Chapter Twenty-Four: Old Soldiers Never Die

  Muffled gunfire sounded from at least two streets away in the dark world and soon became a burst of popping beans.

  Then a fierce fire burst into flames, and the visually exceptional Malong finally saw clearly that the place where the gun battle occurred was the same intersection where he had encountered danger before.

  "Master Ma Long, can we put out all the torches? It's too dazzling to walk with lit torches..."

  The crippled old soldier with a gun walked up and naturally suggested to Marlon, imitating Adela's tone when calling out to him.

  Yes, that crippled old soldier with a gun is still alive.

  No, it's not just living, this originally disabled veteran who had lost his limbs has miraculously regrown them! How is this possible?

  He noticed Ma Long casting a doubtful glance at him, and the crippled old soldier smiled with lingering fear. He showed Ma Long his chest, which was stained with blood: "Mr. Delft is a good man, he said that Young Master Ma Long would never mistreat those who helped him, so I should be treated - Mr. Delft used a precious scroll to treat my mortal wound and let my crippled limbs recover!"

  Until tonight, this gun-wounded veteran's understanding of Ma Long was just: "Our little Ma Long", a generous and kind writer and philanthropist.

  Moreover, the generous and kind Ma Long has also decided to build a nursing home. The disabled veteran who was shot has already received notice that he can go to the nursing home for care once it is built.

  No, not just gun-wielding disabled veterans, but all disabled veterans who have recently stood up, received this notice.

  Most of the young people in every household were also recruited by the old holy warrior Carnegie with the principle of "priority to veterans' children" and worked on the construction site of orphanages and nursing homes, I heard... if they did well, there would be more opportunities for work in the future.

  So it was the crippled veterans with guns who led the other crippled veterans in standing up.

  Now, after witnessing Ma Long's ability to throw away the "Eli Book" worth 110,000 Rand without hesitation in order to protect the lives of the old soldiers including himself, the crippled veteran with a gun has already admired Ma Long from the bottom of his heart.

  Not too many nor too few, including the disabled veteran with a gun himself, there are exactly eleven people!

  Gun-wielding disabled veteran, never thought his life would be worth a staggering 10,000 Rand.

  I fought bravely for the country, lost an arm and a leg on the battlefield, and after multiple meritorious achievements, I only got 500 lanters in disability pension...

  Ten thousand Rand, enough for me to lose how many arms and legs on the battlefield?

  Not to mention the fact that it also didn't include the price of the treatment scroll worth at least 3,500 Rant, which not only saved me from the brink of death but also restored my arm and leg that I lost on the battlefield!

  What other disabled veterans think now, he doesn't know, but at least he feels that his old life is already gone.

  Since they have made up their minds, how can the attitude of the disabled veterans with guns towards Ma Long not become more respectful?

  Although the one who saved him with the therapeutic scroll was Dailfert, a Three-Ring Soul Master, the favor of saving his life was attributed to Marlon. This made Marlon involuntarily admire Dailfert - Ah, ginger is still spicy after all. Not only did he bestow a favor on this wounded veteran, but also smoothly got me to owe another big shot a favor.

  This Dyerwolf is indeed a mind reader, has he already discovered that I'm the type who must repay kindness?

  Forget it, if I owe someone a favor then so be it. The more debts the less anxious, the more fleas the less itchy, slowly paying back is fine, sooner or later I'll pay them all back...

  "Master Ma Long, should everyone put out their torches?"

  Because Ma Long remained silent and didn't respond, the crippled old soldier with a gun asked again. This time, as he inquired, he raised his hand to make a gesture of extinguishing fire towards other crippled soldiers - in the Lorain National Defense Army, even if they weren't from the same unit, gestures like extinguishing light sources were universal.

  Just then, Ma Long unexpectedly spoke up, "No, the torch cannot be extinguished."

  Ma Long firmly shook his head, vetoing the proposal to arm the disabled veterans, and continued: "Not only can't we put out the fire, but also ask everyone to shout to the residents along the street that it's not safe to stay at home tonight. If you want to get through the night safely... come with us."

  Far beyond the ordinary visual, Malong can borrow the light emitted by the torch to clearly see that in the dark and gloomy dens on both sides of the street, there are countless pairs of eyes with a mixture of helplessness and longing, watching the situation outside.

  If we don't help these people, many of them will be harmed or even lose their precious lives on this chaotic night.

  "This is absolutely unacceptable! This is an absolutely wrong decision! If you do this, Master Malong will be in danger again!"

  The disabled veteran with a gun was stunned for a moment, and then immediately spoke out in strong opposition.

  "Don't worry, I don't have anything worth more than ten lanters on me." Marlon smiled and, seeing the crippled old soldier seemed to want to continue his fierce opposition, he quickly came up with another reason: "Uncle, actually you can organize the men according to military rules to protect us women and children..."

  Here is the translation:

  "By saying this, even Ma Long felt that his reason was quite logical and correct, so he continued to theorize non-stop: "Uncle, you see, if we have fewer people, who knows who will be surrounded again later? Who knows if they'll also have guns? I can't let you, Ai Mi, Uncle Bernard, and everyone else be in unknown danger! But if our team is very large, those robbers won't dare to mess with us. After all, just like new recruits on the battlefield are extremely fearful, these guys now still don't have much courage to confront a large group of people... right?"

  The crippled old soldier with a gun stared blankly at Malong, and the last straw that crushed the camel was what Malong said as he gently held up Little Fox Girl Amy's hand: "Look, there is lovely Amy here, who can make me feel threatened?"

  Ma Long held hands with her in front of everyone, and the little fox girl first showed a shy expression. However, after hearing Ma Long say that as long as she was there, there would be no danger, the little girl immediately curved her eyebrows and revealed an "Exactly, I'm really awesome!" look.

  Then, the crippled old soldier with a gun was convinced and thoroughly surrendered to Ma Long.

  This is simply a born commander!

  "Mr. Marlon, please don't call me uncle anymore, just call me Old Andrew... I'll let everyone do as you instruct, Mr. Marlon!"

  Since they had already submitted, the crippled veterans with guns would certainly carry out without discount the order of Ma Long to keep the torches burning and loudly call on other residents in the poor alleys to follow them.

  Not even did the crippled old soldier Old Andrew need to give orders, because there were so few of them that the other crippled soldiers had already clearly heard the conversation between Marlon and Old Andrew just now, and they spontaneously shouted loudly.

  Having Ma Long's name and also having safety guarantee...

  Soon, the residents of the slum, carrying only those barely valuable items and food, opened the broken house that could not defend against outsiders and walked out to join the team centered on Malong.

  There is a first one, there will be a second one, a third one, a fourth one...

  Old Andrew, a veteran of a hundred battles, with the assistance of ten other disabled veterans, strictly carried out Marlon's "orders", putting women and children inside the formation, but any boy taller than the carriage was left on the outside and organized according to military rules.

  Every five men formed a small team, managed by a disabled veteran, and every five teams would have an additional team leader.

  And so, as they walked and organized along the way, Ma Long had just passed two street corners when he discovered that the "United" residents of his own slum, who were supposed to be under his command, had already been organized by Old Andrew into thirteen small teams armed with wooden clubs, short knives, and even sharp fish bones!

  As for the number of old, weak, women and children... really, Ma Long was discovering for the first time that there were actually so many women in the slums, five times more than the temporary soldiers on the outskirts!