Chapter 159: Chapter 159: Poisoned
No matter how much realgar Jiang Si had in her space, it would run out one day.
Everyone watched the dense swarm of sea snakes in the distance, feeling a heavy stone weighing on their chests.
If a snake happened to slip into the Icebreaker and rapidly reproduce, it would be absolutely terrifying.
The more Shen Baoying thought about it, the more horrified she became. "Should we pull the ship ashore? Or maybe move somewhere else?"
Jiang Si shook her head. "The ship is too big to pull ashore. We can only dock it on the beach, which is still within the sea snakes’ climbing range. Besides, if we run into danger and need to launch the ship, it’ll be even more trouble."
"If we move, can we be sure it’ll be better than here? Won’t there be even greater dangers?"
"Everywhere is full of unknowns. Luckily, we still have ways to deal with our current threats."
"The realgar will last a long time. Let’s just wait and see for now."
Jiang Si had a point. Everywhere was an unknown, and at least they were familiar with Hot Spring Bay.
Plus, they had built new houses on shore. Life was full of hope.
Jiang Linhai chuckled. "Don’t be so down. At least these snakes are edible. You could call it a delicacy delivered right to our doorstep."
Although they were edible, no one really wanted to eat them.
Niu Niu said, "It would be great if another flock of Vultures came. They’d eat the sea snakes, and we could collect some more Vulture Eggs."
Jiang Si suddenly laughed. "Maybe they will. Let’s wait and see."
They had placed the Vulture Eggs they collected earlier in the sauna room. Every day, they would check the temperature and turn the eggs.
Out of several eggs, only four were fertilized. Candling them with a light showed they were developing well.
The remaining eggs were cracked open and fed to the troop of monkeys.
It wasn’t that they didn’t want to try them, but the Vulture Eggs had such a strong, gamey taste that no one could stomach the idea.
After a day of observation, Jiang Si discovered that the sea snakes came ashore mainly to breathe air, and secondarily to lay eggs on the beach.
If they were allowed to lay eggs, there would be even more sea snakes in the future.
The mere thought made their skin crawl.
But they couldn’t possibly sprinkle realgar along the entire coastline to stop them from laying eggs.
They could only hope that the low temperatures would prevent the eggs from hatching.
When Zhang Aihua and his group saw the sea snakes breaking through the ice, they were terrified.
But when they saw that the sea snakes didn’t dare venture far from the water and moved stiffly and slowly on land, they grew excited. They raised their cleavers, chopped up several sea snakes, and dragged them back for a delicious meal.
Snake meat is colloquially known as "dragon meat." The flesh is firm yet tender, and besides being a bit bony, it has no major drawbacks.
The snakeskin could also be used to make clothes and various daily necessities. Far from being afraid, the group became thrilled. They caught a large number of sea snakes in one go, skinned them, processed the meat, and buried it in snowdrifts to freeze for storage.
This way, they would have food for a long time.
After watching Zhang Aihua’s group through binoculars, Jiang Si remarked, ’Humans are a major predator of sea snakes, too.’
’As long as there are enough people, the sea snakes won’t be able to multiply, no matter how many there are.’
Once the sea snakes had made their nests, they began laying eggs one after another.
The beach was only so big. Instinct drove them to either swallow eggs that weren’t their own or push them out of the snow nests with their tails when they couldn’t find a place to lay their own.
This delighted Zhang Aihua and his group even more—they had more nutritious food.
They collected a lot of snake eggs. That very night, they cracked open several hundred and made snake egg soup, snake egg pancakes, snake egg custard, and roasted snake eggs...
At first, Zhang Yiwen quite liked it. But after three straight days of it, his mind was filled with thoughts of the bean sprouts and chives just starting to grow inside. "Mom, I want chive dumplings! I want stir-fried bean sprouts! I want tofu!"
Who would have thought that after starving for so long, they’d now be eating meat and eggs until they were sick of it?
Song Yufang wanted chive dumplings too.
But they only had a tiny amount, which they had managed to sprout at home only after figuring out how to let light in through the window.
"Even if we harvest a batch, it won’t be enough for more than a few dumplings," Song Yufang said. "Just be patient. We’ll eat them in a few days when there’s more."
Zhang Yiwen sighed. "Can’t we trade something with those people?"
"We could trade snake meat, or snake eggs. Anything would be fine."
Song Yufang sighed. "They don’t need that stuff. A trade has to be for something the other person needs or doesn’t have."
Zhang Yiwen thought for a moment. "Could I trade my Vulture-down mattress for something?"
Song Yufang smiled. "They wouldn’t be interested in that."
"Ugh, this is too hard!"
Song Yufang stroked his cheek, which had finally gotten a little chubbier over the past two days. "You should be content. Once the radishes are grown, I’ll make you radish cakes and pickled radishes."
Zhang Yiwen pictured the crisp, refreshing radishes and nodded happily. "Okay!"
The word had barely left his mouth when Brother Qiu’s anxious voice suddenly cut in.
Brother Qiu said to Zhang Aihua, "President Zhang, one of our people was bitten! The snakes seem to have gotten much quicker all of a sudden, and they’ve expanded their territory."
Everyone froze in shock.
Could it be the temperature?
The temperature had clearly risen slightly over the past two days.
If it kept getting warmer, would the snakes start roaming everywhere?
The anxiety that had briefly disappeared came rushing back.
But right now, the priority was saving the person who had been bitten.
Zhang Aihua had just followed Brother Qiu over when the man convulsed and passed out completely.
On his bitten calf, the venom had already spread out in a spiderweb-like pattern in just a few short minutes.
Everyone was horrified. "What do we do? Is it too late to save him even if we amputate his leg?"
The man’s mother cried, "Go find Miss Jiang! Find them! Save our son! I’m begging you!"
Zhang Aihua shook his head. "Aunt Zhang, sea snake venom is more potent than a cobra’s. A single bite can kill an elephant. It’s not that we don’t want to save him, it’s that it’s useless. You have to face reality."
Hearing this, Aunt Zhang broke down, sobbing uncontrollably.
She had struggled so hard to survive this long. Things had finally stabilized, and she still had her son by her side. But in the end, she couldn’t keep him. She was going to have to bury her own child.
A look of grim resolve flashed in Aunt Zhang’s eyes. She grabbed a snake-cleaver and tried to end her own life.
Zhang Aihua grabbed her arm. "Aunt Zhang, calm down!"
"SOB... I can’t calm down! Don’t stop me! My life has no meaning anymore!"
To stop Aunt Zhang from killing herself, Zhang Aihua had no choice but to say, "I’ll ask them for you! I’ll ask!"
Aunt Zhang’s suicide attempt faltered. She dropped the cleaver and threw herself over her son’s body. "Thank you... thank you."
Zhang Aihua took out a walkie-talkie. When Jiang Si answered, he explained the situation and asked if her group had any way to counteract the poison.
Jiang Si had antivenom serum in her space, but the deep-sea safflower viper’s venom was incurable; no one had ever developed an effective antidote. She replied, "There’s no cure for the venom. You’d better be more careful."
