Grandpa Fang had no doubts whatsoever. Instead, he comforted Bi Qiaoan, saying, "Girl, it's not your fault. They were just unlucky to run into rain. Those people forgot about them when they left. These three were soaked by the rain for a whole day and night; they're probably burned to death by now."

Perhaps they drowned.

Bi Qiaoan nodded: "I don't feel guilty, but I was a little scared to see that scene. I had to mentally prepare myself for a long time before I went over to give you water."

Grandpa Fang smiled with relief: "Thank you for your hard work."

The four men moved unconsciously, and before they knew it, they had circled back to the place where they had come ashore. They discovered that a large group of people were there.

"You, you guys?" Gong Mengjiao asked, stammering.

"Big sister, you're back!" The quick-witted young man was so excited that he ran over and almost gave Bi Qiaoan a bear hug.

Bi Qiaoan quickly called for a stop: "Stop, stop, stop. It's perfectly normal for me to come back. Is there any need to get so worked up?"

The young man scratched his head: "I've missed you so much, it's been several days since I last saw you."

Bi Qiaoan deliberately feigned a mushy tone: "Oh my, I'm getting goosebumps all over! Hehe, how have you been lately?"

"Thank goodness, it was raining heavily that day, so I came here to take shelter from the rain. I heard that they went to Big Beard's territory to look for you, but they couldn't find you."

Bi Qiaoan understood and explained, "There are many and complicated buildings over there. I was hiding in a corner that was not easy to notice, so I might have missed it. I look over here, and it seems like there are fewer people."

The young man's expression darkened: "It rained heavily that day, and there was hardly any shelter here. Many people were soaked for a whole day and night and got sick. Some still have fevers."

Bi Qiaoan was startled and said to the young man, "Take me to see this quickly!"

The young man nodded: "Sister, come with me. After they fell ill, we moved them together and tried to take care of them all, but it didn't work."

Bi Qiaoan hadn't gone far when she saw Qiao Gaiqin, Wen Bingxue, and about a dozen big men lying on the ground.

She stepped forward and placed her hands on their foreheads. Sure enough, just like Grandpa and Grandma Fang had done before, their temperatures were almost 40 degrees Celsius.

"Quickly cool them down, or they'll all get brain burns," Bi Qiaoan said.

"We wanted to, but there's no medicine!" the young man explained.

"Physical cooling methods, right? It rained for so long the other day, didn't you collect the water?"

The young man forced a stiff smile: "We didn't have any containers, so we didn't collect much."

Bi Qiaoan was exasperated: "We don't even know how long we'll be trapped, how dare you leave the resources unused? There are so many people here, without water, what are we going to do next?"

The young man fell silent.

Bi Qiaoan took out a bottle of diluted spiritual spring water from her backpack. Because the bottle was so unremarkable, no one suspected that it contained a treasure.

Because there were many people here, Bi Qiaoan didn't take out the pills. She fed water to the sick people one by one, and only when she did she realize that, apart from the two girls, the rest of them either had lost all their hair or had pustules on their faces. It seemed that their immunity had been weakened, causing the medication to take effect prematurely.

They had no one to take care of them, which suggests both a lack of human kindness and a fear of infectious diseases.

After finishing the bottle of water, Bi Qiaoan thought to herself, "Let fate decide. If he lives, he lives; if he doesn't, well..."

She has already exposed enough; there can be no limit.

Bi Qiaoan tossed the mushrooms from An'an's arms to the clever young man: "Here, have some. I picked them on the way here. By the way, what's your name?"

The young man opened the bag and was stunned. His eyes lit up as he asked, "Sister, where did you pick these? Do you have any more? By the way, my name is Huo Zhongli."

"Oh, neutrality, that's good."

"Not neutral, but neutral. The 'zhong' in 'midsummer'!"

“I know, neutral,” Bi Qiaoan said deliberately.

Huo Zhongli's face fell: "Fine, fine, whatever makes you happy."

Bi Qiaoan chuckled, "Go ahead, do whatever you want. There are mushrooms there, Gong Mengjiao, Zhao Huixian, and Uncle Fang and Aunt Fang know where they are. But it's far, and..."

Bi Qiaoan did not continue speaking.

Huo Zhongli's curiosity was piqued, and he pressed on, asking, "What's wrong?"

Bi Qiaoan patted An'an's little head: "Go ask Grandpa Fang."

Huo Zhongli was completely bewildered, but he still went to ask. After learning the answer, his face turned pale, and he shook his head, saying, "I dare not go."

Bi Qiaoan patted his shoulder: "It's okay, just pretend you didn't see it."

Huo Zhongli hesitated for a moment, then lowered his voice and said, "Big sister, actually, those two girls got sick not only because they got caught in the rain, but also because they were frightened."

"Oh?" Bi Qiaoan asked in surprise, "Go on."

"I heard from them that when they went to Big Beard's territory to look for you, they saw something bad."

Huo Zhongli looked at An'an and felt that children shouldn't listen to such words.

An'an was a little confused when he saw the uncle looking at him. Until his mother covered his ears.

"Alright, go ahead and say it."

Huo Zhongli nodded and whispered in Bi Qiaoan's ear, "They said that Qiao Gaiqin and Wen Bingxue saw a half-eaten corpse, couldn't bear it, and fell ill when they got back."

Bi Qiaoan frowned: "People eat people?"

"Yes, I heard the blood was fresh, so it was probably done by that group of people surnamed Wu. When they came back, they were trembling all over, hoping that you could appear and punish the devil."

Bi Qiaoan's heart sank. He never expected that his indecisiveness would cost another life.

"Big sister, didn't you run into them over there?" Huo Zhongli asked cautiously.

Bi Qiaoan shook her head: "No, there are too many buildings over there, I didn't specifically look for someone."

She didn't want to continue the topic, so she said, "Go and prepare the mushrooms; they won't be fresh if left out too long."

Huo Zhongli nodded and ran off.

They said they had no water, but they still had some stored up. They just couldn't bear to use it to bathe the patients.

A group of people were getting a fever, so they put a pot on the stove, poured in some murky rainwater, brought it to a boil, and then added mushrooms.

Without salt or seasonings, this simple mushroom soup brought tears to many people's eyes.

"Gong Mengjiao, Zhao Huixian, why don't you two take us mushroom picking later?"

The two looked rather grim, and their gazes toward Bi Qiaoan were tinged with resentment.

That's so far away, a round trip would take a whole day. They must be crazy to take people mushroom picking on their own initiative. But now, they have no choice but to go.

The two forced stiff smiles: "Okay, alright, we'll go after we eat."

Huo Zhongli served Bi Qiaoan a bowl, but she politely declined, saying, "Give some to those who are sick. I can still manage."

Actually, I was genuinely disgusted by the hygiene conditions here.

Huo Zhongli believed it to be true and gave Bi Qiaoan a thumbs up: "Big sister is so generous!"

Bi Qiaoan gave a forced smile: "I don't deserve it, I don't deserve it."

Two hours later, the group of people with high fevers slowly regained consciousness. Although the fever hadn't completely subsided, their temperatures had come down.