Chapter 556 — The Fierce Shen Yushu

"I don't know, but I do know that if you keep talking, you'll only get thirstier!" Gu Mengyao warned. "You'd better keep your mouth shut."

"Oh... Yao Yao, my lips have split open. Do you have any lip balm?" Shen Yushu was still talking.

"No!" Gu Mengyao snapped. "I told you not to talk. Why won't you listen?"

Only then did Shen Yushu shut her mouth. The two of them slept when they were weary and woke when they were hungry, until their body clocks fell into complete ruin. When they opened their eyes once more, the light at the peephole had vanished — night had plainly fallen.

"Yao Yao, I'm really going to die. Do you think Brother Arrow never got the text?" A note of despair had crept into Shen Yushu's voice.

"He did. He definitely will." Gu Mengyao was frightened too, but she forced herself to wear a calm face.

"No, he won't. I know we're going to die. Yao Yao, I can't hold on any longer..." Shen Yushu closed her eyes.

"Be good, Xiao Shu. Wei Zhao will definitely come." Gu Mengyao offered the comfort with a guilty conscience.

"When he comes, have him carry my body back. I don't want to be left to rot in the open..." Shen Yushu murmured.

"..." Black lines crisscrossed Gu Mengyao's brow. "Xiao Shu, you mustn't say such things!"

"If he doesn't mind, he can have me once, even like this, so that I can know what it is to be a woman before I die..." By now Shen Yushu was clearly delirious with hunger; her words had lost all shape, tumbling out in senseless drifts...

Wei Zhao did not have Qing Bo drive straight to Shuangyan Mountain. He went back to the villa first and brought General Weiwu along.

At the sight of General Weiwu, admiration shone in the eyes of both Gu Pengzhan and Qing Bo. It had never occurred to them to use this method; Wei Zhao, it turned out, was the more thorough one.

At the foot of Shuangyan Mountain, Wei Zhao and Qing Bo got out and set off up the slope; even Gu Pengzhan climbed down from the car and followed.

Wei Zhao did not believe Zhong Yongliang had locked the two of them away inside the resort. If they were in the resort, it was impossible that they would not have cried for help — and even with their hands and feet bound and their mouths stuffed with cotton, some chambermaid cleaning the rooms might barge straight in. The risk of that approach was far too great. So long as Zhong Yongliang was no fool, he would never do something so stupid.

So Wei Zhao turned his attention elsewhere. Gu Pengzhan and Qing Bo searching the resort would be enough; Wei Zhao himself pressed on straight up the mountain.

At the fork in the path, Wei Zhao stopped. Plenty of tourists climbed the mountain, but few, he judged, would make for the side trail. For though the upper slopes were part of the scenic area, they were still home to ticks and grass snakes and the like — especially in summer. No one in his right mind would go wandering into such dangerous ground for no reason.

Wei Zhao bent down and examined the traces in the grass along the branch path. Someone had passed this way recently; and on closer inspection, more than one.

He set General Weiwu down on the ground. The creature had been scared half to death all the way here, with no idea what Wei Zhao meant to do with it — surely not slaughter it? It wanted to run, yet knew it could not outrun Wei Zhao, so all it could do was stand there trembling, waiting for whatever was about to happen.

But the moment Wei Zhao set it down, it caught the scent of its mistress, Gu Mengyao. In its view, Wei Zhao was still very much afraid of Gu Mengyao; so if it found her and took shelter under her protection, Wei Zhao could do nothing to it!

And so, without any bidding from Wei Zhao, General Weiwu set off on its own, following Gu Mengyao's scent until it reached the mouth of the cave and the steel security door. It still had not found her, and for a moment it did not know what to do.

General Weiwu did not recognize the security door, but Wei Zhao did. The instant he saw it, he understood that this must be where Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu were being held. And his ears were sharp: barely had he stepped into the cave than he heard Shen Yushu muttering to herself inside, and he very nearly pitched flat on his face.

Black lines flooded Wei Zhao's forehead. Shen Yushu's imagination was really something. He had no such morbid tastes — climb on top of her corpse?

Wei Zhao coughed, then knocked on the security door. "Yao Yao! Xiao Shu!"

"Oh, Yao Yao, I'm really dying. I'm hallucinating... I think I heard Brother Arrow's voice." Shen Yushu was still dazed and speaking out of a stupor.

"Wei Zhao? Is that you?" Gu Mengyao, though starved and parched, was perfectly clear-headed. Hearing Wei Zhao's voice, she cried out. Like someone in the dark catching the first ray of dawn, she went limp all over with relief and excitement. "Xiao Shu, your Brother Arrow has come to save you..."

"Mm... Yao Yao, you're lying. I'm hallucinating..." Shen Yushu had barely finished speaking when she sat bolt upright. "Really? It isn't a hallucination?"

Wei Zhao glanced at the security door. There was no one else around, and he could not be bothered to hide what he could do. He raised a foot and kicked; the door buckled out of shape on the spot. Even then he had held a great deal of his strength back, for he feared that otherwise he would kick the thing clean off its hinges and hurt the two girls.

At the tremendous crash from the security door, Shen Yushu finally came to her senses. "Brother Arrow?"

"It's me..." Wei Zhao kicked several more times and tore the security door loose entirely, then walked into the cave. "Are you two all right?"

"Wu-wu..." Gu Mengyao wept with joy. She did not know how she had got through those days underground. She had been afraid too, but she knew that if she gave up as well, Shen Yushu would probably not have held on; so she had clenched her teeth and endured it all. Now that Wei Zhao had come, she could hold back no longer, and she let her feelings pour out.

"I'm sorry. I'm late." Wei Zhao took Gu Mengyao's hand and stroked her back gently. "Stop crying. We're going home right now."

At that moment, however, Shen Yushu suddenly seized Wei Zhao's arm and bit down hard.

"Ow! What are you doing?" Wei Zhao cried out in pain, glaring at her.

"Oh — it isn't a dream! I thought I was dreaming. Brother Arrow, you really came!" All her listlessness gone, Shen Yushu's face flushed with excitement.

"I came, all right — and I came through your wailing and your corpses!" Bitten to the bone, Wei Zhao seethed inwardly. Why didn't she bite herself? Using him as her test subject! He could not resist exposing her.

Shen Yushu froze, her eyes going wide. "You heard all of that?"

"Unless I've gone deaf." Wei Zhao was rendered speechless.

Gu Mengyao, however, burst out laughing. This Xiao Shu had certainly made a spectacle of herself — and Wei Zhao had heard every word of it. Her face was utterly lost.

"All right, there's nothing wrong. Let's get down quickly — Uncle Chu and Qing Bo are still waiting below." Wei Zhao rose to his feet.

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