Amid the arguing and accusations.
Wen Yanyu kept his head lowered, not taking in a single word.
His whole body was turning cold.
During his days as cannon fodder across countless worlds, he had not been entirely controlled by the plot. Outside the major plot points, he would have brief periods of freedom.
During one such brief period of freedom.
It was a world of ancient martial arts. Guilty of heinous crimes, he was wanted worldwide by the protagonist's group. According to the original plot, his role should have ended after he suffered every kind of torture.
But he had been rescued by his older brother, who had been treated as background scenery throughout, who was frail and relied on medication to stay alive year-round, who should have had no further storyline, who had barely met him a few times, and who had never done a single bad thing.
They hid deep in the mountains, surviving on wild fruit and mountain animals.
They could not always catch animals.
But there was often wild fruit.
There were hardly any plants deep in the mountains in winter, let alone animals. Injured as they were, they could forget about catching large animals, and every day was spent evading pursuit in the mountains.
He thought, I'm cannon fodder who will die sooner or later, but my brother isn't. His ending is unknown. He still has a future.
As long as he hasn't done anything bad when the plot ends, when the protagonist's group finds me, he can still survive.
He could not tell what was poisonous and what was not. He only knew he needed to fill his stomach. He had eaten that fruit for two days and assumed it was safe.
So, thinking himself clever, he boiled the remaining wild fruit into soup