Chapter 149
Xia Entang and the little monk were gone for almost an hour before returning. Lin Zhinan had rested enough and was feeling better. He was explaining the incident to Chu Huaiqin.
"Brother, we didn't find anything." The little monk was completely depressed. He sat down next to the tent to enjoy the cool breeze. Since entering the desert, the white monk has turned into a black monk.
"As expected," Chu Huaiqin replied, asking the monk to open another tent and move a fan over there so the two of them could rest. Having rested, Chu Huaiqin emerged from the tent and continued to search for some dry firewood to bake the sweet potatoes. Water was scarce, and using it to cook the sweet potatoes wouldn't be worth the effort.
"Don't go, I'll go," Xia Entang held Chu Huaiqin, preventing him from moving. "Rest."
"No, you're the one who needs to rest." Chu Huaiqin's eyes lingered on Xia En's face. Amidst everyone's surprised gazes, he reached out and touched Xia En's cheek. An instant later, a gasp was heard. "When did the peeling start?"
Before the heavy rain, Lin Zhinan took out some sunscreen. They would apply a layer of sunscreen every day before setting off. But since the heavy rain, no one had applied sunscreen anymore. As the one who worked the hardest, Xia En was the first to be sunburned, and even a scarf wrapped around his face was of no use.
His skin was red in patches, and some places were starting to turn white. This was just the beginning, and he would suffer a lot later.
Xia En heard Chu Huaiqin's words, reached out and touched it, and took another breath. The pain of sunburn was different from other injuries. It was hot and itchy, very uncomfortable. "I don't know."
"Go back and rest." Chu Huaiqin didn't let him know. It was almost five o'clock in the afternoon. After resting, he felt that his physical strength had recovered a lot. Now it was time for him to move.
Xia En stood motionless, looking at Chu Huaiqin.
"Are you stubborn?" Chu Huaiqin was helpless.
"Yeah!" Xia Entang responded as a matter of course.
Chu Huaiqin was silent for a moment, sighed, turned and left.
Seeing that Chu Huaiqin didn't block him anymore, Xia En grinned, turned around and ran back to the little monk's tent, snatched a fan, and left a message, "Go stay with Zhinan."
Little Monk: ...
Xia Entang ran away, and the little monk came out of the tent quickly. He didn't even need to walk, because Lin Zhinan's tent was right next to him. But for a moment, for some reason, the little monk felt a little awkward. He stood outside, wanting to go in but not daring to.
"What's wrong with you?" Lin Zhinan stuck her head out, and the little monk was so scared that he quickly pushed her head back and said repeatedly: "Don't stick your head out, there's still sunshine outside!"
"Then come in." Lin Zhinan moved aside to make room.
"Okay, alright!" The little monk's cheeks felt a little hot.
The people in the live broadcast room looked at the little monk and laughed secretly, but unfortunately his face was too dark and they couldn't tell whether it was red or not.
"You, do you want to eat chicken?" asked the little monk, turning his gaze to the two chickens he had tied up. They looked a little wilted. After all, poultry are not suitable for such a high temperature environment for a long time.
"Yes," Lin Zhinan nodded, "but now we have to save water."
"We can roast it!" said the little monk with a smile.
"I just had heatstroke, so roasted chicken is not suitable for me. It's too irritating and greasy." Lin Zhinan said again. She was very hungry now, and she wanted to eat chicken even more when she talked about it, but she couldn't eat it now.
"Is that so?" the little monk murmured, and seeing that Lin Zhinan's eyes were outside, he stopped talking.
The two children sat in the tent, watching Chu Huaiqin and Xia Entang picking up firewood. After a while, Lin Zhinan moved, took out the two sweet potatoes he had left, and picked a few from the food brought by Chu Huaiqin and the others.
Seeing her so busy in the small tent, the little monk asked awkwardly, "Are you hungry?"
"Well, I haven't eaten anything today." Lin Zhinan nodded.
“Ah, you…”
"Shh, don't shout. If I hear you, I'll scold you." Lin Zhinan glared at the little monk, then turned around and saw Chu Huaiqin and the others coming back from collecting firewood. He told the little monk again, "Don't say anything."
The little monk had to nod, but he quickly came out of the tent, took the firewood from Chu Huaiqin's hand, dug a hole and made a fire, very actively. After the sand became hot and red, he dug the hole down a degree, buried the sweet potatoes in it, and covered them with burnt charcoal.
"So enthusiastic?" Chu Huaiqin sat in the tent, blowing a fan at him, ready to apply medicine on his face after his overall body temperature returned to normal.
"Ah? Ah!" The little monk glanced at Lin Zhinan, received Lin Zhinan's murderous gaze, nodded, but still did not dare to tell anyone that Lin Zhinan had not eaten for a day.
