Night fell. In the dense white mist, the bus seemed to blend seamlessly with the night. Over a hundred people were sound asleep on the bus, with no casualties except for the driver.
On the other hand, looking at the other four vehicles, although it was only the first day, the survival rate was enough to induce silence. Some indifferent netizens sarcastically awaited how this group of people would face challenges. Even though Yin Minglu, the student leading the group, tried to take care of everyone and ensure their safety as much as possible, a looming issue persisted: food and water would gradually run out. In the absence of sustenance, how would the students handle themselves in a situation of scarcity? Acts of violence and survival instincts were inevitable.
After an unknown period, daylight finally arrived. Gazing at the vast forest, the fear, restlessness, and anxiety that sleep intentionally masked once again surged through the hearts of the people. They clutched their stomachs, pulling out their own food to eat.
The rustling sounds of people eating echoed, and various aromas filled the bus. However, at this point, there were far fewer people willing to generously share their food.
One student glanced around, noticing his cheerful snack party companion from yesterday. Unfortunately, the boy was busy eating his own bread, pretending not to see the suggestive gaze.
“Hey, I shared my chips with you yesterday. Shouldn’t you give me some today? Return the favor?” Because he had been overly generous on the first day, he was among the first to run out of food. Unexpectedly, regret flooded him—why did he casually share his large supply of drinks and snacks with his classmates?
“Come on, cut me some slack. I don’t have enough for myself either,” the boy tried to justify with words.
“Nonsense! I clearly saw your backpack, and there’s still plenty inside! It won’t hurt to share a little with me, will it?”
The contradictions were subtly surfacing.
Some beauty-conscious girls, shocked by their haggard appearances in the mirror after a sleepless night, reached for their makeup bags. They applied powder to conceal their tired looks. However, another group of girls mocked them, “You’re really still thinking about makeup at a time like this? Where’s your common sense?”
“What’s it got to do with you? Does our makeup affect you eating your rice?” one of the girls retorted.
“It’s not our business, but we just think you’re a bit foolish. In a situation where there’s not enough water to drink, you generously use bottled water to wash your face every day. Quite extravagant. If you’re so capable, use your own water instead of taking from the sponsor’s box of drinking water on the bus.”
These selfish and foolish women were using everyone’s water for their own cleanliness. Why should others tolerate it?
The class dynamics were subtly beginning to fracture. Beneath the seemingly calm surface, small-scale disputes were emerging, and a sense of tension permeated the air.
He couldn’t solve the food problem temporarily, but dealing with these girls, Yin Minglu had a bit of a strategy.
Just as he had Teacher Luo learn to drive, when everyone deemed someone indispensable, it became difficult to criticize that person, and conflicts would decrease. He couldn’t let those girls sow the seeds of discord privately. If left unaddressed, the day those issues erupted would be even more frightening.
So he stepped forward, first giving a stern reprimand to the girl using bottled water to wash her face. Water was a luxury item, and using it for facial cleansing was considered extravagant behavior.
Because of their attractive looks, these girls, who had rarely been lectured by boys, couldn’t hold back their indignation. They coquettishly retorted, “But, Minglu, people need to brush their teeth and wash their faces when they wake up. Otherwise, it’s not hygienic. Look at Qin Xiang; she didn’t wash her face, and there’s eye booger in the corner of her eye. It’s so funny, hahaha!”
Shameless bitch! How dare she flirt with their classmates! The faces of the girls in the class didn’t look good, especially the girl named Qin Xiang. Being named and shamed publicly, she blushed with shame and felt like crying.
However, Yin Minglu calmly said, “You’ve mistaken it. That’s not dirt. That’s her beauty mark.” His tone was casual, but it put a stop to everyone’s inquiries.
How could that be? It’s clearly eye booger. The girl, unwilling to back down, was about to continue when she met Yin Minglu’s deep and dark gaze. Her heart skipped a beat, realizing that Yin Minglu and Qin Xiang were both from the same class. He was defending the girls from his own class, and it was already quite considerate not to embarrass them publicly.
So, she immediately fell silent.
Yin Minglu said, “If you want to wash your face, there are other ways. Don’t use bottled water.”
“Where, where?” As soon as the youth mentioned there was a way, quite a few girls immediately gathered around, eagerly looking at him. It wasn’t that they didn’t care about hygiene; it was just due to scarce resources, sacrificing personal comfort for the sake of the whole class.
Qin Xiang, the girl pointed out for having eye booger, also timidly raised her face, casting a inquisitive look. It was evident that being accused of being unclean had hurt her pride.
“We’re on the highway, and there’s a valley with flowing water about two or three kilometers downhill. Although it’s a bit far, if necessary, you girls can go together to wash your faces and bathe.” Yin Minglu deliberately emphasized the term “go together.” “It’s safer that way, and you can keep an eye out for each other, making sure there are no other male students nearby trying to sneak a peek. I won’t, of course, but I can’t vouch for the integrity of other male students. After all, you’re all so beautiful.”
With a thunderous sound, the faces of the girls turned red. A few sharp-eared boys, hearing this, also blushed and muttered, “What’s up, Yin? We wouldn’t peek! We’re also upright, you know?”
“Yeah, why should only the girls get to wash? We want to bathe too!”
“We don’t think they’re beautiful, so we wouldn’t peek!”
Unfortunately, the more the boys assured and even criticized the girls’ looks, the more their excuses seemed transparent and lacked persuasiveness. The girls, feeling both angry and embarrassed, had their necks turning red.
Yin Minglu cleverly introduced gender consciousness into the group of girls. Faced with the division between boys and girls, the girls temporarily focused their attention on the boys, forming a tight-knit internal bond. Moreover, if the distance was far, the girls would feel insecure. Accompanying each other on the way, chatting could relieve stress, unconsciously shortening the journey.
