Dragon Raja: Lu Mingfei's War Journey

Nono leaned against the cabin wall, feeling extremely uneasy. It was getting dark outside, but Lu Mingfei and the others still hadn't returned.

She put her hand in her bosom and stroked the revolver inside, but the gun did not give her the sense of security she had expected. Her heart was still filled with fear and anxiety, and unknowingly, Lu Mingfei had become her psychological support.

Just as Lu Mingfei didn't know how to survive here without Nuonuo, Nuonuo didn't know how to survive here without Lu Mingfei.

Unbeknownst to them, they have formed a peculiar symbiotic relationship of mutual dependence here.

This realization made Nono feel uneasy. She didn't like this sense of dependence, as it went against her usual independent and strong-willed style.

With some difficulty, she braced herself against the cabin wall, enduring the stinging pain from her abdominal wound, and struggled to her feet. She didn't want to just wait there silently; she wanted to find Lu Mingfei. Clutching her abdomen, she staggered to the cabin door.

Her powerful bloodline is repairing her body. What would normally take months to heal an injury, she can perform simple activities in just a few days. However, it will still take some time for her to fully recover.

She stood at the cabin door, gazing outside, like a rock waiting for her husband.

The sun was almost completely setting, leaving only a touch of red sunset in the sky. The temperature was also starting to drop, and she was shivering from the cold as she stood at the cabin door.

"Come back soon... Lu Mingfei..." Nuonuo murmured to herself, wishing that the boy named Lu Mingfei could reappear in front of her.

Just then, she vaguely saw four dark figures approaching from a distance.

"They're back!" Nono immediately shouted into the cabin.

Inside the cabin, the survivors, who were also suffering in anxiety and silence, suddenly became agitated. Marcelo was the first to rush over, and the others also crowded to the hatch, looking in the direction Nono pointed.

"It's them! It really is them! They're back!" someone immediately shouted in surprise.

"But...why are there only four people?!" A sharp-eyed person next to them asked, which was like a bucket of cold water, cooling down the joy that had just risen.

"Maybe...maybe they found the tail section! Someone stayed there to guard it." Another person immediately offered an optimistic guess, an idea that was quickly accepted by most people, and hope was rekindled in their eyes.

"Quick! Let's go out and meet them!" Marcelo made a decisive call, summoning a few of his more physically fit companions, and immediately rushed out of the cabin, stumbling and sprinting toward the slowly moving dark figures in the distance.

Nono wanted to follow, but as soon as she took a step, the sharp pain in her abdomen and the weakness in her body almost made her fall. She could only wait anxiously in place, not knowing whether Lu Mingfei was among the four figures.

After Marcelo and the others helped the shadowy figures back, Nono finally breathed a sigh of relief. She saw Lu Mingfei among them.

Lu Mingfei and the others were carefully brought back into the cabin. They were in a terrible state, covered in snow. Roy's arm was bent backward as if it were broken. All of them had their eyes closed and their faces showed great pain.

"Are you alright?" Nuonuo immediately came to Lu Mingfei's side and asked anxiously.

"I'm fine... it's just that my eyes seem to be a little blurry..." Lu Mingfei smiled when he heard Nuonuo's voice.

Roy's misstep caused the four of them to tumble down the mountainside like a snowball. Fortunately, they didn't hit any rocks, but they still passed out and almost suffocated in the snow.

Fortunately, Lu Mingfei woke up in time. He did not forget his promise to Nuonuo and used his strong willpower to climb out of the snow. Then, with his almost blind eyes, he dug out the other three as well.

Lu Mingfei didn't know when his willpower had become so strong; perhaps it was because the agreement had a magical power.

Their tumble down was a blessing in disguise, as they didn't have to walk that far. So Lu Mingfei continued to lead the group toward the plane wreckage, but Roy broke his leg while rolling down.

Nono pried open Lu Mingfei's tightly closed eyes and found them completely red. She immediately realized it was snow blindness. She forced herself to calm down and recalled the first aid knowledge she had learned at Kassel College. She found a relatively clean cloth, wet it with water, and placed it on Lu Mingfei's eyelids.

