Zhang Yan had dealt with ghosts in his first mission. He was an ordinary person and was afraid, but it was the kind of fear that he understood and expected.
So he met the shadow.
However, that was not a ghost, but a human who had not yet mutated, Awu.
This surprised Zhang Yan. In fact, in his opinion, ghosts are much simpler than humans. Humans are the most complex and unpredictable.
A Wu said he was also chased in.
He also said that it is difficult to go out at night because of the terrain.
Zhao Yuan completely believed this shy little Yin Islander who was about the same age as him: "So that's how it is. No wonder we can't get out of the forest."
Zhang Yan was not as naive as him: "Awu, are you familiar with this place?"
"It's not that bad, we've only been here a few times," A Wu scratched his face, "If I remember correctly, there's a relatively large tree hole in front of us, we can hide in it."
Zhao Yuan was delighted: "Then let's go!"
Zhang Yan remained silent until A Wu led the way. Then he whispered to Zhao Yuan, "Don't you find it strange?"
Zhao Yuan stuttered: "What, what?"
Zhang Yan said: "Why did we run into him when we came in?"
"It's just a coincidence."
Zhang Yan asked again: "So was it just a coincidence that he followed us?"
Zhao Yuan paused: "… He is not following us, but he is not walking as fast as us."
A Wu in front turned around and shouted, "Why don't you leave?"
“Here it comes!”
Zhao Yuan pulled Zhang Yan: "Come on, we are two people and he is one person, so we are not the ones to be afraid of."
Zhang Yan stared at A Wu's back and narrowed his eyes: "That makes sense."
The tree hole was so big that three adult men could squeeze inside.
Nothing happened overnight.
There was just a hint of morning light in the woods, and A Wu changed his attitude from last night and urged Zhang Yan and Zhao Yuan to leave.
"It's easy to get in here during the day. We can't hide here. We have to leave quickly."
Zhao Yuan whispered to Zhang Yan: "Nothing happened last night. We were just overthinking it."
Zhang Yan pulled down the hood of his jacket and said, "Let's go."
Awu brought a cloth bag with some water and food in it, which he generously took out to share.
Zhao Yuan ate the cake he gave him: "Did you meet other tourists?"
A Wu shook his head.
Zhao Yuan sighed, "I don't know if we can survive."
Ah Wu's eyes were red and his face was full of sorrow: "This island is no longer the one I knew."
"Don't think about it," Zhao Yuan patted his shoulder, "Let's take it one step at a time."
Ah Wu sniffed: "Hmm."
Zhang Yan followed behind: "Awu, how long will it take to get out of this forest?"
"It's almost there." said A Wu.
As a result, I got lost.
A Wu suggested that the three of them split up and walk separately, each person walking on a different route, making marks along the way. If one of them goes out, the remaining two can follow the mark to go out.
Zhao Yuan hesitated.
Zhang Yan lifted his backpack up: "I agree with what Awu said, this is the best way."
After hearing what Zhang Yan said, Zhao Yuan had no choice but to agree: "Okay, let's go our separate ways."
So the three of them went in three directions.
Zhao Yuan goes east, Zhang Yan goes west, and A Wu goes south.
On the small road in the south, A Wu was walking slowly, with a happy smile on his face and humming an unknown tune.
“Hmm… Hmm… Hmm… Hmm… Hmm… Hmm…”
The strange and long tune suddenly stopped. Ah Wu turned his head, a fierce look flashed across his eyes, revealing astonishment: "Mr. Zhang, why are you here?"
Zhang Yan put his hands in his pockets and stood there without moving.
Ah Wu frowned and whispered, "Why didn't you go west?"
Zhang Yan walked towards him.
A Wu began to retreat.
Zhang Yan's speculation was confirmed by his action. He suddenly smiled gently, and when Zhang Yan was stunned for a moment, he took his clenched fist out of his pocket and knocked him out fiercely.
"ah!"
