Two wooden sticks were simply shaped into arms, with rough surfaces and no leather or metal coverings. They could barely be tied to Li Hongling's shoulders with rope, maintaining an unnatural posture.
Such "equipment" makes its simplicity and inconvenience immediately apparent, further highlighting the hardships and sacrifices Li Hongling has endured.
"Sigh~" Lin Lele sighed deeply, her face full of regret, "You are such a beautiful woman, but unfortunately you are disabled without hands. You will never find someone like this in your life..."
"Shut up!" Chen Yu interrupted Lin Lele through gritted teeth. "If you can't control your mouth, I'll cut off your tongue when we get back, making you a cripple too..."
"I'm sorry, Miss Hongling, my little secretary is a bit naive. Please don't take it to heart," Chen Yu said apologetically to Li Hongling.
Li Hongling remained expressionless, showing neither joy nor sorrow, as if none of this concerned her.
"Ahem!" Chen Yu coughed slightly, somewhat awkwardly. "What you said does make sense; in this apocalyptic world, no one can remain unaffected. But they are, after all, just a group of children!"
"Then what do you want me to do?" Li Hongling stared coldly at Chen Yu. "Do you want them to surrender and become playthings and food for those demons?"
"Don't worry, once these children have settled down and learned to survive on their own, I will leave Guangping City immediately. I will absolutely not let my disability be a burden to them!"
"This..." Chen Yu was speechless. He glared at Lin Lele again, then said to Li Hongling, "Miss Hongling, you misunderstood. I absolutely did not mean that. Everyone has their own value. In this apocalypse, we should support each other. Your arms were broken for them, so how can you say you are a burden?"
"Stop spouting nonsense at me," Li Hongling said coldly. "I'm not going to beat around the bush with you. You can take your people away, but we were attacked by you for no reason, resulting in so many children being injured. You must compensate us for this!"
"We'll compensate you, we'll compensate you, we'll compensate you." Chen Yu nodded hurriedly, his attitude sincere. "Miss Hongling, you're right. It was our negligence that caused this result. Compensation is only right. Please feel free to make any requests. As long as it's within our power, we will do our best to fulfill them."
Upon hearing this, Li Hongling's expression softened slightly, but she still maintained a calm and cautious demeanor.
"First, I need you to provide enough medical supplies to ensure that these children can receive proper treatment. I don't want any of them to follow in my footsteps."
“Of course, this is the most basic requirement,” Chen Yu replied immediately.
Then he instructed Lin Lele: "Pass down the order to have two brothers bring over some medical supplies, including bandages, disinfectant, antibiotics, and some commonly used medicines."
“Secondly,” Li Hongling continued, “we are the victims in this conflict, and you should provide sufficient food as compensation.”
Chen Yu nodded: "No problem, just name a number."
Seeing Chen Yu's straightforwardness, Li Hongling pondered for a moment and then held up five fingers.
"50 tons?" Chen Yu frowned.
Li Hongling was slightly taken aback upon hearing this. Just as she was about to explain, Chen Yu continued, "50 tons is not a problem, but you need to give me some time to prepare."
After all, his "militia" convoy also carried food, but the journey from Xidu back to Zhongyang would only take two days at most, so it was impossible to carry that much food on the convoy. He would have to find a secluded place to retrieve it from another dimension.
Li Hongling was genuinely surprised to hear Chen Yu say this. In fact, she meant that Chen Yu should compensate them with 5 tons of grain, which is 10,000 jin.
Her team has more than 400 people, mostly children, and half a pound of rice a day is enough for them to eat their fill.
10,000 jin is enough for their team to eat for a month. They are not at a loss with this compensation. In fact, it is not impossible for Chen Yu to negotiate the price.
After all, in this extremely cold and resource-scarce post-apocalyptic world, it has become a resource even more precious than gold.
However, Li Hongling did not expect that Chen Yu would misunderstand her meaning and directly give her 50 tons of grain.
That's 50 tons of grain! If their team eats it sparingly, they won't have to worry about food and drink for almost two years!
However, Li Hongling quickly calmed down. Chen Yu's generosity made her wonder if he was just trying to fool her.
She took a deep breath, first signaling her men to take the "militia" soldier away, then said to Chen Yu in a deep voice: "One hand for food, the other for the person. I advise you not to try any tricks!"
Upon hearing this, Chen Yu smiled wryly: "Miss Hongling, you have misunderstood. Although I, Chen Yu, am not a saint, I have always valued integrity. The 50 tons of grain I promised will definitely be delivered to you in full, without any ambiguity."
"How about this, to show my sincerity, I will also leave my secretary here as collateral. Once I have time to prepare the food, I will personally bring people to exchange for her, how about that?"
Hearing Chen Yu say that, Lin Lele pursed her lips, but didn't say anything. She still trusted Chen Yu.
However, Li Hongling flatly refused: "No way!"
"Your secretary doesn't seem very bright. I bet you've wanted to replace her for a while now, haven't you?" Li Hongling said in a deep voice. "She's not up to the task!"
"You're talking nonsense." Upon hearing this, Lin Lele's face flushed red, and she retorted angrily, "I'm the commander's favorite, highly valued. If he were to die unexpectedly, I would be the boss of 'Tianyu Base,' and you dare to say I have no authority!"
Li Hongling simply sneered at this.
Chen Yu was speechless. How much did Lin Lele want to be the boss? She was always hoping for his death.
However, this wasn't the time to argue with Lin Lele. After a moment's thought, he said, "How about this, I have a second plan, I..."
Before Chen Yu could finish speaking, a deafening roar suddenly came from outside.
"It's bad, Chief! Those bad guys are attacking again!" A scout rushed into the room, interrupting Chen Yu. His face was full of fear and unease, clearly indicating that the situation outside was extremely critical.
Upon hearing this, Li Hongling instinctively turned a cold expression to Chen Yu.
“It’s not them, it’s Liu Jinsan’s gang!” said an older boy.
"Quickly, get everyone back in!" Li Hongling urged.
"What happened?" Chen Yu asked, puzzled.
Li Hongling ignored Chen Yu and quickly went to organize a defensive counterattack.
"Hey~" Chen Yu exclaimed, "We can help you."
Li Hongling seemed not to hear Chen Yu's shouts and quickly ran away.
"Sir, what should we do?" Lin Lele asked anxiously. "They're all children, we can't just abandon them!"
Upon hearing this, Chen Yu glanced at Lin Lele with some surprise. If it were before, Lin Lele would have already been shouting to run for her life, but today she took the initiative to take responsibility.
"Let's go take a look," Chen Yu said to Lin Lele.
As he spoke, he quickly followed, with Lin Lele close behind.
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