Gu Nianzhi didn’t expect Qin Zhining to actually leave food for her. She was stunned for a moment.
She took the bag of roasted snake meat, lowered her head, and sighed in her heart.
Qin Zhining really didn’t treat her too badly. If only he hadn’t been involved in the shooting of Xiao Ye…
Qin Zhining watched as Gu Nianzhi returned to the back seat of the car. She took out a piece of cold roasted snake meat from a small bag and began to nibble on it.
The snake meat was already cold and smelled fishy. It didn’t even smell good, let alone taste good.
However, she sat up straight and held a small piece of snake meat in her hand. She ate it carefully and looked very well-mannered.
It was as if it was the most delicious food in the world, and she was sitting in a first-class restaurant. Her posture was impeccable.
She was so tolerant and so restrained. She really didn’t look like someone who was spoiled.
Qin Zhining raked his hair with his hand and became annoyed. “Don’t eat it anymore. I’ll go catch a few more snakes and cook snake soup in the house later.”
“Didn’t you say there was no electricity there? How are you going to cook snake soup?” Gu Nianzhi asked with a puzzled voice after swallowing a small mouthful of snake meat and when there was no food left in her mouth.
“There’s a kitchen in the holiday home over there. It was meant to use pressurized gas, but the gas tank there seems to be empty. Now, we can only burn firewood at the big stove.”
Qin Zhining said coldly without looking at her, “You can go and pick up some firewood later.”
Gu Nianzhi let out a soft “hmm” and finished the small bag of snake meat in her hand. Then she said nonchalantly, “Do you have water? I’m thirsty.”
Qin Zhining took out a bottle of mineral water from the car and handed it over with a calm expression. “Drink it sparingly. There are only two bottles left.”
Gu Nianzhi took it and said softly, “Thank you.”
In the end, she unscrewed the cap and drank half the bottle at one go.
Qin Zhining was dumbfounded. He pointed at her with his finger, but just as he was about to say something about it, he changed the topic. “… You go get the firewood, I’ll go catch the snakes.”
Gu Nianzhi arched her eyebrows and put the bottle of mineral water back in its original position. “Okay.”
She was suddenly very obedient.
Qin Zhining was not used to it. Goosebumps rose all over his body, and his scalp went numb.
He looked at Gu Nianzhi suspiciously, then turned around to continue catching the snakes in the small forest.
Gu Nianzhi slowly got out of the car and looked at Qin Zhining’s back. She squinted her eyes and smiled.
She didn’t dare to go into the woods over there, so she could only pick up some dried branches from the bushes around the house.
Fortunately, there were a lot of branches around the house. It didn’t take long for her to gather a small bundle and drag it into the kitchen of the holiday home.
She looked around the kitchen more carefully than yesterday.
The kitchen was not small. It was about 20 square meters in size.
There were two stoves near the north wall. One of them was for burning gas. She had already checked it yesterday and found that there was no gas left in the gas tank.
However, to be on the safe side, she still dragged the gas tank out and threw it far away into the backyard.
The other stove was for burning firewood.
Gu Nianzhi gathered them together and stuffed some firewood into the stove.
When Qin Zhining came back with a few strands of “rime” that had already been washed and skinned, Gu Nianzhi was waiting for him by the kitchen door.
She averted her gaze, not daring to look at Qin Zhining who was carrying the “rime”. She said softly, “I’ve brought firewood.”
Qin Zhining’s expression was solemn. He took out a lighter from his pocket and tossed it to Gu Nianzhi. “Start a fire and boil some water. We are making snake soup.”
He found a chopping board and a knife and began to chop the long snake into inch-long pieces.
Gu Nianzhi blinked her big, watery eyes, and pointed at herself with her onion-like fingers. She said with a smile, “You want me to do it?”
“Did you expect me to cook?” Qin Zhining hacked on the chopping board with a thud, and the long snake split into two. “You’re a woman, shouldn’t you cook?”
A woman should cook?
This cancer of a cis man…
Gu Nianzhi laughed eerily behind Qin Zhining, and her voice grew softer. “.. Fine, I’ll cook.”
