Chapter 47: Wilderness Survival Part One

Chapter 47: First Note on Wilderness Survival

Jiang Wan's mouth twitched.

She often found it particularly difficult to communicate with this fool across from her because her idiocy couldn’t be officially diagnosed.

"This isn't like when you fought me and told me not to be a toad lusting after your brother's swan meat, is it?"

"Sorry, I was wrong!"

In just these few months, Li Chengxiu had perfected the art of apologizing smoothly. Although he initially felt he wasn't wrong, now he still felt he wasn't wrong.

"Wan Jieer, don't be angry. I'm the toad, and you're the most beautiful fine toad. My brother's piece of swan meat is meant to go into your mouth! Don't worry, if you want it, Fourth Brother here can take care of this for you!"

To ensure his own safe exit, he very righteously patted his chest, betraying his brother so expertly it was staggering.

"…………Shut up. You're the toad—your whole family are toads!"

Jiang Wan's hands, busy with the medicine bottles, stilled, and she even took a moment to turn her head and glare at that fool.

"What would I want with your brother? Can't you see the Song and Chang sisters around him? Should I muscle in on their game to play mahjong with them?"

Li Chengxiu wasn't a true fool; of course, he knew what the Song and Chang sisters hanging around his brother meant, but he very carefree waved his hand.

"Don't worry, neither of them stands a chance.

Song Ziying has a verbal promise of marriage with my eldest brother, arranged by my father back then. As for Chang Yuning's temperament, my mother would have to be out of her mind to approve!

So rest assured, Wan Jieer. If you're willing, my handsome brother is as good as yours!"

He tossed in some off-topic remarks.

"What did mahjong ever do to you? Whose rotten idea was that?

No need to go find my brother to play with you—he’s not good enough. Just come to me!

Just wait till Fourth Brother here gets revenge for you. I’ll play mahjong all night long and teach it a lesson for not having eyes, for daring to annoy my sister—"

"Shut up!"

Unable to stand his endless chatter any longer, Jiang Wan grabbed the medicine she had found and, suppressing her irritation, explained clearly:

"Don’t these wounds of yours need to be cleaned of blood?

After applying medicine, don’t they need to be bandaged?

In the middle of nowhere like this, where am I supposed to find clean cloth?

Your outer clothes are covered in dust and blood—can you wrap them directly over the wounds?

If you don’t take off your undergarments, then whose should we use?"

With a deadpan expression, she fired five questions in a row, shaming the young man to the point of being mortified.

"I’m sorry, I was wrong!"

It was all Chang Yukang’s fault—that scoundrel always filling his head with nonsense, making him overthink everything. Chagrined, he cringed inwardly while deftly untying his clothes.

When a person is too embarrassed, they can even subconsciously ignore physical pain.

Perhaps it was because Jiang Wan's gaze was too calm that Li Chengxiu, who was shirtless, felt too embarrassed to spout any nonsense about what's proper. He was afraid that if he said the wrong thing, he would end up embarrassing himself in front of Sister Wan again.

The young man's ears were so red they looked like smoke was coming off them.

"Alright, let's do this."

Jiang Wan reached out and took the undergarment. It was indeed made of cotton, perfect for treating wounds. Using her strength, she tore the garment into strips with her bare hands.

She took a larger piece of cloth, soaked it in water, and with a gentle, practiced hand, carefully cleaned the dirt around the various large and small wounds on Li Chengxiu's body.

She didn’t dare wipe the wounds directly—after all, who knew how many germs were in that stream water? What if it got inflamed or infected? Wouldn’t that be something—if this kid didn’t die from being slashed by others but ended up dying under her care.

With a deadpan expression, she carefully applied the hemostatic powder from the porcelain bottle to the wounds that were still bleeding.

You couldn’t tell if this guy was unlucky or lucky—he had gone out for fun and ended up getting cut up so many times for no good reason, yet every cut had missed a fatal spot.

The assailant must have had some real skill—perhaps a medical student practicing?

Knowing that the guy in her hands was not in life-threatening danger, Jiang Wan relaxed enough to mock him inwardly.

By the time she finished bandaging all the necessary areas, the sun had already moved past overhead.

"What now? Should we wait here for rescue or the pursuers to find us, or should we try to find our way back?"

Jiang Wan was a true directionally challenged person. She usually couldn’t remember the route to a place without making the trip a bunch of times. So, when she had chosen to work at the Third Hospital, it was hard to say whether it was because the hospital was right downstairs from her home.

Li Chengxiu stood up and put on his outer robe. Although everything that needed to be seen had already been seen, a cover-up was still essential. After putting on his clothes, his sense of security shot up.

"I’ve never been here either. What if we try to find our way back?"

"Aren’t you afraid of running into those two masked men? Let me make it clear—there’s no way I can take them on. I just learned this whip technique."

"Then... should we wait here?"

"This place is so remote. How would they even find us? What if they can’t? Then we’ll have to spend the night in this wilderness, sleeping under the stars and roughing it outdoors! Are you sure we won’t become dinner for wild beasts?"

"Then what should we do?"

Whichever way he thought about it, Li Chengxiu felt that Sister Wan made sense, and he was at a loss for answers.

To be honest, Jiang Wan was pretty worried too.

She hadn’t eaten much in the morning, and escaping had consumed too much energy. Now she was both hungry and tired.

She turned her head left and right, hoping to scrounge up something to eat. Unfortunately, she hadn’t been in ancient times long enough to develop wilderness survival skills.

She couldn’t tell which of the withered trees and grass were edible and which were not, and she didn’t see any wild fruits or melons.

When she finally dug out a big patch of kinda yellow mushrooms under a tree, she fell silent for a long time.

These mushrooms were quite deceptive. They looked plain and simple, not too different from the ones she used to buy at the grocery market, and their smell was also similar.

If she were to actually try eating them, it might not be impossible—but there was just one problem.

If it goes well, they might be tasty.

If not, she might be a goner.

Although she had a rather laid-back attitude toward life and death and wasn’t one to sweat it too much.

But back when I was soaking in that ditch for a month, I finally talked myself into thinking, "Since I'm already here, I might as well just get by." There's no reason to get myself killed now just for a bite to eat, right?

"Wan Jieer, look what I caught!"

Over the hills and far away, there lived a Smurf—oops, wrong song!

The knucklehead waving at her from across the stream was proudly shaking a pheasant in his hand.

Jiang Wan immediately felt reassured. It seemed these mushrooms were edible! Hadn’t their golden partner, the little pheasant, shown up? Whether it got stewed or not didn’t matter—when you're used to cafeteria food, you can't be choosy.

She crouched down, swiftly picked a large bunch, tucked them into her clothes, and headed back. Stepping nimbly across the large stones in the stream, she hopped over to the other side.