"Qin Lixing, stop and rest for a while. I'm exhausted!" Liang Huaishan said, one of the three girls.
Because of his injury, his arm was also aching unbearably. Qin Lixing was already irritated, so when he heard Liang Huaishan, he snapped coldly, "Can't you just hold on if you're tired? You only sprained your ankle, it's not like your foot is broken!" Still, he stopped.
"Qin Lixing, what kind of way is that to talk?" Liang Huaishan asked angrily.
"Forget it, Shanshan. Let's sit down and rest first," Yang Yantong said. She was the girl Qin Lixing liked, the one he had wanted to confess to but never had. She was very pretty, with a small oval face carrying a hint of baby fat, and big eyes that seemed to speak. Perhaps because they had been walking for so long and had used up a lot of energy, her voice was weak.
"Sun Hongkai, if you hadn't carelessly gotten the backpack wet, we could be using the GPS to find our location right now. Would we have gotten lost?" Liang Huaishan said, turning to complain to the other male student in the group.
"It was an accident! Besides, you make it sound easy. Why weren't you the one carrying the GPS?" Sun Hongkai muttered.
"You..." Liang Huaishan was so angry at Sun Hongkai's reply that she wanted to curse back, but Zhang Mei stopped her.
"Shanshan, don't say any more." Zhang Mei rubbed her foot and tried to dissuade Liang Huaishan.
Qin Lixing took out his phone and checked it, only to find that there was still no signal. Dejected, he tossed it back into his backpack, then took out some Mineral Water and biscuits to eat. He looked at Yang Yantong and saw that she was not paying attention to him. Instead, she took out her own water and food, handed some to Zhang Mei and Liang Huaishan, then quietly sat there eating.
Looking at Yang Yantong from the side, her profile was absolutely killer. She was truly beautiful. But when he thought of her attitude toward him, he was instantly disappointed. He had put in so much effort, yet she had never responded to him at all. Couldn't he even get the slightest reaction out of her?
The more Qin Lixing thought about it, the more stifled he felt, and the greater the anger in his heart grew. Now that they had run into this situation, he could not vent his frustration. Unable to hold back, he grabbed a stone beside him and threw it into the distance.
Yang Yantong was actually a smart girl, and her family was well-off. But after getting to know Qin Lixing, she discovered that he was not a particularly broad-minded person and that there was something dark in his heart. So she had never responded to his attentiveness, hoping to cut off his thoughts completely. She had not wanted to come on this hiking trip in the first place, but she could not withstand the pleading of her good friend Liang Huaishan and reluctantly agreed.
But she had never expected Zhang Mei to sprain her ankle, Qin Lixing to get injured, the GPS to get wet and become unusable, and all of them to get lost. This was really no ordinary mishap. She did not know whether they would be able to make it out of the mountains today.
"Shanshan, Meimei! Don't worry. We haven't gone deep into the mountains, and we're heading back the way we came. Even though we're lost, we still have the general direction right. We should be able to get out," Yang Yantong said to Liang Huaishan and Zhang Mei.
"It's all my fault! If I hadn't sprained my ankle and held everyone back, you might have gotten out long ago," Zhang Mei said gloomily.
"Meimei! It's nothing. When people travel, they're bound to encounter all kinds of difficulties. As long as we stick together and help each other, we can overcome them!" Yang Yantong encouraged her.
"Tongtong is right!" Liang Huaishan echoed.
Sun Hongkai took the GPS out of his backpack and tried pressing the power supply button to see whether it could turn on. But unfortunately, the device did not react at all and gave him no face whatsoever. He casually smacked it a few times, as if trying to shake the water out of it.
"Stop hitting it. It won't work no matter how much you hit it!" Hearing the slapping sounds, Liang Huaishan rolled her eyes at Sun Hongkai.
Bang! Sun Hongkai had been about to retort when he was startled. Turning to look, he saw that Qin Lixing had accidentally thrown a stone off course, sending it into the grass not far from him.
"I'm saying, Old Qin, can you be more careful?" Sun Hongkai said irritably.
