3 Injured

Qiao Jinnian was awakened by a low, 'roaring' sound.

Qiao Jinnian had diarrhea all morning, and finally, after breaking out in a cold sweat, she lay powerlessly in the grass.

Qiao Jinnian looked at the blue sky speechlessly. It had been getting colder these past two days. The temperature difference here was huge. The hospital gown she was wearing was no longer enough, and she couldn't find anything to eat. Besides, her body was too thirsty. She felt that she couldn't wait any longer and had to drink water. Even if there were parasites in her body, it was better than dying of thirst.

After lying down for the whole morning, Qiao Jinnian endured the discomfort and began to climb towards the bottom of the slope. The bottom of the slope, which usually seemed not so far away, now seemed as far away as the horizon and could not be reached no matter how hard he climbed.

She had to stop and rest for a while to slow down before continuing to climb towards her destination.

Finally she climbed to the river. She deliberately chose a place upstream, washed her hands, scooped up some water, and found it was quite clear, so she took a big sip. She was so thirsty that she began to drink water frantically. She put aside all the worries about being sick or not, and the most important thing was to survive.

After drinking an unknown number of mouthfuls, Qiao Jinnian collapsed powerlessly by the river. Touching her round belly, she felt like she was alive again.

Yes, we have come to this pristine grassland, and we still worry about whether there are parasites or not. Isn’t it a bit too pretentious?

Seeing her lying motionless by the river, the curious gazelle from yesterday walked over and looked down at her condescendingly, as if to confirm whether she was dead. It licked her face and nudged her round belly from the side.

Qiao Jinnian was pushed over and turned over, feeling a little speechless. Now any herbivore could treat her as a toy, right?

But she didn't care. After all, there were only herbivores here and it looked safe.

However, the next second, the nervous cries of animals were heard from a distance.

“Yoyo——”

All the animals stepped back and watched the battle in the river nervously.

A gazelle that had just been drinking water was attacked on the neck by a crocodile in the water. After struggling for only a few seconds, it was dragged back into the water by the crocodile.

When the animals on the shore saw that the crocodile had eaten its fill and disappeared, they returned to the shore indifferently.

At this moment, even though Qiao Jinnian was used to not letting her emotions fluctuate too much, she found herself getting goose bumps all over her body, and a sense of awe for nature arose spontaneously.

But she actually felt that the riverside was safe, and she even slept there and drank water without any vigilance. If she hadn't had diarrhea yesterday, she would have thought that God had given her a thick golden finger of immortality.

Shaking her head, Qiao Jinnian didn't dare to be careless anymore. She looked around vigilantly and gazed into the distance. Although the entire grassland was very dangerous, she had to explore for more food, otherwise she would die sooner or later.

Because she drank enough water, her stomach was filled with water and she no longer felt hungry. Only then did Qiao Jinnian truly understand the meaning of water being the source of life.

The destination she was going to reach today was really far away, but as she continued to crawl forward, several huge trees appeared in front of her.

This kind of tree looks so thick that it takes ten people to hug it. Some trees are very tall, while some are shorter and stronger. The leaves on the top of the tree are not very lush, but there are some green or yellow, huge oval fruits on the tree, and even some white flowers hanging on the branches.

The problem was that the tree was a little too high for her to reach, and there were no fallen fruits on the ground.

For a moment, Qiao Jinnian wished she could grow up quickly, but unfortunately she had no choice.

Sitting cross-legged on the grass, Qiao Jinnian kept looking up at the fruits above his head, as if he could make them fall down by staring at them.

Then, Qiao Jinnian waited for the group of black and white monkeys that he had seen yesterday.

She couldn't tell which monkey had hit her, but it was obvious that the monkeys knew her.

The monkey that had hit her yesterday actually ran down and came to see her.

The monkey probably came to study whether she was from its own tribe. When it got closer, she could see clearly that the monkey was quite pretty, with a black face, white beard, a white cloak behind it, and a long tail, also white, with a black tip. It looked very nice to touch.

But Qiao Jinnian would not take the initiative to touch it. I heard that some monkeys would play with other little monkeys to death, not to mention that she was not a monkey at all and was even more fragile than the little monkeys.

The monkey sitting in front of her was bigger than she was, after all, she was too small now.

Seeing that she was harmless, the monkey pulled a handful of her hair, wanting to study her and see if there were any salt particles on her body.

Qiao Jinnian was not afraid of her. She just sat there quietly and looked at her hair. Although her hair had grown to her shoulders, there was really very little hair. This was caused by severe maldevelopment. It was a congenital disease and there was no way to cure it.

She felt her heartbeat, which was now normal and steady, and only then did she feel that she was truly alive and well, and that was enough.

Fortunately, the monkey was just curious and didn't seem to want to pull her up to play.

Seeing that she was motionless, the monkey felt bored and quickly called "Wow Wow Wow" again. He jumped onto the tree and picked a fruit for her. This time he did not throw it away but brought it down to her.

Qiao Jinnian didn't know what to say, so she just said, "Thank you."

After delivering the fruits, the monkey ran away indifferently with other members of the tribe, each holding a fruit.

