Wilderness Redemption Tour

When Lin Yan first arrived in Strawberry Town, he was fascinated by the beautiful environment here. The flat gravel road, clusters of flowers of various colors blooming on the roadside, and even the fragrance of flowers wafting in the air. It is completely different from Valentine, where the ground is full of mud and the air is filled with the disgusting smell of feces. The whole town is not big, but every building has a unique beauty. A fast-flowing river divides the entire Strawberry Town into two. Lin Yan learned from the map that this river is called Eagle Eye Creek.

As they walked, Lenny introduced, "This is Strawberry Town. I heard that the mayor wants to build it into a tourist destination, so the entire town prohibits alcohol and guns. We stayed here for a night before, and except for not being able to drink, I have to say that the experience was quite good. If we can't go to Tahiti, I think it's not bad to stay here." After hearing this, Lin Yan nodded secretly in agreement.

Lenny turned around and looked at Arthur at the end of his words, "Arthur, you haven't told me how to save Micah yet. It's getting late. If you want to act today, you'd better hurry up."

"Lenny, take us to the police station first. I have something to give to the sheriff here. After we give it to him, we'll see what his attitude is."

"The police station is just above this ramp. You guys go up. I'm afraid they'll recognize me if I go in, so I'd better wait for you here."

Arthur followed Lenny's instructions and brought the three to the police station in Strawberry Town. Compared with other buildings in Strawberry Town, the low-rise police station without any aesthetic appeal seemed a bit out of place.

I pushed the door open and entered the police station. Inside sat a sheriff and two deputy sheriffs. Seeing so many people coming in from outside, the two deputy sheriffs in the room simultaneously picked up the rifles at their feet and pointed them at the three people who came in.

"Who are you?" The man in dark blue uniform sitting at the sheriff's desk asked Arthur, the leader.

Arthur raised his hands and said calmly, "You must be Sheriff Hanley. I have a letter from Sheriff Valentine Malloy."

Sheriff Hanley raised an eyebrow. "A letter from Curtis? Interesting. He hasn't contacted me much since he became the sheriff of Valentine. Bring me the letter, so I can see what he wrote?"

Arthur pulled out a manila envelope from his pocket and handed it to Sheriff Hanley with one hand.

Sheriff Hanley opened the letter, glanced at its contents, then stared at Arthur with interest and asked, "Curtis said that you once rescued him, and your companion has now been captured by me, so you asked Curtis to write a letter asking me to release your companion?"

"I just wanted to ask Sheriff Malloy if he had any solution. He wanted to give it a try himself."

"Well... using an irrelevant favor to repay another person who was rescued, Curtis is the one who suffers." Sheriff Hanley folded the unfolded letter and put it in the envelope. He then changed the subject and continued, "But as the law enforcer of this town, it seems a bit inappropriate for me to do this, especially when your companion and his accomplices killed two and injured three residents of the town."

Arthur knew what the other party was thinking, so he followed up on the other party and said, "If possible, we can pay you money. You can think of it as a ransom, a fine, compensation, or anything else. In short, it is to compensate the dead and injured, as well as you brave law enforcement officers."

"Okay, then please allow me to discuss with the injured and the victim's family first, and I will give you an answer tomorrow morning." Sheriff Hanley issued an order to expel them, and Arthur tactfully took Lin Yan and Sadie away from the police station.

Arthur walked over to where the horses were tied and said, "It looks like the Sheriff is interested. We just have to wait until tomorrow to see how much money he wants."

"How do you know? Didn't he say he would ask the victim's family?" Lin Yan didn't understand how Arthur was sure that the sheriff would take money and release the person.

Arthur untied the horse's reins but did not ride on it. Instead, he led it as he walked and said, "It's very simple. This town is not big and it's still early. He could have asked the victims to discuss compensation with us face to face, but he said he would give us an answer tomorrow. If he disagrees, no matter what the victims say, it will be useless. But as long as he wants, he has plenty of ways to make the victims agree. He doesn't even need to ask the victims. He just needs to discuss with others how much money he should extort from us."

Sadie couldn't help but complain: "These days, even law enforcers are like this, no wonder there are robbers and murderers everywhere."