She tilted her head to watch Qin Zhining chop up the snakes into small pieces and pile them up on the chopping board.
Then she waved her hand. “That’s enough. You can leave now. I’ll make snake soup.”
Gu Nianzhi was no stranger to surviving in the wild. She could easily start a fire with Qin Zhining’s lighter.
She threw the firewood into the stove. After a while, a red flame emerged from the stove. She narrowed her eyes and curled her lips into a smile.
He wanted to eat the food she cooked?
That would only happen if he were still alive…
Qin Zhining saw Gu Nianzhi obediently start the fire and boil the water. He nodded in satisfaction and ran the water in the sink next to him to wash his hands. He said, “Alright, I’m going to continue repairing the battery. Hurry up!”
They hadn’t had breakfast yet.
There wasn’t much to eat on this run-down island. The only things that could be eaten were the things that snakes liked to eat.
For example, snake berries, bird eggs, and all kinds of mice and groundhogs. They were either hard to find or not delicious. After thinking about it, only the snakes that were “worth more than gold” could be eaten.
Qin Zhining’s mood was inexplicably happy.
He almost hummed a tune as he walked out of the kitchen of the vacation house. He came to the side of his car, opened the hood, and continued to repair the battery.
The battery was really out of electricity. He thought hard about any method that he could use to stimulate the last bit of residual energy, just enough to start the engine.
There was a full tank of gasoline in the car. Once the car started, the charging device would work.
As long as the charging device could work, it would be a matter of minutes before he could plug in his phone and go home.
Qin Zhining was in a better mood.
He focused his attention on the intense maintenance.
It seemed like he had only bent down to check for less than five minutes when he suddenly smelled something burning.
His heart skipped a beat. He immediately turned around and saw thick black smoke rising from the direction of the holiday house!
In a green forest, under the bright blue sky and among the white clouds, a few wisps of black smoke could be seen all too easily.
There was even an open flame coming from the direction of the holiday house!
Oh no!
It was the holiday home that was on fire!
Gu Nianzhi would be fine, right?!
Qin Zhining’s heart sank. He threw away the toolbox in his hand with a thump and ran toward the holiday home like a bird.
He crossed the stream in front of the house, skipped some steps as he ran up the stairs, and rushed into the holiday house.
“Nianzhi! Nianzhi! Gu Nianzhi!”
Sure enough, the fire came from the kitchen.
Qin Zhining shouted and rushed into the raging fire in the kitchen.
There was fire everywhere in the house, and no one could be seen.
Could it be that she had been burnt to death?!
Qin Zhining was nervous.
“Nianzhi?! Where are you?! Say Something! Nianzhi! Nianzhi!” Qin Zhining finally couldn’t hold it in anymore and shouted, his voice filled with urgency.
His mission was to bring her home. If he let her die here, his mission would fail.
As a soldier, was there anything sadder than failing a mission?!
It was all his fault. Why did he let her cook all by herself?
Qin Zhining’s eyes were red from the smoke and he teared up a lot. However, he persisted on searching through the kitchen.
The fire raged, and even the nearby room was on fire.
The temperature around rose rapidly.
Gu Nianzhi stood at a safe spot outside the door, holding a wooden stick cut from a tree branch upside down as she watched the scene quietly.
She had not expected that this “kidnapper” would risk his life to save her.
She had planned to wait for this “kidnapper” to poke his head out of the door to check the fire, and then knock him with the stick…
But Qin Zhining was too fast. He rushed into the burning kitchen without hesitation.
He did not give her a chance to “knock” him in with a stick.
Gu Nianzhi looked at the wooden stick in her hand and was a little worried.
If the other party was truly a bad person, she would not feel any psychological pressure from his death.
But he really did not behave like an unpardonably bad person.
Xiao Ye’s tragedy kept replaying in her mind, along with the four hateful kidnappers. However, this person was not among the four kidnappers, so she couldn’t hate him more even if she wanted to.
Gu Nianzhi hesitated.
If she didn’t say anything, would this “Kidnapper” be burnt to death in this room?
