Chapter 32: The King of the Forest Five

  Jin Huang was stunned, looking at the small woman in his arms who was crying like a child. Her pale face had no blood color, this was caused by continuous running and fatigue, malnutrition and excessive fright. He steeled himself and said sternly: "No way! If you let them go, what will you use to supplement your nutrition?"

  Jin Hao pushed her aside, steeled himself not to look at the tears in her big eyes, grabbed the wild rabbit with one hand, picked up the dagger on the ground and walked towards the riverbank. Lin Ruolan stared at his back, suddenly ran over and pressed down on his hand, as if she had suffered a great injustice, hugged the wild rabbit and cried bitterly.

  "Stop crying!" he shouted sternly, frowning at her. Her sobs subsided, and she looked up at him timidly, her fearful eyes causing his chest to ache violently. He dropped the struggling rabbit, wrapped his arms around her slender waist, pulled her small body into his embrace, gripped her chin tightly, and stared straight into her eyes: "Don't be afraid of me, I won't hurt you."

  She leaned into his arms with some fear, burying her face in his broad chest and whispered: "Let them go, okay? I can eat wild fruits."

  Jin Hao let out a low growl, uttering a few inaudible curses. Seeing the tears at the corners of her eyes, he furrowed his brow and gently wiped them away for her. Although his face looked unpleasant, his actions were filled with tenderness: "Don't cry anymore, I'll let them go."

  "Ah, thank you." Lin Ruolan sniffled and burst into tears of joy.

  Jin Huan's sharp black eyes swept over her, but he didn't say anything else. He untied the ropes binding the rabbit and hedgehog, releasing the two small animals that were about to be scared out of their wits from the campsite. Using his dagger and flint, he lit a fire on the riverbank's pebbles, setting up a fire pit, washing his helmet in the river water, and casually washing the snake clean as well, cutting it into segments about an inch long, along with mushrooms and fennel seeds, putting them all into the helmet, adding water, and hanging it over the fire to stew. Throughout this process, Jin Huan remained silent.

  Lin Ruo Lan quietly looked at his gloomy face, she stepped closer to him and sat down beside him, biting her lower lip for a while before softly asking: "Are you angry?"

  Jin Hao expressionlessly glanced at her and added a few more sticks of firewood into the fire pit, the water was about to boil.

  "I know you went to catch the rabbit for me, but when I saw its big round eyes looking at me pitifully, I felt it was too cruel to kill it..." She lowered her little head to her chest and explained in a tiny voice.

  Jin Hao's eyes flashed with a hint of gloom, "I've killed many people, do you think I'm cruel like a devil?" His voice was low and even, devoid of any emotion, but his handsome face stiffened, his tall figure tensed up in an instant.

  "You're not a devil." Lin Ruo Lan suddenly lifted her head and looked at him, shaking her head vigorously. "You only kill bad people, I can tell right from wrong on this point."

  His deep, dark eyes locked onto hers, her eyes filled with unconditional love, like a warm current piercing the icy layer on his heart, bringing warmth to that untouched corner of his heart. She only needed one sentence to easily dispel the curse on his heart. His arms wrapped around her waist, pulling her into his embrace, refusing to let go, from the moment he saw her for the first time, he was already moved, those clear eyes seemed to see into the depths of his soul.

  "Sorry, I scared you just now." He gently rubbed her hair.

  Lin Ruo Lan's small face scrunched up, staring at him with her eyes wide open, and her mouth slowly pouting: "Next time you're not allowed to yell at me, otherwise...otherwise I'll cry for you to see!"

  "So from now on, you're not allowed to say 'thank you' to me again, Lan'er. You don't have to be so polite when speaking to me." He hugged her tightly, his deep voice filled with the warmest smile.

  The porridge in the helmet had been boiling for a while, and the aroma wafted up. Jin Huan removed two pieces of firewood, reducing the flames. "Lan'er, look in the backpack, at the bottom there's a bottle of salt, also bring me some gauze."

  Lin Ruo Lan rummaged through her backpack, finally finding a small bottle of sealed salt, "I think your backpack is like a treasure trove, it has everything you need."

  Jin Huang used a machete to whittle two pairs of chopsticks, inserted them into the steel helmet for disinfection, and then used branches to weave a circular frame, wrapping gauze around the circle to create a net pocket.

  Lin Ruo Lan leaned her head on his shoulder and curiously asked: "What's this for?"

  "We didn't bring enough salt, we should have left some behind. In case of dehydration, salt can be life-saving." He opened the salt bottle and added some to the boiling pot, "So we need to find a way to get some salt."

  "How can I get salt? There's no supermarket to buy it here." Lin Ruolan was extremely perplexed, having come to this primitive forest, she seemed to have become a primary school student again, not understanding anything.

  "In the big forest, there are two ways to find salt. One is to look for mineral salt, and the other is to catch floating organisms and plants by the river." Jin Huan explained patiently, weaving thin branches together to create a dam in the river, then picking up chopsticks to stir the rolling snake meat, "It's edible now."

  He chopped down five or six short branches, and set up a frame next to the fire pit. He carefully placed the steel helmet on the frame, "Eat, don't burn yourself. There's a spoon in the backpack, just no bowl, make do." He turned his head to look at the dam in the river, smiling, "We've got a good catch." The harvest was bountiful, with 7 fish weighing about a pound each caught in the net.

