Chapter 214: To lose something and regain it again
Guo Fei was moved over to an empty ground, the blood and dirt on his body were cleaned by others. This revealed the countless wounds on his body, the intersecting vertical and horizontal cuts on his body made it look as though he had gone through the death of a thousand cuts.
Two combat team members wrapped Guo Fei up. While tying the bandages around his wounds, the muscles on his body trembled slightly, but his face remained expressionless, as though the pain in his body did not belong to him. He continued to stare into the fire with thoughts unknown.
“Shua” Zhang Xiao Qiang retrieved the Jing Wei Blade that was stabbed into the log, the blade still smooth and sharp. He had actually aimed and threw the sword at the ropes that bound Guo Fei instead of at the man. When Guo Fei looked at him, he knew that Guo Fei still had strength. Since he could no longer fight against the man, he had thrown the Blade out to free Guo Fei.
This sword had set the foundation for his victory, which was Lunatic Guo Fei. No one else could had done it, Guo Fei was crazy yet calm and collected, he did not care about whether the enemy would live or die, much less himself.
Saying that he is crazy did not mean that he is constantly seeking death. Guo Fei is a lunatic that had self-destruction tendencies and to Zhang Xiao Qiang, he was the perfect cannon fodder. As proven in this battle, the one injured was Guo Fei but the winner was Zhang Xiao Qiang.
Zhang Xiao Qiang stood half naked with his tattered clothes in hand, the interior hide was completely ruined, aside from the three bullet holes, there was a long cut. Although the cut did not break the hide, it was close to breaking. Looking at the deep cut, Zhang Xiao Qiang suspected that he could use a pair of chopsticks to break through it.
Although the combat team members were tired, their spirits were exceptionally high. A few of them held their guns and watched over the captives, a few made inventory of the camp’s various supplies, while a few inquired about the strengths of the various captives.
A fleet of vehicles drove slowly over, the last vehicle was a truck that pulled a Type-92 Battalion Gun, the frontmost off-road vehicle had a man standing up and waving his rifle at Zhang Xiao Qiang. It was Three, and beside him sat Shangguan Qiao Yun, who upon seeing that Zhang Xiao Qiang was safe felt the large boulder that sat on her heart finally being lifted.
“Brother Cockroach, we cleared the area around the battlefield. Adding the two sides together, all of them had abandoned a total of 57 corpses, the captives number to about 50, a quarter of them are heavily injured, Brother Cockroach, do you think we should….”
While speaking halfway, Three did the gesture of cutting them down. Three’s considerations were in line with the base’s medicinal reserves which was tight. They did not have any surgical machines as well and basically no doctors. The base had an infirmary, the main person in charge was a girl who graduated from medical school.
The 17-18 years old girl was the one who hid inside the cave and was bent on not coming out but ultimately chased out by Zhang Xiao Qiang. Zhang Xiao Qiang had shifted all the medicinal supplies of the town and checked with all the members of the base if they knew of medical expertise. Ultimately, the girl was deemed as the closest to being legitimate was chosen to be placed as the position as head of the infirmary.
As medical equipment and medicinal supplies were hard to obtain, if they were to use it on others, they would have less for their own people. For their own people, Three encouraged Zhang Xiao Qiang to kill the heavily injured outsiders.
Without even thinking, Zhang Xiao Qiang shook his head. He looked at the restless captives who were filled with frustrations and dashed hopes: “Treat them as they are to be treated, those who can endure it will survive. Those who can’t will just die, even if they deserve to die, it shouldn’t be by our hands. Don’t let them become coldhearted.”
Zhang Xiao Qiang scratched his chin as he spoke to Three while facing the captives. Three nodded his head, then turned and instructed the combat team members. One after another, the heavily injured people were brought down the trucks.
Three carried an emergency treatment bag and treated a few people. Watching Three treat their own injured people, the captives eased up and became more cooperative. Li Zhu vouched for Zhang Xiao Qiang and the rest, guaranteeing them that they would not do anything bad to them.
Observing the crowd of busy people, Zhang Xiao Qiang pondered about the arrangements. They had to return to the prison with extra caution, best with the battalion gun and HMGs. Aside from that, he considered the expansion of the Combat Team.
They had heavy losses the previous day, their elite combat team had lost 3 members, the porcupines had killed another 2 and injured 4, out of which 2 were heavily injured. One died to explosions, two had died while on sentry duty, and not forgetting the weak-looking Wang Chong.
Upon thinking about Wang Chong, Zhang Xiao Qiang’s mood dropped. Wang Chong could be considered his aide-in-camp, he had a good personality and was steadfast in his work. But Zhang Xiao Qiang never thought that Wang Chong had a different side of him, to stubbornly hold onto the warhead and suicide with it. Zhang Xiao Qiang knew he could never be like Wang Chong, no one else could compare to Wang Chong, not even Guo Fei. Guo Fei was a lunatic and would never do anything for others. He only wanted to die.
While thinking, Zhang Xiao Qiang strolled along the camp. At a point, he raised his head and noticed the Hummer that he lost and regained. It was preserved well, there was not a speck of dust on it, even the wheels were extremely clean. The windows were sparkling and the doors were unaffected. Seeing the clean Hummer, Zhang Xiao Qiang called Li Zhu over.
Upon hearing Zhang Xiao Qiang, Li Zhu made a small run over to Zhang Xiao Qiang.
“Where did you guys get this car from? Who’s using it?”
When Zhang Xiao Qiang saw the Hummer, he thought about Su Qian, who always performed cleverly in front of him. Thinking about how she threw Yuan Yi, Yang Ke’er and him off when he was heavily injured and drove off, his heart became uncomfortable. But even as so, she used to be under him, so he could not resist but to ask about her.
“This was found by Liu Tou not long ago, together with dozen-odd women. This vehicle was always used by Liu Tou and driven by his closest aides, oh yea….the the one you killed.”
Li Zhu pointed to two men that were in a pool of blood and said.
Zhang Xiao Qiang got Li Zhu to search the body for the keys. He opened the car door and sat inside, then used both hands to grasp about the bottom of the car seat, until he found a bag taped to the bottom with a transparent adhesive.
He opened it, revealing three sets of bright and colorful undergarments and an AV disc. Looking at the things before him, Zhang Xiao Qiang’s heart beat quickly. At the start, he had to protect Yang Ke’er and had to hide these treasures. After the Hummer was fixed, he hid these things in the place that he deemed the safest, below the seat of the Hummer. He believed it was the safest place until Su Qian actually took the car and betrayed him.
Zhang Xiao Qiang claimed that he did not care about Su Qian’s betrayal, but in fact had been extremely affected by it. Every time he thought about Su Qian, his heart would feel extremely uncomfortable.
It was not on Su Qian, but on the treasures that were unintentionally taken away by her. Now that the treasures have been recovered, Zhang Xiao Qiang’s mood was greatly alleviated. He carefully placed the things inside a plastic bag and placed them inside his bag, then opened the car door and got out.