An Zimo hurriedly found some cold medicine, hugged Xiang Haiqing in his arms, patted her face, and Xiang Haiqing opened her eyes in confusion.
"You have a fever, take this medicine."
When Xiang Haiqing looked at the large and small pills in front of her, she frowned tightly, "I don't want to take medicine. It's so painful."
"How can you feel better if you don't eat? We will be on the road tomorrow, and your body is what keeps you alive here."
An Zimo persuaded lightly, but his eyes shone with concern. Xiang Haiqing stared at the pills in his hand for a while, and she thought that at home, Nangong Yue would always try his best to do whatever it took for her to get sick.
Feed her medicine.
But now she has really realized the fact that she least wanted to happen. Without him around, she seems to have to rely on herself for everything.
Her heart felt a little sour, but Hai Qing obediently reached out to pick up the pills, put them in her mouth, and drank the water An Zimo handed her.
"By the way, what happened to that corpse? Why did she ------"
Thinking of that horrifying scene, Xiang Haiqing couldn't help but feel frightened, and her body unconsciously moved closer to An Zimo.
"She is a mummy and has become a rice dumpling, so I disturbed her peace just now."
"Zongzi?" Xiang Haiqing asked curiously with wide eyes, "How can a person turn into a zongzi?"
An Zimo's bright black eyes seemed to have a twinkling sparkle because of her ignorant words. "Zongzi is a common name for mummies. Some corpses are dead but not stiff. They will slowly undergo transformation, and over time they will
It turns into something similar to the walking dead, which is commonly known as zombies in science and zongzi among tomb robbers."
It was the first time that An Zimo explained to Xiang Haiqing in such a good mood, which surprised her. "Then will we encounter such a thing again?"
There was a vague worry in her heart, as if the mummy would not end like this.
Sure enough, An Zimo fell into silence after she said this. After waiting for a long time, he slowly said, "I found a shortcut today. It's possible that we have to go inside."
Going inside? Hai Qing didn't seem to understand the meaning of his words, and guessed, "You said you didn't go inside to find rice dumplings, right?"
"You can understand it that way." At this time, An Zimo's eyes fell into the boundless darkness. Hai Qing could not see his emotions and inner thoughts, but after listening to his words, she knew that this was not a joke.
The two of them fell into silence. An Zimo didn't know how to explain to her. Sometimes he didn't know anything but felt no burden.
"Can we not go through there? Since you said it is a shortcut, are there other roads ahead that we can take?"
Xiang Haiqing looked at him expectantly.
An Zimo nodded, "According to our original plan, we can reach it by continuing to move forward, but there will be more dangers there. At least taking the shortcut here will save a lot of effort, and we don't have much time."
Xiang Haiqing was depressed for a while. She was too lazy to continue asking. In short, any path she chose was full of dangers. What other options did she have?
--------------------------------
the next day
An Zimo brought in the clothes that Hai Qing had washed yesterday. Xiang Haiqing and he both put on their hiking clothes again. After walking out of the tent, they were surprised to find An Zimo's men standing in a row outside their tent.
.
Jack smiled at An Zimo, turned around and greeted Hai Qing before saying, "Are you really not going in for us?"
He has followed An Zimo over the years and has seen with his own eyes the courage and strength of a genius. He is truly convinced. Therefore, no matter what difficult tasks An Zimo entrusts to him in these years, he will try his best to complete them.
But this time, he felt a deep sense of powerlessness. It was not that he was timid or afraid. In their line of work, life could be lost at any time. He felt helpless because when the strength you have always been proud of is fighting against nature.
Only then did I realize how vulnerable it was.
An Zimo nodded firmly, "Leave now. The sooner you leave, the better."
Jack nodded simply and reached out to pat An Zimo on the shoulder, "What about you, when can you go back?"
"I don't know, maybe I will never go back." He turned around and lowered his head to look at Xiang Haiqing, with a trace of tenderness in his eyes.
"Okay, none of us can change your decision."
He took a backpack and handed it to An Zimo, "Inside are most of the bullets and lighting tools, and this one is some food. I think you can use it."
With that said, she handed the bag of food to Hai Qing. The bag was big but the contents were not too heavy. She originally only held a small bag, but now it was just right to carry a big bag.
After Jack turned around, several people came up one by one to say goodbye to An Zimo. It seemed that their relationship was very good.
The fat man stood aside and watched with cold eyes, swearing from time to time. An Zimo ignored it completely, but Xiang Haiqing made faces at him and rolled his eyes.
