Lin Leyao was worried that her phone would run out of battery, so she video-chatted with Xin Ying in advance today.
On her phone, Xin Ying noticed that the background behind Lin Leyao was different from usual and asked, "Aren't you at the hotel?"
Lin Leyao replied, "It suddenly started raining heavily when we went up the mountain to film today, so we couldn't make it back down. We're staying at a local's house tonight."
Xin Ying asked, "Are you able to sleep well?"
Lin Leyao nodded: "With electricity and hot water, I slept well."
Xin Yingzai looked closely at Lin Leyao on the screen and said, "Then you should go to bed early tonight, and I'll come to see you the day after tomorrow."
Lin Leyao hummed in agreement.
Lin Leyao didn't fall asleep until the early hours of the morning, but she didn't sleep well, tossing and turning from time to time. The light rain that had been falling for several hours suddenly turned into a rapid and fierce drizzle with a loud rumble, and the sound of raindrops hitting the window filled Lin Leyao's ears.
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Author's Note:
Thank you to all the little angels who voted for me or watered my plants with nutrient solution between 2022-05-20 20:29:43 and 2022-05-21 20:42:38!
Thank you to the little angel who watered the nutrient solution: 55157345 (1 bottle);
Thank you so much for your support! I will continue to work hard!
Chapter 109
Because she hadn't slept well all night, Lin Leyao opened her eyes early this morning.
It was still early and the room was dark. Lin Leyao was sleeping by the window. She sat up and pressed her eyes against the window, carefully looking outside through the clear glass.
Everything outside was shrouded in darkness, and a light drizzle occasionally fell on the glass, leaving a soft tapping sound on the window.
Because the villagers' house didn't have enough rooms, Lin Leyao, Xiao Yan, and Iris all slept in this room last night.
Seeing that Xiao Yan and Iris on the bed were still asleep, Lin Leyao carefully stepped over them to get out of bed. However, she did not expect that Lin Leyao's small movements would instantly wake Xiao Yan from her sleep.
Xiao Yan suddenly sat up, startling Lin Leyao who was about to get out of bed.
Lin Leyao looked at Xiao Yan and asked, "Awake? Do you want to get up?"
Xiao Yan nodded, and the two of them got out of bed together.
The two left the bedroom and entered the main room. Lin Leyao pressed the light button on the wall but found no response.
Xiao Yan suddenly realized what she was doing when she saw her actions and said, "There was a power outage here last night. You were asleep when the power went out, so you didn't know about it."
Xiao Yan sighed, "I didn't sleep at all last night. I played on my phone all night until it ran out of battery and shut down. Then I drifted off to sleep. I really envy you. You have such good sleep quality. You didn't wake up at all last night."
Hearing Xiao Yan's words, Lin Leyao smiled. To outsiders, she might have looked fine while sleeping last night, but she knew she hadn't slept well at all. Perhaps because of the rain and thunder, she had been in a state of semi-consciousness, feeling groggy and confused. Even now that she was awake, her mind was still foggy.
The two were talking at the bedroom door when the old lady, the homeowner, soon came out of the kitchen carrying a lit candle.
They had to stay overnight on the mountain due to an accident, and they hadn't prepared any daily necessities. The old lady smiled and handed Lin Leyao a few unopened toothbrushes.
"We happen to have three unused toothbrushes at home. You three girls can each have one. Those boys get up late and don't have any toothbrushes to use!"
The old lady gave the only candle in the house to Lin Leyao and Xiao Yan, and the two used the flickering candlelight to wash up briefly in the dark main room.
During the rainy season, it gets light late. Although it gets a little brighter outside, it's still a dark gray.
After washing up, Lin Leyao returned to her room and found that Iris was already awake.
Iris, holding her phone, asked with a displeased look, "Leyao, is my phone broken? Why can't I send messages?"
"It's broken?" Lin Leyao was a little surprised. "Then let's buy a new phone after we go down the mountain today."
That was all I could do, and Iris put her phone down unhappily.
Seeing her childlike appearance, Lin Leyao ruffled her hair and smiled. She picked up her phone and looked at it, only to find that the phone she had tried to charge before going to bed last night hadn't actually charged.
