Night patrols followed the same old rules: the convoy's Sequence Transcendents had to keep watch at night.
There were now six Sequence Transcendents in the Survival Rules Convoy, so Liu Chuan, their captain, assigned their shifts.
Shen Qingqing and Shen Chuchu were responsible for the first watch.
Lin Yi and Ji Qingcang took the middle watch.
Liu Chuan and Wang Meng would cover the last watch through morning.
Even at night, the temperature in Peace Town barely dropped. It was still hot, just not as hot as during the day.
Lin Yi estimated it was somewhere in the twenties Celsius, compared to forty or even fifty degrees during the day.
After relieving the Shen sisters, Lin Yi and Ji Qingcang began patrolling around the hospital.
The people of Peace Town seemed to know that the convoy was not to be trifled with. None dared come over at night.
Lin Yi and Ji Qingcang sat at the hospital entrance, one watching the street outside with a cigarette between his lips, the other watching the vehicle where his wife and daughter were resting.
"Ji, what's the price of your Sequence?"
Lin Yi suddenly asked, "You take good care of your family, and you never seem to act strangely. It feels like it hasn't affected you at all."
His own [Criminal] Sequence had cost him a kidney outright.
The sensation back then had nearly killed him.
At those words, Ji Qingcang's gaze darkened slightly, and even his whole demeanor took on a hint of dejection.
Lin Yi noticed immediately and turned to look at the stay-at-home dad in his thirties.
"The price I have to pay is steep. As my Sequence advances, my human emotions will disappear completely, until I'm nothing but a beast."
Ji Qingcang gave a bleak smile. "You all have it better. You only lose one thing, but I have to lose every human emotion."
Only then did Lin Yi understand why Ji Qingcang cared so deeply about his wife and daughter.
Ji Qingcang knew perfectly well that if he wanted to protect them, he had to raise his Sequence level.
But once he did, he would face the erosion of his human emotions.
It was an impossible choice.
Yet Ji Qingcang had no option but to grit his teeth and keep going. He had already started down this path, and he had to keep his wife and daughter safe.
Lin Yi had thought losing a kidney was already a hefty price.
Now, though, compared with Ji Qingcang, he had gotten off lightly.
It was clear that Ji Qingcang would continue advancing his Sequence, but there was no telling how long he could hold out.
Once his human emotions vanished completely, Ji Qingcang would no longer be human in any real sense.
"Sometimes I really envy you all. The prices you pay aren't nearly as severe."
Ji Qingcang smiled. "Captain Liu became impotent, but he doesn't regret it. The Passive Gourd suits him well, after all. Wang Meng, the newcomer, feels a physical revulsion toward women. Of the Shen sisters, one has completely lost her attraction to men, and the other has developed another personality. No matter how you look at it, they're still human. But my future..."
Hearing this, Lin Yi couldn't help raising his eyebrows.
Wait a second!
You're all that close already?
You already know each other's problems?
So I'm the outsider here?
Seeing Lin Yi take out a cigarette and light it, Ji Qingcang knew he was reading too much into it. He explained, "Captain Liu asked us privately. He knows you don't like dealing with people, so he didn't ask you. Have you forgotten the Second Rule?"
The Second Rule: personal value.
Sequence Transcendents who joined the convoy were not allowed to conceal their Sequences.
Lin Yi nodded, then exhaled a cloud of smoke. "I was wondering why Captain Liu seemed less and less manly. So he's been impotent all along. That price rivals mine."
"What price did you pay?" Ji Qingcang asked curiously.
After all, the price of Lin Yi's [Criminal] Sequence was the only one he didn't know.
"I lost a kidney."
Lin Yi took a deep drag and recalled, "I could feel it disappearing. It was agony, like a hand had grabbed my kidney and kept squeezing it into a tiny point until it vanished from my body completely."
Fortunately, it was a one-time cost. Losing just one kidney still left him some hope, didn't it?
Who said he couldn't perform with only one kidney left?
If being on the run hadn't made it so inconvenient, Lin Yi would have tried getting some release long ago. There were plenty of women in the convoy willing to trade their bodies.
"That's not too bad, then. You only lost one. At least you can still use it."
With the air of someone speaking from experience, Ji Qingcang smiled. "Try to put it to use when you can. What if one day you never get another chance? Wouldn't you regret it to death?"
"I'll see how things go."
Lin Yi took another deep drag and tossed away the cigarette butt. "You know, back then I really wondered whether I could still perform."
The two chatted and joked like that, occasionally getting up to check the surroundings before returning once they were sure everything was fine.
About an hour later, a man wearing glasses ran out of the hospital's inpatient building, his eyes full of fear and panic.
The moment he emerged, he came face-to-face with Lin Yi and Ji Qingcang, freezing in terror.
As if something had occurred to him, he immediately dropped to his knees. "Please, let me join your convoy! I can work! As long as you let me join, I'll do anything!"
Lin Yi frowned at the man, then looked toward the figure stumbling out of the inpatient building.
Wen Wan emerged with her clothes disheveled and her hair hanging loose, an axe in her hand.
One look was enough to tell him what had happened.
Wen Wan, the actress, had always been a caged bird kept by her financial backer, and she had been waiting to return to that cage as his pampered canary.
No one else was allowed-or had the right-to touch her body.
But tonight?
This damned man had nearly forced himself on her. If she hadn't reacted quickly, the bastard would probably have already penetrated her.
As Wen Wan approached with the axe, Lin Yi remained silent. Ji Qingcang beside him did the same.
Recruiting people into the convoy was Captain Liu Chuan's responsibility.
Asking them was useless.
"What the hell are you? A piece of trash from the bottom of society, a lowlife only fit to leer at me from a distance! How dare you touch me while I'm injured?"
Like a woman possessed, Wen Wan raised the axe, intent on hacking the bespectacled man to death.
The others in the inpatient building heard the commotion too. They rushed out and stepped forward to stop her.
After all, none of them knew what price they might pay for killing someone in front of these two Sequence Transcendents.
For now, it was better to restrain Wen Wan before she actually killed someone...
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