Poisson coulé

Chapitre 14

Forget it, the most important thing for her now is to take a bath, not to care about whether her skin is good or bad.

Time passed by, and both girls felt completely relaxed after soaking in the water. Qin Wen folded a towel, covered her head, and leaned against the lakeside, enjoying herself to the fullest. She kept saying, "It feels so good. All my fatigue has flown away."

"Would you like me to scrub your back?" Qin Wen sat to the side enjoying herself. Yin Li was about to refuse, but then seemed to suddenly remember something. A hint of doubt appeared in her eyes, and she murmured, "Strange, really strange."

"What's strange?" Qin Wen asked nonchalantly. Yin Li frowned, feeling a sense of fear spreading through her body. "Isn't this Situ's first time here? How come he's so familiar with this place?"

Qin Wen was taken aback, stood up, her eyes also full of surprise: "He knows there is an oasis here, and even knows which part of the lake has a suitable water temperature for hot springs. Could it be... that he has been here before?"

Yin Li's expression turned even uglier; it seemed that Situ Xiang was hiding many things from her.

"Don't worry about it. Situ Xiang is a policeman, after all. How could he possibly harm us?" Qin Wen, soaking in the hot spring, had even lowered her guard. She swam a few strokes in the water and said, "You soak slowly, I'm going to swim for a while."

Yin Li had no choice but to close her eyes and focus on enjoying the comfort and pleasure brought by the hot water. Her whole body relaxed, and the world seemed to expand.

After several days of hard work, her muscles became sore and weak in the hot water. As fatigue set in, she felt a chill and slowly opened her eyes, only to see complete darkness.

Her heart sank immediately.

It was a narrow box, and she huddled inside. A biting cold wind seeped in from the gaps around her, making her shiver uncontrollably.

Where was she? She pounded on the sides of the wooden box, which was as hard as rock. Why was she here? Was it the work of those mercenaries? But this was an oasis in the desert; where did they get a box like this?

Why are they locking her up here?

A biting wind swept through, and she was only wearing a white silk bodice and a long white skirt; goosebumps rose on her skin. She frantically pounded on the wooden board, calling out Situ Xiang and Qin Wen's names, but no one responded.

It was as if the world had shrunk down to just this box, and she was slowly withering away inside it, as if she had been buried alive.

Starvation is a much longer and more terrifying process than suffocation.

Situ! Xiaowen, come save me!

Tears streamed down her cheeks. All around was quiet; apart from her own heavy breathing, she couldn't sense any other living being in the world. Suddenly, she realized that perhaps this was just a nightmare, and everything would end when she woke up.

She closed her eyes, hoping to wake up, and perhaps when she opened them again, she would be back in that warm lake.

She waited for a long time, then opened her eyes. She was still in that box. She felt a despair she had never felt before. Situ and Xiaowen, had they abandoned her?

Has the world already abandoned her?

At that moment, she suddenly couldn't distinguish which was the dream and which was reality. Perhaps Situ Xiang, Qin Wen, Min Enjun, and the mercenary "Blood Wolf" were all just illusions she dreamed of in this box.

Did she dream of Yin Li, or did Yin Li dream of her?

Just then, a beam of light suddenly shone in from the slightly ajar door of the box, stinging her eyes. She quickly shielded them with her hands. Through the blur, she seemed to see a tall male figure standing outside the door, silently watching her. After a long while, he finally picked her up.

She suddenly opened her eyes and saw a familiar face.

Min Eun-joon?

The almost bewitchingly handsome face nearly made Yin Li faint again. She looked around and realized she was still in the hot spring lake, naked, surrounded by tall poplar trees. Min Enjun, also naked, stood before her, the water submerging him from the waist down. His muscular physique made it hard to believe he had such a feminine face.

She breathed a long sigh of relief; it really was a dream, giving her a sense of relief after surviving a disaster.

etc!

She was taken aback. Why was Min Eun-joon here?

"What...what are you going to do?" Yin Li trembled, instinctively crossing her arms to protect her chest. "I'm still soaking in the hot spring, please leave immediately!"

"Why should I leave?" Min Eun-joon smiled seductively, moving closer to her. "Is this place all yours?"

"Don't look at what you shouldn't!" Yin Li said angrily. "Mr. Min, you should understand this principle, shouldn't you?"

Min Enjun's lips curled into a wicked smile as he leaned close to her ear and whispered, "Why do you like that guy surnamed Situ? Even though he drives a Hummer, he doesn't seem like a rich man, and he's not gentle with girls at all. How about it? Want to come with me? I can give you anything you want."

Yin Li is a very vain person. Being courted by such a handsome man is indeed an exciting thing. However, for any decent girl, his words would make her feel disgusted.

"What exactly do you want?" Yin Li's face turned cold. Min Enjun smiled and reached out, twirling a strand of her wet hair with his index finger. "I think I've made myself clear. I want you."

"What use am I to you?" Yin Li sneered. "All you want are people who can help you. Every word you say now has nothing to do with love."