Arthur sneered and said, "There are fewer robbers and murderers these days. Compared with the capitalists today, these people can be called philanthropists. Well, given the current situation, we definitely can't go back today. Let's go, let Lenny take us to find a place to live."

Lin Yan touched his rumbling stomach and muttered: I wonder what to eat here. I'm hungry after walking for so long.

"Arthur, how was your conversation just now?" Lenny had been waiting at the bottom of the slope leading to the police station. When he saw Arthur and the other two coming out of the police station, he asked hurriedly.

"The sheriff said he will give us an answer tomorrow. I guess he wants to get more money from us. Lenny, take us to find a place to stay and eat something first, then we will pool our money and see how much we can give out at most."

"So you plan to redeem Micah. It would be best if you could do that. Come on, I'll take you to where you're staying." After Lenny said that, he turned around, led his horse and walked towards the hotel in Strawberry Town.

Not long after walking, Lenny brought everyone to a building that was also made of wood, but obviously had an exotic decoration style. "This is the hotel in Strawberry Town. I hope there are not many guests today, because this is the only place to stay, and there are very few rooms."

After tying up their horses, they walked into the inn one after another.

"Damn, what is this? I got scared!" As soon as he walked into the door, Lin Yan was startled by a black bear specimen placed on the left side of the door, which was about to pounce. In addition to Lenny, the other two were also startled, and Arthur's hand even touched the handle of the gun on his waist. After Lin Yan calmed down, he curiously moved closer to observe. Although the size of this black bear specimen was not as big as the one he and Arthur killed yesterday, its lifelike appearance was also quite shocking. People who had never been here would almost be scared when they first entered this hotel.

"Lenny, why didn't you remind us when you were here before?" Sadie complained dissatisfiedly.

"I'm sorry, ma'am. Bill and I were also scared when we first came here, but later we thought it was quite interesting. So I wanted you to experience that feeling. After all, it's hard for us to come across a second store of this style, so I didn't tell you in advance." Although Lenny said sorry, Lin Yan saw a hint of smugness on his face, as if he had succeeded in playing a prank.

"That's a really big surprise." Sadie emphasized the word "big" to show her dissatisfaction.

"I think it's quite interesting." Lin Yan spoke up to smooth things over.

"Heh! Man!" Seeing that Lin Yan did not help her, Sadie sat alone on the sofa to the right of the door in a huff.

Lin Yan looked away and saw several chandeliers decorated with deer antlers hanging on the roof of the hotel. There were also two specimens of male deer placed next to the service desk. Is this the hotel in the tourist town? The mayor really has ideas. Lin Yan looked at the hotel lobby full of wild atmosphere and muttered silently.

"Hello sir, it's nice to see you again. Are these people with you too?" The hotel owner in a suit asked enthusiastically when he saw Lenny again.

"Yes, we are going to stay here tonight. Are there enough rooms?" Lenny took the initiative to walk to the service desk and started chatting with him.

"You came at the right time. A guest just checked out and the hotel has four empty rooms now."

"Then we'll take them all. Please prepare some food for us as well. We haven't had lunch yet because we're in a hurry."

"No problem. Now please pay the room fee first. It's $2 per room, a total of $8."

Lenny handed the room fee to the hotel owner and ordered, "Drink faster, we are all starving."

"No problem, I'll have someone prepare it for you right now. Here are your room keys." The hotel owner handed four keys to Lenny and said, "The rooms are all upstairs. If you want to take a shower, we have a bathroom. It only costs 30 cents per person."

Lanny took the keys, handed two of them to Arthur of Lin Yan, and then said to Sadie who was sitting on the sofa at the door: "Mrs. Adler, here are the keys to the room. Go back to your room and have a rest first."

Sadie stood up angrily, took the key from Lenny, and went upstairs without paying any attention to the men.

Arthur watched Sadie disappear down the stairs and said, "Let's go up too."

Lin Yan took the key and found his room. As soon as he opened the door and walked in, a faint floral scent hit his nose. Lin Yan followed the smell and looked towards the window. On the small table in front of the window, there was a sky-blue vase with a few pink flowers that he couldn't name. The flowers were in full bloom. Taking his eyes off the flowers, Lin Yan scanned the furnishings in the room, the printed wallpaper, the large double bed, and even three mirrors for ladies to put on makeup, but a door next to the wardrobe aroused Lin Yan's curiosity. He first hung his hat and wet windbreaker on the coat rack next to the door, then walked over and opened the door. To his surprise, on the other side of the door was a balcony overlooking the entire town.

