Chapter 125
Chu Huaiqin opened his eyes, watching the little monk carefully watering the onions, and smiled. Then, with a slight movement of his head, he turned toward Xia En, watching him walk through the dusty sand toward the sparse vegetation in the distance. The image of the little boy flashed through his mind again. Now, that little boy had grown into a grown man. Standing before him, he could completely shield him, blocking any storm.
Xia En was panting heavily, his riding boots stirring up a layer of dust as he walked on the dry ground. The dust stuck to the hems of his trousers. The hems of his camouflage uniform, which had been covered in dust due to the deep sandstorm, were now dirty and dark. His skin was getting darker and darker from the sun. Many people in the live broadcast room speculated that after the wilderness survival mission was over, 100% of the people here would turn into black charcoal, and the remaining 1% who would not change, or would become even whiter, was Chu Huaiqin.
Licking his parched lips, Xia En approached a patch of relatively lush shrubs. These shrubs were unique, a rare sight in the desert with pink flowers. They were covered in thorns, and their leaves were sparse, like they'd been gnawed by a dog, with a corner missing here, a patch missing there, as if gnawed by some small insect or reptile.
Everyone in the live broadcast room sighed, "What a pity! This can't be eaten!"
"Ah, what is he doing?"
Just when the live broadcast room sighed that it was not edible and asked Xia Entang to seize the time to find food elsewhere, Xia Entang suddenly picked a leaf and put it in his mouth to chew. Immediately, everyone was stunned.
"Fuck, are you so hungry that you're eating grass?"
"Has Xia En been foolish? Putting aside the question of whether this plant is edible, the leaves have been gnawed like this in the desert. Aren't you afraid it's been bitten by some poisonous creature?"
"Yeah, there are so many poisonous scorpions, snakes, ants and other small insects in the desert. What is Xia doing? Is he starving?"
"No, no, this plant looks familiar. I'll cut it out and look for it."
"What are you looking for? This is camel thorn, edible. It's just that the leaves are so rotten that it's worrying! Is there a class representative?"
"The class representative is here. The reason the camel thorn leaves look like they've been chewed by a dog is because the thorns grow from the underside of the leaves, so it's common for them to pierce the leaves. That's right, it's the plant that, when I get mad at it, even pricks myself."
After trying the flavor, Xia Entropy looked at the camel thorn patch, frowned, stood up, and waved to the young monk watching over. The man's eyes lit up, and the young monk wrapped himself up hastily and ran towards Xia Entropy with the pot in hand. His speed was so fast, and the dust he kicked up was so fierce that it attracted attention from the live broadcast room.
"Brother, brother, is there anything to eat?" The little monk panted, clutching the pot. "Well, pick these camel thorn leaves. Pick each branch..." Xia Entang paused, then continued, "Half."
Live broadcast room:
"Wow, that's brutal. One in two, can this camel thorn still survive?"
"It's okay. It was so cruel that it stabbed itself. How could it not survive?"
"There aren't many of these. The leaves are tiny, no bigger than my fingernail. Even if I pull them all out, I still won't be full."
"Picking them is a big job, these small leaves make me angry just by looking at them."
Regardless of whether they can eat their fill or not, this thing is their only food now. The little monk, who was so hungry that his eyes were shining green, didn't mind at all that it was small. He squatted down and pulled it out. With that posture, everyone in the live broadcast room felt like they saw fire coming out from behind him.
But the leaves of this thing were so small, and the weather was so hot, the little monk wilted after a while. However, his movements were quite quick, even professional. On the contrary, Xia En had not picked many before his forehead muscles started to bulge.
"Don't worry, don't worry. Think about what I need to eat." The little monk, frightened by Xia Entang's aura, quickly brought out Dashan. As expected, seeing Xia Entang's expression soften, he said, "Actually, picking this is like picking tea leaves. Well, it's smaller than tea leaves. It requires patience, patience."
Xia En looked at the young monk and saw that his gestures were indeed very professional, so he tried to imitate him. However, he was still an amateur after all. When he finally saw a complete leaf, he pinched it and tried to pull it out, but he used too much force and his hand slipped, hitting another long branch of the camel thorn. The outer edge of his palm was scratched and bleeding.
Little Monk: ...
Su Huaichen and Lin Zhinan saw the little monk went over with a pot and didn't come back for a while, so they used binoculars to look and saw that the two men seemed to be still squatting there doing something.
"Is there anything to eat?" Su Huaichen looked at Lin Zhinan.
"Maybe," Lin Zhinan nodded, "Let's go and take a look."
"No, you watch here," Su Huaichen raised his chin and pointed at Chu Huaiqin. Chu Huaiqin had his eyes closed. There were many poisonous insects and snakes in the desert, and it would be difficult without someone watching. "I'll go."
After saying this, he wrapped himself up, picked up a pot and ran out.
Lin Zhinan sat there for a while, moving around anxiously.
Meanwhile, elsewhere, another group finally realized they had taken the wrong path and began to change their route. However, they had traveled too far and, with no food, their return journey was slow. The group trudged through the Gobi Desert, their shoulders drooping, their heads bowed, their morale at a low point.
The livestreamers were worried. Because the weather was too hot, they were hungry and tired, and they were so focused on getting back to the route set by the production team that no one paid any attention to the others. The livestream was crowded with fans of the production team as well as the team. Each team was watching their own team with concern, so when they saw the team staggering, some people started to worry about whether someone would faint.
"Impossible, Chu Huaiqin hasn't fainted yet, how could anyone in our team faint?"
There is never a shortage of these fans in this world. They believe that their idols are omnipotent, even if they appear blind in the eyes of outsiders.
