Chapter 69

Chapter 69

Shen Juanjuan and a group of junior students jostled through the crowd, trying to get closer to the bonfire. Chu Ya led them to a small, sheltered clearing where he had just lit a fire.

"Wow! What a big fire!"

"There's no one here."

The junior students sat around the fire, stretching out their red, frozen hands toward it.

"Move back a bit, don't get too close to the fire." Chu Ya pulled Shen Juanjuan back a little, and the other junior students obediently followed suit.

He had them take off their cotton shoes and place them near the fire, while he took Black Wolf to fetch some clean snow nearby, using an iron pot to boil water over the fire.

Children always recover quickly; during the time it took to boil water and dry their clothes and shoes, the originally listless students became lively again, with some already starting to fight on the open ground.

"Hong Wenzhi and Liu Xiaozhuang are fighting again."

"They've fought several times now."

"Today, Hong Wenzhi was walking in front, and Liu Xiaozhuang was behind him. He caught up and started a fight."

The students chattered excitedly.

Shen Juanjuan saw a supervisor carrying two senior students towards them, one of whom he had been locked in the water room with before.

Rong Chen ran up from behind: "Fighting again?"

"Tsk! We separated them, but they still want to fight together."

Rong Chen sighed: "There's nothing we can do. We don't have suppressants, and these children in the differentiation period can't control themselves."

Shen Juanjuan thought this sounded familiar and said, "Let them punch the punching bags. When they want to hit someone, let them hit the punching bags."

"Punching bags?" Rong Chen and the supervisor exchanged glances and then said, "Take them back to the tent and let them punch the quilts."

The two senior students were kicking each other as they were being held. The supervisor and Rong Chen each grabbed one and took them to separate tents.

When the hot water was ready, the students lined up with their water bottles to fill them, waiting for the supervisor to pour the water into their bottles. Chu Ya also had the junior students around his fire form a line, filling their bottles one by one.

Shen Juanjuan stood in the queue, laughing in relief: "I thought the hot water was for bathing, but it's just for drinking, hahaha."

After drying their cotton clothes and shoes and drinking enough hot water, everyone went outside to relieve themselves. The supervisor had already dug a row of holes in the snow pile. After the children finished using the toilet in line, the supervisor shoveled snow to cover the holes.

In the cold, some junior and middle students moved slowly, and the senior students waiting in line shrank their necks to scare them.

"... The ghosts in the snow will think, 'Who is peeing on my head?' I'll reach out and touch them."

The junior students jumped in fright, running and touching their bottoms, tripping over their unzipped pants and falling into the snow. A group of senior students laughed loudly until the supervisor scolded them, making them stop scaring others.

Chu Ya took Black Wolf to fetch more firewood, while Shen Juanjuan and a dozen junior students returned to their small tent. Compared to the noisy and lively tents, this one was eerily quiet, with all the junior students sitting on the left side, as quiet as chickens.

On the right side lay Lin Duozhi and Wang Chengcai.

Wang Chengcai had his eyes tightly closed, looking like he was asleep, while Lin Duozhi, lying beside him, didn't dare move, only his eyes moving pitifully, looking at Shen Juanjuan and the others, his gaze filled with pleading.

The junior students also looked at him, but none dared to speak.

The supervisor had come in earlier, giving a few pills to Wang Xiaoxi, instructing him to feed them to Lin Duozhi. Lin Duozhi lay in a corner, hidden by Wang Chengcai, and now Wang Xiaoxi held the pills, hesitating to approach.

"Feed him the pills," Tang Yuanyuan tugged at Wang Xiaoxi's arm.

Wang Xiaoxi's voice trembled, on the verge of tears: "I'm scared."

"Who isn't scared?"

Everyone shook their heads.

The task of feeding the pills ultimately fell to Shen Juanjuan, who had passed by Wang Chengcai several times without incident, making him the most suitable person to feed Lin Duozhi.

Shen Juanjuan took the pills and slowly crawled over the unfolded quilt, turning back to urge: "Give me a shield!"

"Psychic shield!"

"Psychic shield!"

Shen Juanjuan crawled closer, and Lin Duozhi sat up, taking the pills with his good hand and drinking from the water bottle beside him.

With Wang Chengcai still between them, Shen Juanjuan saw that he seemed to be sleeping and leaned in to whisper to Lin Duozhi, "Did he hit you in the cart?"

Lin Duozhi shook his head and whispered, "He didn't hit me."

"It's so scary sleeping here." Shen Juanjuan wrinkled his face, shaking his head as if his neck were frozen. Lin Duozhi added, "I don't dare move, afraid he might suddenly pick me up and beat me."

Shen Juanjuan thought for a moment: "Don't be afraid, my brother will watch him."

When Chu Ya entered the small tent, the children saw him like a savior, all moving closer to him.

