The First Order

When Jiang Wu started their campfire, all of the students gathered around for warmth. Their bodies had gotten so cold their fingers and toes were freezing!

All of a sudden, two middle-aged men stood up and walked over to Ren Xiaosu’s group. But before they could get near them, Xiaoyu had already given them a cold “no” in response.

The two middle-aged men resentfully returned to where they came from, wondering why there was such a great difference in their attitude towards men and women.

“Big Sister Xiaoyu is quite assertive,” Yan Liuyuan said with a smile. He mimicked Big Sister Xiaoyu’s tone and said coldly, “No!”

“What do you know?” Xiaoyu smiled and rolled her eyes at him. “That teacher named Jiang Wu seems rather nice and is a good person. The two men had the cheek to wait for a woman to set an example for them before they came forward to ask for help? They’re such failures as men. Besides, Jiang Wu had been trying for so long to start a fire by hand drilling wood. She only came to borrow our fire when she was left with no choice. As for the others, they only know to receive the fruits of our labor and don’t even want to put in any effort for their survival!”

When Xiaoyu said this, she purposely raised her voice. The group of men around her were incredibly embarrassed. Then she smiled at Ren Xiaosu and said, “I only dared to speak louder because you’re around. So, what do you think of that girl?”

Ren Xiaosu was mystified. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“Stop playing dumb.” Xiaoyu giggled. “Although she looks a little older than you, a mature wife ensures a joyful life. As long as she’s a good person, that’s good enough.”

“Alright, alright, Big Sister Xiaoyu.” Ren Xiaosu did not know whether to laugh or cry. “Just eat already.”

currently, Jiang Wu was sitting around the campfire with her students. She comforted them, “Everyone, sleep tight tonight. I have a hairpin you guys can use to burst the blisters on your feet before you sleep.”

All of the students fell silent. A female student lowered her head and said, “Thank you, Teacher. Actually, you don’t have to do all these things for us. We’re no longer at school.”

“What are you saying?” Jiang Wu interrupted. “I’m your teacher, so I have to safely lead you guys to the stronghold.”

“Teacher, I miss home….”

“I miss my parents so much, I wonder where they are now….”

The students began crying as they continued. It wasn’t until this moment that their grief from the disaster was finally let out.

When someone starts crying, the people around them also start crying. It’s contagious.

The people who had escaped from the stronghold were all crying, and everyone could not help but feel sad. They had really lost everything.

Only Ren Xiaosu and company were sitting among the crowd of crying people with dumbfounded looks on their faces.

“Bro, should we be crying too?” Yan Liuyuan asked meekly as he looked around him.

“It’s alright, we don’t have to cry,” Ren Xiaosu said in a speechless manner.

Suddenly, footsteps and some voices came from the way that they had come from.

They heard someone over there shout, “Look, there’s the glow of fire. There must be survivors!”

Ren Xiaosu turned around and was surprised to see a young man running towards them with several dozen people. The young man shouted excitedly, “See, what did I tell y’all? I said I would bring all of you to the others, didn’t I?”

Ren Xiaosu was a little puzzled. This group of people must also have escaped from the stronghold, right? Why had they only just caught up?

When the young man came to the larger group, someone asked, “Did you guys escape from the stronghold as well? I remember that those behind us had been prevented from escaping by those strange bugs, right?”

A person answered, “It was all thanks to Chen Wudi. He was the one who helped open a path so we could escape. Oh yeah, he’s a supernatural being!”

The young man whose name was Chen Wudi said happily, “That was something I should do. The Great Sage Equal to Heaven shall subdue all demons and monsters to protect the people!”

Ren Xiaosu thought to himself, ‘What the hell!’ He took a better look and felt Chen Wudi’s attire looked a little strange. There were some words written on the chest area of the blue and white striped clothing he was wearing: Stronghold 113 No. 3 Psychiatric Hospital.

‘What? This person is a mental patient?’

Ren Xiaosu had heard of the title “Great Sage Equal to Heaven” before.

There used to be a set of books at the school called Journey to the West that students could borrow. There was also a bar that operated before alcohol was prohibited. The storyteller in the bar loved telling stories of Zhao Zilong of the Three Kingdoms, who charged through Cao Cao’s army seven times at the Battle of Changban ¹ , and also of the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, Sun Wukong, who wreaked havoc in the Heavenly Palace.

Zhang Jinglin had said they were part of the Four Great Classical Novels and were treasures of mankind. There were also two novels named Dream of the Red Chamber and Water Margin. But the storyteller had never once narrated Dream of the Red Chamber.

Someone once asked the storyteller why he never narrated Dream of the Red Chamber. The storyteller smiled and said it was because he didn’t find it exciting enough to tell the story.

Some years back, Ren Xiaosu liked to bring Yan Liuyuan along to listen to the stories. But when alcohol became prohibited, life became more difficult as well. As they did not know where the storyteller had gone, they could not listen to the stories anymore.

At this moment, someone whispered to a person standing beside Chen Wudi, “Did he escape from the asylum? Isn’t he one of those people the Qing Consortium captured some time ago?”

The man beside Chen Wudi whispered, “I’m afraid that it might be the case. He’s a supernatural being who can materialize a staff in his hand. In fact, he’s really powerful too. But he keeps insisting that he is the reincarnation of the Great Sage. We don’t know whether that is true or not.”

Honestly, they would have regarded Chen Wudi as just a patient with a paranoia if he wasn’t a supernatural being. But it was different now as some people, in their daze, actually started to believe a little of what Chen Wudi was saying. But of course, they were also skeptical.

Ren Xiaosu looked at Chen Wudi with curiosity as he was now extremely interested in everything related to supernatural beings. But as Chen Wudi’s gaze swept through the crowd, his expression changed when he saw Ren Xiaosu. His eyes seemed to overflow with exhilaration!

“Make way! Make way!” Chen Wudi squeezed through the crowd as he walked over to Ren Xiaosu.

Ren Xiaosu got an ominous feeling about this. Yan Liuyuan asked in a whisper, “Bro, do you know him?”

“No!” Ren Xiaosu said in puzzlement.

Chen Wudi was approaching Ren Xiaosu. Finally, he stopped when he came before Ren Xiaosu and looked at him with piercing eyes.

“Master!” Chen Wudi surprisingly said.

Ren Xiaosu had no response. ‘What the hell?!’

Chen Wudi turned around and shouted to those who were with him, “I found my master. Y’all take care of yourselves! I’ll be escorting him to the Western Paradise on a pilgrimage to obtain the Buddhist scriptures!”

Everyone watching was speechless.

Wang Fugui was next to them and started laughing like mad. Even though he could not understand what was going on, he felt an inexplicable joy when he saw Ren Xiaosu’s shocked expression.

But at this moment, Chen Wudi turned his head to Wang Fugui and said, “Pigsy, what are you laughing at?”

Wang Fugui stopped laughing.

Chen Wudi ignored him and went on to look at Wang Dalong. Then he said with a smile, “Friar Sand, you’re here too? That’s great!”

Wang Dalong was confused and suddenly felt that his relationship with his father seemed to have changed. Originally, they were father and son. But it had turned into a relationship of fellow disciples.

“What the hell?” Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt a little melancholic. Did he really have to go to the Western Paradise to obtain the Buddhist scriptures?!

The turning points in life were always unexpected.