mtl008 Chapter 284 Collection 12
Chapter 284 Collection 12
Jiang Li couldn't help but gasp for breath, feeling her throat burning like parched earth, desperately needing water.
She straightened up, stretched her aching muscles, took out a water bottle from her backpack, took two sips, and glanced around at her surroundings.
Suddenly, she saw something rush through the thick fog and disappear in the blink of an eye.
Jiang Li paused slightly as she was about to put the bottle cap back on. She rubbed her eyes and then looked in that direction.
There was nothing there.
Could it be that I saw it wrong?
Jiang Li was lost in thought, but she still became instinctively alert. She shone her flashlight around, and in the thick fog, the only sound was the sound of her teammates picking herbs. Everything else was as quiet as before.
A cool breeze blew by, and Jiang Li felt her hot cheeks instantly become comfortable. She looked in the direction she had been, and wondered to herself, was she being too suspicious?
She shook her head, glanced at Jingmo who was still digging for herbs next to her, and thought that as long as Brother Mo was there, the two of them could handle this unexpected situation, right?
Jiang Li's slightly tense heart gradually calmed down, as if a small boat that had been swaying in the waves had finally found a peaceful harbor.
She simply walked over to Ye Jingmo's side and continued to dig, since there were only a few vanilla flowers left and she would be able to leave the ditch soon.
Ye Jingmo glanced up casually and saw Jiang Li, like a cheerful little bee, diligently helping him pick herbs. A slight smile played on her lips as she bent down to continue picking with a happy expression.
After everyone had finished picking all the herbs and flowers in the area, Fu Qianming's face was beaming with a bright smile that she couldn't suppress, like a blooming flower.
They finally harvested all the vanilla flowers in the field. They estimated there were at least seventy or eighty flowers. Their adventure was definitely worth it.
As the old saying goes, fortune favors the bold!
Jiang Li happily walked quickly toward Ye Jingmo, but heard a rustling sound nearby. She quickly turned her head to look in the direction of the sound, but could only see a blurry figure.
This time, Jiang Li was certain she wasn't seeing things; there was definitely something in the thick fog.
She wondered to herself, "Could it be that the smell of sulfur has dissipated?" The snakes had returned.
But those figures didn't look like snakes at all; they looked more like some small animals.
Ye Jingmo saw Jiang Li, who was walking towards him, stop halfway, her eyes filled with thought, as if she had noticed something.
He strode towards Jiang Li, his voice slightly hoarse from lack of nourishment, like a rough piece of sandpaper. "What's wrong?"
"I think I just saw something go through the fog?"
Upon hearing this, the crowd surged toward Jiang Li like a tidal wave.
Zhang Tianmeng was stunned by Jiang Li's words and immediately looked around, but found nothing.
He hesitated for a moment and said, "Could it be that the snakes have returned?"
That's no problem. We've finished picking all the herbs here, so we can leave now.
"Whatever it is, we need to get out of here right now."
Wang Hao glanced around warily. Whatever the snakes or anything else, as long as they got out of the ditch, there wouldn't be any more problems.
With backpacks on their backs, the group headed towards the climbing rope.
The rustling sounds around them grew louder, and everyone frowned, indicating that something was following them.
Moreover, they have lost patience to hide their forms.
Everyone quickened their pace, trying to avoid the unknown things in the thick fog.
Unfortunately, things didn't go as they wished.
The flashlight beam illuminated the road ahead, and everyone saw what had been following them.
They were a group of hairless rats, their black skin exposed, their long whiskers twitching incessantly, and their red eyes staring at the group.
"Where did this bunch of rats come from? Isn't this a snake pit? Holy crap."
Seeing this scene, even Fu Qian, with her good upbringing, couldn't help but swear.
"How ugly."
The rats were hairless, their black skin reflecting an eerie light under the flashlight, making them look like demons from hell.
Their eyes were bloodshot, glowing eerily red in the thick fog, and their long tentacles, like whips, lashed through the air as if searching for prey.
Jiang Li looked at the hairless rat and felt that it was an eyesore. Goosebumps rose all over her body, as if she were being crawled over by thousands of caterpillars.
Wang Hao pondered how to drive back the swarm of rats ahead.