There was a deafening scream from the east, and Zhao Yuan shouted in panic: "Help! Help--"
Zhang Yan did not rush over immediately, but walked to the west at a leisurely pace to make sure that among the three roads pointed out by A Wu, only his was safe.
The other two have swamps.
Zhao Yuan was stuck in the swamp, with only half of his body outside, and he was still sinking.
This was the scene Zhang Yan saw when he came over.
Unexpectedly, he thought Zhao Yuan had been swallowed by the swamp.
Zhao Yuan's deepening despair stopped when Zhang Yan appeared. He took a small breath and tried his best to relax all the muscles in his body: "Zhang Yan, Brother Yan, save me, please save me..."
Zhang Yan didn't say anything.
Zhao Yuan realized something, and the light in his eyes dimmed little by little. He swallowed the rest of his requests for help, his face gray.
Zhang Yan left, and Zhao Yuan's wide eyes were filled with darkness.
Finished.
I'm going to die.
Zhao Yuan waited for death with empty eyes.
After an unknown amount of time, a vine swung over and hit Zhao Yuan on the forehead, and he woke up from the pain.
"catch."
Zhang Yan came back, holding the other end of the vine in his hand, with no warmth or patience on his resolute face: "I'll count to three."
Zhao Yuan quickly grabbed Tengman.
After escaping from the swamp, Zhao Yuan felt like he was having a nightmare within a nightmare. He was sweating profusely and kept repeating words like "brother", "good man", and "thank you for saving my life".
“That’s enough!”
Zhang Yan stepped on the unconscious A Wu and said, "This man obviously wants to harm us, but we can't do it directly. I can't kill him before I get the clues I want from him. I don't know if he has any more cards up his sleeve."
"I saved you because I thought if he attacks again, you'll be my human shield."
Zhao Yuan was frozen with gratitude and shock. He wiped the cold sweat off his face and whispered, "Thank you anyway."
"… "
Zhang Yan sneered mercilessly: "For an idiot like you, if you can get out alive, it's just luck. You will die in the next mission."
Zhao Yuan laughed awkwardly a few times.
How could he not know at this moment that Zhang Yan had become suspicious of A Wu, and when they went their separate ways he deliberately followed the other party's tactics in order to push him out and see what the other party was planning.
In any case, Zhang Yan saved his life.
Zhao Yuan could also see that Zhang Yan's impatience and sarcasm were comparable to Lin Yue's.
This is because the task has not been completed yet.
Speaking of which, I wonder what happened to Lin Yue, who would rather kill someone innocently than let the one go.
And Chen Yang and the boy with crutches, are they still alive
Chen Yang was alive and well, but the wound on the back of his hand was still a little infected even though he had changed the herbal medicine and had it been re-bandaged, causing him to have a low-grade fever.
But this is not a big problem. The belief that he will be able to go back soon makes him full of energy.
There was no undercurrent among the three people on Chen Yang's side, and they arrived at their destination quite calmly.
only…
"Teacher Zhou, didn't you say that it doesn't grow at all?"
Chen Yang pointed at a patch of green swaying in the wind and asked, "Why are there so many grasses?"
Teacher Zhou was sweating as he walked: "It's not a vegetable."
Well, we still have to pull out the weeds, otherwise we won’t be able to see the condition of the soil clearly. Chen Yang did what he said and pulled out all the weeds quickly.
He is familiar with this job. He did it a lot when he was a child. He is very good at it and even misses it a little.
Teacher Zhou was stunned: "Mr. Chen, have you ever done farm work?"
“Yes.”
Chen Yang threw the last handful of grass on the ground and found a sunken area. He guessed that was it.
It doesn’t matter if it’s not, just dig around that.
Chen Yang patted the grass clippings on his hands, walked over to the boy and said, "The soil is okay, not too hard, but we don't have any tools, what can we use to dig?"
He glanced down at Jian and said, "Don't you have an idea?"
"Cough." Chen Yang kicked the clod of earth.
Chao Jian retracted a crutch a few sections and threw it to him.