Lin Yan stood on the balcony looking at the entire town below and couldn't help thinking: I wonder if this room was designed by the mayor that Lenny mentioned. If so, it would be a waste of his talent to be the mayor of this town. He might as well go to New York and be a designer.

"Hey, brat! Why didn't you speak up for me just now? I clearly saw that you were also frightened."

Lin Yan looked in the direction of the voice and saw Sadie standing on the balcony next to him with her hands on her hips, glaring at him angrily.

"Ah..." Lin Yan scratched his head nervously, not knowing what to say.

"What? Who are you with?" Sadie asked aggressively.

Facing the aggressive Sadie, Lin Yan said in a low voice without any confidence: "I just thought what Lenny said made sense at the time. Don't you think this is quite interesting afterwards?"

"You're scared to death, what's the point? I warn you not to play this trick on me again. My gun has no eyes." After saying this, Sadie seemed to have vented her anger. She turned around and walked into her room, then closed the door with a snap.

After watching Sadie leave, Lin Yan said to himself with a smile: It turns out that such a "fierce" woman like her also has things to be afraid of. I thought I was the most timid among all people.

Back in his room, Lin Yan lay on the bed and compared it with the bed in the Valentine Hotel where he slept last night, and then declared that this bed won without a doubt. The soft mattress on the bed didn't look like a mattress at all, but like a water bed. Lin Yan lay there for a while until the hotel owner came upstairs to inform them that the food was ready.

I thought the food was just stew, nothing new, but when Lin Yan went downstairs and saw the food prepared for them, he was shocked again. Two golden roasted chickens were divided into four portions and placed on their respective plates, and there was a large bowl of fresh fruit salad next to each plate.

"Ladies and gentlemen, our Strawberry Town is located on the edge of a large valley, so there are plenty of fresh fruits. The chickens raised by the villagers here run around in the valley all day long to find food for themselves, so the meat is particularly firm and delicious, which cannot be found in other places. You can eat first, I won't disturb you, and call me if you have any instructions." After the innkeeper introduced the food, he went about his own business, leaving only the four people drooling at the delicious roast chicken.

After the hotel owner left, Arthur was the first to react. He sat down, grabbed the roast chicken on the plate and started to eat. Seeing Arthur move, the other three also found seats to sit down, either holding half a chicken and eating it directly, or tearing off a chicken leg to taste it slowly. Lin Yan first took off the roasted brown chicken leg, and while eating, he observed the fresh fruits in the fruit salad. Peaches, apricots, apples, pears, and even a few red strawberries. It was obviously not the season for fruits to ripen, and I didn't know where these fresh fruits came from.

Tasting the delicious food and fresh fruits, Lin Yan became more convinced that Strawberry Town was a good place to retire.

After everyone had eaten, Arthur said, "Let's take out all the money we have and count how much we can get together. Don't hide it. The money we pay now will be compensated to us with the public funds of the gang when we return to the camp." After that, he took out two stacks of banknotes from his clothes pocket and his shoulder bag. When Lin Yan saw Arthur take out the money, he also took out all the money from his space bag and put it on the table. Lenny touched his pocket, but only took out a handful of change. Lin Yan estimated that there were only about a dozen yuan. Seeing this, Sadie also took out two stacks of banknotes clamped with a wallet from her shirt pocket and trouser pocket.

Arthur counted everyone's money one by one and reported several figures. "Jamie: 215. Lenny: 16. Sadie: 167. My own is 242. This is the amount of money each of us has contributed. Now I add it all together, so it is..."

When Arthur put all the money together and prepared to count it again, Lin Yan reported a number: "A total of 640 US dollars."

When Lin Yan reported this number, everyone looked at him in surprise. "Huh? Jamie, is this the total you just calculated?" Arthur asked in confusion while counting the money.

"Yes, I was calculating when you reported how much each person paid. I finished the calculation after you reported. Is there any problem?" Lin Yan didn't understand why everyone was looking at him like a monster.