"You scared?"Xiang Wan could hear Mei Xin"s voice from within the silence.
On the way, Mei Xin had hardly talked.
Her sudden question made Xiang Wan felt a little torn inside before she replied.
"No."
Not sure who she wanted to comfort, Xiang Wan had answered calmly.
She looked up at the sky, covered by the foliage of trees.
Let"s just call it the sky.
The sky looked as though a bunch of dark shadows looming above them.
"I"m unwilling to die here." Mei Xin suddenly remarked.
"Eh?" Xiang Wan showed some interest as she p.r.i.c.ked her eyes to listen.
"I was thinking earlier that I"ve yet to accomplish anything in my life. There are still many things I want to do but have not done. I"m usually busy, and I"ll always tell myself after I get over the busy period, "I"ll do what I want…" But in the end, I did nothing." Mei Xin looked away. "And I"ve not said goodbye to my mom before I go. I don"t want to die."
"…"
Mei Xin looked at the fire quietly.
That expression on her face made Xiang Wan"s heart wring.
"We won"t die." She said it with confidence.
Her calmness influenced Mei Xin.
"You"re actually so composed!"
At a time like this, which girl would not be scared?
Deep within Xiang Wan"s heart… she was scared too.
She smiled at Mei Xin. That smile of hers actually had a tinge of naivety to it.
"I just feel that we should not die like this. We"re all good people. The bad guys are still alive, why should we die before them?"
Well…
Xiang Wan"s serious expression amused Mei Xin.
"I"m a Medical Examiner. The thing I"ve seen most is death. I"m actually not afraid of death. I even thought that if one day I die, I will also lie on top of the autopsy table where I"ll be cut up and researched on like an animal…"
Xiang Wan gasped. "…"
What Mei Xin said was too descriptive and unnerving that Xiang Wan daren"t delve into it.
Xiang Wan quickly thought of something and asked Mei Xin out of curiosity.
"If given a choice, would you want to be used for research purposes?"
"I"m not willing!"
Mei Xin responded without any hesitation.
"I do not wish to let people see how I look after I died. I definitely don"t wish to be dissected… and myself in such an ugly state."
"…"
Ugly or not, Xiang Wan would not know.
When a person died, there would be no soul. The corpse was like a bunch of meat.
It could be seen and discussed, but it could no longer feel…
Initially, Xiang Wan did not think much of it.
However, when Xiang Wan gave it a little more thought, why did she feel spooked out by it?
"You"re right!" Xiang Wan agreed, "I also feel that dying peacefully without pain is a blissful thing… Heh! This is just a small little wish. It"s not too much to ask for, right?"
Mei Xin looked at her with a pair of eyes as though they were a pool of calm water.
"It"s actually too much to ask for!"
"…" Xiang Wan furrowed her eyebrows.
"Death itself is already a type of pain. How could you wish for a painless death?"
"…"
There wasn"t a type of death which was painless?
As Xiang Wan thought about it, she felt her head muddled as well as some headache.
However, as she had taken the medicine Cheng Zheng gave her, her condition was considered stable.
"Let"s change the topic."
If they continued on with this, Xiang Wan felt that she might get depressed.
Mei Xin took a glance at her and looked up into the sky.
"I"ve never fallen in love before!"
"…"
This topic was indeed not scary.
But why did she feel a tinge of sadness when she heard that?
"Are you thinking that if you have at least been in love, you"ll have one less regret?"
"… At the very least, I want to know the feeling. How does it feel to have someone loving me?" As Mei Xin pondered over this, she took a stick and started doodling on the ground. "n.o.body has ever fallen in love with me," she let out a sigh, "n.o.body has ever tried wooing me either."
"…!"
Frankly, if it ain"t for the special circ.u.mstance they were currently in right now, Xiang Wan would not believe that Mei Xin would have told her all these.
From what Xiang Wan knew, Mei Xin… was someone who was difficult to get close to.
Not only was her character cold, but her job also required her to deal with corpses regularly.
Indeed, normal guys wouldn"t dare to try wooing her.
…
Not waiting for Xiang Wan to answer, Mei Xin blurted another question. "Are you feeling the fear now?"
Xiang Wan seemed a little taken aback and closed her eyes. "Yes, never have I been this afraid in my life!"
