Chapter 123 The Flowing Ghost Realm
After tying the two burly men up, they sat down again, took out the roasted chicken that was dripping with oil and the fish soup that was originally there, and sat down to eat slowly while enjoying the two burly men's "nonsense".
After they finished eating, the two of them began to count their baskets.
In the basket, besides the herbs they had seen earlier, there were also a lot of "smuggled goods" packed in burlap sacks. There was a Sony radio, several packs of Marlboro and 555 cigarettes, and seven or eight bottles of Hennessy and Remy Martin liquors. The most abundant items were penicillin, antibiotics, and other Western medicines that were in short supply in China. In addition, there were also a lot of cassette tapes of songs and martial arts novels.
Qin Suisui and Jia Zhenzhen were increasingly shocked as they searched the basket. It turned out that these two people were actually "smugglers," and the medicinal herbs on the surface of their baskets were just a cover!
These items were probably intended for sale on the black market, so they had no choice but to accept them.
Jia Zhenzhen had a radio at home, but she didn't want it and gave it to Qin Suisui. Qin Suisui seemed to stuff it into her basket, but actually stuffed it directly into her spatial storage.
Commander Jia loved to smoke, so Qin Suisui simply kept one carton of each of the two brands and gave the rest to Jia Zhenzhen. Fearing that the packaging might be discovered and cause problems, they tore off the outer packaging of the cigarettes and threw it into the fire, leaving only the inner lining foil to prevent moisture.
Pei Jiuyan and Commander Jia didn't drink much alcohol because of their work, but they didn't want to waste it, so they split it in half. The bottles were all glass, so they tore off the labels and threw them into the fire. They wrapped the rest in thick banana leaves so they wouldn't break.
The two wanted to donate various Western medicines to the hospital, but if they were asked about their origin, it would cause trouble. So Jia Zhenzhen only took some common medicines such as antipyretics, and gave the rest to Qin Suisui, mainly because she didn't know how to use them.
"Why are all these men's products? There's nothing for us women!" Jia Zhenzhen complained.
Qin Suisui opened another basket and smiled: "Here it is! There's Vaseline, Pond's Cold Cream, and Hazeline Snow Cream... You can choose whatever you like first."
Although Jia Zhenzhen grew up surrounded by men and had a boyish personality, she was exceptionally fond of beauty, especially of wearing skirts. Because of her darker complexion, she had been researching various face creams and folk remedies in an attempt to whiten her skin.
"Then I won't be polite!" Jia Zhenzhen excitedly picked through the selections, and in the end, the two of them followed suit, tearing off the packaging and putting everything into their baskets.
This basket is mostly filled with daily necessities. Besides skincare products, there are also King's toothpaste, Eagle Brand condensed milk, Taikoo sugar cubes, etc.
Flipping to the end, they even found about ten boxes of Durex and several bottles of Wong To Yick Wood Lock Medicated Oil. Upon seeing the former, both of them blushed instantly. Jia Zhenzhen, as if throwing away a hot potato, tossed all the Durex to Qin Suisui: "Take it, take it, take it! A pure, unmarried girl like me doesn't need this!"
Qin Suisui felt both embarrassed and amused, but considering Pei Jiuyan's fighting prowess, she reluctantly accepted it and stuffed it into her spatial storage. After all, she couldn't just leave it here and waste it, could she?
Wong To Yick Wood Lock Medicated Oil also comes in glass bottles, but once you tear off the label, you can't see anything. The two of them each took a few bottles. They had long heard that this stuff was very effective for sprains and bruises, and she wanted to take it back and see if this capitalist stuff was better than her grandmother's special medicated oil!
There looked like a lot of stuff, but when the two of them divided it, it wasn't much. Following their example, we packed the stuff into burlap sacks, placed them at the bottom of our baskets, and then covered them with the herbs the two of them had gathered. By the time we finished this, it was almost nine o'clock at night.
Jia Zhenzhen kicked the two unconscious people: "Sui Sui, what should we do with these two? Should I just throw them aside?"
Qin Suisui shook her head: "No need, just tie them up here. If wild animals come at night, they can be used as human cushions to give us a chance to survive!"
The main problem is that it's late now, and Jia Zhenzhen can't carry two people too far. If she leaves them nearby, the smell of their meat might attract wild animals, so it's better to keep them under her nose.
Jia Zhenzhen gave her a thumbs up: "You're so thoughtful! How come I didn't think of that!"
They still took turns keeping watch at night; Qin Suisui kept watch for the first half of the night, and Jia Zhenzhen kept watch for the second half.
After Jia Zhenzhen fell asleep, Qin Suisui quietly released Dahuang and Dahei from her spatial storage, letting the two little guys play and keep watch nearby, while also keeping watch on the perimeter.
She took out some herbs from her spatial storage and threw them into the fire. Because of the heat, after dinner they removed all the large firewood, leaving only a small ember. Many wild animals in the forest are afraid of fire, so this provided some protection.
The herbs Qin Suisui threw in were specially formulated by her after returning from the wild forest last time. The aroma released when burned in the fire would keep some mosquitoes and wild animals away.
