Chapter 84

Chapter 84

In the dead of night, the entire camp had fallen silent, and Shen Juanjuan was fast asleep. Chu Ya's mental energy once again entered his spiritual domain.

Chu Ya lay awake for a long time before finally getting up, putting on his coat, and stepping out of the tent.

The outlines of distant sand dunes were faintly visible, and the lake shimmered with ripples. Chu Ya walked along the lakeshore, with Black Wolf quietly following beside him. He found a small sand mound to lean against and sat down, one hand petting Black Wolf's head, the other retrieving a chip from the inner pocket of his coat. After staring at it for a while, he held it in his palm, lost in thought as he gazed into the distance.

"Chu Ya." Rong Chen's voice came from behind.

Chu Ya quickly put the chip back in his pocket and stood up: "Uncle Rong."

"Can't sleep? Just enjoying the breeze here?"

"Yes, thinking about some things."

"I can't sleep either. Let's sit and chat for a bit."

"Sure."

Chu Ya sat down again. Rong Chen, not seeing Black Wolf, tried to sit where it was. Black Wolf stared up with its eyes, lifted its lip, but finally got up quickly and moved to lie down on the other side of Chu Ya.

"We're leaving the desert tomorrow, but the journey ahead will be even more perilous. We need to cross the Dor Mountains and enter the sea through Ganhua Town. The route looks feasible, but there are many challenges. Finding a suitable boat is a big problem."

Rong Chen sighed deeply: "Before we set off, the Dean gave me some money to rent a boat. But finding a reliable ship won't be easy. With so many children, anyone who sees us might suspect something and possibly leak our whereabouts."

Chu Ya hesitated and said, "My father often mentioned an old comrade named Qi Xingyuan. They fought together and Qi Xingyuan once saved his life. However, he didn't want to stay in Cloud Peak and became a police officer in Ganhua Town. I can try to contact him; if he helps us, we can leave safely."

Rong Chen pondered for a moment: "If there's no other way, let's give it a try. As long as he gets us to the sea, we'll be safe."

After a while, Rong Chen stood up: "Let's go back and rest. We have a long journey ahead tomorrow, and we should aim to reach Ganhua Town as soon as possible."

The next day, the group traveled all morning and finally crossed the desert. The endless expanse of yellow sand was replaced by clusters of thorny plants, and small animals scurried across the sandy ground, peering curiously at the group from their burrows.

Whenever Rong Chen saw an animal that looked decent, he immediately asked the students in the differentiation phase to observe it, wishing he could catch one himself to show them every angle.

Although the children lacked endurance, they recovered quickly. Despite being exhausted from walking in the desert the previous day, they were now excitedly chasing after groups of sand foxes.

"They've all seen it. Does Shen Juanjuan want to see it?"

Chu Ya looked at the sand fox in Rong Chen's hand, which was thin and covered in dirty gray fur. He subtly turned Shen Juanjuan's head away: "He doesn't want to see it."

"Why would I want to see it? It's so ugly," Shen Juanjuan asked curiously.

"Ugly? I think it's quite handsome," Rong Chen examined the sand fox and took out a comb to brush its face. "I'll find a piece of charcoal later to draw eyebrows on it."

The children from Dormitory 16 were riding on Black Wolf's back, and Tang Yuanyuan explained to Shen Juanjuan: "Chief Administrator Chen wants your quantum beast to look like this. He just had others in the differentiation phase observe it, but they all ran away."

"Ew!"

"Ew!"

The children all clutched their chests: "It's too ugly. Shen Juanjuan's quantum beast can't look like this."

Shen Juanjuan was even more shocked: "My quantum beast is a raccoon. My raccoon is very cute. Why would I want this big rat as my quantum beast? I don't want it." Then he asked Lin Duozhi, "Did you see it? Do you want such an ugly rat as your quantum beast?"

Lin Duozhi quickly shook his head: "... Ew."

Rong Chen, helpless, placed the sand fox on the ground, and it ran away as if released from a prison.

"Fine, fine, if you don't want to see it, then you don't have to. I'll show you something prettier later."

Shen Juanjuan asked Lin Duozhi, "What kind of quantum beast do you like?"

Lin Duozhi replied, "My brother likes the leopard that Brother Chu Ya drew."

"Oh, what about you?"

