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墨書 Inktalez
I knew we had to increase our physical activity to generate more body heat, which meant we needed to quicken our pace; otherwise, we would never make it back, especially not with Liu Squad Leader. However, this would inevitably require us to turn on our lights, which was risky. I glanced at Liu Squad Leader.
Liu Squad Leader immediately responded in a near-panic tone, "No, don’t! It will attract the water ghost."
Damn it, he still thought it was a water ghost. I felt an impulse to slap some sense into him. "It's not a water ghost; it’s probably a massive Aquatic Creature. I didn’t get a good look at it. But the light will attract it, so I can only minimize the beam of the Flashlight. We need to move faster; if we keep going like this, we’ll freeze to death. Besides, it should be lurking in deeper waters. The quicker we go, the sooner we’ll leave that area, and that will be safer for us."
"You can't be sure it's not a water ghost, right?" Liu Squad Leader asked tentatively. "For safety's sake, I disagree with turning on the lights."
I didn’t want to continue debating this point. After eating some compressed food, I simply said, "Let’s go," and turned on the Powerful Flashlight.
I saw Liu Squad Leader immediately crouch down, his eyes fixed intently on the direction of the Pavement. I adjusted the light to a dim setting so I could see the path ahead; the beam barely reflected off the Pavement. Seeing Liu Squad Leader in this state, I knew he wouldn’t get up and move without some motivation.
I pointed behind him. "If it were a water ghost, it would likely search for us from behind. We need to be faster than it is to avoid being caught."
With that, I took off running ahead. In no time, I heard hurried footsteps behind me and Liu Squad Leader’s voice—deliberately lowered but tinged with panic—calling out, "Wait for me! Are you trying to get me killed?"
The fear of the unknown is something everyone experiences; it's like being afraid of ghosts. In moments like these, solitude amplifies that fear. But if you have a companion who isn’t afraid of such things, it can lessen that fear significantly. We hurried along for a while, and as warmth began to return to our bodies, Liu Squad Leader’s fear gradually diminished.
We maintained a pace that allowed our bodies to generate heat, not daring to take a break along the way. Just as we were nearing the meeting point, Liu Squad Leader called out to me, hesitating as he asked, "Can you keep this a secret for me?"
I smirked and wrinkled my nose in a teasing manner. Liu Squad Leader's face turned beet red as he glared at me in anger.
"Sure," I replied readily. "But as a condition for this, you need to follow my lead in the upcoming actions and at least support me. Of course, I'm talking about my plan to search for Song Guilong when we get back."
Liu Squad Leader nodded. I figured he understood that right now, only the two of us supported the search for Song Guilong; supporting me meant supporting the search for him. The distinction lay in who was in charge and whose plans would be followed. "I agree, but only on this matter," Liu Squad Leader said without much thought.
"A personal question," I relaxed my tone with him. "Would you shoot Song Guilong?"
The latter part of my question came out quickly, and the shift in tone felt jarring. At the same moment I asked, I raised my flashlight and shone it directly in his face.
Liu Squad Leader's expression didn't change; he didn't even squint from the direct light of the flashlight. He seemed to have moved past the troubles caused by the water ghost. It was as if he could see me behind the flashlight, staring at my face, yet he remained silent.
I felt a twinge of frustration; in front of the recovering Liu Squad Leader, this little trick was unlikely to work again. I chuckled self-deprecatingly, "If you don't want to answer, that's fine. It's just a personal question."
In truth, his silence was an answer in itself. I silently rejoiced that the gun was in my hands. Bringing Song Guilong back alive was non-negotiable for me; there were no alternatives.
When we returned to the wrecked ship meeting point, Zhao Squad Leader and Xiao Guolin were nearly frozen stiff. They had managed to gather some planks and piled them into a makeshift firewood stack, ready to ignite it for warmth at any moment. Liu Squad Leader and I jumped directly from the embankment onto the wrecked ship and then approached the firewood pile. Seeing the three of them huddled together, still unable to fend off the bone-chilling cold, they trembled all over with faces that had turned a deep shade of blue from the frost.
I took turns with Liu Squad Leader to wipe their faces and hands, trying to help them wake up from their semi-conscious state as quickly as possible. Xiao Guolin shivered, "Can we start a fire?"
He had completely disregarded the historical value of this boat; it seemed he was truly freezing.
I shook my head. "No. We need to move immediately, away from the water source before we can light a fire."
I noticed their expressions were dull; my serious words didn’t seem to provoke any tension among them. The only one who reacted was Cao Mingzhe, but it wasn't in response to what I said.
"Why do your hands smell so bad?" Cao Mingzhe asked Liu Squad Leader, who was busy rubbing his face.
Liu Squad Leader replied calmly, "If you could only move one hand, yours would smell too."
"Then don’t rub my face anymore. I’m not cold; I’m just really sleepy."
Upon hearing this, I realized his sensory nerves had dulled to the point where he couldn’t feel the cold, but he was clearly showing signs of hypothermia. We needed to move quickly and find a place where we could light a fire for warmth; staying here wouldn’t solve the fundamental problem.
I handed the Walkie-Talkie to Liu Squad Leader and dragged Xiao Guolin and the others along. I bundled up a large amount of wood in my sleeping bag, and under Liu Squad Leader's lead, we headed back along the Cave Wall. After walking for a while, Zhao Squad Leader and the others began to slow down, their bodies shaking uncontrollably as they stumbled around. Liu Squad Leader was leading the way with a flashlight, unable to provide any further assistance. With my arms full of wood, I couldn’t help them either.
I looked back and saw we had covered some distance; we were already away from the smooth Ground and should be safe now. I called out to Liu Squad Leader ahead of me, "Let’s stop here."
Liu Squad Leader halted, and Xiao Guolin and the others simply sat down on the ground. I quickly set up a pile of firewood and tore off some paper to ignite it. Once the fire was lit, warmth enveloped us instantly. My makeshift robe made from the sleeping bag was nearly soaked through; it hadn’t dried at all during our journey. With no other option, I awkwardly took off the robe and warmed myself by the fire.
Zhao Squad Leader, young and alert, was the first to regain consciousness. He took off his helmet and used it as a pot, hanging it over the fire to boil some water. He noticed me, naked and hiding behind my clothes, and chuckled lightly, "Good thing we're all men."
I replied with self-deprecation, "Here, even if there are women, they might as well be men. If you treat them like women, you won't survive."
The water heated up quickly. After Zhao Squad Leader and I poured some hot water for Xiao Guolin and Cao Mingzhe, they finally began to recover.
Xiao Guolin looked at me and said something representative of our situation: "It's really not easy to survive."
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