Around 1 a.m., Jia Zhenzhen woke up to relieve Qin Suisui. Around 4 a.m., as dawn was breaking, Qin Suisui, still half asleep, suddenly heard sparse voices not far away. One rough voice was particularly clear: "Where are the second and third brothers? Didn't we agree to deliver the goods here at 2 o'clock? Where the hell are they?"
Another, slightly younger voice rang out: "Is this the right place? We're not going to get arrested, are we?"
"Two useless idiots! The goods are all with them! Go find them now!"
Qin Suisui and Jia Zhenzhen exchanged a glance, both of them knowing that the people they were looking for were the two they had taken down.
As the sound grew closer, the two quickly packed up their baskets, extinguished the fire, and ran into the night. Qin Suisui ran a few steps ahead and put Big Black and Big Yellow into her spatial storage.
Sure enough, they hadn't run far when they heard a man's cursing coming from where they had stayed the night before: "Damn it! Two useless bastards! Still sleeping! They've been tied up like pigs!"
"Boss, everything's gone!"
"The person must have just left; the fire is still warm!"
"Chase them quickly!"
...
The footsteps behind them sounded like those of five or six men. Although Jia Zhenzhen was strong, they decided it wasn't wise to cause trouble right now, so the two of them ran straight towards their destination.
However, the other party was used to navigating this forest and knew the routes very well, so they quickly discovered their trail.
"They're ahead! Chase after them!"
"It looks like there are two women! No wonder the second and third brothers got infected!"
"Stop running!"
"Two stinking women!"
...
"Stop chasing them, they've entered the miasma forest..."
After being chased for nearly an hour, Jia Zhenzhen was truly exhausted. Hearing no sound behind her, she plopped down on the ground, panting heavily.
"People really can't...can't be lazy...I've been wasting my time since I got injured...I can't run anymore after just a short while...SuiSui, um? SuiSui, where are you?"
Jia Zhenzhen spoke for a long time but didn't hear a response from Qin Suisui. She then realized something was wrong. The fog in this forest was not ordinary fog; it was miasma!
They've wandered into a miasma forest!
By the time she realized what was happening, it was too late. She had been running and was exhausted. When she sat down to rest, she inhaled several large breaths of miasma. She was already feeling dizzy and lightheaded. When she tried to take two more steps forward, she felt lightheaded and then fainted.
Qin Suisui ran a few steps ahead, and when she turned around, she found that a thick fog had rolled in over the woods. The fog was so thick that visibility was reduced to a meter or more, and Jia Zhenzhen, who had been following behind her, had also fallen silent.
The air she breathed in was a bit pungent, and Qin Suisui quickly realized that this was a miasma forest.
She quickly took out the antidote from her spatial storage and swallowed it. Then she took out a handkerchief, wet it with the water from the stream in her spatial storage, tied it around her mouth and nose, and turned to look for Jia Zhenzhen.
"Zhenzhen, Zhenzhen, where are you?"
After walking a short distance, she could vaguely see a person lying on the ground not far away. She was overjoyed and was about to run over when she saw a black centipede, as long as a hand, crawling out of Jia Zhenzhen's accidentally open sleeve.
Oh no! Zhenzhen got bitten by a centipede!
Just seeing this long and thick centipede made Qin Suisui's scalp tingle. The centipedes in this miasma forest must be much more venomous than those in other places.
Qin Suisui took out several kinds of insecticide from her spatial storage, not knowing which one would work, but she used them all anyway.
Animals have a natural sense of danger, and the centipede quickly fled under Qin Suisui's "potion attack".
Qin Suisui helped Jia Zhenzhen up, quickly stuffed an antidote pill into her mouth, and then summoned Dahuang and Dahei. The most important thing now was to leave the miasma forest.
Unfortunately, even though they had only run about ten meters when they came in, the miasma in the forest seemed to be flowing, and no matter which direction they went, they couldn't get out.
Qin Suisui kept giving herself, Jia Zhenzhen, and Dahuang and Dahei antidotes to prevent the miasma from affecting their bodies. They walked for several hours and were still in the miasma forest.
Seeing that the two little ones were already exhausted, and that the miasma was extremely harmful to them, Qin Suisui gritted her teeth and took them back to the space along with Jia Zhenzhen.
She found the map Huang Weimin had drawn for her. On the map, there was indeed a miasma forest marked, but it was quite far from the entrance to the Snake Witch Tribe. Huang Weimin had marked it specifically to prevent her from going the wrong way and accidentally entering the miasma forest.
His exact words were: "That miasma forest is somewhat...unbelievable. Our Snake Witch tribe calls it a flowing ghost realm. It started out as a small patch, but it moves and constantly devours ordinary miasma forests, consuming all the decaying vegetation, poisonous gases, and toxic substances within them...It keeps expanding and becoming more and more dangerous...Some of our tribesmen have wandered into it by mistake, and we haven't even found their bodies..."
Qin Suisui felt a chill in her heart. Had they accidentally stumbled into the "flowing ghost realm" that Huang Weimin had mentioned? Even the Snake Witch Tribe, who had lived in the wild forest for a long time, were afraid of this miasma forest. Did she still have any hope of getting out?
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