The next morning, Chen Wanxin looked listless, since she had been perplexed for a whole night by the thought that Zhao Yuan had left the fish only for Lin Wenxi instead of her. Lin Wenxi, however, looked energetic since he had a good sleep after taking the medicine left by Zhao Yuan. It turned out to be very effective in curing the cold. As such, Lin Wenxi helped Chen Wanxin a lot during the trip that day.
In the evening, Lin Wenxi spent a lot time looking for a camping ground. Chen Wanxin could tell that he was anxiously looking for something. At 10:00 pm. Chen Wanxin stood behind Lin Wenxi with a bottle of green sauce in hand. She stared coldly at him, inserted it into the soil and stepped heavily on it.
Lin Wenxi found an extinguished campfire and a flat rock used for cooking here. He could tell that they were left by Zhao Yuan, but he failed to notice two specially made hooks on the rock. Zhao Yuan had often tied the hooks on his ropes and let the girls prepare the ropes and hooks for him. As such, Chen Wanxin spotted the hooks at first glance.
The two hooks had been placed to point toward another rock. Chen Wanxin had found the place and taken out all the things left by Zhao Yuan a long time ago.
Lin Wenxi heard Chen Wanxin stomp her feet. He turned around and asked caringly, "Are you tired?"
Chen Wanxin hesitated for a while and replied, "Yes, it"s time to rest."
Lin Wenxi still looked anxious. He hesitated for a moment and then quickly pitch up a tent for Chen Wanxin.
He felt pleased with himself as he thought, "Zhao Yuan often teased me for only being able to get high scores in exams but being useless in the real life. He never knew that I hated this comment. I"ve watched him setting up tents for many times and gotten all the tricks as to how to connect the tent poles, how to insert the poles into the flaps to raise the tent and how to stake the tent to the ground for stability. But as he was always ready to help me, I just let him pitch up tents all the time. Now, it seems that I"m good at setting up a tent too." After that, he set up a tent for himself. When he was about to sleep, his stomach growled. He took out a sausage and had a bite while sighing secretly, "Well, it tastes so-so." He started to miss Zhao Yuan"s fried fish.
He wondered, "Although the fried fish I found last night was cold, it was still tasty. When did Zhao Yuan fry the fish? What did he think when frying the fish? Wait, where did he get the fish?"
Lin Wenxi took out the map and read it carefully. The main road was clear to see. If a student had good physical stamina, he or she could run along the road to reach the destination early. Lin Wenxi also found the Yinshui River on the map. It flowed past a high mountain and then into a group of low hills. As long as there were no great waterfalls along the river, it would be a shortcut leading to the destination, not to mention that there might be some pontoon bridges built by the villagers which could help the traveler to reach the destination earlier.
"As Zhao Yuan was determined to be ranked among the top three, he must have chosen the shortcut. Besides, as he can manage to leave fried fish for me, he must be walking along the river. He came back to this road to leave me the fried fish. He must be pressed for time. Ah, the fried fish." Lin Wenxi thought and started to feel hungry and restless.
"Will he go fishing at night? He will be tired out if he continues to travel in this way." With this in mind, Lin Wenxi decided to set off to find Zhao Yuan. He got up and went to find Chen Wanxin.
He woke Chen Wanxin up and told her that he had to set off now as he was worried that some other students had already surpa.s.sed them. He lied to her that he had heard some people talking and walking past just now. Chen Wanxin covered her mouth which was filled with fried fish now while staying inside her tent. She did not stop Lin Wenxi. She just asked him to be careful and then smilingly put some fish into her mouth.
She waited for quite a long time until she heard another person leave the place hurriedly. Knowing that both Lin Wenxi and his military instructor had left, she stepped out of her tent and threw the fish bones away. She bit her lower lip and pulled her coat grumpily while thinking, "Who did you leave the fried fish for? Me or Lin Wenxi!"
After a while, she began blowing a whistle. After hearing three long whistle sounds and two short ones, her military instructor walked out of the darkness. Her military instructor was Luo Yang, a subordinate to Zhang Dong.
"Luo Yang, I want to be ranked among the top three," Chen Wanxin said with her back toward Luo Yang. She uttered this request in a quite commanding tone.
"Boss Mo has already planned everything for you. I"ve been waiting for your command all the time! I"ll contact him now and ask him to take care of everything," said Luo Yang. A moment later, he lowered his head a little and asked tentatively. "What about Zhang? He seems to disagree."
"Boss Mo will take care of everything. I don"t need to worry about that. Am I right?" Chen Wanxin interjected impatiently. She swished her hand. Luo Yang bowed to her and silently disappeared into the darkness.
Lin Wenxi groped his way in the dark night and advanced. Everything on the hill was dark except for the flashlight in his hand. He could not help but exclaim in his heart, "It"s so dark. No wonder villagers here can only start work at daybreak and go home at sunset."
The map showed the Yinshui River but did not show any road leading to the river. As such, Lin Wenxi could only advance toward the Yinshui River through the wood. He somehow heard some people whispering in the darkness and saw a pair of big eyes watching him from above. He raised his flashlight toward them and found out that they were nothing but two crooked branches. Usually he would feel sleepy at night, but now, as he was nervous and sweating, he did not feel sleepy at all.
He wondered, "I suddenly walked away in the middle of the night. Does my military instructor catch up with me? Days ago, he got too drunk in the village to catch up with us and failed to stop us from climbing the cliff."
After stumbling along the mountain path for more than an hour, he suddenly felt some cool water vapor blowing across his face. He knew that he was near to the river and could not help but quicken his steps. He was too hasty to notice a crooked cane hanging from above and b.u.mped into it. He fell to the ground and retched violently. Right at this moment, a person approached him. He was scared and moved backward while raising his flashlight toward the person. To his surprise, he saw nothing but trees. When he felt frightened and confused, someone patted his shoulder. He screamed with fright and then heard Zhang Dong laugh nonchalantly. "I used to think that you have only one expression on your face," said Zhang Dong.
He helped Lin Wenxi stand up and stretched out a hand to rub the dirt and earth off his clothes. Lin Wenxi was a little embarra.s.sed, and his cheeks turned red. Nevertheless, he did not look so panicked now. He looked calm and composed.
Zhang Dong was going to know how Lin Wenxi behaved when he was calm and composed very soon.
"Take me to the river," Lin Wenxi uttered a request in a commanding tone. Zhang Dong was surprised by his tone in the beginning, but after a moment of thought, he figured it out. He remembered that his little sister would also utter a request in this tone. Unlike Lin Wenxi, his sister would even grab his hands and shake her body every time she acted in a pettishly charming manner.
Zhang Dong smiled and quickly began to advance. When the road was difficult, he stretched out a hand to pull Lin Wenxi. To his surprise, Lin Wenxi quickly took his hands back the moment he touched his hand. Zhang Dong nearly lost his balance and fell to the ground because of this.
"Come on! Snap to it!" Zhang Dong grabbed Lin Wenxi and dragged him all the way to the river. The moment they arrived, they heard some loud noise in the air and saw a helicopter fly over their heads. Zhang Dong looked up and saw some yellowish light pa.s.s through the window of the helicopter. He shook his head and sighed.