127: The threat from the people in Chapter 127 has finally been eliminated.

Chen Jian watched his wife coax another man with a voice she had never used on him.

That voice was soft, sweet, with a spoiled intonation and a deliberately lowered breathy sound.

Wang Lan cooperated willingly, without the slightest reluctance.

Even in certain details, she showed a proactiveness that Chen Jian had never witnessed before.

Then she and that man would kill him together.

This kind of pain, this agony before death, was several times more severe than having his ribs kicked broken.

When he kicked Song Ya, how much pain Song Ya must have felt.

Now you, Chen Jian, have to feel that much pain.

Unfortunately, he didn't have the chance to slowly experience this pain.

Lin Fan estimated that in Chen Jian's current half-dead state, with the blow to the back of his head from Wang Lan, plus twenty days of starvation hollowing out his body, even if Zhang Tao didn't make a move, he wouldn't survive tonight.

But Zhang Tao would definitely make a move.

Not because Zhang Tao was bold, but quite the contrary, because Zhang Tao was cowardly.

What did Chen Jian being alive mean to Zhang Tao?

It meant a landmine that could explode at any time.

A cuckolded man, a husband humiliated jointly by his wife and another man, if he survived in this place without morals or laws, what would he do?

Anyone could figure it out with their toes.

Chen Jian would definitely find every possible way to kill Zhang Tao.

Therefore, Chen Jian had to die.

This conclusion didn't need Lin Fan's instruction; Zhang Tao would figure it out sooner or later.

If he couldn't figure it out, it didn't matter.

Wang Lan would figure it out for him.

For every day Chen Jian lived, Wang Lan faced another day of the risk of retaliation.

Every single thing she did in front of Chen Jian just now was putting a noose around her own neck.

If Chen Jian didn't die, that rope would tighten sooner or later.

A husband killed jointly by his wife and her lover.

Lin Fan's lips twitched slightly.

Sitting on the reef, he could intermittently catch the movement deep within the rock crevice.

The curses belonged to Chen Jian, and the gasps were indistinguishable as to whose they were.

Wrapped in the sea breeze, these sounds were churned into a blur of noise, drifting outward intermittently.

Lin Fan didn't listen any further.

How Chen Jian died and how miserable he felt before death had nothing to do with him anymore.

He was only responsible for setting up the stage.

The ones performing on stage were Zhang Tao and Wang Lan, and they could sing however they liked.

Lin Fan unscrewed his water bottle, took a gulp, swept his gaze across the beach, and scanned towards the ridge line.

The threat from humans was finally cleared today.

Down below, more than twenty people were wiped out in one go by the poisoned pork, and the only survivors were the ones he fished up and the two in the corner of the rock crevice.

Chen Jian was about to be gone too.

But there was still something even more troublesome than humans.

That snake.

Ever since coming to the island, he had been dealing with that snake for almost a month.

Both sides had always maintained a delicate tacit understanding: you don't come to my territory, I don't go to your domain, minding our own business.

But this tacit understanding had a premise.

Both sides had sufficient sources of food.

The snake had corpses to eat, wild boars to eat, and could occasionally catch a few blind lizards, so it wouldn't starve.

He had canned food, prey, and fresh water, so he wouldn't starve either.

But now there were more than twenty fresh corpses on the beach.

For that snake, this was a buffet.

The problem was that a buffet always had a time when it ran out.

And what after it was finished?

That snake's activity range would shift from the deep mountains toward the beach.

Meaning it would be closer to the platform.

Closer to them.

Lin Fan recalled the time he ran into that snake on the ridge last time.

Its body was as thick as a bucket, its scales gleamed coldly in the moonlight, and its forked tongue flicked out as long as a forearm.

That thing coiled there, weighing several hundred catties by itself—could a crossbow bolt pierce its scales?

Hard to say.

Even if it pierced through, one or two arrows wouldn't kill such a huge creature and would instead provoke it.

What about a gun?

Even with a gun, if the caliber wasn't large enough, there was still nothing that could be done about it.

A snake of this size required a large-caliber shotgun at close range to the head to possibly kill it with a single shot, but where was he going to get a large-caliber shotgun?

But no matter what, he had to stand at the very top of the food chain.

Humans or beasts, everything on this island had to be under his feet.

This was the bottom line, with no room for negotiation.

The matter of the snake had to be figured out as soon as possible.

Lin Fan glanced toward the entrance of the rock crevice and turned to walk up the gravel path.

Returning to the platform.

Song Ya sat by the campfire, heard the footsteps, raised her head, and glanced at him.

Her gaze was very complex.

Wanting to ask, yet not daring to.

Afraid of hearing the answer, yet unable to help wanting to know.

"How... how are things down below?"

"It's been dealt with."

Song Ya opened her mouth and finally swallowed back the words that reached her lips.

She didn't want to know what "dealt with" meant.

Nor did she need to know.

Some things were better not known than known.

About a dozen minutes passed.

Footsteps came from the gravel path.

Zhang Tao walked in front, and Wang Lan followed behind.

Zhang Tao's face alternated between red and white.

It was hard to tell whether he was excited or exhausted; his legs felt a bit floaty, and his gaze was also drifting.

He had just done it twice down below; needless to say, he was very satisfied with both the process and the result.

Wang Lan followed behind him with her head lowered.

Her collar was pulled crooked, two buttons were missing, her hair was loose and clinging to the sides of her face, and there were several red marks of varying depths on her neck.

But her back was straight.

From beginning to end, from the rock crevice to the platform, this woman's back had never bent once.

No matter what she had experienced down below just now, no matter what kind of voice or posture she used to curry favor with a man she wouldn't have given a straight look to before, Wang Lan's back remained straight throughout.

This was the most terrifying part.

A woman driven to a desperate end, while trading her body for her life, could still maintain such a posture—it showed that her mind was clear from start to finish.

She hadn't collapsed, hadn't grown numb, and hadn't been crushed by the humiliation.

The two climbed onto the platform, and Zhang Tao spoke first.

"Brother Fan, I'm back, heh heh..."

His voice was half a tone louder than usual, carrying an undisguised complacency.

His tail was sticking up; although it was sticking up cautiously, it was indeed sticking up.

Lin Fan's gaze slowly swept between Zhang Tao and Wang Lan.

Finally landing on Zhang Tao's face.

"Where is Chen Jian?"

Zhang Tao's Adam's apple bobbed up and down.

"Killed him."

Lin Fan's gaze lingered on his hands for a second without saying anything.

Zhang Tao rubbed his hands awkwardly, and in his mind began to churn the words Wang Lan had said to him all the way up from the rock crevice.

"Xiaotao, why do you think Lin Fan wants to keep Su Qingxue?"

When Wang Lan asked this question, her tone was still soft, consistent with the tune she used when serving him just now.

But the look in her eyes had changed; it was no longer ingratiating, but guiding.

Zhang Tao was leaning against the rock wall at the time, his brain still immersed in the lingering aftertaste from just now, floating as a whole, with cognitive abilities about the same as having drunk two taels of white liquor.

"Keep her to play with, duh."

He blurted out, "Lin Fan is a man, not a eunuch. Isn't that obvious?"

This time Zhang Tao was a bit tougher, "If it were me, I definitely would have chosen Su Qingxue too."

Wang Lan rolled her eyes, didn't rush to refute, waited a few seconds until his brain came back online a bit more, and then continued speaking...