43: Chapter 43 Ineffable

Su Qingxue pressed her lips tightly together and chose to remain silent, making it clear that she had no intention of taking the blame for Wang Qiang.

Chen Jian let out a cold laugh, his icy gaze sweeping over Wang Qiang.

"President Su paid money to buy everyone's admission tickets."

"But that remark you made during the day calling him a kept man, and that useless coward comment—President Su's thirty million cannot settle this score."

Chen Jian used a wooden stick to fiercely strike the loose stones at Wang Qiang's feet.

"Want to come over and warm up? Fine."

"Three loud kowtows; if even one is missing, you can go back to the wind tunnel and freeze to death."

The rock crevice fell silent, and those eyes all stared fixedly at Wang Qiang, yet not a single person stepped forward to put in a good word for him.

Old Li from the Finance Department even quietly shifted his hips closer to the campfire, fearing that Chen Jian would remember he had also mocked him earlier and casually kick him out as well.

Wang Qiang's eyes were bloodshot from holding back.

He looked at the leaping flames in the basin, then at the pitch-black torrential rain outside, and finally cast a look for help toward Su Qingxue.

"President Su... I only scolded him during the day to uphold your face!"

"Please say a word for me, even just a single sentence will do..."

Su Qingxue didn't even lift her eyelids.

Cold air was currently seeping from the cracks of her bones all over her body; for this fire, she had already paid the price of thirty million.

Offend Chen Jian?

There was no need for that at all.

"Kowtow."

Su Qingxue's voice was icy and cold, and the words she spat out were even more piercingly bone-chilling to Wang Qiang than the wind outside.

Wang Qiang's head buzzed, and he was completely stunned.

The backing he was usually most proud of, the president he had fawned over for a whole day, sold him out without the slightest hesitation just so she could warm herself by the fire.

The fierce wind whipped up the freezing water mist, striking fiercely against Wang Qiang's bare back and freezing him until he shivered violently.

Face?

Dignity?

A supervisor's prestige?

In the face of the threat of dying from hypothermia, these were all utter bullshit.

Wang Qiang bit down hard enough to shatter his teeth, his knees went soft, and he heavily knelt down in the direction of Chen Jian.

"Thud! Thud! Thud!"

After finishing the three loud kowtows, Wang Qiang's voice carried a tremor: "Brother Chen... My mouth is foul, I was wrong... Let me go over."

Only then did Chen Jian withdraw his wooden stick and step aside by half a step.

Looking just like a stray dog, Wang Qiang scrambled and squeezed into the crowd, greedily baking in that pitifully weak heat.

Wang Lan sat opposite the campfire, watching her husband neatly establish his authority, her mental calculations running at lightning speed.

For this wave of Deserted Island survival, as long as they could return alive, she and her husband would definitely win big.

...

"Achoo!"

Inside the Karst Cave, Song Ya let out a sneeze, her weak shoulders trembling violently along with it.

Looking at the back that was close at hand, Lin Fan's heartbeat involuntarily skipped a couple of beats.

The firelight reflected off her skin making it look like fine porcelain, and that breathtaking curve truly challenged a man's self-control.

Hearing the commotion, Lin Fan suppressed the wicked fire in his heart, his voice sounding somewhat heavy: "What are you dawdling for? Do you really want to freeze yourself into an icicle?"

Song Ya was so anxious she was almost crying, her hands blindly fumbling behind her back, but her fingers had long since frozen stiff and completely lacked any strength.

That row of metal clasps had been soaked by rainwater and was tightly locked together, as if intentionally making things difficult for her.

"I... I can't undo it."

She turned her head back, her eye sockets red and sparkling water droplets still hanging on her eyelashes: "Lin Fan, help me..."

Looking at her pitiful appearance, Lin Fan's Adam's apple bobbed, and in the end, he still walked over.

"Don't move around, let me take a look for you."

When his rough fingertips touched Song Ya's warm back, Song Ya's entire body seemed to have been electrocuted, instantly tensing up straight.

It was also Lin Fan's first time doing such delicate work, his fingertips probing back and forth between the soaked fabric and smooth, tender skin.

"Lin Fan... Do you even know how to do this or not..."

Song Ya was extremely anxious, the heat on her back making her so embarrassed that she wanted to find a crack in the ground to crawl into.

"Shut up."

Lin Fan was somewhat annoyed; as a dignified top student, he was actually being stumped by a small clasp.

He simply used both hands, patiently groping around for that metal clasp.

Set against the howling wind and torrential rain outside, this scene appeared both absurd and ambiguous.

The firelight cast their shadows onto the uneven stone wall, their images overlapping.

And this scene happened to fall into the eyes of the crowd down in the rock crevice.

In the rock crevice halfway up the mountain, the hellish cold was still raging.

Although Chen Jian's campfire was burning, with dozens of people crammed together, that bit of heat was simply a drop of water in a bucket.

Zhao Na was shivering so badly she was shaking uncontrollably, and when she inadvertently glanced obliquely upward, her entire body directly froze.

"Holy shit! Look up there, quickly!"

The crowd all raised their heads simultaneously.

Through the dense curtain of rain, the firelight from the Karst Cave above was as bright as a lightbulb.

That fiercely burning flame made people's mouths water just looking at it.

But what truly pierced people's hearts were the two intertwined silhouettes on the stone wall.

An exquisitely shaped female shadow had her back turned to a man, while the man's hands were pressed against the woman's back, their actions ambiguous to the extreme.

That posture was inexpressibly wonderful.

"Th... That's Lin Fan and Song Ya?"

Old Li's eyeballs were practically popping out of his sockets.

"Definitely! That vixen Song Ya usually puts on an act like a holy maiden in the company, but now she actually..."

Zhao Na was so angry her teeth itched, her tone full of sourness: "She's planning to sell herself for a good price!"

Wang Qiang squeezed to the edge of the campfire, watching that vibrant and colorful scene above, his eyes turning green with jealousy.

"Damn it! We had to kowtow and spend money down here just to exchange for this tiny bit of fire sparks, while that brat up there is warming by a huge fire and playing with women!"

Wang Qiang spat: "Is there any justice left in this world?!"

Su Qingxue stared fixedly at that silhouette, her gaze growing increasingly cold.

Last night it was Liu Feifei, and today it was Song Ya.

She glanced at Liu Feifei beside her, whose face was turning blue-purple from the cold.

At this moment, Liu Feifei was biting her lips tightly, her eyes filled with regret.

If she had known earlier that rescue wouldn't come, she would have given herself to that poor ghost Lin Fan one more time.

Wouldn't the person lying in that warm Karst Cave right now be her?

After all, last night Lin Fan could drive that smelly girl Song Ya out for her sake; she believed tonight would be no different.

"Shameless."

Su Qingxue coldly spat out four words, not knowing whether she was scolding Liu Feifei or Lin Fan.

But the atmosphere in the rock crevice was entirely filled with jealousy and desire.

The men looked at Lin Fan, wishing they could replace him, while the women stared at Song Ya, their inner little abacuses clicking loudly.

If they could monopolize such a large campfire and drink a mouthful of hot water, even if they let that jerk Lin Fan sleep with them once, it seemed... not entirely out of the question?

Once this kind of thought sprouted, it became increasingly uncontrollable...