"Your mother?! Are you sure?"
Zhuo Ya and I were rescued by his mother in the temple, so I had a very deep impression of his mother.
Zhuo Ya nodded, "I'm sure. When I was little, she used to hum songs to me to coax me to sleep. I wouldn't remember it wrong."
I didn't dwell on why Zhuo Ya's mother would appear in the radio wave, but instead asked Zhuo Ya what his mother's words meant.
What his mother said must be the reason Zhuo Ya had to leave!
Zhuo Ya didn't seem to want to explain the detailed reason to me, only saying that his mother had left something important somewhere before, and he had to find it.
If he found it, it could save his mother's life!
"What is it, can't you say?" I couldn't help but frown.
Zhuo Ya shook his head and buried his little head in my chest again, taking a deep, lingering breath.
After a while, he murmured, "Brother Xiao Ye, Sister Guli originally wanted to leave without saying goodbye to me, but I don't know if I'll ever see you again, so I came to find you quietly."
"You mean Gulinina?"
As expected, she had secrets too!
My expression changed, "What does this have to do with her?"
Zhuo Ya hesitated for a moment, then told me Gulinina's identity.
"Sister Guli is from my mother's family. After my mother disappeared, our family has been searching for her whereabouts. This time, Sister Guli came to this island because she received reliable news."
I had already been suspicious of Gulinina, but I hadn't investigated further to maintain the stability of the team.
Now, my long-standing confusion was finally resolved by Zhuo Ya's words!
Gulinina was not a university teacher at all, but someone meticulously trained by a powerful and influential family in Russia!
No wonder I could feel her confident demeanor when I first met her.
And her composure was completely different from the other survivors!
Gulinina, who was already somewhat mysterious in my eyes, was now shrouded in an unfathomable veil.
I instinctively felt resistant. If Zhuo Ya, such an innocent young girl, went with someone trained by a powerful family to find that damn important item, wouldn't she be completely exploited in the end!
I told Zhuo Ya my thoughts.
After hearing me, Zhuo Ya smiled sweetly, "Brother Xiao Ye, I know you're doing this for my own good, but Sister Guli won't harm me. Besides, my skills are far better than hers. If she really wanted to make a move, she wouldn't be able to beat me."
Looking at Zhuo Ya's warm smile, my heart felt like a jar of soy sauce had been overturned, a mix of emotions.
On one hand, I was very confident in Zhuo Ya's combat ability. If we didn't count those non-human monsters, Zhuo Ya could basically walk sideways on this nameless island.
On the other hand, the girls around me were leaving me one by one, first Qu Xiangyun, then Zhuo Ya.
They all had their own missions to complete, and although I wanted to go with them, I could only watch them leave helplessly.
Perhaps this is life, where ten out of nine things don't go as planned.
"Can't you stay and we can go together later?"
Although I knew Zhuo Ya had a reason to go, I still held onto a sliver of hope that I could persuade her to stay.
Zhuo Ya was also touched, and her expression became hesitant. It was clear I had swayed her.
But in the end, she shook her head.
She said to me with a resolute attitude, "No, Brother Xiao Ye. This is my mother's matter. I can't let you risk your life for me again because of this. If something happens to you, I will feel guilty for the rest of my life!"
"Where are you going? You can't even tell me, your comrade who has faced life and death with you?"
Zhuo Ya's words made me even more curious about what was said on the radio.
What exactly did Zhuo Ya's mother say that made her so determined to find it, regardless of the cost.
"Brother Xiao Ye, it's not that I don't want to tell you. I don't know the exact location either. But Sister Guli said that this item is very important to the family. Originally, Sister Guli was just looking for clues and didn't expect to find it..."
As Zhuo Ya spoke to me, she reluctantly left my embrace, as if afraid that she would be moved by me and lose the courage to leave. She walked back towards the camp without looking back.
I watched Zhuo Ya's departing back with a sense of loss. I opened my mouth, but ultimately did not call out to her again.
Although I had many reasons to keep Zhuo Ya, and I believed that if I had insisted, Zhuo Ya might not have left.
But I couldn't do that.
I let out a bitter smile, and memories of our time together flooded my mind.
I felt in my pocket, pulled out a cigarette I found in the perverted man's tent, and lit one, silently.
I had been on the island for several months and hadn't smoked since. The pungent smoke filled my lungs, making me cough twice.
I always believed that each of us comes into this world as an independent individual.
I knew very well that Zhuo Ya and I were very important to each other, but I also understood even more the meaning of Zhuo Ya's mother to her.
I stayed alone in the woods for a long time until the ground was littered with cigarette butts before returning to the camp.
At this time, the other women were fast asleep, and Zhuo Ya and Gulinina had already disappeared.
I hope we will meet again someday...
I lay calmly on the bearskin, but I couldn't fall asleep.
It wasn't until the sun rose that I vaguely drifted off into a dream.
The next morning, I continued to lead the other women towards the settlement as usual.
Gulinina and Zhuo Ya's disappearance overnight puzzled the other women.
However, I had been managing them very strictly these days, so seeing my expressionless face, none of them dared to come forward to talk to me, and could only trudge along in silence.
The atmosphere in the team was somewhat somber.
Although I maintained a stoic expression, I was secretly observing Yu Fenghua's every move.
Yu Fenghua, when she first joined the team, might have had malicious intentions to harm me!
This was not my oversensitivity, but a deduction based on the information I had.
Just yesterday, when Zhuo Ya said goodbye to me, she also told me a secret, which was a secret that Gulinina asked Zhuo Ya to pass on to me.
Yu Fenghua and the man with glasses actually had an unusual relationship!
She didn't get together with the man with glasses after the plane crash; they were already a couple before that!