Chapter 429 Funeral
The days of preparation pass by, and a new game will soon begin.
Those who did not participate in the war began to shift their positions.
"Mom, won't Dad go with us?" a child asked innocently.
The mother held the child's hand, glanced at the armored man in the distance, and nodded heavily: "Your father has to fight, he has to take the food back from the monsters, so that you can eat the canned food."
"Really? Then I want to help Dad too!" the child shouted, his eyes sparkling.
The woman touched the corner of her eyes and forced a smile, saying, "This is a very dangerous thing. You can go there when you are older."
Zhou Xiaoxiao walked among the evacuating crowd and looked at similar scenes with mixed feelings. At this time, who should survive?
He originally thought that a clear-headed person like himself could save more people if he survived, and that people like him should survive.
But what is the situation now?
Those who could have saved more people did nothing, while those who seemed to have no potential risked their lives to actually save those who retreated behind the scenes and gave up the fight.
In theory, it seems that the best people can save more people, but in reality, these burly blacksmiths in armor have put the rescue into action and saved more people than him... There is a huge difference between theory and reality after all.
Maybe, I shouldn't be the one who lives.
Arriving at the temporary resting place, Zhou Xiaoxiao sat alone in a corner, thinking about a question that he had thought about countless times before.
Is he the one who must survive? What is Su Ming observing?
He wanted the god Tyr to give him clearer guidance, but the god Tyr did not appear at this time.
Looking up and observing her surroundings, Zhou Xiaoxiao discovered with her ability of observation that the surrounding environment had changed. There was less suspicion and worry on people's faces, and adults no longer stopped children from playing together. People sat close to each other, some praying for their husbands going to the battlefield , and some talking about the past.
The women were much more relaxed than the men. Zhou Xiaoxiao saw that most of the men gathered together, thinking in silence, with someone occasionally saying a word or two.
The faces of these men were filled with conflict; they wanted to take part in this battle with a very high mortality rate, but the instinct for survival prevented them from making such an act of self-sacrifice.
Everyone has changed. Originally, they were all scheming against each other and didn't trust each other at all.
Why did the same person change so much? Was it just because of the last battle?
Zhou Xiaoxiao didn’t understand. Although he could see through other people’s thoughts, he couldn’t know why they thought that way.
“They’re back!”
“They are back!!”
Suddenly someone shouted in the distance, and Zhou Xiaoxiao was suddenly awakened from his thoughts. He thought to himself that this time the problem was solved so quickly. Could it be that the monster this time was particularly easy to kill?
When the people around heard that the battle was over, they all stood up and rushed in the direction where the soldiers had returned. Zhou Xiaoxiao stood up in a daze and followed them forward.
After walking a few steps, I heard heart-wrenching cries coming from the front. There were cries of women and children. The children lost their fathers and the women lost their husbands.
"Make way! Please make way, it's our turn now!"
The old man behind him spoke in a deep voice, and Zhou Xiaoxiao subconsciously moved aside to make way. The group of old people behind him walked straight through the crowd and came to the front.
Before Zhou Xiaoxiao could catch up, she saw a large group of people carrying several people with blood-stained armor into a house next door, and the old people followed them in.
"Make way, please make way." Zhou Xiaoxiao shouted as she squeezed through the crowd and came to the front.
He saw more than a dozen bodies, and in the distance, people were carrying back more bodies.
The bodies of the dead men were well wrapped in iron armor. The incredibly strong divine steel protected their flesh. Almost all of them were shocked to death. Although they looked intact on the outside, the bones and internal organs under the armor might have rotted into a ball.
More bodies were brought back . Zhou Xiaoxiao counted them and found that there were more than thirty bodies, almost half of the people who participated in the battle.
Inside the house, Su Ming was treating the wounds of the survivors. When the people being treated saw that Su Ming was about to transfer their wounds to the old man, they said despite their pain, "It's okay, this is enough for me! You don't need to continue treating me!"
