Suo Tian pulled out his knife, glanced at me, then slashed down at a spot just below the snake’s head.
The snake—still trying to coil itself around his arm—instantly went limp and stopped moving.
He then walked over to my side, raised an eyebrow, and asked, “You’re afraid of snakes?”
Staring at the gray-black snake in his hand—about as thick as a small wrist—I swallowed hard and nodded furiously.
“What girl isn’t afraid of something like that?”
Suo Tian poked at the fire to raise the flames, then wrapped the snake’s body loosely in some leaves before tossing it directly into the fire.
“What are you doing?” I asked in confusion.
He looked around as if searching for something, and without turning his head, answered, “Lunch.”
My entire face went green.
I stared at the fire for a long moment, stunned and speechless, unable to even squeeze out the words “Are you kidding me?”
Suo Tian wiped the dagger clean against a tree to remove whatever had gotten on it when he cut the snake, then walked toward a dense patch of grass to the left.
Seeing that, I immediately became nervous.
I jumped up from the ground, pulled out my dagger, and was about to follow.
Was something wrong?
Hearing my movements, Suo Tian turned his head slightly and said, “Watch the lunch. Don’t come.”
I stopped, but still gripped my dagger and scanned the area ahead of him several times carefully.
I didn’t see anything unusual.
Suo Tian lowered his head in the grass, searching for something.
After a moment, he walked deeper into it.
Some of the grass was very tall, blocking my view and hiding him completely.
I grew anxious and lifted my foot to go after him.
He was injured.
What if he ran into a few walkers? What if something happened?
But I had barely taken a few steps when the grass rustled, and Suo Tian emerged—holding two handfuls of some kind of plant.
Seeing he was fine, I let out a small breath of relief.
But then, noticing the plants in his hands, I asked in confusion, “Are you… preparing vegetables to go with lunch?”
He gave me a strange look, then raised the plants and said, “This is medicine.”
……
After two days of constant bandage changes, my bag had nothing left except a few strips of gauze, some cotton, and disinfectant.
Suo Tian’s wound had gone a long time without proper treatment.
Sitting before the fire, Suo Tian chopped the herbs with his knife, then crushed them against a rock.
I went over, helped him unwrap the bandages, disinfected the wound, applied the herbal paste, and wrapped it again before sitting back down.
The wound was still very serious.
Rongrong’s bite had been merciless.
At first, I worried he might end up like Xiao Xue, but after observing him these past two days, that concern turned out to be completely unnecessary.
This guy lived like some kind of built-in cheat code.
When the snake meat was cooked, Suo Tian cut off the midsection, wrapped it in leaves, and handed it to me.
I didn’t dare eat it at first… but seeing him beside me eating seriously—and feeling my own growing hunger—I gritted my teeth and took a bite.
Snake meat… really didn’t match the snake’s ugly appearance.
It was actually pretty good.
Maybe it was just really well-roasted, but it even tasted a bit like fish.
The snake wasn’t small.
We only ate a small portion.
The rest we packed away.
After drinking some water, refilling the kettle, and putting out the fire, we set off again.
Before leaving, I told Suo Tian to turn around and I quickly washed myself in the stream.
After two sticky, sweaty days, I finally felt a bit more human again.
After crossing the stream, Suo Tian continued to find various herbs along the way to apply to his wound.
I eventually asked him how he knew so many medicinal plants.
In my mind, only people who studied traditional medicine would know these things.
Suo Tian replied calmly, “Things that keep you alive—you have to learn.”
I couldn’t tell if he felt anything when he said that line, but something in my own heart felt faintly uneasy.
The teammates who got separated had to rely on themselves to escape.
They needed to become unbelievably strong to ensure their survival, and they had to understand ways to preserve their own lives as much as possible.
What kind of place was that headquarters, anyway?
All they drilled into us were these kinds of theories and ideas.
Looking at it now, these skills are indeed essential—but back when the world was still normal, didn’t all this seem far too inhumane?
We continued trekking through the jungle for another two days.
After finishing off that snake, we found some wild mushrooms along the way thanks to Suo Tian’s guidance, and he even grabbed a bird’s nest at one point.
All in all, though the journey was exhausting, the two of us still indulged in the feast nature offered us, eating quite well for those two days.
During this time, we encountered two small groups of walkers.
The first group wandered past beneath our tree while we were resting at night, and we narrowly avoided them.
The second time, however, we weren’t so lucky.
Suo Tian and I were sitting on a rock taking a break when a group suddenly surged out from behind the bushes.
Had Suo Tian not noticed in time, the two of us might have been trapped on that rock.