Due to a shortage of supervisors, this small tent was under Chu Ya's watch. Fortunately, the junior students were very obedient. When Chu Ya told them to sleep, they all obediently crawled into their quilts, though they all crowded to one side, leaving the middle empty.

Chu Ya understood what they were afraid of, so he lay down next to Wang Chengcai, lifted the quilt beside him, and motioned for Shen Juanjuan to crawl in quickly.

Chu Ya was like an invisible wall, separating the danger on the other side, making the other children less afraid and no longer huddled together.

Usually, the junior students would chat for a while before going to sleep, but tonight, no one spoke, and they soon fell into a deep sleep. The other tents, with supervisors present, gradually quieted down as well.

The world was silent, except for the creaking of tree trunks under the weight of heavy snow. Black Wolf lay at the front of the clearing, with the tents behind him. It occasionally raised its head, ears perked up, alertly scanning the surroundings, and after finding no abnormalities, it lay down again, closing its eyes, its large tail swaying slowly.

Although Chu Ya's eyes were closed, he wasn't asleep. He could feel Shen Juanjuan's psychic energy entering his mental domain, rolling and playing, causing a commotion. He was familiar with this feeling and ignored it, focusing instead on planning the route for the team's next journey.

He didn't know how long it would take for Cloud Peak to discover this group's mass escape from the welfare home, but the first two or three days should be safe. According to their route, they had to walk along the foot of Keke Mountain until they left this mountain range.

But based on tonight's pace, he realized that their speed was not nearly fast enough to leave the Keke Mountain area within three days...

Chu Ya was pondering a solution when he heard two stifled sobs beside him.

His eyelashes trembled slightly, but he did not open his eyes, lying quietly. Wang Chengcai probably didn't want his crying to be heard, so he muffled the sounds under the blanket, occasionally letting out a muffled sob.

Chu Ya waited until the crying gradually subsided before getting up and quietly walking towards the tent entrance.

He lifted the tent flap and looked back, seeing that all the children were deeply asleep except for Lin Duozhi, who lay next to Wang Chengcai, still wide awake with a look of fear on his face.

Chu Ya mouthed to him, "Don't be afraid, I'll keep an eye on him."

Lin Duozhi nodded almost imperceptibly, but his expression visibly relaxed.

Just as Chu Ya stepped out of the tent, several managers emerged from the larger tents nearby. Rong Chen, the leader, pointed to the fire ahead, and Chu Ya nodded and followed.

The Black Wolf, on guard duty at the front, perked up its head at the sound of footsteps, glanced over, then laid back down.

Everyone sat around the fire. Rong Chen took out a notebook with the route map from his pocket and a few sweet potatoes from a bag beside him, whispering with a smile, "While they're sleeping, let's have some midnight snacks."

Everyone laughed, taking the sweet potatoes and burying them in the hot ashes beside the fire.

"Chu Ya, you know this route better than any of us. Tell everyone again," Rong Chen said to Chu Ya.

"Cloud Peak won't discover us for at least three days. We must get out of the Keke Mountains within these three days..."

As Chu Ya spoke, Shen Juanjuan's unrestrained laughter echoed in his mental domain: "...I'll plant another one, I'll plant another one, Shen Wangwang, are you here again? Hahaha..."

If Chu Ya could see his mental domain, he would be greatly surprised. The dark space that was once filled with hurricanes and meteorites now had fewer of them, and a golden expanse had appeared, where Shen Juanjuan had planted mental threads, like a field of undulating wheat.

After discussing the next steps with the managers and eating half a roasted sweet potato, Chu Ya rinsed his mouth and brushed his teeth. He did not return to the tent immediately but stayed with the Black Wolf, stroking its fur and scratching under its chin until it closed its eyes contentedly, sprawling out on the ground. Only then did he pat its head and return to the tent.

Wang Chengcai was buried under the blankets, and the other children were scattered about, no longer in their original positions. One had rolled to the edge, and if not for the tent fabric, would have rolled into the snow. Chu Ya picked each of them up and tucked them back into their blankets, then felt Lin Duozhi's forehead to ensure he wasn't running a fever before lying down next to Shen Juanjuan.

"Hehe..." Shen Juanjuan chuckled in his sleep, turning over and hugging Chu Ya's arm.

Before dawn the next day, the managers rang the wake-up bell. Chu Ya woke each child in turn, then picked up Shen Juanjuan, who continued sleeping in his arms, and dressed him.

After that night, Wang Chengcai no longer lay motionless. He sat up silently, his face still pale, his lips cracked, and his eyes bloodshot. The children watched him, but he seemed oblivious to everything around him, only lowering his gaze as he walked out of the tent.

"Can he walk? Wasn't he stabbed through and through? Doesn't it hurt?" Shen Juanjuan asked Chu Ya urgently when he saw Wang Chengcai leave the tent.

Chu Ya did not respond, only lowered his head to put on his shoes. After tying the laces, he softly said, "It hurts, of course it does, but we have to keep moving forward, no matter how much it hurts."