After the three gunshots, everything seemed to come to a standstill, save for the slow trickle of water. Shock and fear froze on everyone’s faces. That was how Yueye experienced it. If anyone had been paying attention to her, they would’ve noticed that her pupils had become unnaturally slit, glowing a faint blue-gold.

“What…?” Yueye sensed something was wrong. Her eyes felt faintly cool… and she could tell that something about her might have changed….

The feeling seemed instinctive. It lasted only a moment before the faint gold in her eyes quickly faded away… Her clear, sky-blue eyes returned to normal. From Yueye’s perspective, the river’s current was gradually speeding up. The looks on everyone’s faces were like a video switching from slow motion to fast-forward, and their voices quickly reached her ears again….

“What are you standing around for? Hurry and save him!” Forgetting all about keeping their formation, the taller male students surged forward and swam as fast as they could toward where Zhang Yan had been knocked down….

“Splash… splash…” Liu Menglong was closest to Zhang Yan. He reacted quickly, grabbing Zhang Yan’s arm before the current could sweep him away… But the immense force of the water was more than he could handle. As his feet slipped out from under him, he felt a strong hand grab him from behind… and pull him back into balance….

“Everyone, together!” Zhu Chao’s voice came from behind him, reaching Liu Menglong just after he’d shaken some water from his ears. Liu Menglong shook the river water out of his eyes and saw Liu Haimeng holding on to him, with the others crowding in behind her. Gratitude filled his eyes. He tightened his grip and pulled Zhang Yan’s now completely limp body back toward them. At the same time, everyone surrounded Zhang Yan, forming a ring to keep the current from carrying him away… Deep down, they all knew this was everything they could do, giving it all they had….

“Hurry! Get to the bank!” To prevent anything else from going wrong, Su Lin quickened his pace… and led the group in one final push to the other side of the river.

“Get Zhang Yan up here… Move!” Several boys lifted Zhang Yan onto the bank, then carefully laid him down on the grass. They were all panting with exhaustion… but immediately began checking his condition….

In a flurry, the group removed the dark green “crocodile” from Zhang Yan’s neck… At that moment, many of the girls covered their eyes. They’d expected something like this, but seeing it for real was a double shock, both to the eyes and the mind.

Zhang Yan’s two eyes were fixed on a point forty-five degrees to the right of his deathly pale face. His body seemed frozen in that moment. His eyes bulged slightly with fear, sending a chill through everyone who saw them. His neck had been pierced through… and a little white foam bubbled from his mouth. Bright red blood spurted intermittently from the hole in his neck….

The sight was horrifying. Some of the boys turned away… and a few girls even threw up nearby….

“Can we still save him?” Su Lin asked the people around him anxiously, then spent exchange points on a can of life spray and tentatively sprayed it over the wound… He didn’t spare a thought for how many exchange points he had left. All he could think about was saving Zhang Yan… No one wanted him to still be alive more than Su Lin did. After all, he was the team leader, and he couldn’t live with himself if something like this happened….

The wound showed signs of healing where the spray had hit… but it was nothing compared to the deep, gaping injury.

“Wake up, damn it!” Su Lin slammed his fist into the grass, unwilling to give up… hoping that the already-cooling body before him would show some sign of life….

“Notice: Xiheci has been killed. Reward: 40 points…” The system’s voice rang in his ear….

Su Lin froze for a moment… then clenched his fists and shouted at the sky, unable to accept it….

“This is a human life! Is this fun for you?! Are you watching us like we’re clowns?! Huh?!” Su Lin felt his eyes sting despite himself. Tears spilled down his face, and he knelt there on the grass… looking like a child who’d been wronged. Yueye was sure she’d never seen Su Lin this broken before….

Liu Menglong’s expression was grim, too… A former classmate had just died right before his eyes. The notice that Xiheci had been killed did nothing to lift his spirits… That voice only kept needling his nerves, like salt rubbed into a wound… He hated it. He hated that he hadn’t realized there was danger sooner. If only he’d reacted one second faster, maybe Zhang Yan wouldn’t have died!

Yueye lowered her head. She didn’t know whether she’d been right to tell Wang Tong to stop, but given what had just happened, that decision had clearly played a part in getting her classmate killed. With her back to the rest of the team, she stared at the river, now calm again, and sank into guilt….

The whole team seemed to be teetering on the edge of a cliff… As if one more gust of wind could tear them apart. Everyone was silent… lost in their own thoughts, and in the bleak road ahead.

“Let’s bury him… I’m sorry…” Su Lin’s voice was hoarse and trembling. He couldn’t bring himself to look at Zhang Yan. He felt he’d let him down….

“I’m sorry. We can’t take you home.” Liu Haimeng stepped forward and gently closed Zhang Yan’s eyes… then let out a helpless sigh.

“If I could choose, I’d rather it had been me…” Su Lin said softly. He knew it was too late for words now.

As he watched Zhang Yan’s body being lowered into the grave they’d dug and buried, Su Lin’s eyes trembled. The mountain that had hung over him finally came crashing down… The team had lost one of its members forever… He felt the whole thing was his fault.

“Su Lin, pull yourself together! We still need you!” Zhu Yue gently patted Su Lin on the back… and spoke to him softly.

“But I… I got him killed…”

“It wasn’t really your fault, or anyone’s. You don’t need to dwell on it. Just treat it as a lesson! You need to carry our hopes on your shoulders and make sure this never happens again! You’re the heart of this team… Without you, the whole team will fall apart. You need to understand that!” Zhu Yue encouraged him… She could more or less understand how Su Lin felt right now. This was the hardship of being a leader, and one of the hardest trials a leader had to overcome. The more authority you had, the more pressure you carried.

“Am I even fit to lead anymore?” Su Lin no longer trusted himself… He felt that his decisions could lead the team down a road of no return.

“Then you still have to grit your teeth and do it, even if we don’t approve of you! You’re in this position, so you have to do everything you can to fulfill its duties. Even if things don’t turn out well, you have to keep going. Doing something is better than doing nothing, and having someone take charge is better than having no one!” Zhu Yue smiled at Su Lin… She was speaking from her own experience as class monitor for several years. She thought Su Lin needed someone to talk him through it, just as her own mentor had once helped her.

“Then… I’ll try…” Su Lin had grown a lot in that moment, even if he didn’t feel much better. He’d made up his mind not to lose anyone else on the team. Even if no one accepted him as their leader, he still had to grit his teeth and do the job. He was in this position, so he had to fulfill its duties.

“We can’t avoid unexpected situations, so we need to be fully prepared to deal with them… That’s where your judgment failed this time, and that’s your responsibility. But don’t dwell on it too much. No one can predict every unexpected situation… Learn from what happened. Next time, think things through and minimize the team’s losses.” Seeing that Su Lin had pulled himself together, Zhu Yue offered him some advice.

“Okay… Thank you,” Su Lin said to Zhu Yue, full of gratitude.