Li Ke took off his backpack, which was half his height, and placed it on the ground. He pulled out a folding chair from his back pocket, sat down, and looked at the little boy, asking, "Two hundred people captured more than five hundred of you. Are they very capable?"
The woman next to the little boy hugged him tightly, preventing him from speaking, and continued Li Ke's words, saying, "They are ruthless and have weapons. Many of us went in and couldn't get out. The chains on our feet are also locked, so we can't run far. If we are caught and brought back, the consequences will be even worse."
Li Ke asked again, "Do they have guns?"
The woman looked up at Li Ke, then lowered her eyes again: "Yes, but not many. I've only seen the three big bosses with guns. I heard they killed some public officials and stole them, or that they used to be public officials themselves."
Seeing that it was getting dark, Li Ke didn't want to waste any more time. He asked the people in front of him what they had dug out of the ground. The little boy pulled out a handful of long strips from the bucket and showed them to Li Ke: "They are sea worms. They look a little different and don't taste very good, but they are still edible."
Li Ke couldn't stand the sight of it and quickly told the boy to put it down: "Do you often come here to catch these things?"
"This is my first time here. I used to catch them on the beach ten miles away, but it's gotten harder to catch them lately, so I came here instead." Seeing that Li Ke's questioning was relatively easygoing, the boy became bolder.
Li Ke pulled a handful of shackles from his backpack and threw them next to the five kneeling men: "Cuff yourselves. Don't try anything funny. I don't like listening to explanations; I prefer to shoot."
After the men obediently handcuffed themselves, Li Ke ordered them to find mutated fish on the beach. They had to bring over 300 fish within an hour, and they had to collect them for four hours, meaning each of them had to complete a task of 1,200 fish. If they didn't finish, they would die.
Li Ke kindly reminded them, "The five of you can work together to complete the task. In short, five people and six thousand lines, not one can be missing."
One of the men looked around with a mournful face and said, "We don't have anything to put the fish in, how are we going to complete the mission?"
The boy chimed in again, "You can dig a big hole on the beach, fill it with water, and then throw the fish in first."
Upon hearing this, the man looked up and asked Li Ke, "Is that alright?"
Li Ke nodded: "Start the timer in ten minutes."
The men didn't dare say anything more. They took a few small shovels from the crowd and started digging a hole.
Looking at the large group of people still huddled together, Li Ke said to them, "You guys go catch some fish too. One hundred fish can be exchanged for five biscuits, compressed biscuits."
Upon hearing this, these people immediately raised their heads, and several voices asked, "Really?"
Li Ke took a bag of biscuits directly from his backpack: "Gather everything in your buckets together and put them aside. I don't like that stuff, I only want fish. Of course, you can leave if you don't want to. No one is watching you now, you can go wherever you want, but you'll have to figure out how to get rid of the chains yourselves."
No one left. A voice whispered, "We can't escape. We have nowhere else to go. If we run away from here, we might get caught by someone else."
Some people had already stood up spontaneously and started gathering the sea worms in the buckets together, then carried the buckets to find the fish that Li Ke wanted.
A small voice suddenly popped up: "Can I have a cookie first? We've only eaten a little bit of earthworm paste for the past two days, and we're very, very hungry."
Li Ke looked over and saw an even smaller child, whose gender was indistinguishable. The child's voice was somewhat hoarse, and the hair was very short, with some parts long and some short, clearly cut haphazardly.
Li Ke thought for a moment, then took out two large bottles of water, a total of four liters, from his backpack, along with two packs of biscuits, and placed them aside: "Everyone can eat a biscuit and drink a sip of water before starting work. You can divide these things among yourselves, and no arguing is allowed. Otherwise, whoever causes trouble, I will kill them."
The people hesitated to touch the biscuits and water, so Li Ke took the initiative to unpack them and open the water bottle. Pointing to the child who had said he was hungry at the beginning, she said, "You go first. After you finish eating, you have to go back to work."
The child was immediately given a gentle push forward by the woman beside him. He turned his head to look at the woman behind him, and after seeing her nod, he walked towards Li Ke.
The others slowly began to line up behind the children, and they consciously pushed the children to the front. The children who finished their cookies immediately picked up their buckets together to look for fish, eager to exchange them for more cookies.
The talkative boy, while eating his cookies, asked curiously, "What do you need so many fish for? How are you going to take them with you? These fish don't have much meat, and some are even poisonous; you can't eat them."
Li Ke looked at him coldly: "I haven't asked you any questions, so shut your mouth. If you say another word, I'll still kill you."
The boy was frightened by Li Ke's coldness and dared not make a sound. After carefully taking a sip of water, he ran away into the distance.
Seeing that one of the men had run far away, Li Ke fired a shot. The bullet grazed the man's ear, startling him so much that he immediately retreated.
Two hours passed in the blink of an eye, and Li Ke still hadn't seen the men's companions. When they came to hand over their tasks, Li Ke asked them a couple of questions, but they couldn't give a clear answer, so Li Ke sent them back to work.
There are now five large pits near her. Three of them were dug by the women working together. The tide didn't come in at night. Li Ke took a large lamp out of her backpack and placed it on the beach to light their way.
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