Chapter 33: Extreme Heat, Hounds

Lu Zhifeng stopped chopping the mushroom mid-swing.

Jiang Si moved to check Jiang Linhai’s hands, but he shouted to stop her. "Don’t touch me! The surface of these giant mushrooms isn’t poisonous, but the insides of the stems are! Don’t be reckless!"

Jiang Si quickly pulled on two layers of plastic gloves. "This should be fine. Dad, let me see."

Jiang Linhai held out his hands. They were swollen and covered in thick blisters, looking a bit like he’d been stung by a swarm of bees.

Jiang Si took an iodine and alcohol-based ointment from her bag to reduce the swelling. The moment she touched him, Jiang Linhai shrieked in pain. It seemed even worse than the rat bite he’d suffered before.

His hands were a horrific sight, with yellow pus swirling within the blisters.

Shen Baoying was terribly worried. "They’re so swollen! If the blisters pop, will his whole hand rot away?"

Jiang Linhai’s eyes widened. "Bao Ying, don’t scare me!"

There were far too many poisonous creatures in this post-apocalyptic world, but this was the first time Jiang Si had ever encountered these giant mushrooms.

They would have to wait and see if the iodine and alcohol ointment had any effect.

A short while after the ointment was applied, Jiang Linhai’s hands began to burn and itch as if they were on fire. If Jiang Si hadn’t been holding his arms down, afraid he would make his hands rot, he would have scratched the blisters open long ago.

The iodine and alcohol ointment wasn’t working. With her eyes red-rimmed, Zhang Qingfang asked anxiously, "Does he have to cut off his hands to save his life?"

Jiang Linhai shook his head frantically. "Maybe it’ll get better if I just bear with it."

’If I have to lose my hands and become a burden to my family, I’d rather die.’

Jiang Si grew even more anxious, starting to regret her decision to lead her family into the forest to take this risk.

’If only I had scouted ahead first, Dad wouldn’t be in this state.’

She forced herself to calm down. "For every poison, there is an antidote. Maybe there’s something nearby that can counteract the mushroom’s toxin."

This was a lesson Jiang Si had learned through trial and error during her past life in the apocalypse.

Lu Zhifeng nodded. "That’s right. Let’s have a careful look around."

In the past, whenever he got injured or bitten by insects in the forest, he could always find medicinal herbs nearby to soothe the pain.

The apocalypse had caused plants and animals to mutate; perhaps it had also created natural antidotes.

But as far as the eye could see, there was nothing but mushrooms.

After only a short delay, Jiang Linhai’s hands had worsened. The blisters were starting to spread up his arms.

Zhang Qingzhi was frantic with worry. She suddenly turned to Qin Shen. "Xiao Shen, you’re a doctor. Do you know how to save his hands?"

All eyes turned to Qin Shen, clinging to a final sliver of hope.

Qin Shen stared at Jiang Linhai’s hands, lost in thought for a long moment.

Thinking it was hopeless, Jiang Linhai even tried to console Qin Shen. "The diseases that have appeared in the apocalypse are bizarre. Xiao Shen, you’re a surgeon, not a dermatologist. It’s normal that you wouldn’t know."

Seeing Jiang Linhai’s forced smile, Jiang Si was nearly overwhelmed with regret.

Suddenly, Qin Shen looked up and said, much to everyone’s surprise, "I have a skin cream at home. It might work."

The faces of Jiang Si’s family instantly lit up. "Then let’s head back right away!" they said excitedly.

Wearing latex gloves, Jiang Si cut off a mushroom. She wrapped the stem first in a layer of cloth, then in a plastic glove, securing it tightly before letting the others hold them.

Lu Zhifeng left a marker at the spot. In the future, if they needed to go out under the scorching sun, they could come here to collect mushrooms to use as parasols.

After walking for a while holding the mushrooms aloft, a lookout tower gradually came into view in the withered forest.

Lu Zhifeng said, "That’s the lookout tower Zhou Dajin used to man. I wonder if he’s still alive."

