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Chapter 25: Plan B
The moon hung high in the sky, with occasional cool breezes sweeping across the vast grasslands, carrying distant sounds.
Under the night sky, a bonfire stood out conspicuously on the endless plains. Yet, no unwitting animal dared to approach. The flames were deterrent enough, and the scent of a predator's presence further warned nocturnal hunters to steer clear—this area was occupied by someone not to be trifled with.
A golden-brown roasted fawn leg rotated slowly over the flames. A thumb-thick tree branch had been inserted into the severed end of the leg bone, its other end resting on a piece of dead wood on the ground. Wang Ping held the branch steady with his paw, occasionally pressing and turning it.
Gu Lang had fallen ill and was lying in the tent, leaving no one to assist in skinning the fawn leg. As for how the task was eventually completed, Wang Ping preferred not to think about it. But now, the crispy fawn leg, covered in bite marks, seemed to silently tell a tale.
Rosette had already eaten her fill. The remaining fawn meat was dragged into the car and hidden under the seats.
Whether it was a leopard's natural habit to stash food or her current need to store reserves due to injury, it demonstrated that both humans and animals had their own survival instincts.
Unlike Rosette's simple thoughts, Wang Ping appeared preoccupied.
Gu Lang's condition was more serious than Wang Ping had anticipated. While the cooling patches had managed to control his fever, the underlying illness was not something a mere patch could resolve.
Ultimately, the conditions here were too poor. If complications arose, it could spell real trouble.
On the African plains, falling ill was rarely about the symptoms—it was often about the cause.
If Gu Lang's fever was merely a natural immune response to shock or a slight wound infection, it wouldn't be too concerning. What Wang Ping feared most was the possibility of malaria—Africa's notorious human killer.
The faint aroma of roasted fawn leg filled the air, but Wang Ping suddenly lost his appetite.
“Forget it. A human life is at stake. If it means running some risks, so be it!”
Having made up his mind, Wang Ping felt somewhat relieved.
His first thought was to contact a rescue team.
Placing the roasted fawn leg next to Gu Lang's sleeping bag in the tent, Wang Ping returned to the car and stared at the two broken metal wires he had tampered with earlier. From what he could tell, they didn’t look like internet cables—they more closely resembled the internal structure of a car antenna.
If someone had indeed been planning to rescue Gu Lang, they would have tried to track his location. Restoring the car's network connection might just draw help their way.
But how was he supposed to reconnect the wires?
Gazing at the colorful copper strands sticking out from the broken ends, Wang Ping’s eyes reflected his confusion.
Fixing a disassembled handgun or a basic soldier’s GPS device would have been within his skill set. But reconnecting a mangled metal router to the internet in the wilderness? That was well beyond him.
Without internet access, there was no rescue team. What next—scribbling a giant SOS on the ground? Even then, a plane would need to fly overhead to notice it!
Of course, Wang Ping had another option: drive to the nearest city and take Gu Lang to a hospital.
Based on distance, the off-road vehicle's current location was less than 100 kilometers from Makuyuni. With enough speed, they could arrive the same day.
However, this plan posed two significant challenges:
First, given Gu Lang’s current condition, leaving him in an unfamiliar environment in a foreign land—especially in Africa, where security was notoriously unreliable—was unthinkable. There was no way Gu Lang wouldn’t be robbed of everything he owned. Unless they encountered a professional rescue team or fellow Chinese nationals, Wang Ping would never leave Gu Lang with strangers.
Second, and most crucially: who would drive to Makuyuni?
After much deliberation, Wang Ping concluded that the most reliable way to ensure proper treatment for Gu Lang was to rely on a rescue team.
But that was just a guess. Wang Ping wasn’t entirely sure such a rescue team even existed.
After tinkering with the wires for half a day, he still couldn’t figure out how to reconnect them. The copper ends, barely a millimeter in diameter, were thinner than one of his fur strands—far beyond the manual dexterity of a badger.
“Damn it! This guy traveled so far and didn’t think to bring a satellite phone?”
Wang Ping couldn’t help but curse. It seemed like he could never catch a break.
Though, if he had known that Gu Lang’s original plan was merely a short trip from Dodoma to Handeni without venturing deep into the savanna, he might have felt differently.
“This isn’t me refusing to save you; I just can’t work miracles without the right tools!” Wang Ping muttered to himself, studying the car's interior.
Since a rescue team couldn’t be counted on for now, it was time to implement Plan B.
Judging by straight-line distance, the security team’s outpost near Karatu wasn’t far. Moreover, the route consisted entirely of paved roads, making it much easier than traversing the savanna.
The security outpost had emergency medical supplies and surgical equipment. Entrusting Gu Lang to his teammates would also put Wang Ping at ease.
This plan didn’t conflict with Wang Ping’s goal of finding his teammates, and it seemed the most feasible solution—provided he could get the car running.
Ultimately, both Plan A and Plan B required a capable driver. Everything else—hauling Gu Lang and Rosette across the roads—was secondary.
That night, Wang Ping didn’t rest. He kept busy.
Not far from the tent stood a small grove of trees—only a few dozen sparse, short trees.
On the grasslands, trees rarely grew very tall. Any tree surpassing five meters was considered extraordinary. The main reasons were the strong winds and the sparse tree cover. Without protection, young trees were easily snapped or uprooted during growth. The saying “a tall tree attracts the wind” aptly applied here. Another reason was the shallow soil layer, which couldn’t support deep tree roots.
Still, even small trees weren’t easy for Wang Ping to uproot. The shallow soil layer was much deeper than his height.
Wang Ping circled the grove several times, intending to cut some branches for tools. Unfortunately, despite using all his strength, he couldn’t even break off a branch as thick as a bottle neck. In the end, he settled for a few sturdy thorny vines instead.
Dragging the thorny vines back to the bonfire, Wang Ping remembered a plant he had spotted earlier and returned to fetch it.
Under a long-fallen tree stump, he found several budding willow branches.
Willow trees were rare on the plains but not unheard of. For Wang Ping, willow branches were a valuable find—they could help reduce Gu Lang’s fever.
Wang Ping recalled Jacob once saying that willow bark and leaves contained salicylic acid, which worked like aspirin. In the wild, if someone caught a fever or cold, boiling a pot of willow water was a natural remedy.
Boiling water wasn’t an option here—Wang Ping worried about his small frame getting burned in the process. So, he opted for a cruder method.
Stripping the buds from the willow branches, Wang Ping returned to the tent with a handful. Using his front paws, he crushed the buds and squeezed the juice directly into Gu Lang’s mouth.
Parched and semi-conscious, Gu Lang instinctively swallowed the green juice, leaving his entire mouth stained green.
After discarding the leftover pulp, Wang Ping looked at his sticky paws with disgust. Wiping them on Gu Lang’s sleeping bag, he headed to the car in search of water.
"Helping others means going all the way," Wang Ping thought. "Since I’ve already given him the ‘medicine,’ I might as well help him drink some water too!"
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