Chapter 746: The Story of Ling and Heng (9)
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Dawn broke too soon and night fell.
There was a merry scene at Los Angeles’ night, but Feng Ling felt clear that she didn’t fit into this world.
She was not hungry because she grilled some fish on the river bank. She didn’t usually eat much, and the food would last her for at least a day. But now walking on the streets of Los Angeles and looking at all kinds of people, she suddenly realized that she had grown up in a different environment.
If she wanted to survive, she should either go back to the jungle or go back to a place that was not much different from the way she had lived in previous years, but she knew exactly how vicious those gangsters were. She stayed with them, because she had to eat, to survive, and to avoid being beaten. But now, which way should she go?
——
Half a year later.
In the mountains west of Los Angeles, several explosions and gunshots were heard and frightened birds flew from the trees.
For the past six months, Feng Ling had been used to going to the woods at night to find food and then to find a cave to live in. During the day, she would go to the city to find her own way out. Although she was tired of eating the fish and animals, she had no thought of robbing people. She even had no concept of money. Even if she grabbed some money, she would only use it to buy food and have nowhere to spend it, so she might as well find something to eat herself.
Early in the morning, Feng Ling heard the sound of gunfire outside. She opened her eyes and looked out at the smoke that was faintly visible in the air. The place was a long way from downtown Los Angeles and was often a favorite haunt of gangsters, as well as the police for military exercises. But the smoke didn’t look like a mere exercise. There must be a shootout here.
Feng Ling caught the distinct smell of gunpowder and followed it, but now and then she slowed down as she saw the blood among the bushes and leaves in the woods, and looked around for any tracks or sound.
As she walked, she suddenly noticed something. She was about to move aside when her foot was suddenly gripped by a bloody hand.
She frowned, looked down sharply at the young man lying in the bushes and covered in blood, and then coldly at his hand on her ankle. Her eyes were full of killing intents.
“Don’t go there… It’s dangerous… ahead…” However, the man lying on the ground covered in blood said so in a hoarse, low voice.
The killing intent in Feng Ling’s eyes dissipated. She glanced at the man who seemed to be badly wounded, easily waved his hand off her ankle, and was about to go ahead quietly.
“A hundred meters away in the soil there is a recently planted small bomb. Don’t pass.” The man said again in a low voice, for he had been badly wounded and had lost too much blood.
Feng Ling looked back at him and saw a gun at his waist. She turned back and crouched down to get the gun down. The young man who was covered in blood frowned at once and looked at her defensively. Seeing that she was so young but her eyes were cold as if she didn’t belong to the world, he frowned. “What do you want?”
“I’ll save you on the condition that you give me the gun.” Feng Ling said simply and clearly. When he frowned and was about to say something more, she had quickly taken the gun from his waist and walked forward.
Before the young man on the ground could see her steps clearly, she had jumped onto a tree in the blink of an eye. She dodged the bombs and mines buried in the ground and made her way straight to the front.
The young man was badly wounded, but XI Base had a rule that their guns must be in their own hands, and no bullet from XI Base should be used by any enemy or inconsequential person.
But he couldn’t get up after trying for a long time.
After about ten minutes, he vaguely heard a few gunshots, then silence, and then the rustling of leaves. He opened his eyes slowly and a little feebly, and saw, in a blur of blood, the tall, thin boy coming back and standing in front of him in his black muddy and bloody boots.
“Did you get hurt in an ambush?” asked Feng Ling.
Seeing her come back, the man on the ground immediately answered, “Yes.”
“Your gun is good. Give it to me.” She was not asking him, for she had already solved several gangsters who had set up the ambush, and she thought it was the reward and price he should pay.
The man on the ground understood her meaning. Her request was not unreasonable, but he couldn’t break the rule of XI Base. He frowned and looked up at her.
“You can keep my gun if you want it, but there’s a rule in our place that no one who isn’t a member of us can use our gun. Otherwise, if I’ll go back here empty-handed, I’ll also die because I broke the rule. Then your efforts will go vain.”
Feng Ling didn’t quite understand his words, but she looked at the bloodstains his body and asked, “Can you walk?”
The man on the ground nodded. “I’m fine. I can’t die. I just lost a lot of blood and won’t have any problem after resting for a few hours.”
Feng Ling looked at him again coldly. She did not recognize the mark engraved on the butt of the gun in her hand but only knew that this gun was the handiest one she had ever used in her life. She wondered where ‘their place’ the man had just said about was.
This big city was not suitable for her to survive, and she, a normal person, couldn’t really go back to live in the jungle.
It would be better to see the place he said on the ground that she had saved him.
Feng Ling looked at the man on the ground and asked flatly, “What’s your name?”
“My name is K.” The man on the ground swallowed the blood in his mouth, raised his head with difficulty to look at the boy with clear, cold eyes, and gave him a grateful smile. “What about you? What’s your name?”
“Feng Ling.”
——
When she was brought into the XI Base by K, at first, she felt that this place looked like an important hidden military training base, but K took her to the base through the back door, so she didn’t see the XI Base sign at the front door.
When she was formally taken in, she found from the conversation between K and the others that this place was that damn XI Base whose boss was Li Nanheng, and she really regretted it.
She intended to leave directly, but K invited her to stay sincerely, offered to introduce her to their boss, and kept praising her martial skills to the other men. A lot of men were looking at her curiously. She could see that these men all had very good martial skills. With the skills she had learned, she had no chance to escape.
She might be able to enter XI Base aboveboard, but without a decent reason, she wouldn’t be able to escape from here.
“Hey, our boss came back!” At this time, K suddenly patted her on the arm.
Feng Ling turned her head and looked in the direction indicated by K. The tall black Hummers that she had successfully avoided six months ago were coming in this direction…