âWhy donât you just leave me here?â Zhang Mi was staring at Young Master Shen with a red nose while lying in the sleeping bag.
Young Master Shen was heating up a fish can, and he threw a bag of noodles in it. Hearing what Zhang Mi said, he didnât even look at her. âI wonder if there will be wolves here at night, are you sure you want to stay by yourself?â
âEmmâŠâ Zhang Mi wriggled a little in the sleeping bag. She was all wet now because she just had some sweat, but the good thing was that the fever was gone. âThen please wait for me, Iâll be well in a minute.â
Young Master Shen pursed his lips. âCan you sit up? You gotta eat something.â
Zhang Mi struggled to sit up, waiting for him to pass her the bowl of food patiently.
âWe have wasted half a day, but your men still didnât show up, did they get lost?â
âImpossible. They have the map.â Young Master Shen took out the satellite phone to check again, but there still wasnât any signal. As if the minute they got near the hill where the destination was, all the radar, satellite signal suddenly disappeared.
Zhang Mi nodded while sucking a mouthful of noodles. âThe good thing is that we have paper maps. If all the maps were digital, we wonât be able to know where to go.â
âIf we canât find the big crew tomorrow, or if we canât find the village, we will be out of food.â Young Master Shen knocked on his backpack. Most of the food supplies were with the rest of his team, they didnât think that they would get separated.
Zhang Mi heard what he said, and pass the empty bowl to him immediately. âI want some more please!â
âHave all you want, get full so that the wolves can have a feast.â Young Master Shen said with frustration, but still got her a full bowl of noodles anyway. After Zhang Mi finished her meal and gained some strength, they decided to continue the march, hoping to reached the destination marked on the map before dark. Zhang Mi stayed quiet on the way, just followed Young Master Shen without saying a word. Young Master Shen felt strange, so he turned around to check her a few times in secret, worrying whether she was about to faint without his knowing.
âDidnât you say there are wolves?â Zhang Mi noticed his turning around, thought for a second and said, âI thought too many noises will bring the wolves around.â
Young Master Shen smirked, continued to march without saying anything. They finally reached the destination before the sky went completely dark. Young Master Shen didnât want to march on anymore, it was too dark for them to see the surroundings clearly. So they put up the tent on the lee side of a big rock, Young Master Shen heated up the last bit of their food. After they finished the food, the two of them got in the separate corners of the sleeping bag, gave each other a good night look, then closed their eyes.
Without the big crew, Young Master Shen put a warning device around the tent. It would go off the second any life form got near. Fortunately, they were safe the whole night. The dawn came when Young Master Shen woke up, then he woke up Zhang Mi.
âTidy up. We must find the entrance of the village soon, or weâll starve to death!â
The two of them wandered around but found nothing, there was a cliff not far away in the north, they couldnât tell the height of the cliff because there were all trees down there.
âI figure itâs like in the fiction, we gotta jump. There will be either a Kungfu secret book or some treasure down there!â After Zhang Mi said this, she saw Young Master Shen looking at herself like she was some kind of psycho, then she stuck her tongue out. âIâm bullshitting again, please ignore me!â
But Young Master Shen grabbed her shoulders, and gave her cheek a big fat kiss.
Zhang Mi pushed him away. âWhat are you doing?â She glared at him.
âIâm so happy, you are right!â Young Master Shen dragged her towards the cliff. âI forgot everything, good thing you reminded me.â
It turned out that the bounty hunter had told Young Master Shen that he slipped and fell around here at the time, then he fell into a deep tree hole. When he woke up again, he was already in the village. While Chen Ming and Li Xiaoru met a landslide, they were buried in a cave. At the time, Chen Ming got his leg broken and his head hit. Li Xiaoru also found them in the village when she woke up. But Chen Ming was in a coma all along. He was cured by the head of the village last month.
The bounty hunter that Young Master Shen sent to find Chen Ming reached the village exactly at this time of the year too. But because Chen Ming was too weak to leave the forest, the bounty hunter went back alone first to report the status.
âWeâre really jumping?â Zhang Mi stood at the cliff, there were all green plants down below, they couldnât see the bottom. Young Master Shen picked up a rock and threw it down, but soon heard a dead thud.
âIt canât be too deep, we hang the rope on this tree, then weâll slowly swing down.â
Zhang Mi nodded, then the two of them tied up the rope and crawled down slowly. Young Master Shen kept reminding her where to put her feet on her right side, Zhang Mi found it less and less scary as she continued. Then she started to look around and to admire the colorful plants around her. And she found a really bright and colorful little flower, it was really beautiful, shaped like a star.
âWhat a beautiful flower!â She reached her hand to pick it. Young Master Shen heard and looked at what she was doing. Then his face suddenly changed, he yelled, âDonât pick it!â
Zhang Miâs hand was already holding the flower, at the same time, she felt like something gave a heavy hit to her waist. The rope behind her got loose, she lost her center and fell down.
