Although he felt frustrated, discovering that these heat patches were available was also a stroke of luck for Mo Li. At the very least, he no longer had to worry about the cold with these heat patches.
He dumped all the heat patches onto the ground and roughly counted them. There were thirty-two in total. Assuming each patch could generate heat for three hours, and each person used five patches, Zhong Lichun and Wei Dengke could hold out for around ten hours. With ten hours, the two of them would probably wake up.
While the campfire was still burning, Mo Li got busy again. He first picked up five heat patches and went over to Wei Dengke, then stuck them onto Wei Dengke's four limbs and chest. As soon as the patches touched his skin, they began to heat up. Wei Dengke's pale face, drained of color by the cold, finally regained a hint of rosiness, and his breathing became steadier.
After applying the heat patches to Wei Dengke, Mo Li went to Zhong Lichun. However, he did not immediately get to work, and an awkward expression appeared on his face. Zhong Lichun was currently wearing only her undergarments. Earlier, the situation had been urgent, so Mo Li had not thought much of it. Now that he had calmed down, he began to hesitate. Zhong Lichun was a young woman, after all. Wouldn't it be inappropriate for a grown man like him to touch her all over?
However, Mo Li knew he had no choice. There were only three people there, and Zhong Lichun was the only woman. Wei Dengke was still unconscious, so he could not count on Wei Dengke to help. In the end, Mo Li still had to do it himself.
With a sigh, Mo Li crouched down and lifted the combat jacket covering Zhong Lichun. In the firelight, Zhong Lichun's skin took on a unique orange-red hue. The girl's figure was not particularly voluptuous, but her body had an exceptionally soft and natural shape. As Mo Li worked, he repeated the words I'm saving her! I'm saving her! over and over in his mind, sticking the heat patches onto Zhong Lichun in the same places as Wei Dengke's.
While applying the heat patches, Mo Li finally got a clear look at Zhong Lichun's body. He had seen her once before when she changed clothes at the Foot of the Mountain, but she had caught him peeking, and he had hurriedly turned away, so he had not seen much. Earlier, when he had stripped off her clothes to keep the fire going, he had not been in the mood to look either. This was the first time he had truly examined her carefully.
Zhong Lichun's body bore quite a few scars. Some were knife wounds, some were burns, and Mo Li even saw several bullet wounds left by gunfire. Judging from her appearance, Zhong Lichun seemed to be no more than twenty-seven or twenty-eight. What could a woman in her twenties have gone through to end up covered in scars like these?
After securing the heat patches on Zhong Lichun, Mo Li pulled the combat jacket back over her. He then sat on the ground and waited for the two of them to wake up. The immediate crisis had been resolved, but Mo Li began to worry about what came next. The three of them had been dragged there by the Yetis. Along the way, he had lost his service weapon, and Zhong Lichun had lost her Submachine Gun. Although Wei Dengke had a whole pile of assorted items hanging from him, he did not even know what most of them were for.
For Mo Li, the only weapon he had was Zhong Lichun's dagger. But could that dagger really do anything against the strong and vicious Yetis?
As time passed, the fire gradually shrank. After all the flammable material had burned away, the flames were so faint that they were almost invisible. The fire could go out at any moment. Mo Li picked up two more glow sticks from the ground and bent them twice, causing the chemicals inside to glow. He casually tossed the two glow sticks onto the ground, then lay down and began pondering several questions. What exactly was his current condition? What was that drug Wei Dengke had mentioned, the one called SY7113? If he had not been injected with it, would his spinal injury have left him crippled? Thinking about it that way, he really ought to thank Wei Dengke and Zhong Lichun.
However, after spending so long sensing the changes in his body, Mo Li had clearly noticed some differences. He was now halfway up a mountain several thousand meters high, where the temperature was certainly twenty degrees below zero or even lower. An ordinary person would definitely feel cold in such temperatures, but Mo Li was wearing nothing but a pair of undershorts and did not feel cold at all. His body temperature was also extremely high. Could this be the effect of the drug?
Furthermore, after the several dangers he had faced earlier, Mo Li had discovered that his reaction speed, speed of movement, and strength had all improved noticeably. In particular, his speed and strength were at least three times greater than an ordinary person's. What was going on? Could this also be the effect of the drug? And was this enhancement of his body a good thing or a bad thing? What would happen to him in the future?
Shock and fear placed enormous mental pressure on a person, and excessive mental pressure made people feel exhausted. Although Mo Li's physical abilities were now far beyond those of an ordinary person, he was still human, in the end. After lying on the ground and thinking for only a short while, Mo Li sank into a deep sleep.
Mo Li had a dream. In it, he stood in a pitch-black world. Surrounded by darkness so complete that he could not see his own hand, he was utterly lost. Mo Li wanted to make a sound, but after opening and closing his mouth for a long time, he could not utter a word. He wanted to move, but his feet felt as heavy as if they had been filled with lead. He could not even lift them.
Just as Mo Li began to feel terrified because he could neither speak nor move, the darkness around him gradually brightened. Then a figure appeared before him. Mo Li's expression froze when he saw the person, because standing in front of him was Director Liu, who had taken special care of him at the Orphanage. When Mo Li came of age, Director Liu had already been nearly seventy. She was a kindly old woman who never scolded Mo Li no matter how mischievous he was, and always smiled at him. In Mo Li's heart, Director Liu was like his own grandmother.
After joining the military, Mo Li often wrote letters to Director Liu and sent her his wages to help cover the Orphanage's expenses. As Mo Li put it, he wanted to repay the Orphanage, because that was his home.
Unfortunately, although Mo Li continued writing to Director Liu from the year before last onward, she never wrote back. Later, he called the Orphanage to ask about her, and the staff told him that Director Liu had suffered a sudden heart attack and died two years earlier. When he heard the news of Director Liu's death, Mo Li felt as if his heart had shattered. The pain of losing a close family member had left him depressed for more than a month.
Seeing Director Liu again, Mo Li was overwhelmed with excitement. He wanted to open his arms and rush into hers, and he wanted to call out to her, but his body would not move and his mouth would not speak. He could only stare anxiously at Director Liu, helpless to do anything. The feeling of seeing a loved one yet being unable to express any emotion was unbearably painful.
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