Ye Jingmo pondered for a moment, then took out the torch that hadn't finished burning from behind him, lit it, and waved it left and right in front of him.
Flames have a natural suppressive effect on any animal, and the rats all took a few steps back.
This method works!
Everyone's eyes lit up, and they all took out torches from their backpacks and waved them towards the swarm of rats.
"Let's get out of here quickly, the torches won't last much longer."
Wang Hao urged, his voice like a war drum resounding in everyone's hearts.
Their torches had already been lit for some time, but the remaining fuel probably wouldn't last much longer, so they needed to get to the climbing ropes immediately.
They are only truly safe once they leave the area of the deep ditch.
The group took a few steps forward with torches, and the rats retreated a few steps, maintaining a safe distance between them, as if they were having a tug-of-war.
Despite the pressure of being watched by a swarm of rats, the group finally reached the location of the climbing rope.
"You guys go up first."
Wang Hao's voice was filled with anxiety, his eyes fixed on the swarm of rats surrounding them.
Without the slightest hesitation, Fu Qian planted the torch in the ground to block the surging swarm of rats ahead, grabbed the climbing rope, and climbed up as fast as she could.
Because only if she climbs fast enough can the people following behind her catch up faster.
Zhao Mingkai and Wang Tang waited anxiously on the mountain. When they saw Fu Qian climb up, they immediately grabbed her hand and pulled her to the ground.
Before they could even ask, Fu Qian looked anxiously at the climbing rope and shouted down, "Hurry!"
"Ali, you go up with Fu Qian."
Ye Jingmo had Jiang Li climb onto the climbing rope.
Jiang Li wanted to stay, but seeing Ye Jingmo's gaze, she could only obey and climb the climbing rope.
Every minute and every second is crucial now, and she can't afford to waste everyone's time.
Soon only Ye Jingmo and Wang Hao were left standing in the ravine, facing a group of bald rats.
Ye Jingmo took out the remaining sulfur powder from his backpack, sprinkled it on the ground, and said to Wang Hao, who was standing to the side, "You go up first, I'll cover you from behind."
The rats were starting to get restless. They clearly realized that there were fewer and fewer humans, and if these two left too, they would have no prey left.
Wang Hao whispered "Be careful," then grabbed the climbing rope and quickly started climbing.
As Ye Jingmo watched Wang Hao's figure gradually disappear into the thick fog, he used a torch to ignite the sulfur powder in front of him.
The flames roared, like a fire dragon, blocking the rats' attempt to rush over.
After finishing everything, Ye Jingmo immediately climbed onto the climbing rope. The rats' last prey was about to flee, their desire for flesh and blood overcoming their fear of the flames.
Some rats rushed towards the flames without regard for their own safety. The fire ignited their skin, causing them to howl wildly, their cries as pitiful as a pig being slaughtered. This made the rats, who had been eager to move forward, stop in their tracks and slowly retreat to the surroundings.
This group of people is not easy to deal with; they need to find food to fill their stomachs while the other group of snakes hasn't returned.
Jiang Li paced anxiously on the mountain, worried that Ye Jingmo might get hurt down below.
As Ye Jingmo climbed to the top of the mountain, Jiang Li hugged him tightly. He reached out and hugged Jiang Li back, gently patting her back to comfort her, like coaxing a child.
Looking at the disheveled appearance and dirty clothes of the group, Wang Tang knew that they had probably encountered some danger in the ravine below.
Fortunately, no one was injured.
Once back in the cave, everyone finally relaxed.
Zhang Tianmeng put his backpack aside and lay on the ground without any regard for his image. The events that had just happened were too "exciting" for him to keep his spirits up. All he wanted to do now was lie on the ground and rest for a while.
Liang Zi leaned quietly against the mountain wall, slowly drinking a bottle of water in his hand.
Fu Qian took off her dirty clothes, sat by the campfire, and cleaned the herbs in her backpack.
Jiang Li buried her head in Ye Jingmo's arms. She no longer had the strength to speak and just wanted to stay in one place and rest quietly.
Wang Hao knew everyone was tired, so he waited for them to rest for a while and regain some strength before speaking: "Everyone, take stock of the herbs in your backpacks and see what we've accomplished today."
Jiang Li handed the backpack to Ye Jingmo, asking him to help with the calculations, since they were going to be together anyway.
