Chapter 11: He’s Dead
  A sense of coolness rose from the bottom of his heart and Lin Xi looked at the moist soil for a long time.
  “Who? Who’s there?” Suddenly, a soldier’s questioning voice came from the bonfire.
  Lin Xi didn’t respond, he silently covered up the traces, turned over and dodged into the shadow of the dunes like a vigorous cheetah.
  The soldiers who came after him soon lost sight of him.
  They looked at each other in shock, and found that they couldn’t even see what the other party looked like. The shadow under the moonlight that they had just noticed seemed to be just an illusion.
  Lin Xi didn’t look back, he took advantage of the darkness to get back to Mu Yechen’s tent, returned to the camp bed, and covered himself with the quilt.
  He started to doze off.
  After a while, footsteps came from outside the tent.
  “Commander.” The soldier guarding the gate saluted respectfully.
  “Is he inside?”
  “Yes.”
  “Is he there all the time?”
  “He hasn’t gone outside since the night cooled down…”
  Footsteps came from far and near to the marching bed.
  A shadow covered the light and cast on Lin Xi’s pillow.
  After five years, Lin Xi has become accustomed to disguise. He fell asleep peacefully, his breath light and steady, as if he was facing the cameras and monitors in the laboratory.
  Mu Yechen watched it silently for a while then leaned over to pick up the quilt that was hanging on the ground, and flatten it over Lin Xi’s chest.
  When the bedding was finished, the footsteps sounded again and the commander got up and left.
  “Tou, how is it? Have you found any clues?”
  “He’s already asleep.”
  “Since Tou and Cang Jie both suspect him, why don’t we wake him up and ask?”
  “Forget it. He just fell ill, let him rest first.”
  The footsteps returned from the road gradually drifting away and reintegrated into the patrol of the camp.
  Lin Xi opened her eyes, staring blankly with icy cold eyes and closed them again.
  In the early morning of the second day, he received a notice from the other side to withdraw the camp.
  “Didn’t you take a two-day break before leaving?” Lin Xi’s voice was soft.
  He grabbed the officers nearby and asked.
   “Is the storm over?”
   “How can it be so fast.” It was Luo Xiaowei, “Something happened in the camp last night. The boss ordered to pull out the camp today and change the position first.”
  “?” Lin Xi was stunned for a while, looking a little puzzled.
  His confused look is also very good-looking, Luo Xiaowei felt that his heart softened suddenly and he patiently said: “Last night, the soldiers found vulture eggs in the camp. There were dozens of them in a row. For safety reasons, Let’s avoid this group of aliens first.”
  After Lin Xi successfully sneaked away last night, the soldiers were still searching for the whereabouts of suspicious figures, but they searched the camp for a long time and found no suspects. Instead, they found bird eggs at the east side of the camp.
  Luo Xiaowei explained: “According to Cangjie’s speculation, these bird eggs are the eggs of alienated vultures. Those guys hold the most vengeance. Last time, a civilian in the East District stole their eggs in the desert and was chased by these birds to the city. Our advance army fought this alien for several days before driving them away.”
  Lin Xi nodded as if he understood.
  Luo Xiaowei smiled and took Lin Xi to the car again.
  But this time, he was no longer in a truck.
  Lin Xi stared at the off-road jeep the commander was sitting on: “I’m sitting here…isn’t it okay?”
  “It’s nothing wrong, you’re not in good health. This car is less bumpy than a truck, you can sit more comfortably.” This time the one who answered him was Cang Jie who had captured him earlier.
  Hearing this, Lin Xi believed it on the surface.
  Cang Jie pointed at the back seat of the jeep again: “You sit in the middle. Gu Yang will be on the left and I will be on the right.”
  This way of sitting attacked him from both sides.
  These people are still suspicious about him.
  He was silent and didn’t say anything. He got on the car slowly at the speed of an ordinary person.
  Before leaving, he saw the villagers of Gaia Village get back on the truck. Because of the disease, many villagers were carried by soldiers into the car.
  The sick villagers who appeared in front of Mu Yechen’s tent yesterday not only did not recover but the number seemed to have increased.
  Lin Xi glanced at Moraka again.
  The juvenile shaman stood by the truck in command and his eyes were constantly looking at the other troops, his sight was always in the commander’s direction.
  There was burning hatred in his eyes.
  Mu Yechen didn’t notice. After arranging the convoy, he got into the passenger seat of the jeep.
  The convoy continued to return in the other direction. Because of the wind and dust storm, Mu Yechen asked the convoy to bypass and choose an area with a lower level of wind and sand to pass through.
  The loess on the road is endless, and the surrounding is desolate and uninhabited, only the undulating hills and ridges are continuous in a wide angle.
  When it was close to the edge of the sandstorm area, fine sand started to form on the ground again, slapping against the windows of the jeep, as if it was raining in the sky.
  Lin Xi watched the changing scenery outside the window and silently calculated his position.
  Suddenly, he saw someone staring at him from the reflection in the car window.
  The person looking at him was a young soldier sitting on his left. He looked young at least twenty years old and still had a youthful and childish look.
  Lin Xi even felt that this little soldier was a little familiar.
  The young soldier also seemed to notice that Lin Xi was looking at him and his face suddenly turned red.
  “Really good-looking.” He explained to Lin Xi in a low voice, “The vision of the commander is really good.”
  Lin Xi: “…”
  Mu Yechen: “…”
  His communication skills were unfamiliar and clumsy, so everyone heard it.
  There was a strange silence in the car. After a while, Luo Xiaowei, who was driving, laughed out loud.
  “GuYang, I’m right!”
  “Mmmm.” Gu Yang nodded, giving him a high degree of affirmation, “He looks better than my mother.”
  “GuYang, but he’s a man.” Cang Jie half opened his eyes.
