TSMITB Chapter3

The few people spotted the bear waiting patiently for prey almost at the same time.

A sharp gasp caught in their throats as their thoughts raced, and a hand landed on Shen Que’s shoulder, gently urging him to step back.

“There’s a slope on the right. I’ll count to three, and we’ll run together.”

It was Gang Zi who lowered his voice.

Shen Que nodded almost imperceptibly, and the moment the word ‘three’ fell, the few people quickly turned and ran towards the right.

“Is this bloody thing a slope? It’s practically a cliff!”

“Hurry up and jump! It’s not a ninety-degree drop, you definitely won’t die.”

A loud crash of snapping trees came from overhead. Shen Que couldn’t resist looking back: the brown bear was on all fours, continuously slapping the ground with its mouth wide open, revealing sharp fangs with stringy saliva stretched between them, as it shook its head and roared.

The brown bear’s bloodthirsty gaze felt like needles in his back in the silent mountain forest.

During the slide down, his body inevitably rubbed and scraped against loose stones. Shen Que nearly cried out in pain several times, but he bit down and swallowed it.

Gang Zi, who was wailing in pain not far below his feet, even managed to squeeze in a tease.

“Such a tough guy ah, Young Master Shen! Your idol image is so heavy, you didn’t even make a sound, huh!?”

“Shut up, you.”

The moment their feet touched the ground, Old Qiu and Ah Chao, one on the left and one on the right, pulled Shen Que up and kept running forward without stopping.

Shen Que’s expression twisted for a moment. His buttocks, thighs, and back were still throbbing with pain. He silently cursed the brown bear’s ancestors thoroughly but still tried his best to maintain an unperturbed appearance.

The surrounding scenery rapidly receded. The dead leaves beneath their feet gradually gave way to unfamiliar weeds, while occasional shafts of sunlight filtered down from above. The trees were denser than before, but their branches and leaves were sparse, making the overall environment quite airy as a layer of green fuzz covered the tree trunks, swaying in the wind.

“Where have we gotten to?” Gang Zi picked up a piece of broken stone, scraped off a layer of green from a tree trunk, and examined it closely in front of his eyes.

Ah Chao mumbled an ‘en’, his expression somewhat troubled, “I don’t know either…”

“Oh, you don’t know either.” Gang Zi nodded casually, then froze, turning his head slowly as if in slow motion, “Huh?”

“We were supposed to keep heading south, but we were in too much of a hurry just now, and after coming down, we didn’t have time to figure out the direction, and now… the compass is also out of order.”

Ah Chao had always been the one with the sharpest sense of direction, the one who mapped out their routes whenever they went anywhere, and this time was no different, he was leading the way again.

Old Qiu stepped forward and patted his shoulder, with no intention of blaming him at all.

Shen Que also nodded without speaking. In this place, even the compass couldn’t determine the directions, so there was no need to criticize anyone for taking the wrong path.

They continued trudging through the weeds for some time. The uneven ground was riddled with hidden “traps,” where a single misstep could easily lead to a twisted ankle.

Ah Chao took the lead as always, Shen Que stayed guarded in the middle, while Old Qiu and Gang Zi watched their rear, keeping alert to anything that might follow.

They spoke little along the way; in the wild jungle, even the faintest sound could spell deadly danger.

All of a sudden, Ah Chao halted, drew out his binoculars, and climbed a small mound of rocks. After just one glance into the distance, his face lit up with excitement as he turned back and shouted, “There’s a river! I can see a river!”

Shen Que took the binoculars and looked in the direction Ah Chao was pointing, and sure enough, he found traces of a river hidden amongst the dense forest.

The few people no longer scurried around the woods like headless flies. With a destination in sight, their steps became much lighter.

After walking for about fifty minutes, the view ahead finally opened up.

A wide stretch of blue sky arched above them, while soft clouds mirrored on the river’s surface were broken apart by drifting fallen leaves, sending gentle ripples across the water.

“We’ve found our direction!” Ah Chao and Old Qiu got a few branches and squatted on the ground tinkering for a long time, occasionally looking up at the setting sun.

A rare smile appeared on Old Qiu’s face. He said lightly, “This river runs exactly north-south. We can just follow the river downstream, so we won’t have to worry about losing our way anymore.”

Gang Zi gave a sincere thumbs-up as he praised, “You two are amazing!”

Shen Que lifted his gaze. On either side of the four- or five-meter-wide river, the banks rose in steep, uneven slopes, sparsely dotted with low vegetation that appeared loose and shallow-rooted, offering little stability.

“But this path won’t be easy to walk.”

“Who says we have to walk?” Gang Zi smiled mysteriously at Shen Que before patting the bag by his hand in a show-off manner.

A lump of leather object, whose original shape was unrecognizable, was pulled out by Gang Zi and spread on the ground, it looked like a large, deflated inner tube.

Shen Que’s eyes lit up. “Inflatable boat?”

Gang Zi proudly tilted his head back, giving a couple of smug snorts.

“Alright, stop showing off unnecessarily. Hurry up and inflate it, let’s go.” Old Qiu reached out and patted Gang Zi’s back, his expression full of praise. He generally provided emotional value very well.

The few people assembled a simple battery-powered air pump to inflate the boat. Unable to help, Shen Que squatted next to them and occasionally symbolically checked whether the inflation level was sufficient or not.

In reality, he was still contemplating another question.

“Why did you bring a boat when coming into the mountain?”

“……”

The air was silent for a moment.

Gang Zi stared at Shen Que with a serious expression, sincerely asking, “If I refuse to answer this question, will my salary be docked?”

Shen Que also thought seriously for two seconds before shaking his head, “No.”

“Okay, then I refuse to answer.”

