Chapter 242: Chapter 219: Hot Spring (Part 2)

At the thought, David’s expression changed. "Wait here for me."

After saying that, he turned and ran back to the log cabin. When he reappeared, he was holding an instrument that looked like a telephone.

David turned on the power and picked up the microphone-like probe.

"This is a gas detector. It can analyze the air. If there was a shale gas explosion, there would definitely be traces of the leak left in the air."

’A gas explosion?’

Hearing David say this, Feng Jun was instantly wide awake, a sense of dread washing over him.

He remembered something from back in his hometown. One New Year, when he was a kid, he and his friends from the village had collected a bunch of unlit firecrackers.

With an incense stick in one hand and a firecracker in the other, they lit them as they walked.

Human poop, cowpats, pigsties, clay pots—they blew up whatever they saw.

One of his friends, passing by his uncle’s outhouse, had the bright idea to light a firecracker and shove it through a crack in the lid covering the pit.

There was an immediate, thunderous BOOM.

The explosion sent a spray of shit and piss all over the group of friends. Worse, the friend’s uncle, who had been in the middle of his business, was blasted right out of the outhouse.

He didn’t even have time to pull up his pants. His ass was nearly blown to bits, and he spent the rest of the New Year lying face down on his bed.

Tsk tsk!

And you can imagine how miserable the kid who threw the firecracker was. He got a tag-team beating from his parents.

He ended up lying face down on a bed right next to his uncle. They stayed there from New Year’s Eve for a whole month, never once setting foot on the ground.

Feng Jun didn’t have a good New Year, either. He ran home covered in shit, and his old man nearly took a hoe to him to dig a grave and bury him on the spot.

After that, whenever the village kids wanted to set off firecrackers, they always checked for outhouses first.

"Wei, don’t scare me. I’m getting really spooked. Why don’t you guys go on your own? I’ll find somewhere to hide."

’Hide?’

David gave the pale-faced Feng Jun a confused look. "Why hide? If a large-scale explosion really happened, this whole valley would be in the blast radius. Where would you hide?"

"What!"

’So this whole place is a death trap!’

Feng Jun’s eyes looked like they were about to pop out of their sockets, and his body began to tremble.

David ignored Feng Jun after that, walking around the camp with the gas detector.

Half an hour later, the detector’s readings were completely normal. It hadn’t detected any hazardous gases.

"How can that be?" Thinking the instrument was faulty, David rebooted it and ran the test again, but it still didn’t pick up any traces of shale gas.

Yves frowned. "Could it be outside the camp?"

"It’s hard to say. The leak might be out there," David said, though he wasn’t certain. Still, if they were going to investigate, they might as well be thorough.

The group left the camp.

They fanned out across the vibrant mossy ground, detector in hand.

"What’s that?" Scar, the Mexican, pointed his flashlight ahead.

No sooner had he spoken than several beams of light shot in the same direction, tearing through the darkness.

Where the beams converged, a patch of white mist slowly became visible.

The mist swirled upwards like a mysterious veil, obscuring whatever lay within.

A gentle breeze stirred the mist, making it ripple as if whispering a secret.

Feng Jun swallowed hard, his voice trembling with fear.

"Wei, that can’t be the leak, can it?!"

David raised the gas detector, a puzzled look on his face. The readings were still normal.

’Theoretically, shale gas condensing into mist at this low temperature should create a concentration so high that you wouldn’t even need an instrument to detect it—you’d be able to smell it. But I can’t smell anything unusual.’

"You all wait here. I’m going to check it out. If something’s wrong, head back to camp immediately and tell Khilla to get everyone out."

With that, he handed the gas detector to Yves and walked away from the group by himself.

The others watched as David walked into the white mist and vanished from sight.

「A moment later.」

"Good God!"

David’s startled cry came from within the mist. Yves immediately dropped the detector and ran toward the sound.

"Don’t move! I’m going to get him."

He knew that as long as he held his breath, he wouldn’t be in immediate danger.

A moment later, another startled cry—this time from Yves—came from the mist.

"My God!"

Scar, the Mexican, immediately charged in after him, this time without saying a word.

"Wait!" Feng Jun’s eye twitched as he grabbed Wawa, who was about to charge in as well. "What are you all doing, going in one by one to get picked off? We have no idea what’s in there."

"Go back and get Brother Feng! Stop charging in!"

Feng Jun had barely finished speaking when a figure appeared in the mist. It was David, his face a mask of delighted surprise, waving them over. "Get in here! It’s not shale gas! My God, this is incredible!"

’What’s going on?’

With the danger apparently gone, Feng Jun and the others stepped into the white mist.

The mist was humid and surprisingly warm.