There weren’t many walkers—just a few dozen—but in the jungle, with injured Suo Tian and me alone, there was no way we could handle them.
And after traveling for so long, I barely had any strength left.
We had no choice but to avoid them.
Because of that, we had to take a detour that cost us several useless kilometers, but eventually, after cutting down a few walkers, we finally shook them off completely.
By the afternoon of the fifth day, I hadn’t had a proper night’s sleep in days.
I kept dozing off while walking, sometimes drifting into a dream while my eyes were closed, occasionally even bumping into Suo Tian who walked ahead of me.
Just as the sky was growing dark and I was about to ask Suo Tian if we should find a place to rest for the night, I noticed him staring off into the distance.
I followed his gaze—and froze for a moment, then burst with joy.
A house!
On a clearing not far ahead in the woods, there was actually a small cabin!
A cabin meant shelter.
Shelter meant we could finally get a proper night’s sleep.
We hurried over together.
Even from afar, we could see that the ground in front of the cabin, which should have been flat, was overgrown with weeds—deep, tangled grass, some even withered.
It looked like no one had lived here for a long time.
There was a small lock on the door, but of course, that was nothing for our great Suo Tian.
After opening it, he carefully swept the inside with his eyes first.
Once he confirmed there were no walkers inside, we entered.
The cabin, built within the forest, was thick with a damp, moldy smell.
It must have been abandoned for at least five years.
A very thick layer of dust coated everything, but the cabin wasn’t as empty as I had expected.
There was a bed, a wooden table, two wooden stools, and even a small cabinet in the corner holding bowls and chopsticks.
After looking around, I asked Suo Tian, “This place should still be two days away from the town we’re heading to. Why would anyone choose to live deep in the mountains like this?”
Suo Tian glanced around again, then stood in front of the cabinet holding the bowls and chopsticks.
After examining it for a moment, he said, “This was probably where the forest ranger used to live.”
“No wonder.” I nodded in understanding.
Aside from a forest ranger, I doubt anyone else would be dumb enough to willingly live in such a deserted, isolated place.
After chopping some larger branches outside to use as a makeshift broom and sweeping the bed clean, I almost threw myself onto it right then and there.
I wanted nothing more than to pass out and sleep like the dead.
But unfortunately, we hadn’t eaten dinner yet.
If it were just me, I’d simply go without.
But considering Suo Tian was still injured—and had previously bled so much he nearly fainted—he had definitely taken a hit to his vitality.
If I didn’t eat, he definitely wouldn’t trouble himself to eat either.
So I had no choice but to force myself out the door.
I searched the surroundings, and since a forest ranger’s cabin was usually built near a water source, sure enough, not far from the house I found a small creek.
I set up a fire by the creek to boil water, changed the medicine on Suo Tian’s wound, and then began wondering whether I should catch a fish from the creek to make soup.
Earlier in the house, I thought I saw a pot that could be used for soup.
I must have stared at the creek too long while thinking, and Suo Tian noticed my thoughts.
By the time I snapped back, he already had his pants rolled up and had stepped into the water.
The creek didn’t flow very fast; in fact, this spot was like a small natural reservoir—water flowing in on one side and slowly trickling out on the other.
You could say it was a natural fish pool.
Even from the bank, several large fish could be seen lazily wagging their tails as they wandered around.
Once Suo Tian went in, I couldn’t help myself anymore—I kicked off my shoes and went in after him.
Catching fish isn’t exactly an exciting activity, but many people love it and never get tired of it.
Even with me getting in the way, we eventually—thanks to Suo Tian—managed to catch two big ones.
Once on shore, after knocking the fish out with a stone, I hurried back to the cabin to grab the pot, the kitchen knife, and some chopsticks and bowls.
Although our daggers were far sharper than the kitchen knife, we normally used them to kill walkers.
I absolutely wasn’t going to use those to handle food.
I washed the pot and knife in the creek and cleaned the fish.
With whatever seasonings I could still find in the house—if they were even usable—I finally got the fish cooking.
Near the creek, I also found a patch of guòhé, a type of vegetable perfect for fish soup, though it has different names in different regions.
I gathered some, washed them clean, and set them aside.
Once the fish broth started boiling, I tossed the guòhé in.
The freshness… oh, it was incredible…
Staring at the bubbling fish soup, drooling for quite a while, my entire soul was clinging to the deliciousness before me.
I was so focused that I didn’t notice the human-height grass I had just picked the guòhé from tremble slightly—not far from me.
Nor did I notice Suo Tian quietly drawing his dagger beside me.
— The end of the Chapter–
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