“Auto-locate activated. Please follow the location to find your Random Teammate and help him escape danger,” the mysterious voice prompted.
It was the second time she’d heard this voice since entering the map. Ye Yi froze for a moment before it registered, she seemed to have forgotten there was such a person as a Random Teammate.
He was hurt?
And how was she supposed to see this auto-locate?
Thinking of the double points, Ye Yi said apologetically to Sister Ma, “Sister Ma, something’s suddenly come up on my end, so I’ll get going first. Please remember, the weather’s going to get colder and colder from here on, maybe for as long as twenty-odd days. Be sure to prepare plenty of supplies, and whatever you do, don’t go out when it gets too cold.”
With that, she made to set down the plastic bags, only for the sharp-eyed Sister Ma to press them back into her hands. “Do that again and I’ll be upset, you’re treating me like an outsider.”
The girl was too honest, refusing to accept even this little bit. Compared to the news she’d shared, what were these things worth?
Seeing Sister Ma put it that way, refusing further would seem cold. Ye Yi could only accept the things, said “goodbye” to Sister Ma, and prepared to leave.
Sister Ma remembered something and grabbed her, saying quickly, “Hold on.”
She hurried off to the kitchen and came back with a gun, which she stuffed into Ye Yi’s hands, carefully urging, “Things are a bit chaotic out there now. I’ve seen some out-of-towners robbing people in the streets. You’re on your own, be very careful, and once you’re home, whatever you do, don’t open the door for strangers.”
“Sister Ma, thank you.” Looking at the gun in her hands and hearing her caring words, Ye Yi felt a warmth in her heart and couldn’t help hugging her.
Even though she didn’t know whether the Sister Ma before her truly existed, in this moment it was enough that her feelings were real.
Sister Ma hugged Ye Yi back, then quietly watched her retreating figure, hoping this girl she’d known only a few days would always be well.
After leaving Sister Ma’s place, Ye Yi found a dead corner by a wall, put the two plastic bags into the system Backpack, and kept only the gun in hand for self-defense.
She opened the wristband:
Time: Day 4, 6:15 p.m. Location: Yudu Town, Jinnan Street Weather: Unknown Temperature: Unknown Humidity: Unknown
Name: Ye Yi
Sex: Female
Age: 26
Survival Points: 150 (100 points frozen)
Current Map: Extreme Cold Blizzard
Ability: Gathering-and-Crafting System (Lv1: 16.8/50)
Behind the Random Teammate’s name, Xie Yi, there was a little map icon. Her finger deftly pressed it, and a transparent arrow appeared before her eyes.
Looking at the arrow, she was dumbfounded. This was the map?
She lifted a foot and took a few tentative steps forward, and the arrow slid ahead right along with her. It was the first time she’d seen a map like this, and she couldn’t help reaching out to touch the arrow, only to touch nothing at all.
Could other people see this arrow?
Ye Yi deliberately crossed to the other side of the road to watch the passersby’s reactions. She saw a man walk right through the arrow without any reaction at all. This arrow must be visible only to her.
Thinking of the double points, she followed the arrow’s guidance and broke into a jog.
Along the way she also saw a small-goods shop that had been trashed by a group of people wearing wristbands. She stopped and watched from a distance. A thin man who was probably the shop owner sat on the ground making a phone call. The gang smashing the glass didn’t dare lay a hand on the owner, they only grabbed a lot of things off the shelves and ran off without looking back.
It seemed the town had already begun to descend into chaos. She wondered how the people who hadn’t taken their starter packs on the plane had managed to survive these past few days.
Thinking of the Random Teammate awaiting rescue, she kept following the arrow ahead and started running. Finally, outside a narrow alley, no matter which way she walked the arrow stayed put and stopped moving.
Had she reached the destination?
Ye Yi pressed against the mouth of the alley, carefully poked out her head, and looked in. She saw only a tall figure wearing a cap, clothes soaked with blood, sitting against the wall.
She just couldn’t tell whether the blood was his own or someone else’s.
Thinking of the double points and her own nearly bottomed-out points, she gripped the gun in her hand hard to steel her nerve.
Gingerly edging forward along the wall, she slowly approached the man sitting there and asked, “Hey, still alive?”
The man kept his eyes shut and didn’t so much as move at the sound of Ye Yi’s voice.
Ye Yi stared hard at him. Seeing him utterly motionless, he wasn’t dead, was he?
She cautiously brought one hand near the underside of his nose. The moment she felt his breath, her hand was suddenly seized.
Her heart pounded in fright, and the next instant a cold hand gripped the very wrist she’d used to check his breathing. She yelped, “What are you doing? Let go!”
The man still pinched her wrist without letting go. Seeing this, Ye Yi asked loudly, “Are you Xie Yi?”
The man opened his eyes and asked in an icy voice, “Who are you?”
Her wrist was gripped hard by his large hand, yet she felt not the slightest pain. She answered testily, “Your Random Teammate. Don’t you ever check your wristband?”
Hm? What was going on, why didn’t her wrist hurt at all? If this guy didn’t let go, she’d set him on fire. Random Teammate or not, if not for the double points, she’d never have come to this godforsaken place!
Truly rotten luck.
Seeing the man still not letting go, she angrily kicked him. “Let go of me, now.”
She seemed to have kicked the man’s wound, but he made not a single sound, only silently released her hand.
“You’re still alive, so why call me to come save you? Since you’re fine, I’ll be going, you can pretend I was never here.” Ye Yi looked down at the man sitting steady as Mount Tai [1]utterly unshaken jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_2933358_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_2933358_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); on the ground. No matter how she looked at him, he seemed nothing like someone in danger.
