After taking some rest, the team started to travel again. Suddenly, it became somewhat cold, and dark clouds began to gather in the sky, casting a long shadow over the mountains. The team saw the lightning and then heard the thunder. It was windy, and it was going to rain very soon. Lin Wenxi looked back at the mountain village and somehow thought of the young woman, her piano and her story again. When the team members all put on their helmets and burrowed into the wood, someone hurriedly chased after them and cursed. "These brats, you even dared to climb the cliff..." After running for a while, he stopped wearily and said to himself. "Well, if I had not drunk too much last night... Zhao Yuan is indeed good at drinking."
That evening, the team deliberately chose to camp at the top of a slope since it was raining, but at night, their tents still got flooded. When Zhao Yuan woke up, he felt that his pants got wet and thought that he probably had a wet dream. When he discovered that Lin Wenxi was soaked in muddy water, he was stunned and thought, "Every evening when we camp, we follow Zheng Kai"s instructions to lay some bricks, wooden plates and waterproof membranes below our sleeping mats in case that our beds get wet at night. As such we slept very well during the past nights even when it was raining. How come we get soaked tonight?" He immediately turned on his flashlight and planned to wake Lin Wenxi up. In the light, he saw that Lin Wenxi"s face was red, his lips were pale and his eyes were tightly closed. He touched his forehead and found out that he had a high fever. "Lin Wenxi got injured and kept walking during the day. And now he"s soaked in the rain. He must fall ill now," thought Zhao Yuan.
He lifted up his head to check the tent and discovered that water still kept rushing into the tent. "Oh, no!" he cried out as he thought, "We camped on the top of a slope. If the water can rush into our tent like this, that means—there"s a landslide!"
He hurriedly put a raincoat on Lin Wenxi and wrapped him tightly in the coat. He picked him up, carried their backpacks and rushed out of their tent. He could hardly stand while holding Lin Wenxi in the rainstorm. He felt so desperate in the darkness.
He had not felt so panicked for a long time. "Where are the others? How are they?" he thought while walking in the mud with difficulty. Lin Wenxi put his arms around Zhao Yuan"s neck and coughed repeatedly. Suddenly, Zhao Yuan saw some light ahead. He swished his flashlight for three times, and then he saw the light ahead moved in the same way. He knew that he found his teammates and hurriedly came to them. They gathered under a tree. Zheng Kai sat on the ground with his back against a rock, his face somber. w.a.n.g Xiang said, "If there"s lightning again, will this tree be struck by it?" The moment he finished his sentence, they saw bolts of lightning flash across the sky and heard loud thunder again.
w.a.n.g Xiang was too frightened to utter a word anymore.
Their campground was located on the top of a slope, which was about 10 meters above the ground. This place was not very windy, but the soil here was quite soft. The soil got soaked in the rain and then a landslide took place. Fortunately, all the team members were safe, although all their tents had been washed away. Chen Wanxin was the first one who cried out "Help", and the one who came to her rescue in time was Zheng Kai. He picked her up and continued to look for shelter. After sending all the girls and w.a.n.g Xiang to a nearby wood, Zheng Kai went out again to look for their backpacks and their teammates, Zhao Yuan and Lin Wenxi. Luckily, he spotted the light shortly after he left the wood and found Zhao Yuan and Lin Wenxi.
As Lin Wenxi was very sick, Zhao Yuan was so worried that he felt angry about Zheng Kai again. Right at this moment, Lin Wenxi patted his waist slightly and whispered to him, "Don"t blame him." Upon hearing that, Zhao Yuan suppressed his anger and sat down together with Lin Wenxi.
They looked at their watch and found out that it was 2:30 a.m. If it continued to rain like this, they had to wait until 7 a.m. or 8 a.m. to see everything clearly again. They felt worried as they had lost most of their backpacks in this rain. It would take them at least a whole day to reach the next depot. They had planned to have a good sleep tonight and walk as fast as they could to reach the depot the next day, but this landslide disrupted their plan. They had no idea what to do next, and in the meantime, they were worried about Lin Wenxi, who had already pa.s.sed out and looked extremely pale. Zhao Yuan put Lin Wenxi down on a soft place and ran into the rain again.
"Brother Yuan, where are you going?" w.a.n.g Xiang asked anxiously.
