Chapter Seven: The First One

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In an environment like this, none of these things could really be considered an interlude. Everyone was carrying a burden in their hearts, so there was little idle chatter.

Fortunately, Quxiang did not appear frightened. Perhaps, having grown up in the countryside, she had learned from an early age to shoulder things on her own. Thus, even as we walked, she continued to take the initiative, repeatedly scanning our surroundings.

We walked for roughly twenty minutes. Judging by my experience, we had not gone very far at all. Most of the time, we stayed close to the little river, not daring to venture deeper into the rainforest.

Of course, even with Lanfang’s encouragement, I was beginning to run out of strength. This kind of physical labor was truly miserable. I continued to persevere in silence, though I felt rather helpless, especially with both my hands growing numb. Seeing how seriously Quxiang was taking things, I only hoped that we would find some sign of hope soon—or at least a place to rest.

I had gone two or three days without eating any staple food. I had not even drunk a mouthful of clean water. After walking for several more minutes, the weakness and numbness made me want to stop. Looking at Quxiang ahead of me, I finally called out, “Xiangxiang, let’s take a break!”

Before Quxiang could respond, I seemed to catch sight of our destination. Lanfang appeared listless and had not even had time to speak, so I quickly set her down on a horizontal tree trunk that jutted outward. It was just the right height for her feet to touch the ground without discomfort.

She was somewhat startled by my sudden reaction, but when she saw the sweat pouring from my body and my clothes clinging tightly to me, she said nothing.

“Yes, yes! All right!” Quxiang glanced toward the sun beyond the forest. It seemed larger than I had imagined. Then she looked at me, drenched as though I had just come out of a bath. Her lips moved slightly, but she did not say what she had been about to say.

I figured that if we had not been following the river, we would already have been suffocated by the stifling heat and inexplicable silence of this place. Quxiang seemed to sense something as well. She gazed at the sun overhead, her expression turning somewhat solemn. Although she was unharmed for the moment, she vaguely understood what it meant, and she looked at me with concern.

“Ah! A-Jing, come over here and see! What is this?” I did not dare sit down. For one thing, I was soaked through; for another, standing against a tree while regulating my breathing was indeed more beneficial for recovering my strength. I had just begun massaging the muscles in my arms when Quxiang’s startled voice suddenly rang out.

Her voice was not loud, but the silence here was so abnormal, and the alarm in her tone so clear, that even the listless Lanfang instantly turned toward the place where Quxiang had spoken.

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“What is it? Why are you so nervous?” My brows drew tightly together at Quxiang’s exclamation. I could hear the tension and unease in her voice, and I could not help becoming nervous myself. Unlike girls raised in the city, Quxiang possessed a certain degree of self-reliance, so she instinctively reached for the trekking pole hanging at her side.

The trekking pole was collapsible, but I knew that when fully extended it was more than a meter long. Moreover, it had considerable weight and concealed a secret of its own. At present, it was my greatest source of confidence. Feeling it in my hand, I became somewhat calmer.

“Over there—there! You—you see? Look quickly! There, over there, there’s something…”

Following Quxiang’s trembling hand and voice, I looked toward the place she was pointing. Although I could not see anything yet, my heart had already begun to tighten.

This was deep in the rainforest, a place rarely visited by anyone, so all kinds of unexpected dangers were possible. I moved forward cautiously, instinctively drawing out the trekking pole. After extending two sections, making it more than two feet long, I advanced several more steps. Only then could I clearly see the thing that had unsettled her.

A hand.

A human hand!

I still did not know what had happened, but I hurriedly seized Quxiang and pulled her behind me. Though I had witnessed life and death before, the sight before me still sent a chill through my heart. The hand I was holding felt cold.

I pushed aside the branches blocking my view and saw that, in the water along the riverbank, less than two meters from shore, there was a fairly large boulder. The space where the river had washed through was the stretch between the boulder and the bank, where tree roots had been exposed by the current.

Some of the roots seemed to extend beneath the boulder into the river. Some were as thick as an arm, while others were as thin as a little finger. They appeared to belong to the large trees growing along the bank. Of course, in a tropical rainforest, such a sight was not unusual.

But among those roots and beside the boulder, there really was a hand.

More precisely, it was a hand floating in the water, pale from being soaked and partially concealed by the roots.

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I hurriedly pushed Quxiang a little farther back and told her to stay beside Lanfang. Quxiang looked frightened and uneasy, but perhaps seeing the tension in Lanfang’s expression, she could only retreat to her side. Once she had done so, I gathered my courage and moved forward.

“The current is still fairly strong. The bloodstains on the tree trunk and the boulder seem to have dried only recently…”

As I studied the scene before me, I had a vague idea of what might have happened and cautiously glanced around again. Compared with the discovery of a possible death, this horrifying sight no longer seemed quite so abrupt.

The hand protruding from beside the tree roots was surrounded by water. I could not see the rest of the body, but it was probably hidden behind the large boulder in front of us, beneath the surface.

“Is that person dead?”

Quxiang was still badly shaken, trembling from fright. She did not say anything more, but Lanfang, who had been sitting on the tree trunk, seemed to have emerged from her listlessness in shock. Apparently hearing Quxiang’s question, she asked me anxiously for the first time.

“Don’t panic. The current is a little strong. I’ll go around to that sandy patch ahead and see if I can find a place to enter the water.” From what I could see, whether on our side or across the river, the surroundings were relatively open, with a clear view extending more than ten meters. If anything happened, we would have time to react.

After carefully surveying the area, I considered the situation and saw the unease in both their eyes. Then I said to Lanfang, “But judging by how bloated and waterlogged that hand is, even if it really is a person, the chances of survival are slim.”

“You—you’re talking nonsense! You haven’t even gone into the water to look!” I had no idea what Lanfang was thinking. She actually let out an anxious snort, then looked at me with a cold smile. I could not tell whether she was trying to conceal her fear or genuinely doubting me.

Naturally, I had no intention of arguing with her. But I could hear the slight tremor in her voice. I did not know whether it came from fear, a lack of confidence in the three of us, or a lack of confidence in me.

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