Tomb Raiding: My Family's Last Clan Chief is Little Brother

Chapter 205 Tick Nest
The fat man got excited and kept pestering Zhang Wuxun to sing it a few more times. "It sounds pretty good. Muyu, keep singing. I want to learn a few lines too."

As they were talking, several muffled claps of thunder suddenly sounded overhead. Looking up, they saw dark clouds pressing down above the treetops, and with flashes of lightning, raindrops began to fall from the air.

"Ah Ning" sighed, "When you're traveling, you always run into rain. It seems the Queen Mother of the West doesn't welcome us. We're in for a bad night."

The fat man said nonchalantly, "Let it rain, let it rain. It would be best if it rained. It'll be cooler when it rains. It's so stuffy here, my head is about to get suffocated."

This remark elicited laughter from everyone.

Pan Zi laughed and scolded, "Then you'd better keep an eye on your head, lest you get struck by lightning and burned."

No sooner had the words been spoken than the rain began to fall, pattering against the leaves with a deafening roar. Accompanied by thunder, the rain poured down through the canopy, lashing at everyone's heads and bodies like whips. The bleached rain blinded them.

"Damn it!" the fat man cursed as he ran, clutching his head. "How could this bastard just drop like that without giving any warning?"

“A-Ning” pointed ahead and shouted, “The vines between those two trees are quite tangled. Let’s go over there and hide.”

Upon hearing this, everyone ran down to the foot of the tree and then climbed up one after another, finally able to catch their breath.

As soon as the fat man sat down, he immediately jumped up with a cry of "Ouch!" and clutched his thigh, yelling, "What's crawling around in my pants leg? Quick, quick, Muyu, come and take a look!"

Upon hearing this, Zhang Wuxun immediately moved closer, saying, "Don't move around, roll up your trouser legs so I can see."

As soon as the fat man let go, he started twisting and turning again, yelling, "Oh no, it's going to run uphill as soon as I let go!"

He twisted and turned, and Zhang Wuxun couldn't do anything about it, so he suggested, "Try shaking your pants and see if you can shake them off."

The fat man patted and slapped at the place that seemed to be darting around, and it took a long time for it to stop. He hesitated and said, "It seems to be gone."

"Huh? Wait a minute, there's something in the back of your pants." Wu Xiaoxie suddenly noticed something, reached into his pants seam and pulled it up to the light of his headlamp. A small, brownish-gray insect, about the size of a fingernail, was fluttering between his fingers. "What's this? An insect?"

Zhang Wuxun swatted the bug off his hand and shouted, "Grass ticks! Holy crap, let's get out of here, there are grass ticks."

Everyone was shocked. Only after moving their feet did they realize that this place was clearly a nest of ticks!
The leaves and trunk beneath him were covered with countless flower insects, drawn out by the fresh blood, but they were also wary of something and dared not crawl directly onto the person.

"There aren't any on the branches over there, hurry over there!" Zhang Wuxun shouted, pointing to the tree on the other side.

The group quickly slid down the tree and climbed up another tree.

"Quickly check if there's anything left on Fatty's pants!" Fatty shouted anxiously, bending over and squeezing his face towards Wu Xiaoxie, which made Wu Xiaoxie curse angrily.

Zhang Wuxun chuckled and patted him on the shoulder. "When did your pants get ripped? You probably got a tick stuck in them when you were sitting down. The quality of my products is absolutely guaranteed. Didn't you see that the mosquitoes have been avoiding us the whole way?"

"That's true." The fat man scratched his head, twisted his body to feel around, and realized that he really didn't feel anything unusual.

Just to be on the safe side, apart from Zhang Wuxun and Xiao Ge, Wu Xiaoxie and Fatty all rolled up their trouser legs and clothes to check each other, and only felt relieved after confirming that none of them had ticks on them.

The fat man complained, "These pants are too small. When I was carrying stones through the Devil City, I wasn't careful and the crotch ripped. Damn it, I was thinking it would be cool to turn them on in this hot weather, but I forgot about them when we entered the forest. Luckily, I had the insect repellent you gave me, Muyu, otherwise I would have been bitten through by ticks." Wu Xiaoxie mocked him, "Serves you right for not losing weight, now you're paying the price."

Ignoring his mockery, the fat man moved closer to Zhang Wuxun and asked in a low voice, "Muyu, do you have any needles and thread in your treasure box? I need to find a place to sew up my pants. If I don't close the door, something else might crawl in and kill me."

"Wait here." Zhang Wuxun put down his backpack, emptied half of the contents, found a pair of camouflage cargo pants, pulled them open, shook them, and handed them to him. "Here you go. Luckily, I had the foresight to get a set for each of us. Hurry up and put them on."

The fat man chuckled, ran to the side to change into new pants, and didn't throw away his ripped pants. He folded them neatly and made Zhang Wuxun sit on them.

"A-Ning" rolled her eyes at this, "It's not like you're in postpartum confinement, why are you being so delicate?"

Zhang Wuxun was about to decline, but upon hearing this, he immediately agreed and grinned at "A Ning," saying, "Mind your own business."

The fat man didn't tolerate her and retorted, "This is called brotherly love and respect. Muyu is the youngest among us, so what's wrong with me taking care of him? You're just an outsider, so nosy."

Enraged, "A-Ning" clenched her fists, then relaxed them, snorted coldly, walked to the side, turned her back, and ignored him.

Panzi tied the waterproof cloth to the branches of the tree with rope, creating a temporary shelter for everyone to protect them from the rain.

After eating a simple meal to replenish their energy, the gas lamps had already dried their clothes halfway. The group huddled together in pairs, chatting until they became drowsy.

Panzi said, "I'll keep watch, you all get some rest."

The young man showed no sign of sleeping. He simply held his knife, leaned against the tree trunk, and stared blankly at the ground below, lost in thought.

Zhang Wuxun had just closed his eyes and dozed off for a moment when he suddenly felt a dark shadow flash past his eyes. Startled, he jumped up, and Wu Xiaoxie, who was leaning against him, lost his support and swayed, bumping his head against the fat man next to him, who cried out in pain.

"What's wrong? What's wrong?" Thinking they had encountered some danger, the men stood up abruptly, holding their guns and looking around warily.

Zhang Wuxun waved his hand reassuringly, "It's alright. The young man just suddenly flashed past me and is now under the tree."

Wu Xiaoxie rubbed his head, puzzled, and asked, "What is he going down there for?"

"I don't know." Panzi shone his headlamp down the tree, but the young man was already out of sight. He said helplessly, "He was sitting there just fine, and then he stood up and climbed down the tree without saying a word. I didn't even have a chance to ask him."

Zhang Wuxun slung his knife over his shoulder, grabbed onto the tree, and slid down. "I'll go check it out. You guys stay up here for now."

I went down to the tree and looked left and right, but it was empty everywhere, not even a ghost in sight.

He couldn't help but wonder, "Where is he? Could he have run away again? That shouldn't be the case; it's not time yet."

Just then, the tree branch diagonally above his head suddenly trembled, and then half of the young man's body emerged from the shadows of the plant. After seeing Zhang Wuxun, he waved for him to come up.

(End of this chapter)