"What nonsense are you talking about! Shut up and lie down! You have your fight, and we have our fight!" The old man roared, directly suppressing the other party.
The man lay down obediently, and Su Ming continued the treatment. His expression did not change from beginning to end.
This battle proved that his guess was completely correct. Although the monster this time was stronger and more difficult to deal with than the last Iron Spider, after sixty ordinary people joined the battle, this battle was actually easier than the last time against the Iron Spider.
You have to know that those who participated in the battle were not real warriors. Before they put on armor, they were just ordinary blacksmiths.
These people were unfamiliar with how to swing swords or stab with guns, but even so, they still inflicted huge trauma on the monster.
If the speculation is correct, then the path they are taking now is also correct, but Su Ming is still a little worried. After all, impulse and awareness are different. Both impulse and awareness will make people do difficult things.
But people who are aware will still move forward courageously after seeing the terrible consequences , while people who are just impulsive may shrink back after seeing the terrible consequences.
Now, they have all seen the consequences of joining the battle. After that, how many people will be awakened?
Su Ming cured the wounded one by one in order, and said to the old butler beside him: "Elton, ask someone to make the coffin."
"yes."
Su Ming got up and walked outside. The woman was still sobbing and the child was wailing loudly, at a loss. The air was filled with sadness.
Following Su Ming out were the soldiers who had recovered from their injuries. When they saw the crying families of the victims, they couldn't help but burst into tears.
The soldiers took off their armor one by one and went forward to comfort them, just like they were comforting their own relatives.
"Lao Zhang died because he helped me block a kick! If it weren't for Lao Zhang, I would definitely be dead now. Sister-in-law, from now on your business is my business, and Lao Zhang's son is my son... I..."
The soldier originally wanted to promise to protect them in the future, but when he thought that no one would survive here and only thirteen people would survive in the end, the words stopped at the tip of his tongue.
As a blacksmith with a low level of education who had only known how to make weapons since childhood, he could not think of a suitable excuse. Helping his dead brother take care of his family was the most important thing he could think of. Unfortunately, in this place, even the things that he could do his best in reality could not be done.
Su Ming's eyes quietly swept over everyone present. Everyone's mood was much better than he had imagined. Although they were sad, they still accepted it.
Finally, Su Ming's sight fell on Zhou Xiaoxiao. Zhou Xiaoxiao was sitting alone in the corner, with his head down as if thinking about something. He looked very confused.
It seems that it was a right decision not to get rid of Lao Zhou in the first place. Lao Zhou is different from other people who made a deal with the devil, Su Ming thought.
"What are you going to do next?" Cao Fengling walked up to Su Ming and asked.
Cao Fengling's tone was a little heavy. In this battle, she lost one of her beloved men.
Although she had prepared herself mentally when she first joined the war, she found it difficult to accept when it actually happened in front of her.
In Cao Fengling's imagination, she, the boss, always left one step ahead of her younger brothers, but now the result is like this.
"Hold a funeral and mourn the deceased." Su Ming replied concisely.
"Really?" Cao Fengling nodded lightly and walked to a shirtless corpse. He looked at the angry face and tears rolled down from the corners of his eyes.
"My condolences." Su Ming patted Cao Fengling's shoulder gently.
…
On the simple coffin, there was a wreath woven with green grass. It was impossible to find beautiful things like flowers in this place, but this wreath was enough to express the gratitude of the living to the dead.
In the coffins, there are warriors who sacrificed their lives for innocent people. They will sleep forever under this strange land.
Perhaps in the future, their bodies will return to the Molten Iron City as the strange phenomena end.
But at this moment, they were in a foreign land.
“In this devil’s land, God has not saved us, but we are still saving ourselves.
Even in such a desperate situation, love and kindness are still there.
Even now, the devil is still confused by your courage and fearlessness. Let it be confused. Human beings have never been so easy to understand.
I will carry on your legacy, thank you for your trust in me, I will take good care of everyone until I go to where you are, and then we will meet again."
Su Ming spoke in front of the neatly arranged rows of coffins, neither lightly nor heavily, like a young priest.