The man was still alive, so what was she saving? A total waste of her feelings, and she’d thought she could earn double points this time.
Looking at the man on the ground, she couldn’t help grumbling to herself: she could barely keep herself fed, and here she was thinking about saving people. Her head really had been fried by the lure of double points.
She turned to leave, but before she’d gone two steps she heard the thud of a heavy object hitting the ground behind her. She looked back.
This man had just been the picture of “nothing’s wrong”, how had he fainted the moment she turned around?
Helplessly, Ye Yi went back, crouched down, and checked his breathing. Still breathing, he could probably still be saved. But how?
Call 120? She didn’t have a single cent on her, how would she make the call?, and going to the hospital took money too.
So what then?
Unable to think of any other way, maybe she should check whether he had money on him. But having a girl like her search a man’s body felt a little improper.
Forget it, what kind of time was this? A life hung in the balance, and here she was fretting over such nonsense.
She reached into the pockets of the man’s clothes and pants, felt around for a while, and touched something hard, seemingly made of leather.
She pulled it out, it was actually a wallet?
They were both outsiders, why did he have a wallet? She opened it, stuffed full of cash. Where had all this money come from?
She’d thought herself relatively well-off, with 1,000 yuan in cash, though now she didn’t even have a single coin.
But next to him, she was practically a pauper.
She wanted to cry.
Looking at the wallet in her hand, Ye Yi propped the man upright, walked out of the alley, found a shop, borrowed a phone, and dialed 120.
Before long, the ambulance arrived.
The medics carefully lifted the man onto a stretcher, scolding Ye Yi as they went. “What kind of girlfriend are you? Your boyfriend’s hurt this badly, how could you only be calling now?”
Ye Yi heard this and defended herself, “I’m not his girlfriend, nurse. I’m a total passerby, a concerned citizen.”
She most certainly was not this whoever’s girlfriend, whoever was his girlfriend had rotten luck.
She followed them into the ambulance and watched the medics locate the wound. They opened his jacket and, at his abdomen, found a knife wound. The nurse asked curiously, “Little miss, did your boyfriend get in a fight? The wound’s this deep?”
Ye Yi only repeated, “I’m a concerned citizen passing by. I don’t know what happened.”
The nurse didn’t believe her in the slightest, but didn’t ask anything more and briskly set about basic treatment of the wound.
She deftly cut open the white T-shirt underneath with scissors, exposing the wound on his abdomen, and began cleaning it.
Ye Yi glanced over curiously, and at the sight of the curled-back flesh on the man’s abdomen she instantly turned her head away, not daring a second look.
Still, she felt a small measure of admiration for this man. Wounded this badly, and he hadn’t uttered a single sound just now.
And so, as the ambulance drove on, the nurse treated the wound.
No one spoke, only the metallic snip-snip of scissors and other tools sounded in the vehicle.
Only now did Ye Yi have time to study the man’s face. After looking for a while, why did he seem so familiar? Had she seen him somewhere?
In an instant she was possessed by Baoyu: This brother, I have met before. [2]a famous line from Dream of the Red Chamber, Jia Baoyu says he’s seen Lin Daiyu before, used here for comic “we’ve met” recognition jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_2933358_1_2').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_2933358_1_2', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });
She thought it over carefully, this fellow, she’d run into him over by the old man who sold stoves. She’d even snuck several looks at him then.
With a face like that, saving him wouldn’t be a loss.
While he was asleep, she’d look her fill, once he woke, she wouldn’t get to.
Perhaps her studying gaze was too scorching, the man lying on the stretcher opened his eyes.
Ye Yi jumped. Done for, caught wearing her lovestruck face.
She quickly pretended she’d only just noticed he was awake and asked casually, “You’re up?”
“Where is this?” Xie Yi asked in a hoarse voice.
“In an ambulance. I’m pretty nice, right? I even remembered to get you to the hospit—” Before Ye Yi could finish, she saw Xie Yi prop his elbow on the stretcher, about to sit up.
The nurse hurriedly pressed him back down and snapped, “Young man, are you tired of living?”
Ye Yi helped hold him down too, complaining, “What are you doing? The wound hasn’t even been treated yet.”
Xie Yi coughed twice and said in a low voice, “Can’t go to the hospital.”
“Why not?” Ye Yi didn’t understand.
“They’ll definitely be waiting at the hospital entrance.” Xie Yi answered with a frown, he’d tugged the wound just now. So painful. Endure it, Xie Yi, you can do this.
Ye Yi glanced at his wound and asked, “They? The people who cut you?”
“Mm.”
“Then what about your wound?” Ye Yi didn’t know how many of them there were either. If it was a lot, then with her skinny little arms and legs, and a wounded man in tow, she’d be no match at all!
Xie Yi answered expressionlessly, “Won’t die.”
Seeing the two young people muttering with their heads down for a while now, the nurse reminded them, “What are you two whispering about? We’re almost at the hospital entrance. Young man, stop moving around.”
She shook her head and went back to treating the wound, head down. And they said they weren’t a couple, young people these days really did say the opposite of what they meant.
“Done for, is there still time to jump out of the vehicle?” Hearing the nurse’s reminder, Ye Yi suddenly felt doomed.
“You tell me,” Xie Yi shot back.
Truly a good deed gone wrong!
The words had barely left her mouth when the ambulance stopped. Had they reached the hospital?
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