Shen Feng and the others also noticed Wang Jun's group catching up, and they all stood up to take a few steps forward to meet them.
After all, they had managed to follow us here, and given Lili's current condition, it wouldn't seem right to ignore them completely.
Even though there had always been a faint tension between our two teams, things hadn't yet reached the point of outright hostility.
Besides, Wang Jun, Lili, and Zhang Qicong had always treated us with friendliness.
Sitting under a tree with his eyes closed, Suo Tian seemed to notice the commotion as Lili's group approached.
He opened his eyes briefly to glance at them, then closed them again, his expression unchanged.
When Wang Jun and the others finally caught up, they collapsed onto the ground, panting heavily.
It was obvious they had used up nearly all their strength to catch us.
Lili's face was completely pale—she could barely stand and only managed to stay upright with two people supporting her before she too sank to the ground in exhaustion.
The baby strapped to Wang Jun's chest was, fortunately, still sleeping soundly.
I glanced at Lili, who was lying on the ground almost on her side, her brow tightly furrowed, her lips drained of color.
I frowned and walked toward her, crouching down beside her.
"Are you alright?" I asked softly.
Hearing my voice, Lili opened her eyes and forced a weak smile.
"I'm okay. Just… they've had to help me along the way. I probably tired them out."
I looked over at Zhang Qicong and Liu Rumiao, who were returning the ropes to the black-clad men, then turned back to Lili and nodded. "You've really suffered. It's been hard on you."
At my words, Lili smiled again, but when her gaze drifted toward Wang Jun—who was sitting with Sister Liu, pointing at the baby and saying something—her eyes flickered with sadness and disappointment.
I had noticed that ever since Lili gave birth, Wang Jun had hardly paid any attention to her.
In fact, it was Zhang Qicong and Lao Si, outsiders, who looked after her the most.
During Lili's delivery, Song Meijing had helped a great deal.
I thought that might have made her care more for Lili, but now, watching her sitting aside resting without so much as a glance in Lili's direction, I couldn't help but smile bitterly at my own naïveté.
If even I didn't want to get involved in their business, how could I expect Song Meijing to?
After resting for a while, Suo Tian stood and ordered everyone to move out again.
Zhang Qicong and Liu Rumiao came over to help Lili to her feet.
As Wang Jun got up with the baby in his arms, I caught him glancing impatiently toward Lili.
His lips moved, and I barely caught what he muttered: "Women are such a damn nuisance."
I didn't even bother to argue anymore.
There was only one word I could use to describe Wang Jun now—scum.
The next stretch of our journey was an uphill climb.
It reminded me of when I had gone up the mountain valley to find Zheng Yiyi before—another long slope leading upward.
But now, with the warmer weather, the forest was overgrown with thick vegetation, the trees and shrubs covering everything.
There was no path through such a mountain, and with the underbrush blocking our way, we had no choice but to take turns hacking through the bushes to clear a route.
The three children were carried in turns.
At one point, Tingyun got scratched on the arm by a branch and burst into tears.
We had to stop to bandage her wound.
But then, as if in response, Wang Jun's baby started crying too—perhaps startled by Tingyun's crying or simply hungry.
Unlike Tingyun, a baby that young couldn't understand comfort or soothing words; once it started crying, it was nearly impossible to stop.
Wang Jun, growing impatient, tried to hush the child while muttering curses under his breath: "Whose brat is it, can't they keep it quiet? Just keeps bawling like an idiot."
Uncle Gazi immediately flushed with anger.
"Hey! What kind of way is that to talk?" he shouted.
Lao Si quickly stepped in to defuse the situation. "He means the birds, the birds in the woods! Been cooing nonstop for ages, that's all he's saying. No way he was talking about your kid!"
He was good at smoothing things over—after saying that, he even bent down to check on Tingyun's arm, frowning in concern.
"That scratch looks pretty bad… ah, no wonder the kid's crying so hard. Poor thing—so tender-skinned, must hurt like hell."
Uncle Gazi couldn't say anything more after hearing Lao Si's words.
He just held Tingyun tighter in his arms.
After Suo Tian scanned the group to make sure everything was fine, he led us forward again.
Later, Wang Jun handed the baby over to Lili for breastfeeding, and only then did the child finally quiet down.
Suo Tian didn't stop the group just because Lili was nursing; before long, they had once again fallen behind us.
Still, with the thick forest around, only the path we cleared could be followed easily.
As long as they stayed on our trail, they could catch up without too much trouble.
Along the way, I couldn't help worrying about Lili.
Shen Feng and Jun Di also turned back now and then to glance behind us.
As for Han Xue—there was no need to say it—she had seen everything.
Knowing her temper, the fact that she hadn't already cursed Wang Jun out loud showed she was trying very hard to restrain herself.
