Qingmu and Su Huilan followed the Crow to the cave, where they found two people hiding inside.
The man lying on the ground had his eyes closed, his face was ashen, his breathing was rapid and shallow, and he would occasionally twitch. The woman beside him was sobbing softly.
She saw two strangers walk in, a glimmer of light flashed in her eyes, but it quickly dimmed again as she looked sadly at the dying man beside her.
Su Huilan walked over, lifted the man's eyelids to look at them, and said, "He's been poisoned. Where are the wounds?"
The woman pointed to the man's calves.
Qingmu squatted down and ripped open his pants, revealing that his calves had turned purple with a black dot in the middle.
"Hit by an arrow?" he asked the woman.
"He was shot by an arrow when he saved me. He kept saying he was fine, but I didn't expect the arrowhead to be poisoned... Waaah... You're the ones who shot him to help, right? Anderson said someone shot him to help. You have to save him, he's a good person... Waaah..." the woman said incoherently.
Qingmu didn't deny firing the shot; after all, Petru was in cahoots with them. He asked Su Huilan, "Do you think there's any hope of saving her?"
Su Huilan said, "The arrowhead may have been soaked in the sap of a poisonous plant like the arrow poison tree. The wound wasn't treated promptly, and we walked too far, so things are difficult to handle now."
Hearing this, the woman beside her burst into tears. "Please, please, please save him! It's all because of me, he didn't have to come to save me, sob..."
Su Huilan understood the woman's sadness, but she had to stop her. "Stop crying, you'll attract the savages, and none of us will be able to escape."
The woman covered her mouth with her hand, but her body was still trembling violently; clearly, she could not suppress the pain in her heart.
Su Huilan first used a knife to cut a cross on Anderson's wound, and Anderson, who had been in a daze, screamed in pain.
The purplish, rotting flesh was cut open, and a lot of dark blood was squeezed out. Only when the blood became less dark did Su Huilan take out an ointment from her bag, apply some to the wound, and wrap it with gauze. She then took out two pills, put them into Anderson's mouth, and forced him to swallow them with mineral water.
"That's all I can do," Su Huilan said. "The medication can only provide some relief; it can't completely neutralize the poison. Now it's all up to his luck. If he can hold on until we get back to Rapa Island, where there are doctors at the camp, maybe they can save him."
The woman next to us asked, " Rapa Island? Where is Rapa Island? Can you take us there now?"
Su Huilan looked at her with some surprise. "Don't you know where you are right now?"
The woman shook her head. "I don't know! I feel like I'm dreaming, I have no idea where I am!"
Su Huilan asked, "What's your name?"
"My name is Alice," the woman said.
" Alice?" Su Huilan and Qingmu exchanged a glance. "You're from the Discovery vessel 'Explorer'?"
Alice's eyes lit up. "Yes, yes, I'm Mrs. Larry's assistant! And you are...?"
"We are from the United Nations search and rescue team, and we've come specifically to find you."
"Oh God, are we saved? Where is your ship? Is it a warship? Can we leave now? This island is terrible, the people on it eat people! Oh no, Mrs. Larry! Mrs. Larry is still in their hands, you have to go and save her!"
"What exactly happened? You must tell us."
"Okay, okay, I'll tell you everything, but where should I begin? Mrs. Larry and I boarded the ship in Auckland, and Mr. Robbins boarded there too, but he was two weeks late. We waited for him the whole time. It was snowing in Auckland when he arrived; it was still winter, and the snow was beautiful. Anderson even went fishing in the snow... Oh my god! Should I not have said all this? Am I being too long-winded? What should I do? I don't know where to start; my mind is a mess!..."
Listening to Alice's incoherent words, Su Huilan put her arm around her shoulder and comforted her, "Don't be afraid, Alice, relax! Relax! Everything's alright now, we're here to rescue you. Tell me slowly, tell me everything you know. Let's start from when you found out on Christmas Day, when Mrs. Mrs. Larry and Mr. Robbins went to see Mr. Stone. Then how did the Discovery crash? And how did you get here?"
"Christmas? Oh right, Christmas..." Alice frowned, straining to recall the past, her face showing extreme pain. "I remember now, Christmas. Anderson discovered it first. When we set off, it was winter in the Southern Hemisphere, and it even snowed in Auckland, but we only sailed for about ten days before it turned into Xia Tian. That day, I was taking care of Mr. Pardik when Mrs. Mrs. Larry and Robbins came to talk to Pardik for a long time. They said the Discovery might have passed through some wormhole, or a bubble in a higher dimension, something like that. I didn't quite understand those physics terms; I was just doing archaeological research with Mrs. Larry."
"Then they went to find Mr. Stone. I didn't go because I had to take care of Pardik, so I don't know what they talked about. Anyway, after they finished talking, Robbins asked the captain to head north towards Tubuai Island at full speed. Because the ship was going too fast, Mr. Pardik and I were both a little seasick, so we stayed in the cabin and didn't go out."
"The next day, I was making coffee when I heard a loud bang, and the ship began to rock violently. Then the cabin tilted. Pardik rolled off the bed onto the floor; he was already badly injured. I rushed to help him, but I couldn't even stand on my own. There was a commotion outside; everyone was shouting something. Anderson ran in and told me to get on the lifeboat immediately, saying that our ship had been attacked and was about to sink."
Mrs. Larry and I were women, Pardik was wounded, so we were the first to board the lifeboat. Captain Church assigned Anderson and two sailors to take care of us.
From the lifeboat, I saw the Discovery break in two and slowly sink. Captain Church and Mr. Robbins were still on the ship's side directing the others to escape.
Just then, a helicopter flew in from the sky. Just when I thought it was coming to rescue us, I saw a fiery snake fly out of the helicopter and crash into the Discovery like a meteor with a trail of flame.
I don't know if it was a missile or a rocket, but there was a very powerful explosion, and the stern compartment of the Discovery was almost completely destroyed. But the Discovery was large, and even so, it didn't sink. I closed my eyes when the explosion happened, too afraid to look. Anderson and two sailors rowed desperately. If it weren't for the sudden fog at sea, I think we probably wouldn't have made it out."
Su Huilan interrupted, "Were there only six of you who escaped?"
"I don't know," Alice shook her head. "There were five or six lifeboats launched at the time, and we were the first. After the helicopter attack, Captain Church and his men organized a resistance, and if that hadn't happened, I don't think we would have had time to escape into the fog. I don't know if the other lifeboats escaped, but Anderson said that at least one boat, like us, rushed into the thick fog."