Chapter 153
The other people in the camp heard Valeri's screams and ran over. They saw Chu Huaiqin picking him up and dragging him out of the water. They were confused and didn't understand what was going on. Then they saw a one-meter-long fish leap out of the water. In an instant, many people in the camp exclaimed.
"It's a crocodile."
Someone shouted, and everyone gasped. How could there be crocodiles in the desert? They'd been camping for so long, and they hadn't even noticed one. It was terrifying. Crocodiles can come ashore. If they didn't spot them now, and they came closer to the tent later in the night, the consequences would be disastrous.
"Valery, you went in the water?" Valery's brother, Vasily, ran over. Seeing his brother, soaking wet and clinging to Chu Huaiqin with a terrified look on his face, he was furious. "Didn't I tell you not to go in the water?"
Valery was still in shock, and he stuttered as he looked at his brother, "I, I..."
"What? Didn't I tell you not to go in the water?" Vasily said angrily, "If it weren't for Chu, you would have been dragged in long ago."
Even though the desert crocodile is only half the size of an ordinary crocodile, its strength cannot be underestimated. Once bitten, no one can pull it ashore.
Xia En, standing by, watched Valeri cling to Chu Huaiqin and be scolded by his brother. His brows knitted together, and he handed the cactus in his hand to the little monk. He tore Valeri off from Chu Huaiqin and pushed him to his brother, "Take him back."
Vasily supported his brother, whose legs were weak, and said to Chu Huaiqin, "Thank you. If you need anything later, you can come to me."
"Of course." Chu Huaiqin responded and turned to look at the little monk.
The little monk suddenly became timid and said awkwardly, "Brother, I, I didn't go into the water."
"Well, you're quite obedient." Chu Huaiqin glanced at him holding the cactus and said, "Let's go back. There's nothing to see. You cook tonight."
"Okay, as long as I'm not angry." The little monk followed Chu Huaiqin, and the three of them walked towards the camp.
The members of the other teams that had gathered around had not left yet. Everyone turned on the lights and marveled at the desert crocodile floating on the water, staring at them with cold eyes.
"Oh my god, it's a crocodile."
"I've always heard there are crocodiles in the desert, but I've never seen one. I'm so lucky today."
"Lucky? If you hadn't discovered it now, you would have become its food tonight."
"This crocodile is so small, is it an adult?"
A crocodile poked its head out from the bottom of the pool, hissing in warning. Its round eyes were emotionless. Everyone watched it from head to toe and estimated it to be only about 1.5 meters long, far less than the three-meter-long crocodiles they were used to seeing.
"The desert crocodile is so small. It must be malnourished because it has nothing to eat!"
"Only one?"
“Not only that!”
Everyone gathered around for a while before leaving, and they all did the same thing at the same time, dragging the tent, which was about five meters away from the pool, a full twenty meters back before stopping.
The live broadcast was hilarious to watch, but the fans of Team Maozi were very unhappy.
"What's going on? Didn't the production team survey the terrain?"
"Oh my god, that's really scary. If he had been bitten a little later, Valeri would have been dead. Thank you, Chu."
“The program might not know either!”
Someone said this, and Anthony nodded. This was indeed a mistake on their part. It seemed they would need to investigate more carefully in the future.
With the appearance of the crocodile, the group of people who had been relatively relaxed before became unstable. After chewing the cactus, everyone discussed whether to move the tent back another ten meters.
"Brother, should we move?" asked the little monk.
"No need, we have the director team watching." Chu Huaiqin grabbed his clothes and went to take a shower. Xia Entangled saw this and quickly followed him with his things. Now that he had discovered there were crocodiles in the pool, he didn't dare let Chu Huaiqin go alone.
The little monk looked at Lin Zhinan and asked, "Are you afraid?"
Lin Zhinan shook his head, "I'm not afraid."
Little Monk: ...
Well, I'm the only one afraid.