âFuck! Why did you kick me?â Zhang Mi screamed while covering her face and waiting to die. Then she felt a weight on her body, and then sat right on the ground, but she almost broke tailbone. She stood up while rubbing her butt.
âFortunately it isnât too high!â She thought about Young Master Shenâs kick again, so she yelled upwards. âWhy donât you jump too, how dare you to scare me!â
Just when she finished the sentence, she saw a shadow fell down hard, then he didnât move again.
âFuck, are you okay?â Zhang Mi squatted down and gave him a push. Young Master Shenâs body shook by the push, but that was it. Zhang Mi panicked, because she saw Young Master Shenâs face turned grey and his lips turned black.
She threw herself on him and started to check his body, finally she found four holes in the back of his left hand, which was all swollen up like a big bun.
âThis is⊠a snake bite?â Zhang Mi shivered. She thought about the moment she fell and remembered Young Master Shen reached his hand and shielded her from something, so he kicked her because there was a snakeâŠ
Zhang Miâs face turned completely white, she looked around and found their backpacks they threw in advance were not far away from them. She hurried to open Young Master Shenâs backpack.
âHe has it, he has it, I remember he mentioned before that there is an antidote in the first-aid bag.â Zhang Mi took out the first-aid bag while shaking her hands, then she found a small box, inside there were three syringes and an instruction note. Zhang Mi gave Young Master Shen a shot according to the instruction note. Then she cut a lot of twigs and vines to make a bracket and carried Young Master Shen on it.
She had to find the village as soon as possible. That shot of antidote could only stop the toxin from spreading. If they stalled for too long, Young Master Shen would surely die. Zhang Mi carried both of the backpacks, then dragged the bracket and marched forward step by step.
âGosh⊠look at you⊠youâre not even fat⊠how come⊠how come youâre so heavy!â Zhang Mi walked towards where there was less vegetation. God knew how long had passed, God knew how far she had gone, Zhang Mi was hungry and thirsty. Watching the sky getting darker and darker, finally she saw a woman in linen clothes.
âHelp⊠usâŠâ Zhang Mi spat out, then passed out right away.
Xin Qing was reading the news on the paper, she felt chill in her veins.
Tang Shuangâs photo covered half of the page, she was standing next to Ying Qingcang with a big smile on her face. The large title wrote: âMarry into the Big Yingâ Residence and Carry the Bloodlineâ. Xin Qing read it again carefully, and fell on the sofa.
How? How come? Tang Shuang was pregnantâŠ
At the meantime, Ying Qingcang wasnât taking the news very well, he was talking with Boss Wan in the phone with a straight face.
âI can assure you that baby isnât Xiaoqiâs.â Boss Wan said on the other end of the phone, âI sent him because he canât impregnate women due to former injuries.â
Ying Qingcang frowned. âAre you one hundred percent sure?â
âOne hundred percent.â Boss Wan assured him. âBesides, we gave him a check before he went, we sent him after making sure that everything was alright.â
Since Boss Wan assured him, then the baby was definitely from someone else. Ying Qingcang stayed silent for a while, he didnât know what to do. The first thing that came to his mind was what would Xin Qing think when she knew about it.
Because at the beginning, Ying Qingcang thought about finding someone else to impregnate Tang Shuang, then use the baby to lure the man behind all this to come out. But Xin Qing disagreed, she thought that the baby was innocent. If they did it, then they were no better than monsters. But now that Tang Shuang was pregnant, Ying Qingcang took a deep breath and thought, should he send Ah Che to FranceâŠ
âCould it be someone elseâs?â Boss Wan suddenly added. âLetâs investigate the CCTV at the hotel, then weâll find out if there was anyone else beside Xiaoqi in the room that night.â
Ying Qingcang rubbed the spot between his eyebrows. âI already sent Ah Nan. One more favor I want to ask, please help me tell Xin Qing about it, tell her that Iâm investigating on this matter.â
âIf she doesnât believe in you, that could only mean she doesnât love you enough.â
âItâs not that,â Ying Qingcang sighed. âShe trusts me, but she can be very stubborn sometimes.â
Ah Nan walked in and interrupted the conversation. Ying Qingcang hung up the phone before asking Boss Wan to tell Xin Qing one last time.
Ah Nan shook his head. âThere was no one else, no one else came in that room since Xiaoqi left, Tang Shuang came out at noon.â
âNo one elseâŠâ Ying Qingcangâs eyes went dim. âItâs impossible for her to get pregnant on her own, someone must walk in the room that night. Go find out, find out who she has been seeing and hanging with in the past few months.â
Ah Nan nodded and went out. Ying Qingcang picked up the phone to call Young Master Shen, but still he wasnât in the service area. He poured himself a glass of wine and tried not to think about Tang Shuang smug face.
Tang Shuang was indeed very smug right now, she was very aware of her own body and knew that she would get pregnant for sure. Right now she was humming a tune and watching TV! Then she saw Ahai walked in through the door.
âWhatâs wrong with you?â Tang Shuang noticed he didnât look very well.
Ahai spread the newspaper and asked her. âIs this real? Youâre pregnant?â