Chapter 556 — The Fierce Shen Yushu

"I don't know, but I do know that if you keep talking, you'll only get thirstier!" Gu Mengyao warned her. "You'd do better to keep your mouth shut."

"Mmm... Yao Yao, my lips are all cracked — do you have any lip balm?" Shen Yushu kept right on talking.

"No!" Gu Mengyao said. "I told you not to talk, so why won't you listen?"

Only then did Shen Yushu shut her mouth. The two of them slept when they were tired and woke when they were hungry, until their body clocks were a hopeless mess. When they opened their eyes again, the light in the cat's-eye peephole was gone — clearly night had fallen.

"Yao Yao, I'm really going to die. Do you think Arrow-Brand Bro never got the text?" Shen Yushu was sliding into despair.

"He did, he must have." Gu Mengyao was panicking too, but she still had to put on a show of being calm.

"No, he didn't. I know we're going to die, Yao Yao. I can't hold on any longer..." Shen Yushu closed her eyes.

"Be good, Xiao Shu. Wei Zhao will definitely come." Gu Mengyao's comfort rang a little hollow even to herself.

"When he comes, tell him to carry my body back. I don't want to die out in the wild..." Shen Yushu murmured.

"..." A waterfall of black lines poured down Gu Mengyao's forehead. "Xiao Shu, don't talk nonsense!"

"If he doesn't mind, he can have a go on my corpse, so that even in death I get to know what it feels like to be a woman..." Shen Yushu had clearly gone hazy with hunger; her words had lost all order and she was beginning to babble incoherently.

Wei Zhao did not have Qing Bo drive straight to Twin Swallow Mountain. Instead he made a detour back to the villa and brought General Weiwu along.

At the sight of General Weiwu, admiration lit up both Gu Pengzhan's and Qing Bo's eyes. It had never occurred to either of them to use this approach — Wei Zhao was the meticulous one.

At the foot of Twin Swallow Mountain, Wei Zhao and Qing Bo got out of the car and headed up the slope. Even Gu Pengzhan got out and followed after them.

Wei Zhao did not believe Zhong Yongliang had imprisoned the two women inside the resort. If they were in the resort, it would have been impossible for them not to cry for help; even if they were bound hand and foot with cotton stuffed in their mouths, a maid come to clean the room might have stumbled in on them. The risk factor was far too high. Unless Zhong Yongliang was a fool, he would never do anything so stupid.

So Wei Zhao shifted his attention elsewhere. Gu Pengzhan and Qing Bo going to search the resort was enough; Wei Zhao himself headed straight on up the mountain.

At the fork in the mountain path, Wei Zhao stopped in his tracks. There were plenty of tourists on the mountain, but not many would choose the direction of the fork. The mountain might be a scenic area, but it was bound to harbor ticks and grass snakes and the like — especially in summer, when no one in their right mind would wander into such a dangerous place for no reason.

Wei Zhao bent down and examined the traces in the grass along the fork. Someone had clearly passed through recently, and on closer inspection, more than one person.

Wei Zhao set the General Weiwu he had been carrying down on the ground. The whole way here the General had been frightened half to death, unable to guess what Wei Zhao wanted with him — surely he wasn't going to butcher him? He wanted to run, but reckoned he couldn't outrun Wei Zhao, so all he could do was tremble and wait for whatever was about to happen.

But the moment Wei Zhao set him on the ground, he caught the scent of his mistress, Gu Mengyao. As he saw it, Wei Zhao was still very much afraid of Gu Mengyao, so as long as he found Gu Mengyao and sought her protection, Wei Zhao would not be able to do a thing to him!

So without Wei Zhao having to do anything at all, General Weiwu set off on his own, following Gu Mengyao's scent. He tracked it all the way to the mouth of a cave, to a security door — and still he had not found Gu Mengyao, which left him somewhat at a loss.

General Weiwu did not recognize security doors, but Wei Zhao did. The instant he saw it, he understood that this must be where Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu were being held! And Wei Zhao had sharp ears besides — the moment he entered the cave, he heard Shen Yushu muttering away to herself, and nearly pitched headfirst onto the ground!

Black lines crawled all over Wei Zhao's forehead. Shen Yushu's imagination really was something else — did he look like he had some madman's fetish, climbing onto her corpse?

Wei Zhao gave a dry cough and knocked on the security door. "Yao Yao, Xiao Shu!"

"Oh, Yao Yao, I really am going to die — I'm hallucinating... I think I just heard Arrow-Brand Bro's voice." Shen Yushu was still murmuring away in her daze.

"Wei Zhao? Is that you?" Though famished and parched, Gu Mengyao's mind was perfectly clear; the moment she heard Wei Zhao's voice, she cried out in shock. Like someone glimpsing dawn in the pitch dark, her whole body flooded at once with lightness and excitement. "Xiao Shu, your Arrow-Brand Bro has come to rescue you..."

"Mm... Yao Yao, you're lying to me — I'm hallucinating..." Shen Yushu trailed off, then suddenly sat bolt upright. "Really? It's not a hallucination?"

Wei Zhao glanced at the security door. There was no one else around now, so he could not afford to keep his strength hidden; he raised a foot and kicked it. The door warped on the spot — and that was with much of his force held back, for fear a full kick would send it flying and hurt the two girls.

At the tremendous crash against the security door, Shen Yushu finally came fully awake. "Arrow-Brand Bro?"

"It's me..." Wei Zhao kicked a few more times and knocked the door clean off, then stepped into the cave. "Are you two all right?"

"Woo..." Gu Mengyao wept for joy. She did not know how she had endured her time here; frightened as she was, she knew that if she too had given way to despair, Shen Yushu would surely have broken down. So she had gritted her teeth and held on. Now that Wei Zhao had come, she could hold back no longer and let her feelings pour out.

"I'm sorry I'm late." Wei Zhao took Gu Mengyao's hand and gently stroked her back. "Don't cry. We're going home right now."

Then Shen Yushu suddenly seized Wei Zhao's arm and bit down hard.

"Ah! What are you doing?" Wei Zhao, stung by the pain, glared at Shen Yushu.

"Oh, so it's not a dream — I thought it was! Arrow-Brand Bro, you really came!" Shen Yushu shed her earlier listlessness at once; her excited face regained some of its color.

"Of course I came — I was afraid of finding corpses!" Wei Zhao, still smarting from the bite, was annoyed. Why hadn't the girl bitten herself? Did she have to use him as a guinea pig? He could not resist needling her about her slip.

Shen Yushu froze, then her eyes went wide. "You heard all that?"

"Only if I were deaf," Wei Zhao said, speechless.

Gu Mengyao burst out laughing. This Xiao Shu had made quite the spectacle of herself — Wei Zhao had heard every word, and her face was utterly lost!

"All right, no harm done. Let's get down from here quickly — Uncle Chu and Uncle Qing are still waiting below." Wei Zhao got to his feet.