Chapter 052 If You're Poisoned, I Can't Escape Either

"Adelina, are you insane?" one of the men exclaimed, horrified by her actions.

"Adelina!" another called out, both men snapping back to reality, but not before Adelina spat out the first mouthful of venom. It was a deep purple, almost black.

Waite immediately pulled out an unopened bottle of ice water from his bag. "Senior, rinse your mouth out with this!" he urged.

Adelina took the water, swishing it around her mouth before spitting it out and then pouring the rest on Katherine's leg. "Gavin, in my bag, there's a sterile blade. Make a small 'X' incision over the wound so the blood pressure will help to force any poison out from the bite. There's also a tourniquet. Use it to tie off her leg above the bite. I've got some generic antivenom pills too. Give her two of those, fast!"

Before she could follow up on her own advice, Langston forcefully pulled her behind a tree.

She barely had time to react before a warm liquid from Langston's mouth gently flowed into hers. His agile tongue moved between her jaws, ensuring no corner was missed.

Instinctively, she tried to resist, but he firmly held her mouth. "Swallow it. It's spring water I brought. There's not much left, but it should be enough to save you."

After he said that, she obediently swallowed the water in her mouth.

She nearly forgot about the miraculous water they had with them.

She quickly turned to rummage through her bag, wanting to find the bottle of spring water Langston had given her earlier.

Again, Langston stopped her. "Keep your own bottle for yourself! You've already sucked out some of the poison. There shouldn't be too much left inside you. If possible, it's best to bring her to the spring—let her soak in there. It'll likely work better than the small dose you have."

Adelina felt he was right and nodded in agreement.

Thinking their interaction was over, she was about to head back when he pulled her back once more.

"Adelina!" Langston's gaze was intense. "Don't ever do something that dangerous again! Don't you know if you have cuts in your mouth, the poison will enter your system faster, heading straight for your heart, and you could show symptoms of poisoning even more quickly than Miss Watson?"

Seeing his genuine concern warmed her heart, and she replied softly, "I'm aware. But if I didn't act quickly, more poison would have spread through Miss Watson's body. Besides, there's no cell service here. Getting to a place where we can call for help and transport her to a hospital could waste critical time, increasing the difficulty and risk of the rescue. Plus, I knew what I was doing and wouldn't let myself get poisoned."

Langston's head dipped a bit lower, his lips pressing close to hers as he whispered, "If you were poisoned, I couldn't escape it either. I just licked all around your mouth where you might have had wounds...”

Adelina's face instantly turned as red as if scorched by fire.

Remembering how he had just caressed every contour inside her mouth, if she hadn't known that the stream water indeed had healing properties, she couldn't possibly associate his actions with him trying to save her...

Her heart uncontrollably accelerated and, just before his lips could descend again, she turned her head aside, dodging his kiss.

At this point, Waite had already treated the wound and had ground up a pain-relief tablet, sprinkling it on Katherine's leg.

Because he had been so focused on the injury, Waite hadn't noticed what Adelina and Langston had been doing.

"How are you feeling now, sis?" Waite asked with concern.

Katherine was about to say she was fine but then saw Langston and Adelina approaching from behind some trees and immediately put on a pained expression, saying, "My foot feels kind of numb, I can't feel it much. Langston, is it serious?"

Upon hearing this, Adelina quickly squatted down to examine the injury.

The cross cut was clean and the blood flowing out was bright red. They were currently using the only bits of ice they had on it, and it was also smeared with snakebite medicine.

Logically, even without immediate access to the stream, Katherine shouldn't have been in too much trouble.

But to be on the safe side, Adelina took out her bottle of stream water and dropped a few droplets on Katherine's wound.

"What's this?" Katherine asked.

Without any suspicion, Adelina replied, "It's miracle water, also from the stream in these mountains. It has amazing healing properties, and it might even counteract the poison."

Hearing it could counteract poison, Katherine grabbed the bottle like it was a lifesaver and started to pour it directly onto her leg.

Adelina didn't have a chance to intervene before the water had all been poured.

Langston finally couldn't stand it anymore. "Miss, I'm starting to seriously doubt your Harvard education is real! With your brains, don't you think it would've been smarter to pour that water onto a gauze first and then apply it to your leg so that it stays on longer, instead of just dumping it on your skin like that?"

His words made Katherine feel ashamed.

"And another thing!" Langston glared at her again. "I don't mind you coming deep into the woods to take photographs, but next time, please avoid wearing red! Red is most likely to attract wild animals and poisonous insects. Even if you've never watched bullfighting, you must have heard about it—it works on the same principle!"

Katherine's eyes instantly reddened, and she reached out to tug at his sleeve, her face full of apology. "I'm sorry, Langston. I didn't think it through. Can you forgive me, please?"

Langston was about to shake off her hand when she extended another, pleading coyly, "Langston?"

Men often found it hard to resist a woman's charm, especially when she was as strikingly beautiful as she was.

Langston furrowed his brows, saying in a deep voice, "As soon as we find a place with a signal, I'll have them take you to the hospital to get checked out."

He didn't directly say he forgave her, but he deliberately changed the subject.

Katherine looked at him with deep eyes, biting her lip as she slowly stood up, clutching Waite's arm for support.

"I'm sorry for slowing you all down." She then turned to Adelina. "Miss Howard, could you please help me get another piece of clothing from my suitcase? I really can't wear this red dress anymore."

Adelina didn't want the tension to linger, so she quickly turned and headed toward Katherine's suitcase.

What she didn't expect was that as soon as she opened the suitcase, a monkey suddenly sprang from a tree, grabbed an item of clothing, and ran off at full speed!

"Ah! Thief!" Adelina shouted, immediately chasing after the monkey.

"Adelina!" Langston, realizing something was wrong, reached out to stop her but missed entirely.

In a rush, he had no choice but to pick up his bag, which he had placed on a moisture-proof mat, and chased after her too.

Katherine stood on the mat, utterly shocked, while Waite also wanted to give chase, but considering that his sister was injured, he could only watch helplessly as their figures disappeared in the distance.

The monkey was incredibly fast, swinging from vines and scaling walls. If it weren't for the distinctive color of the stolen clothing, Adelina would have lost track of it long ago.

Just then, the path ahead was covered with low-growing greenery, and the monkey was hanging from the branch of a ginkgo tree a mere two meters away from Adelina.

With gritted teeth, Adelina leaped forward in determination.

Apparently, the monkey hadn't expected her to make the jump and released the clothing with a shriek before desperately climbing upward.

Adelina finally reclaimed the clothing, but as soon as her feet touched the greenery, the ground underneath gave way, and she fell through without any time to brace herself...