140: Chapter 140: Finally gone! I'm exhausted!

In the mountain forest, the swamp formed by layers of rotting leaves and dead branches would make you have no idea whether you were stepping on stone or rotten wood.

Su Qingxue had never walked on such a road.

At Shengtang Group, she walked on thickened cashmere carpets; at home, she stepped on solid wood floors. When going out she got into a car, and getting off she entered a door, rarely even getting dust on the soles of her shoes.

For more than a month on the island, aside from the cave and the beach, she had basically never ventured deep into the woods.

Before walking five hundred meters, Su Qingxue's breathing became disordered.

Ahead, Lin Fan held a firewood chopper to clear the path, raising his hand and bringing the blade down to cut off the vines blocking the way.

Zhou Kai and Zhang Tao followed closely behind on the left and right, guarding against anything darting out from both sides.

Song Ya walked behind the men; she could be considered to have some experience, and her pace was slow but steady.

Further back was Su Qingxue, followed by Liu Feifei.

Wang Lan walked at the very back of the team.

She walked very quietly.

Her gaze was constantly fixed on the heels of Su Qingxue and Liu Feifei.

The terrain of this forest was complex, and not far ahead was a steep slope.

The gradient of the slope was getting steeper and steeper, and the bottom-most left seemed to be a cliff.

Falling down might not kill you, but you would definitely be half-crippled. On this island, being half-crippled was equivalent to death.

Liu Feifei wore a pair of high heels with the heels chopped off today, stepping unevenly and walking while cursing.

Ahead, Su Qingxue was lifting her foot to step over a thick log, her center of gravity entirely on her left leg while her body was still swaying.

"Feifei! Danger!"

Wang Lan suddenly let out a shout.

The voice was extremely sharp.

In this mountain forest so quiet that only the sound of leaves rubbing could be heard, this shout was no different from a thunderclap on flat ground.

Liu Feifei was already tense, and her footing slipped. She was startled into a shudder all over by this shrill shout.

She lunged forward reflexively, waving her hands wildly in an attempt to find something to grab onto.

Su Qingxue ahead had just crossed halfway.

Liu Feifei's two hands slapped directly onto Su Qingxue's back.

Su Qingxue instantly lost her center of gravity, her whole body pounced forward, her feet slipped, and she veered toward the steep slope on the left.

It was in the nick of time.

Su Qingxue's hand grabbed blindly in mid-air, and like a blind cat hitting a dead mouse, she firmly grasped a vine as thick as a child's arm beside her.

She was practically hanging there.

The people in front all stopped.

Lin Fan turned his head back, his brows knitted tightly together.

Song Ya was the closest, and she quickly pounced over to grab Su Qingxue's arm, pulling her upward.

"President Su! Are you alright!"

Su Qingxue was pulled up and slumped onto the muddy ground.

Her chest heaved violently, and cold sweat streamed down her forehead.

If she had really slipped down, she probably would have lost her life.

Behind them.

Wang Lan had already quick-mindedly helped up Liu Feifei who had fallen to the ground.

"What are you yelling for!" Liu Feifei just came to her senses, turned her head and flared up at Wang Lan, "Acting all jumpy, did you mean to scare me on purpose!"

Wang Lan didn't talk back, but simply pulled Liu Feifei's arm and pointed next to the tree she had just passed.

On a hanging withered vine, there grew black thorns more than three inches long.

"Feifei, I just saw that vine almost sweep across your face." Wang Lan's voice was very soft, carrying a trace of lingering fear, "This island is unclean, if those thorns really scratched your face, how would you act in movies in the future even if you went back?"

Liu Feifei looked over following her hand, those few black thorns shimmering with a creepy light in the sunlight.

Her face was her life.

Starving to death on this island was a small matter; if she really got disfigured, living and going back would be even more painful than dying.

Hearing Wang Lan say it was to protect her face, Liu Feifei's anger was like a basin of ice water poured over it, directly deflating.

She patted her chest and took a guilty glance ahead.

Su Qingxue was sitting there holding her knees, her face pale.

Liu Feifei dawdled forward a couple of steps.

"Qingxue, I'm sorry." She dry-coughed, her tone carrying a bit of ingratiation and perfunctoriness, "I really didn't mean it just now, those thorns almost scratched my face, Wang Lan shouted, and I slipped under my feet so I pushed you."

Su Qingxue didn't speak.

She glanced at Liu Feifei, and then moved her gaze onto Wang Lan.

Wang Lan was standing in the back with lowered eyebrows and submissive eyes, without much emotional fluctuation in her heart. Even if that bitch Su Qingxue didn't roll down, her goal had already been achieved.

Liu Feifei definitely wouldn't dare to walk forward anymore; as long as she separated from Lin Fan, her chances would be much greater.

Su Qingxue looked at Wang Lan. It was too coincidental.

But Su Qingxue couldn't find any flaws.

Liu Feifei, this idiot, screamed and shouted for her own face; this selfish reaction fit her character too well.

Moreover, these two people didn't usually have any friendship, so there was no need to collude to harm her.

"Alright."

Lin Fan put away the knife in his hand and coldly glanced at the women.

"You can't even walk properly, and you come out to cause trouble?"

Hearing this, Liu Feifei immediately seized the opportunity.

"Brother Fan, it really isn't us being pretentious." She patted the mud on her trouser legs, looking distressed, "We rarely even go on suburban trips in the city normally, how is this kind of forest a road for people to walk on. Look at us walking two steps and resting three, we're just dragging you down."

She pointed nearby.

"Just outside here I saw quite a few wild bananas and some wild fruits. How about this, the four of us women won't go deep inside, and we'll look for edible things on this edge. The three of you big men go inside to get meat, isn't that faster?"

Zhou Kai listened from the side and nodded.

"Brother Fan, Feifei's words make sense." He wiped the sweat from his head, "This forest has deep and shallow patches, bringing them along will slow our speed by at least half. If they really encounter any trouble, we'll still have to free up our hands to protect them. It's better to let them wander around the outer perimeter, gathering some fruits and wild vegetables can also count as a task."

Zhou Kai spoke straightforwardly without so many twists and turns. He genuinely felt that bringing women along was troublesome.

Lin Fan didn't make a sound, weighing the firewood chopper in his hand, his gaze sweeping a circle across the four people.

This was originally his initial plan.

He hadn't expected this group of pampered women to go deep into the mountains to hunt; bringing them out was just to do peripheral sweeping. If any chaos really broke out after seventy-two hours, hoarding a bit more food was always good.

This location was already deep enough; further inside was the territory of various mutated bugs and poisonous snakes.

Su Qingxue glanced at Song Ya, and then looked at Liu Feifei.

These two people had no grudges with her; Liu Feifei didn't dare to offend her, and Song Ya was an overly good person.

As for Wang Lan, a single person couldn't stir up any waves.

With the four women together, safety issues weren't big. She herself was indeed not suited to continue walking inside.

Swallowing the bit of stifled anger in her throat, Su Qingxue tacitly agreed to this proposal.

"Right in this area, don't go past over there."

Lin Fan used the firewood chopper to point out an approximate boundary.

"Shout out loud if anything happens. When you hear movement from us inside, don't crowd over, just stay obediently where you are."

Having set the rules, Lin Fan turned and walked into the deep forest. Zhou Kai and Zhang Tao quickly followed. The men's figures were soon swallowed by the dense vegetation.

Leaving behind four women.

The edge of the forest quieted down, with only the rustling sound of the wind blowing through the leaves.

Liu Feifei let out a long breath, directly found a clean and flat stone to sit down, and rubbed her heels.

"They're finally gone. I'm exhausted to death," she complained.