Chapter 356: A Corner of the Truth (3k)
With Dr. Liu Gang present with the other eight-year-old girl, Su Jiu wasn’t in a hurry. After all, Liu Gang was an advanced stage warrior priest, and while healing such wounds was troublesome, it wasn’t too difficult.
When she finished recording this scene, she slid her wheelchair towards the older girl. Arriving behind Bairnis, she looked at the girl who was still looking down and chuckled. She took out two pieces of chocolate from her hand and offered them, saying, “My name is Su Jiu, you can call me Doctor Jiu. Have something to eat.”
“Doctor Jiu… Doctor Jiu, thank you. You can just call me Weis.”
The girl’s body trembled subconsciously when she heard this. Realizing it was Su Jiu, who was like an older sister, she relaxed, glanced at Liu Gang who was treating her sister, and confirmed he wasn’t lying. She then took the chocolate wrapped in golden foil, put one piece in her pocket, and began to eat it with large bites.
She finished it in just two “crunch, crunch” bites and then looked at Su Jiu with her light brown eyes, eagerly.
Seeing this, Bairnis also stopped her treatment, took out the potato chips she had forgotten to give earlier from her pocket, and handed them over. She then made space for Su Jiu and gently pushed the wheelchair forward from the left.
“Th-thank you.” The girl, taking the potato chips, showed an ecstatic expression. A bag of potato chips meant she could live for a few more days. She hadn’t eaten such high-calorie food for a long time.
Looking at the girl’s delighted expression as she accepted the potato chips, Su Jiu suddenly remembered that the war had already broken out for over a month. Although her country was peaceful, the people of Urs had already experienced countless traumas.
With a sigh, Su Jiu watched little Weis open the potato chips. She didn’t eat them immediately but offered them to an elderly woman beside her, wanting to share. She held them out with both hands and softly said, “Auntie, here for you…”
“Keep it for yourself!”
But she was quickly refused when the elderly woman rubbed her head with her plump hand. She rolled her eyes and then turned her head, smiling at Su Jiu with her husky voice, “Doctor Jiu, are you here to provide us with food? I saw your boat over there, carrying a lot of canned biscuits and such.”
“Yes, this food should be enough for two thousand people for about a year.” Su Jiu smiled and told the truth. In her opinion, providing so much dry food to disaster victims wouldn’t be difficult. The population of Urs was only one to two million, and the number of refugees should not exceed one percent.
“A year’s supply for two thousand people, that means about two thousand four people a month? This…” A hint of hidden disappointment appeared on the elderly woman’s face, but she quickly clasped her hands together in gratitude and bowed her head, saying, “Thank you for your gift. I thank you on behalf of the tens of thousands of citizens who are without.”
“Tens of thousands?”
Su Jiu subconsciously waved her hand. Hearing the hidden meaning in the elderly woman’s words, she froze again. What did this mean? Almost the entire town’s population as refugees?
This wasn’t like the Black Death back then, with no large-scale casualties. How could there be so many homeless refugees?
Before the elderly woman could say anything more, Liu Gang, who was treating the girl’s injured arm, stopped his actions and suddenly spoke up, “To be precise, it’s more than tens of thousands of refugees. This is a matter of safety zone migration. The safety zone has been compressed, and the residents of Urs in or near the war zones are being restricted to migrating nearly a hundred kilometers within a day.”
“You know, many of those civilians may not even be advanced stage warriors. How can that nearly a million population migrate in time? There are less than 10 hours left from the time Yela gave.”
Liu Gang shook his head, a flicker of compassion in his resolute eyes. He tightly gripped the corner of his white coat, perhaps unablely bearing the suffering of these people, he had risked his life to come.
“The Three-Body Problem?”
Hearing Liu Gang’s explanation, Su Jiu blurted out subconsciously. The expression on her small face froze. She knew that the Trisolarans in Da Liu’s writing took a month to move the entire world’s population to Australia.
Has the novel reflected into the real world?
Why is it so magical?
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Trisolaran Four-Body. I only know that the International Hospital is already overcrowded.” After bending down again to bandage the girl’s regenerating arm, Liu Gang’s fingertips glowed with a green light as he carefully joined the bones.
“Why are they fighting? You know that sea monsters have been rampant these years, and resources are definitely not scarce. There’s no reason to start a war.”
Suppressing the shock in her heart, Su Jiu took a deep breath and asked the question she most wanted to know. She always felt that Liu Gang knew a lot, but he was unwilling to talk about it.
“Because of land. The story between the two countries is just like the story of the cuckoo and the magpie…” As Liu Gang spoke, Su Jiu could clearly feel the clenched fists of the surrounding people. Even the slightly plump Urs elderly woman had a grim expression on her face.
They were the “magpies,” but helpless against the “cuckoos.” The loss of territory, followed by displacement and fleeing, and then falling ill and dying for various reasons along the way.