That night, besides the unsettling presence of the desert crocodiles, the sounds heard the night before reappeared, alternately like thunder and gunfire, disturbing everyone's peace. The Rolling Squad had subconsciously dismissed the gunfire, but that group was different. They had either grown up in countries with guns or where gun control was lax, so the sound of gunfire was commonplace. With the constant banging of the night, it was impossible to sleep soundly. Several people couldn't help but run out several times during the night to check what was going on.
"If this voice doesn't stop, I'm going to die." Valeri's men in the Russian team lay on the sand, looking at the blue sky. It was only five o'clock in the morning, the sky was just getting bright, and the sun had not yet risen.
Chu Huaiqin had just come out of the tent and almost stepped on him. He stepped back and bumped into Xia En.
"What are you doing lying here?" Xia En's forehead was throbbing with veins, and he felt an inexplicable emotion in his chest. It was just like when he and Qingqing slept in bed for a night, and then woke up to find someone under the bed. It was extremely unpleasant.
"Chu, I didn't sleep all night, but seeing you guys sleeping so soundly, I wondered if there was no sound from your side." Valeri looked at Chu Huaiqin leisurely.
Xia Entropy: ...
Why after one night, I felt that this person was a little abnormal. The live broadcast room also laughed, especially the audience of the Maozi team:
"Is Valeri, who is always short-tempered, trying to show his goodwill to Chu?"
"Aww, thank you Chu, I like Chu now too."
"But what does this have to do with him sleeping at the door of someone's tent?"
Others said, indeed.
Valeri was eventually picked up by Xia Entang and pushed aside, allowing Chu Huaiqin to come out. However, as soon as Chu Huaiqin came out, Valeri immediately followed him and asked:
"How did you discover the crocodiles yesterday?"
"Your hands are so strong that you can actually lift me straight out of the water."
"Chu, are you a star? What movies have you starred in? Where do you live?"
A lot of questions were asked, and everyone in the live broadcast room could see through the screen that Xia En's face was getting darker.
Today's breakfast was still cactus. While chewing the cactus, everyone looked at the chicken in the cage of the little monk.
The little monk who was drinking cactus soup from the bowl immediately hugged it and glared at them angrily. The hen had laid another egg today. It was a treasure and he would not let anyone snatch it away!
After finishing their meal, the group set off. They drifted downstream, eating nothing but cactus and, like Chu Huaiqin, some beans from the leaf goose vine. They ate until their faces turned blue, and after a few days, some of them started to have diarrhea, but the director team remained unmoved.
At first, some people protested, but later, everyone could only stare.
Besides these things, Chu Huaiqin and his companions had one thing better than them: eggs. Although they only had one a day, after four minutes, everyone could get a small piece, which was simply a delicacy. The young monk doted on the hen and, whenever he had a break, he would search the streamside and the grass for small insects to feed the hen.
"We should have killed that crocodile for meat that day."
Someone said so, and the others nodded in agreement.
That afternoon, everyone arrived at a food stop. There was a large poplar forest stretching from one side of the dunes to the other. However, the presence of the poplar forest wasn't a surprise to the participants, as they had already given up hope of finding food.
“Ga ga ga!”
"What's that sound?"
Some people heard it and looked at each other in confusion.
"The sound of a duck."
"There's a duck!"
Someone shouted loudly, and the man who hadn't eaten meat for almost ten days threw his backpack aside and rushed across the sand dune, howling. Sure enough, he saw a group of ducks grazing on the hay below.
"It's not wild!" The members of the Russian team swallowed their saliva.
"Definitely not." The Double Eagles nodded.
"Ah, duck, here I come."
The little monk's voice rang out, and he rushed over the people who were discussing in a daze and threw himself into the arms of the duck. Xia Entanglement also rushed down. Chu Huaiqin, who was sweating all over, walked to the sand dune with the support of Lin Zhinan and stood there. He looked at the scene of the duck flying and the people jumping, and smiled, "Roast duck."