"It's okay...it's okay...it's just snow blindness, it'll be fine tomorrow..." After doing all this, Nuonuo hugged Lu Mingfei and comforted him.

"Hmm..." Lu Mingfei leaned against Nuonuo's chest and hummed softly. He was a little tired.

"Lu, we owe you a favor..." Perez said breathlessly from the side, while the other three were being taken care of by others.

"That's right, Lu, we owe you a favor." Roica and Nesa echoed. If Lu Mingfei hadn't gritted his teeth and dug the three of them out, and even led the way, they would have died on the snowy plains outside long ago.

"Why are only the four of you back? Where's Cancesa?!" Marcelo pushed forward, his voice urgent, asking the question that everyone was most concerned about.

"Also, did you find the tail section? Did you find the battery?"

"I'm sorry... we couldn't find the tail section..." Perez said with difficulty after a moment of silence.

"As for Cancesa, he said he saw Caritos and ran after him, but we suspect he was hallucinating due to snow blindness, and we don't know how he is now..."

Upon hearing Perez's words, everyone felt as if the sky had fallen. The expedition they had placed their hopes on had yielded nothing and had ended up in this state. Most importantly, their doctor had disappeared.

Even Marcelo, the leader of his team, collapsed to the ground after hearing Perez's words, feeling as if all hope had been shattered.

"Why did this happen..." Marcelo muttered to himself, sitting on the ground as if he had lost his soul.

Others reacted even worse. Some knelt down and cried uncontrollably, some curled up with their heads in their hands and trembled violently, and some stared blankly at the top of the cabin as if their souls had left their bodies.

Perez's mouth moved. He had originally wanted to say that the rescue plane would have no chance of finding them, but he dared not say it aloud. He couldn't imagine what would happen inside the cabin if even the last glimmer of hope was shattered.

As night fell, everyone huddled in the cabin, enduring the bitter cold and the approaching despair. No one spoke; only the howling of the cold wind and the occasional suppressed sobs could be heard.

Nuonuo held Lu Mingfei in her arms and lay in a corner of the cabin. Lu Mingfei was already asleep. She looked at Lu Mingfei's face through the moonlight, and her heart gradually calmed down as Lu Mingfei returned.

She had to admit she had different feelings for the boy in her arms, but she hadn't figured out what this strange feeling was—was it the affection a boss has for his underling, or...?

Just as Nono was lost in thought, she heard someone outside the cabin moving suitcases that had been stacked up. The others heard it too, and a tense atmosphere immediately filled the cabin. It was impossible for them not to be nervous when something like this happened in such a weird place.

"Who's out there!" Marcelo shouted.

There was no response to Marcelo's shouts from outside. The wall of suitcases continued to be moved, and everyone became tense. Nono also reached into her pocket and gripped the revolver inside, ready to shoot at any moment.

After the suitcase was completely moved, a person started crawling inside. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief after seeing the person's face.

"Phew~ Canceza, why aren't you saying anything?" Marcelo asked with a sigh of relief.

However, Cancesa remained silent. After climbing into the cabin, he collapsed to the ground. Marcelo immediately went to help him up, and the others also went to check on him.

Nono loosened her grip on the gun, but for some reason she felt that Cancesarea was a bit strange as she entered, and she also smelled a faint scent of blood.

"What's going on?" Although she vaguely sensed that something was wrong, she couldn't quite pinpoint what it was.

-----------------

Lu Mingfei opened his eyes. He felt that his vision was still very blurry, but it wasn't as painful as before. Today was his sixth day here.

"Good morning..." Lu Mingfei said softly, knowing he was leaning against Nuonuo through the softness beneath his head.

"Sleep a little longer, there's nothing you can do right now." Nuonuo's voice came from above, her arms still wrapped around him, showing no intention of letting go, as if she was using her body to build a temporary haven for him.

"Sorry... I couldn't find the tail section and ended up like this... Isn't it quite embarrassing..." After a moment of silence, Lu Mingfei spoke, a wry smile appearing on his lips.

He had tried his best, but still hadn't gotten what he wanted. And for some reason, he especially didn't want to appear so incompetent and pathetic in front of Nuonuo.

Nono paused for a moment, offering neither comfort nor blame, but simply stating a fact in a calm tone: "Didn't you already fulfill our promise? You came back alive, and that's enough."

