Upon hearing Wang Ping's lament, I couldn't help but think that if I had the choice, I would never have come to this godforsaken place.
But what can you do if you regret it now that it's already happened?
I kept quiet. I was full by now. Xiao Qiang's seafood soup was also ready. This time, I drank the sea cucumber soup with the mutton. The taste was really delicious.
Bai Wei and those foreigners had been traveling for so many days, and they were exhausted from all the fear and anxiety they had endured. I found them a sheltered spot so they could rest early. After cleaning up the remaining sheep, we washed all the pieces of cold noodles and laid them out to dry on the rocks.
These sheepskins are very warm, and in the current situation, all supplies are very important to us.
Xiao Qiang and the others were much happier, and they even cleaned up the sheep's head and hooves, saying they would stew some soup for them to drink the next morning.
If the mutton soup is cooked properly, it tastes really delicious. It's just a pity that there's no fennel here.
At night, Wang Ping and I were on guard duty. Everyone else was asleep. Wang Ping sat next to me and whispered that he also found drinking this distilled water to be really troublesome. If we could find fresh water nearby, even if we had to fetch some water every day, it would be much better than distilling seawater here every day.
“These past few days, Xiao Qiang and the others have been exhausted, working non-stop. But we don’t know how long this situation will continue, so I think drinking distilled water is only a temporary solution.”
I nodded. I had already considered what Wang Ping said. It was true. If we wanted to stay here for a long time, a freshwater stream was essential.
“However, I still want to go back to the old camp tomorrow. I feel like there might still be something there. If we go back, we can find the rest and save some effort. How about this, the two of us go back tomorrow. Bai Wei and the others are back too, and there are more people in the camp. We can have them set up more campfires around there. It's been relatively quiet lately, so there shouldn't be any danger. The two of us should go early and come back early. If we go in one day, we'll have finished our work. We can also check along the way to see if there are any freshwater streams nearby.”
After listening, Wang Ping nodded: "That's fine. Tomorrow morning, the two of us will bring some water and some dried meat. We should be able to manage."
After we finished discussing it, I let Wang Ping get some sleep too. We took turns sleeping, and each of us slept for half a day. After dawn, I discussed the matter with Chen Jian and the others.
Xiao Qiang was still very worried, and Xu Wei looked angry but dared not speak out. She kept biting her lip as she watched me, and she was very angry.
But under these circumstances, we still have to go back, otherwise I'll never give up.
Moreover, Wang Ping and I are both quite clever. Bai Wei had already returned the gun to me, and told me that he only fired one shot and that the rest of the bullets were still there.
Looking at Bai Wei's expression, I found it a bit funny, but I still thanked him anyway.
Wang Ping and I packed our things, and Wang Ping also took two machetes. We immediately circled around the woods and headed back to our previous campsite.
Fearing we'd get lost again, we took a longer route this time, specifically going back to the cave by the sea and the place where those foreigners' boats had been smashed apart.
After arriving at that place, we turned back to our camp. When we returned to the mountaintop camp, I felt extremely apprehensive. I was afraid that the camp had been completely changed, and even more afraid that the current state of the camp was worse than we imagined.
But when Wang Ping and I arrived there, we found that things were much better than we had imagined.
Aside from the wooden houses being burned down, the inner jade stone is still there, and the iron blocks we made before are still there. The ironware we didn't have time to take away, although it's a bit mottled from the fire, doesn't cause any trouble. Most importantly, I found two guns under the camphouse.
One of them was burned, the other was okay, but it was missing a lot of bullets. But something is better than nothing.
I didn't find the clay pots we made before, nor the small iron pots we made earlier, at the bottom of the cave. These things weren't burned.
Wang Ping seemed very excited. After happily packing his things, he looked at me and couldn't help but sigh.
"Actually, if we had known that the camp hadn't been burned to this state, we could have come back."
I thought about it and decided to stick with the campsite right now, which is by the sea.
After all, this wildfire was really strange. Thinking about that round ball that floated in mid-air and kept crashing into the mountain that day, I felt uneasy.
Who knows if this is a wildfire or something else is behind it? If he sets off a wildfire every three or five days depending on his mood, no one can stand it.
If we're at the beach, we can take refuge in the sea if there's any danger.
So that place might be more suitable.
Of course, all the wooden carts we made before were now useless. In the end, Wang Ping and I tied these things together with vines and made a simple wooden plank to pull. We put the things on the plank and took turns pulling it back.
On the way back, Wang Ping said he roughly remembered the direction we were in, and that the mountain was very high and conspicuous, so it should be visible even in the woods. In addition, the woods had long been destroyed and were bare with no leaves, so the view was not obstructed.
On our way back, Wang Ping said he wanted to go to the freshwater stream we had visited before and catch a few more freshwater fish.
We spent several more hours packing everything up before heading back. But on the way, Wang Ping said he wanted to relieve himself.
He drank a lot of water by the freshwater stream and said he hadn't felt so refreshed drinking water in a long time.
I also drank quite a bit, but not as fast as he did. After Wang Ping finished his water, he relieved himself several times along the way.
I leaned against the tree and waited for Wang Ping.
When he came back from the toilet, I suddenly heard the sound of running water coming from somewhere.
Wang Ping was also taken aback. He turned to look at me and whispered, "There shouldn't be any wild animals here, right? Could it be one of those giant rabbits we saw before? If that's the case, then this is going to be troublesome."
I didn't say anything because I didn't know if that was true.
However, the sound of water was continuous, which didn't sound like urination. If it were really someone or an animal, how could it last for so long?
I listened carefully for a while longer, and suddenly realized that the sound sounded exactly like the movement of flowing water.
I glanced at Wang Ping and whispered, "Don't move, I'm going to check on you."
Wang Ping seemed a little nervous and disagreed, so I immediately looked at him.
“We still have so much stuff here. If we both leave, and this thing is left here, will you be able to find it when we come back? I'll go look for it myself. Then you can make a campfire here, and I'll be back in a bit.”
Wang Ping then nodded in agreement.
I ran quickly toward the sound of flowing water, only to find that it wasn't an animal at all, but rather something like a hot spring, with bubbles constantly rising and flowing outwards.
I reached out and touched it, and that's when I realized the water was actually warm! It was a hot spring!
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