Qiao Jinnian looked up at these beautiful monkeys with extremely agile skills and felt envious. She really wished she could jump around in the air like that. How free it would be.

She wanted to put the fruit in her pocket, but she found that the fruit was too big to fit in her pocket. She could only put it in front of her knees and crawl and roll forward. After all, she was just a human cub on all fours.

For large animals, this journey would only take about twenty minutes round trip, but for her now, it was a three-hour journey.

So when she finally returned to Ryan's resting place, it was already completely dark.

"Hello, Ryan, I'm back." Qiao Jinnian greeted Ryan without thinking.

After greeting him and seeing that Ryan didn't have any special reaction, she returned to her bushes, lay in the familiar grass, and tried to see how to open this hard fruit.

If she had a knife, it would be easy to open it. The problem was that she had no tools and her hands were very weak, so there was really no way she could do it.

Alas, Qiao Jinnian sighed and had to lower her head to look for suitable tools nearby. Unfortunately, it was too dark and she couldn't see anything clearly, so she had to give up and thought about looking for tools early tomorrow morning.

However, at this moment, she suddenly saw Ryan's golden eyes, which looked like night lights in the night, staring straight ahead, motionless.

She had never seen Ryan hunting, but she had seen it in videos before. Lions generally like to hunt at night, so could it be that Ryan was going to eat?

However, she did not have the leisure to peek. After all, she knew exactly how much she weighed. It was not easy for her to come back alive. The little water in her stomach had long been consumed, and she had no strength left.

There was a slight rustling sound in the grass; it was Ryan crouching down to prepare for hunting.

Qiao Jinnian closed her eyes and went to sleep.

However, when Qiao Jinnian opened his eyes at noon, he had already found a sharp stone and opened the breadfruit, but he still hadn't waited for Ryan to come back to sleep.

The fruit was white. This should be the fruit from the baobab tree that she had seen in the video. Qiao Jinnian knew that this was edible, so she took a piece and put it in her mouth. It tasted a bit sour, but it could be eaten as a staple food.

She was full quickly. After all, her body didn't need much energy. She could save the remaining half of the fruit for the afternoon.

Qiao Jinnian was fed by a monkey yesterday. She was very grateful to him. She didn’t know whether it was a male or female monkey, so she gave him a name. Well, he was related to the breadfruit tree, so she called him Bread. And the gazelle that was interested in her, she just called him Yoyo.

At present, this breadfruit is the most suitable food. After all, she has no teeth and can't eat anything. But that place is too far away, and she has no tools to pick the fruit. She must think of a way to make a suitable tool.

First, the tree was too high for her to climb; second, even if she had the tools, she didn't have the strength to lift it up to pick the fruit.

So, between the long branch and the slingshot, she finally chose the slingshot, but the problem came, there was no rubber band, how could she do it?

Her belt was elastic and large enough to be used as a bowstring, but she had no knife.

It doesn’t matter. Qiao Jinnian used a sharp stone to rub the belt, pulled out a section, slowly ground it off, tied up the rest, and tightened the belt.

With this elastic band, Qiao Jinnian lowered his head to look for a suitable triangular branch that could be used to make a slingshot.

She found a sturdier piece and tried it. It was not easy to break and the shape was acceptable, so she tied an elastic band on it, placed a stone on the elastic band, and tried to hit the leaves on the tree. Her accuracy was not very good, but it was still a tool.

Satisfied, she put the tools in her pocket, ready to carry them with her just in case. Of course, she also carried the sharp stone with her, so she had some ability to protect herself. Of course, this little bit of damage was just a psychological comfort.

Normally at this time, Ryan would have come back to bed, but now it was already afternoon and he hadn't come home yet.

Qiao Jinnian suddenly began to worry about him. Could it be that his hunting was not going well?

Maybe he just needs to finish eating outside before coming back.

Dusk fell, it was completely dark, and Ryan still hadn't returned.

Lying in the grass, Qiao Jinnian couldn't sleep for the first time since she came here for several days. Without Ryan to guard the place, the rustling sounds of the animals seemed so clear and scary.

At this moment, she once again realized that Ryan had been indirectly providing her with a sense of security over the past two days.

Half asleep and half awake, Qiao Jinnian was awakened by a low "roar, roar, woo—" sound.

The roar was low and rapid, and it was obvious that something bad had happened to Ryan.

He lay under the tree and looked around vigilantly, his ears flaring to catch any dangerous sounds around him, not daring to lie down completely.

Only after making sure that there is no danger around will it lower its head to lick its injured belly, but while licking, it will look around to make sure everything is safe, and then continue to lower its head to lick the wound.

The low growls just now seemed to be intended to intimidate the large animals around that wanted to come over.

Qiao Jinnian crawled over slowly without disturbing him. After all, she was so small that she could not cause any harm to him. Even if he was injured, he could slap her and give her a concussion.

But today, when Qiao Jinnian climbed onto his abdomen, Ryan warned her for the first time.

"Roar—" He made a low, threatening warning sound, and his golden eyes looked straight at her. This look was full of warning, as if if she came any closer in the next second, she would be swallowed by him.