"Love?" Min Eun-joon seemed to have heard the most ridiculous joke in the world. "This world is a dog-eat-dog world. Only a naive little girl like you still believes in love. Little girl, you better remember that feelings are all fake. There are only transactions in this world. I can give you what you want, and you can give me what I want. If I find that you can no longer give me what I want, the transaction ends. That is the true nature behind so-called love."

His gaze grew increasingly sharp, and there wasn't a trace of a smile in his dark eyes.

His gaze grew sharper and sharper, his dark eyes devoid of any smile, only filled with a terrifying coldness. Yin Li suddenly sensed that in his heart, there was only despair for the world.

Who exactly is he?

Yin Li suddenly became very curious. What kind of childhood did he have? What had he experienced that made him so young and controlled by despair and desire?

Min Eun-joon saw that she was peering into his heart, and his face gradually darkened. He turned and went ashore: "You'd better consider my proposal. With me by your side, you can get anything you want."

Yin Li turned away, not daring to look at his naked body. After a moment of silence, she suddenly asked, "What do you want from me? If your goal is the sacred Buddhist pagoda tomb, then the person you're looking for shouldn't be me."

She heard Min Eun-joon's laughter and could even imagine how alluring his smile was: "People are always deceived by appearances and can't see the truth. Yin Li, you will soon understand what this means."

The footsteps faded into the distance, and her tense nerves and body relaxed. She leaned weakly against a fallen poplar tree trunk and let out a long sigh of relief. This man was too dangerous; being with him was like having a time bomb next to you.

If possible, you must find a chance to get rid of them.

16. The Underwater Monster

She was about to go ashore when her expression suddenly froze.

There's something there, something underwater.

Something soft was stroking her calf, and the touch... felt like... felt like a human hand!

She gasped sharply, and before she could react, a hand grabbed her ankle, pulling her violently into the water. Hot water immediately surged in from all sides, engulfing her. The sulfur in the hot spring stung her eyes. Through her blurred vision, she saw a bald head, a face indistinct and covered in wrinkles.

It's a person! It really is a person!

No, it could no longer be called human. Its body was covered in fish-like scales. Yin Li wanted to scream, but as soon as she opened her mouth, hot water rushed in, seeping into her throat and trachea. She felt as if her chest was about to explode with pain, and could only instinctively kick and punch the hand that was tightly gripping her. The back of the hand was covered in scales, sharper than a knife. She felt waves of excruciating pain coming from the soles of her feet, not knowing how many cuts she had received.

Help me! Someone help me!

She struggled desperately, watching the water recede further and further away. Despair, like creeping vines, enveloped her in that instant. Was she going to die like this?

No, she was not willing to accept it! She couldn't just die here without knowing why!

She reached out and grasped at the water's surface, her eyes already closed, her consciousness fading. In her hazy state, she touched something, like a wooden stick. She grabbed it and stabbed it fiercely into the face of the monster beneath her. Then, she heard a sharp scream, like the giant salamander she had once seen in the zoo.

When her hand loosened, she was overjoyed and quickly swam towards the surface. As she broke through the water, the world seemed to expand again. She struggled to climb ashore, lay on the ground, and vomited and coughed incessantly, as if she were trying to cough up her lungs.

"Xiao Li." Qin Wen's voice came, and a pair of hands immediately helped him up. She opened her eyes with difficulty and murmured, "Xiao Wen."

"What happened?" Qin Wen helped her put on the clothes she had on the shore. "Aren't you a very good swimmer?"

"Xiaowen, there's a monster in the water!" Yin Li grabbed her arm and said anxiously, "It's a monster that looks like a human, but it has no hair and its whole body is covered in scales."

It was only then that Qin Wen noticed that her legs were covered in wounds, not deep, but like cuts from razor blades and soaking in hot water, leaving them bloody and mangled.

"Xiao Li, what happened?" Situ Xiang heard the noise and rushed over. He immediately saw her blood-soaked legs and his face turned deathly pale. "Who did this?"

"Monster, monster in the lake!" Yin Li tried to stand up, but her legs were in excruciating pain as soon as she moved. Situ Xiang and Qin Wen helped her up with heartache. "Go back to the car first, your wounds need to be bandaged."

The three of them had just turned around when they heard the sound of rushing water. When they turned back, all three of them suddenly changed color.

A bald head emerged from the water, followed by a second, a third, and countless other monsters surfaced, their scales gleaming coldly in the sunlight.

"It's them!" Yin Li screamed. "These are the monsters that attacked me just now!"

"Hurry!" There was no time to hesitate. Situ Xiang carried Yin Li on his back and ran towards where the car was parked. Min Enjun and the Blood Wolf members were already sitting in the car fiddling with their guns. Seeing them rushing over, Ma Xie asked curiously, "What's going on?"

"Monster!" Situ Xiang frowned, helping Yin Li into the car. "Quick! Everyone, get out of here right now!"