With that, he turned around, pulled out the air pump before quickly packing up the remaining parts, then stood and joined Old Qiu in lifting the inflatable boat, tossing it onto the surface of the river.

Ah Chao silently positioned himself in front of Shen Que, shielding him from the splashing water. He turned his head slightly, and in the backlight, half of his face was cast into shadow. He lowered his voice and spoke profoundly, “He bought it on his first mission. Although he’s never used it, he brings it every time too. This time, it’s just a lucky coincidence.”

Before Shen Que could comment, Gang Zi darted forward, giving Ah Chao a slap on the back of his head. “Seriously, what are you trying to act like here? You bring that useless parachute every time. Have you ever used it?”

“……” Shen Que’s mouth twitched. He moved two steps to the side to stay away from the conflict zone. Before setting off, he had been very certain that these people were highly professional, reliable, and experienced. Now, he felt completely hopeless, unable to even see the future.

Luckily, at least Old Qiu was still reliable.

“What’s with that look? Old Qiu just hasn’t pulled his mini Mahjong set out of his pocket yet.” Gang Zi chuckled, shattering the illusion without mercy.

Shen Que gave a fake, strained smile, lifted the corner of his mouth, then turned and stepped onto the inflatable boat, moving to the very front to sit alone.

The sun was setting in the west, and the half of the sky visible overhead was burning red, lending a warm color to the trees and grass.

Something flashed quickly between the straight, standing tree trunks, its black-brown fur vaguely visible in the weeds.

Shen Que immediately sensed trouble. His heart began to pound uncontrollably in his chest. He fumbled for and gripped the switch of the electric thruster, lowered his voice, and quickly told them to get on the boat.

The few people on the bank turned their heads upon hearing him. Seeing the change in his expression, they immediately dropped their joking demeanor.

The few people exchanged a look. Old Qiu and Gang Zi quickly stepped onto the boat with their belongings, settled down, and adjusted their positions, while Ah Chao still stood in place, without even changing his posture.

In that instant, the few people roughly determined the location of the unusual object based on where Shen Que’s gaze fell. Ah Chao was the closest, so he first held his position to lull the unknown enemy.

But the creature was far smarter than they had expected. It quickly sensed something was amiss, abandoned its attempts to hide, and charged toward them at incredible speed.

It was the brown bear!

And not just one!

Shen Que frowned and urged loudly, “Get on the boat quickly!”

Before he could finish his sentence, Ah Chao bolted, first flinging the items in his hands forward, which Gang Zi caught them steadily, then lunging forward with his upper body plunging into the boat.

The boat body was unstable and rocked violently twice.

Shen Que ignored everything else, immediately pressed the start button, and pulled the speed to maximum. The sound of the thruster suddenly roared, abruptly pushing the boat forward a considerable distance.

Old Qiu grabbed Ah Chao’s shoulder while Gang Zi held onto Ah Chao’s waistband. The two of them exerted force together in order to drag his entire body up.

Almost simultaneously, two brown bears roared and plunged into the water, splashing a huge sheet of water that nearly capsized the entire boat.

Ah Chao panting heavily as he laid on Old Qiu’s lap. If the thruster had started even a second slower, he would have been partially eaten or dragged away already.

However, the matter was far from over.

The third bear lifted half its head out of the water, its eyes strange and piercing as it stared at them from just about two meters away.

The other two bears were also approaching at an extremely fast speed.

Their suspended hope was somewhat extinguished.

Shen Que had completely forgotten that bears could swim.

Just when he was despairing to the point of pondering how to write a sufficiently shocking opening for the latest version of his will, the crisis suddenly lifted.

Suddenly, the three bears halted their chase without any warning.

From a distance neither too far nor too close, Shen Que could even clearly see in their eyes the frustration of failed hunting and their unwillingness to let go of their prey.

Although the reason for them stopping was unclear, at least they were safe.

At least, for now.

Ah Chao sat up as he wiped the sweat from his head.

All of them were panting heavily while their rapid breathing almost drowned out the sound of the thruster working.

Gang Zi opened his arms and gave Ah Chao a firm hug.

“Damn it, you scared the hell out of me. I thought I’d only get to see half of you for the rest of your life.”

Ah Chao swallowed, shook his head, and when he had completely calmed down, he landed a light yet firm punch on Gang Zi’s chest. “You only curse me!”

Shen Que’s hand trembled as he clutched the controller with veins bulging on the back of his hand, while his teeth grinding audibly.

He wasn’t without experience of danger, but that had always been when he was alone. This was the first time a companion had nearly lost his life right in front of him.

It was obvious that this was much harder for him to bear than if he himself were in any real danger.

Old Qiu patted his shoulder and reached out to pinch his jaw, forcing him to release his tightly clenched teeth.

“If you keep biting, you might shatter your teeth and swallow them.”

Only then did Shen Que pull himself out of the confusion, forcing a strained smile onto the corner of his mouth.

“Thank you, Young Master Shen, for saving my life!” Ah Chao looked at Shen Que with sparkling eyes, full of admiration and gratitude.

“That’s right, we really owe it to Young Master Shen this time, or else the few of us would have met our end here today.” Gang Zi shivered. The thought of nearly being devoured by a bear piece by piece made the hair on his body stand up.

Before this, even though they tacitly allowed Shen Que to come along, everyone had an unspoken understanding to protect this young master like a mascot; it would be good enough if he didn’t hold them back, let alone expecting him to be of any help.

Unexpectedly, he proved to be surprisingly reliable at a critical moment.

Old Qiu shook his head. Any previous slight prejudice he had against Shen Que vanished completely.

The inflatable boat followed the small river, sailing toward the unknown ahead.

A misty haze gradually began to rise.

Beneath the increasingly dark water surface, some long, slender thing was slowly swimming behind the boat…