Chapter 47 The Greater Khingan Mountains - Part 2 The Greater Khingan Mountains are wide...
The Greater Khingan Mountains are 200-300 kilometers wide, and it's not easy to find a mountain road that a motorhome can drive up. Kai Ge wound his way through the mountains, taking a zigzag route, before finally leading Tang Bufan and Lu Yi up the mountain little by little.
Animals from the mountains kept passing by the RV, and Tang Bufan could see many animals just by opening the window.
Perhaps because of the mutated poison people, many ordinary poison people also gathered on the mountain, and their incomprehensible cries could be faintly heard from among the towering trees.
"Could the mutated poisoners have also come up the mountain?" Tang Bufan was a little worried. He had changed into a thick sweater and put on a worn-out woolen coat. He was sitting by the window eating with Lu Yi.
“There’s nowhere for them to escape the cold on the mountain, so they probably won’t come up,” Lu Yi said. He had also changed into a worn-out V-neck sweater, which was, of course, Uncle Wolf’s old clothes.
"Aren't they more resistant to cold than ordinary poisonous humans?" Tang Bufan asked, eating lettuce mixed with minced meat.
"The animals have already started heading south. The mountains are slowly emptying out. They can't find anything to eat here, and they'll leave once they come up." Lu Yi told Tang Bufan not to worry too much. Heading south with the beast tide is how ordinary poison people survive the winter. Even if mutated poison people are cold-resistant, they still need to eat, right?
“That’s true.” Tang Bufan was saying when the RV was suddenly bumped twice by something. Both of them turned to look outside and saw a herd of frightened deer running past.
Immediately afterwards, a black bear crawled over, a wild deer still alive in its mouth.
The two continued eating calmly. Tang Bufan pointed at the black bear through the thick car window with his fork and said with interest, "I heard that black bears can imitate people."
Lu Yi ate the meat without any reaction.
Tang Bufan then told the children a scary story: "In the misty forest, you may occasionally encounter a dark shadow waving at you from a distance. You must not go over to it, because it is a black bear disguised as a human."
Lu Yi thought for a moment and then told him a scary story: "Maybe it's not a black bear disguised as a human, but a beastman mixed with black bear genes. Because of his mental disability or deformity, he was abandoned by his parents and became a monster in the mountains that is neither human nor beast."
"..." Tang Bufan fell silent. He turned to look at the black bear outside the window again and suddenly had a strange feeling, as if it really was a "person" wearing a bear skin and having lost his mind.
Okay, Lu Yi won the horror story contest.
After the sun set, darkness swallowed the mountains like a monster, with only the RV emitting a faint, warm yellow glow in the chaotic darkness.
Tang Bufan sat on the iron-framed bed, covered with a quilt, knitting a sweater, while Lu Yi was outside tending a fire to brew medicine for Tang Bufan. As the temperature dropped, a layer of white frost slowly covered the car window behind Tang Bufan.
Tang Bufan, who was sitting against the cold car wall, suddenly sneezed.
Lu Yi, who was tending the fire outside, and the camera in the driver's seat both turned their heads to look over.
"Brother Kai, close the car door," Lu Yi said to Brother Kai from outside, sensing that the temperature had probably dropped below zero.
"It's okay, let the car get some fresh air," Tang Bufan said, getting out of bed to get his cotton-padded coat, feeling that the wool coat still wasn't warm enough.
"Xiao Tang, do you need me to turn on the heating?" Kai asked.
“No need, we’re burning oil every day now, turning on the heating will use it up even faster.” Tang Bufan felt they could wait a few more days: “I’ll just wear thicker clothes, and we can turn on the heating when it gets to minus ten degrees Celsius.”
Lu Yi went back to the car, took the iron bucket, picked up a few pieces of burning charcoal from the fire and put them inside, then placed it next to Tang Bufan's iron bed.
"Teacher, warm yourself by the fire," Lu Yi said, then looked at the roof of the car: "I went to the roof to pick vegetables this morning, and I think the wolf pelt is almost dry. Let me take it down, dry it over the fire, and spread it on your bed, okay?"
On the roof of the car were the bear and wolf skins that Lu Yi had cut off earlier. They had originally planned to trade them at the market, but they had both forgotten about them after leaving them on the roof.