She saw that the fire had already burnt the person’s arm, and the smell of burnt flesh came from the fire.
However, Qin Zhining was still rummaging through the kitchen. He did not even let off the cupboard that had been toppled by Gu Nianzhi. Risking the danger of being burnt by fire, he shouted out her name, as if he would not come out until he found him.
Gu Nianzhi watched silently for a while. In the end she was not cruel enough. She quietly threw the wooden stick that had been cut from a tree branch down the slope by the kitchen door. She walked to the kitchen door and weakly called out, “… I’m here…”
Qin Zhining turned around abruptly. Through the raging fire, he saw the girl on the other side of the fire.
She was like a burning rose that had walked out of the fire. She was hot and elegant at the same time.
His eyes burnt, and he ran up to the stove. With a push of his feet, he leapt over the fire and pounced on Gu Nianzhi, who was standing outside the house. He held her in his arms and rolled down the narrow slope by the door.
Behind him, the flames burnt even more fiercely, and the entire holiday house was on fire.
There was no wind on the island, and the thick black smoke rose into the sky, especially striking against the blue sky, white clouds, and blue sea.
“Are you okay?” Qin Zhining patted the ashes on Gu Nianzhi’s body. Her hair was messy, but her face was still clean.
He pulled on Gu Nianzhi’s sleeve again to see if her arm was burnt.
Gu Nianzhi felt awkward in his arms. She quickly pushed his hand away and struggled to get up. She yelled, “Molest, molest! You really have evil intentions towards me! And you say I sexually molested you! — Hmph! You are purposely mixing truths and falsehoods together! A thief claiming to be the victim!”
Half of Qin Zhining’s face turned black.
He had never seen this vengeful side of her when she was young!
He didn’t know where she had learned it from…
Qin Zhining stood up and said in a muffled voice, “Who molested you? It was an emergency just now. If I didn’t hug you, you would have been burnt to death!”
Gu Nianzhi patted the dust off her body and pursed her lips. “I was fine outside the door, but you had to hug me and take advantage of me. How dare you say that I have ulterior motives? Hmph!”
Under such circumstances, a normal girl would probably be so scared that she wouldn’t be able to say anything and would just crawl into someone’s arms.
She, on the other hand, did not forget to retaliate against him for accusing her of “sexual harassment”.
Qin Zhining was both angry and amused. He moved closer to Gu Nianzhi and looked at her face carefully and said, “You really want me to molest you that much? Fine, come, I’m not afraid of You!” As he spoke, he reached out to hook Gu Nianzhi’s chin.
Gu Nianzhi jumped away in a hurry and became really nervous. Her voice changed. “… You, you, you… Don’t do anything rash! If you dare do anything rash, Major General Huo will take your life!”
“Major General Huo? Who’s that?” Qin Zhining smiled and took another step forward, pretending to be a playboy.
Having mentioned Major General Huo, Gu Nianzhi was emboldened.
She held the Swiss army knife in her hand. Just as Qin Zhining was about to reach her, she suddenly waved her hand.
Qin Zhining felt a silver light flash before her eyes and instinctively felt that something was wrong. She hurriedly took two steps back, but her arm had already been cut open by the knife in her hand.
The skin and flesh that had been burnt by the fire had been cut open again. The burning pain was extreme.
“You actually have a knife?!” Qin Zhining was extremely surprised.
Gu Nianzhi saw Qin Zhining’s mangled, black and red arm, and couldn’t bear to see it. However, he was a strong man, and she wouldn’t be able to take him head-on if he really wanted to force her.
She could only pretend to be crazy and play dumb and make fun of him, hoping that he wouldn’t “go wild”…
Gu Nianzhi held the small Swiss army knife in her hand. “No matter how small a mosquito is, it’s still meat. This Swiss Army knife can still skin you!”
Qin Zhining laughed so hard that he was twitching. “So it’s a Swiss army knife! This thing can hurt people too? You should leave it for peeling apples!”
No wonder his colleagues didn’t take it away. In their eyes, the Swiss Army knife didn’t even count as a knife!
He turned around to check on the fire in the kitchen, when he caught a glimpse of something not far away from him.