"Oh my god, can I take my brother with me for everything?"
"Pfft, because Chu Huaiqin is the weakest right now, it's a good analogy!"
Chinese fans: ...
"Haha, who was beaten by me and couldn't come out of the director's tent for a whole day?"
Foreign fans: ...
Despite being infuriated by these people's words, many Chinese viewers still stayed in A1. After all, knowing yourself and your enemy is key to success. But soon, they started to laugh...
Foreign audience: "Ah, someone fainted."
Domestic audience: "Wow, my brother hasn't fainted yet, hahaha."
Foreign audience: ...
The one who fainted was Daley from the Aunties team, a tall and strong star. Unexpectedly, he became the first person to faint in this Wilderness Survival Global Competition. Many people were quite curious. If it was because of the heat and tiredness, Chu Huaiqin and Lin Zhinan, the two weakest people, were still alive, so why did he collapse?
The doctor performed an emergency examination and announced the results after about ten minutes. Due to the hot desert weather, people sweat more than usual, and the body's metabolism is also accelerated. Water replenishes moisture, but what about salt and sugar?
Since entering the desert, salt and sugar have only gone out and not in. So the result is: I need to replenish sugar and salt.
As soon as the doctor said this, the live broadcast room was in an uproar, and the matter of Chu Huaiqin having salt was brought up again. The sheep team, camel team, and Mali team, which had salt, instinctively held the salt tightly, but more people pointed the finger at the program.
"Producing team, please don't go too far. Someone has already fainted. Shouldn't the program change the rules?"
"Don't be ridiculous. Anthony always keeps his word when he's on a show. You might as well ask the Rolling Team for it."
"That's right, we are all participants, we should help each other."
Chinese audience: ...
Ignoring those foreign fans who wanted to force the team with salt to hand over the salt under the pretext of "mutual assistance, fairness" and so on, they all ran to Chu Huaiqin's personal live broadcast room to shout:
"Brother, brother, dear brother, there is still sugar. You have salt, but you still need sugar!"
"Don't worry, there's sugar on the camel thorn leaves. Look, Xia En and the others have already picked two pots. It's enough to replenish us."
Foreign visitors:
"Chu Huaiqin is so lucky that people are jealous."
"Haha, you're indeed worthy of being the Chu I've set my eyes on, so amazing."
It took the three of them more than an hour to pick camel thorn leaves. They were soaked all over as they squatted under the scorching sun. But even so, when they saw the two full pots of leaves, they still felt full of strength.
Unable to wait to return to the tent, Chu Huaiqin had already woken up and looked much better. He was sitting cross-legged in the tent. Lin Zhinan saw them coming back and quickly went out to greet him, but was stunned when he saw the two pots of leaves.
"Don't worry, sister. This thing is delicious." The little monk also tried some when he picked it. For him who was hungry, this was simply a delicacy.
"It's camel thorn." Chu Huaiqin guessed it before he saw it.
"Well, I tried it, it's okay." Xia En went into the tent, took the kettle and poured some water into the empty pot, then took a few slices and put them into the water to wash them clean, but found that the water was turbid.
Xia En blushed instantly, retracted his hand, and muttered, "I took it off by untying the gloves. They're dirty."
"I can see that you're injured." Chu Huaiqin looked at the wound on Xia En's palm that had already formed a blood scar. He stretched out his hand and asked Lin Zhinan and the others to wash it themselves before eating. He also told them not to wash it too much, but just rinse it in water, otherwise the sugar juice would be washed away.
Then he took out the medicine box to disinfect Xia En.
Chu Huaiqin, with his eyes downcast, looked unexpectedly attractive from a bird's-eye view. Xia En couldn't help but reach out to poke him, but before he could reach out, he was startled by Chu Huaiqin raising his head, and then his face turned red.
"The wound is not very serious, so there is no need to wrap it with gauze. Just put a Band-Aid on it for one day." Chu Huaiqin said.
In fact, this wound does not need a Band-Aid, but they have to wear gloves when they set out. If they don’t, the wound will touch the edge of the gloves, which is not good for the wound.
"Brother, I've washed them, you try it." Lin Zhinan brought the washed leaves over with the lid of the pot. He said he washed them, but in order to save water, he didn't really wash them clean. He just removed the dust on the surface of the leaves. The leaves washed at the beginning were fine, but the water became turbid later and you could taste the sand in them.
The little monk and Su Huaichen were chewing their food, making such a crunching sound that Chu Huaiqin's teeth ached. Chu Huaiqin picked up a few leaves and put them in his mouth, but every time he bit into them, his mouth was filled with sand.
The sugar in camel leaves is mainly secreted and attached to the surface of the leaves, forming small white particles. Just now, Chu Huaiqin told Lin Zhinan not to rub it, and the result was that he would eat sand.
But there is no way around it. In addition to considering the sugar juice, they also have to consider the water. It is impossible to wash it with water, so they can only eat the sand along with the leaves.
At first, they could still chew it reluctantly, but later they couldn't stand the sour feeling of biting sand in their teeth, so Chu Huaiqin and the others simply ground it with their front teeth and swallowed it. Even so, the expression on their faces was unbearable.
The live broadcast room was not comfortable either. The microphone recording was too good, and the sound of Chu Huaiqin and others biting sand was clearly transmitted to the live broadcast room. The online audience in the live broadcast room, which reached tens of millions, immediately frowned and ground the sand with their teeth at the same time. It was terrible.
The author has something to say: Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated in a hundred battles. This quote comes from "The Art of War: Offensive Strategy"
Seeing that everyone likes the original name, let’s use the original one!
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