The attack on Biyuan thus came to an end.
What struck me as somewhat absurd was that after Fan Bin's identity as a traitor was exposed, many people wanted to plead for him, but Du Xu ultimately blocked them, and Fan Bin ended up in Chu Yu's hands.
As for how much information Chu Yu can get out of him, I have no idea.
After talking with Chu Yu for a long time, I went back downstairs and slept for a morning. At noon, Du Xu told me that I could go back to school and that Su Mu had arrived.
While I was asleep, Su Mu arrived and led a group to help Du Xu patrol the area for the entire morning. Only after confirming that there were no Biyuan people lying in ambush did everyone return to school.
When Du Xu woke me up, there were only the two of us in the whole house. In a daze, I thought the whole world had abandoned me.
I rubbed my sore eyes and asked, "What did you just say? Su Mu is here?"
Du Xu nodded: "Yes, he's here. He's probably waiting for you on the school rooftop right now."
I nodded. "Okay, let's go and meet him."
Du Xu and I returned to school. A night passed, and the school was still the same as before, unchanged. Although it was only one night, it felt like an eternity.
Arriving at the rooftop of the dormitory building, I saw Su Mu sitting at one side of a table with a neatly arranged mahjong set on it.
Besides Su Mu, Huang Yiyang was also at the table.
When Su Mu saw the two of us come up, he waved and said with a smile, "Come on, come on, let's play a game. It's been a long time since I played mahjong, I miss it a bit."
Du Xu and I exchanged a glance, smiled wryly, and went to the table. After sitting down, I asked, "How was things on your end last night?"
Su Mu said, "The situation is very good. Two of my men died during the ambush. As for Biyuan, the entire army was wiped out. All fifty of them were killed by us."
"Fifty people!" I exclaimed in surprise. "So, adding the thirty who came to the school yesterday, and the dozen or so who ambushed me last time, how many people does Li Shujiang actually have?"
Su Mu shook his head. "I don't know, but there should be many. I think there are definitely at least five hundred people. Adding the three teams you mentioned in Biyuan, if we think about it that way, there are at least seven or eight hundred people in Biyuan. But then a problem arises: if there really are seven or eight hundred people in Biyuan, how do they make a living?"
I don't quite understand this, since we haven't worried much about our daily lives.
Seeing my puzzled look, Su Mu smiled and explained, "Let me put it this way. There are over a hundred people in Jiangbei. These people need to eat every day and use all sorts of daily necessities. So where do these daily necessities come from? They can only come from small shops, large supermarkets, or wholesale markets and warehouses, right?"
"Hmm." I nodded blankly.
By this time, all the mahjong tiles had been drawn. I looked at my own tiles, and they were terrible.
"Red Dragon." Su Mu played the first card.
"Bang." Huang Yiyang said decisively.
Then it was my turn, and I drew a "Fa Cai" (a lucky card).
"Bang!" Huang Yiyang said again.
I glanced at him curiously, and then Su Mu continued, "With about a hundred people, I've already emptied out a large supermarket since the beginning. As for the warehouse in the suburbs, I haven't touched it. I still have two supermarkets that can sustain me for a while. But this isn't a long-term solution; we have to find a way to be self-sufficient."
I drew a tile and found it was a one of bamboo. I didn't have any bamboo tiles in my hand, so I promptly discarded it.
"Eat." At that moment, my next player, Du Xu, called out.
"Bang!" Huang Yiyang shouted as well.
Touching is better than eating, so Huang Yiyang took one of the bamboo tubes.
"..." Du Xu looked at Huang Yiyang speechlessly.
Actually, Su Mu and I were quite speechless. This kid has already drawn three cards in a row. Is he trying to kill us?!
Since it was Huang Yiyang who made the pong, I took the next turn to draw a tile. This time, I played an East Wind tile, and Huang Yiyang didn't react. The three of us breathed a sigh of relief.
After one round, Su Mu continued, "So, if Biyuan really has seven or eight hundred people, then Biyuan probably controls a huge amount of resources. But I think that's unrealistic, because when I was in contact with Li Shujiang before, I knew very well what resources he had. Based on the resources he has, Biyuan probably only has a little over two hundred people at most."
I said, "Could it be that the three teams have different resources?"
Su Mu typed a 30,000-word chapter, which Huang Yiyang devoured. He then continued, "That's possible, but I think it's unrealistic. So I'm more inclined to my speculation that there aren't actually many people in Biyuan. At most, there are only four or five hundred people. As for seven or eight hundred, or even a thousand, that's simply impossible."
Du Xu drew a card and said, "I also think that a thousand is a bit excessive. If they have that many people, why are they so timid? If a group of them just came up and attacked, whether it's Jiangbei or the school, they would be wiped out, right? Four or five hundred would be about right. Then they could split into three teams, with more than a hundred people in each team, that would be about right."
After a round, it was Su Mu's turn to draw a card. After drawing a card, Su Mu sighed and said, "After this defeat, Biyuan is probably severely weakened. They will probably need to rest for a while before they can deal with us again. Dr. Lu, do you remember what I told you before?"
"What did you say?"
Su Mu placed the card he was holding into his own deck, then pushed it aside, and said, "It's the inevitability of history. And, I won."
I paused for a moment, gave a wry smile, pushed the cards in my hand aside, and said, "I still don't believe in anything that's inevitable or not. Everyone is just trying to survive. Nobody thinks about such nonsense. In this day and age, being able to eat one meal a day is already a good thing. Why think so much?"
Su Mu said, "There's no other way. You can be all alone, but I can't. I have over a hundred people under my command, and they're all waiting for me to feed them. So I have to think about it! I'm thinking, what will happen to Jiajiang after Biyuan disappears? What will happen between us?"
Hearing this, I looked up at him, met his eyes, and asked, "What do you think we should do?"
Su Mu shook his head. "I don't know."
Du Xu, who couldn't stand it any longer, said, "What else can we do? Just let it be!"
(This episode is a mess! It was supposed to be a major climax, but as I wrote it, I realized it went off track, and I couldn't fix it. I'm really struggling with that. Also, I'm finding myself lacking the energy to handle the Biyuan storyline, so I'll wrap that up quickly and get back on track. Everything will then revolve around Lu Xiaonan, and it won't feel scattered. I hope you'll continue to support me.)
(End of this chapter)
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