Chen Yang took it, it was short, and after trying it out, it seemed to work for him: "Find a place to keep watch, I'll go dig."
When Teacher Zhou saw Chen Yang start to dig the soil, he didn't ask any questions and found a stone to help.
After helping to dig for more than ten minutes, Teacher Zhou said he was going to the bathroom, but he disappeared when he left.
Chen Yang wanted to hurry up and dig. He also thought that Teacher Zhou was a good person, so he stopped the most important thing at the moment and said to the boy while panting, "You stay here, I'll go take a look."
He raised his chin towards Jian and said, "He's right over there."
"Did you see it?" Chen Yang asked in surprise, "Then why didn't he come back for such a long time?"
Chao Jian said nothing.
When Chen Yang went over to take a look, he was stunned.
I don’t know who brought the fertilizer when they escaped, but it’s all over the grass.
Teacher Zhou lay on the ground with his head buried in the grass.
Have eaten.
Chen Yang took a breath: "Teacher Zhou?"
Teacher Zhou stopped sucking his fingers and slowly raised his head from the grass.
Chen Yang squatted down: "Do you know what you are eating?"
Teacher Zhou looked at the particles in his hand, and his eyes regained some clarity. Suddenly, he felt as if he had been struck by lightning: "I... I am... How can I..."
"This shouldn't happen. I was fine the whole time. How come..."
The man was confused and extremely pessimistic.
Chen Yang smelled the fertilizer smell in his breath: "Teacher Zhou, listen to me, the situation is better than you think. According to our observation, Aunt Liu's youngest son lived for many days after he got sick. Even Old Lady Li didn't get into trouble immediately after eating this."
"Even if it really comes to that, as long as the sick person doesn't eat anything else, he will turn into a plant, which is also a kind of rebirth."
Teacher Zhou looked at him blankly.
Chen Yang's tone was very gentle: "Think about those dandelions and the old tree in front of Li Dafu's house. They have such strong vitality."
The heavy grayness in Teacher Zhou's eyes faded a little, and he murmured, "Yes, Mr. Chen, you are right. If that time really comes, I will just think of it as being reborn as a plant in my next life."
Thinking of this, Teacher Zhou felt that his world suddenly became clear.
Chen Yang emphasized solemnly: "Remember, don't eat anything else."
Teacher Zhou recalled a certain scene and turned pale. “I know what you mean. I saw it with my own eyes before I escaped. I won’t eat it. I will never do that.”
Chen Yang nodded and stood up. He smelled the smell and pointed him in a direction: "There is fertilizer over there. See if you can find something to pack it up and then find a place to hide."
Teacher Zhou thanked him, lowered his head to look at the fertilizer in the grass, suppressed the surging hunger, and said, "Mr. Chen, this is not a strange disease, it's a curse."
"Whatever it is,"
Chen Yang said seriously: "If you do as I say, there is hope."
Teacher Zhou was stunned for a moment: "I will, take care."
Chen Yang watched Teacher Zhou eat the fertilizer in the direction he pointed. After a while, he retracted his gaze and looked at the lush greenery around him. A chilling thought popped up in his mind involuntarily.
If all the plants on the island were transformed from dead people, how many people would there be
When Chen Yang thought of this, he felt that the long grass blown onto his body by the wind looked like human hands. He suddenly felt bad. He was about to call the young man to leave, but he found that he was lowering his head, looking at him without saying a word.
"Why are you looking at me?" The boy's gaze was strange and Chen Yang felt uncomfortable.
Chao Jian tilted his head to the side: "Your kindness is sometimes there and sometimes not."
Chen Yang pursed his lips: "You can't say that. I am willing to lend a hand to anyone who has never harmed me, provided that it is within my ability."
"Like Old Lady Li, I also want to fertilize her..."
Before he could finish his words, Chen Yang suddenly couldn't speak anymore.
Because the boy was staring at the fine pieces of fertilizer in the grass.
There was no warning, as if he was suddenly attracted by something delicious, his Adam's apple moved up and down, and his breathing became heavy.