lives and take away as many valuable things as possible from the ruins..."
"It's normal for people in the upper class to look down on us." Ke Lan did not sigh, but spoke in a narrative tone. He remembered the look in Lu Che's eyes when he looked at him before. It was a prejudice hidden in the subconscious, just like the expression a person with mysophobia would subconsciously have when seeing a ragged beggar on the street.
If it were in the past, Ke Lan might have been a little angry, but for some reason, now he felt a little funny and didn't feel any anger at all.
The elite class at the top, the relic hunters at the bottom...even the poor miners at the bottom who are suffering from radiation sickness...
They are nothing but bugs in the eyes of another civilization.
Whether it is an insignificant worker ant or the queen ant that rules the entire ant colony, for humans, it is just a matter of stepping on it...
"What's wrong with you?" Zofia stretched out her hand and waved it in front of Ke Lan's eyes. "Do you think I look down on you? Then why would I choose you?"
"Yeah, I haven't figured it out either." Ke Lan said after coming back to his senses from his trance. His eyes swept over Sofia's body... He suddenly felt very upset inside, so he simply stopped thinking about anything, hugged Sofia, and with a "bang", pressed her against the wall of the corridor.
"Huh?" Faced with Ke Lan's sudden "attack", Sofia did not resist, nor did she show any panic. She just looked at Ke Lan with some curiosity, then stretched out her arms and hugged his waist and back tightly.
"I can't figure it out, so I just don't think about it anymore." Ke Lan replied.
