18 Poison Ivy - II

"What… what happened?" Su Xin Yu reached the place where Chen Chen was. When she found him, he was scratching his whole body, and especially face, for some reason.

"Co… cousin, it's so itchy! What do I do? I made sure not to touch anything, but what is this?" he pitifully raised his head and Su Xin Yu had to step back. His whole face was full of red marks. Li Ming Hao, who had been left behind by Su Xin Yu also halted in his steps when he saw Chen Chen's face. His red chubby face now had even redder spots all over. But if one looked closely, it was clear that very small pox like bumps had popped up in cluster which made up these spots.

"What did you do?" Su Xin Yu collected herself and checked his marks with her gloves laden hands.

"I don't know, I was just trying to catch up to you guys and then I fell over there, but…," before he could finish his story, Su Xin Yu asked him where he fell. They investigated and found that the pile he had fallen on belonged to a plant called Poison Ivy.

"But It's such a common plant, I have never seen anyone getting such severe allergic reaction before," Li Ming Hao was so surprised looking at the leaves. The fallen leaves actually looked quite different from normal plants he had seen before. Did he identify it wrongly? He tried searching internet on his phone.

"Ugh, no signal again," he mumbled keeping his phone inside.

"There are no signal towers here, people have not really explored this area. You won't get any service," Su Xin Yu answered to him while she looked for a suitable ointment for Chen Chen. If she could not find it soon, then there was a huge chance her cousin would tear apart his skin by scratching it.

"Here, I got you covered. This is special cream from my university for common poisonous plants," Li Ming Hao handed over a cream to Su Xin Yu in a small round plastic box. She took the bx gratefully and applied the cream on her cousin's face. Li Ming Hao on the side, was repulsed by how she was just putting the cream on the hideous rash while his heart felt sharp pain whenever the girl was touching Chen Chen's skin.

*It's better to just not see this.*

"These are not normal plants. The usual poison ivy only causes small rash because of this chemical compound called urushiol. But it's not that extreme. The plants here, they have been nourished by human blood for decades which is why we do not know the actual effects of the poisonous plants here. Now this one, I don't even know if just washing and putting this soothing ointment will help," Su Xin Yu tried to explain the details to Li Ming Hao a bit. This meant that other plants in the forest would have exaggerated effects too. No wonder she was asking to put on respirators and cover the whole body.

After the application of the cream, Chen Chen got his much required rest without doing anything. Sure pain was too much right now, but as long as he got to sit.

"Cousin, you should go ahead, I will follow you when I am okay,�� Chen Chen looked at her exhausted cousin who had rushed there as soon as she had heard his scream. Poor girl really wanted to see the sunrise but the sun had been out for about half an hour now. He felt guilty, if only he had not been willful.

"You don't even know the way, where will you follow us?" Su Xin Yu reprimanded her cousin for ridiculousness. Sure they were not blood related, but they had experienced life and death together on so many expeditions. Was she the one to abandon a comrade like this?

"How about this? Let's go to the peak, we can either come back or Chen Chen can follow us there. In the meantime, we could still catch the sun," Li Ming Hao gave her a practical solution. He was slightly disappointed by the fact that although this whole journey was being undertaken to introduce him to the dungeons, the star of the trip had become Chen Chen. This was truly unfair.

Thus, he concocted a plan in his mind. He could just take the girl with him for the sunrise, the two of them alone. Sunrises were romantic to begin with, if she was with him alone, she might look at him once.

Su Xin Yu nodded reluctantly, she was not ready to leave her cousin behind. Despite everything, he was someone who belonged to her tribe and accepted her for who she was. Plus she had a sense of responsibility towards both the guys who were going into danger because of her.

They started walking towards the hill, but Su Xin Yu kept peeking behind.

"He will be alright. Hasn't he gone with you to far more dangerous places before? Why are you so worried now?" Li Ming Hao frowned a bit. This much attention to someone was unusual. She did say they were allowed to marry, did she have feelings for him or something? He himself was much more suitable guy for her, why was she not looking at him? Should he also get some cut or rash?

No, no, his thoughts had strayed to a dangerous territory. Wait, why was he craving for her attention so much to begin with? He already had a fiancée, that weird girl. Don't even know what his dad was thinking but apparently that girl belonged to some influential family. What life was this where he could not make his own decisions? Should he just get some treasure from in here and get rich and get out of that hellhole?

"Yeah, you are correct. We will be back in an hour or so anyway. I do hope your cream works. We also need to find some water source, we have already emptied our bottles in helping him wash that oil," Su Xin Yu looked much more positive now. There were mot things to do as the team leader rather than moping around. This was just a start, she could not be worrying this much at this point. They were going to face more dangers in the coming days, this was truly unlike her.

"Then, let's go, see that sun," Li Ming Hao chirped up too, taking her hand in his, he strutted ahead with a lighter heart.