201 Escapees form cliques

By evening, it stopped snowing.

As far as could be seen, there was snow everywhere in front of them. It felt like they had ventured out into another world.

A large field mouse crawled out of the ground and scurried through the snow, looking for food. It could smell the grains while it was still in its burrow. During winter, the animal's fur had grown much denser and made this field mouse look just like a furball.

However, before it could scurry far from its burrow, Ren Xiaosu, who was hiding in the snow behind it, suddenly pounced. Having been lying in the snow for a long time, the snow that fell on him had concealed the outline of his body and his breathing.

The plump field mouse was so shocked it instantly puffed up its fur. But it was too late for it to get back to its burrow.

Nowadays, field mice in the wilderness were extremely quick. If it were the average person, it would be impossible for them to catch it. However, a dagger came stabbing at the field mouse as though it knew beforehand where it was going, pinning the field mouse dead to the ground on the path leading back to its burrow.

Cheers broke out in the distance. Jiang Wu and her students were rubbing their hands in the cold weather and cheering with joy. They were going to have meat for dinner again tonight!

Ren Xiaosu walked over holding the field mouse by its leg. "It takes patience to hunt in the wilderness. The wild animals these days have become smarter. They won't fall for it if you just place some bait out there. If you do not have more patience than them, you'll end up going hungry."

It had just stopped snowing, but Ren Xiaosu had lain in the snow for several hours. Although he and Chen Wudi could go out to hunt for wild boars instead, that would not be a suitable hunting method to teach these students.

Ren Xiaosu's main purpose was still to teach and… earn their gratitude tokens.

After Ren Xiaosu finished sharing his experience, the students quickly thanked him with smiles on their faces. In just the short span of a day, Ren Xiaosu had gained more than 400 gratitude tokens by relying on the idolatry of these students.

He had always been trying his best to gain as many gratitude tokens as he could ever since he was assigned the side quest. In the end, Ren Xiaosu discovered that students were still the more gullible ones.

Ren Xiaosu had been worried that Jiang Wu had brought along too many students and it would delay their escape. But now he felt she had brought along too few students, resulting in him unable to earn more gratitude tokens at a faster rate.

Ren Xiaosu would patiently go out and teach the students how to hunt, set up traps, and raid squirrel nests every day. With everyone so well-fed during the escape, they looked much healthier, with rosy glows on their faces.

As he led the students back to their campsite, he said, "If you manage to find a squirrel nest during winter, it's a really great harvest. It's filled with all kinds of food that the squirrel has stockpiled for winter, so it'll definitely be enough to last you several meals at least. Furthermore, there isn't any worry of being poisoned by food that a squirrel would eat."

One of the students asked, "If we clear out the squirrel's food, how is the squirrel supposed to survive through the winter?"

Ren Xiaosu comforted, "If you just eat the squirrel as well, it won't have to survive through the winter."

When the students heard that, it made sense to them.

When Jiang Wu, who was slowly following them, heard how Ren Xiaosu was teaching her students, she was a little conflicted.

At the campsite, Yan Liuyuan and company had already set up a campfire. Meanwhile, the students were carrying more firewood over. With the fire able to burn for longer, they wouldn't have to feel so cold tonight.

The large group of escapees set up their campsite not far away. Now the escapees just followed Ren Xiaosu's group wherever they went. However, they did not dare approach them. But compared to the initial number of escapees who had escaped from the stronghold, only slightly less than half of them were still able to keep up with Ren Xiaosu's group.

Xiaoyu took the dagger from Ren Xiaosu and skillfully prepared the field mouse meat. After that, she cleaned off the blood on her hands with some snow.

Yan Liuyuan whispered to Ren Xiaosu, "The escapees have already started forming cliques. Just today, I discovered some people ordering others to do their work for them while they enjoyed the fruits of their labor."

"Mhm," Ren Xiaosu grunted as he sat at the edge of the campfire and tried to make the fire burn stronger by prodding it with a stick. He added some pine twigs to the fire and heard them crackle. He said, "Ignore them. Such things can't be avoided. At the beginning of an escape, everyone will constantly be on the run. But soon after, some of the smarter and more ruthless people will start making use of others. Such is human nature."

"In the past, they could live a proper life inside the stronghold by just following the rules and working daily. There were also many types of entertainment outlets for them to spend their money on. Although they worked, they couldn't save much money. They would just repeat their lives day in, day out and have no time to think about other things," Ren Xiaosu continued. "But once they come out into the wilderness, they understand what this world is really like."

Then Ren Xiaosu sighed. "Those strongholds are like a world that the organizations have carefully designed for the residents."

Right at this moment, a fracas broke out in the escapees' group. Ren Xiaosu looked up and was surprised to see a few of the men attempting to catch a lone escapee.

That escapee broke free from their grasp and ran over to Ren Xiaosu's group.

"Bro, what should we do?" Yan Liuyuan asked.

"Let's wait and see how it turns out." Ren Xiaosu took the field mouse meat and roasted it over the fire.

The men ran over as they chased down the escapee. But halfway through, they came to a halt when they saw Ren Xiaosu, who was sitting next to the campfire.

The escapee had concealed herself very well. Although the people behind her had already stopped in their tracks, she continued running and stumbling around in the snow. Finally, she fell into the snow not far from Ren Xiaosu's group and stopped moving.

That escapee seemed to think that Ren Xiaosu's group would get alarmed by the disturbance, and someone would go over to help her up. But as it turned out, she ended up lying there for over an hour.

After some time, Chen Wudi, who was sitting at the edge of the campfire, couldn't help but say, "Master, someone's over there."

"Don't worry, she's just sleepy. Let her sleep for a while and don't disturb her," Ren Xiaosu said with a smile. The others might not know, but he could sense that the person lying in the snow had an irregular breathing rhythm.

An unconscious person wouldn't breathe that way. Furthermore, she even surreptitiously adjusted her posture just now when she apparently felt a little bit uncomfortable in that position.

A moment later, the person lying in the snow slowly got back up. She acted as though she had just regained consciousness. Then she removed the scarf on her head to reveal a beautiful face. Yan Liuyuan whispered, "It's a woman."

That woman stared blankly at Ren Xiaosu and the others. "Oh, how did I pass out here? Hello, I'm Fang Yujing."

Ren Xiaosu glanced at her. "Since you've regained consciousness, please go back to your side."

He was really not interested in a scheming person like her. Although she was beautiful, she was still not the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.

"Don't you guys know who I am?" Fang Yujing was stunned.

Everyone in Ren Xiaosu's group speechlessly looked at each other next to the campfire. Ren Xiaosu said, "You might not believe it when I say this, but we really don't know who you are…."