"15 strains."
"28 strains."
"42 strains."
"21 strains."
After listening to Ye Jingmo and others' reports, Wang Hao added his own 18 plants.
A look of joy appeared on his dark face. They had picked a total of 124 herbs in the deep ditch, completing half of their task.
"My God, if this happened again, we could just go back to base and report back."
Zhang Tianmeng wanted to jump three feet high to express his excitement.
I also secretly wish there were another place like the deep ditch, filled with fragrant herbs.
"However, some of them were crushed by the giant snake, so we don't know if they're still usable."
Thinking of this, Fu Qian wanted to pull out the giant snake and whip its corpse. They should have cut off some raw meat from the giant snake earlier and fried it when they got back.
Now those bald rats should be getting a good deal.
Seeing everyone's harvest, Liu Yu smiled, his slightly pale face breaking into a smile.
"Let's go out and catch some game later, have a good meal, and then go out to look for herbs again tomorrow."
Wang Hao placed the fragrant flowers and said cheerfully to everyone.
After working so hard today, I deserve a nice treat.
Wang Hao told everyone to have free time first, and to go out and look for prey in an hour.
Otherwise, given their current sore arms and tired appearance, they probably wouldn't be able to catch any prey even if they went out.
Zhao Mingkai leaned closer to Zhang Tianmeng, put his hand on his neck, and asked him about what he had encountered in the deep ditch.
Wang Tang also came over, his face also showing curiosity.
Zhang Tianmeng immediately began to vividly recount what had happened in the deep ditch, gesturing with her hands when she got excited.
"No, besides the snakes, there are also rats down there?"
Aren't these two opposing species? How come they're both paired together?
Wang Tang looked incredulous.
Before Zhang Tianmeng could speak, Liangzi said from the side, "It must be because we used sulfur to drive away those snakes that the rats realized they had no enemies and came out from underground."
"If there isn't enough food, how will those snakes grow? But it's strange, though, that those snakes and rats all stay huddled in that deep ditch and don't come out."
Fu Qian continued the conversation, while also expressing her doubts.
However, no one knows the answer to this question. But then again, with natural disasters already occurring, a nest of snakes and rats doesn't seem like such a big deal.
After chatting, Ye Jingmo and his group of five went hunting in the bamboo forest.
Jiang Li and Fu Qian were searching for edible wild vegetables by the cave. They hadn't tasted vegetables in a long time, and had been eating meat all the time.
Since they have the time and leisure today, they can go out and look for wild vegetables.
About fifty meters after they walked out of the cave, they came across a rock with some lush wild vegetables growing beside it.
"This is wild garlic."
Fu Qian was delighted and pulled up the plant. With wild garlic, she could remove the fishy smell from the meat.
They gathered a small handful of wild vegetables and went to the stream to wash the soil off the roots and stems.
Thinking that the water in the cave was running low, Fu Qian went back to get an empty plastic bucket and filled it with water from the river.
Ye Jingmo and his group of five also returned from their hunt. When Jiang Li saw the gutted pheasant, a look of surprise flashed across her face.
Pheasants are very difficult to catch in the mountains and forests. They are small and easy to hide, and they can also use flight to evade enemies.
"I was lucky today. I caught two pheasants and this rabbit as soon as I went out."
"It's a pity that one of the bamboo rats got away."
Wang Tang felt a little regretful; if the bamboo rat hadn't escaped, their dinner tonight would have been much more sumptuous.
Laughter and cheerful voices could be heard from inside the cave, a rare occurrence.
The pot on the campfire was billowing white smoke, and small pieces of chicken and rabbit meat were simmering in it to make soup.
Everyone stared intently at the pot, swallowing hard.
With such a long natural disaster, they haven't eaten chicken in ages.
Fu Qian had been eating chicken as her diet to lose weight, and at one point she thought she would never eat chicken again.
Who knew that after the natural disaster, she never ate chicken again, and she dreamed about the taste of chicken.
Zhao Mingkai scooped up some soup with a spoon, tasted it, and nodded in satisfaction.
The flavor of wild garlic masked the gamey smell of the chicken and rabbit, leaving only their natural flavors.
As soon as everyone saw that it was time to start eating, their chopsticks flew like blurs as they quickly scooped food into the pot.