Qin Lixing did not answer. He merely glanced at Sun Hongkai, then turned and picked up another stone, throwing it into the bushes in front of him.
"Ah! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" Sun Hongkai suddenly shouted and sprang to his feet. He grabbed a gray-brown snake about half a meter long by the tail and flung it away, sending it into Yang Yantong's arms.
The three girls had been sitting close together. Yang Yantong happened to be closest to Sun Hongkai, so the snake landed in her arms. Startled, it bit her once before darting into the grass and disappearing in the blink of an eye.
"I've been bitten on the leg!" After saying that, Yang Yantong felt her legs go weak and collapsed onto the ground.
The two girls, Qin Lixing, and Sun Hongkai were all stunned. None of them had any experience dealing with snakebites and had no idea what to do.
The two girls crowded around Yang Yantong, looking at her in helpless panic without any idea how to help.
"I saw on TV that after a snakebite, you need to tie a rope around it to stop the blood from flowing," Liang Huaishan said.
"I have rope!" Zhang Mei took some ties she used for bundling things out of her bag and handed them to Liang Huaishan.
The bite was near the top of Yang Yantong's thigh, making it difficult to tie. But Liang Huaishan had no other choice, so she tightly cinched the rope high around her thigh. It was unavoidably close to her private area.
"Qin Lixing, hurry over and see whether that snake is still around!" Zhang Mei said, turning to him.
"I, I..." Qin Lixing was afraid. He was actually terrified of snakes, but he could not show it in front of the girls, so he did not know what to say.
"What do you mean, 'I'? Are you even a man? If you hadn't been throwing stones around, the snake wouldn't have come out!" Liang Huaishan complained.
"What do you mean, throwing stones around? Don't go accusing people! Wasn't it Sun Hongkai getting scared and messing around that caused this?" Qin Lixing instantly bristled. It had been an accident; how could they blame him? Besides, the snake had been in the grass. Who could have seen it?
They blamed and accused one another, and for a moment their resolve began to fall apart. But not long after, Yang Yantong felt her leg growing numb and her mind becoming muddled. She immediately lay down.
"Stop arguing, Shanshan, Shanshan! I feel dizzy!" Yang Yantong said weakly. Her body was going limp in waves, and she felt heart palpitations, feverishness, and aching all over.
Seeing Yang Yantong like this, they all panicked helplessly, not knowing what to do. In their desperation, Liang Huaishan and Zhang Mei began shouting for help nearby, hoping someone might hear them. It was the only thing they could think of.
Sun Hongkai also felt guilty and joined the two girls in shouting. They were near the outskirts of the mountain area, so perhaps someone might pass by.
Qin Lixing watched the three of them shouting, but hatred rose in his heart. They were all blaming him, all talking about him. Yet when he had suggested this trip, they had all been thrilled. Now that something had happened, they were blaming him! Better if she died! he thought bitterly, his mind twisting.
At that moment, he no longer felt any affection for Yang Yantong. He only irritably wondered whether he should simply leave on his own. He went back and forth over it several times but still could not make up his mind. He could only pace around where he stood, acting like a headless fly.
"Qin Lixing, why aren't you shouting? You're a male student, your voice should be louder. Hurry up and shout!" Liang Huaishan complained.
"In this desolate wilderness, do you think shouting will bring anyone here?" Qin Lixing said.
"Whether anyone comes or not, how can we know without trying?" Zhang Mei said.
"Then you shout. Don't drag me into it!" Qin Lixing turned and walked away, stopping dozens of meters from them.
The two girls were both surprised and helpless. They had not expected Qin Lixing to be this kind of person, to act like this the moment something happened. He truly had no sense of responsibility.
Yang Yantong was already half-conscious, but her mind was still aware. Hearing Qin Lixing's words, she became even more disappointed. Tears slipped out uncontrollably. She had never imagined that one trip would end like this. Am I going to die here? I'm still so young. I don't want to die!
The other three could only keep shouting, doing all they could and leaving the rest to fate.