Before she could finish speaking, a dark figure darted up and pounced on Qin Wen's shoulder. She cried out in alarm, felt a sharp pain in her neck, and almost simultaneously, a deafening gunshot rang out. The dark figure was immediately sent flying, crashing to the ground with a bloody, mangled face.

Qin Wen touched her neck; her hands were covered in blood. Caesar elegantly put the gun back into its holster and smiled, "It's just a scratch. Be careful; you might not be so lucky next time."

Qin Wen snorted coldly and said, "You don't need to worry about it!"

Marcie walked over and stared in astonishment at the convulsing humanoid monster, bending down to touch its sharp, knife-like scales: "What kind of monster is this? It's truly astonishing that such a creature lives in an oasis like this."

As the sunlight shone down, something flashed on the monster's chest. He picked it up and found it was a gold medal with a Buddha statue cast on it. A thick snake was coiled around the Buddha's body, its mouth wide open as if it wanted to swallow him whole.

Situ Xiang stepped on the gas and yelled at Ma Xie, who was still admiring the monster, "Hurry up! There's more than one monster!"

Marcie was startled. He felt a cold wind coming from behind him. He instinctively turned around and pulled the trigger. Another monster flew out from within a foot behind him, with a large hole in its chest, from which dark red blood gushed out.

Then, everyone heard footsteps, and one by one, bald monsters emerged from the poplar forest, their scales dazzling their eyes.

“Unbelievable…” The grass in Marcel’s mouth fell to the ground. Before he could even be surprised, he had already turned around and rushed into the car. The two monsters pounced on him at an incredible speed. He slammed the car door shut behind him, and the two monsters crashed into the door with a loud bang. Spiderweb-like cracks appeared in the glass.

"Damn it! What kind of monsters are these?!" Before he could finish speaking, two more monsters crashed into him. Their hideous and blurry faces were clearly reflected in the glass. Their upper and lower eyelids were stuck together, their mouths were huge, practically blood-red maws, and two vampire-like fangs protruded, making them look like evil demons.

Hughes had already stepped on the gas, and the military SUV, following behind the Hummer H1, sped off, smashing into several monsters until they were mangled beyond recognition. He shouted, "Hold on tight!" The SUV bounced on the rocks and withered branches of the poplar trees, and the people inside felt a dizzying sensation. When they came to their senses again, the vehicle had already left the oasis, and the world had turned back into a vast expanse of yellow sand. The setting sun was slowly sinking, dyeing the sky a crimson red.

Qin Wen glanced into the poplar forest and finally breathed a sigh of relief, saying, "Thank goodness, they didn't chase after us. It seems they can't leave the oasis."

“I’m sorry,” Caesar said, his voice remaining calm and unhurried, as if discussing the weather. “It’s very bad, extremely bad.”

"What is it now?" Qin Wen was annoyed and spoke bluntly, "You're the one who's bad, stop jinxing me!"

Caesar sneered: "I just checked the water tanks. We only have enough water for two days. We originally planned to store water in the oasis, but we left in too much of a hurry..."

The other three's expressions changed. Yin Li, ignoring her leg injury, exclaimed, "How could this be? Didn't we prepare enough water when we came? Enough for the return trip, let alone the Mano Kingdom ruins!"

“Looks like you’ve forgotten about the man-eating ants.” Caesar shrugged helplessly. “Back in Devil City, our cars were all attacked by man-eating ants. The radiators were corroded, and most of them have already drained. These two Hummers are alright.” He pointed out the window with his chin. “They probably don’t have a drop left.”

quiet.

A deathly silence filled the car. The four men stared at each other, still unsure how to proceed. The sun gradually sank below the horizon, darkness enveloped the desert, and sandstorms swept through the air, covering the car windows with a thick curtain of sand.

After a long while, Qin Wen said, "Xiao Li, let's bandage your wound first."

At this moment, Yin Li remembered that she was still injured. She hadn't felt it before, but now it was as if the gate of a reservoir had been opened, and the pain surged like a tidal wave, causing a layer of cold sweat to seep from her forehead.

Situ Xiang fetched water, and Qin Wen carefully cleaned her wound. Caesar also took out some special wound medicine from her bag. After everything was taken care of, there was a knock on the door.

Hughes opened the car door and stood outside. The wind and sand were so strong that it was almost impossible to open one's eyes.

"What is it?" Situ Xiang's tone was very unfriendly.

“Mr. Min and the captain have something to discuss with you,” Hughes said. “Come with me.”

The massive military off-road vehicle was completely silent.

Min Eun-joon, his face grim, swept his gaze over everyone and said, "Since we are all facing the same predicament, I won't waste any more words. There is only one path before us now: to go back to the oasis to fetch water. Otherwise, you can all imagine the consequences."

No one spoke. The humanoid monster in the water was waiting in the oasis. Going back would probably mean certain death anyway.

Situ Xiang was silent for a moment, then asked, "How much ammunition do you have left?"

“Absolutely enough,” Miller replied.