Zhou Dajin was in his fifties and had never married—a real loner. None of the other members of the forestry team liked staying deep in the mountains for long, but he had stood watch here for twenty years.

He hardly ever spoke to anyone, except when he had to exchange information or get resupplied by the team.

Jiang Si pulled out her binoculars to look at the tower, only to find herself looking directly at a man on the platform who was wearing sunglasses and holding a pair of military-grade binoculars.

And behind the man, someone was even holding a mushroom over him like an umbrella.

In that instant, Jiang Si sensed danger. "There are strangers in the tower!" she said urgently to the others. "Let’s go, quickly!"

’Anyone who can survive in this forest must be exceptionally capable.’

At Jiang Si’s words, the group immediately picked up their pace.

But in Zhang Xianchao’s eyes, the movements of Jiang Si’s group, holding their distinctive mushrooms, were painfully obvious.

’Those mushroom umbrellas can block the sun’s radiation. If I take them to the city, I could trade them for a massive amount of supplies.’

’The profit would be dozens of times greater than what we made from poaching.’

’And with such a scarce resource, I could build a powerful faction.’

’While everyone else is trapped inside, I could control the world.’

Zhang Xianchao couldn’t let the secret of the giant mushrooms get out.

His eyes narrowed. He waved Luo Daqiang over and ordered, "Go. Wipe them out, leave no one alive."

Luo Daqiang hastily slurped down a mouthful of instant noodles and stood up, looking dumbfounded. "Boss, didn’t we already kill Zhou Dajin?"

Zhang Xianchao glared at him, then ripped off his sunglasses and hurled them at him. "Eat, eat, eat! All you ever do is eat! You have less brains than a pig! Now get down there, take some men, and kill every last one of them for me!"

Luo Daqiang snatched the sunglasses out of the air. Seeing a hint from one of the other underlings, he finally understood, his heart lurching. He grabbed a gun and scrambled to run downstairs, only to slam his head into the doorframe with a loud THUD.

Dazed and seeing stars, Luo Daqiang tumbled down the stairs, followed by the sound of him slipping and crashing at the bottom.

If a fortune teller hadn’t once told Zhang Xianchao that Luo Daqiang was his good luck charm, he would have crippled the man on the spot.

Luo Daqiang took eight men and a pack of vicious hunting dogs, and ran in the direction Jiang Si’s group had gone.

Luo Daqiang, both burly and fat, wheezed like an old dog as he struggled to keep up at the rear.

"WOOF WOOF WOOF—"

The hounds had found their trail. They were getting close.

A flicker of delight crossed Luo Daqiang’s face. He took a step forward, completely forgetting about the traps they had set around the giant mushrooms.

"AHH—"

Luo Daqiang let out a bloodcurdling scream as his foot was caught in a snare, and he was yanked upside down into a large tree.

The moment his mushroom cap fell off, his exposed skin began to sizzle as if it were on a hot griddle. He clutched at his face, letting out a heart-wrenching shriek of pain.

The underlings who had run ahead had no choice but to send two men back to cut him down from the tree quickly.

Watching on his monitor, Zhang Xianchao saw Luo Daqiang, his face covered in blisters, collapsed on the ground and wailing. He ground his teeth. "Some fucking good luck charm!"

The eight hunting dogs, like wild horses loosed from their tethers, viciously snarled and bared their teeth, surrounding Jiang Si’s group.

Big Black and Little Black barked furiously, warning the hounds not to come any closer.

But these hounds, trained specifically to tear prey to shreds, paid Big Black and Little Black no mind.

They crouched, muscles tensed, about to launch their attack on Jiang Si and the others.

Jiang Si raised her pistol, but before she could fire, the hounds’ eyes suddenly filled with terror. With a collective whimper, they tucked their tails between their legs and unhesitatingly bolted.

Jiang Si froze, her eyes shifting to Qin Shen.

’It was as if the hounds had taken one look at him and become terrified.’

She didn’t have time to ponder this, as six armed men appeared in their line of sight.