8: Chapter 8 The helicopter will never come; we can't go back.

Su Qingxue and Liu Feifei stood in place, their faces turning pale and green.

Especially Su Qingxue; having been proud for over twenty years and worth tens of billions, she was always surrounded by men spinning around her like dogs, racking their brains to please her.

Yet today, not only did she set aside her status as a CEO and speak up first, she even offered an astronomical price, only to have her dignity mercilessly trampled and rubbed under the feet of a low-level intern!

She was completely broken.

"Good... Lin Fan, you've got guts." Su Qingxue bit hard into her cracked lips.

Clinging desperately to her last shred of pride, she said word by word: "When the helicopter arrives tonight, let's see how arrogant you can still be!"

Liu Feifei also glared at him viciously; if looks could kill, Lin Fan would have already been hacked to pieces a thousand times.

Clutching her sunburned chest, she followed behind Su Qingxue, cursing profanely: "What a piece of trash... Once we're back on the mainland, I will definitely blacklist you, you poor loser..."

Lin Fan didn't even spare them an extra glance.

[Su Qingxue: Anger value 80%, fear value 60%. Overdrawing her last bit of physical strength to maintain dignity. Recommendation: Ignore her, she'll naturally break down in tears after tonight.]

[Liu Feifei: Enmity value 90%, extremely thirsty. Scheming internally on how to fabricate lies to put you in prison. Recommendation: Beware of her pillow talk, although she doesn't have a pillow right now.]

Lin Fan withdrew his gaze and turned back into the cave to enjoy his luncheon meat.

Down on the beach, the temperature was already approaching forty-two degrees.

Wang Qiang and the others hid in the shadow of a huge reef. This was the only sheltered and shady spot on the beach, and everyone was so thirsty that their eyes were seeing stars.

Seeing Su Qingxue and Liu Feifei return empty-handed, a burst of wailing broke out among the crowd.

"President Su... Even with you stepping forward, it didn't work?" Wang Qiang asked in disbelief.

Su Qingxue walked to the center of the shade, and Wang Qiang immediately kicked a male subordinate nearby aside to make room for the most spacious spot.

Su Qingxue sat down and glanced at the pitch-black satellite phone in her hand.

"Save your energy. The sun is about to set, shut your mouths, and hold out until midnight."

Helicopters, rescue teams.

These few words gave this group of people another shot of adrenaline.

Right, they could go back tonight! As long as they went back, they would still be people above others, and Lin Fan would still be a bottom-feeder.

By the sand pile a dozen meters away from the main group, Song Ya's face was already as pale as paper.

Earlier, when she protected Lin Fan, Wang Qiang pushed her down and simply ordered her isolation, strictly forbidding her from approaching the shady area of the reef.

"Thud—"

A dull thud rang out near the pile of rocks.

Lin Fan turned his head to look.

Song Ya collapsed onto the scorching sand.

Exposed to the high temperature and suffering from extreme dehydration, the girl was completely exhausted.

Her entire body curled into a ball, her face showed an abnormal flush, and her breathing was rapid and shallow.

Several male colleagues around looked at each other in dismay, yet not a single person dared to step forward to lend a hand.

Wang Qiang shrank in the shade and cursed sarcastically: "What are you playing dead for? Weren't you quite capable just now?"

Human nature was cold to this extent.

Lin Fan frowned.

A golden prompt box flickered above Song Ya's head:

[Severe heatstroke (heat exhaustion): Core body temperature has exceeded 40 degrees. Accompanied by dehydration and electrolyte imbalance. If cooling and hydration are not provided in time, multiple organ failure will be triggered within 30 minutes, with a 90% mortality rate.]

[Remarks: This silly woman kept exposing herself to the sun just to block a stick for you.]

Lin Fan dashed straight to Song Ya's side.

Reaching out to touch her, her forehead was as hot as a stove.

Then he scooped Song Ya up in his arms.

She was very light; this girl usually looked like she had flesh where she should, but her frame was actually extremely small.

At this moment, her white shirt with a popped button had long been soaked through with sweat, clinging tightly to her body.

His arm inevitably brushed against some softness, but Lin Fan only had the system's ticking countdown in his mind right now.

[Time remaining until organ failure: 28 minutes.]

Holding her in his arms, Lin Fan strode rapidly toward the Karst Cave halfway up the mountain.

"Yo, everyone look, the shameless person is here." Su Qingxue was sitting next to Wang Qiang, and the latter's courage had grown again as he jeered from below, "Lin Fan, this is called taking advantage of someone's vulnerability! When we get back, I'll call the police to arrest you!"

Turning a deaf ear, Lin Fan stepped into the Karst Cave.