In short, just don't let him go smoothly.
Jack left with all his men. In just three or four days, the originally large team was reduced to less than ten people.
This atmosphere made everyone feel depressed. The fat man shouted, and his men turned around to pack their things and get ready to go on the road.
"Let's clean up too."
Seeing that Jack and the others were almost out of their sight, Xiang Haiqing took a deep breath and tried her best to keep smiling.
She knew that An Zimo's heart must not be so peaceful at this moment. These brothers had been following him for many years, but she also knew that An Zimo was truly relieved at this moment.
A few people simply packed up the items. There were six subordinates beside Fatty, including Fatty, An Zimo and Xiang Haiqing, a total of nine people.
An Zimo briefly told Fatty about the details of last night and then led Hai Qing to the front, while Fatty and his most capable man, Lao Jie, walked behind.
A group of them walked to the place where they took a bath yesterday. Everyone was obviously stunned when they looked at the calm lake water. Even An Zimo, who had always been paralyzed, could not help but frown.
"Huh? Wasn't the mummy here yesterday? Was it washed away by the water?" Xiang Haiqing was the first to speak.
Everyone's emotions became tense unconsciously, especially the fat man. "They, this is too weird. If you said she was here, she shouldn't be able to float away. Look here, such a big stone."
How can she float away if we are blocked here?"
"Boss, do you think she might have faked her body and ran away?"
"No." Xiang Haiqing shook her head firmly.
"Why are you so sure?" The fat man raised his small eyes and glanced at Hai Qing, as if he didn't take her words to heart at all.
Hai Qing didn't have time to make trouble for him at such a critical moment, so she told An Zimo about the head of the female corpse that was brought to Ningxia yesterday.
Everyone felt a chill after hearing this, and looked at An Zimo with a strange look in their eyes.
"Tell me, how could she run away even if her head was taken off?"
The fat man seemed to have lost his mind and turned his hope to An Zimo. "Brother, what do you think?"
After waiting for a while, what everyone didn't expect was that An Zimo, who they all regarded as their spiritual support, actually shook his head.
"Not sure."
Three simple words shattered everyone's last hope: "Let's not worry about where the body went now. It might have been washed away by the high tide. All we have to do now is find the faucet of the water source."
An Zimo's words made everyone rely on him again. Everyone nodded, and the fat man said directly, "I listen to you, let's leave now."
The group of people stepped on the wet mud under their feet and slowly walked towards the stream. After walking for about half a day, they finally reached a pool at the foot of the mountain, with a thin stream of water flowing from it.
"The water flows down from here, it should be a mountain spring." The fat man squatted down and took a handful of the water to wash his face.
Xiang Haiqing took a look around, and saw that everything was overgrown with weeds, the vegetation was very lush, and there were towering trees on both sides, which completely obscured the place.
Although it was broad daylight, it always felt very cool. However, everyone was sweating a lot along the way. Xiang Haiqing put her bag on the grass nearby, walked to the stream and wiped her face with a towel.
The fat man tilted his head and stared at her, laughing. "Little girl, I don't know how many more days you can survive under such conditions. If you really die, don't let others carry you."
Xiang Haiqing especially didn't like the way Fatty spoke. She curled her lips and turned around with a big smile, "Uncle Fatty, you shouldn't worry about me now. You should worry about you. Look at all the uncles here.
, who has a body like yours? If you were missing arms and legs, how would you let others carry you?"
The fat man's face turned green. "Hey, you little girl is really sharp-tongued."
Xiang Haiqing twisted her mouth and said, "To each other."
The bickering between the two people became a crowd-pleaser, and everyone snickered when they saw the old and the young arguing with each other.
Everyone also chimed in a few words. Just as the argument between Fatty and Hai Qing was getting heated, Fatty suddenly winked at Hai Qing.
Hai Qing didn't react at first. She raised her head and looked at the people, but they all looked behind her.
Only then did Xiang Haiqing react and turned around quickly. Only then did she realize what everyone was looking at. She saw a man standing at the foot of the mountain squatting motionless, as if staring at something in trance.
This person was none other than An Zimo, who had been silent all this time. Xiang Haiqing thought he was standing behind her, but she didn't expect that she would actually run there.
Then he stopped thinking about it and stood up and walked towards him.
"An Zimo, what are you looking at?" She squatted next to him curiously.
And he still lowered his head and fiddled with the soil in his hand, "That's not right."
"No? What's wrong?" Hai Qing suddenly heard him talking and hurriedly asked.
