351 Dumbfounded!

Xu Jinyuan was absolutely reluctant to work, especially when it was something like digging for silt. It felt extremely degrading to him.

Seeing his companions that came with him to the settlement already starting to seriously work for the bullets, he was still hesitant and did not want to work.

Xu Jinyuan observed Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin in silence. After all, these two legendary supernatural beings were his top priority. As a low-level bandit who had just joined them, he thought it would be difficult to meet these two supernatural beings and interact with them. However, he was wrong.

Over the past few days, Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin had been working together with everyone. No matter how dirty or tired they were, they never complained once.

Xu Jinyuan was a little puzzled by this. How could they possibly be supernatural beings? So these were the specialists from Stronghold 178? How could they be this humble?

However, his pained face served as a reminder that he could not afford to offend the two.

Xu Jinyuan asked Jin Lan quietly, "Brother Jin Lan, the two of them are just putting on an act, yet y'all still believe them? The big shots are just playing a child's game here, so how can you trust them?"

Jin Lan gave him a look of disdain and said, "Our two lords are not putting on an act. We're not idiots. If they were just pretending, couldn't we tell? As for you, you only know how to laze around and not work. You're not allowed to eat the corn that's given by our fellow villagers today!"

Xu Jinyuan was speechless. What the fuck was that!

Xu Jinyuan said unhappily, "You're a fucking bandit. What're you being so proud of when all you're doing is farming?!"

Jin Lan shot him a look and sneered, "It's not disgraceful if we work hard to fill our stomachs! But it's a disgrace if all you know is how to be a lazy bum!"

Xu Jinyuan thought it over seriously. "That does make sense…" 'Wait! Who the fuck are you calling a lazy bum!'

However, Xu Jinyuan had been observing Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin for a long time. He had been spending all his energy on observing them. In the end, he realized the two of them were not pretending. They could really take the suffering.

In fact, Xu Jinyuan was starting to believe the identities of Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin. It would be great if he could really be recruited by Stronghold 178 too, but somehow he felt it was a little unreal. Besides, his other brothers to the north were still waiting for his news. What should he choose?

The people who came here with a purpose would always be more difficult to convince than the others. That was because they already had an objective from the start.

At this moment, someone shouted, "I need a few people over here. Boss said that those who help build the houses will receive 15 bullets each!"

Xu Jinyuan saw the people around him running over in an instant. Jin Lan was roaring, "Don't anyone dare fight me!"

Xu Jinyuan followed right behind and muttered, "Has everyone gone fucking crazy?"

When they reached the refugee settlement, the black bricks were piled up off to one side. However, someone said, "But where are we gonna get mortar from?"

At first, everyone thought that building a brick house only required some beams, a roof, and bricks. However, they now remembered they had forgotten to make the cement mortar.

It was available in the stronghold, but they couldn't possibly go there and buy it, right?

Nearby, Ren Xiaosu said dumbfoundedly, "Do any of you have any experience in building a house?"

The refugees and bandits shook their heads. "We've never built a brick house before. We have been living in mud huts all our lives."

Ren Xiaosu asked loudly, "Does anyone know? There'll be a reward of 20 bullets if anyone does, so if you have the know-how, please don't keep quiet!"

Everyone looked at one another. Although they really wanted to earn those 20 bullets, they really did not know how to build houses.

Suddenly, Xu Jinyuan said, "A very gooey mixture[1] of sticky rice mortar, lime, and hemp fibers can be used as an adhesive to fill the gaps between the bricks. It won't crack even after a decade or two."

Ren Xiaosu's eyes lit up. "What about the proportions? What's the ratio for each of the ingredients? Did you used to work in construction?"

"I used to build houses for the richer families in town. Y'all can source the materials first. I'll adjust the proportions later. It's not difficult to find them out here in the wastelands., Xu Jinyuan said aloofly. He was not doing this for the 20 bullets, but because he felt that these refugees were so stupid that they did not even know a simple thing like that.

Suddenly, Jin Lan walked over and thumped him on the chest. Xu Jinyuan was about to fly into a rage when Jin Lan smiled and said, "Great one, bro! Awesome!"

Ren Xiaosu led the applause. "C'mon, let's thank our brother here. What's your name?"

"Xu Jinyuan?"

"Alright, you'll be the leader of the construction team of our settlement from now on!" Ren Xiaosu casually appointed him.

Xu Jinyuan's mind was in a daze as he looked at the people around him who were giving him looks of approval. He suddenly recalled what Jin Lan had said to him: "It's not disgraceful if we work hard to fill our stomachs."

Ren Xiaosu went to get 20 bullets and handed them to Xu Jinyuan. "Well done, bro!"

Xu Jinyuan looked at the bullets. They felt rather heavy in his hand. When he saw the others looking at him in envy, he suddenly felt a tinge of the happiness Jin Lan and the others felt when they earned their bullets.

While they were building the houses, some of the refugees brought over sweet potatoes, corn, and other food to them. As their living conditions here were bad, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and corn were their staple foods.

A female refugee was praising Xu Jinyuan as she stuffed food into his arms, "I've watched you since the first day you arrived. At first glance, I could tell that you're a learned person."

Here, those who could build houses were considered learned.

Just as Xu Jinyuan was about to deny that he was a learned person, he was stopped by Ren Xiaosu, who said with a smile, "You're a learned person if you can use your knowledge to help everyone. Knowledge should be used to change the world, and you're changing the world right now."

These bold claims lavished sky-high praise onto Xu Jinyuan.

When he didn't do any work previously, all of the other bandits disliked and despised him. But after he displayed his abilities, these fucking bandits started to address him warmly as "Brother Xu" every day when they saw him.

Xu Jinyuan was unused to the huge difference in treatment.

Meanwhile, this gang of bandits was turning from a scattered bunch into a unified force.

They would come to share the same values and gain a mysterious thing called faith in the time they would be spending together. But of course, it was still quite far from that day.

…

Half a month quickly passed.

Xu Jinyuan was thinking as he chewed on the delicious corncob in his hands. What was he here for? He had come here to gain the trust of this gang of bandits, to get a better understanding of their current situation, then get back their weapons, and plan with the other bandits in the north to destroy this entire settlement.

But what did he end up doing? He had been building houses every day!

Not only that, he had also dug for silt, helped the refugees sow seeds, and eaten their corn.

A female refugee had taken a liking to him and kept dragging him into her mud hut, but Xu Jinyuan used a great deal of effort to control himself.

As a notorious bandit from the north, how could he stay here just because of romance and corn?

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu shouted in the distance, "Come and help carry bricks. You can earn a bullet for every 30 bricks carried."

Xu Jinyuan counted his bullets and quickly finished eating the corn in his hands in three bites. "I'm coming. Brothers, don't fight me to carry those bricks! I've almost collected enough bullets!"

[1] https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/chinese-architecture | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sticky_rice_morta