"I don't know... I really don't know."
Barto broke down. Tears and mucus streamed down his face as he shook his head. Then, as if escaping from a state of extreme struggle, he suddenly deflated like a punctured ball, his head drooping as he hung from Cheng Shi's hand, no longer moving.
Only his mouth kept muttering, "Don't kill me... I don't know... Don't kill me... I really don't know."
"..."
The truth.
Though it was the truth, it was rather awkward.
Cheng Shi had thought this deputy might still be useful, but he had never expected him to be completely useless except as a handhold.
What was he supposed to do now?
Frowning, Cheng Shi tossed Barto at his feet. After thinking for a moment, he began asking the surrounding scavengers about the current situation.
But he did not have much hope. Even Wells's own handhold did not know Wells's secrets, so how could these small fry possibly know?
His current plan was to gather up all the information he could, then leave at once for the nearest eastern or western outpost. There, he would find the leaders of other scavenger groups familiar with the Place of Piety and Faith Theater and see what secrets he could pry out of them.
What he had not expected was that this questioning actually yielded an unexpected gain.
A skinny young man wrapped in scraps of cloth, dressed like a bucket, poked his head out from behind a pile of scrap metal in front of the wire fence. His eyes trembled with apprehension as he said in a quavering voice,
"I know one way..."
"!?"
Cheng Shi raised an eyebrow. Zhang Jizu narrowed his eyes, and Ai Si immediately turned her head. The three of them looked at the skinny young man