An Zimo raised his eyes and looked at her, "Didn't you notice that we saw those giant pythons along the way and saw almost no other creatures?"
Xiang Haiqing's heart skipped a beat. She hadn't felt it before An Zimo didn't remind her, but now that she thought about it, it seemed that it was really the case.
Shouldn't such a dense primeval forest be a paradise for birds? Why have no birdsong been heard here?
An Zimo had already seen what she was thinking through her eyes, "Not only birds, there are no animals here. In fact, to be more specific, I have almost never seen ants."
"What's going on? What did you find?" The fat man looked at the two people with gloomy expressions on their faces and guessed that he must have discovered something.
Xiang Haiqing glanced at the fat man and then answered him feebly, "He just said that there doesn't seem to be any sign of biological survival here."
"What?" Lao Jie also shouted and came over, and others followed closely and surrounded him.
"How come there are no living things? Are those pythons fake?" Fatty retorted without giving up.
Xiang Haiqing sighed, "Did you find anything else besides pythons? The climate here is subtropical, and mosquitoes breed frequently now. Have you seen a mosquito?"
Under Hai Qing's questioning, the fat man also shut up. After waiting for a while, he looked at An Zimo and asked, "What will happen if there are no signs of animal survival?"
An Zimo's expression remained calm. He threw away the soil in his hand and stood up. "If there are no signs of life here, it proves that there is either something powerful that has occupied this territory and broken the food chain, or there is something like this that makes birds and beasts fly."
They are all very panicked.”
"Cao! So there's nothing wrong with that?"
Xiang Haiqing thought for a while and expressed his opinion: "Do you think this is the breeding ground of those giant pythons, so there are no living creatures around? This seems more likely. After all, we have all seen it with our own eyes."
of."
After hearing her explanation, everyone agreed, "Yes, this possibility should be higher, but didn't I say that those guys won't appear in a short time now, maybe they won't be there until we leave here."
Can you see them?"
Lao Jie also followed suit.
"No, this guess is unreasonable." An Zimo shook his head and automatically ruled out the first method.
"Why?"
Several people stared at him curiously, waiting for his next words.
"These snakes do not contain any toxins. Logically speaking, even if they are out of the food chain, they will not be affected by ordinary mosquitoes and flies. However, it is like a death valley here. No living creatures can be seen. If we can see some animals
The remains are fine, but I just looked around and found no traces of any animals here for hundreds of years."
His words undoubtedly made matters worse, and the glimmer of hope that people held on to was abruptly killed.
Xiang Haiqing looked at everyone with frowning faces, and even the fat man stopped cursing.
She didn't want to see such a crowd, and she didn't want to speculate on what would happen next. She took a deep breath and gave Hai Qing a bright smile.
"Don't think so much. We don't know what's going on right now. Besides, except for those giant pythons, we haven't encountered any dangers so far, so don't be suspicious."
She raised her eyes and looked at the sky, "It's not too early now, why don't we set up camp here."
An Zimo looked at his watch and shook his head, "It's only five o'clock now, and there are still two hours until it gets completely dark. We try not to camp here. It seems there will be heavy rain tonight. What if our tent gets wet?"
It’s easy to sort out, there should be a cave up there, why don’t we go up there and look for it.”
An Zimo pointed to the mountain next to him, raised his head to look at Haiqing, and saw at a glance that the mountain was probably dozens of meters high.
"How do you know what's up there at such a high altitude? Besides, we only have two hours left. It might be completely dark before we find the cave. Walking at night is really dangerous."
Xiang Haiqing firmly disagreed with An Zimo's method, and Fatty seemed to agree with her opinion very much this time.
"I also feel that this girl is right. We are not sure if there is a cave up there. If we go up there and don't find it, we might as well end up here. At least there is a place to camp here. It won't be easy to find a piece of flat land when we get to the mountain.
It’s easier.”
When the fat man said this, everyone agreed, and they were really tired after walking for a long time.
An Zimo saw that they all agreed to camp where they were. Although he felt vaguely inappropriate, he did not say anything to stop them.
Seeing that he had no objection, Hai Qing clapped her hands happily, "That's great, let's start setting up camp."
Everyone got excited upon hearing this. They have been having trouble sleeping this summer. Now they can finally set up camp early. At least they can rest early.
An Zimo and Hai Qing set up their tent together. Although they had been spending time with An Zimo day and night these days, Xiang Haiqing had long been accustomed to it and didn't think about her boyfriend having other rules.