Qin Zhining’s face darkened as he strode over.
It was a wooden stick cut from a tree branch.
Qin Zhining slowly bent down and picked up the stick from the stream. He then turned around slowly and looked at Gu Nianzhi. He asked sternly, “… what is this?”
Gu Nianzhi was secretly cringing, but she pursed her lips and put her hands behind her back. She raised her chin slightly and said arrogantly, “How low is your IQ? You don’t even recognize a stick? which country are you from? You’re such a disgrace to your country!”
“Of course I know it’s a stick!” Qin Zhining was so angry that he was almost smoking. He strode back and raised the stick high up, “I thought you were almost burnt to death and risked my life to save you! Is this how you repay me?!”
Qin Zhining reached out with his other hand and grabbed Gu Nianzhi by the throat. He squeezed the words out between his teeth, “… Did you set this fire?!”
Gu Nianzhi denied it without batting an eyelid, “Of course not! It was just an accident!”
Even though she was the one who had done it, she wouldn’t admit it like a retard.
“An accident?! I told you to boil water, but you burnt the kitchen down. That was an accident?!”Qin Zhining would never believe that someone couldn’t boil water.
Even though Gu Nianzhi knew how to boil water, it wasn’t the first time she had burnt the kitchen down when she was asked to cook.
Thus, her counterattack was very forceful. “It was an accident, so what? Have you never seen a cook burn the kitchen before?!”
“I cooked at Major General Huo’s house once. Not only did I burn his kitchen, but I also set off a level-one alert in the camp! Even the fire engines and the special ops team were sent out. This is trivial in comparison!”
Gu Nianzhi rolled her eyes at the burning kitchen.
Qin Zhining found it unbelievable, but Gu Nianzhi’s words did not seem to be made up on the spot. From their intelligence gathered, it seemed like Huo Shaoheng’s official residence had indeed had such an accident before.
His hand slightly loosened, but he still pretended to be fierce. “Aren’t you very smart?! Why don’t you know how to cook?!”
“So what if I don’t know how to cook?! Did I eat your rice?!”Gu Nianzhi flew into a rage. When she saw Qin Zhining let go, she immediately went even more overboard and stepped on Qin Zhining’s foot. “I’m just that fortunate! I don’t have to cook myself! Go hang yourself if you can’t accept it!”
Gu Nianzhi was wearing the kind of casual soft-soled shoes that were worn in the house, but her foot was especially accurate. She stomped hard on Qin Zhining’s little toe. The pain made his nose ache, and he almost cried.
Qin Zhining hugged his foot and hopped up and down from where he was. “I’m warning you, don’t push me too far! Don’t think I won’t dare to hit you!”
Gu Nianzhi now understood that Qin Zhining really didn’t dare to do anything to her, and she became even more arrogant.
Without Huo Shaoheng, she was like a little devil. If someone tried to boss her around, she could be even more overbearing.
She picked up the wooden stick she had just thrown away and swung it at Qin Zhining and cried as she hit him, “This is what you get for kidnapping me! This is what you get for shooting! This is what you get for strangling me! Don’t you dare touch a single strand of my hair again! I’ll skin you!”
With Qin Zhining’s abilities, it was easy for him to snatch the weapon from Gu Nianzhi’s hands. However, He saw that she was waving a stick with her eyes filled with tears, apparently feeling worse than he, the person who was beaten up. His heart softened, and he had no choice but to run away with his head in his hands, not daring to fight back.
Just as one of them was running away from the other, not far from the coastline, a fishing boat that was cruising on the sea saw the black smoke and immediately came over.
A few black men with carbines and bullets on their backs came down from the fishing boat and ran toward the black smoke.
Qin Zhining had just turned around with his head in his hands when he saw the black men.
His expression changed abruptly. He suddenly waved his hand and snatched the wooden stick from Gu Nianzhi’s hand. He covered her mouth with his other hand and pulled her into his arms to hide in the bushes.
Gu Nianzhi was about to struggle when Qin Zhining whispered in her ear, “Don’t move. The pirates are coming. Let’s take their ship and leave.”
