95: Chapter 95 Killing without a knife, winning hearts and minds is the best strategy

"Wait!"

Chen Jian was watching to see if Lin Fan was really pretending to be indifferent or just putting on an act.

Liu Gang, however, grew anxious; he grabbed Chen Jian's arm and roared in a low voice, "Chen Jian! Stop being so damn stubborn at a time like this! He's laid it out so harshly; if we push him into a corner and he really breaks things off, we'll all starve to death here!"

Wang Qiang also panicked, "That's right, Engineer Chen! That bastard Lin Fan said he could let us move a batch of supplies first. Either way, we won't lose out."

Several male employees began to whisper among themselves, and the public opinion instantly reversed.

In the face of genuine death and starvation, Chen Jian's authority was rapidly collapsing.

Chen Jian gritted his teeth; if he insisted on everyone going up the cliff, Lin Fan might really abandon the deal.

If there was no rescue in a few days and the food ran out, he, Chen Jian, would be the one to incite public anger.

This group of starving people on the beach would definitely tear him apart.

He took a large stride forward and shouted at Lin Fan's back, "Lin Fan, we'll do it just like you said."

Chen Jian turned to look at Liu Gang and Wang Qiang, "You two, plus Zhao Hai, go up with him. Keep your eyes sharp; we must get every single thing we deserve. If he dares pull any tricks, the three of you must fight him to the death. As long as you stall him for three minutes, the moment we hear any commotion below, we'll all rush up immediately!"

Liu Gang clenched his fists, producing a series of cracking bone sounds, his face filled with bloodthirsty greed, "Rest assured, it's three against three; we won't let them get the upper hand."

Although Wang Qiang was somewhat wary of Lin Fan's previous ruthlessness, driven by hunger, he also bit the bullet and stepped forward.

The male employee named Zhao Hai was even more starved, his eyes glazed over, his mind filled entirely with water and food, and he followed closely behind without hesitation.

On the steep slope, four figures climbed upward in a single file line.

Zhao Hai walked at the very front, followed closely by Wang Qiang, with Liu Gang in third place.

Lin Fan walked at the very back, intentionally maintaining a distance of two or three steps from the three men ahead.

He had a tactical dagger tucked at his waist, his right hand consistently hanging by his side, maintaining a posture ready to draw his blade at any moment.

He had previously watched interviews of veterans from the Vietnam War online, and he remembered it very clearly: Never leave your back to the enemy.

On this Deserted Island devoid of legal constraints, this was not just a line from a show, but an ironclad rule for saving one's life.

At the edge of the cliff, Zhou Kai saw a head pop up on the slope from afar. The muscles in his arms bulged as he held a rock weighing dozens of catties, staring intently downward.

Just as he was about to exert force to smash it down, his gaze swept across and caught sight of Lin Fan walking at the very back.

Zhou Kai instantly breathed a sigh of relief, immediately released his strength, and placed the rock by his feet.

Zhao Hai was the first to crawl onto the platform, supporting himself on the ground with both hands and panting heavily.

Following closely was Wang Qiang. His legs were weak, and during the final few steps, his knees struck heavily against the stone twice. Yet he couldn't care about the pain, scrambling and tumbling into the Karst Cave.

The last one to come up was Liu Gang.

The three of them stood up, their gazes sweeping past Zhou Kai and directly casting toward the depths of the Karst Cave.

In an instant, all three of them were nailed in place, their eyeballs freezing.

The Karst Cave was not large; coupled with the natural depressions and the obstruction of the rock walls, the effective space was only around forty square meters.

Yet right in this space of twenty-something square meters, more than twenty unopened boxes of mountain spring water were neatly stacked in the corner.

Beside them were piles upon piles of self-heating hot pots, instant noodles, compressed biscuits, ham sausages...

On the ground near the campfire, two bulging woven bags were also tossed aside. The opening of one bag was loose, revealing large bunches of golden-yellow plantains inside.

The other was tied with a rope, seeping faint bloody water—those were large chunks of roe deer meat streaked with blood.

No weathering, no rot; they were all industrial crystallization of modern civilized society.

To the three of them who had been gnawing on shriveled hermit crabs on the beach for days and drinking distilled water with a weird plastic taste, the visual impact created by this scene directly tore apart their sanity.