Hearing Nuonuo's words, Lu Mingfei was taken aback, and a smile appeared on his lips again. However, this time the smile was no longer bitter. Yes, he kept his promise and returned to her side alive. In the current desperate situation, this in itself was perhaps the greatest success.

But nice words can't change reality. Yesterday's expedition team, with its five members in the best physical condition, has now all collapsed. Perez, Canesa, Roy, and even Lu Mingfei himself have all become wounded and need to be cared for. Instead of bringing back any hopeful supplies, they have consumed the team's already limited resources and energy.

An even heavier blow came last night when, at dawn, people discovered that two survivors were missing. They were eventually found in the snow not far from the cabin.

They sat side by side in the snow, their bodies already stiff, transformed into two ice sculptures covered in a thin layer of frost. They had walked out on their own, choosing to end their lives in silence and cold, silently protesting this endless despair.

The number of survivors had reached twenty-two. These two events were an unparalleled blow to everyone in the cabin, and a deathly silence filled their eyes.

Because of Lu Mingfei and the others' injuries, the task of fetching water fell to several other people whose fractures were beginning to heal. When they dragged their tired bodies back with a small amount of melted snow water, everyone had to face an even more cruel problem.

It was almost noon, and it was time to distribute the food. Everyone looked at Marcelo expectantly.

Marcelo had already taken out his makeup bag, and then he emptied out everything inside. There was only a small jar of salted almonds, which was all the food for the twenty-two men.

"The food is all here..." Marcelo said weakly, his body hunched over, looking like an old man with the beard that had grown in the past few days.

Instead of distributing the items meticulously as usual, he simply pushed the small jar towards the center of the ground, seemingly intending for others to take it themselves; he had completely given up on himself.

Looking at the small jar of almonds, no one went forward to take it; they were all enveloped by a feeling of utter despair.

They would secretly cry at night, afraid that rescue would not come, afraid that they would not survive until the day rescue arrived. But they cried because there was still hope. Their current despair made them even calmer.

At this moment, Cancesa, who hadn't spoken since returning yesterday, suddenly stood up. He glanced around at the lifeless crowd and spoke in an almost mocking tone,

"All you want is food, right? There's plenty of food outside. Why are you still despairing here?"

After saying that, he walked straight out of the cabin without waiting for anyone's reaction. Everyone thought that Cancesa had gone crazy because he couldn't find food yesterday, but Nono's sharp eyes noticed that Cancesa had a gleaming knife in his hand, and the blade... seemed to be stained with some dark red dried blood.

What happened next made everyone in the cabin, including Nono, stare wide-eyed in disbelief. Some people covered their mouths tightly to prevent themselves from screaming.

Cancesar walked straight to the two bodies of his companions who had chosen to end their lives the previous night, not far from the cabin. Without hesitation, he squatted down, raised the knife in his hand, and precisely and skillfully plunged it into one of the bodies.

Not long after, he returned carrying a piece of aluminum sheet that he had found somewhere, with slightly curled edges.

Cancesa placed the aluminum sheet on the ground, a bizarre smile on his face, and said, "Eat it."

"vomit!!"

Finally, someone couldn't hold back any longer. Their stomach churned violently, and they started to gag, but because their stomach was empty, they couldn't vomit anything.

"Cancesa! What are you doing?!" Marcelo jumped up as if he had been electrocuted.

"I...I admit I was too harsh with my words! It was my fault! But...you can't...you can't...!" Those last few words were like a bone stuck in his throat, and he couldn't say them smoothly no matter what.

Canceza's smile vanished, his gaze turning icy as he looked at Marcelo. He retorted, "So what? Starve to death here, or do you not want to escape?"

Everyone was stunned when they heard this; they realized that Cancesa was right.

"In a while, you won't even have the strength to cut this flesh." Canceza stood up, patted Marcelo on the shoulder who was frozen in place, and then turned and walked out of the cabin.

Everyone stared silently at the plate of bright red meat on the ground, speechless for a moment.

But soon Lu Mingfei heard someone swallowing. Although he could only vaguely see the scene in front of him, the sound of saliva made him realize that someone was beginning to waver.