There weren't enough outlets yesterday, so Lin Leyao was the last to charge her phone. Even with the power outage last night, she should have had a few hours to charge it, and her phone battery should have been back to 80%. But now it only has 7% battery left.
Not knowing when the power would come back on or when they could get down the mountain, Lin Leyao tried to send a message to Xin Ying to let her know so that her phone would run out of battery and she wouldn't be able to contact her. However, the message failed to send.
Lin Leyao stared at the exclamation mark icon next to her sent message for a long time in silence. After a while, she said to Iris, who was still sullen in bed, "Iris, it's not that your phone is broken, it's that our phones have no signal."
Upon hearing this reason, Iris suddenly sat up in bed, puzzled, and asked, "What? No signal?"
"It's probably because of the rain and thunder last night; there might be a problem with the nearby cell towers. That's why we can't send messages on our phones now."
Iris nodded, half understanding. She had thought that Xin Wenwen had blocked her, which was why she couldn't send messages, but she didn't expect it was because of the cell phone signal.
Iris's mood instantly changed; she was no longer frustrated or gloomy. Humming music, she got out of bed to wash up.
Lin Leyao's mood became somewhat depressed after she couldn't send the message to Xin Ying.
The TV station staff gradually woke up, and after everyone had breakfast together, they waited for another two hours. Around noon, the drizzle finally stopped.
Although the weather was still a bit gloomy, it was much better than yesterday, and after some discussion, everyone decided to head down the mountain now.
It had just rained, and the mountain road was slippery, so everyone was very careful.
After walking for a short while, the guys from the TV station carrying the equipment were sweating profusely. One of them complained, "It's been raining for so long, but the temperature hasn't dropped at all. I'm dying of heat!"
Someone said, "It's the turn of spring and summer. The more it rains now, the hotter it will get. We're just unlucky. Let's hurry down the mountain before it rains again. We can get wet, but our cameras can't."
The group fell silent again. Lin Leyao and her two companions walked at the back of the group. The mountain path was very muddy after the rain, and everyone was extremely careful. Even though they were physically fit, the feeling of having to walk carefully at this moment made them very tense.
After walking for a while, a few raindrops began to fall from the sky. Everyone realized that it was going to rain, so they quickened their pace.
A few minutes later, one of the boys walking in front suddenly said, "I need to go to the bathroom."
Someone retorted to him, "There are girls here, you better watch yourself!"
"I really can't hold it in anymore, I'll go to the back, you guys keep going."
As he spoke, the boy in front stopped and stepped aside, letting the line pass in front of him.
Lin Leyao walked at the back. As she passed the boy, she took a step to the side, and the grass and bushes that stretched out onto the road next to her were soaked with raindrops.
Suddenly, Lin Leyao's expression changed. Her brows furrowed, and she hissed in pain.
Xiao Yan, who was walking in front of her, immediately turned around upon hearing the sound and asked Lin Leyao's pale face, "What's wrong?"
The boy waiting to use the restroom was quite surprised. Seeing Lin Leyao sway, he quickly steadied her and asked, "Teacher Lin, did you twist your ankle?"
Lin Leyao pursed her lips and shook her head. She half-squatted down, clutching her ankle for a while before raising her hand and saying, "Something cut my ankle?"
When Xiao Yan saw Lin Leyao's hands covered in blood, she felt like she was going to faint. She quickly squatted down and rummaged through the grass next to her, only to find a rusty sickle blade stuck diagonally in the soil.
The sickle's blade points towards the roadside, making it easy for passersby to get cut if they walk through the grass.
Xiao Yan squatted down to examine the wound on Lin Leyao's ankle and found that the sickle had cut a very deep, diagonal wound. In just a short while, the blood flowing from the wound had already soaked Lin Leyao's entire ankle and the white sneakers on her feet into bright red.
Lin Leyao's wound was no small injury, and the group that was going down the mountain stopped because everyone was very worried.
Lin Leyao gritted her teeth and stood up, saying, "Let's not waste any more time, let's hurry down the mountain."
With such an injury, they absolutely could not continue walking down the mountain. After discussing it, they decided that a male colleague from the TV station would carry Lin Leyao on his back, and they would all go down the mountain together.