Her whole heart felt cold.
It felt like she was been being isolated from the rest of the world.
The threat of death never felt this close to heart.
"Sergeant Ma!"
It was Cheng Zheng"s voice.
Quan Shaoteng had left the armed police officer, Sergeant Ma, as the person-in-charge of their safety.
He was shocked when he heard he was being called so suddenly. "Captain Cheng, what happened?"
The group was also alerted and turned their heads to look at Cheng Zheng.
Cheng Zheng did not answer, he got up slowly and looked at the dark night sky.
"Those on duty must not doze off. Those resting should not get into a deep sleep. We have to be careful. What if the Dark Clan suddenly appears?"
Everybody"s heart skipped a beat upon hearing that.
The possibility of this happening was there.
The forest was very dense and enormous. No one knew what kind of "evil things" awaited them from within this perilous mountain. Those missing people from the Dark Clan could suddenly appear out of nowhere as well.
"Hur! We are a small group and we have seriously ill people with us. Let"s be more careful…"
As Cheng Zheng said that, he suddenly puckered his eyebrows and looked at everyone around the fire.
"Let"s not sit here and do nothing! Let"s get up and build some simple fortification work!"
"Mm?"
"Alright!"
"Yeah! We should do just that!"
In actual fact, the simple fortification work might not be useful.
However, somehow, having something to block in front of them would make them feel more at ease.
Without having to hurry anyone, all those who could get up started getting to work!
No one uttered a word as they worked on doing some camouflage or built a simple mound.
As time went by, the fire started to burn out.
Gradually, a part of it extinguished. Now, the fire was much smaller.
One of the teammates added a pile of twigs and was coughing non-stop due to the smoke.
"Change your position!" Cheng Zheng said, "The wind is blowing at you!"
That teammate fanned with his hands while coughing. He could barely open his eyes as he s.h.i.+fted to another position…
The moment he did that, his facial expression changed so suddenly that his eyes were wide-opened.
"Captain Cheng—"
Everyone there was tense and alert.
Any sound was enough to make them worry.
They all looked towards the direction where the teammate was pointing at.
Earlier, the fire was strong, so they were unable to see things clearly in the dark.
However, at this moment, as the fire was almost out by the pile of twigs when the teammate threw them on top of the fire. Everyone could see the tiny lights from deep within the forest…
—It should be flashlights.
A bunch of flashlights.
The lights were as though fireflies coming towards their direction—
Cheng Zheng quickly took a twig to extinguish the fire swiftly!
Their surrounding fell into pitch darkness and absolute quietness.
As the cold winds blew past them, they started to s.h.i.+ver.
"Prepare for battle!"
Someone gasped softly. "Are they one of us?"
"I don"t think so. If they"re one of us, they would have shouted!"
…
They just ran into a plague and now the enemy was in sight.
Everyone felt like they were instantly thrown into the pit of desperation—
Their numbers now were too small!
There were only ten of them, with two women as well as the ill ones.
Sergeant Ma looked at the incoming lights anxiously and quickly picked up his walkie talkie.
He did not care if it would be of any use now. He started to call for help with a low tone.
"Captain Quan, Captain Quan! Enemy incoming! Over!"
"Captain Quan, Captain Quan! Do you copy?"
"Captain Quan! Please reply—"
"Captain Quan! We need backup! Over!"
The last word felt as though it had trembled and dissolved with the wind.
At that moment, the other end of the walkie talkie replied.
"How many of them?"
They felt a little relieved upon hearing the reply.
"Around twenty of them! Over!"
This number was derived from the number of flashlights they had seen.
It was actually an estimated number—what if some of them were not carrying a flashlight?
"D*mn!" They could hear Quan Shaoteng cussing away at another end of the walkie talkie. "How many able men do you have now?"
Sergeant Ma took a look at the teammates in the dark and furrowed his brows.
"Less than 10!"
"That"s enough!" Quan Shaoteng replied with a calm tone. "Hang in there, I"ll immediately—"
Before Quan Shaoteng could finish his sentence, the interruption sounds of lost communication on the walkie talkie rang all over them like the flow of electricity.
Oh no! The signal was lost again.
That also meant they had to handle the danger all by themselves.
…