153: Chapter 153 This is a countdown to life and death

She wanted to use Zhang Tao to get rid of Zhou Kai.

Zhou Kai was Lin Fan's most handy blade.

Once this blade broke, no matter how ruthless Lin Fan was, he would inevitably have an opening.

On this Deserted Island, no matter how strong a person was, it was impossible to take care of everything at the same time.

Finding water, hunting, standing night watch, carrying loads, deterrence, and distribution.

As long as all these matters were piled onto one person, problems would arise sooner or later.

Zhang Tao was good for nothing, and Wang Lan knew this better than anyone else.

But even trash had its uses.

The biggest advantage of a useless person was that they were easy to push out as a scapegoat when things went wrong.

She had already thought of her way out last night.

Once something happened to Zhou Kai, Zhang Tao would inevitably panic and give himself away.

By then, she only needed to push Zhang Tao to the forefront and let him bear Lin Fan's fury.

But she, Wang Lan, was different.

She knew how to identify plants, find water, and judge the traces of animal activity.

She had the experience of surviving deep in the mountains.

She was a "living map".

In Wang Lan's original judgment, even if Lin Fan suspected her, he would still weigh the pros and cons.

Killing a Zhang Tao was just clearing out trash.

But killing her, Wang Lan, was equivalent to cutting off a path that could help him survive.

She had strategic value.

As long as she had value, she had her life.

As long as her life was still there, there would still be opportunities later.

But everything that happened today smashed that path to pieces.

Wang Lan raised her eyes, her gaze locked dead onto Lin Fan's back a dozen meters ahead.

That back wasn't tall or imposing, and even carried a bit of the emaciation left behind by long-term labor as a bottom-tier working-class person.

But now, looking at that figure, a chill rose in her heart for the first time.

Everything she knew how to do, Lin Fan also knew.

Things she didn't know, Lin Fan also understood.

The trump card she was so proud of was worth less than a piece of waste paper in front of Lin Fan.

Without scarcity, there was no bargaining power.

Without bargaining power, there was no get-out-of-jail-free card.

Under these circumstances, if she still followed her original plan to instigate Zhang Tao to make a move on Zhou Kai, once Lin Fan caught the slightest clue, she wouldn't even have the chance to defend herself.

A person like Lin Fan wouldn't sit down and listen to her explain her motives.

He would only cut away the risks first.

As for whether he cut the wrong person or not, that was a problem for dead people to consider.

Wang Lan's fingers tightened around the edge of her back basket, the gaps in her fingernails filled with dirt.

The plan had to change, and it had to be brought forward.

Long nights bring many dreams; her abnormal actions over the past two days had definitely caught Lin Fan's attention.

Perhaps he was just waiting for the right moment to get rid of her.

"Take a break... I can't go on."

Liu Feifei's crying complaint suddenly came from ahead.

An old tree root protruding from the ground tripped her.

She lunged forward, crashing straight into the mud.

Her palms pressed against the rotten leaves, grabbing a handful of foul-smelling black water, with half a whitish insect shell stuck between her fingers.

"Ah!"

Liu Feifei shrieked and immediately shook her hand, but the more she shook, the more nauseated she felt, and tears instantly smeared across her face.

She lay prone on the ground, unwilling to get up.

"I really can't walk anymore, my legs are numb, how much farther is this?"

She cried out of breath, her voice full of breakdown.

"I'm not walking anymore, you could beat me to death and I still wouldn't walk."

Although Song Ya didn't speak, she was also exhausted to the point of turning pale.

Her calves kept shaking, and the straps on her shoulders had dug a deep red mark into her skin.

But seeing Liu Feifei fall, she still instinctively bent down to help her up.

"Sister Feifei, get up, the ground is dirty."

Liu Feifei shoved her hand away, crying and cursing, "Does it matter if it's dirty or not? I'm almost dying!"

Seeing Liu Feifei fall down, Zhang Tao felt as if he had grabbed a straw to save his life in his heart.