Moreover, in such a dangerous place, she had personally seen An Zimo's power, and she was determined that she would be safe only if she followed him.
Hai Qing has become accustomed to setting up tents these days, so she quickly set them up with An Zimo.
There was a layer of inflated air mattress inside, and Hai Qing immediately got in with her bag.
An Zimo seemed uneasy and went out to discuss with the fat man. Everyone except Hai Qing picked up some branches nearby. An Zimo also cut a branch as thick as a bowl from the tree and pulled it with the combined efforts of the fat man.
He came back and blocked the area around the tent.
Hai Qing was not idle either. She picked up some dry firewood, piled them up, lit them, set up a small pot, and cooked a few poached eggs and a few packets of instant noodles.
After putting some ham meat into it, after a while, the aroma of noodles wafted in freely.
At this time, Fatty Zheng and An Zimo got another large branch to block the other side. He stared at Hai Qing squatting and tinkering at the center of the tent, and did not forget to laugh a few words, "I said, little girl, you can do it
With such a fragrant smell, don't attract those giant pythons who are electing the king. I think you will hurt a hundred bags and it won't be enough for them to stuff their teeth."
Xiang Haiqing flattened his mouth in dissatisfaction, and then rolled his eyes, "This noodles is cooked for people to eat. People like you don't get a share."
"Hey." The fat man's face darkened suddenly, and he was no longer in a hurry to do what he was doing, so he crossed the branches and walked to Xiang Haiqing's side.
"How can you, a little girl, talk to your elders? What do you mean by this? What are you? Am I not a human being?"
Xiang Haiqing saw that his face was red with anger and his neck was thick, and she suddenly felt very happy, but she still pretended to have an ignorant expression on her face.
"Uncle Fatty, I didn't mean that. Don't make up your mind. Besides, I didn't specify those beasts when I mentioned you."
The fat man jumped angrily, "You damn girl, you are still here pretending to be stupid for grandpa. Don't think that I can't hear the sarcasm you just made about grandpa."
He put his hands on his hips with an expression of guilt, turned around and said to An Zimo, who was busy at work: "Brother, your woman is so disobedient. I'm telling you, if you continue to behave like this, sooner or later you will suffer the consequences."
After shouting loudly, he was angry when he saw that An Zimo was still sitting on his own affairs without paying attention to him. He put his hands behind his back and turned around to enter his tent.
Xiang Haiqing stood up happily, clapped her hands and shouted to the busy guy, "It's time to eat."
Several people under Fatty were already used to the scolding tricks between Hai Qing and Fatty every day. Every time they saw the scene where their boss, who always thought they had an invincible mouth, was being kicked by this little girl, they laughed.
.
Slowly, I began to feel that it would be nice to have such a little girl by my side.
Hearing Hai Qing's call, everyone put down what they were doing and walked to the nearby stream to wash their hands.
At this time, Hai Qing had already put everyone's noodles into disposable plastic bowls according to the number of people. Everyone sat down and started eating.
Lao Jie took a bite and gave Hai Qing a thumbs up, "Hai Qing, you girl, is so skilled at cooking. You can even cook instant noodles so that they are both delicious and delicious."
Hai Qing chuckled a few times, "You should stop praising us in your conscience. This noodle is almost ruined. Eat it quickly."
Only then did she look at An Zimo, who was still piling up the branches he had obtained and fixing them with ropes.
"Hey, An Zimo, do you want to eat?"
"If you don't want to eat, you can go and eat." He lowered his head and fiddled with the rope in his hand without looking up at Hai Qing.
"Hey, I mean, you, the food is ready, why can't you eat it while it's still hot?"
"I'm afraid I won't be able to make it in time." An Zimo was still busy with his head down. Xiang Haiqing was a little surprised when he saw him neatly wrapping the rope in his hand around the branches.
"You are such a young man, I didn't expect to be able to do these things. What a surprise."
Hai Qing stood nearby and looked down curiously. In her heart, An Zimo had always been a very pompous young master, and he was always followed by several bodyguards in black.
An Zimo was the first person in his school to do such a formation, so seeing him playing with these branches by himself here, Xiang Haiqing was somewhat surprised.
Only then did An Zimo stop what he was doing, stood up and looked at her, his eyes filled with endless depth.
"You never tried to understand me."
After saying this, he walked past the stunned Hai Qing and walked in front of everyone, sat in front of the fire, picked up a bowl of noodles that Hai Qing had prepared for him, and ate slowly.