353: Chapter 353 As long as I'm alive, that's enough

Lin Fan looked at Xiao Qian, the firelight casting half-light and half-shadow on his face. Regardless of whether her words were true or false, she was an expert at probing mines.

"Even if I am willing to give you blood," Lin Fan spoke.

Xiao Qian and Wu Hui raised their heads at the same time, their eyes instantly lighting up.

Wu Hui braced herself against the stone wall to sit straight, and glanced at Zhou Kai. If she had known he was so easy to talk to, why would she have gone and grabbed that man's balls?

Xiao Qian took half a step forward, her lips moving as if she wanted to say something.

"But how are you going to get out?"

Wu Hui's expression stiffened for a fraction of a second. She opened her mouth and turned to look at Xiao Qian, who was also looking at her.

The two looked at each other for a few seconds, neither speaking.

"Haven't you thought about this question?" Lin Fan asked.

Xiao Qian pressed her lips together. They truly hadn't thought about it. From the moment she arrived on this island, she had only one thought in her mind: to get the item that could save Uncle Zhang.

As for how to take it back, she hadn't had time to plan yet.

"How did you get here?"

Wu Hui spoke, "By boat."

"Where's the boat?"

Another period of silence followed. Xiao Qian took a deep breath, "A tsunami swept us over, the boat capsized, and we swam ashore from the sea."

"So your current state is that you have no boat, no communication equipment, no idea what coordinates this island is at, and no idea which direction the nearest shipping lane is in."

Xiao Qian didn't speak.

"Even if I give you the blood right now, where are you going to take it? Swim back?"

Zhou Kai squatted beside the campfire, grinning with his missing teeth, "Two sisters, you two really have a lot of guts and stubborn heads. You only focused on charging forward without leaving yourselves any retreat at all."

"What do you call this..." Zhou Kai scratched his messy hair, "Delivery service?"

"Shut up," Xiao Qian's voice sank.

Lin Fan didn't press further on this issue; instead, he asked a question everyone wanted to know, "What's the situation outside right now?"

Xiao Qian raised her head, "What do you mean?"

"The outside world." Lin Fan's gaze fell on her face, "Before you came, how much did the outside world know about this island?"

Xiao Qian and Wu Hui exchanged a glance, and Xiao Qian began, "Ever since the daughter of the domestic richest man, Su Qingxue, and the young master of the Yang Group went missing..."

"The search and rescue team searched for several months and found nothing."

"Later, the authorities announced the suspension of the search and rescue, classifying it as mass casualties caused by a natural disaster. Ever since then, a large area of the offshore shipping lanes has been sealed off, and no one dares to go into that sea area."

"However."

"A month ago, after that video on the dark web leaked, everything changed."

"There are more and more people on the sea, all kinds of boats—fishing boats, speedboats—they are all secretly looking for this island."

"Before we came ashore, we saw at least a dozen ships in the nearby waters."

Lin Fan's eyebrows twitched.

A dozen ships.

In other words, Hall and his group might not be the only survivors.

"What a coincidence." Zhou Kai stood up and raised his chin toward the direction of Yang Ningcong and Su Qingxue in the corner.

"The two people they've been searching the whole world for are both squatting right here now."

Xiao Qian's gaze slid from Yang Ningcong to Su Qingxue's face, pausing for a few seconds.

Wu Hui suddenly spoke, her voice a bit lower than before, "You... have stayed here for so long, why don't you go out?"

Zhou Kai turned to look at her, "You think we don't want to?"

He reached out and pointed toward the cave entrance, "Where are we supposed to go if we go out? Make a raft and drift, wherever it ends up?"

"We've been on this island for quite some time, and we haven't seen a single passing ship, nor a single plane fly overhead."

Zhou Kai spread his hands, "This crappy place doesn't have a signal; to the outside world, it's as if it has vanished. Who dares to gamble with their lives? Staying on the island at least gives us a bite to eat."

"But if we drift out, we'll become mummies in less than three days."

Wu Hui's expression turned ugly. Xiao Qian didn't speak; she was digesting this information.

"So you are also trapped here," Xiao Qian said.

"Duh," Yang Ningcong rolled his eyes, "Do you think we're on vacation here? Fighting every day, running every day, and down below there's a bunch of crazy guys with AKs wanting to cut open Su Qingxue's belly—who the f*** would willingly stay here..."

Xiao Qian's sight fell back onto Lin Fan.

Lin Fan had been looking at her all along, a gaze that made Xiao Qian's back tense up, "Considering that you told me the news from the outside world, I'll tell you something too."

"Those messages you saw on the dark web—things like Superpower, genetic catalysis, and eating things to gain eternal youth—half of them are true, but..."

Lin Fan raised his finger pointing in the direction of Su Qingxue, "The child in her belly is just an ordinary child."

Xiao Qian's lips parted slightly.

Wu Hui raised her head, "Impossible! In that video, your speed..."

"It has nothing to do with her," Lin Fan interrupted. "The changes in me are because I ate the research potion on the island, but the child itself is just a child. There are no magical fruits, no miraculous medicines."

"Those things you mentioned," Lin Fan's gaze shifted toward the woods, "are in the Island Center."

"In the central area of this island, there is a complex of artificial facilities."

"Who built them and when they were built, I don't know. But I know there's something inside."

He turned back to glance at Zhou Kai.

Zhou Kai understood, grinned, and waved his right hand at Xiao Qian and Wu Hui.

His five fingers were spread open, and dark horny layers could be faintly seen beneath his fingernails.

"You saw it during the day too," Zhou Kai patted his chest, "Three meters tall, covered in hair, able to transform back and forth."

"How did you transform?" Wu Hui stared at Zhou Kai's hand.

"By eating the stuff made by those people in the Island Center," Zhou Kai shrugged. "I can't name the exact name, but anyway, after swallowing it, even if your intestines and belly are scooped out, you can still live."

He lifted his undershirt a bit, revealing a scar on his abdomen that extended from his sternum to below his navel.

"This is left from being disemboweled by someone," Zhou Kai put his clothes down. "Because of that thing, I died once and crawled back up."

Xiao Qian's breathing grew rapid.

Wu Hui stood up, staring into Zhou Kai's eyes, "You mean, the thing in the Island Center can bring dead people back to life?"

"I didn't say that," Zhou Kai waved his hand. "I don't even know if I'm considered alive or mutated. Look at this state of mine..."

"No matter what it turns into, as long as I can survive..." Wu Hui's voice was trembling...