"He wants to find some medicine for Wenxi," Zheng Kai said slowly and grabbed Zhao Yuan to stop him. "Don"t go. Even if you find some medicine, it probably has lost its effectiveness after being soaked in the muddy water for such a long time." Zhao Yuan got rid of him and continued to run into the rain. He searched around but found nothing. Suddenly, he shouted, "Come out, military instructor! I want to quit now. We need medical help!"
Upon hearing that, the others understood what he was trying to do. Zhang An"an thought to herself, "The military instructor is following us all along the way. He knows everything. As none of us ask for help, he just leaves us alone. But Wenxi is so sick now, how can he be so merciless? How can the Jifu University be so merciless? This is just a military drill. Why does it have to make us compete so fiercely for the rankings." With this in mind, Zhang An"an burst into tears and shouted, "I quit! I just want to quit this f*cking stupid compet.i.tion! How can you be so merciless and refuse to help someone dying?"
"How many of you want to quit?" Zhang Dong came out of a wood nearby and asked. He looked coldly at them while holding an umbrella over himself.
"Me! I quit and, and..." Zhao Yuan wanted to make a decision for Lin Wenxi, but felt hesitant. He thought, "Lin Wenxi even wanted to travel on his own in case that these girls delayed him. If he had not lost his backpack, he would"ve been traveling ahead of us now. If he wakes up and knows that I made this decision for him, what"ll he think?"
"And Lin Wenxi! He has to quit," Chen Wanxin said loudly. "He"s too sick to walk now."
"Wanxin, you..." Zhao Yuan said and turned around. Chen Wanxin stepped out of the wood and gazed at the military instructor.
Lin Wenxi woke up and heard what Chen Wanxin had just said. He cried out, "No, I don"t quit!"
"Lin Wenxi?" Zhang Dong was stunned. He went over and bent down to check Lin Wenxi. After that, he said angrily, "How dare you! You made this arbitrary decision to climb the cliff and got your teammate to suffer so many injuries. And you did not report this thing to me!" He touched Lin Wenxi"s forehead and then checked his pupils. He took out a bottle of warm water and some pills from his waist pack and fed the pills to Lin Wenxi.
"My tent is over there on the rock. I"ll take Lin Wenxi away." With these words, Zhang Dong picked up Lin Wenxi and prepared to leave.
"No!" Lin Wenxi grabbed the military instructor"s arms and got down.
"Wenxi, listen to me. This is not the only chance for you to get some credits. We"ll have another chance in the future. I"ll quit with you, okay?" Zhao Yuan squatted down to wipe the raindrops off his forehead. Lin Wenxi struggled to stand up with the help of Zhao Yuan.
He looked at his watch. It was 4 a.m. According to their original plan, they should"ve set off now, but at this moment, Zhao Yuan, Zheng Kai, w.a.n.g Xiang and the three girls still stood here.
After a while, Lin Wenxi smiled slightly and said, "You guys can set off now." He slowly walked toward Zhang Dong and said, "Zhao Yuan, you need to go now." In the meantime, he thought of his father"s words, "I don"t ask you to rank 1st, but I have to see your name among the top 10!" "I"m sorry, dad. I can"t do that," he thought dejectedly.
"That"s my mistake. I got Wenxi to suffer this, so I"ll take care of him. You guys can set off now. Wenxi, don"t quit!" Zheng Kai said and grabbed Zhang Dong to stop him.
Lin Wenxi gazed at him and said, "I don"t blame you for this."
When Zhang Dong helped Lin Wenxi walk toward his tent slowly, Zhao Yuan caught up with them.
"Zhao Yuan, if you don"t go, I won"t go to have a rest." With these words, Lin Wenxi pushed the umbrella away and stood in the rain together with Zhang Dong. The three of them stood there for a while. A bolt of lightning flashed across the sky, but they still remained unmoved.
"Do you really want to quit, Wenxi?" asked Zhao Yuan.
Lin Wenxi shook his head dejectedly.
"Then trust me," said Zhao Yuan.
Upon hearing that, Lin Wenxi threw himself into Zhao Yuan"s arms. Zhao Yuan quickly carried Lin Wenxi on his back and said to Zhang Dong. "If he"s really too sick for this, I"ll give him to you!"
Zhang Dong stood in the rain without saying yes or no. He was surprised to find out that the little boy had grown into a strong-willed young man. "Just hang in there, Wenxi," thought Zhang Dong.