Hearing Lu Jiamei’s warning, Xin Wan hurriedly looked outside. The small boat was already closing in on the speedboat.
Her expression changed when she saw the small boat.
"Boss, this is very likely the same boat that was chasing me!" Xin Wan immediately called out.
Her speedboat had run out of fuel that very morning, the direct result of escaping a pursuing boat.
Although many boats looked the same, given the situation, the one closest to them was almost certainly the one that had been chasing her.
Ren Yuanyang nodded slightly. "First, draw the curtain in your cabin. Get your weapon ready!"
"Right!" Xin Wan immediately gripped the Boning Knife at her side.
Cooking was her responsibility from now on, so Ren Yuanyang had given her all the kitchen utensils.
The small boat began to slow down, inching closer to the speedboat.
"Let’s see you try to run this time, kid!"
"Oh? Looks like there’s another boat here! I didn’t expect a bonus prize!"
"I hope they have some food. I’m fucking starving!"
"Enough talk, let’s go! I bet he’s out of fuel!"
Apparently, the survivors chasing Xin Wan assumed the person on the speedboat was a man.
Hearing the survivors’ shouts, Ren Yuanyang’s brow furrowed.
He could hear four adult male voices, which meant there were at least four men on the other side.
With only himself and two women, they were at a disadvantage in both numbers and fighting strength.
After a moment’s thought, Ren Yuanyang gave his orders. "Show the pistol. Point it right at them, make it obvious! You have to make sure they see it! Don’t you say a word. I’ll do the shouting."
’If Lu Jiamei shouted and they realized she was a woman, they might get other ideas.’
Lu Jiamei nodded slightly, immediately crouching and aiming the pistol at the small boat.
"Stop advancing immediately, or I’ll shoot!" Ren Yuanyang shouted.
Hearing his voice and seeing someone crouched on the shipping container with a pistol, the small boat did indeed stop.
For ordinary people, a gun was an enormous deterrent.
"Boss, they’ve got a gun!"
"Is it a real gun? How could ordinary people have a gun?"
Before the flood, the Dragon Country had extremely strict gun control, so the leader of the small boat suspected Ren Yuanyang’s group was just trying to scare them with a fake.
"Keep approaching slowly," the leader ordered in a low voice. Then he shouted, "Hey, young friend, we just want to come over and make friends! No need to point a gun at us, is there?"
Ren Yuanyang’s eyes narrowed. He said in a low voice, "Looks like they think our gun is fake. Go ahead and shoot. Try to take one of them out."
Lu Jiamei nodded slightly, immediately took aim at a figure, and pulled the trigger.
CRACK!
The figure on the small boat collapsed, not even letting out a scream.
The distance between them wasn’t great, so making the shot was to be expected.
"Boss, Four’s been shot dead!"
"Stop advancing!" the leader commanded hurriedly. "They really do have a gun!"
"So what do we do now?" a man called Three asked, his voice panicked.
"Don’t panic!" The leader paused for a moment, then shouted, "Our mistake! We’re leaving now!"
"Wait!" Ren Yuanyang suddenly called out, stopping them.
Lu Jiamei was confused. ’He had me pull out the gun to scare them away. Now that they’re finally leaving, why is he stopping them?’
"What is it you want?" the leader on the small boat asked, his brow furrowed.
"I see you have a tree on your boat," Ren Yuanyang continued. "I’m interested in it. How about I trade you some fish for it?"
Only then did Lu Jiamei notice that they did, in fact, have a tree on their boat, part of it trailing in the water.
The leader was stunned. He had assumed Ren Yuanyang was about to finish them off, but instead, the man had his eye on the tree they had salvaged.
There had been five people on the small boat. Lu Jiamei had dealt with one, leaving four.
When the other three heard Ren Yuanyang’s words, they immediately grew excited.
They had found the tree while adrift on the open water. Seeing it was covered in fruit that resembled watermelons, they assumed it was edible and hauled it aboard.
But when they opened one of the fruits with great effort, the pulp inside was viscous and gave off a strange odor. It was completely inedible.
The only reason they still had the tree was for its bark and branches.
’To be able to trade a tree like this for fish, even raw fish, was far better than eating bark and leaves!’
"You know how it is, food is scarce right now. A tree can last a long time!" The leader, hoping to get as much fish as possible, naturally had to make the tree sound important.
Ren Yuanyang naturally understood the man’s ploy. "Then name a price," he replied. "If it’s fair, we’ll trade. If it’s too high, then forget it."
The leader’s brow furrowed. Mindful that the other party had a gun, he didn’t dare ask for too much. "How about... five pounds of fish?" he asked cautiously.
In the current situation, catching fish was difficult. Nobody had the proper tools, and now that the fish had started to evolve, catching them was even harder.
Ren Yuanyang considered this for a moment. "Alright," he replied. "The fish we caught haven’t been cleaned. They’re about a pound apiece. I’ll give you ten. Consider the extra a bonus."
Hiding in the speedboat’s cabin, Xin Wan heard Ren Yuanyang and was confused. ’If they’d caught fish, why hadn’t he given them to her to prepare?’
’And now he was trading fish for a tree? Wasn’t that a terrible deal?’
While Xin Wan was still wondering about this, the leader on the other boat immediately replied, "Deal! How do we make the exchange?"
"We’ll send the fish over in a plastic barrel. You tie our rope to the tree and throw it into the water," Ren Yuanyang replied.
"Alright. But we want to inspect the goods first!"
"No problem!"
With that said, Ren Yuanyang jumped down to the small boat beside the container, picked out ten Cannibal Fish, and placed them in a large plastic barrel. He walked over to the speedboat, tied a rope to the barrel, and lowered it into the water. With a hard shove, he sent it toward the other boat, then retreated to the top of the container.
The distance between the boats wasn’t great, and the men on the small boat quickly grabbed hold of the large plastic barrel.
When they saw the ten Cannibal Fish inside the barrel, their eyes practically glowed with greed.
The leader was the first to snap out of it. "Don’t just stand there gawking! Get the tree tied up!"
"Yes!" the others replied in unison.
They quickly tied the rope around the large tree and shoved it into the water.
"It’s tied on our end! You can pull it back now!" the leader shouted back.
"Alright! And our barrel, push it back!" Ren Yuanyang replied.
The men immediately poured the fish from the barrel into their boat and pushed the empty container back.
"If there’s nothing else, we won’t disturb you any further," the leader on the small boat said cautiously.
"Right, we’re done. You can go," Ren Yuanyang said, his tone threatening. "But in the future, be sure to keep a safe distance. Otherwise, our bullets might not have eyes."
"Yes, sir! We’ll be careful in the future!"
With that, the small boat turned around and sped off into the distance.

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