A cool aura instantly enveloped his whole body; the temperature here was at least ten degrees lower than outside.

He placed Song Ya flat on a flat rock.

[First aid plan: Physical cooling. Remove restrictive clothing, maintain ventilation, and feed water in small amounts frequently.]

Lin Fan favored a simple and crude approach. Without any hesitation, he reached out and tore Song Ya's cumbersome professional suit hip-wrap skirt down along the slit.

"Rip—"

The sound of tearing fabric was particularly crisp inside the cave, followed immediately by that soaked-through shirt.

A moment later, only the last two pieces of intimate clothing remained on Song Ya's body.

Large areas of snow-white, smooth skin were exposed to the air, glowing with an alluring pink due to the high fever. Along with her rapid breathing, the fullness of her chest heaved violently.

Lin Fan picked up a bottle of mineral water, took a large mouthful himself first, pinched open Song Ya's chin, and transferred it directly into her mouth.

Without consciousness, she could only be force-fed this way.

One mouthful, two mouthfuls.

The cool stream of water slid down her throat, and Song Ya's painfully furrowed brows finally relaxed a bit.

Pouring the remaining water into his palm, Lin Fan unhesitatingly patted it onto her forehead, carotid arteries, and armpits.

After tossing and turning for over ten minutes, the prompt box finally changed color.

[Status update: Body temperature is beginning to drop, dehydration symptoms are easing, and consciousness is about to recover.]

Lin Fan breathed a sigh of relief, sat down heavily on the side, casually picked up the unfinished luncheon meat from earlier, and took a bite.

"Mmm..."

The woman on the rock let out a soft moan.

Song Ya slowly opened her eyes, her vision gradually focusing from blurriness. The first thing that came into view was the hanging stalactites, followed by Lin Fan's profile as he chewed on the meat.

Memories instantly rushed back: the capsized cruise ship, the tsunami, Wang Qiang's shoving...

"Lin... Lin Fan?"

Song Ya instinctively wanted to sit up, but felt a chilly sensation all over her body.

Looking down, she let out a brief gasp on the spot, her hands tightly covering her chest.

"Awake? If you're awake, drink some water yourself."

Lin Fan tossed the remaining half bottle of water over, his tone much softer than before. "Drink slowly, don't choke."

Holding the water bottle, Song Ya blushed like a ripe tomato.

She looked at the shredded clothes all over the floor, then at Lin Fan's open and untroubled gaze, and understood in her heart.

In this Deserted Island, she had suffered from heatstroke, and no one except Lin Fan would care whether she lived or died.

Her clothes must have been taken off for cooling purposes.

"Thank you..." she muttered softly, unscrewing the bottle cap and sipping the water in small sips, her cracked throat finally getting moistened.

After drinking a few sips of water, Song Ya's mind cleared up a bit. Looking at Lin Fan's silent profile, she bit her lip and couldn't help advising, "Lin Fan... Actually, just now, you really shouldn't have offended President Su so thoroughly."

Lin Fan paused his movement and turned to look at her: "What do you mean?"

"President Su is the CEO after all." Song Ya's voice was soft and sweet. "When the rescue helicopter comes tonight, President Su will definitely command who gets on the plane first. Today you held Supervisor Wang hostage with a knife, and publicly rebuffed her face... What if the rescue team comes and they team up to leave you alone on this Deserted Island, what will you do?"

The Karst Cave instantly fell silent, with only the sound of the wind remaining.

Lin Fan slammed the luncheon meat box in his hand heavily against the stone, his gaze instantly turning cold.

Song Ya was startled and shivered slightly: "I... did I say something wrong?"

Lin Fan looked at Song Ya. This girl was perhaps the only kindness from this company toward him, a low-level intern. He grabbed her wrist and pulled her to the entrance of the Karst Cave.

"Lin... Lin Fan, you..." Song Ya struggled.

"Don't speak, look at the sky!"

Lin Fan pinched her shoulders, forcing her to look toward the distant horizon.

The setting sun had completely sunk into the seabed. But the sky, which should have been shrouded in darkness, presented a distorted and eerie appearance at this moment.

Song Ya was stunned: "That... what kind of cloud is that?"

"That's a geomagnetic anomaly."

"The magnetic field in this sea area is completely chaotic, even compasses will fail, let alone radio signals. That pretentious satellite phone in Su Qingxue's hand has been a piece of scrap iron from the very moment she fell into the water."

Song Ya froze in place, her voice trembling uncontrollably: "You... you mean..."

"That's right."

Lin Fan let her go, shattering her last workplace illusions.

"This place is not on any known shipping route at all. There is no satellite positioning whatsoever."

"The helicopter will never come, we can never go back."