Chapter 193: Chapter 183: Qin Ling’s Apology

Qin Ling was sitting in the farthest corner, his head lowered, revealing only the clean line of his jaw.

Their mission had been completed smoothly, but unexpectedly, the plane had an incident mid-air and crashed.

Fortunately, despite the extreme danger, they managed a near-miraculous landing after both engines failed.

Avoiding a fatal crash was the greatest luck they could have asked for.

But this godforsaken place was nothing but trees as far as the eye could see, without a single soul in sight.

He didn’t know if the area was just too vast, or if losing the signal on their ID Watches had also made them lose their sense of direction.

He had led his team on foot for a long time, but they were just walking in circles, completely unable to find a way out.

Not only that, but they had also encountered many terrifying creatures in the deep forest, losing two of their brothers-in-arms in the process.

With what happened, Qin Ling felt worse than anyone.

After wandering for who knows how long, just when they thought they’d found a human settlement, they encountered something even more unexpected.

The people here weren’t from a civilized society, but a Wildman Tribe of unknown origin.

After being treated to a meal of fruit, they all passed out. When they woke up, they were all trapped in this small hut.

At first, someone came to communicate with them, but it wasn’t to let them go. Instead, they came to deliver a message.

The tribe’s chief’s only daughter had taken a liking to Qin Ling. She wanted him to marry her and settle down in the tribe for good.

Actually, "marry" wasn’t quite right; it was more like he would be marrying into her family.

It was such a ridiculous proposition that Qin Ling, of course, rejected it without a second thought.

The messenger didn’t say much more, simply closing the door and leaving.

Normally, a wooden hut and a few wildman guards wouldn’t have been enough to hold Qin Ling and his men.

But every day, someone would blow an unknown gas into Qin Ling’s room through a small hole.

The gas was an extract from the local sacred flower, the Mist Flower, and was extremely precious.

Just a tiny amount was enough to make even the most powerful person fall into a deep sleep. When they woke up, their bodies would be limp, completely devoid of strength.

The effect of the rosemary would last for 24 hours, so the next day, someone would come to blow the fragrance into the room again.

Every three days, someone would come and ask Qin Ling if he had changed his mind and was willing to marry the chief’s daughter.

A crisp and clean rejection. Qin Ling didn’t even need a second to hesitate.

After all, this wasn’t something that could be forced. The tribespeople weren’t in a hurry; they just kept them imprisoned.

After more than a week, perhaps because the rosemary was too precious, the tribespeople stopped using it on them.

Besides, they had been starved for over a week, and with guards stationed outside at all times, they had no strength to resist, no matter how capable they were.

Moreover, the aftereffects of inhaling the rosemary for a week were no joke; it would take at least another seven or eight days to fully recover.

After half a month, Qin Ling and his men had fully recovered from the drug’s effects, but they were so starved they didn’t have a shred of strength left.

This foothill tribe was encountering people from civilized society for the first time. To be honest, they hadn’t thought of a good way to handle them.

But Qin Ling’s refined, yet cold, appearance was simply too striking.

It had immediately captivated the chief’s young, only daughter, who begged her father not to kill them and to let her marry him.

As the chief, he naturally disliked outsiders, but he couldn’t resist his daughter’s pleas and reluctantly agreed.

But his condition was that these men must completely abandon everything from their civilized society, become like the tribespeople, and put down roots here forever.

However, their wish was probably not going to come true.

Because even if it meant death, Qin Ling would never compromise.

Not only would he not sell himself out to survive, but more importantly, he couldn’t do anything to betray Tang Mo, even if it cost him his life.

Qin Ling wasn’t particularly afraid of death. The difficult part was that he wasn’t alone; he had a team.

If he just agreed, all of his brothers could live.

He couldn’t bear to watch the brothers who had been through life and death with him starve to death one by one before his eyes.

But he couldn’t bring himself to compromise. He just couldn’t do it.

Everything in the wooden hut was a constant, painful torment for him.

It wasn’t just the hunger, but the mental anguish.

"I’ve failed you all."

The wooden hut was pitch black. A voice emerged from the corner.

Everyone could tell it was the voice of their perpetually silent boss.

"Boss, don’t say that. We’d rather die than let you do something like that."

"Yeah, Boss! A man lives for his pride. So what if we die? Only a son of a bitch is afraid of death."

"Exactly. If we survived because the Boss sold himself out, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself even if we made it out of this hut."

...

How could the men here possibly blame Qin Ling?

Such things didn’t exist between brothers.

Merely being alive wasn’t the most important thing. Living with dignity was.

Night fell. In a tribe with no clocks and no electric lights, everything had long since fallen silent.

CREAK.

The door had, at some point, opened a crack.

In the darkness, everyone’s eyes snapped open. Though their bodies were weak, the sharpness in their gazes hadn’t diminished in the slightest.

"Qin Ling?"

A girl’s voice called Qin Ling’s name as she pushed the door open.

Qin Ling recognized the voice but said nothing.

The others also remained perfectly still, none of them making a sound.

"Qin Ling, I brought you some food. It’s venison my dad just hunted today. It was roasted this evening, so it’s still warm."

The girl’s voice was cheerful, filled with the desire to please someone she liked.

The speaker was the chief’s daughter, who had fallen in love with Qin Ling at first sight on the day he arrived.

As the roasted venison, wrapped in leaves, was unwrapped, the aroma of grilled meat filled the entire hut.

GRUMBLE...

A person’s physiological reactions can’t be hidden. Though no one in the room spoke, a chorus of gulping and the sound of growling stomachs could be heard.

’What is this? It’s meat.’

They had forgotten how long it had been since they’d last eaten meat. The last time was probably back at the base before their mission.

At this point, they would have been more than satisfied with just leaves to eat, let alone warm, fragrant meat. The smell alone was enough to bring tears to their eyes.

Qin Ling closed his eyes, pretending he hadn’t heard or smelled anything.

It was as if everything before him was an illusion, as if nothing was happening at all.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.