hsntnovel Chapter 278 Iron Guardian
Chapter 278 Iron Guardian
As night fell, the tables and drinks were already set up around the campfire.
The only snacks to accompany the drinks were canned goods and some salted vegetables that Xiao Luo had scavenged from the salt market, which had been sitting for who knows how long.
The flickering flames illuminated the camp in a fiery red glow, with ruins on one side and thriving life on the other.
Tashan placed the bottle of vodka on the stone table and waited for Xu Si to sit down.
"It's better than nothing, Lao Fu, do you want some?" Tashan shouted to the bus.
"No, you guys drink!" Fu Xiaojian and Su Su were guarding the big man.
If a riot were to break out, Fu Xiaojian wouldn't be able to control the situation; it would have to be Su Su.
In close combat, even Xu Si would not gain the upper hand.
As for the others, Wang Hu had to take care of Yao Yao, and Shao Bing had to train Rui Jiaying and the others in how to use guns.
Yang Fan and Li Miao tactfully stepped aside, while only Xiao Luo was eager to try.
"Kid, it's not that I'm reluctant, it's just that you're still young. Let's talk about it when you're a bit older!"
"I, I, didn't want to drink it."
Ronaldinho didn't actually want to drink.
He just wanted to sit with them like an adult.
Yi Yi fell asleep on the small bed, and Xu Si walked over and patted Xiao Luo's head.
He could guess a thing or two about Xiao Luo's thoughts.
"Brother Chen Pei, come over and have a drink!"
Drinking it between two people is really boring, and since it's vodka, it's quite necessary to find someone to share the heat.
"I'd better not; everything I drink tastes like water!"
Chen Pei's situation is much more optimistic than Tang Jinxiu's; at least he has no problem communicating with the rest of the team.
Tang Jinxiu still has some autistic tendencies; she only gets nervous when it comes to Chen Pei.
Even though she taught Jiao Jiao a lot of medical knowledge, the two of them weren't particularly close.
"That's a shame! It'll just be the two of us drinking."
Neither Tashan nor Xu Si had any concerns about driving, so drinking wasn't a problem for them.
Xiao Luo sat to the side, trying to fit in with the adults.
Tashan unscrewed the bottle cap, and the aroma of strong liquor mingled with the smoke from the campfire, creating an incongruous, rough feel.
"I only need half a pound, how about we split it in half?"
Two cans make the perfect wine glasses.
"random!"
Since binding with [Bingxin], Xu Si has hardly shown any emotional changes.
This is not a disguise, but a natural transformation.
"It has to be you again! Knife! I can't beat you in a fight, and I can't outdrink you!"
Xu Si thought to himself, "Luckily there's only one bottle here, otherwise we would have really been exposed."
"Glug glug..." As the wine splashed everywhere, the aroma of wine filled the camp.
Unexpectedly, this lured Da Mao awake.
"Блядь, Андрей, яжезнал, чтотыспряталалкоголь! (fuck, Andrei, I knew you were hiding wine!)"
Xu Si and Ta Shan paused in their toasting motion, their eyes both turning to the bus.
Xu Si's wine was already down by a third, and it was unknown whose can that third had ended up in.
When Da Mao opened his eyes, he was stunned. He thought his teammates had saved him, but it turned out to be two black-haired Asians.
As Fu Xiaojian was trying to recall how to say it in Russian, Da Mao had already spoken.
"The Great Xia people?" Da Mao slowly stood up and asked, seemingly understanding what had happened.
His fluent Mandarin caught Fu Xiaojian off guard.
However, this makes communication much easier.
"Now, I'll ask, you answer?" Fu Xiaojian didn't reply, but forcefully took over the conversation.
Although Da Mao was not a prisoner, his treatment was similar.
"Could I have a drink? I haven't had one in six months!"
No matter how bad their health was, no matter how dire their situation was, and no matter if they were about to be executed.
The first thing Da Mao thought of was to have a drink.
Judging from his throat, which was already extremely dry and cracked, he swallowed again and again, it seemed that he really was suffering from an alcohol craving.
After considering for a moment, Fu Xiaojian called out, "Old Xu, bring me a drink!"
Xu Si didn't ask why, he directly divided one-third of it into a vodka bottle and sent it to the bus using "Star Guide".
"Knife, why does this wine look like it's running low?"
"Wasn't it already given to Lao Fu?"
Xu Si laughed it off and brushed it off with a toast.
……
"I knew Andrei was hiding some liquor!"
After downing a sip of wine, Da Mao comfortably lay back down on the bus floor, his eyes becoming vacant.
It seems he had already foreseen the fate of his teammates.
"Name? Identity? Sequence?" Fu Xiaojian asked directly.
He still needs to ask this guy, who is very likely to be a member of the team next, more questions.
Ivan leaned against the cold carriage floor, the icy liquor burning in his stomach, bringing a long-lost, false sense of power.
He licked his still-chapped lips, his voice hoarse, his Chinese heavily accented with rolled "r" sounds, but clear enough.
"Ivan Petrovich. Former member of 'Vanguard,' retired...? Who knows what year it is now. Sequence 2—Iron Guard."
He gave a bitter laugh, tugged at the dried wound on his face, and spoke without reservation.
"As for why we're here? Our convoy ran out of fuel and water in this damn desert and couldn't move. Noi said there were supplies in this direction, so we headed in that direction to look."
Fu Xiaojian and Su Su exchanged a glance, clearly indicating that their destination was the military base the convoy had just left.
"So you're going to kill me?" Ivan asked calmly, as if he had understood the other's wishes.
Because he was certain that he was no match for the frail little girl in front of him.
"We won't do something like saving someone and then killing them, unless you do something irrational. But you'd better get up and see for yourself!" Fu Xiaojian said meaningfully.
Those who were waiting for his return never saw him again; instead, they were met with something strange.
Ivan seemed to realize something, struggled to his feet, and staggered to the bus door.
The Iron Guardian's strong physique allowed him to withstand the desert heat and dehydration, and it also helped him regain some strength.
He leaned against the door frame, his cloudy eyes gazing at the campfire leaping in the air, his pupils suddenly contracting.
He was completely stunned when he landed on the wreckage of the vehicle in the shadows, his feet rooted to the spot, not daring to move an inch.
"This place was already like this before we arrived; it must have been attacked by some strange force!" Fu Xiaojian explained.
He never mentioned any survivors, which means there weren't any.
Ivan seemed to have expected this as well, his eyes fixed on the wreckage of the vehicles.
The veins on his thick neck bulged, and a suppressed whimper, like that of a wild beast, escaped his throat, but he held it back and didn't let out a howl.
"Andrei... Natasha... Little Maxim..."
He read out each name one by one, his voice like sand rubbing against an iron plate.