Footsteps came from outside the cave, and the three of them hurriedly picked up their tools and began working frantically.
The overseer walked up and saw them working, then nodded in satisfaction.
“I’ll come check on the progress in a bit. If you don’t dig out 100 square meters today, you can forget about resting. You’ll have to work through the night.”
A man turned around shakily and said.
"Boss Li, we have no problem doing this, but could you give us an extra cornbread?"
"I'm so hungry my hands and feet are weak."
Upon hearing this, the foreman turned around and whipped the thin man until he knelt on the ground, covering his head.
That's good enough.
Suddenly, his whip was grabbed tightly, and one end of the whip was wrapped in Ouyang Zhenyu's hand.
The sudden force caught the foreman off guard. He looked up abruptly and saw Ouyang Zhenyu's eyes filled with anger. His furious expression startled him.
Only then did he realize that the person in front of him was a newcomer. Obviously, the newcomer had not yet experienced the hardships that followed and was naturally full of resistance to his whip.
"You dare to stop my whip, kid? It seems you don't know how powerful it is. Do you want a taste of its power too?"
“Boss Li, now that you’ve injured him, who’s going to do the work? You know there are only four of us left.”
There's a limited amount of work that can be done each day. If you kill him now, there will be no one to do the work.
"I think Chief Li also hopes that we can finish this job as soon as possible. He wouldn't be thinking of killing us all, would he?"
Ouyang Zhenyu could certainly guess that the original mine had been buried, so these people now needed a new place.
No one would dare to provoke Brother Shan until new able-bodied men join the workforce.
Li Tou'er had clearly weighed the options in his mind.
He immediately withdrew the whip and said with a forced smile,
"Kid, let me tell you something."
Don't think you'll get away with this beating. If you don't work properly, I'll still beat you to death.
Don't think you can't survive without us. Our people are coming in a couple of days, and then you'll see how I deal with you.
The overseer took the whip and turned to leave.
They hurriedly helped the person on the ground up, but the beating had already knocked the thin man unconscious.
The man who had just been talking to Ouyang Zhenyu hurriedly pinched the other man's philtrum.
But the person didn't wake up.
"No, he won't wake up like this."
Ouyang Zhenyu gritted his teeth.
He pretended to reach into his pocket.
He insisted on taking out a bottle of mineral water, even though he knew it must be a bit unbelievable that he had inexplicably pulled it out of his pocket.
But there was no other way; there was no cover, and I couldn't just stand by and watch this person die in front of me.
Ouyang Zhenyu was betting on human nature; at this moment, he was betting that he had helped these people and that they would not betray him.
Sure enough, the other two people looked at Ouyang Zhenyu with suspicion when they saw this.
Besides, Ouyang Zhenyu's clothes don't look like the kind of outfit that would allow him to pull out such a large bucket of water from his pocket.
They had never seen that bottle before.
However, judging from the sloshing of the liquid in the bottle, it is definitely water.
But asking anything now seemed pointless, so they could only keep their mouths shut and watch as Ouyang Zhenyu unscrewed the cap and poured the water into the unconscious man's mouth.
The man initially took a sip passively, but upon tasting the liquid, he immediately began gulping it down.
Then she opened her eyes.
The other two men watched the man drink water, and their throats involuntarily began to move up and down.
There's no way around it; they not only control the food they give us, but we can also only drink water once a day.
That time, they were only given two bowls of water; they wouldn't give them more even if they died of thirst.
Of course, some people will choose to drink both bowls at once or drink one bowl and take one home.
But that's all the amount we can produce each day.
This is why these people had no strength to escape; they had no food or water, which meant they were just hanging on to survive.
The man woke up, saw the water he was drinking, and quickly and gently pushed it away with his hand.
"No, don't waste it."
These days, water is so precious that no matter whose water it is, if you drink it so much, no one can resist.
Ouyang Zhenyu took the bottle and gulped down one-third of it before handing the bottle to them.
"Alright, everyone has divided it up."
The three men swallowed hard. It would be a lie to say they didn't want it, but it belonged to someone else.
Everyone knows how precious water and food are to them.
These people were all captured, and they support and protect each other.
But everyone knows one thing: these things can save lives.
If I drink it, others will have less.
It's like you've taken someone else's life.
The three of them licked their chapped lips and shook their heads.
"No need, you can keep it."
Ouyang Zhenyu felt a warmth in his heart. This incident showed that all three of them were good and kind people.
Otherwise, based on what I just said, they could have easily accepted the drink and finished it without any hesitation.
"You guys drink. I have more!"
The two men's eyes fell on Ouyang Zhenyu's pocket, which was very large, but definitely not large enough to hold the bottle.
Ouyang Zhenyu glanced at his pockets, knowing that no explanation was convincing at the moment.
He said in a low voice.
“You should know that we were just captured. I have a brother hiding outside. Can he provide me with some food and water?”
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