Indeed, after Yin Minglu proposed the solution, those girls who had initially mocked them started apologizing to Qin Xiang and her friends.
“Sorry, I shouldn’t have said that about you. I was wrong to waste water washing my face. And, uh, your beauty mark looks nice.”
“It’s, it’s okay. Actually, everyone cares about hygiene, and I understand.” The girl gently sniffed, her delicate face blushing slightly. Despite her good nature, she chose to forgive.
She originally didn’t have a beauty mark at the corner of her eye, but she decided that after they returned, she would go to a plastic surgery clinic and have one added.
The anticipated confrontation among the girls that the netizens were looking forward to was deftly deflected by Yin Minglu’s few words. There was no trace of gunpowder, and even those girls who had initially been at odds turned enemies into friends, agreeing to watch over each other while bathing. All the netizens’ hopes were dashed.
【Didn’t this XX say they wanted to remove their mom’s oxygen mask? Clearly, they’re ruthless and heartless. How come they’re acting like a gentle lamb here? Can’t they be more assertive?】
【What a well-organized assessment! It’s turned into a joyful picnic. What’s the point?】
【This is infuriating! I bet five thousand yuan on this. Can we have some intense scenes instead?】
There are also creepy adults expressing envious and ambiguous admiration for Yin Minglu:
【Oh, this student Yin, not particularly talented, but quite eloquent. He’s good at stirring things up, and all those pretty girls like him, depend on him. Just look at those girls with their adoring and expectant little eyes.】
Each one looking at Yin Minglu with eyes like autumn water, their faces blushing, resembling butterflies encountering flowers.
Taking advantage of the critical situation, Yin Minglu shamelessly flirts with the girls. Seeing these scenes, the boys in the class must be insanely jealous! Come on, start a fight, start a fight! It would be even better if someone couldn’t resist and accidentally killed someone!
With the water issue resolved, now it’s about food.
As everyone knows, “half-grown boys eat their poor fathers.” Teenage boys, in the midst of growing taller, are often big eaters, and Yin Minglu is no exception.
Although he appears thin, at home he can easily consume two large bowls of rice, along with a sizable bowl of stew, and still find it insufficient. Sometimes he even supplements his meals with post-dinner fruits. Not to mention the other male classmates, who survive mostly on snacks and may be close to starving.
With the limited quantity of food available, combined with the initial supplies of milk, bread, and instant noodles provided by the sponsors on the bus, it can at most last a day and a half.
Therefore, besides “cutting expenses,” there’s also a need to “increase income.”
Thinking about this, he waved at the male students, then pointed at the bus, deliberately adopting a mysterious and surprised tone, “Hey, guys, what do you think this is?”
Intrigued by the tone, everyone gathered around and inspected the bus but couldn’t find anything unusual. “What’s wrong with the bus?” someone asked.
“Of course there is, we found food, right on the bus.” With a meaningful tone, Yin Minglu said. Upon hearing this, the boys immediately circled around the front of the bus that had been smashed, but the more they looked, the more puzzled they became. It was just a bus, and the graffiti on it, even if it portrayed a big tiger, had no signs of food. They felt like they were being played.
“Classmate Yin, where’s the food? Don’t mess with us!” The group became unhappy. Yin Minglu, who had teased their appetite, finally pointed at the graffiti on the bus and said, “Take a closer look at the scratches on the graffiti; it was intact before, but now it has some marks, and there are even some hairs on the ground. What do you think this means?”
With Yin Minglu’s guidance, everyone noticed it. There were indeed some abnormal scratches on the bus body, resembling claw marks from an animal, and somewhat similar to the marks left when the bus crashed into the cliff yesterday, causing the paint to become mottled.
One boy with glasses picked up a thick strand of hair, examined it for several seconds, and then said with certainty, “This could be wild boar hair! Judging by the length, the wild boar might still be quite robust, about half the height of an adult.” The scratches on the bus seemed more like those from a monkey, perhaps visitors from last night after everyone had fallen asleep.
This is just his speculation, but everyone believed it, starting to panic. “Oh my God, I never thought that what Teacher Luo said was true. There are actually wild beasts in these mountains, and our lives are in danger!”
“What do we do, what do we do? Wild boars are very destructive. I’ve seen on TV that wild boars in the mountains rush into villages, killing people and destroying homes. The few of us might not survive two hits from a wild boar.”
“But wild boar meat is delicious,” interjected Yin Minglu, “maybe one wild boar is enough for all of us to eat for two days.”
Everyone fell into an eerie silence for a moment, images of cumin, ginger powder, chili powder, and more flashed through their minds. Yin Minglu even heard someone’s loud swallowing sound.
“But you know, wild boars are not easy to deal with; they are quite large,” remarked a male student, his face serious, while his throat rolled a few times, audible gulping down saliva.
“However, there are many of us. Perhaps we can dig traps and lure the boars into them,” Yin Minglu interjected once again.
“That makes sense,” the big boys maintained a straight face, but their hearts couldn’t hide the rapid thumping. Strength lies in numbers, and after they dug a pit, they buried the driver uncle inside. Someone took a wooden board and made a makeshift tombstone.
The handsome-looking teenager even picked a few flowers from the forest, and with a gentle and compassionate look, he offered the flowers. The boys crowded behind him, each of them couldn’t help but sigh, folding their hands together.
【Oh my, am I watching some wilderness survival or primitive living live broadcast show?】
【I came to witness your self-destruction, not to watch this Yin student building a harem.】
【I, I’m guilty. These kids are too contagious; I actually joined in folding my hands together.】
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