The next day, just as dawn broke, Wang Ping led Bai Wei and his group down the mountain in a hurry.

Before leaving, I gave Wang Ping the best gun we had, and watched as he solemnly gave me his instructions.

"No matter what, you must remember that staying alive is the most important thing. In the most difficult times, you must save your life. Nothing else matters, understand?"

Wang Ping looked at me and nodded: "Sihai, don't worry. Take good care of our home and leave the rest to me. I'll be back as soon as possible. Prepare some delicious food and wait for me, understand?"

I smiled and nodded, watching Wang Ping and Chen Jian leave.

For the entire morning, I sat on the mountaintop watching the direction Wang Ping and the others had left in, feeling extremely worried, wondering what would happen to them.

Chen Jian, on the other hand, was engrossed in digging at the water trough with a shovel.

I went over to help him a few times, and Chen Jian, seeing my lack of enthusiasm, wiped his sweat and said, "Brother Sihai, don't worry. Don't you trust Wang Ping to handle things? Besides, maybe you were mistaken yesterday. If someone really did come to this deserted island, how could we not know?"

“We’ve been making so much noise lately, even the animals know that people live here, let alone the people. You keep busy, I’ll go down the mountain and get some more dry branches to store more firewood.”

Chen Jian nodded, and we divided the work clearly and went about our tasks.

Wang Ping and the others still hadn't returned by the afternoon, and even Bai Wei, who was lying in the sun basking in the sun, was getting a little anxious.

He walked along the cliff edge again and again, looking out. When he reached me, he frowned and sneered, "Hmph, I knew you were a two-faced person. Why didn't you go and scout ahead? Why did you send Wang Ping and the others? They have no experience in wilderness survival. Going out like that is just suicide. If something goes wrong, can you take responsibility? Besides, our camp doesn't lack anything in this situation. Why send them out to risk their lives?"

I originally didn't intend to pay any attention to Bai Wei, but seeing his aggressive demeanor, I couldn't stand it anymore.

Bai Wei sneered, "What do you know? If a search and rescue team really comes, don't you want to go back? Do you want to die here?"

Bai Wei's eyes lit up when he heard about the search and rescue team. I briefly told Bai Wei about seeing the signal flare yesterday. Bai Wei was no longer in a hurry and just sat on the rock, waiting for Wang Ping and the others to return.

I reckon he was thinking that if we could actually find the search and rescue team, then we could consider this a blessing in disguise and finally be able to leave this place.

But they waited and waited until it was almost dark and the moon was already high in the sky before Wang Ping and the others finally returned.

When I saw them return in a large group, I finally felt relieved and quickly ran down the mountain.

"How is it? What happened? Why did it take so long?"

Wang Ping looked at me with a rather unpleasant expression, and I then realized that they all looked terrified.

I quickly pulled Wang Ping and the others up the mountain, and then asked Wang Xiaoxiao and the others to boil water and prepare some food.

After drinking some water and eating a simple meal, they all returned to their respective cabins, while Wang Ping sat at our dining table.

I looked at Wang Ping, extremely anxious: "What's wrong? Why do you all look like that? What happened?"

Wang Ping looked at me and sighed: "Sigh, when we went there, we encountered a herd of wild boars on the road. We originally thought we could hunt a few wild boars and bring them back, but I guess because we had hunted too many animals here before, they all became smart. When they saw us coming, they all turned around and ran away. We didn't give up and chased them for a while, and then we chased them into the woods. But do you know what I saw in the woods?"

When I heard Wang Ping say that, I knew he must have seen something strange or inexplicable in the woods.

He nodded, signaling him to continue.

Wang Ping took another sip of water before lowering his voice and saying, "I saw a pool of blood in the woods, dripping and spreading until it disappeared deep into the forest. We discussed it and decided that the bloodstain looked like a human's. Besides, you pointed out the direction of the signal flare you sent, and the distance we guessed was not far from the woods where we went to catch wild boars. So we suspect that someone went into that woods and was injured, but he must have taken some measures to stop the bleeding."

After hearing what Wang Ping said, I became even more certain that there must be other people on this deserted island.

"And then, you went to the foreigners' camp, what did you see?"

Wang Ping nodded: "Lin Xubo is not dead. He's still among that group of foreigners, but he's obviously not doing as well as before. He's looking lost and picking up seashells on the beach. Those foreigners must have hunted some wild animals. They're drying some fish on poles by the cabin. There's nothing strange about the surroundings. And those foreigners are very vigilant now. They've put up fences around their boats, just like we have. It looks a bit awkward, but it's a kind of security measure."

The fact that Lin Xubo is still alive surprised me, and even made me feel a little disappointed.

Whether he lives or dies is none of my business. As long as he doesn't come here and annoy me, that's enough.

However, according to Wang Ping, the group that fired the signal flare yesterday was not a search and rescue team at all. In other words, even if other people came to this island, they were not there to find us.

Thinking back to the day we treated the injured Yang Rui, if he didn't come looking for us, he must have come with a purpose.

But what kind of person would come to this deserted island, which is full of large wild animals and dangerous places?

Even if you're going on a wilderness adventure, you don't need to come to an unnamed island like this, do you?

I really don't know what they came here for, but I'm sure Yang Rui wasn't alone, and the gunshot wound he sustained must have been from someone who shot him. Maybe that person wasn't a good shot, or maybe Yang Rui was just lucky to escape.

This means that Yang Rui may have had some kind of conflict with his companions, which led to this infighting and even nearly resulted in his companions killing him.

But Yang Rui had medicine and food in his backpack at the time, and there was no shortage of water in the area. Moreover, judging from his equipment and the feeling he gave me, he must have been a very experienced wilderness explorer. Given this situation, why would he and his companion have such a life-or-death argument?