They knew Lin Fan had supplies in his hands, but in their imagination, it was at most a few cases of water and a few packs of biscuits.

Who could have imagined that a mini-supermarket was hidden up here?

Wang Qiang's eyes widened round, his lips trembling uncontrollably, and a single word squeezed out of his mouth: "Fuck…"

Lin Fan was the last to vault onto the platform, passing by the three men and walking straight over to sit on the flat rock beside the campfire.

He then pulled a bottle of water out from a nearby cardboard box, unscrewed the cap, tilted his head back, and took a sip.

The crisp sound of water was exceptionally loud in the quiet Karst Cave.

The gazes of Wang Qiang and the other two were instantly locked onto that bottle of water; their breathing all grew heavy, and the desire in their eyes turned into a substantive green glow.

"Eat," Lin Fan put down the water bottle. "Eat if you're hungry. Eat as much as you can."

As soon as these words were uttered, the three of them were clearly stunned for a moment.

Liu Gang looked at Lin Fan with a face full of vigilance, as if judging whether this was a trap.

Wang Qiang stared fixedly at Lin Fan, "You… you're letting us eat?"

"What?" Lin Fan leaned forward slightly, "Aren't you hungry?"

This single sentence completely shattered their defenses; of course they were hungry, starving to the point where their chests stuck to their backs.

Even if it were poisonous, they would accept it; dying of overeating was far better than starving to death.

The air fell silent for two seconds before Liu Gang made the first move.

He violently ripped open the nearest box of instant noodles, grabbed two packs with both hands, brutally tore apart the plastic packaging, and shoved the dried noodle cakes directly into his mouth.

The rock-hard noodle cakes made a crunching sound between his teeth, and crumbs fell all over the floor.

Parched with extreme thirst, he dug out a bottle of water. His hands shook so much from untwisting the cap that he couldn't grip the bottle body, so he simply bit off the cap in one go and poured it down his throat, the water streaming down his chin into his filthy collar.

Wang Qiang scrambled on hands and feet toward the pile of supplies. He lunged in front of the bread, grabbed two ham sausages with his right hand, didn't even tear the plastic packaging clean, and shoved them directly into his mouth to chew frantically.

Zhao Hai randomly picked up whatever he could and began gorging himself.

The entire Karst Cave was filled with crude tearing sounds, swallowing sounds, and dry heaves from failing to swallow in time.

Liu Gang even snatched two plantains from the woven bag, peeled them, and swallowed them in three bites.

Zhang Tao shrunk back into the corner on the other side of the Karst Cave.

Watching the three men's frantic gorging posture, he couldn't make sense of it—had Lin Fan been possessed by a different soul?

Lin Fan leaned against the rock wall, watching the three of them feast heartily, his expression showing no change whatsoever.

Zhou Kai endured it for about three minutes, then walked over to Lin Fan with tightly furrowed brows and asked in a low voice, "Brother Fan, what's going on? With the way they're eating… they could polish off nearly half the supplies in ten minutes."

Lin Fan recounted the whole cause and effect.

Zhou Kai's eyes instantly widened.

Half of the supplies? Then what would they eat?

"Brother Fan, are you really going to trade half the supplies for Song Ya?" Zhou Kai couldn't hold it back and blurted out.

Lin Fan stopped the movement in his hands, turned his head, and looked coldly at Zhou Kai.

That gaze was extremely light, yet devoid of any emotional warmth.

The hairs on the back of Zhou Kai's neck instantly stood on end, his heart gave a violent twitch, and he immediately realized he had overstepped the rules.

In this Karst Cave, Lin Fan's decisions were not his place to question.

"I spoke out of turn." Zhou Kai quickly lowered his head, took two steps back, and returned to his post responsible for sentry duty.

Lin Fan withdrew his gaze. Although this bunch of gaunt, starving weaklings were no match for him at all,

and the probability of snatching things back after giving them away was very high,

he didn't have a gun; he only had cold weapons in his hands.

Even if he chopped his blade until it curled or battered his shovel until it became dull, he couldn't kill all dozen or so people.

If this group of people grew desperate from hunger and swarmed him recklessly, he himself ran the risk of getting injured.

On this island, a minor wound infection could cost him his life; it wasn't worth risking his own life just to kill a bunch of trash.

Killing without a blade, breaking the mind comes first.