Old Pi panicked. He stopped arguing and immediately knelt down. "Boss, boss, I was wrong. I shouldn't have lied to you. I… I was afraid that after I completed the task, you would threaten to take the money back, so I wanted to take the first step. I didn't mean anything else. You see, haven't you already found the camels?"

Old Pi overlooked one thing: if he left first, we definitely wouldn't be able to find the way tomorrow.

Because Old Pi was the one driving all the way. Without him leading the way, we definitely wouldn't have found the location we found today.

I didn't listen to his explanation but instead stated my thoughts, "Our agreement was that you would take us to the destination tomorrow. If you try to slip away now, you're already breaking my rules. I won't take the money back, but you have to pay a price for not keeping your promise."

I knew that if I didn't give a punishment at this time, there would be endless trouble. I yanked him and pressed him to the ground, pointing the gun at his head with one hand to keep him from moving, and with the other hand grabbed a mixture of dry grass and dirt and stuffed it into his mouth. Then, I used that hand to firmly press his left hand to the ground.

"If you move, I'll kill you."

Under my threat, Old Pi really didn't dare to move. He was puzzled, not knowing what I was going to do next.

Taking advantage of his confusion, I raised the gun high in my hand and smashed the butt of the gun at the little finger of his left hand. I only heard a muffled thud, and then Old Pi began to wail. Because his mouth was full of dry grass and dirt, the sound turned into a sob when it reached his throat.

I looked down and saw that Old Pi's little finger was already deformed, obviously fractured.

I let go of Old Pi, stood up from him, and said indifferently, "This is the punishment for not keeping your promise. I mean what I say. Take us to the destination tomorrow, and then go get treatment."

After that, I left Old Pi where he was and left straight away.

After dealing with Old Pi, my unease disappeared all at once. I knew that Old Pi's problem had now been completely resolved, so I went back to sleep with peace of mind.

……

I slept from the second half of the night until dawn. After the unease disappeared, I slept very peacefully.

In the morning, Fatty woke me up. "Young Master, get up. Everyone is ready, just waiting for you."

I got dressed and came to the door. The first thing I saw was a whole three small farm trucks full of camels, ready to go. On the other side, Old Pi stood pale beside his beat-up minivan, looking listless. I guessed he probably hadn't slept all night.

Old Pi had two wooden strips clipped to the little finger of his left hand, fixed with two strips of cloth torn from his clothes. His little finger was swollen and distended, looking seriously injured.

Fatty gleefully whispered to me, "That old bastard Old Pi said that when he got up in the middle of the night yesterday, his hand got caught in the door. His hand is as swollen as a radish head, tsk tsk tsk…"

I remained silent, patiently listening to Fatty's gloating.

If Fatty and the others knew that I had broken Old Pi's little finger, I wonder what they would think.

I knew Old Pi definitely wouldn't tell Fatty the real reason his little finger was fractured, after all, he was the one who had made the mistake first.

"Can we set off?" I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and took a bite of the roasted naan bread that Fatty handed me.

Fatty said, "Wait a little while. The camel trader sent someone early this morning to buy supplies. They should be on their way back now. We'll leave as soon as he gets back."

I looked at the time. If all went well, we could enter the desert before nine o'clock in the morning.

Fatty tugged at my sleeve and asked, "Young Master, we don't have a guide, and we don't have any experience dealing with camels. Will there be any problems if we set off so hastily?"

I didn't think much and subconsciously replied, "You don't have to worry about the camels. I know how to lead a camel train into the desert. As for the route, that depends on you and Ruoyi's memory. So, the breakthrough point to the problem is on you and Ruoyi."

Perhaps my words put pressure on Fatty. Fatty didn't know how to respond for a moment, and his face was clouded with worry.

About fifteen minutes later, the person buying supplies returned. There weren't many things, mainly just dry, easy-to-store naan bread and some water.

Water was difficult to carry, and our camel train could only carry enough drinking water for a week, so the camel trader only prepared enough drinking water for us to use for about a week.

The problem of replenishing water would depend on us finding wells ourselves after entering the desert.

After everything was ready, Fatty called out to everyone, "Alright, let's go!"

Then, I, along with Dodge, Ruoyi, and Jennifer, got into Old Pi's beat-up minivan with Fatty.

Old Pi drove the car at the front of the convoy with a dark face and without saying a word the whole time.

Thinking about it carefully, Old Pi really wasn't easy. He had been slippery his whole life, and in the end, he had fallen into my hands.

I guessed that after this trip, Old Pi might not take such long jobs anymore.