Dragon Raja: Lu Mingfei's War Journey

"These... are just ordinary meat... their souls have left and are with God. All that's left here is... meat. They... they're just like the dead meat of the beef and mutton we eat at home..." a rugby player said, swallowing hard as he looked at the meat.

"If we want to climb out of the snow-capped mountains, we need enough food, enough protein and calories. A can of salted almonds is not enough to support us to climb to a peak several thousand meters high," another person said.

"Let's raise our hands in support..." Marcelo said after a long silence.

He understood that what others said made sense, but he just couldn't make up his mind. Those were their friends and even family, so he wanted to share the burden and moral condemnation with them.

"I think we should eat, or we'll die," Canesar was the first to break the silence and speak up. Yesterday's hike had depleted his body of calories, and now without food to replenish them, he felt like a knife was churning in his stomach.

"God won't blame us for eating this meat... If God wanted us to die, we should have died in the plane crash. That's the way God gave us to survive!" Roy added.

"What did we do wrong?!" Marcelo suddenly broke down and shouted, burying his hands in his hair, his voice trembling with tears.

"Why is God testing us like this?! Tell me! What did we do wrong?!"

The people here are all Christians, and their rugby team is also called the Old Christians. They all have a devout faith in God, but now Marcelo's faith is about to collapse.

The others remained silent, their faith began to waver, and God did not respond to his devout followers.

At this moment, Perez struggled to his feet and groped his way to the plate of meat. He didn't say anything, but his actions spoke volumes.

Lu Mingfei didn't want to condemn the people around him. In this environment, this kind of thing seemed to be the most correct choice. He remembered a book he had read before, "The Mystery of the Speluncean Explorers".

The case in the book is that five cave explorers are trapped in a cave, out of water and food, and unable to be rescued in the short term. In order to survive and wait for rescue, they agree to draw lots to eat one of them, sacrificing him to save the other four. In the end, they kill one of them and survive by eating his corpse.

Lu Mingfei and his group had one thing to be thankful for: they didn't have to kill anyone themselves, because there were plenty of people around them.

At this moment, Lu Mingfei could feel Nuonuo gently placing him on the ground, and his blurry vision allowed him to see Nuonuo moving closer to him.

Lu Mingfei felt a surge of panic. Was Nuonuo going to have to eat meat too? He wanted to call Nuonuo back and tell her not to do this. That girl with flying red hair and unruly eyes shouldn't be forced to this point.

But in the end, he didn't shout it out; he couldn't take away people's desire to live.

He knew that Nono desperately wanted to leave, and that her wounds needed a lot of protein to heal; this was the only option if she wanted to get out alive.

A wave of sorrow washed over Lu Mingfei. He couldn't help but think that stripped of the cloak of civilization, humanity is ultimately nothing more than a beast in dire straits.

Not long after, Nuonuo returned. She hugged Lu Mingfei back into her arms and then covered his eyes with one hand.

"Eat..." Her voice remained flat, revealing no emotion. At the same time, Lu Mingfei felt something being placed to his lips.

Lu Mingfei opened his mouth tremblingly. He knew what it was, and he knew he shouldn't have eaten it, but he wanted to live. He wanted to leave this place alive with the red-haired girl beside him.

"I'm sorry... Nuonuo... I can't do it..." Lu Mingfei said in a dry voice.

He ultimately couldn't overcome his own inner struggles; he remained that useless loser, unable to even do something necessary for survival.

"If I die, you can live on in my body. Remember what I told you before? Remember to burn more paper money for me on Qingming Festival... so I can be a rich guy down there..." Lu Mingfei began to accept his fate of starving to death here and started spouting nonsense again.

"What nonsense are you talking about? Hurry up and eat!" With that, Nono shoved the food in her hand directly into Lu Mingfei's mouth.

Lu Mingfei wanted to spit it out immediately, but he was quickly stunned because it wasn't meat, but a few salted almonds.

"What, you think I'd feed you meat?" Nuonuo's voice rang out again, this time with a hint of a triumphant smile.

"Hehehe..." Hearing this, Lu Mingfei could only laugh awkwardly.

Nono brought her lips close to Lu Mingfei's ear, her warm breath brushing against his earlobe. Her voice was soft, yet carried a steely firmness, each word striking his heart.

"Listen, you idiot, we're human, not beasts."

She unconsciously tightened her grip on his arm.

"Don't worry, I will definitely get you out of here alive."

Lu Mingfei leaned against Nuonuo's chest, feeling the strength in her words and the warmth of her embrace, and then responded softly.

"Yes, I believe you."

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

Lu Mingfei opened his eyes again. His eyes were mostly healed by now. Although they hadn't fully recovered and he still had about 200-300 degrees of nearsightedness, he could move around normally without any problems.

"Good morning," he said softly as usual, the soft touch on the back of his head letting him know where he was.

"Good morning, get up quickly if you're awake." Nono said softly as well. Although her cheeks were still a little red, her reaction was not as strong as it had been a few days ago.

"Oh," Lu Mingfei responded, somewhat reluctantly, as he slowly withdrew from that reassuring, warm embrace.