Under the scorching sun, the sweet potatoes were being baked. Inside the two tents, the little monk had already fallen asleep on one side. It was Lin Zhinan's turn to sit at the door of the tent looking at the sweet potatoes, calculating when to dig them up. His eyes moved to the tent next door, where Chu Huaiqin was applying medicine on the face of the sleeping Xia En. He smiled, feeling really good.
Ten minutes later, the sweet potatoes emitted an enticing aroma through the sand. Chu Huaiqin glanced at Xia En who was sleeping soundly, and couldn't bear to wake him up. He crawled out of the tent and saw that the little monk was also asleep. Only Lin Zhinan was staring at the fire and swallowing his saliva.
"I'm hungry." Chu Huaiqin asked with a smile, squatting beside the pit where the fire had been extinguished and digging sweet potatoes with a knife.
Lin Zhinan also came out of the tent and ran to Chu Huaiqin to help.
"You eat first, let them continue sleeping!" Chu Huaiqin dug out several sweet potatoes and put them aside. He took one, broke it open and handed it to Lin Zhinan, and took one to eat himself.
After a simple meal, Chu Huaiqin wanted to look around, and Lin Zhinan wanted to follow him. Chu Huaiqin looked at the sunlight, felt the temperature, and finally nodded in agreement.
Chu Huaiqin's idea was to see if he could find a source of water. Unfortunately, after a round of searching, they couldn't find any. When they returned, Xia En and the little monk had woken up and were chewing on sweet potatoes. Two chickens were clucking nearby, eating the skins.
At this time, the two teams on routes AB finally gathered at the second meeting point in the desert. Their water supply had reached its limit, and a group of people began to look for water sources along the direction of vegetation growth.
"Brother, are we leaving yet?" Lin Zhinan looked at the time. It was only half past five in the afternoon. It usually gets dark around seven o'clock, almost eight o'clock, so they still have two hours.
"Can you hold on?" Chu Huaiqin looked at her. After eating the sweet potatoes, Lin Zhinan drank the medicine again and now looked like a normal person.
"I can do it, brother. Let's not waste these two hours." Lin Zhinan knew that everyone had run out of water, and staying here would simply be a waste of time.
"I also suggest walking for another two hours," Xia En agreed. Traveling without the sun was like heaven to Chu Huaiqin.
"Brother, I can help carry my sister's backpack," the little monk replied. Although he had always been heartless, he also knew that their current situation was very bad. They still had some food, but the water source was almost dry.
Chu Huaiqin thought for a while, and finally nodded, "Let's go!"
After Chu Huaiqin finished speaking, the three of them quickly took some of Su Huaichen's backpack and divided it all up. At 5:40, the sunlight became thinner and the temperature was better, no longer as hot as it was at noon.
The three of them were not walking very fast, but walking slowly, while paying attention to whether there were any water sources everywhere. They did not stop until night fell, and took out the map to look at it. They decided that if they got up early tomorrow, they would be able to reach the meeting point before noon.
The route was filled with vegetation at regular intervals. Although we'd only been traveling for two hours, we were already hungry. We checked our backpacks, but there wasn't much left. We picked up two large potatoes, baked them, and split them between us. Besides the two chickens, we had the remaining sweet potatoes for tomorrow morning's journey.
By the time the tent was pitched, it was nearly ten o'clock, and the temperature had dropped dramatically. Chu Huaiqin felt the sweat he'd shed today dry out with the temperature, becoming less noticeable and making for a comfortable sleep. It was also thanks to the strange desert weather; otherwise, with so much sweat during the day and no shower at night, coupled with the scorching heat, they wouldn't have been able to make it through the day.
"I heard that in the northern snowy areas in winter, some people don't take a bath for a month, and people in Africa don't take a bath all year round." The little monk said leisurely while lying in the tent.
Chu Huaiqin and Xia Entang: We were offended.
No one had slept well these past few days, so we finally reunited today. Although everyone was a little uncomfortable with one person being missing, we fell asleep quickly because we were tired and felt at ease.
The next day, everyone got up at five in the morning, packed up, cooked the remaining sweet potatoes and ate them, then the four of them set off. The little monk still held the two chickens. Speaking of which, the chickens were pretty tough. They had little water to drink and only ate sweet potato peels every day, yet they had managed to stay with them for so long.
As predicted, the four of them arrived at the rendezvous point at nine o'clock. To their surprise, the other teams hadn't left and remained where they were. The Double Eagles came up to greet Chu Huaiqin, and after a few words, they realized that everyone was out of water. For a moment, they didn't dare to leave.
"Logically speaking, the director team knows how much water we have, so this is already very economical. Otherwise, we would have drunk it all long ago. Why can't we find a water source?" said someone from the Double Eagles team.
"You want us to die of thirst!" Valeri from the Russian team sneered. Looking at them looking well-fed and satisfied, he wanted to rush over and grab some water.
"It will be troublesome if there is no water source," Chu Huaiqin was also worried. They had drunk all the water. Only Lin Zhinan had some water left. Su Huaichen left a little water bag. "Little monk, go and find a water source with Xia Entang. Zhinan and I will stay and find something to eat."
