Chapter 14: After the Rain

"Hold on!" Li Jingguan shouted loudly. "The harpoons are limited in number; if we hold on a little longer, we'll survive!"

The crowd hadn't even responded when they heard another scream.

Turning their heads, they saw it was Tian Tian.

She wasn't as lucky as Xiao Ran; the harpoon had pierced straight through her palm.

Tian Tian lost her strength momentarily, and the table board in front of her was knocked askew by the incoming harpoons.

"Watch out!"

Qiao Jiajin gritted his teeth and reached out to grab the table board in front of Tian Tian.

In that split second, another harpoon flew precisely through the gap and pierced Han Yimo's shoulder.

Han Yimo let out a painful scream, but his hand still gripped the table board tightly.

"Don't panic!"

Li Jingguan reached out to support Han Yimo, then used both hands to hold up half of the table board for him.

Qiao Jiajin acted quickly as well, reaching out to hold the table board for Tian Tian.

Fortunately, these two were incredibly strong, and the entire formation stabilized again.

As the crashing sounds gradually died down, the group realized just how effective this arrangement was.

If they had followed Li Jingguan's and Zhao Yisheng's idea of staggering the table boards for everyone to hold, the boards would have been perpendicular to the harpoons, making them extremely easy to pierce through.

Now, with this "spring shoots after rain" setup, the contact surfaces between the harpoons from five directions and the table boards were all at angles, greatly reducing the harpoons' penetrating force.

Especially for the harpoons shooting down from directly above, their conical shape caused them to alter their paths.

After a while longer, the sounds outside the table boards ceased completely.

"Is it over?" Han Yimo asked through gritted teeth.

"Wait one more minute," Qi Xia replied.

The group held the table boards steady and waited quietly for another minute, confirming that there was no more movement outside.

Qiao Jiajin carefully shifted to create a small gap and peeked out.

"Oh my god..." He was instantly stunned by the sight before him.

The others slowly moved the table boards away and discovered that the floor and tabletops were almost entirely covered with harpoons.

The two bodies on the ground were utterly horrific, looking like porcupines bristling with spines.

Each harpoon was connected by a rope, with the other end linked to holes in the wall, leaving the room in complete disarray.

Zhao Yisheng rolled up his sleeves and went straight to Han Yimo's side.

His condition was serious; the harpoon had gone through his shoulder and needed immediate treatment.

Han Yimo slowly sat down and forced a bitter smile. "I was just thinking if I'd be that unlucky, and sure enough, I got hit..."

Tian Tian looked extremely guilty and quickly apologized to Han Yimo.

But everyone knew it wasn't her fault—she had also been pierced by a harpoon through her palm.

"Hey, girl, come here," Qiao Jiajin waved her over. "I can bandage you up."

"Huh?" Tian Tian was surprised. "You know how to bandage?"

"A little bit," he said.

Qiao Jiajin tore a strip of fabric from the suit of the dead goat-headed figure and ripped it into two pieces.

He tied one tightly around Tian Tian's arm to stop the bleeding and carefully wrapped the other around her wound.

"I used to get hurt a lot on the streets, so I taught myself some bandaging," Qiao Jiajin explained.

Tian Tian nodded slightly without saying a word.

After arriving here, the group finally had a moment of peace, as if they had temporarily escaped the shadow of death.

Yet, there was still no door in sight, and this damned room continued to trap them inside.

What exactly was this place?

And what lay outside the room?

In less than a minute, a sigh came from Zhao Yisheng's direction.

Qi Xia turned to look and saw Zhao Yisheng, who was treating Han Yimo's wound, wearing a troubled expression.

"What's wrong?" Li Jingguan asked. "Is the injury serious?"

"The injury isn't too bad," Zhao Yisheng shook his head. "It's just that I can't remove the harpoon."

The others crowded closer and saw that the problem was indeed tricky.

The harpoon had barbs on its tip, so pulling it out would cause even more damage to the injured person.

And the harpoon's tail was attached to a rope.

Right now, Han Yimo was like a fish that had been speared—wherever he went, that rope would hold him fast.

"The only option is to cut the rope and pull the harpoon out from the front," Zhao Yisheng said, looking up. "But I don't have any sharp tools here."

Han Yimo's lips were turning pale, and the harpoon embedded in his shoulder blade was causing him excruciating pain.

"We can use one of the other harpoons," Li Jingguan decided quickly. "They're pointed, so they count as sharp tools."

"That's our only choice," Zhao Yisheng nodded. "Writer, I need you to get into the most relaxed position you can, lying down. We'll have to cut the rope on your back, so take it slow. Don't rush—be careful of the harpoon in front of you to avoid further injury."

Han Yimo nodded and began to move his body with difficulty.

Qi Xia watched this scene and felt a sense of unease.

Take it slow?

In this situation, did they really have time for that?

He glanced at the ropes scattered on the floor, and a bad premonition formed in his mind.

If he was right, they were still racing against time.

"We can't take it slow!" Qi Xia suddenly spoke up. "Get that harpoon out of him right now!"

He quickly walked over to the doctor and said seriously to Han Yimo, "Bear with it—I'll pull it out for you right now!"

Han Yimo was a bit confused but didn't refuse.

"What are you doing?!" Zhao Yisheng shoved Qi Xia aside in annoyance. "This will make his injury worse!"

"There's no time left! If we drag this out, he really will die!" Qi Xia pushed Zhao Yisheng away and grabbed the harpoon on Han Yimo's back.

A scream echoed out.

Harpoons with barbs were easy to thrust in but incredibly hard to remove.

"Hey!" Li Jingguan ran over and pulled Qi Xia away, yelling angrily, "Are you trying to kill him?"

After being stopped twice, Qi Xia's face darkened.

"I get that you want to save him, but if we don't hurry, the harpoons will..."

Before Qi Xia could finish, the sound of chains rattling echoed around them, as if some massive mechanism had activated again.

Along with it came Han Yimo's heart-wrenching scream.

The group snapped to attention and realized that all the harpoons were slowly retracting under the pull of the ropes.

Han Yimo on the ground was being dragged by the immense force.

Qi Xia had noticed this earlier—the ropes on the harpoons weren't just for show; they would eventually reel them back in.

In the chaos, everyone ran alongside Han Yimo. During this, Li Jingguan tried to grab the rope to fight against the powerful force from the black holes in the wall, but it was futile.

The table boards on the floor, stuck full of harpoons, were gradually being torn apart and pulled back.

This force, capable of shredding wood, was impossible to resist by hand.

Although Han Yimo was in agony, he soon realized another problem—if he was pulled to the wall without getting free of the harpoon, he'd be pinned there to his death.

Thinking of this, he painfully stood up, grabbed Qi Xia, and said word by word, "Help me get this harpoon out! Do it now!"