Lin Duozhi answered without hesitation, "Then I like leopards too."

"Will your quantum beasts look the same? How will you tell them apart?" Tang Yuanyuan asked.

"They won't be the same. His is a l-e-o-p-a-r-d," Shen Juanjuan dragged out the word, "and yours is a l-e-o-p-a-r-d!" he said the last part quickly.

"Hahaha." Lin Duozhi and the other children laughed.

The climate in this area was unpredictable. Although it was warm in the desert, the temperature dropped again after leaving it, and snow began to fall. The children put their coats back on, having initially hoped to leave the desert sooner, but now faced with a vast white landscape, they wished they could turn back and return to the desert.

As dusk fell, a massive mountain range appeared ahead, and the group finally reached the Dor Mountains.

The Dor Mountains stretched for thousands of miles, like a towering wall dividing the continent. On one side was the abyss and Cloud Peak, and on the other side was a vast expanse of land.

Chu Ya looked at the snow-covered canyon ahead and said to Rong Chen, "This used to be a river called the Dor River. Later, due to geological changes, the river disappeared, forming a long canyon running through the Dor Mountains, also known as the Dor Canyon. It will take us two days to cross this canyon. Let's set up camp here tonight."

"Alright, let's set up camp here."

The children were already shivering from the cold. The managers and older students quickly set up tents, gathered firewood from the mountains, and lit several fires, boiling water for everyone to warm their feet and hands. Black Wolf hunted a few mutants during this short time, and the managers cleaned them, placing them on the various fires to roast.

Chu Ya stood by the leftmost fire, skillfully turning the wooden skewers of meat, using a dagger to cut a piece of cooked meat and place it in the empty lunch box handed to him.

A long queue of younger students formed beside him, each holding their lunch boxes, slowly advancing while tiptoeing to get a better view. Shen Juanjuan maintained order, walking back and forth along the queue, sternly criticizing any younger student trying to cut in line.

"The meat my brother roasts is very delicious. I know you want to eat it, but you can't cut in line, understand?"

"I'm not trying to cut in line; I just want to get closer to smell it," the criticized younger student sniffed.

"But everyone wants to smell it. What do we do then? Everyone will cut in line, right?"

After dinner, the children who had been listless earlier were now full of energy, playing and tumbling around in the tents. The supervisors checked their feet one by one, pricking the blisters that had formed and applying ointment.

"How much longer do we have to travel? There are no more fish ahead; I don't want to travel anymore, never again." A middle-grade student lay on the bed, wailing.

"No more fish ahead?"

"Yeah, it's all mountains, no water."

"I don't want to travel forward either. Let's go back to the lake and travel there."

"Sure, we'll travel by the lake for a few days and then return, taking the fish back to the principal."

...

After a few complaints, someone started comparing who had the biggest blisters on their feet, and everyone soon forgot their grievances, lifting their feet to compare the sizes of their blisters.

Chu Ya sat in a small tent, also pricking Shen Juanjuan's blisters. Shen Juanjuan's foot was held by Chu Ya, his body lying on the quilt, and he playfully hit the Black Wolf, who was also lying beside him.

"You hit me so hard, I'm hitting you lightly, okay?" Shen Juanjuan slapped the Black Wolf hard, dissatisfied.

The Black Wolf then swiped at him with a heavy paw.

"I'm just copying you; you hit me so hard."

Shen Juanjuan punched back, and the Black Wolf swiped again.

"Ouch..." Shen Juanjuan looked at Chu Ya with a pout.

"Don't move, I'm applying the medicine." Chu Ya knew that although the Black Wolf wouldn't lose, it also knew its limits, so he said, "If you're going to hit each other, don't cry or complain after."

Shen Juanjuan pouted, "I don't want to fight with it. It hurts more and more, I won't fight anymore."

Though he said this, he secretly pinched the Black Wolf, which then flicked its tail at him.

Shen Juanjuan grabbed the tail, lying on his side and staring at the Black Wolf face-to-face. After glaring at the Black Wolf for a moment, he suddenly changed his expression and curiously touched its ears, "Shen Wangwang, when we planted wheat together, you looked so good. Why do you look like this now?"

"Roar!" The Black Wolf growled unhappily.

Chu Ya put socks on Shen Juanjuan's feet, "Didn't I tell you? That's because you haven't broken through yet. Once you become a formal guide, you'll be able to see clearly."

