NOVPUBChapter 81: Chapter 81: The Wise Person
Chapter 81 -81: The Wise Person 𝒏𝒐𝙫𝙥𝙪𝙗.𝒄𝙤𝙢
After a thorough look around, Gu Pan identified several target spots before heading home.
At this time, in the living room of the Lin family’s villa in the Inner Circle, Old Master Lin was leaning on his cane, so angry that his beard bristled. “You are a disaster, you’re really going to be the death of me.”
After speaking, Old Master Lin turned to Lin Feifei’s mother, Song Yiru, “For years, I have urged you to be stricter with her, but you have always indulged her so much. This hasn’t just harmed us, it has also harmed her.”
Song Yiru looked aggrieved, “Dad, when the call to have children came, we had only one child. I just wanted to give her the best of everything. With our status, spoiling her a bit isn’t a big deal, right? Aren’t girls supposed to be raised in comfort? Besides, she’s still young; she’ll improve as she grows up.”
“Raising in comfort doesn’t mean rendering her useless. She’s already twenty, is twenty still young? I didn’t say anything before; we were able to protect her, but now with the apocalypse, she doesn’t even know what’s happening outside.” He paused, then added, “Today, later, have Yuan Jiang… let Lin Ran take her out and see the living hell outside.”
Old Master Lin originally intended to have Yuan Jiang take her, but remembering that Yuan Jiang had asked to move out, he could only have his eldest son take her instead.
Lin Feifei sat silently in the corner of the sofa, knowing she had stirred up big trouble this time.
Hearing they were going out, Song Yiru panicked and knelt in front of Old Master Lin, “Dad, there’s a plague outside. Lin Ran and Feifei can’t be allowed to risk going out together. Even if Feifei is at fault, punish her however you think best, just don’t let them go to dangerous places.”
Old Master Lin spoke in the heat of the moment; they indeed shouldn’t be risking a venture outside now. He sighed and sat down, “Feifei, go and apologize to them, cancel the competition.”
Lin Feifei pouted, “Grandpa, why don’t you believe in me? That woman is just over twenty, I’ve been practicing archery since I was little, and she only started learning after the apocalypse began. How could she possibly beat me? I will definitely win.”
Old Master Lin was at his wit’s end, tapping his cane hard against the ground twice, “Is this about winning or losing? While we do have some martial artists and archers, they compete just for fun. Moreover, each family has both old and young, too much to care for. Facing those experienced and fearless teams, we stand no advantage. Uncle Li has seen it; the new people who have arrived are all seasoned in actual combat, having taken many lives to get here, and they are all young. We just seek to survive through the apocalypse, why do you still cause trouble? Can’t you learn from Mengmeng and Yuan Jiang?”
When Lin Feifei heard this, her wavering resolve solidified again, “Why do you always compare me with that green tea, Lin Mengmeng? You always suppress me with this type of education, always praising others. I’m sick of it. I have to prove myself against that woman to show you what I can do.” She said and ran upstairs, locking herself in her room.
Old Master Lin looked toward Lin Ran, “Don’t let Feifei go tomorrow, lock her door from outside later. You go tomorrow, talk nicely with the other party. We cannot afford to make enemies; otherwise, we’ll be in danger. Even if they can’t defeat us, mutual destruction is inevitable, and outsiders might profit from our loss.”
Lin Ran hesitated and asked, “Dad, why not let Feifei try? It’s just a contest, not a conflict. I think Feifei could win; it would be a good warning to outsiders.”
Old Master Lin glared at his eldest son, “Don’t you know what your daughter is like? Those who can fight their way out of piles of corpses, do you think they’re playing around?”
Lin Ran had nothing to say; he’d indeed been outside and seen the harsh reality. Although they hadn’t been in conflicts, he was aware of the cruelty of those people.
He fell silent for a while, then said, “Then I’ll meet the girl tomorrow.”
Old Master Lin sighed, “We have many elderly and children here, and we’re lucky with good resources and water. We need to appreciate what we have, now is not like before, we don’t need to compete over trivial things. We need to stay alive to have hope. Speak well with them, Yuan Jiang told me it was Feifei who provoked them.”
Lin Ran nodded. “Understood, dad.”
Back at Gu Pan’s, she waited for Lu Ruisheng and the others to return, and told them about the day’s events.
Lu Ruisheng expressed confidence in Gu Pan, “Your skills will definitely beat hers.”
Gu Pan smiled, “I’m confident as well.”
Chen Shaonan suggested, “Let’s take more people with us tomorrow.”
Feng Zhekai also said, “Right, just in case a conflict arises and Xiao Gu suffers.”
Gu Pan replied, “No need; we actually need more people at home tomorrow, considering our supplies are here. What if this is a feint? Ruisheng and I’ll go; if something happens, we’re better equipped to escape.”
Cheng Yang asked, “Should I scout for you?”
Lu Ruisheng said, “No need; my counter-surveillance skills are sufficient. You need to stay and guard our base.”
After further discussion, everyone agreed that it would be enough for just Gu Pan and Lu Ruisheng to go, but they should take ample weapons and equipment.
To this, Gu Pan and Lu Ruisheng had no objections; with access to Space, carrying a lot of items wasn’t an issue—they could just stash them away unnoticed.
After the meeting, everyone went home, and Gu Pan and the others decided to rest early since they had to get up early the next day.
Gu Pan slept well that night; competing against someone like Lin Feifei was pressure-free for someone who had survived three years in the apocalypse.
The next morning, Gu Pan and Lu Ruisheng got up early, and after having breakfast, they left with their equipment, waved off by their teammates, heading to the agreed location.
But reaching the spot agreed upon the day before, they didn’t see Lin Feifei; instead, there were two middle-aged men.
Lin Ran stepped forward, “Are you the people who bet with Lin Feifei?” He thought considering the gravity of the matter, the opponents would at least send more than half their people; he didn’t expect just the two.
Gu Pan replied, “That’s us. Where’s Lin Feifei?”
Lin Ran looked ahead and said, “Let’s go to an isolated area down the hill to talk.”
Gu Pan didn’t want to go there—after all, who knew if there were ambushes? So she suggested, “Let’s talk at the open space outside the residential area; it’s less crowded there.”
Lin Ran had no objections, “Okay.”
As they walked, introductions were exchanged. The man who came with Lin Ran was Li Changsong.
Gu Pan and Lu only introduced their surnames, not their given names, Xiao Gu, Xiao Lu—that was it. They all followed this practice, even Cheng Yang and the others. If they had to share names, they’d use numbers based on age, with Lu Ruisheng being number five, Gu Pan number six, perhaps a matching homophone for convenience so that, if separated later, it would be easy to inquire about each other.
