Chapter 393: He’s Suspicious

“It turns out that she was just faking it earlier. What is wrong with this woman? If she didn’t want to come here, she shouldn’t have followed us. She’s wasting all our time. Where is she from? What a disgraceful thing to do.”

Listening to the whispered discussions around her, Liu Caifeng finally realized that everyone had seen through her act. Her face turned a mix of red and green with embarrassment.

“What are you looking at? What are you saying? I really was in too much pain to stand up just now, I wasn’t lying,” she angrily retorted to those pointing fingers at her.

At this point, Shen Zhou’s expression was as dark as ever. Seeing her bitten by the snake had scared him half to death. After all, this trip into the mountains was a test from his superiors. If he succeeded, his career would skyrocket. But if something went wrong, his career would be over.

“Liu Comrade, I hope this kind of thing doesn’t happen again. None of us can handle this kind of scare,” Shen Zhou said, his face cold as he warned her.

Liu Caifeng glanced at Shen Zhou’s stern face and knew he was the one in charge of the trip. She couldn’t afford to offend him, so she reluctantly apologized. “Sorry, I won’t do it again.”

At that moment, Ye Fan spoke up, smiling. “I just checked the wound on this comrade’s foot. It looks like she was bitten by one of the non-poisonous snakes here. When it first bites, it might feel numb, but don’t worry, it’ll be fine soon. It’s not fatal.”

Liu Caifeng, hearing his explanation, gritted her teeth and said, “Thanks for the explanation.”

“No need to thank me. We’re all on the same team. Helping each other is what we should do,” Ye Fan smiled in response.

Jiang Hong walked into the crowd, his cold eyes briefly scanning Liu Caifeng, who was sitting on the ground. With an emotionless tone, he said, “Listen up, everyone. In order to reach the next location by noon, we need to leave immediately. Prepare yourselves. If anyone causes trouble again, I won’t hesitate to kick them out of this team. We’re here to protect you, but we only protect those who are worth protecting.”

His words were clearly aimed at someone, and everyone’s eyes unintentionally turned toward Liu Caifeng.

Anyone with a brain in the room could tell who he was warning.

Jiang Hong then approached Li Yiyi, gently grasped her hand, and asked with concern, “Are you thirsty?”

Li Yiyi shook her head. “No, but by the way, where were you just now?”

There was quite a commotion earlier, but when she arrived, only Hong Shuo was there checking things out.

“I was just ahead, checking things out. Everything’s normal, no danger. We also found a place to rest up ahead. We’ll take a break there, have lunch, and then continue deeper into the mountains,” Jiang Hong explained quietly.

Li Yiyi nodded lightly. “Sounds good. Let your people know not to be too tense. We’re still on the outskirts of Wushan. I walked around earlier and didn’t see any large animal tracks. For now, it’s relatively safe.”

Jiang Hong smiled. “I didn’t expect my wife to have such a talent. I’ll go over and tell them to relax.”

Li Yiyi patted his shoulder lightly. “I don’t know much about this. Ye Comrade told us, and I’ve learned some survival techniques from him.”

Jiang Hong turned his attention to Ye Fan, who was talking to someone in the distance, and narrowed his eyes. “Wife, don’t you think there’s something off about this Ye Comrade?”

Li Yiyi smiled. “What have you noticed?”

Jiang Hong had a gut feeling something was wrong, but couldn’t find any concrete evidence, so he just wanted to give his wife a heads-up.

Hearing her question, he turned to her seriously. “Wife, have you discovered something?”

“Well, I haven’t found anything, but I just feel that Ye Comrade seems too perfect. He knows everything, like he’s done this kind of research before?” Li Yiyi said, tapping her chin.

Jiang Hong’s heart immediately became alert. “Don’t worry, I’ll keep a close eye on him. If he’s really up to something, I’ll be the first to catch him.”

Li Yiyi smiled at his assurance, her eyes narrowing playfully as she glanced over at Ye Fan from a distance. “I hope I’m just overthinking it. I don’t want any bad people around us.”

Soon, the group continued their journey. After Jiang Hong scouted ahead, they walked for about half an hour before stopping by a small stream to rest.

The researchers, usually stuck in offices, were all exhausted from climbing for so long and now lay motionless on the stones by the stream.

Jiang Shuo and Hong Shuo led their team to see if they could catch any fish for lunch.

As time passed, the stream was quite lively, but no one had caught a fish yet.

“Damn it, could these fish have taken some kind of intelligence-enhancing drug? Every time we throw the fork into the water, they swim away instantly. It’s like they’re faster than the fork!” Hong Shuo grumbled as he kept missing his chances.

Jiang Hong wasn’t doing any better. Every time he saw a fish, the fork wasn’t even in the water before the fish swam away.

By now, he hadn’t caught a single fish, but his clothes were soaked.

“Alright, enough already. Isn’t this embarrassing enough? We’ve got so many people here, and no one has caught a single fish!” Jiang Hong glared at his good brother beside him.

“I’m just frustrated! I was hoping to catch a fish here to improve our lunch for Weiwei, but we haven’t caught anything. It’s so embarrassing!” Hong Shuo slapped the water in frustration.

At this moment, Li Yiyi and Gu Weiwei approached.

“Have you guys caught any fish? Everyone’s waiting for your catch,” Li Yiyi said, smiling.