Chapter 1293: Illness Strikes

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio  Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

The elfins did not object to Old Time Tea's final decision.

Everyone could see that Zhang Zian was exhausted. He had not slept well over the last two nights, and he'd worked tirelessly for long periods of time. Added to that, the work was hard labor. He was beyond tired and struggling to stay awake. Even if he fell asleep driving, it would not be a surprise at all.

How could he possibly drive for another ten hours in this state? To rush when the temperature was a scorching 60 degrees?

Even if he could push through, would the car be able to withstand it? Out of sympathy to him and from a safety perspective, it would not work.

Even if they arrived at the scheduled place on time, if everyone had left, they probably would not be able to last beyond that. In this case, they should not rush and give themselves a more generous timeline.

The second option could lead them to face material problems. They were going to take an unknown, new road, and without Nabari leading the way, they were likely to travel slowly. Whether their existing supplies could last until they got out of the desert, no one could be certain.

Lack of food could be somewhat tolerated, but there must be no water shortage. A lack of water in the desert meant death.

Old Time Tea could see that Zhang Zian had been drinking as little water as possible. Today, his lips were dry and bleeding. Last night, after such high-intensity physical labor, he needed to drink more water to replace the water lost through sweat.

After the discussion, Famous voluntarily returned to the mobile phone. This was because the other cat elfins did not have high demand for water compared to dogs. As for Richard, the water it drank was negligible.

The elfins could understand his difficulties, and Zhang Zian felt very grateful. His spirits recovered a little, and he was overwhelmed by his tiredness.

He really wanted to go back to the car and sleep. He did not mind sleeping in a sitting position. Yet that was not possible. Without the items on the ceiling, the car would be as hot as a furnace come noon.

The white cloth and aluminum alloy bracket had been lost in the storm, and there was no shelter around. He could only shovel the thick sand and pile it on the hood and the roof as well as the front winds.h.i.+eld. Using a layer of sand to block the direct sunlight on the car prevented excessive heat buildup in the car.

After doing this, he drank some water, returned to the driver's seat, tilted his seat back, and fell asleep.

He fell into a deep sleep, waking up a few times in between. He drank some more water, then went back to sleep.

He had a lot of dreams, dreaming of many people and many things. When the morning sun shone from the side winds.h.i.+eld into the car the next morning, he struggled to wake himself up.

Although his sleepiness had subsided, his forehead was very hot and cheeks very red. It seemed like he had a fever.

Wind. Was it windy in the desert?

Was it that the black storm was coming back again?

As soon as he moved, a warm, damp towel dropped off his forehead.

What a waste… To use clean water to wet a towel… He suddenly remembered what Xiao Tianyu had done.

Richard stood beside the headrest of the seat, flicking his wings and fanning him. However, when he saw Zhang Zian's eyes open, he put his head under his wings and pretended to scratch them.

“Zhang Zian, how do you feel?” Old Time Tea looked at him worriedly.

The elfins are more sensitive than humans. As early as last midnight, they'd noticed that something wasn't right with him. They could tell from his heavy breathing and abnormally elevated body temperature. However, they couldn't do anything, as there was no medicine. There was nothing they could do except pour some water from the bottle onto a towel to cool his forehead.

Zhang Zian twisted his stiff neck. His eyes were bloodshot. The elfins all looked at him with sleepy eyes.

“I'm fine. Maybe I have some heatstroke… Did you sleep last night?” he said in a hoa.r.s.e voice.

He had heat stroke before and knew how it felt. However, then, it had not been as serious. This time around, his head hurt as though it was about to burst. The rus.h.i.+ng and b.u.mps experienced over the past few days, the fear and hard work they'd done in the Devil's Sea, had greatly reduced the resistance of his body. Night after night of poor sleep had made the effects of his fatigue emerge.

“Drink water,” Fina snorted and opened a bottle of water with her claws.

“I'm fine.Let's go.” He licked his hot lips and rubbed his eyes.

“Drink water.” Fina raised her voice impatiently.

“Hey! I ask you to drink water, you drink! If you do not drink water, do you want to taste my golden water instead?” Snowy Lionet raised its paws and threatened him.

Richard landed on his head and said, “He is a c.o.c.kroach. He keeps wanting to move forward and doesn't beat a retreat! I say we beat him up!”

Old Time Tea shook his head. “Rest today. You are in no state to drive. Wait for the body to recover, and then we can go.”

Zhang Zian also knew that his physical condition was extremely poor. He should continue to rest and drink more water. However, waiting here was not going to do much for him. Their water supplies were dwindling to almost nothing.

“Drink, get better first, and then we can consider other issues,” Old Time Tea advised.

Vladimir clenched his fist and said forcefully, “The body is the source of life! If the body collapses, how can the cat kingdom spread across the world?”

Galaxy also said, “Hey! Zhang Zian must get better and come and play hide and seek with Galaxy!”

“Okay…”

If his eyelids were not so dry, he might have actually been moved to tears. The elfins knew that if they stayed for another day, they would have less hope of making it out of the desert. However, they didn't mention it, simply urging him to drink.

He unscrewed the cap and resisted the urge to drink the whole bottle of water. He drank only about a quarter and licked the remaining droplets on his lips.

“Why don't you drink it all?” Fina asked, staring at him.

“If I drink it all at once, a portion of it will be wasted as urine. It is better to drink it little by little.” He put down the water bottle.

“Hmph! Smarty pants!” Fina turned her head and ignored him.

For this trip, the expedition team prepared Patchouli drinking medicine, Nittan, and other anti-heat drugs. However, these drugs were not in his car. Also, they had forgotten to grab them when rus.h.i.+ng around—in urgent times, heat stroke medicine was the last thing on anyone's mind.

Zhang Zian searched the supplies in the car several times to see if there was anything that could be used.

Nothing.

When he twisted his body, something in his trousers poked his thigh. He took it out and saw that it was a few bottles of scented cooling oil.

He'd wanted to bring the oil to Egypt as a tip to his Egyptian friends. However, a series of misplaced events had led him to keep the oil instead, and now he was the one using it the most…

There was no choice. He could only see if the oil would help with the symptoms of heat stroke.