He seized the opportunity to place the back basket on his shoulder onto a piece of rotten wood nearby, sliding down to sit against the tree trunk like a deflated balloon.

The muscles in his thighs couldn't stop trembling.

The two red marks on his shoulders hurt so much that he grimaced.

"No way, I really need to catch my breath."

Zhang Tao pressed both hands on his knees, sweat dripping down his chin.

"This load is no joke, if we keep walking my waist is going to break. Zhou Kai, you ate big chunks of meat and have the strength to clear the path, what about us who are carrying water?"

He said this to complain to Zhou Kai, but anyone could hear the real purpose.

After finishing, he quickly glanced in Lin Fan's direction, and his tone immediately pulled back halfway.

"Brother Fan, it's not that I won't listen to you, I really... just catching my breath, really just catching my breath."

Zhou Kai also stopped, wiping the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand.

He looked toward Lin Fan.

Lin Fan was standing five or six steps ahead, not immediately responding.

He didn't look at Liu Feifei lying on the ground, nor did he care about the complaining Zhang Tao.

His gaze was fixed behind a dense cluster of banana leaves to the front left.

The tree canopy over there blocked out the sky and sun, and the light was so dark it looked pitch black.

There was no wind in the air.

Even the leaves didn't move at all.

This quietness wasn't right.

Along the way just now, although the forest was muggy, there were always insect chirps and the faint rustle of something crawling under the rotten leaves.

But now, all those sounds seemed to have been cut off entirely by an invisible hand.

Dead silence.

So quiet it made one's scalp tingle.

The next second.

A large section of scarlet text popped up on Lin Fan's retina.

[High-risk alert!]

[Thirty-five meters in the west-northwest direction, a mutated adult wild boar.]

[Weighing about 320 catties, a long-haired mutant species, in an extremely manic state due to having piglets. The tusks are over twenty centimeters long, and its lethality is enough to pierce a human sternum.]

[The target has locked onto this area, linear collision warning. Countdown to contact: thirty seconds!]

[Recommendation: Immediately find a sturdy high point to avoid.]

The red characters flashed so intensely that Lin Fan's eye membranes ached.

320 catties.

This was not a normal wild boar at all.

This was a crazy bulldozer equipped with tusks and covered in long hair.

Not to mention that he only had a shovel and a homemade short crossbow in his hand, even if he were given a semi-automatic rifle right now, being charged at close range by a rampaging wild boar in this dense forest terrain, the outcome wouldn't necessarily look pretty.

Thirty seconds.

This was not time for negotiation.

This is a countdown to life and death.

Lin Fan abruptly turned around, his pupils contracting.

"Run!"

Zhou Kai reacted the fastest.

Before Lin Fan's words even finished falling, he had already stood up.

He didn't even ask why.

On this island, when Lin Fan spoke in this tone, asking for the reason was looking for death.

Liu Feifei looked up and saw Lin Fan's expression; all her crying and fussing got stuck in her throat.

That wasn't an expression used to scare people.

That meant something was truly coming.

Wang Lan stood at the rear side of the group.

Almost the moment Lin Fan spoke, she loosened the straps on her shoulders.

The back basket filled with water crashed into the mud, splashing up a sheet of black water.

She didn't scream or ask questions, but silently retreated behind a thick tree to the side that required two people to hug.

Because she knew Lin Fan wouldn't shout out like this for no reason.

She also knew that if this man judged there was danger, that danger would only be greater than what he stated.

Zhang Tao, however, didn't move.

He had finally found a comfortable posture to lean against just now, his breath hadn't even evened out yet, and his shoulders hurt as if they were being sliced by knives.

Hearing Lin Fan's shout, his first reaction wasn't danger, but a burst of full-mind fatigue and resentment.

Run?

Where to run?

His two legs felt like they didn't belong to him anymore; even standing up was a struggle?

He glanced at Lin Fan, his tone instinctively softening a bit.

"Brother Fan, it's not that I won't listen to you, I really can't get up..."