Chapter 80 Revealing The Spot
80 Revealing The Spot
Qingfeng found Lin Yue in the crowd and suddenly smiled. “There’s some left.”
Gu Zhongxun looked up, confused. “What’s left?”
Lin Yue seemed to have sensed Qingfeng’s gaze and turned around. He was caught off guard and b.u.mped into Qingfeng’s faint smile.
From the corner of his eye, he saw Gu Zhongxun beside him. He immediately frowned and carried the box he had been holding over. His eyes widened as if he was saying, “What are you laughing at?”
Gu Zhongxun looked at the medicine box in Lin Yue’s hand and said in surprise, “It’s not lost?!”
Lin Yue subconsciously glanced at Qingfeng. When he realized that there was nowhere to hide the box, he puffed out his chest and explained, “It wasn’t easy for Madam to exchange for the herbs, so of course I have to keep an eye on them.” In the future, he still had to ask his master to return them. If he lost the box, he would have to return two sets.
He thought that he did not act guilty at all. But his eyes were darting around, not daring to look at Qingfeng.
Gu Zhongxun hugged the medicine box and checked it. After discovering that there was nothing missing inside, he heaved a long sigh of relief and praised Lin Yue, “It’s all thanks to Brother Lin. Otherwise, Miss Qingfeng’s hope would have been gone.”
Hearing his words, Lin Yue immediately denied, “I’m not doing this for her!” As soon as he finished speaking, he felt that he was exposing himself. He looked up at the sky awkwardly and couldn’t help but glance at Qingfeng from the corner of his eye to see how she would react.
Qingfeng’s expression was calm. After looking away from Lin Yue’s forced gaze, a complicated expression flashed across her face. She walked straight away without saying a word to him.
Lin Yue stared at her back and secretly clenched his fists. His strained expression made Gu Zhongxun realize that something was wrong. He comforted him considerately, “Miss Qingfeng must be grateful to you in her heart. She’s just not good at expressing herself.”
It was fine if he did not comfort him, but once he did, he stepped on Lin Yue’s sore spot.
Lin Yue turned his head fiercely and said angrily, “Shut up!” Then, he left Gu Zhongxun behind without looking back.
Gu Zhongxun stood rooted to the ground, a little stunned. He did not seem to understand why Lin Yue was angry at him.
It was almost dark, and the items were even harder to find. If everyone had walked too far away, they might get lost.
Bai Wutong said to everyone, “Let’s not look around for now. Let’s eat something first and see what we can find tomorrow morning.”
As they were busy finding things, there was not much firewood left. Everyone could only eat the dry rations in the emergency food bag with hot water.
Moreover, they were afraid that they would not have anything to eat if they ate too much, so they could only eat till 50% full.
Soon, it was almost too dark to see.
The temperature had dropped to below -10°C. Their equipment that had been used to set up the tent had also been blown away. If everyone wanted to spend the night safely in such cold temperatures, they would have to squeeze together like penguins.
The women and children were at the innermost area. The people outside were the ones who suffered the most from the cold. Bai Wutong made them wear the thickest clothes and then changed positions with the others every hour to warm up inside.
The team of more than 500 people were divided into five groups that were huddled together.
Bai Wutong covered everyone’s heads with the only blanket she had found to prevent the heat from spreading.
She taught this penguin heating method to the 30 families of Qinghe at the back of the team. Bai Wutong hugged Stinky while Chu Tianbao hugged them and nestled in the middle of the crowd, waiting for dawn.
The night was long, and everyone finally lasted until dawn.
The herbs were basically all gone, so Bai Wutong could only let everyone boil snow to keep warm.
At this moment, the 30 families of Qinghe sent over some old ginger and asked everyone to cook ginger soup to ward off the cold.
After drinking the hot ginger soup and eating some dry rations, everyone gained some energy. They looked at the sun hanging high in the sky like an egg yolk and smiled as if they had survived a disaster.
Everyone dug hard and found some more things.
Huang Zhong had a sensitive nose. As long as he was around to search, he could always find something in the snow.
Everyone worked together and only found three-tenths of the items. However, if they fed on the dead livestock and horses sparingly, it would allow the team to survive for a few more days.
Sensing Huang Zhong’s use, Patriarch Cui came to borrow him.
Bai Wutong specially let Huang Zhong eat and wear warm clothes before letting him follow Patriarch Cui.
As it was almost afternoon and there was really nothing else around, the team began to organize their existing supplies and prepare to set off.
Bai Wutong and the others could still survive on their rations for seven to eight days. There were more people in the 30 families of Qinghe, so the food they found could only sustain for four to five days.
They were at least half a month away from Ling Kingdom. This amount of food was far from enough.
Lin Yue said to Bai Wutong, “As long as the team reaches Black Wind Ridge and finds our master, our master will definitely have a way!”
Bai Wutong was stunned. “Where is Black Wind Ridge?” Could there be a Black Bear Spirit there?
Lin Yue said uncertainly, “It’s in front of Fengming City. Our food should be able to last until there, right?”
If only he could remove ‘should be’ from his question.
Bai Wutong sighed. “Let’s take it one step at a time.” There would always be a way.
They could not see the border of the vast wilderness. They had been walking for five days, and it was estimated that they could sustain for seven to eight days. Because of the cold weather, everyone had to huddle together to keep warm at night. Their energy consumption was even faster than they had imagined. At most, they would last for another day before all their food was depleted.
The servants of the 30 families of Qinghe had already begun to eat plain porridge.
How could they eat only plain porridge on such a cold day?
As they continued, many people could no longer move further.
Their faces turned purple from the cold and they could not even resist the cold.
Those who could follow the 30 families of Qinghe were all loyal servants. How could Patriarch Cui bear to see them die? He forcefully took out some more from their rations so that they could recover their strength.
When Bai Wutong saw this, she couldn’t help but feel anxious. They had to find food as soon as possible.
The food in her s.p.a.ce could only last for a day or two even if she secretly took it out for everyone to eat. It was only a drop in the bucket for the team.
While Bai Wutong was racking her brains, she suddenly remembered that there was a lake symbol on the map. It should not be far from their current location.
If there was a lake, there would definitely be fish!
Bai Wutong made a prompt decision and said to everyone, “We’ll take this path to the lake to catch fish and replenish our food stock.” Although they had taken a detour, as long as they could replenish their food and let everyone have the strength to continue forward, it was worth it.
It took them half a day to reach the lake.
At first glance, it looked like an endless glacier. The entire lake was covered in thick ice.
It was impossible to catch fish with bare hands or dive down to catch fish.
Yang Quanzi and Xu Zhiyi had been to many places in Hua State and had seen others chisel ice and fish. Just as they made the suggestion, Bai Wutong waved her hand and said, “No need. We have Chu Tianbao!”