The Informal Tomb Raiding Diary: She is the occupant of the tomb!-Chapter 133: Stepping on Mushrooms Will Give You Lan Jiao
After breakfast, with hot water filled, the team began to break camp.
Big Beard asked us to call him Old Shi, his real name is Steve, and he has a passion for Chinese culture and wants to adapt to local customs.
He and Meng Qingyu reached an agreement. Upon discovering the treasure, the two teams would split it three to seven, with Meng taking three and Shi taking seven.
Because Meng Qingyu has no interest in the treasure, but if she finds what she’s looking for, it must belong to her.
Old Shi and his men are only after money, while Meng Qingyu is indifferent to it. The two sides hit it off, avoiding any conflict.
I caught up with Chen Qinghan in the morning while he was relieving himself, and relayed the key points of what Professor Liu said last night.
He said he would try his best to help Professor Liu and would also do everything possible to ensure their safety.
I knew he would say that and asked if he had any ideas on how to detoxify Lu Xiaodao and others.
Chen Qinghan said he would understand the situation from Lu Xiaodao and the others; detoxification first requires knowing what toxin they’re dealing with; otherwise, under current conditions, it’s impossible to detoxify.
With limited time while relieving ourselves, after whispering, I quickly returned to the camp, and Bi Shi squinted and smiled, "Such good rapport, even going to the toilet together." 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢
"Ha, envious? Unlike some people, forced to be a ride for the old enemy," I reflexively retorted and glanced to find He Su awake, sitting on a rock, staring at me with a gloomy look.
"Why don’t you carry me?" He Su pouted, opening her arms in a gesture asking for a hug.
I really wanted to kick her flying... that gesture really doesn’t suit her.
Fortunately, she quickly went on standby, collapsing onto her knees, and Bi Shi, fearing she might hit herself, extended his long leg to catch her face with his foot.
We had no tents, so there was no packing to do, and Old Shi gave us two water bottles.
Those were left behind by his deceased brother, along with a small part of the equipment he handed over to me, to which I expressed my thanks.
The two teams were restructured into a large unit, leaving the riverbank and venturing back into the jungle.
We didn’t encounter the same dangers as yesterday, like the cannibal tree, Flying Ants, or swamp worms, and the types of plants had changed.
One of Old Shi’s men accidentally stepped on a black mushroom, barely the size of a fist. When crushed, it turned into a puff of black smoke, and even though he quickly withdrew his foot, within minutes, his foot began to rot.
Old Shi cursed him for his stupidity; his shoelaces weren’t tied tight, and his pant leg was rolled up, so the toxic substance on the mushroom contacted his skin.
Professor Liu said that this mushroom doesn’t belong to any known plant taxonomy, and they have no targeted treatment, only applying a regular anti-inflammatory ointment to him.
The island is fraught with dangers, and no small thing should be underestimated, most terrifying is their unpredictability.
The diary Professor Liu obtained made no mention of black mushrooms.
After all, diaries have limitations. If the diary owner didn’t encounter similar incidents, of course, they wouldn’t record them.
The island surely experiences seasonal changes. When Professor Liu’s friend visited, it may have been another season, and the black mushrooms might be seasonal plants, so the content in the diary can only serve as a reference.
These are all Professor Liu’s speculations, and I am clueless, only listening intently.
Old Shi also realizes his team isn’t on the same level as Meng Qingyu’s. The black mushroom isn’t unique, yet only his person stepped on it, indicating they’re less vigilant than the others.
The black mushroom looks ominous; Meng Qingyu’s team members all avoided it, and Old Shi ordered his team to follow Meng Qingyu’s people.
The two teams are now mixed together. By my side of Chen Qinghan is a thin foreigner, with an extremely short buzz cut; unlike the others who carried guns, he had two curved blades attached to his back.
On the way, he tried to strike up a conversation with me, expressing surprise at how we managed to walk a whole day in the jungle unscathed.
In the talks between Meng Qingyu and Old Shi, we weren’t mentioned, so Old Shi’s team still didn’t know my ’Outsider Expert’ status.
The foreigner ahead, hearing him speak behind, turned his head, saying that Meng Qingyu’s team is full of talente and protecting the four of us was no big deal.
I closed my previously open mouth; I intended to explain, but since they prefer to believe this, so be it.
Seeing we didn’t reply, the buzz cut assumed agreement with the companion’s statement and asked how we escaped the cannibal tree and Flying Ants previously.
"Because they have excellent skills," I summarized the process in one sentence to answer them.
The buzz cut was quite disappointed, wanting to ask more, but was interrupted by a team member’s shout.
The shouter was the one who stepped on the poisonous mushroom; he pointed to the jungle beside the team, exclaiming, "There’s someone."
As the team moved, everyone’s sight was forward or on their feet, and since his feet were injured and he was being carried, his sight primarily fell on the jungle beside the team.
When he shouted about someone, Meng Qingyu and Old Shi immediately issued a command to halt.
After Meng Qingyu revealed her identity, the leader stepped back, only guiding at the forefront, with all orders for advancing and retreating given by Meng Qingyu.
We returned to the path the leader discovered yesterday. Despite the calcified creatures blocking a section of the road, leaving that area still had a buried path underneath.
About the road, Old Shi’s team was entirely unaware and curiously asked the leader what he was doing when they saw him digging dirt with a shovel.
Cong Zhibo told him that the leader found a road underground, which might lead directly to the islanders’ residence.
The two who fainted yesterday have woken up, with no immediate anomalies discovered, and Cong Zhibo recovered the fastest, well-fed, watered, and having taken a nap, was basically back at full strength.
He even thanked Meng Qingyu for not abandoning him, while Meng Qingyu didn’t mention her intention to leave him behind, and the others chose silence, making him the happiest person in the team.
They say fools have fool’s luck. Hopefully, he has such luck that he stays foolishly safe until he gets home.
The team halted, the leader sent Lu Xiaodao and another to check the place where the guy pointed.
However, there was no one there, nor were there any footprints on the ground; Old Shi scolded that man to look carefully before speaking.
The man swore he saw someone, but they vanished in a blink.
The only two teams landed on the island; if there aren’t other teams, there shouldn’t be anyone else in the jungle.
Of course, there are two other possibilities: one is that there are still residents on the island, the other is...
I looked at Professor Liu, who also glanced at the place several times and asked Lan Jiao if he clearly saw the person’s appearance.
It seems he reached the same conclusion as I did; if there are people on the island, it might be the survivors from the previous team.
