Chapter 75 (1/2)

”I have no idea either.” Qing Shui examined all the openings on Pangzi. ”The spiders have laid eggs on him one by one, which means that, at this moment, we can only do the same - clean them one after the other. It could be done faster if we had equipment but we don't have anything on hand now.”

”But there are so many… and we don't even have alcohol for sanitizing.” Chang gripped the edge of a table as powerlessness and hopelessness surged within him. ”If we rinse the openings by water, he'll get infected, and we can't use our fingernails to dig them out either.”

”I guess the only thing we can do today is to clean out those that are on the surface; we'll have to figure out how to deal with the rest tomorrow.” Qing Shui pinched a pile of spider eggs and threw them on the ground.

”Don't throw them on the ground! What if they hatch?” the students immediately spoke out against Qing Shui.

”Don't worry, they can't hatch successfully without proper temperature.” Qing Shui kept working without taking the students' concerns into mind.

There were more than a hundred of openings on Pangzi, and the size of the spider eggs were as little as red beans. It was already challenging to clean the surface. Chang and Qing Shui were very cautious, making sure that no openings were torn further. But at the same time, they also needed to be careful that their fingers didn't touch the openings directly. All of this resulted in the task of cleaning out the spider eggs being very time consuming.

Later, Ming Yi and the other soldier joined. Together the four of them spent more than two hours to roughly clean the surface. By the end, their eyes were drooping and they were on the verge of collapsing. It had been such a long day.

The trek through the jungle had been full of danger. From the moment they stepped in, their nerves had never loosened. Countless times they barely slipped away from the sickle of death; the pressure they took on would have crushed anyone's mind before the red fog.

They had fought to come to this place, 80 kilometers away from Kai Feng, and finally upon relaxing, the last stream of strength slipped away.

”Hey bro, I am sorry, this is the best I can do today… I am just too tired now.” Chang leaned against the desk. ”I can't even hold my eyes open now… Are you feeling better?”

”Uh…uh…” Pangzi struggled to utter some sound. His tongue was still stiff even if his condition had improved compared to two hours ago.

”I am glad to hear that.” Chang grinned feebly.

”Uh…uh…” Pangzi once again tried to say something but only his eyes talked with turbid tears.

”Man… What are you talking about?” Qing Shui teased Pangzi. ”Can't even tell what you are talking from your lip movements, so just sleep now. We'll figure something out tomorrow, okay?”

”Tomorrow…” Like a computer running out of power, Chang fell asleep while still sitting.

Qing Shui was quick to follow Chang's example when he sat down beside him.

The cla.s.sroom was extremely comfortable compared to the places they had gone through, and the two soldiers' heads drooped as well. They went lower and lower, then completely collapsed onto the ground.

The students gradually relaxed as they saw the four threats lose their consciousness.

The air cooled down as the time approached midnight.

Chang slept so deeply that he relaxed his guard completely. Still, at one point he became aware of some vague movement nearby. His body told him to lift his eyelids, but the drowsiness knocked him back to the dreamworld. As far as he knew, the noise he heard didn't move closer to him, so he gave up this meaningless struggle and returned to the state of deep sleep.

He didn't wake up until the sun turned the black world to scarlet.

”Qing Shui…” The first person he noticed when he regained conscious was his teacher, then Pangzi who was lying in a pool of blood.

”Pangzi is dead.” Standing in front of the corpse, Qing Shui murmured, ”It was all my fault. I didn't notice anything about him changing his mind.”

”What are you talking about?” Heart sinking, Chang stood up in a haste. ”He was doing good yesterday, he can't be dead!”

”It was suicide.” Qing Shui stood aside to reveal the tragedy. There was a deep cut in the throat that had caused excessive blood loss. And there was a knife clenched in Pangzi's hand.