“Lu Hao, are you alright!?”
Hearing the gunshot, Taozi jumped off the camel and ran to Lu Hao’s side. Seeing that he was safe and sound, she finally felt relieved.
“Is this Desert Horned Viper already dead?”
She turned her head to look at the Desert Horned Viper with its head smashed to pieces, judging that the snake was undoubtedly dead.
“It’s dead, but we can’t let our guard down.”
Lu Hao nodded, put away his pistol, picked up his walking stick, and explained: “Even though the Desert Horned Viper is dead, the venom in its fangs is still effective. We must not let our guard down and assume that it’s safe. In fact, its body still has a nerve reaction. We must cut off its head, burn it or bury it, and then we can approach it with our hands, to prevent anything unexpected happening.”
As he explained the knowledge about the Desert Horned Viper, he used his walking stick to hold down the snake’s body, raised his knife, and aimed at the position to cut down.
He cut off the broken snake head, then dug a hole and buried it.
When he picked up the remaining snake body, the remains instinctively wrapped around Lu Hao’s wrist.
This eerie sight made Taozi feel uneasy.
She let out a sigh and said, “Lu Hao, I’ll take care of the snake body. We can have it for dinner.” Following her habit, in the desert, any edible food could not be missed.
As long as the head of the Desert Horned Viper was cut off, the remaining part of the snake body could be eaten.
“Alright, let’s improve our diet.”
Lu Hao smiled and handed the snake body to Taozi. Taozi grabbed the snake tail, stretched out her slender hand and pulled down the straight snake body to drain the blood, then carefully put it in her bag for storage. She would simply prepare it for eating at night.
“Let’s continue on our way!!”
After getting a Desert Horned Viper, Taozi got on the camel with a bit of joy.
From beginning to end, she did not ask Lu Hao about the pistol.
In foreign countries, especially in some chaotic regions, it is very normal for explorers to carry guns, not unusual at all.
The two mounted their camels and rushed on their way.
Without the threat of the Desert Horned Viper, the camels spread their legs again and walked slowly.
They rested for four to five hours at noon, then set off again in the afternoon, continuing on their journey. They didn't choose to camp until night, when they found a palm tree.
After setting up the tent, Lu Hao picked up a pile of firewood, built a simple stove with stones, lit the firewood with a flint, and placed the iron can on the stove to boil water.
Taozi took out the Desert Horned Viper she had hunted today, cleaned it up, and threw it into the iron can, adding some medicinal herbs and seasonings, cooking a pot of hot snake soup.
The two took out their flatbreads, and under the bright moonlight, they ate the snake soup, chatting about daily life.
“Eh!?”
At this time, Lu Hao suddenly noticed a light yellow, slightly transparent desert scorpion crawling onto Taozi’s shoulder. His eyes narrowed, he pulled out his army knife, pointed it at Taozi's shoulder, then "shh"ed, clenched his army knife, and prepared to catch the monster.
“Lu Hao, wait a minute.”
Taozi saw that Lu Hao was so serious, she curiously glanced at her shoulder with her peripheral vision. Finding that it was a desert scorpion on her shoulder, she quickly stopped Lu Hao, carefully picked up the desert scorpion, raised a smiling face and said, “This is my pet, I call it Dingdang. As long as you don’t provoke it, it won’t bite you.”
She put the desert scorpion on the back of her hand to show Lu Hao.
The desert scorpion indeed stayed quiet on her hand, showing no desire to attack.
“Your hobby is quite unique.”
Lu Hao shook his head and smiled, put away his army knife. He knew from movies that Taozi had a pet scorpion, but he couldn’t be sure if it was the same one, so he cautiously decided to eliminate it just in case, to avoid putting Taozi in danger due to a misjudgment.
“It has been following me for more than two years, many times accompanying me deep into the desert. When I’m lonely, I’ll talk to it. It’s my good companion.”
Taozi happily introduced her pet Dingdang.
“It’s a lucky little guy.”
Lu Hao complimented, then looked at his watch, finding that it was already late.
“Taozi, get some rest. We have to get up early tomorrow.”
The misunderstanding cleared up, he stretched, usually after a long journey under the scorching sun, his body would be extremely tired. Fortunately, after three body strengthening exercises, his body was almost completely fine.
“Lu Hao, good night!”
Taozi waved her hand, then took out a worn sleeping bag from her box and laid it out.
Lu Hao saw this sleeping bag, frowned, “Taozi, you’re not sleeping in the tent!?”
“I’m used to sleeping like this.”
Taozi didn’t think there was anything wrong. Eating and drinking dew was a normal thing for her.
Moreover, she was alone in the desert. Setting up a tent would be too obvious and easily attract trouble.
She usually chose a more hidden place, dug a pit, then slept in the sleeping bag in the pit, so she wouldn’t be easily discovered.
This was a little survival trick she had figured out over the years of coming in and out of the desert.
“Okay, you sleep in the tent, and I’ll sleep outside.”
Lu Hao very gentlemanly gave up his tent, Taozi was his guide to find the Buqi Laoqiji base. It couldn’t go wrong.
“No, no, I can sleep outside.”
Taozi waved her hands repeatedly.
Seeing that Taozi was adamant, Lu Hao thought for a moment and said, “Okay, we two will squeeze together tonight. This tent is not small anyway, it should be no problem to sleep with two people.”
“Hmm!?”
Taozi hesitated a little, although they had shared a room in the desert inn before, but they still slept in separate beds. Now sleeping in the same bed was different.
“Taozi, if you mind, then you sleep in the tent and I’ll sleep outside.”
“No, no, then… we’ll squeeze together tonight!!"
Taozi was not a shy person. Knowing Lu Hao was kind-hearted, she hesitated for a moment and agreed.
“Alright, that’s settled, you go inside and sleep, I’ll pee around the tent, leaving our scent to prevent wild animals from approaching at night.”
“Mhm!!”
Taozi’s face flushed slightly, she nodded and crawled into the tent.
Lu Hao then raised his gun and peed around the tent, marking this area as his territory.
Camping in the wilderness, human urine is very useful. It contains a lot of androsterone, which can mislead wild animals into believing that this area has an owner, forcing them to avoid it.
After emptying the magazine, Lu Hao pulled up his pants and crawled into the tent. Taozi covered herself with her blanket, her eyes shining brightly in the darkness.
“Taozi, good night.”
“Good night.”
The two said goodnight to each other and were about to fall asleep.
But, at this moment:
Woo-hoo!!
Suddenly, a shrill howl broke the peaceful night, coming from afar.
Lu Hao’s expression tightened upon hearing the sound, and he exchanged glances with Taozi in the darkness:
There are wild animals nearby!!