112: Chapter 112 A person who has been starving for twenty days cannot even taste arsenic.

Zhang Tao sat inside the cave, and Zhou Kai and Liu Feifei went up the mountain again.

They said they were going to gather firewood, but ever since that day, the two of them went up the mountain to "gather firewood" every afternoon, staying away for an hour or two each time.

When they came back, they indeed carried two bundles of firewood, not a single stick missing.

However, Liu Feifei's hair was always much messier than when she went out, her lips were swollen, and her steps were as weak as if she were stepping on cotton.

Zhou Kai, on the other hand, was full of vigor, with an undisguised triumphant look between his brows, and even his posture of carrying the firewood was three parts straighter than usual.

Zhang Tao withdrew his gaze.

Sitting by the campfire, he scratched back and forth on the ground with a branch, poking rows and rows of small pits.

He was craving it.

It wasn't food he was craving.

When it came to food, Lin Fan was much more generous than before.

Although it couldn't compare to civilized society, compared to that bunch of living corpses below who were starving and gnawing on tree bark, he, Zhang Tao, was already living in heaven.

What he craved was the treatment Zhou Kai received.

Liu Feifei!

That was Liu Feifei.

She was a woman whom he felt he was only daydreaming about if he caught a glimpse of her on TV before.

Now she was swaying back and forth right under his nose every day.

He had endured it for more than half a month.

Ever since the first day Zhou Kai took Liu Feifei up the mountain, he had been enduring it.

Ever since the third day when Liu Feifei started calling Zhou Kai "Brother Kai", his teeth began to ache.

Today, he really couldn't hold back anymore.

He dawdled over to Lin Fan, squatted down, and rubbed his hands for a long time.

"Brother Fan."

Lin Fan raised his eyes.

"That matter you mentioned last time..."

Zhang Tao's voice became softer and softer, "Is it... is it still valid?"

"Which matter?"

Zhang Tao's neck turned red to the roots of his ears.

"Just... you said you'd get one for me too."

He paused and spat out the last few words.

"And you also said you would let me play something exciting."

After saying that, he turned his face away first.

Lin Fan stopped what he was doing and glanced at him.

Zhang Tao quickly added, "If Brother Fan forgot about it, then just consider it as me talking nonsense, I..."

"I haven't forgotten."

Zhang Tao's breathing suddenly became heavy.

His Adam's apple rolled up and down twice, and his eyeballs began to shine uncontrollably.

"Soon."

After Lin Fan said these two words, his gaze crossed the edge of the platform and landed in the direction of the beach below.

Killing people was not a difficult task.

The difficult part was how to kill cleanly and effortlessly, without losing even a single strand of one's own hair.

There were still around twenty people left in the group below.

Although they were half-starved and looked like walking skeletons, no matter what, they were still human beings, not sheep.

With just a knife, if he, Lin Fan, really rushed down to risk his life with twenty people, even if he won, he would lose a layer of skin.

It wasn't worth it.

That day when he went into the jungle to find firewood, the Omniscient Prompt had marked a few things for him.

Oleander.

The large patch of particularly plump plants on the south side of the forest was it.

Leaves, stems, flowers, fruits, and seeds, the whole plant was poisonous and contained cardiac glycoside toxins.

If an adult chewed a few leaves, their heart could stop.

Pokeweed.

The roots were the most toxic; after accidental ingestion, there would first be violent vomiting, vomiting as if turning rivers and seas upside down, followed by muscle convulsions throughout the body, and finally respiratory failure.

From eating it to breathing his last, the entire process would take no more than a few hours.

And then there was sea mango.

On the edge of the dwarf forest behind the platform hung clusters of small, blue-green fruits that looked harmless to humans and animals.

However, the sea mango toxin in the kernel was a natural weapon for killing.

Over in Southeast Asia, they called this thing the "suicide tree", and that nickname wasn't given for nothing.

Mash these things up and smear the juice into fresh meat; people who had been starving for twenty days simply couldn't tell the difference.

The gamey smell of the meat was already strong to begin with, and coupled with the state of starvation, a person's sense of taste and smell would be entirely dulled.

Once the brain received the signal of "food", stomach acid would begin to secrete wildly, so how could there be any extra brainpower to discern whether the taste was right or wrong?

It was like mixing arsenic into braised pork belly and serving it to someone who had been starving for three days.

Would he chew a bite first, frown, and spit it out saying "this taste is not quite right"?

No, he wouldn't.

He would chew even the bones to pieces and swallow them down.

Lin Fan thrust the wooden stick into the sandy ground and stood up.

The method was ready, and the timing was approaching.

Just as he was about to turn around and return to the compartment, movement came from below the cliff.

The sound was intermittent, chopped into fragments by the sea wind, and drifted upwards.

Lin Fan walked to the edge of the platform and looked down.

...

"President Su."

When these two words were spat out from Xiao Liang's mouth, there was no trace of respect left to be heard.

It was about the same as calling a dog's name.

Su Qingxue sat in the deepest corner of the rock crevice, her arms hugging her knees.

She had thinned out terribly.

Her collarbones supported a layer of skin so thin it was translucent, her cheeks had sunken into two deep trenches, and the pampered, plump feeling she originally had completely vanished.

Yet her clothes were still relatively neat.

This was the last trace of "President Su" left on her body.

For more than half a month, she had never been beaten, nor had she been tied up by anyone.

Everyone knew the reason in their hearts: she was the boss of Shengtang, and her father was Su Zhenbang.

Once the Su Family discovered their daughter was missing, they would definitely mobilize all resources to search and rescue her.

This logic had sustained them for more than ten days.

However, logic was something that had an expiration date.

Once the expiration date passed, it was just like expired canned food: expanding, turning sour, and spoiling.

"Don't you think you should give everyone an explanation?"

Xiao Liang squatted in front of her, clutching the pebble that had once smashed someone to death in his hand.

He didn't deliberately mean to threaten her; he was purely just used to holding it.

Ever since he smashed that female executive to death with a stone that day, Xiao Liang had contracted a bad habit: he always felt that someone else would also take a stone and smash his skull open.

Therefore, this pebble stained with dark brown blood was clutched in the palm of his hand every single moment.

He clutched it while eating, clutched it while sleeping, and clutched it even when peeing.

The stone was his sense of security.

Su Qingxue raised her head and glanced at him.

"What explanation?"

"Rescue."

Xiao Liang licked his lips, which were so dry they were peeling.

"You said before that rescue would come in a day, and later you said there would definitely be rescue within three days."

"Three days?"

His voice suddenly rose sharply.

"How many days has it been now?! Count it yourself!"

Su Qingxue didn't answer immediately.

It wasn't that she didn't want to answer, but she didn't know how to answer.

Of course she had reported her itinerary to her secretary.

The annual team-building trip of Shengtang Group featured a luxury cruise ship departing from the port, passing through the waters of the Xisha Islands and then turning back.

The route, departure time, and expected return time had all been fully reported.

According to normal procedures, if the cruise ship lost contact for more than twenty-four hours, the Maritime Safety Administration would initiate an emergency response.

Within forty-eight hours, search and rescue ships and helicopters would cover the scheduled route.

In seventy-two hours, the search range would be expanded, and the military would be coordinated to intervene.

She knew her father Su Zhenbang's temper all too well.

In a matter like her daughter going missing, let alone seventy-two hours, if he couldn't get in touch for twelve hours, he could tear down the gates of the Maritime Safety Administration.

But how many days had passed now?