150: Chapter 150 Don't Use Your Amateur Skills to Challenge My Cheat Code

Zhang Tao was panting heavily, his lips dry and peeling, his throat feeling like it was smoking.

The meager amount of water distributed this morning had been gone in two gulps.

"Brother Fan." Zhang Tao's voice was hoarse and distorted. "Let's, let's rest for a while, my legs are turning to jelly."

Lin Fan didn't turn back, his machete hacking away the vines blocking the way. "Walk a bit more."

Zhang Tao didn't dare to make another sound.

They moved forward another hundred steps or so.

Zhang Tao's eyes darted around, his gaze sweeping over a clump of plants growing under a crooked-necked tree.

The leaves were broad, deep green, and the stems thick; it looked full of moisture.

His footsteps paused.

"Can this thing be eaten?" Zhang Tao reached out to pull it.

"Don't touch it."

Wang Lan's voice came from behind, not loud, but very crisp.

Zhang Tao's hand hung suspended in mid-air, and he turned his head to look at her.

Wang Lan had already walked up from the tail of the team, bent down to look at the clump of plants, and then glanced up at Zhang Tao.

"The sap of this thing is poisonous; if it touches a wound, your hands and feet will rot."

Zhang Tao withdrew his hand, his face losing some composure. "Isn't this similar to the one we ate in the forest last time? Didn't you say that kind could quench thirst?"

"They look alike, but they aren't the same species." Wang Lan squatted down, her finger pointing at the base of the plant's leaves. "Look here, the stem nodes are enlarged, and there are light red spots at the base of the petiole. The one last time didn't have that."

Zhang Tao leaned over to look for a bit, but couldn't make out anything.

Wang Lan stood up, walked over to a tree trunk nearby, and tore off a vine.

The vine was as thick as a thumb with a grayish-brown epidermis. She scratched the skin with her fingernail, revealing milky-white flesh inside.

"This can be eaten." She handed the vine to Zhang Tao. "Chew it into pieces and suck the juice, don't swallow the residue. It can quench thirst, though it's a bit astringent."

Zhang Tao took it, bit off a section with mixed skepticism.

After chewing twice, his eyebrows furrowed, but he still sucked hard a few times.

There was moisture.

Not much, but the smoking sensation in his throat eased a bit.

"It actually works a bit." Zhang Tao bit off another section.

Wang Lan didn't answer. She walked forward a few steps, pointing to a few strings of dark purple berries hanging on another tree.

"That kind can be eaten, the pulp has a high sugar content."

Then she pointed to a clump of low-lying gray-green plants on the ground.

"Pull this out, the swollen part of the root can stop diarrhea when chewed raw."

Then she pointed to a fan-shaped fungus growing on a dead tree trunk.

"Don't touch it. Eating it causes vomiting, diarrhea, and dehydration. In this place, dehydration is waiting for death."

She pointed out one by one and spoke one by one.

Her speaking speed was unhurried, and her articulation was crystal clear.

It wasn't showing off, nor was it claiming credit, just like briefing what should be put where and what should be thrown away.

A person used to flipping through ledgers naturally brought a sense of categorization to her speech.

Zhang Tao listened in a daze.

He spat out the vine residue in his mouth and looked Wang Lan up and down. "How come you know so much?"

Wang Lan paused for a moment.

She lowered her eyes and placed the piece of vine in her hand on a nearby stone.

After a few seconds of silence, she spoke.

"I used to follow my grandfather when I was a kid."

"My hometown is in the mountains of northern Sichuan. It takes four hours of mountain walking from the village to the town. My grandfather was a medicine gatherer, and he lived in the mountains for half a year every year."

"I've been running all over the mountains with him since I was five years old, and it was common not to go home for days. When I was hungry, I picked wild fruits; when I was thirsty, I gnawed on vines; when I was sleepy, I slept in rock caves."

"There are no convenience stores or clinics in the mountains. If you eat the wrong thing, your life is gone."

She stopped there. Her fingers unconsciously flicked the edge of a fern leaf by her feet.

"Grandfather taught me to recognize every plant in the mountains. Which ones can be eaten, which ones can cure diseases, and which ones must never be touched."

"Later, I went to college and entered the city, working in finance at Shengtang, and haven't entered the mountains for over a decade."

"I didn't expect to be able to use it again."

Zhang Tao smacked his lips. "No wonder you taught Song Ya to recognize herbs so smoothly last time."

Wang Lan didn't pick up on that thread.

Lin Fan was standing five paces away in front, his dagger tucked at his waist, leaning against the tree trunk, having stayed silent the whole time.

He had watched this whole show.

From Zhang Tao reaching out to pull that poisonous weed, to Wang Lan shouting stop, teaching plant recognition, telling her life story, to the concluding pitch. The whole process was smooth and flowing.

The rhythm, amount of information, and emotional pacing were all just right.

This wasn't a spur-of-the-moment idea; this was a stage set up long ago. Zhang Tao played the clown in the front, and she revealed her true skills in the back.

Now Lin Fan understood everything.

From last night until today, the purpose of all Wang Lan's operations was just one: to let himself see her value.

It wasn't begging, fighting, or snatching.

It was using a designed accident to flip her trump card for him to see.

She knew how to recognize plants.

Not the level of someone who has flipped through a few picture books, but the level of someone truly steeped in the deep mountains.

Being able to distinguish poisonous herbs from medicinal herbs and judge what can and cannot be eaten—she knew better than anyone what that meant for heading deep into the forest.

She was telling him in the most nonchalant way: I can share the risks for you, I can help you judge things, and you can make use of me.

This woman was indeed shrewd.

Not petty shrewdness, but grand shrewdness. Calculating human hearts down to the marrow, yet without staining her hands with blood.

But there was one thing she didn't know.

Lin Fan lowered his eyes, looking at the back of his hand gripping the knife.

On his retina, the moment Zhang Tao pulled that poisonous weed, a line of text had already popped up.

Golden font, clear and neat.

[Island Upas Tree variant, sap contains cardiac glycosides, time to lethality thirty minutes.]

And long before Wang Lan pointed out the edible vines, berries, and tubers, the corresponding species information had also synchronized and popped up on his retina.

Not a single bit off.

Everything she said was completely right.

Therefore, her value was a scarcity to others. To Lin Fan, it was merely an extra reference for cross-verification.

Wang Lan thought she was showing her trump card.

But to Lin Fan, she had simply laid all her chips out on the table, completely unaware that her opponent was holding a perspective cheat.

Lin Fan straightened up from the tree trunk.

"Keep moving."

Three words, neither warm nor cold.

Wang Lan looked up at him.

Nothing could be read on Lin Fan's face—no surprise, no approval, not even the intention to look at her for a second longer.