"Ahhh, my dear brother, this evil smile is absolutely amazing."
"Will it? Why do I feel cold all over because of your laughter?"
"I think he thought he could eat roast duck. After all, there is dry wood here."
"Hahaha, everyone is happy, everyone is happy, just like Chinese New Year."
The live broadcast room was also infected by the joyful atmosphere on the scene, and they were very happy to see them flapping their wings.
Chu Huaiqin and his team caught two, stewing one and roasting the other over dried poplar wood. The rich aroma of roast duck made everyone's mouths water, and they all wanted to run over to join Chu Huaiqin for dinner. Valeri from the Russian team was the most obvious. He barely moved his feet, but Xia Entang split the duck into four. He neatly placed the half-armored duck in the hands of each team member, forcing them to stop abruptly.
He also wants to eat roast duck.
This was the most satisfying and filling night we had in a while. We all showered and went to bed feeling so contented. It was such a blessing.
"I always feel that excessive joy leads to sorrow." Chu Huaiqin said with his head at the door of the tent, looking at the shining stars in the sky.
"Brother, what does it mean that happiness turns to sorrow?" The little monk, whose head was also hanging outside, asked curiously.
"I ate so well tonight that I'm a little uneasy," Chu Huaiqin's intuition was always accurate, but he was right about one thing, "Save some water and cacti. Take as much as you can."
"Brother, you don't mean," the little monk swallowed his saliva urgently, "it will be very difficult later!"
The little monk felt like crying. Although the food was not good in the end, he was satisfied with the water he drank and had a good bath. He didn't want to live a "hard life" anymore.
"Don't you think the temperature is getting hotter?" Chu Huaiqin said. They had been walking along the water's edge for the past two days, so they didn't pay attention to the changes in temperature.
"Yeah, it's two degrees higher," Xia En replied. Previously, the temperature had been around 34 or 35 degrees Celsius, but these past few days it's sometimes reached 37 or 38 degrees Celsius. Because they were walking along the stream and the wind was strong, it felt about the same as 34 or 35 degrees Celsius.
"Brother, will it get hotter?" Lin Zhinan looked at Chu Huaiqin worriedly. She could feel that Chu Huaiqin had slowed down in the past two days. The reason he was able to keep up with these teams was because they rested early and rested late. Every time, the previous teams had rested for an hour or two before they arrived.
"It should be." Chu Huaiqin replied.
Chu Huaiqin was surprised by the temperature change. After all, it was already the end of July, which is the hottest days of the year as the Chinese say. But without a weather forecast, he really had no idea whether this was just the beginning or the end.
When the live broadcast room heard Chu Huaiqin's words, they were also confused. They remembered that someone had said before that they had seen the map and that there would be good days ahead. Why did Chu Huaiqin say it so horrifically now?
So many viewers in the live broadcast room looked at the map released by the program team again and found that this was a place that could not be found.
"There's very little information online about the Moyer Desert. When the race started, many people looked for it, but couldn't find much. It's no surprise there's no information on this section of the trail."
"No, how blind were those who said good days before to say good days will come later?"
"They are participating in wilderness survival. How can they have a good life?"
"What happened next? Doesn't anyone know?"
"have no idea."
There has always been little information about the Moyer Desert on the Internet. This time, an unknown terrain appeared again, and everyone was both excited and worried.
The next day, the Rolling Team prepared a stew of duck and cactus, which woke everyone up in the dark morning. Chu Huaiqin and his team had gotten up this early before, but they were eating cactus. So, the other teams always slept until Chu Huaiqin and his team set off. But this time, they had to wake up because it smelled so good.
"Being with Chu and the others is pure torture."
Someone sighed.
On this day, it was rare that other teams set off earlier than Chu Huaiqin and his team. When they left, their eyes were fierce. They were only allowed to smell the food but not eat it. This was too much.
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