"When will I break through?"

"I don't know." Chu Ya pulled back the quilt, laid him down, and turned off the energy-saving lamp, "Alright, go to sleep."

The two rustled as they crawled into the quilt, while the Black Wolf got up and left the tent, starting to patrol the surroundings.

In the long night, the cold wind howled. The Black Wolf climbed up the hills on both sides of the canyon, driving the Mutants further away. Then it returned to Chu Ya's mental domain, absorbing the black substance into its body, which was then wiped off by Shen Juanjuan's mental tendrils.

Feeling refreshed, but now idle, the Black Wolf rolled around in the snow for a while before running towards the sandy area. It remembered there were many sand fox burrows near the desert and wanted to catch a few sand foxes to play with.

It quickly reached the sandy area, tiptoed to a burrow, and reached in with its paw. As the panicked sand foxes emerged from another exit, it pounced, pinned them under its paw, played with them for a while, and then let them go.

While the Black Wolf was enjoying itself, it suddenly sensed something and looked up at the horizon, ignoring the sand foxes that ran away.

The sky was dark, and everything was silent, but the Black Wolf reacted as if facing a great enemy, swiftly turning and rushing back to the campsite.

Chu Ya was awakened by the danger signal transmitted by the Black Wolf and opened his eyes abruptly.

A flying vehicle was circling in the air over the desert, estimated to arrive here in about fifteen minutes...

Flying vehicle!

Fifteen minutes!

Chu Ya sprang up, rushed out of the small tent, and shouted, "Uncle Rong, Uncle Rong, wake everyone up quickly, get up the mountain and into the forest."

Sharp whistles sounded in the tents as the supervisors went to shake the sleeping children awake.

"Wake up! Wake up!" Rong Chen blew the whistle anxiously, but only a few of the older students sat up, rubbing their sleepy eyes. The middle and younger grades were too exhausted from the previous day and couldn't be woken up.

"Mutants are coming, mutants are coming, run, mutants are coming..." Several supervisors began shouting hoarsely, and the older students finally woke up, starting to put on their clothes.

"Hurry, hurry, wake everyone around you, all of them. Mutants are coming, get up the mountain and hide in the woods."

An older student shook the middle-grade student next to him, "Supervisor, I can't wake them up, they're sleeping so deeply."

The middle-grade students gradually woke up, but having eaten mutant meat for days, they didn't find the word 'mutant' particularly frightening. Their tired minds were still muddled, so they mechanically put on their coats, and some fell back asleep in a sitting position.

When Chu Ya carried the still-sleeping Shen Juanjuan into the large tent, he saw this scene: the older students were only wearing coats, the younger ones were sprawled out, being lifted by the arms by the older students, and would fall back down when released.

The Black Wolf kept transmitting messages: the flying vehicle was not moving fast, zigzagging across the desert, searching everywhere, but it would reach the canyon in seven minutes.

Seven minutes, looking at these students, seven minutes was not enough. Moreover, the temperature outside was extremely low, and if they left the tent without proper clothing, they would freeze in the snow.

Chu Ya looked up at the tent and said to Rong Chen, who was carrying a middle-grade student out, "Uncle Rong, no need to take them out."

Rong Chen stopped, and Chu Ya continued, "Everyone, quickly lower the tent top and cover the people."

The supervisors rushed into the snowstorm, untying the tent ropes. With a few loud thuds, the tent top collapsed with the accumulated snow, burying all the students inside.

"Quickly, clear away all traces."

Several supervisors quickly shoveled snow to cover the exposed parts of the tent fabric. Chu Ya rushed to the other side, kicked over the already cold and extinguished tall bonfire, and scooped up snow to cover the wood. He noticed Wang Chengcai and Liu Zhen, who had also come out of the tent, shoveling snow to cover the large pots.

The Black Wolf also rushed back to the camp, dragging the carts to the mountain wall. Everyone came to help, pushing the carts into a depression, covering them with nylon tarpaulin, and shoveling snow to conceal them.

When the flying vehicle was about three minutes away, all items on the open ground had been cleared. Chu Ya and the supervisors sprinted into the canyon, simultaneously releasing their mental power, letting it sweep along the ground to erase all the messy footprints and drag marks.