  Lin Ruo Lan found a spoon in her backpack and hastily scooped up a spoonful of the soup to taste, "It's so fresh! I feel like I've never had such a delicious soup in my entire life." Perhaps it was because she hadn't eaten hot food for many days, she let out a childish whoop of excitement, "Jin Huang, come quick and try some!"

  Jin Huang was busy scooping the fish onto the shore, slaughtering and cleaning them, crushing the celery leaves and rubbing them on the fish, stringing them on a branch and roasting them over the fire. Hearing her call out, he didn't even turn his head and said: "You eat first, in a little while there will be roasted fish to eat."

  A pair of white and tender hands held the fragrant snake meat to his mouth, Jin Huan was taken aback, turned his head to look, Lin Ruolan crouched beside him, waiting seriously for him to open his mouth. He felt a little uncomfortable, since he was five years old, it was still the first time someone personally held food and prepared to feed it into his mouth.

  After hesitating for a moment, Jin Huan still opened his mouth and took a bite of the snake meat. "Mmm, it's really delicious. Having a beauty feed it to me by hand, the taste is indeed different." His thin lips curved into a smiling arc, with a hint of slyness in his expression, and deep emotions that couldn't be ignored in his eyes.

  Her face turned red, but her small white hands still held the snake meat waiting for him to taste it. Jin Huan took advantage of this and ate the snake meat from her hand while flipping the roasted fish on the fire rack.

  When the fish meat was roasted to a fragrant and crispy state, Jin Huan sprinkled some salt on the fish body and handed it to the little woman who was guarding beside him, always ready to stuff his mouth with food. "Try this," he said, casually wrapping her in his arms, contentedly sighing as he finally got to hold her warm and soft body.

  The fish was cooked just right, fragrant and tender. Lin Ruolan couldn't wait any longer, blew on the hot air, and immediately stuffed it into her mouth. Jin Huang circled his arms around her, feeding her delicious soup while gently laughing: "Eat slowly, no one is competing with you."

  A warm and romantic breakfast came to an end, Lin Ruolan ate her fill, watching Jin Huan finish the remaining food. Her chest was filled with an inexplicable feeling, warm and sweet, making her heart feel full, a comfortable and almost sweet feeling. She thought, she could watch him eat like this for a lifetime, and never get tired of it.

  The net standing in the water had already caught a lot of plankton, and Jin Huang used his steel helmet to dry-fry the plankton into edible salt.

  Extinguish the bonfire and flatten it, get rid of the traces left by the two people. Jin Huan held Lin Ruolan's hand and continued on their way. "We need to head northeast today, about 50 kilometers away. I estimate we can reach our designated campsite around 8 pm tonight. If nothing unexpected happens, we should be able to get on the road back home around 3 am."

  "Highway? Aren't we walking in the forest? Isn't it very dangerous on the highway?" She looked at him with wide, uneasy eyes.

  "There are over 300 kilometers of straight-line distance from here to the border, and at our speed, it's estimated that we'll take about eight days to get there. This doesn't even include the time wasted once we encounter the enemy. So we need to get on the highway and figure out a way to get a vehicle, then we can enter the country quickly." Jin Huan continued forward, but this time he didn't hear Lin Ruolan's footsteps following behind him. He turned his head back to look at her, and she was standing still in the same spot, her eyes dazed and confused, seemingly lost in thought. "What's wrong?" he asked with a gentle smile.

  She pursed her lips and looked at him with red eyes: "Ask you something, can you honestly answer me?" Her voice had a heartbreaking crying tone.

  "Go ahead and ask."

  "If I didn't follow you, how long would it take for you to walk these routes?" She asked with a serious face.

  "Forty-eight hours."

  "What?" Lin Ruolan was completely stunned, unable to accept the huge difference in speed for a while. She muttered: "Sorry, I'm holding you back."

  "You don't." Jin Huan walked slowly towards her, his dark and thick palm tightly grasping her hand. His deep and profound black eyes had sincere deep feelings, and he leaned down to lightly peck her lips. "Lan'er, you not only didn't drag me down, but on the contrary, because of your presence, I was able to quickly defeat those nine opponents last night. It was your existence that ignited my courage and strength to fight."

  Lin Ruo Lan's chest suddenly transmitted a strong palpitation, she wanted to move her line of sight away, but was unable to move, could only raise her head and look back at him.

  Jin Hao wrapped his arms around her waist, he really wanted to stop like this, quietly embracing her in the quiet primeval forest, and spend the rest of their lives here. But it was not possible, he was a soldier! He let out a soft sigh, pulling her back onto the path: "Lan'er, we have to go, we must hurry back, or Jian Feng and the others will worry themselves sick."

  Along the way, they encountered many fruit trees. Jin Huang would stop from time to time and pick some wild fruits for Lin Ruolan as snacks. However, he never over-picked the wild fruits. He explained to Lin Ruolan: "The forest is like this, only take what you need, don't be too greedy. Nature won't help those who are too greedy."

  For a whole morning, Lin Ruolan had already forgotten that they were still on a perilous journey, and she even had the illusion of being on a self-guided tour in a scenic area.

  But the good times didn't last long, in the afternoon, Jin Huan suddenly stopped and carefully listened for over ten seconds. He then pulled Lin Ruolan to run towards a dense thicket of vines that was almost devoid of sunlight. Under a towering tree, he took off his backpack and pulled out a camouflage net for Lin Ruolan to wear. In a low voice, he said: "Don't speak, don't move." After saying this, he quickly moved towards a nearby bush.

  An Apache attack helicopter thundered over the treetops, then suddenly turned back and hovered above the dense forest, searching with its onboard high-power thermal imager.