Yuan Yujun slept from afternoon until evening.

With the nutritional drip and adequate rest, she felt much better when she woke up for the second time.

Upon awakening, she discovered that not only were Cheng Qurong and Kang Wei there, but several others had joined them in the hospital room. There was Xia Xiaolan, Gu Zhengqing, and the eldest of the Gao family… At fourteen years old, this adolescent could be incredibly stubborn, but he could also recognize who truly cared for him.

Too weak to walk, he still insisted on visiting Teacher Yuan in a wheelchair.

“You’re all here, and Xiaolan came too.”

“Senior, are you feeling any better?”

Xia Xiaolan had visited the hospital room before Yuan Yujun woke up. She had seen Kang Wei sleeping in a chair beside the bed, his head resting on the edge, and had quietly retreated from the room.

Yuan Yujun nodded.

Gu Zhengqing also expressed his concerns for Yuan Yujun.

Sitting in his wheelchair, Gao Wang began to cry. When Yuan Yujun asked why, he said he had failed to protect his teacher.

Yuan Yujun laughed softly:

“Gao Wang, you’re barely fourteen and haven’t even finished elementary school. It should be the teacher protecting you.”

Gao Wang wiped his tears with his sleeve but quickly stopped. The new hospital clothes were so clean – he had never worn anything this clean in his life – how could he use them to wipe tears?

With Yuan Yujun awake and Gao Wang present, Xia Xiaolan and the others finally learned what had happened during their disappearance.

That day, Yuan Yujun had learned from other students about Gao Wang’s plan to hunt wolves. She immediately reprimanded him and decided to escort him and his younger brother Gao Xing back to their village.

While Gao Wang appeared to heed Yuan Yujun’s advice, he still wanted revenge on the wolves that had stolen his family’s sheep.

The Gao family was poor, and their seven sheep represented their entire wealth. After the wolves took three, only four remained. How could Gao Wang not harbor hatred for the wolves that stole from them?

His grandmother suffered from rheumatism, and her condition had worsened over the past two years. Gao Wang had planned to fatten up the sheep and sell two in spring to take his grandmother to a major hospital.

The medicine from the local clinic wasn’t helping much; they needed to visit a bigger hospital.

Either the county hospital or one in the city.

Two sheep wouldn’t be enough, so he had planned to sell three.

The wolves had ruined Gao Wang’s plans to get his grandmother medical care. This fourteen-year-old, caught between childhood and adolescence, serving as his family’s pillar, had spent several days searching for the wolf pack in the Gobi Desert for revenge – and he had found them, even managing to wound one with two shots.

The day Yuan Yujun was escorting the Gao brothers home through the Gobi Desert, the wolf pack found them seeking revenge.

Gao Wang told Teacher Yuan to run, but where could she go?

The Gao family had four sheep left; one pregnant ewe had been left at home, while the other three were with the brothers. When the wolves attacked, they immediately killed one sheep. Yuan Yujun dropped her hat as a marker and fled with the Gao brothers.

Although Gao Wang had a hunting rifle, he had limited ammunition. When the wolves got too close, he would fire a couple of shots.

Running and stopping alternately, they got lost in the Gobi Desert, and the ammunition ran out.

Yuan Yujun wasn’t afraid of being lost – she knew people would notice their disappearance and search for them.

But the wolf pack kept following at a distance, never giving them time to rest.

Deep in the Gobi Desert, it wasn’t just the original pack pursuing them anymore; dangers lurked everywhere. Night fell, and Yuan Yujun and Gao Wang were exhausted. Gao Wang’s brother Gao Xing, only ten years old, was already stumbling.

Yuan Yujun kept dropping items along the way – books from her bag, her hat, her sleeves – hoping someone would find them quickly.

But the wind and sand covered her trail; only the hat she first dropped and the book she later wedged under a rock were found.

“We didn’t fall into the cave; we went down deliberately. Gao Wang had run out of ammunition, and the wolves were getting closer. We had no choice but to seek shelter below. I threw the sheep down first – it wasn’t injured – and then we jumped down.”

As long as they were alive, they could find a way back up. Once below, they weren’t afraid of the wolves anymore. The wolves would have to jump down one at a time, and in the confined space, three people could handle a single wolf. Yuan Yujun felt their chances of survival were good.

When Kang Wei asked about the rock, Yuan Yujun replied sheepishly:

“A miscalculation. We were too panicked when going down, and the rock rolled to block the entrance.”

It had also injured her arm.

The cave and the rock protected Yuan Yujun and the three from being eaten by wolves but also trapped them inside.

If Yuan Yujun hadn’t wedged the book under the rock before sliding down, who would have known there were people in the crevice?

For six full days, Yuan Yujun and the Gao brothers hid below, drinking water that seeped through the rock cracks when thirsty, and eating moss from the stone walls when hungry. Both humans and sheep survived this way, though humans couldn’t endure hardship as well as animals. The people weakened first, while the sheep could still bleat when rescued. At night, the three would huddle with the sheep to sleep.

Fortunately, it was winter, so Yuan Yujun and the Gao brothers’ injuries didn’t become infected.

“If rescue hadn’t come, we were planning to kill the sheep – the injured one first. One sheep would have sustained us for a while.”

Yuan Yujun liked the sheep too, and she knew each one represented life itself to the Gao brothers. For the sheep’s sake, both the older and younger brothers were willing to fight wolves. Yuan Yujun wouldn’t have suggested killing the sheep unless necessary.

But no matter how lovable the sheep were, human lives were more precious.

Raw mutton might be gamey, but in a survival crisis, taste hardly matters.

Could mutton be harder to swallow than moss?

Gao Wang explained in a muffled voice:

“Teacher Yuan, I wanted to kill the sheep too, but at first I couldn’t bring myself to do it, and later I had no strength left.”

Everyone was too weak from hunger. The sheep with the broken leg just lay there, and they couldn’t kill it even with a small knife.

Initially, not knowing when rescue would come, they misjudged the timing. Later, when they wanted to kill the sheep to survive, they lacked the strength.

Although Yuan Yujun was very intelligent, before coming to teach in the Northwest, she was just a fresh university graduate. How could she make perfect judgments in every situation?

If it had been Xia Xiaolan, she probably would have slaughtered the sheep on the second day underground when rescue hadn’t arrived. Yuan Yujun was too gentle.

This wasn’t something to say to Yuan Yujun – it would sound like criticism. She had kept the Gao brothers alive underground for several days, enduring her injuries while encouraging them. Surviving until rescue was already remarkable.

Xia Xiaolan thought Yuan Yujun was very brave.

Kang Wei felt the same way.

Gao Wang had awakened before Yuan Yujun and heard the hospital nurses discussing how many people had searched for them.

He felt tremendous regret then – it was his actions that had brought the wolves’ revenge. If anything had happened to Teacher Yuan and his brother Gao Xing, Gao Wang wouldn’t have wanted to live.

The rescue team had searched that area before, but with the rock blocking the cave entrance, no one knew people were hiding below.

Yuan Yujun said she had heard helicopter propellers, and they had tried hitting the rock walls with stones, but couldn’t attract the rescue team’s attention.

“I don’t know how you finally found us; we couldn’t make any more noise.”

Everyone in the room turned to look at Kang Wei.

How did they find them?

It was Kang Wei who had insisted on going down, saying the wolves were acting strangely.

He had also found the book wedged under the rock and insisted Yuan Yujun must be nearby.

So, was it Kang Wei’s attentiveness, or… some mysterious connection?