The snow in the canyon was thick and fluffy. These nearly twenty people rushed in and immediately buried themselves in the snow piles at the base of the mountain, completely hidden in the snow.

The sky was already filled with the rumbling sound of a flying vehicle, two beams of bright light piercing through the heavy snowstorm, illuminating the snowy ground in a stark white. Chu Ya was buried deep in the snow, using his mental power to observe the situation outside and to smooth out the footprints in the canyon.

He saw that a manager's upper body was stuck in the snow, while his legs were still flailing in the air, struggling to bury himself deeper into the snow. The Black Wolf then pushed against his feet, forcing the entire body of the manager into the snow pile.

Although the Black Wolf was a quantum beast, invisible to ordinary people, it leaped into the air, tucking its tail and curling its limbs tightly, plunging like a cannonball into a large snow pile beside Chu Ya.

In just a few minutes, the entire camp had vanished from the ground, the tents barely visible as slight mounds on the snowy surface.

The flying vehicle moved back and forth over the area, gradually approaching the canyon. Chu Ya now dared not release his mental power, only sending out a thin thread to discreetly check the surroundings.

Two bright beams of light swept across the snow, constantly scanning the tents, making his heart race almost to the point of bursting from his throat.

Inside the dark tent, the children remained silent, lying motionless in the darkness.

Ten minutes earlier, the tent roof had suddenly pressed down, and Shen Juanjuan finally woke up with a start. Around him were panicked children screaming and thrashing, trying to push away the heavy fabric covering them.

"Don't be afraid, don't move, don't move, it's okay..." The manager's voice rang out at the right moment, quickly calming the children, who stopped shouting and thrashing.

"Don't be afraid, we intentionally let the tent roof fall, don't be afraid. Just lie still, and we'll be out soon. The tent isn't tightly packed or heavy; there's air inside. If your mouth or nose is covered, move to the side to find a place to breathe... Don't stand up or sit, just lie still, don't move, yes..."

"Manager, why did you let the tent roof fall?" someone asked, puzzled.

The manager's voice was low but urgent: "Don't talk, we just need to hold on for a bit, don't make any noise."

"Manager, why can't we make any noise? What are we doing just lying here?"

"I'll explain later, but for now, no one should make a sound."

Many of the older students already felt this wasn't a simple trip, but they were used to following the manager's instructions, so even if they suspected something, they mostly grumbled and continued to obey. But now, someone couldn't hold back and started demanding to return to the orphanage.

"I want to go out now, I want to go back to the orphanage."

"I want to go back too, I don't want to be pressed like this anymore."

"This isn't a trip, trips in cartoons involve going out in big vehicles, not walking and climbing mountains every day."

...

Some of the older students had already sat up and were crawling toward the edge of the tent. Hearing this, other students began to crawl toward the tent door. In the dark and chaotic environment, with the tent roof and snow pressing down on them, breathing became difficult, and some of the younger students started to cry.

Shen Juanjuan called out a few times to Shen Miaomiao but received no response, which made him anxious. But he knew he couldn't run around like the others; he just needed to stay where he was, and Chu Ya would definitely come for him.

The manager suddenly shouted: "Yes, you're right, this isn't a trip, it's an escape. We're not hiding from Mutants, but from those who are hunting us."

All the commotion instantly ceased, and both the older and middle-aged students fell silent, leaving only the younger ones sobbing.

The manager's hoarse voice continued in the darkness: "Because someone is hunting us, we fled the orphanage and have been running all the way here. Now those people have found us, and the flying vehicle is about to arrive. We cannot make any noise. Once this search is over, Chief Administrator Chen will explain everything to you."

Silence fell under the tent, whether from fear or some other reason, even the younger students stopped crying.

Shen Juanjuan lay flat, his eyes blinking lightly in the darkness. He suddenly heard a soft sobbing nearby, a sound he recognized well.

"Wang Xiaoxi," he whispered softly.

"Shen Juanjuan."

Shen Juanjuan moved closer, grabbing his arm, and whispered in his ear: "Don't be afraid, I'll protect you."

"Sniff..."

"Don't cry, I'm here. I'm the guide, and my brother is definitely protecting me outside. I'll protect you here."

Wang Xiaoxi stopped sobbing, his breathing slowly steadying, and he softly replied with a nod.