The King of Black Fog

After the pygmy marmoset left, the canyon once again fell into dead silence.

"Officer Zheng, you're injured, get some sleep. We'll keep watch," Li Qianxia couldn't help but say, seeing Zheng Qing struggling to stay awake.

Zheng Qing didn't really want to move, and could only shake her head in a dismissing manner, "No need. I'm not trying to be strong, I'm just worried that if I fall asleep, I'll be the first one attacked by the enemy."

Li Qianxia didn't know what else to say; it would be like advising someone to embrace death.

Li Changzhou sat on the side, hugging an AK without speaking. Tonight, there was no moon, and the sky was pitch black as ink, dense enough to seem as though it would drip down.

The campfire crackled, making sounds fighting against the darkness, striving to maintain a small, warm area of light.

Li Qianxia yawned, considering whether to ask her older brother to tell a joke to liven things up.

"It's back," Yang Qinglan suddenly lifted her head, her gaze towards the cliff face—the front line of the battle between firelight and darkness.

Everyone looked over, and the drowsy Zheng Qing also perked up.

The little radish crawled into the light from the shadows, her body shaking with cold.

Before the four of them could say anything, she leaped four meters and landed beside the campfire, hugging her small body as she began to vigorously warm herself.

"Not scared of me anymore?" Li Changzhou asked with a smile.

"Don't scare it off again!" Li Qianxia signaled for him to shut up.

The little radish shivered and lifted her head, her pristine white teeth chattering as she said, "Now, now... you... are not scary anymore."

Was it a matter of rationality? Li Changzhou thought.

When dopamine prevailed and adrenaline was suppressed, he had wanted to kill the pygmy marmoset, to seize its "Avoid Death and Prolong Life" instinct.

But now, a pale and tender, talking "child," shivering from cold—how could he possibly harm her without any clear sign of hostility?

He, Li Changzhou, was just an ordinary college student.

He suddenly remembered what Yang Qinglan had said before. If he didn't have a sister, didn't have teammates, and was acting alone, would he have shown mercy today in the face of Zheng Qing and the pygmy marmoset?

He would probably have become the 'Invincible Wind Fire Wheel', unhesitatingly taking the initiative to strike first.

Yang Qinglan glanced sideways and asked Li Changzhou, "What are you thinking about?"

"It might be a matter of perspective," Li Changzhou, after serious reflection, gave an answer he believed to be credible, "For someone like me, one moment a god, the next a demon—yeah, it must be that."

"Yeah, you're really handsome," Yang Qinglan teased.

"Don't think I don't know you're insulting me."

"Reflect on it well," Yang Qinglan pulled her gaze back to the campfire, "as to why I felt the urge to insult you, when I'm such an elegant, intellectual, noble, gentle, and refined person."

Li Changzhou turned his head to take a quick look at her, his expression serene and indifferent, not as if he was joking.

So shameless?

But I like it.

On the other side, Li Qianxia was already chatting animatedly with the little radish, looking like two monkeys.

"Do you have a name?"

"Pygmy marmoset," the creature replied.

"Not that. Everyone calls you pygmy marmoset, right? So you need a more special name."

Who are the 'everyone' in your mouth? Li Changzhou tossed a glance at his sister and threw more wood onto the fire.

"I don't have a more special name." The little radish shook her head, her posture hugging her knees, looking extremely well-behaved like a little girl, except that she wasn't wearing any clothes, which was not so good.

"Then I'll give you one. You're a monkey, and also a pygmy marmoset, so how about 'Zhu Wukong'? Zhu as in Zhu Yuanzhang's Zhu."

"Does it know which 'Zhu' is Zhu Yuanzhang's Zhu?" Yang Qinglan couldn't help but speak out.

Li Changzhou couldn't help but say, "It's a female."

"What do you mean 'female'? That's rude! She's a girl!" Li Qianxia gave her older brother a disdainful look and then, as if about to pick a fight, asked him, "So what do you guys think is a good name?"

"It's not human, why must it have a human name? All beings are equal," Li Changzhou, while tending to the campfire, said, "I think it looks like a radish, so let's just call it 'Little Radish'."

"Indeed, it's not a human name, it's a plant name given by people," Yang Qinglan nodded, sarcastically endorsing someone's view of equality among all beings.

"Little Radish, Little Radish," Li Qianxia murmured while sizing up the pygmy marmoset, suddenly bursting into laughter, "It really does look like a radish!"

Li Changzhou mused, "Aren't there radish emoticons now? When we get back, we can draw a more specific one based on it, maybe we could make some money."

Li Qianxia clapped her hands together and continued, "Then we can use the money we make to buy clothes for Little Radish!"

"What?"

Li Changzhou could no longer understand the thought process of women when they saw cute little animals.

The pygmy marmoset accepted the name 'Little Radish,' feeling it rolled off the tongue better than 'Zhu Wukong.'

From now on, Little Radish would no longer be just Li Changzhou's private nickname for the pygmy marmoset; everyone called it that.

It even wrote 'Little Radish' as its nickname on the 'Identity Card,' fearing it might forget.

Speaking of nicknames, Li Changzhou felt immense regret; they were unchangeable.

His moniker 'King of Black Fog' was like those permanent QQ Space statuses, 'Always wish you never wrong me. If you ever wrong me, wo~ will use all I have, to destroy all you have'—indelible.

A night of despair, bitter cold, one that one would never wish to remember.

He got up and walked around, patrolling and also to shake off the warmth of the campfire, snuffing out any drowsiness.

When people are sleepy and tired, their attention decreases.

The night passed peacefully.

The desert was bone-chillingly cold in the early morning; by the latter half of the night, the campfire was reduced to just embers.

The four people and one monkey, all dressed in summer clothing, exhaled white breaths.

"I have a suggestion," Li Changzhou said, unable to get the words out all at once because of the cold.

Yang Qinglan, rather than speaking, simply lifted her chin, motioning for him to continue.

"The temperature still isn't high right now; we should seize the time and use Little Radish's instincts to find people, take the initiative to strike and end this game," he said.

He shrugged his shoulders and simply let himself blend with the cold, allowing it to strip away the warmth.

His mind became clearer as a result.

He continued, addressing the other three shivering individuals and one monkey:

"Continuing to stay here, we have water, but no food, nor do we have dry wood to get us through a second night."

"Didn't we say," Li Qianxia shivered, "didn't we say to conserve our energy, to plan for going back?"

"That was when we didn't have a target," Li Changzhou explained, "Now, with Little Radish, we might know in which direction there are contestants."

"I support this," Zheng Qing said crisply, "Some animals have a very strong ability to survive in the desert, like digging burrows, going a week without food, replenishing water from the morning mist and so on. Compared to them, we have no advantage."

She had another thought she didn't voice; if they left the canyon and went out, maybe they would find her scattered teammates.

Yang Qinglan didn't rush to make a decision; she asked Little Radish, "Little Radish, can you sense a direction that is dangerous but not too dangerous?"

Little Radish nodded vigorously, its jade-like toes curling in an attempt to lock in any heat that was escaping.

"Then let's go."

The four humans and one monkey took turns drinking some water, with Li Changzhou carrying Zheng Qing on his back, and once again climbed the cliff, beginning their trek in the dim light of the desert dawn.