Ancient Eden

~End of chapter 10

She hesitated a little inside, what to do if this thing capsized in the middle of the river?

But there nothing she could do about it. The man was already frowning with some impatience.

Mu Qing could only use the large tree at the foot of the river, which had protruding roots, as a support to carefully get on the log boat. She sat in the middle of the pile of animal carcasses with a strong smell, facing the man.

The man untied the rope that secured the wooden boat, took out two paddles, tapped on the shore, and then the boat was propelled along the stream.

Chapter 11

(3.4)

It was already afternoon, they had lost the shade of the forest, and the burning sun was still high up in the sky. The heat was scorching. It was completely different from the stifling heat inside the forest.

Mu Qing felt that she was being baked, as oil was coming out of her pores.

The riverbank gradually got further away, the boat had been smoothly sailing forward the entire way. The worries that Mu Qing that the boat would capsize also gradually were put to rest. Because the man opposite her seemed to be a very good sailor.

She finished two more coconuts, and then finally had the mood to look at the scenery around. If she was not as helpless as she was right now in her current situation, being a guide, she would acknowledge that the view here was really good, it was exceptionally good.

Both shores were lined with tall trees that reached the sky, looking like a stern green barrier. Sometimes, there were strange red cliffs unlike what she had ever seen before, cutting straight into the water. On the ochre-colored water surface, the fallen leaves appeared unusually huge. Hanging down and covering the trees on both sides, the vines resembled water snakes. Whenever they passed by a small island, thousands of frightened small birds flew into the sky in unison, covering the sky, with a dense black mass. From time to time, the surrounding large and bright colored birds spread open their wings, while a group of beetle-like things hid in the leaves hissing, looking like anteater monsters crawling around on the branches of the shore, searching for food.

The view was really great.

Nearing dusk, when the ochre water surface was illuminated by the red sunset and turned red, she began to curse.

A cloud of mosquitoes, like a dark buzzing cloud, rushed madly towards her, and she was unable to repel them. When she gave one slap to drive them away, the palm of her hand would be stained with a dozen of their bodies. The size of the mosquitoes was bigger than what she had seen before, they had long and sharp mouth parts, some even went into her ears and nose.

What was strange was that the mosquitoes only attacked her, and the man, who was only a meter away from her didn’t need to be worried at all about this problem, instead he was watching with quite some interest the pitiful look of her dancing with her hands and feet to fight these wolf-like mosquitoes.

Mu Qing was really annoyed, and just as she opened her mouth to curse foul words, a few mosquitoes were sucked into her mouth and got stuck to her throat, she could not help but choke, and she started coughing non-stop.

That man, on the contrary, looked very happy and Mu Qing really saw him smiling and grinning. 𝐛𝗲𝐝𝐧𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝗼𝐫𝗴

(4.1)

“Pooh-pooh”, Mu Qing spitted out the mosquitoes in her mouth.

With her movement just now, the boat violently swayed, a puddle of water even got in, wetting her clothes.

She was a little nervous and no longer dared to move, the giant mosquitoes then took advantage of the momentum to charge at her, her forehead felt like it was pricked by a needle a few times, and it felt immediately painful and itchy without comparison.

Her thigh was smashed by something, she saw that it was the coconut fruit she had drunk many times. When she raised her eyes to the opposite side, she saw the man doing a smearing movement on his body.

Mu Qing hurriedly picked it up.

The fruit shell had already been broken by him, Mu Qing just slightly separated it into two halves, and probed her hand inside to knead the water out of the wet flesh, she then carelessly wiped her exposed skin with it, her face and neck, as well as her hand.

Sure enough, it worked. The giant mosquitoes no longer attacked her head and face.

But she very quickly found out that it was still far from good, the material of her thin shirt simply could not protect her from the giant mosquitoes sharp and long mouth parts, and she even felt the feeling of being pricked by a needle on her thighs that were covered by jeans.

Mu Qing carefully turned around, unbuttoned her shirt, and probed her hand inside to wipe all the skin of her upper body she could reach. As for her lower body, she could only cross her legs and use her hands to repel them.

She didn’t turn back again to face the man.

Translator : Laura