"Can you find it?" The little monk was very worried. Food was no problem, the most important thing was water.
"It's hard to say," Chu Huaiqin frowned, feeling that the situation was a bit serious. He wondered if the director team wanted to make things more difficult. "Xia Entropy, before we set off, you looked at the atlas of desert plants and learned what plants are edible. If you can't find anything to eat, you can always find some edible plants."
"No problem, don't worry!" Xia En felt Chu Huaiqin's worry and said, "It'll be fine. Wait until I can rest."
With that, Xia Entang left with the young monk. Chu Huaiqin asked Lin Zhinan to look after the luggage while he went to find something to eat and call him if anything happened. Lin Zhinan nodded repeatedly, handed one of the fans to Chu Huaiqin, and set up camp with a tent. Afterward, she leaned her backpack against the tent and went to collect firewood. There were many saxaul trees here, and there were many fallen branches.
Many people in the live broadcast room saw that they had opened a tent and dared to put their backpacks inside. Lin Zhinan, who ran away to pick up branches, sighed. With Chu Huaiqin there, he felt more confident.
"My dear brother is like a magic needle that stabilizes the sea. He stands there and controls this land."
“Very vivid.”
Chu Huaiqin went looking for food this time and dug up sweet potatoes, a new variety after potatoes and yams. This thing is much bigger than potatoes and yams. The small ones are as big as a man's fist, and the big ones are as wide as two palms. But they still have one problem: there is no water.
After baking the sweet potatoes with dried branches, Xia En and his companions returned. They found no water source, but they did find a few pieces of cactus. These had been ravaged by the other teams for two days, leaving very little.
"The vegetation here is so lush, there's no way there's no water source," Chu Huaiqin said. He also had another reason: the director team didn't want them to die of thirst. "Eat, and then we'll set off."
"Are you leaving? Not looking for water?" Andre from the Russian team asked in surprise.
"Well, you've been looking for it for so long. If it's gone, then it's gone." Chu Huaiqin replied, taking a bite of sweet potato and a bite of cactus. You don't need to drink water after eating, as this can quench your thirst.
When the other teams heard this, they quickly packed up their things, apparently preparing to go with Chu Huaiqin and the others.
Live broadcast room: These people are toxic!
After Chu Huaiqin and his group finished eating, they quickly packed up and left. The other teams also set off one after another. I don’t know if they were afraid of being overtaken by Chu Huaiqin and his group, or if they really thought they couldn’t find water, so they set off together.
Among these teams, the most eye-catching one is the British Empire. The people in the live broadcast room had heard what Chu Huaiqin said and were waiting for his move, but since Chu Huaiqin and his men joined up with this group of people, they didn't say anything.
Someone in the live broadcast room couldn't help but ask:
"Could it be that Chu Huaiqin is scared?"
"Do you think it's possible?"
“Water is important now.”
If someone says something, countless people will like it.
The vegetation here is good, and the scorching heat seems to have subsided a bit, but traveling without water is a terrifying prospect, especially as they watch their already empty water bottles gradually become lighter. Some people grumble, muttering that they shouldn't have set out with Chu Huaiqin, and that they should have stayed at the rendezvous point to find a water source.
"Maybe David from Kangaroo Country is right." Valeri from the Russian team agreed.
"Why do you want to set off with Chu Huaiqin and the others?" Phili from the United States also roared.
Their dry mouths and the clanging kettle made them irritated.
Chu Huaiqin's side wasn't doing well either. With so little water to share among the five of them, even with all the frugality, by four in the afternoon, the water was completely gone. The other teams also had no water at all, and for a moment, morale was in turmoil.
"Hold on a little longer, maybe when we reach the next food point there will be water." Chu Huaiqin pulled Lin Zhinan to comfort him.
"Yeah, brother, I'm fine." Lin Zhinan licked his lips, and the group continued to move forward.
Walking in the desert without water was terrifying. Their mouths were terribly dry, and the scorching summer heat was still evaporating the moisture from their bodies. Walking became difficult due to the lack of water. By 5 p.m., some people were already feeling dizzy. The two chickens in the little monk's arms, which hadn't had any water for a day, had already made people turn their heads.
"Brother, they will come to snatch the chickens from me, otherwise I will drink the chicken blood first." The little monk tightened his hands around the two chickens, squeezing the two dying chickens so hard that they screamed again.
"You'd better chew some leaves!" Chu Huaiqin has always had a great need for water, and now he is even more thirsty than others. He doesn't want to waste his precious saliva by speaking, but he still has to say: "When you are thirsty, think about plums, the kind of green plums that are so sour that your teeth will fall off."
After Chu Huaiqin finished speaking, a trace of saliva actually overflowed from the mouths of several people.
"Ah, there's water." Someone suddenly shouted.
Chu Huaiqin and his companions turned around and saw a shimmering lake appearing in front of them not far ahead.
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