The heavy rain from before must have reached this area too; the ground was all muddy, and every step splattered dirt up our legs.
On even a slight incline, if you didn't have something to hold on to, one slip would send you tumbling into the muck, turning you into a walking lump of mud.
We trekked through the mountains for two to three hours like that.
Our goal was to cross through this entire range, which meant the further we went, the deeper into the wilderness we got.
The denser the forest grew, the harder it became to move forward.
The pressure on those opening the path in front was immense.
The terrain was tangled and complex—though Suo Tian could point us in the general direction to avoid getting lost, no one really knew the land here.
No one had ever come this way before.
That made it easy to hit dead ends: sometimes, after clearing a path for a while, we'd find the terrain ahead completely impassable.
After several hours of this, everyone was gasping for breath—but we hadn't actually made much progress at all.
Unknowingly, we had already spent far too much time wandering through the woods.
Eventually, Suo Tian gave the order to clear an area and make camp.
The mountains were not like the open plains.
We couldn't wait until dusk to stop—here, even when the sky was still bright, the forest already felt dim.
Once it got dark, it would be pitch black; the tall canopy above blocked nearly all the light.
We picked a spot with more vegetation and began cutting down shrubs with our knives, laying them thick on the ground.
The earth was damp, but there was plenty of brush around.
With a thick enough layer beneath us, it kept us off the wet soil so we wouldn't get chilled while sleeping.
After helping Lili sit on a fallen tree trunk nearby, Zhang Qicong and the others joined in the work.
With so many of us, the work went quickly.
Soon, we had cleared out a small square area.
The bearded man and his team strung ropes around the perimeter in two circles—so that if any walkers approached, the ropes would slow them down and give us time to react.
Then, a fire was lit.
The dead log Lili had been sitting on earlier was chopped up for firewood.
At first, we were worried that lighting a fire might attract walkers at night, but there was no other choice.
Nearly everyone's shoes and pants were soaked, and since we'd ditched most of our gear to lighten the load, we had nothing warm to wear.
Sleeping directly on the cold, damp ground would almost certainly leave someone sick by morning.
Suo Tian said nothing against lighting the fire, which reassured us.
If even he wasn't worried, it meant the risk was acceptable.
Using the fire, I heated some milk and gave it to the three children first, then poured a little for Lili.
She initially refused, wanting me to save it for her baby, but when she saw I wouldn't budge, she finally drank half a cup.
The warmth seemed to revive her a little—color slowly returned to her pale face.
Even so, I knew Lili would likely be plagued by aches and pains from now on.
She'd just given birth and hadn't had a chance to rest, yet she was trudging through these freezing, wild mountains, hungry and exhausted.
Right after she finished the milk, Wang Jun came over again, shoving the baby into her arms to nurse.
I wanted to say something, but seeing the tenderness in Lili's eyes as she gazed at her child, I swallowed the words.
Returning to Han Xue and Xu Shu's side, Han Xue patted my shoulder with a sigh.
"Forget it, Chen Yang," she said quietly.
"Everyone's fate is their own. We do what we can—but beyond that… there's nothing more to be done."
Han Xue rarely spoke in such a reflective tone.
Xu Shu glanced at her and smiled.
"Since when did you get so philosophical about life?" she teased.
Han Xue rolled her eyes. "It just came out. Some people—you look at them, and you can't help but feel like saying something."
Hearing that, I glanced at Lili, who was sitting with her back to us, nursing her child.
I let out a cold snort through my nose and said to the two of them, "A woman really can't afford to be blind when choosing her other half in this life."
Han Xue and Xu Shu followed my gaze, then nodded in agreement.
Suo Tian split the group into shifts for the night watch.
Since visibility was poor in the mountains, and he was the only one who could see clearly in the dark, his plan was apparently to stay up through the night to keep guard himself.
After helping to coax the three children to sleep, Xu Shu and Han Xue also lay down to rest.
Yangyang, Chen Pu, and Shen Feng were supposed to help with the second half of the night watch, so they turned in early as well.
As for Wang Jun and the others, they were lucky to get the benefit of the night watch rotation — they could sleep soundly till dawn.
Worried about Lili's condition, I gestured for Sister Liu to build another fire on their side so that Lili could at least stay a little warmer.
Suo Tian sat by the fire, absentmindedly poking at it with a stick.
I got up, walked over, and asked, "What are you thinking about?"
Sitting down beside him, I stretched my legs toward the fire.
My calves were splattered with mud and completely soaked.
Suo Tian set down the stick in his hand and replied, "Aren't you tired?"
I shook my head, picked up the stick he had just set aside, poked the fire twice, and then asked, "How long do you think it'll take for us to get out of here?"
— The end of the Chapter–