Tang Bufan took off his wool coat in front of the shelf, quickly put on a cotton-padded jacket, jogged back to the iron bunk bed, put his hands on the iron bucket to warm them, and nodded to Lu Yi outside.
"OK."
Lu Yi then climbed onto the roof of the car to get the wolf skin, and carefully dried it over the fire in the darkness. Tang Bufan also stopped knitting and wrapped himself in a cotton-padded coat to focus on warming himself by the fire.
The fire crackled and popped, and Tang Bufan grew sleepy as he roasted himself. Suddenly, a warm, large hand cradled his chin.
Tang Bufan opened his eyes and looked up, only to find that Lu Yi had appeared in front of him at some point.
“I still can’t put the metal bucket in front of you.” Lu Yi frowned at him: “You’re about to collapse.”
Tang Bufan had previously fallen down for no apparent reason. If he were to fall headfirst into a flaming iron barrel, the consequences would be unimaginable.
"...I'm sleepy." Tang Bufan raised his hand and rubbed his face.
"I'll put a wolf skin on you." Lu Yi moved the iron bucket containing charcoal aside with his foot, so that Tang Bufan could get out of bed first.
Tang Bufan wrapped himself in a cotton-padded coat and sat down on the folding chair, sniffing the air as he huddled up.
"Do you have a cold?" Lu Yi asked as she made up his bed, listening to him sniffle.
"It seems like I've caught a bit of a chill." Tang Bufan looked out the car window and realized that the car wall outside was covered with a thick layer of frost, even though he had been leaning against it while knitting.
"I'll get you some cold medicine." Lu Yi said, touching the wolf skin that had been dried over a fire. It was nice, softer than he had imagined.
He decided to catch a few more animals with soft fur tomorrow.
The wolf pelt wasn't very big, but it was enough for Tang Bufan to use as a mattress. After Lu Yi made the bed, he went outside again, where Tang Bufan's Chinese medicine had been prepared.
Tang Bufan felt guilty seeing him busy taking care of him like this, since he was a child.
How could he possibly repay this kindness? Tang Bufan was deeply troubled.
Lu Yi quickly brought Tang Bufan the medicine and gave him a cold medicine. Tang Bufan held the warm bowl of medicine and sipped it slowly, planning to knit a sweater for a while later.
"Do you prefer turtlenecks or necklines?" Tang Bufan asked him.
“This collar.” Lu Yi raised his hand and gently adjusted his loose V-neckline: “No high collar, it’s inconvenient for beast transformation.”
"Isn't it cold?" Tang Bufan asked him. Lu Yi's V-neck was loose, and you could see his firm chest muscles when he bent over slightly.
“It’s not cold.” Lu Yi jokingly told him, “Back when we orcs were enslaved by humans, we didn’t even have sweaters in winter; we all wore thin prison uniforms.”
Therefore, all the orcs nowadays are selected for their cold and heat resistance; those who couldn't withstand it died long ago.
Tang Bufan found this part of history not interesting at all.
After Tang Bufan finished his medicine, he was so sleepy that he could only think about knitting a sweater for Lu Yi tomorrow.
Lu Yi extinguished the fire outside, and Kai Ge gently closed the heavy car door. The RV lights were quickly turned off.
The desolate Greater Khingan Mountains were then plunged into complete darkness.
Tang Bufan slept until noon the next day. The RV was swaying gently as Kai Ge continued to search for a flat mountain road to cross the massive mountain range.
Tang Bufan lay on the bed and whimpered. He felt a splitting headache and couldn't even open his eyes. He felt like he was awake but not really awake.
In this dazed state, Tang Bufan struggled to get up from the bunk bed, only to fall hard to the ground as soon as his feet touched the ground.
"teacher!"
Tang Bufan heard a young voice, somewhere between a boy and a young man, clear yet magnetic, very pleasant to listen to, but he couldn't remember who it was for a moment.
He struggled wildly on the ground with his eyes closed, and soon felt a pair of strong hands embrace him.
He was taken back to bed.
"..." Tang Bufan opened his mouth, wanting to call out something, but he didn't know what to call out. His mind was blank. Finally, he struggled to open his eyes a crack and saw a very handsome face.
Lu Yi reached out and touched Tang Bufan's forehead. It was no longer as cold as before, and his body temperature was 39 degrees Celsius, which meant that Tang Bufan's forehead temperature was now the same as his body temperature.
