âWhat happened to you?â Bai Qingqing walked to Shuuâs side and noticed a shallow cut on his shoulders. She guessed he had grazed his shoulder against the tree when he was trying to rescue her.
The black wolf looked up at Bai Qingqing, gentleness in his eyes. The wolf on the ground rapidly extended his body and transformed into the strong and robust body of a young male. Without the cover from his fur, the wound on his shoulder was now clear at a glanceâthere was an unnatural purplish-black color on his bloody wound.
Bai Qingqing reached out to touch the wound, but Shuu grabbed her hand to stop her from doing so.
âDonât touch⦠thereâs poisonâ¦â Shuu panted with his mouth open. Yet, it seemed as though no matter how much air he took in it wasnât enough. His face had turned purplish by now.
Parker was stunned.
Bai Qingqing held Shuuâs hand tightly, tears slipping down her cheeks like a string of broken beads. âWhat should we do? Weâll send you to the doctorâs.â
Shuu shook his head in a nearly imperceptible manner, a blissful smile appearing on his purplish-green face at seeing Bai Qingqing shed tears for him. âItâs⦠too late⦠the poison has already spread throughout my body⦠even if I get the antidoteâ¦â
âAntidote?â Bai Qingqingâs eyes lit up. She clasped Shuuâs hand tightly and said, âWhereâs the antidote? Weâll go look for it right now!â
âWhite flower⦠only⦠the ape king has itâ¦â Shuuâs entire body had turned somewhat greenish, and he was having an increasingly difficult time breathing.
Bai Qingqing hurriedly said to Parker, âQuick, find the ape king!â
âOkay!â Parker was prepared to leave when Muir offered to go instead. âIâll go.â
With that, he transformed into an eagle and flew away.
With his eyes fixed on Bai Qingqingâs face, Shuuâs gaze lingered upon her. Very slowly, he raised a hand to wipe away the tears on her face. âI⦠am really lucky⦠to have you shed tears for meâ¦â
Upon hearing this, Bai Qingqingâs tears fell even more relentlessly now. She pursed her lips and tried her best to hold it in, her chin crumpling as a result of how hard she was trying. Still, she couldnât hold back the muffled sobs from escaping her mouth.
Curtis came back reeking of the stench of blood as he went to stand beside Bai Qingqing with an expressionless face.
âYou will surely get well!â The teary Bai Qingqing said in a choked voice as she shook her head.
Her visionâblurred by her tearsâfell upon Shuuâs purplish skin; it seemed as though the blood wasnât circulating well in his body.
White flowers could neutralize the poison?
The image of that huge tree in the ape castle flashed in Bai Qingqingâs mind, causing her to abruptly raise her head. âThe upas tree!â
âItâs that tree, right?â Bai Qingqing asked with great urgency.
No wonder she had found that tree familiar-lookingâin the park near where she used to live there was a 20-year-old upas tree. Although the upas treeâalso known as the âsilencing treeââwas endangered, it was highly poisonous.
Once the sap of the upas tree was dabbed on a wound, it would cause a personâs heart to go numb and his blood to coagulate, or even cause him to die from suffocation.
It was also said on the info plaque that only the red bamboo grass that grew near the upas tree could neutralize the poison. There were pretty white flowers growing on the red bamboo grass.
Shuu let out a sigh and said with a smile, âRemember not to touch it in the future⦠Although⦠females wonât be able to damage the tree bark⦠Iâm still worried.â
âGot it.â Bai Qingqing wiped away her tears haphazardly and carefully massaged Shuuâs body in an attempt to help his blood circulate, despite not knowing if this was of any use.
Bai Qingqing roughly recalled that the upas treeâs poison took around 20 minutes to two hours to kick in. For the poison to have kicked in so quickly in Shuuâs case, it was no doubt due to his vigorous exercise.
If Shuu had asked for help early on, he wouldnât have ended up in this state.
Muir came back with some grass in his mouth and also some stone tools to grind the medicine.
Bai Qingqing snatched the red bamboo grass and stone tools from Muir and quickly crushed the medicine, before applying it on the wound on Shuuâs shoulder.
âItâs Rosa⦠she wants to kill you,â Shuu said as he gazed at Bai Qingqingâs face.