Behind him, people stood shoulder to shoulder, and their family members were still crying. They comforted and encouraged each other.
Cao Fengling, who had been relatively stable, suddenly lost control of her emotions when Li Daniu was about to be buried. She rushed to Li Daniu's coffin, flipped over the coffin lid, and yelled at Li Daniu's body lying inside: "Fuck your mother! Didn't you say you could handle it! Didn't you say you wouldn't die! Did I ever tell you not to be stubborn! Did I ever tell you!!"
"Big sister! Big sister, calm down!"
"Sister, Brother Niu is gone, you can't be like this."
The other younger brothers stepped forward and grabbed Cao Fengling, who was angrily questioning the corpse, and they all cried loudly with tears streaming down their faces.
Su Ming had a complicated expression. He waited patiently for others to pull Cao Fengling away, then waved his hand.
More than thirty coffins were slowly lifted up and placed into the pits that had been dug long ago. The soil was slowly covered on them, and finally wooden tombstones with each person's name were inserted.
Su Ming asked Elton to take out the new food and distribute enough to everyone.
Finally, he spoke in front of everyone:
"There will still be a banquet tonight. Each of them doesn't want you to feel too sad about their death. The survivors know this best... I will read their suicide notes at the banquet. Some of them are for their families, which I will deliver privately. There are also some suicide notes that are what they want to say to everyone.
When the time comes, let's eat and listen at the same time."
…
As night fell, a bonfire was lit.
Without the laughter and joy of the past, everyone had no appetite. The servants kept serving delicious dinners according to Su Ming's instructions. As the richest man in the rich area, the previous owner of the manor had abundant supplies. In addition, other rich people's houses often stored a lot of food, so there was more than enough food.
The biggest contributor to the fact that we can eat such delicious food today is Elton.
The manor that Su Ming bought already had an underground freezer, which contained a large amount of food.
Originally, all the food inside would have been scrapped after the power outage, but because there was a generator and Su Ming happened not to use it, Elton took it upon himself to keep the food frozen.
That’s why we can now eat hot pork and beef.
However, although the dinner was sumptuous, everyone's appetite was not very good. Everyone looked solemn and looked as if they could not eat anything.
At this time, Su Ming came on stage with the suicide note.
“Ahem!”
Su Ming cleared his throat.
“This is…Brother Zhang’s suicide note, written to everyone.
[Hello everyone, my name is Zhang Ming. Some people know me, and some people don’t.
Uncle Elton told me to write the suicide note casually and not to worry about what other people think, but after thinking about it, I still feel that I should consider the feelings of the people who listen to the suicide note. If someone cries while listening to Mr. Xia reading this suicide note, I will be very unhappy, so I want to tell you a joke in advance.
But before I start telling jokes, I have something serious to say, and first of all, I want to tell my wife. 】
Su Ming paused after reading this, and then continued: "Wife, after I am gone, can you please not look for another man? Although I know that in such a bad environment, it is a bit difficult to ask you to do this, but in fact, it will pass quickly if you endure it.
You have been mean to me all my life, please satisfy me this time and give me a little dignity as a man. 】"
As soon as Su Ming finished speaking, a woman in her thirties slammed the table and stood up, cursing: "Fuck you! Zhang Ming, I have served you for so many years, when have I ever done anything to let you down! You're dead and you're telling me this! I——"
Angry curses echoed and the scene was extremely embarrassing.
Seeing this, Su Ming quickly added, "This is the joke I was talking about. My wife, you have worked hard, but I asked you to cooperate with me. I trust you immensely, and I will still love you even if I die."
"Ha ha ha ha!"
"Ha ha ha ha!"
Everyone burst into laughter, the woman blushed, and sat down again, feeling a little sad, but also a little moved.
With these two short sentences, the originally heavy atmosphere suddenly changed and became much softer. Su Ming suddenly admired the person who wrote this suicide note. Although his cultural level did not seem to be high, his down-to-earth words were very influential.