Soon, Liu Gang realized that this was not something outsiders should discuss. After bandaging the eight-year-old girl’s wound, he patted his thighs, turned, and walked towards the fishing boat, saying, “Let’s not talk about it. These things have nothing to do with us. We are not peacekeepers. We… are just priests!”
“Just priests again…”
Watching Liu Gang’s retreating back, Su Jiu murmured softly. She realized he was very similar to the soldier who had come asking for medicine before, so conflicted, wanting to speak but hesitating. She pursed her lips and then raised her phone, taking a picture of his somewhat desolate figure.
Su Jiu labeled this photo as “Solitary Shadow,” while the previous photos were labeled “You and I Across Worlds” and “Scars.” Although the three photos were few and the techniques were unprofessional, they had a sense of real shock.
“If I get ten more, I should be able to post it…”
Su Jiu wanted to take more photos to post online and get some attention. As for traffic, she had money; she could just buy traffic if needed.
At this moment, she had forgotten about the World Competition. Perhaps Vivian was looking forward to her safe return, but she knew better that the Princess hoped her knight would bring peace to this land.
“Stop staring. We need to reach the International Hospital within ten hours to replace our comrades there, and they are out of medicine. We need to hurry!” Liu Gang’s voice echoed through the crowded area.
Without Su Jiu needing to say anything, Bairnis gently pushed the wheelchair forward. Su Jiu, in the wheelchair, fell into thought again. Having grown up in peacetime, she was experiencing the cruelty of war for the first time, not the brief attacks of the Ancient God Sect, but a comprehensive one. She then muttered to herself, “Can we really only be priests?”
“Miss, there’s no need to overthink. Although advanced stage warriors are quite powerful in Yela, there are still many. Individual strength is very small compared to national machinery… We just need to do our best. Priests can also bring peace.”
Gently pushing the wheelchair, Bairnis, who had been silent for a long time, also spoke, but her voice was a bit childish, giving her a strangely cute feeling.
Only after experiencing the war with monsters did she understand the preciousness of peace. As a Grand Duke of the Blood Clan, Bairnis, unlike her sister, had participated in the defensive war as a battlefield Grand Priest of the Blood Clan. Countless Battle Kings and War Gods had formed walls of flesh and blood to resist the Others.
“Mhm.”
Nodding, Su Jiu gently patted Bairnis’s head and closed her eyes. A question began to swirl in her mind: why did Yela block the International Organization from entering from the east, but allow them to enter from Moon Sunken Sea in the west?
Is there something shameful in the east?
When they reappeared beside the ship, Su Jiu noticed a large truck at the pier. It seemed to be a civilian truck without any markings. In the back of the truck, several young men wearing blue armbands were helping to load goods into the truck.
Yuko was sitting on the hood of the truck, making a phone call to someone with an incredulous expression. Her voice carried to Su Jiu’s ears—
“The volunteer truck is out of contact?! What a joke. They had an Intermediate Stage Warrior escorting them. How could a large truck just disappear on a thirty-kilometer road!”
Yuko was speaking on speakerphone. From the other end of the phone came a rather tired male voice: “Sorry, but thirty minutes ago, we lost all contact with the truck. I’ll send you the latest
location. If possible, can you check what happened to the truck?”
“Never mind…”
Yuko hung up the phone. She felt something she dared not confirm. She sighed, looked back at the members with blue armbands, and her eyelids drooped. She then saw Liu Gang walking over and said helplessly in a low voice, “Did you give them medicine? If spies discover it, we might be arrested by Yela.”
“Didn’t the truck not arrive for a long time? I just traded some medicine for their truck.” Liu Gang smiled nonchalantly, habitually scratching his bald head.
“I’m not blaming you. If it were just you and me, you could give it however you wanted. But we have others.” Yuko looked down at Liu Gang and smiled helplessly, “I need them to be responsible, after all, I promised the command that I would safely bring them back to their respective countries.”
“Do you think if we follow the rules, they will follow the rules? If they really followed the rules, we wouldn’t need to be here for rescue.”
With a slight laugh, Liu Gang leaned against the truck door and pulled out a pack of shriveled cigarettes from his pocket. He took out two, bit one, and flicked the other to Yuko.
“This thirty-mile trip is likely to be fraught with danger.”
With a flick of his two fingers, Yuko caught the cigarette he tossed, lit it with her fingernail, and braced her hands on the truck’s hood, looking up at the sky as if enjoying the last moment of peace.
“As expected…”
Seeing their attitude, Su Jiu could guess something. She needed to speed up the refining process in her body. Currently, she could barely fight an ordinary beginner Battle King, and her self-preservation ability was still weak.
There was about 10% remaining. She estimated that she would be able to completely refine it tomorrow. By then, even if an advanced Intermediate Stage Battle King came, she could protect these people safely.
“Um… I often run cargo shipments with my father at the port. I can take you through a small path.” The voice of the girl from before—Weir—suddenly sounded behind Su Jiu.