Although she doesn't have to walk on her own now, Lin Leyao is even more nervous about being carried along mountain paths.
Looking at the road ahead, Lin Leyao whispered to the boy carrying her, "The road ahead is a bit steep, so walk slowly."
Although carrying someone on his back along the mountain path was very tiring, he was very happy to be carrying his male colleague, Lin Leyao. He was excited the whole way, and his back was tense.
Hearing Lin Leyao's concerned words of advice, he immediately nodded and replied, "Okay."
However, before he could finish speaking, the man stumbled and fell, taking Lin Leyao with him.
"Le Yao!"
"Hey!"
The two falling startled Xiao Yan and the others, who screamed repeatedly.
The two of them tripped and fell, getting covered in mud. The boy immediately got up and tried to help Lin Leyao up, but Lin Leyao, having already fallen once, no longer had the strength to stand up on her own as she had when she was injured, so she could only rely on the boy to help her up.
Unexpectedly, Lin Leyao, who was already injured, fell again. Seeing her clothes and pants covered in mud and water, looking extremely disheveled and pitiful, Xiao Yan couldn't help but tear up.
Feeling extremely guilty, the boy helped Lin Leyao up and quickly asked, "Teacher Lin, shall I carry you again?"
She knew the boy was terrified because of the fall, and Lin Leyao smiled to comfort him, but she was in too much pain and didn't have the strength to make any more expressions. She could only twitch her lips slightly before letting them fall.
Lin Leyao's face was completely pale, except for a little bit of red showing on the part of her lips that she had been biting tightly.
Just as his male colleague was about to carry Lin Leyao down the mountain again, Xiao Yan's expression suddenly changed, and she shouted, "We can't go down the mountain!"
The people in front were stunned by Xiao Yan's words. Xiao Yan's gaze was fixed on the wound on Lin Leyao's ankle. The wound had been injured twice and the edges were turned outward. The red flesh inside was now covered with mud and water. The mud and blood mixed together were a shock to people's eyes.
When Lin Leyao fell, her wound also hit the ground, getting covered in dirty mud and water.
Iris noticed the state of the wound and immediately took out a half-empty bottle of mineral water from her bag, saying, "Quickly clean it!"
Lin Leyao's wound had been exposed to a rusty blade and a lot of dirty mud. If it wasn't cleaned, disinfected, and treated quickly, it would easily become infected.
However, there is still a long way to go down the mountain, and Xiao Yan is worried that letting the wound linger until the bottom will have serious consequences. They are not far from the top of the mountain now, so they can go back as soon as possible to ask the villagers for some alcohol to disinfect the wound.
At this moment, the rain that had been accumulating in the gloomy sky finally came down all at once. The raindrops were no longer the small raindrops they had been before, but rather ordinary, plump pearls.
Bad weather makes people feel depressed and irritable. When Xiao Yan said she didn't want to go down the mountain, the man in front of her advised, "Sister Xiao, the rain is getting heavier, let's hurry down the mountain. We can take Teacher Lin to see the wound after we get down."
"No need, let's go back up the mountain." Xiao Yan said decisively, looking at Lin Leyao to ask for her opinion.
Lin Leyao also wanted to get down the mountain quickly, but she could feel that her wounds were very serious. Before, she could muster the strength to get down the mountain quickly, but now she could only hold everyone back.
Lin Leyao thought for a moment and said, "Let's go up the mountain, rest for the night, and come down tomorrow."
Iris immediately said, "I'll go with you."
The TV station staff eventually agreed to their choice. They left one boy to accompany them up the mountain, while the others continued down.
The ascent was quick. After Lin Leyao reached the top, Xiao Yan thoroughly disinfected her wound with alcohol. The pain from the alcohol-soaked wound was even more intense than when she cut her ankle. Stimulated by this pain, Lin Leyao remained listless after the treatment.
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Author's Note:
Thank you to all the little angels who voted for me or watered my plants with nutrient solution between 2022-05-21 20:42:38 and 2022-05-23 17:56:38!
Thank you to the little angels who threw landmines: CM靇, Beiq7, and 55157345 (1 each);
Thank you to the little angel who watered the nutrient solution: 10 bottles of Junzi Yujue;