He thought to himself, "The ancients were right. The land of gentle pleasures is indeed a hero's grave. What hero could bear to leave such a soft and warm haven?"

Unfortunately, he's at best a bear struggling to survive right now. If he refuses to get up, he has no doubt that Nono will use some physical means to wake him up immediately.

Today is the seventh day since he arrived here. He once again took his little invention outside to melt the snow. Soon he saw the two corpses outside. At this time, part of the corpses had been completely cut off, revealing the bare white bones underneath.

Lu Mingfei fell silent. Although he didn't know these two people, it was still hard for him to accept that they were alive and well just a few days ago, and now they had become food for others.

He carried a tattered chair to a patch of clean snow, set up his little invention, sat down, took out a cigarette, lit it, and put it in his mouth, smoking while looking at the scenery in front of him.

He is now completely addicted to nicotine, smoking about ten cigarettes a day. Only large amounts of nicotine can slightly soothe his emotions.

The prolonged hunger not only made him emaciated, but also made him irritable and anxious. The biggest reason for the previous fight between Cancesa and Marcelo was that hunger made them irritable.

Not only that, but long-term malnutrition also caused Lu Mingfei's mood to become increasingly depressed, and he even had a slight tendency to depression. Fortunately, Nuonuo was by his side.

However, he could still feel that his attention was becoming less focused and his memory was declining. If this continued, his cognitive function would suffer serious problems.

Just then, Nono also came out. Her injuries had improved a lot, and she was able to walk normally.

The power of the hybrid race began to manifest itself in her. Those who were injured along with her, and even those whose injuries were less severe, were still lying on the ground unable to move.

She also carried a broken chair and sat down next to Lu Mingfei.

"Light one for me too," she said casually, extending her hand to Lu Mingfei.

Lu Mingfei was taken aback for a moment, somewhat surprised, but he still obediently took out a cigarette, lit it skillfully, and handed it to her.

Nuonuo took it and, imitating Lu Mingfei, took a big gulp. She was immediately choked and coughed, tears welling up in her eyes.

"Hahaha... Is this your first time smoking too?" Lu Mingfei couldn't help but laugh when he saw her disheveled appearance. He finally understood how Perez and the others had laughed when they saw him smoking for the first time.

"I've drunk a lot of alcohol, but this is my first time trying cigarettes." Nono wiped away the tears that had been coughed up from the corner of her eyes. She didn't deny it. She adjusted her breathing and took a small, careful puff. This time she felt much better.

The two sat side by side, silently puffing on their cigarettes, gazing at the snow-capped peaks bathed in sunlight and the clear blue sky in the distance.

The scenery before me was so magnificent it seemed otherworldly, breathtakingly beautiful, and such beauty was a rare sight indeed.

For a moment, this scene gave Lu Mingfei a wonderful feeling, so wonderful that he wanted to stay in this moment forever, if only he weren't so hungry.

"By the way, Lu Mingfei, how old are you this year?" Nuonuo asked, realizing that she knew nothing about this boy named Lu Mingfei.

"I'm 18 this year, and what about you, Nuonuo?" Lu Mingfei asked in return, as he knew nothing about Nuonuo either.

"Hmph, I'm 19 this year and currently studying at a university in Chicago, so if you acknowledge me as your boss, you're definitely making a profit." Nono showed a hint of smugness on her face and pointed at Lu Mingfei with the finger holding the cigarette.

"Hehehe." Lu Mingfei just chuckled and didn't reply.

Just then, Lu Mingfei noticed that Nuonuo's smile vanished instantly, her expression turned unusually serious, and her gaze sharply turned in one direction.

"What's wrong?" Lu Mingfei couldn't help but feel nervous. Following her gaze, he saw Cancesa standing motionless in the shadow of the wreckage, watching them.

"Kancesa has been staring at us ever since we started. Don't you think he's acting very strangely?" Nono said in a low, serious voice.

"It is a bit strange... but maybe it's because the expedition failed the day before yesterday, and he had a conflict with everyone, so he was stimulated?" Lu Mingfei scratched his head.

He also felt that Cancesa seemed like a different person after returning from the last expedition, but he only thought that Cancesa was stimulated by the failure of the last expedition.

"I don't think things are that simple. You should be more careful." Nono's brows furrowed even more, her gaze never leaving Cancesa. She felt that he was a complete stranger, but she couldn't find any flaws in him.

"Okay, I understand." Lu Mingfei nodded in agreement.

Then he noticed that the bottle was full of water.

"Let's go, the water's full, we should head back."

It was lunchtime, and Lu Mingfei and Nuonuo sat in a corner away from the crowd.

The others involuntarily huddled together, their eyes glancing out of the cabin every now and then. A continuous rustling sound came from outside—the sound of a knife cutting through frozen flesh.

Soon, Cancesa came in again, carrying the aluminum tray with its curled edges.

People around him watched him, their Adam's apples bobbing involuntarily, and the sound of them swallowing saliva rose and fell.

Since they have already destroyed their bottom line, there is no need to continue pretending. After eating meat yesterday, some people even couldn't stop thinking about it.