# 351
Chapter 351 – Why Resort to Force?
Game meat?
Li Deyang looked away from the iron crate, half-believing, half-doubting, his brows knitting again.
“Didn’t I warn you kids not to enter the forest? Are you really not afraid of dying?”
Baili Pangpang grinned. “We’ve been in here ages and nothing’s happened. Besides, if we hadn’t come, how could we have saved your daughter?”
The second half of the sentence jammed the reprimand Li Deyang had ready in his throat.
“You’re fine now because you’re lucky!” Li Deyang snorted coldly. “Turn around right now—we’re going back. No farther!”
Lin Qiye shook his head. “Take your daughter home first. We won’t leave until we finish filming.”
Li Deyang’s eyes bulged; he glared at Lin Qiye and barked:
“Nonsense! Keep going and you’ll lose your lives! I’m escorting you out!”
“Not going.” Lin Qiye was adamant.
“Going!”
“Not going.”
“……”
Li Deyang glared, lungs about to explode.
You little brats—why won’t you listen? I told you it’s a dead end, yet you rush toward death!
What now?
Drag Tingting back alone? Abandon them?
He couldn’t watch four youngsters march to their deaths—especially after they’d saved Tingting from freezing.
Knock them out and carry them?
Four kids, only him and Chen Han—impossible on a trek of hours.
After wrestling with it, Li Deyang clenched his teeth, made up his mind, and turned to Chen Han:
“Xiao Chen, take Tingting back. I’ll tag along a bit, then haul them home.”
Chen Han hesitated. “But if we meet—”
“Relax.” Li Deyang gave a look and patted the shotgun on his back. “Walk ahead. In a few minutes I’ll have these punks begging to leave.”
Chen Han understood instantly.
“All right, we’ll go first.” He nodded.
Li Tingting opened her mouth, but Li Deyang crouched, ruffled her hair, and said softly, “Tingting, go find Grandpa. Dad will be right back.”
He fished a squashed pack of ration biscuits from inside his coat and pressed it into her hand.
“If you’re hungry, nibble these, got it?”
Tingting pushed the biscuits back. “Dad, keep them. I’m full—I ate a big slice of pizza.”
Li Deyang blinked. “You ate what?”
“Pizza!” She patted her belly. “Brother Fat gave me seafood flavor—delicious!”
Li Deyang: …
He looked back; Baili Pangpang chuckled sheepishly.
Chen Han hoisted Tingting onto his back, nodded to reassure Li Deyang, and headed off the way they’d come.
When the two vanished, Li Deyang turned slowly to the four youths.
“Uncle,” Baili Pangpang shrugged, “why don’t you head back too? We’ll be fine…”
“Cut the crap!”
Li Deyang swept his gaze over them, snorted, and pulled the shotgun from his back—
Click!
A round chambered.
He leveled the barrel, a “Didn’t see this coming, did you?” look on his face.
No way he’d let them go deeper, nor gamble his life accompanying their suicide run. Crude methods it was—he’d force them back.
Uneducated, short on eloquence, he chose the simplest, surest way.
With Tingting gone, he was free to act.
“You brats wouldn’t listen to reason, so now you get the gun.” His rough voice rang through the trees, dead serious.
“Unless you fancy extra holes, march back—now!”
The air froze.
Baili Pangpang’s mouth twitched; the other three looked to Lin Qiye.
Lin Qiye stared at the black muzzle and the unflinching Li Deyang, closed his eyes, and sighed…
…
Startled birds burst from the woods.
Ten seconds later.
“We tried talking, but you insisted on force.”
Baili Pangpang sat on a boulder, idly spinning the confiscated shotgun, sounding helpless.
Beside him, a bruised Li Deyang lay spread-eagled, staring blankly at the sky, brain seemingly offline.
An Qingyu crouched nearby, swabbing alcohol over his scrapes.
“Uncle Li, we really didn’t mean to hit so hard,” Lin Qiye said solemnly. “The gun was already ours—why charge in and try to grab it back? And at your age, such wild moves… You tripped and wrenched your waist—who can you blame?”
Li Deyang’s mouth twitched, tugging a cut; the alcohol sting twisted his face.
“Who… are you people?” He eyed Lin Qiye oddly. “I’m old, but not so easy to subdue. What are you really here for?”
Lin Qiye blinked. “Told you—shooting a documentary.”
“Which one?”
“Boonie Bears.”
“……” Li Deyang refused to believe. “If you’re filming, where’s your gear?”
Baili Pangpang pondered, then pulled from his backpack a tripod, two cameras, a reflector panel, and even slipped on a green vest.
Li Deyang: …
“Impossible.” He shook his head firmly. “A film crew can’t fight like that.”
“Why not?” Lin Qiye raised a brow. “I come from an ancient martial-arts clan; close combat’s my specialty. At that distance, even with a gun you couldn’t beat me.”
“You’re a ancient-clan heir?” Li Deyang frowned, looking at the others.
Lin Qiye hesitated, pointed to An Qingyu: “Team doctor.”
To Cao Yuan: “Professional cameraman.”
To Baili Pangpang…
“The landlord’s dim-witted son.”