  “I know he’s a man…” Gu Yang scratched his head, “But what I said is true…”
  There was another burst of laughter from Luo Xiaowei in the car.
  The dull return journey became less boring and the atmosphere in the carriage instantly became lively.
  Luo Xiaowei saw Lin Xi’s white hair and face in the rearview mirror, his face was as delicate as a fine ceramic artwork.
  “Xiaobai.” He asked, “You look so good-looking, you must be very popular outside, right?”
  Beautiful people have an innate advantage in attracting humans.
  But his world is closed to the outside world.
  Lin Xi shook his head: “I don’t know, I seldom go out.”
  “It’s impossible not to go out.”
  Lin Xi had to think about it: “I have seen a very strong mutant before and he said that there are many people who keep slaves. Everyone likes me and wants to take me to the auction house.”
  The atmosphere in the car stiffened for a moment. The commander sitting in the passenger seat slowly raised his eyes, Gu Yang’s eyes widened, Cang Jie also glanced at Lin Xi.
  “Then, what happened to you later, you won’t really be bought by him to play… Oh no, are you a slave?” Luo Xiaowei quickly asked.
  “No, he was beaten to death and I escaped.” Although he himself was the one who killed.
  But after these words were said, the expressions of the people in the carriage softened a lot.
  Luo Xiaowei also took a long breath.
  “That’s good.” He didn’t know that this was Lin Xi’s lie.
  “When you get to the other side, there will be no such chaos outside, we will protect you.”
  “Really?” Lin Xi asked with a harmless smile.
  “Of course!” Luo Xiaowei assured. He glanced at everyone and saw Gu Yang nodding heavily after him. Cang Jie squinted and said nothing and the commander didn’t move, but his eyes that were usually aimed at him were much softer. .
  Lin Xi seemed to believe it, he turned his head with a smile and looked out the window quietly.
  This time, the wind and sand outside were even bigger and in the fine sand in the sky, it was gradually difficult to recognize the distant scene. Lin Xi’s vision looked through the flying sand and saw a black spot on a dune in the distance.
  The black spot was about half a kilometer away from their direction. Judging from the size of the black spot, it looked like a human body.
  There should be no human beings in the desert.
  Lin Xi kept his voice on them for three seconds until a light burst into the distance, causing his pupils to shrink like needles.
  People in the Jeep also noticed the anomaly.
  “What sound?” Luo Xiaowei asked.
  The ground seemed to be shaking, and the sound of sand and stone hitting the soiled windows was mixed with a sharp whistle.
  This voice sounded very unfamiliar but Cang Jie, the most experienced battlefield veteran in the carriage, turned pale instantly.
  “It’s a bomb! Luo Xiaowei, if there is an enemy attack, avoid it!!”
  He roared loudly, listening to the whistle and looking around, he saw a bomb with a diameter of ten centimeters swept low on the ground, heading straight towards them from the sand dune come.
  Luo Xiaowei’s expression changed and he hurriedly turned the steering wheel.
  The people in the carriage slammed into the side door due to inertia.
  But this still can’t stop the bombing attack. Missiles thrown from the dunes missed the sound of jeeps and crashed into the ground.
  “Boom–“
  An explosion sounded, billowing smoke erupted in the desert and the jeep was instantly lifted by the impact of the explosion, rolling over the sandy slope and leaving a long trace, scattered tires, parts, and glass.
  It was not until the momentum of the explosion ceased that it plunged into the dunes and stopped, scrapping in the desert like broken metal.
  Harsh cheers could be heard faintly in the distance and the black dots that had been stagnant on the ridge line began to move wildly, running wildly in the wind and sand.
  The whistle of the modified car and the roar of the engine fuel came loudly.
  ‘Bang, bang.’
  At the same time, the door of the scrapped Jeep was kicked open from the inside out.
  The deformed car door was like a thin wooden board that was kicked by Mu Yechen. The commander quickly jumped out of the car and grabbed the nearby.
  He moves very quickly and judges the situation on the field more quickly.
  Sand bandits.
  It was the sand bandits who threw bombs and attacked them just now.
  In the last century, in addition to the large human base on the other side for people to live in, there was also a group of bandits who committed no evil. They lived by looting and often attacked the passing humans.
  Usually, the sand bandits would not dare to provoke the other side but this time in the storm, they did it openly.
  “Are you all right?” Mu Yechen’s voice turned cold as he looked at the sand bandits who were getting closer.
  “Commander, I’m fine.” The left carriage was rolled underneath and Luo Xiaowei got out from the bottom of the car.
  “I’m fine too.” Gu Yang opened the door with a palm.
  They are all mutants who have been transformed by the laboratory genetic program. Their physical strength is far greater than that of ordinary humans. The threat of the explosion just now is nothing to them.
  But Mu Yechen waited for a while, but didn’t hear Cang Jie’s answer.
  He turned back and looked for Cang Jie’s figure.
  Cang Jie was already standing beside the car, he had already escaped from the trap but his eyes were fixed on the carriage.
  “Commander, I’m fine.” After a while, he replied in hindsight.
  Mu Yechen suddenly realized something, quickly walked to the back compartment and looked inside.
  The car was already in a mess and was covered with large and small pieces of glass. The “Xiao Bai” who was talking to them just now had his head resting on the back of the driver’s seat, his white hair hanging down softly blocking his face, there was blood smeared on it and it fell drop by drop along the hair.
  He didn’t move, his right abdomen was pierced by the steel pipe that burst out of the chair frame, his right hand was drooping on the steel pipe with a strange curvature, as if he was trying his best to escape this bad luck.
  Blood was still slowly flowing from the wound but he was no longer moving.
  “He’s dead.”
  Cang Jie sighed and reported.
~~~~~~~
Edited: 7/20/22
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