For humans, 39 degrees Celsius is a high fever.
"Teacher, you have a fever." Lu Yi hurriedly covered Tang Bufan with a quilt, then pulled out a medical kit from under the bed and searched for fever-reducing medicine.
When Tang Bufan heard him call him "teacher"... a flash of inspiration struck him, and something finally popped into his blank mind.
"Chen Fei..." Tang Bufan then called out to him.
Lu Yi, who was rummaging through the medicine box, paused, opened his eyes wide, and looked up.
"Chen Fei..." Tang Bufan felt a pang of sadness, and warm tears welled up in his eyes as he blinked. "Teacher, I'm so sorry..."
Lu Yi felt a tightness in his chest. Looking at Tang Bufan, who was delirious from the fever, he felt a pang of grievance and almost wanted to cry.
"Teacher, don't speak." Lu Yi thought Tang Bufan was delirious from the fever. He lowered his head and rummaged through the medicine box again, quickly stuffing a capsule into Tang Bufan's mouth.
Tang Bufan was lying down, without water, and the capsule was hard to swallow. In addition, he hadn't eaten anything since yesterday evening, and his stomach was cramping. So he subconsciously bent over and vomited.
His stomach was empty; he only vomited a little sour water and the pill. Lu Yi anxiously squatted down next to the iron bunk bed and gently patted his thin back.
"Lu Yi, pour in some warm water." Kai Ge's gentle electronic male voice rang out at the opportune moment.
Lu Yiru woke up with a start, immediately got up and went to the kitchen to pour warm water, then took out a new fever reducer from the first-aid kit and hugged Tang Bufan into her arms.
With his help, Tang Bufan swallowed the medicine in a daze, but he was still crying. He had been crying every time he had a fever since he was a child.
"Chen Fei... Chen Fei..." Tang Bufan was still muttering Chen Fei's name in his sleep.
Lu Yi hugged him tightly, wrapping him up in the quilt, her heart filled with bitterness.
He knew that the dead child was Tang Bufan's obsession, but he didn't expect that after Tang Bufan lost his mind, his subconscious only had that child and not himself...
Teacher, the person next to you now is me, Lu Yi...
Lu Yi opened her mouth, looked at the man silently weeping in her arms, and finally sighed silently.
“I’m here, teacher.” He didn’t correct Tang Bufan.
"Chen Fei... Chen Fei..." Tang Bufan seemed calmer after receiving his response, his brows relaxed considerably, and he slowly fell asleep under the influence of the medication and high fever.
But his tears were still flowing, so Lu Yi continued to hold him and gently rock him, coaxing him until Tang Bufan finally fell into a deep sleep and his tears stopped.
Lu Yi gently placed Tang Bufan on the bed, tucked him in, and began tidying up the messy floor.
Although Tang Bufan vomited acidic fluid, it still had an unpleasant smell. Lu Yi then made a hand gesture to the camera in the driver's seat, and Kai Ge slowly stopped the RV in the mountains.
He opened the skylight to let in the cold mountain air. Lu Yi lit some charcoal in an iron bucket and placed it next to the iron bed to warm it up before starting to clean the floor.
Migrating animals passed by the RV from time to time. Lu Yi wiped the ground clean with a rag and walked into the driver's seat with a worried expression.
"Teacher, can you inject the antidote now?" Lu Yi asked Kai Ge in a low voice. There were only three bottles of antidote left, and Tang Bufan was reluctant to use them.
However, after observing the situation, Lu Yi realized that the traditional Chinese medicine given by the old man Wang was not as effective as the antidote.
"Xiao Tang just took fever reducer, which is not suitable; the effects of the medications will conflict," Kai Ge replied in a lowered electronic male voice.
Lu sighed with a headache. It seemed he could only observe Tang Bufan for a few hours. If Tang Bufan's condition did not improve and he could not drink the Chinese medicine, he would then inject him with an antidote.
With a "bang," another migrating animal crashed into the RV. Lu Yi looked at the sky above the mountains through the driver's side window; flocks of birds were everywhere, and their numbers were increasing.
“Keep driving uphill,” Lu Yi said to Kai Ge. “We’re not high enough up here yet.”
The height will be about right when the RV is no longer bumped into by animals.
“Okay, Lu Yi,” Kai replied, and started the RV again.
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