Chen Yu and his group led Lao Sun and his three prisoners to a slightly open area before parking the car on the side of the road.
Chen Yu gestured to the militiamen accompanying him to treat Lao Sun's wounds.
Then, he walked up to the three prisoners and said calmly, "Speak, what exactly happened?"
"Kill me or torture me, it's all up to you. I've let you escape this time by sheer luck, but I believe God will not forgive you!" One of the prisoners stubbornly raised his head, his eyes full of defiance and defiance.
"Pah!"
"You beast!"
The other two prisoners were also furious, echoing their companion's provocation, their eyes filled with hatred and disdain for Chen Yu and his group.
"Hey~? You ungrateful bastards." Lin Lele raised an eyebrow, then ordered the militiamen, "Slap them!"
Three militiamen immediately stepped forward and raised their hands to slap the prisoners in the face.
Chen Yu raised his hand to stop the militiamen's actions. His gaze was deep and calm as he swept across the faces of the three prisoners, finally settling on their stubborn eyes.
“We don’t need to solve problems with violence,” he said slowly, his voice carrying an undeniable authority. “Perhaps you have been hurt in the past, but I can tell you that what happened to you has nothing to do with us.”
The prisoners exchanged glances upon hearing this, and one of the women said coldly, "Even if you really don't know, your existence is still to serve those high and mighty nobles, so the result is the same!"
Chen Yu shook his head and said, "You are wrong. We come from Tianyu Base, a place dedicated to peace and justice, and do not belong to any powerful or wealthy people."
"Tianyu Base? What kind of place is that?"
“A survivor base located in Zhongyang City.”
"Zhongyang City? South of Great Xia?"
"Yes."
"Are you legitimate?" one of the prisoners asked suspiciously.
"Hehe, that depends on how you interpret 'formal'," Chen Yu laughed. "The 'Anti-Cold Disaster Relief Militia' rose from humble beginnings and indeed did not receive any real official authorization, but we are all ordinary people from all over the country, and we came together for the benefit of the people. We have our own rules, our own discipline, and even more so, a firm belief: to protect every innocent life and fight against injustice and violence."
All indications suggest that the rioting crowds do not seem to have any goodwill towards the authorities. Therefore, Chen Yu changed his strategy, downplaying the relationship between the militia and the government, and emphasizing its civilian nature, autonomy, and justice.
Sure enough, after hearing Chen Yu's explanation, the prisoners' expressions softened and their hostility lessened.
They began to scrutinize the group of people before them with a critical eye, seemingly assessing the veracity of Chen Yu's words.
“I believe you are not on their side,” the female prisoner said in a deep voice, “but that doesn’t mean you are good people.”
Chen Yu nodded in understanding upon hearing this, and then said, "In any case, what happened to you has nothing to do with us, right?"
The three prisoners fell silent upon hearing this.
"Hehe, how about this, tell me what exactly happened, and maybe I can stand up for you?"
The group remained silent upon hearing this. Finally, the female prisoner pondered for a moment before recounting to Chen Yu what had happened in their Stone City.
…………
In the two months leading up to the extreme cold disaster, the residents of Stone City were actually doing alright, although quite a few people froze to death from the severe cold.
However, thanks to the timely release of grain from the Stone City granary, most of them still had no problem getting enough to eat every day.
At that time, the Stone City granary was full of nearly 6 million tons of grain, and no one ever worried about food.
However, in the third month after the extreme cold disaster struck, the arrival of a group of soldiers caused the situation at Shiban Mountain to suddenly take a sharp turn for the worse.
The group of soldiers drove their giant snowmobile trucks into Stone City with a roar, shattering the city's usual tranquility.
They were fully armed, with cold eyes and an unquestionable air of authority.
They claimed to be a special task force from Kyoto, stating that due to the exacerbation of the extreme cold disaster, Kyoto needed to urgently allocate resources from across the country to deal with an impending, larger crisis.
The granary of Stone City was their target for this trip.
The residents of Stone City didn't think much of it at the time, since they had plenty of grain in their granaries and it wouldn't matter if they sent some to the capital.
Moreover, the Stone City granary is not the private property of Stone City, but was placed there by the state, and one of its main functions is to ensure the emergency food supply to the capital.
From both a moral and logical standpoint, they had no reason to stop people from transporting grain.
However, the situation developed far beyond their expectations.
Initially, the task force was relatively polite; they negotiated with the officials of Stone City and requested the allocation of some grain.
Although the residents of Stone City were reluctant, they reluctantly accepted the arrangement for the sake of the greater good.
However, as time went on, the actions of these task forces became increasingly excessive.
They began to disregard the previous agreement, requisitioning large quantities of grain, and even taking away the rations that originally belonged to the residents of Stone City.
Faced with protests and discontent from residents, the task force forcibly suppressed them, citing the greater national interest.
A month later, they left, and the grain in the Stone City granary was almost empty.
In order to survive, the people of Stone City began to form large and small factions that fought each other for the last remaining scraps of grain in the granary.
And this group of people who wanted to perish together with Chen Yu and the others were the ultimate victors.
Although they won the last of the grain in the granary, their hearts were filled with endless pain and hatred.
In this brutal struggle for survival, they lost too much: relatives, friends, countless people fell around them, some they killed with their own hands, some were killed by others, and some froze to death or starved to death.
Today, Stone City is no longer the home they remember, but a desolate and hopeless place.
Although they survived by a hair's breadth, they felt they had long since become a group of "walking corpses," having lost all hope and sustenance for life, leaving only endless anger and a desire for revenge against power and injustice.
And so, after their long wait, the scene we just witnessed unfolded.
They wanted to drag their "enemy" down with them, to perish together!
…………
After hearing the other party's account, Chen Yu and the others were also filled with sighs.
In fact, if they wanted "revenge," they could have easily detonated the explosives remotely after their "enemy" entered the trap, thus allowing them to escape.
But they did not do that; instead, they chose to perish in the trap along with their “enemy.”
Is this a desire to watch their "enemy" die before their very eyes, to vent their hatred?
Or perhaps they themselves have lost the will to live and only want to be free?
Or perhaps, both?
In any case, this group of people are ultimately just a pitiful bunch.
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