Chapter Sixty-One: The Radiant Sea of Blossoms

"Oh." Liu Chang nodded, feeling sorrow for the fallen soldier—dead, unknown even by name. Life vanished in this lush jungle, with neither family nor friends nearby.

Sighing, Liu Chang found the little girl he'd knocked into the grass earlier, picked her up, tidied their belongings, and said to Shen Mingyi, "Let's go. Let's see if there's anyone else."

"Alright." Shen Mingyi nodded and followed Liu Chang, whose vision stretched far ahead, as they returned to the Zhengkai Avenue.

During the next ten minutes, the three spotted signs of life, but none were human. To avoid trouble and danger, they refrained from investigating further. Liu Chang kept in mind Li Qingshui's warning about the time; after a few more minutes without finding any trace of people, he decided to head back.

"Let's return. We've been out for over twenty minutes; we can't delay our journey."

"Mm."

Retracing their steps, another ten minutes passed before they rejoined the group.

"You didn't find anyone?" Zhao Yue’s face wore disappointment, seeing the same three who had left return.

"We found one, but alas, just as we reached him, he was killed by a monster." Shen Mingyi handed the magazine and rations taken from the corpse to the captain.

"Sigh." Zhao Yue looked at the items in his hands. "This must be Cao Wei's. What a pity."

He sighed, but his emotion didn't delay them for long. "Li Peiheng probably won't be found either. Let's go." Waving his fog lamp, Captain Zhao finally pronounced the death sentence for another lost soldier, "Li Peiheng."

The team moved on.

Knowing Liu Chang’s keen eyesight, Zhao Yue did not demand much from him, simply placing him in the middle of the group and instructing him to keep watch and prevent further losses. Liu Chang needed no such advice—he remained vigilant.

They marched for nearly three more hours, until the sun hung directly overhead and the red mist shone with its brightest hue. Still, they encountered no more danger. Due to the considerable exertion, the captain ordered a brief halt to rest and replenish food and water.

The soldiers brought out their nearly inedible pre-packed biscuits, while Liu Chang and his companions produced frog meat soaked in formaldehyde. They gathered in circles, eating on the spot.

The military men formed their own group, Liu Chang's party another, leaving one person isolated—Doctor Huang.

"Come join us and have some food. We brought plenty," Li Qingshui, sitting on the edge of their circle, called to Doctor Huang as he pulled food from his backpack.

"Feigning kindness," the woman surnamed Huang glanced back at Li Qingshui, unmoved—clearly still resentful of him for forcing her along.

"If you don’t eat or drink now, you, as a doctor, should know better than anyone the consequences: high temperature, great exertion, and no sustenance." Li Qingshui wrapped frog meat in a leaf and placed it at Doctor Huang's feet, handing her a jug of clean water.

He turned away, not looking at her expression or offering further persuasion.

"Eat. Survival is more important than anything," said the fat man, though he had grown much thinner since the apocalypse, no longer truly "fat." He grinned, his face sunken, at Doctor Huang. "We may not be saints, but we're not as malicious as you claimed. Of course, maybe there were other reasons for what you said yesterday."

"But in any case, who cares?" The fat man shrugged. "Isn't staying alive the most important thing?"

Doctor Huang did not reply, staring blankly for half a minute. After a brief struggle, she picked up the food and water and ate.

Once everyone had replenished themselves, and rested a few more minutes, the group set out again. Only two had died that morning, and with a third of the journey completed, the death rate was still acceptable. The atmosphere among them was not particularly grim.

Thus, they traveled through the jungle for another hour, until the front of the group came to an abrupt halt.

"What happened?" Seeing the pause, someone immediately raised their rifle, scanning the surroundings warily. "Is there a situation?"

"No, lower your weapons," Zhao Yue called from the front.

"Why stop if there's nothing?" Standing in the middle, Liu Chang was uncertain and stepped forward to investigate.

Reaching the front, he didn't need to ask—the sight before him explained why the captain had ordered a stop: a dazzling flower field.

A vibrant expanse of blossoms stretched before him. Dazzling, because the flowers’ colors were shockingly vivid—even in the world of red mist, their red petals outshone the haze by several degrees. That intense hue seemed as if blood might drip any moment.

The flower field was vast; with Liu Chang's vision, its edges were nowhere in sight. It dominated the gravel path, daring anyone to cross.

"These flowers are strangely red!" Li Qingshui hurried up from behind, taking in the scene.

"Indeed, Mr. Li," the captain frowned at the flower field. "Do you think they might be poisonous?"

"I don't know, but the color is too bright. I think it's best we don't touch them." Li Qingshui gestured at the dazzling field. "Besides, look—almost nothing else grows here. That’s not normal for a jungle."

"Yes." Liu Chang peered as far as he could; indeed, not even a weed grew among the blossoms, unlike elsewhere in the jungle where various plants tangled together.

"In this era of competition, for one species to dominate a region, it must have some unique ability," Li Qingshui sighed. "So, regardless of whether they're poisonous, we shouldn't touch them."

"Could they be man-eating flowers?" Zhao Yue stretched his imagination to comprehend nature’s wonders.

"I don’t know. Let’s test it." Li Qingshui took a piece of frog meat from his backpack and tossed it into the flower field—but the meat landed, and nothing reacted. No row of fangs emerged from the blossoms to devour it.

"They don’t eat?" Zhao Yue frowned.

"Forget it. Let’s go around." Li Qingshui, seeing the flowers didn’t consume the meat, remained wary.

"Around? But the road is right ahead. What if we get lost?"

"Do you want to wade through them instead?" Li Qingshui frowned.

Seeing his expression, Zhao Yue looked again at the unnaturally brilliant red flowers, finally abandoning the urge to challenge them. "Fine, we’ll go around."

He took out a compass, calibrated their direction, and called Liu Chang over.

"While we skirt the field, stay close to me. You can see far; with you and the compass, we shouldn’t get lost."

"Alright," Liu Chang nodded. "I don’t have much experience in the jungle, so I’ll follow your lead."

"Good. Don’t stray too far from the flowers. Let me know if there are any changes on the path."

The group prepared to skirt the flower field.