When they emerged from the other side of the mist, they all froze, stunned.

Before them was a hot spring. Yves and Scar were already in it, shirtless, with looks of pure bliss on their faces.

"You two..." Wawa, who had still been worried for their safety, could only shake his head, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. "What in the world is going on?"

Even David was completely baffled.

’I remember this being a patch of moss. How did it turn into a hot spring? The soil at the edge of the pool is fresh, which means this can’t have been here for long.’

"Come on in, guys! The water’s nice and hot. It feels amazing," Yves called, waving to the others on the bank.

’Really?’

Feng Jun and the others looked at Yves skeptically, their curiosity mixed with hesitation.

They cautiously approached the edge of the pool and dipped their hands in to test the water.

The hot water instantly enveloped their fingers, bringing a wave of comfort.

’What were they waiting for?!’

The men exchanged grins, quickly stripped off their heavy coats down to their boxers, and leaped into the pool with whoops and hollers, as if trying to wash away all their fatigue and worries.

Water splashed everywhere, sparkling in the beams of their flashlights.

The pool wasn’t deep, only about a meter, and its bottom was surprisingly flat. The water temperature was around 40 degrees Celsius.

The temperature was perfect, neither scalding nor cool.

The warm water enveloped their bodies, bringing a level of comfort they had never experienced before.

Was life in the Crown Territory good?

The answer was yes.

But the one universal complaint was bathing.

In the Crown Territory, the simple act of taking a bath, something so ordinary elsewhere, was a major hassle for most people. Everyone had to boil water for it.

In this cold weather, the water you could boil with firewood was barely enough for a quick wash. You could forget about taking a proper bath.

This meant the men usually only bathed once every couple of weeks—their motto was basically, "If I don’t stink, I don’t need to wash." The women were more mindful of personal hygiene, but even they only managed to wash about once a week.

Every bath felt like preparing for battle. You had to prepare enough firewood in advance, then wash as quickly as possible in the freezing air before the water got too cold.

But not anymore.

Here, they could splash around to their hearts’ content, wash however they wanted, for as long as they wanted.

BLUB BLUB BLUB!!

Feng Jun dove to the bottom, then burst back up to the surface. He scrubbed his skin vigorously with his hands, and rolls of gray grime that looked like noodles came off.

"Ahhh, this is the life."

"Too bad the women from the camp aren’t here, otherwise this would be really fun."

"I’ll let them know." Wawa, who was lounging by the edge of the pool, immediately fished a walkie-talkie out of his clothes and switched to the public channel. "Is anyone still awake? Come soak in the hot spring! There’s a hot spring near the Ice Lake."

「The next moment.」

The walkie-talkie crackled to life with a chorus of female voices.

"What? A hot spring? Wawa, you’d better not be messing with us!"

"Oh my God, where is it? I’m coming right now."

"If you’re lying to us, you’re dead, Wawa!"

"Hurry up and give us your location! I’m heading out now."

Wawa rolled his eyes at their skepticism. He planted his flashlight in the soft earth, sending a straight beam of light up into the night sky.

"Just follow the light! I’m serious, there’s a hot spring! Come on!"

"Buddy, you’re going to regret this," Feng Jun said, giving Wawa an ominous look.

「Before long.」

The sound of excited chattering filled the air.

They say three women are enough to put on a play. A whole group of them sounded like three thousand ducks.

Erica emerged from the mist, and upon seeing the hot spring, let out an excited shriek.

Her excited cries echoed through the air, so loud that Feng Jun dunked his head under the water to escape the noise.

Most of the other women from the camp appeared right behind her, their expressions mirroring Erica’s.

SPLASH!

SPLASH!

With a series of splashes, the once-spacious hot spring pool suddenly became much more crowded.

Water splashed everywhere, and the steamy spring was instantly filled with a boisterous energy.

Some of the women were quite bold, jumping into the pool in just their underwear, completely ignoring Feng Jun and the other men.

Wow!!

Feng Jun’s eyes went wide. Even with the steam rising from the water, the beams from the flashlights provided more than enough light for him to appreciate the... art.

Just then, a figure blocked his view.

"Move it!"

Feng Jun turned his head just in time to see a pair of rolling hills backstroke past his face.

"Enjoying the view?"

"Great view!" Feng Jun blurted out. He immediately realized his mistake and looked up to see Erica smirking down at him.

Erica pointed a finger toward the bank. "I’ll give you one chance. Get out of this pool. It’s ours now."

"You got it!" Feng Jun readily scrambled out of the water without a backward glance. On the bank, he saw Wawa squatting with a long face.

’Serves you right.’

’That’s what you get for running your mouth.’

...