Chapter 16 Mysterious Figure on Fatty’s Stomach

It took us nearly two hours to draw the pattern on Fatty’s belly, which showed how complicated it was.

Mute Sister spent a long time checking him over, but couldn’t figure out what was wrong with him. His physical signs were normal and other than the scratches he had made, he only had some light bruises and cuts. In Pan Zi’s words, it was much more serious for him and his concubine to get out of bed.

But Fatty still didn’t wake up. His eyes were wide open like he had unexpectedly died, but it was useless to hit him since he was unresponsive. It took a lot of effort just to close his eyes.

A lot of people had gathered around, so Mute Sister didn’t say anything else to me. I breathed a sigh of relief, but I already knew that she would corner me sooner or later. And when that happened, I wouldn’t last long at all.

Xiao Hua also knew a little about medicine and discussed some possibilities with her, but they were all rejected. “He’s just like a human vegetable,” she said. “We don’t have the equipment now and can’t test whether he has brain damage. But for now, he seems to be in a vegetative state.”

I looked at the wounds on Fatty’s body and felt my heart swell with emotion.

Judging from the number of bloody marks on his stomach, the passage inside the stone crevice had to be extremely complicated. He couldn’t remember it completely, so he could only use this method of self-harm to record the route.

“Vegetable? What kind? Giant Chinese knotweed?” Leather Bag smiled from where he was standing off to the side. “If you eat it, you’ll die.”

“This is Master Three’s friend. Behave yourself,” Pan Zi said.

“Yo, Master Three. You can dig a friend out of the ground at random. You’re truly Master Three,” Leather Bag said. No sooner had he finished speaking than Pan Zi slapped him to the ground.

I didn’t have the heart to watch Pan Zi teach his men a lesson, so I focused on asking Mute Sister, “Is there any other possibility?”

“The problem now is that there are too many possibilities. He’s now in a deep sleep, which may mean brain injury. But there’s no head trauma, so it may also be caused by asphyxia. The best-case scenario is that he wakes up by himself after a period of time. If he doesn’t wake up, we can only take him out to a big hospital.”

Just then, Fatty suddenly turned over, smacked his lips, scratched his crotch and ass, and murmured, “Little Cui, what are you hiding from?”

Mute Sister froze and looked at me. I didn’t react either, and it took me a long time before I asked, “Do vegetative people behave like this?”

Mute Sister shook her head and suddenly started smiling. She then held her forehead and started laughing. I finally understood what was going on and couldn’t stop myself from laughing, either. I was just about to go up and shake Fatty awake, but Mute Sister stopped me.

“Let him sleep,” she said. “If it’s just the kind of sleep where he couldn’t wake up just now, it means he probably hasn’t slept for a long time.”

Mute Sister stayed to take care of Fatty while Pan Zi and I left the tent and immediately went to find Xiao Hua to discuss some countermeasures. Xiao Hua was in the middle of explaining something to the other people in our group, so I asked him and Pan Zi to come to my tent.

As soon as I entered, I couldn’t hide my emotions anymore and said to them, “We have to go down now!”

“Don’t worry,” Xiao Hua said. “The more we know about this situation, the less urgent it is. We need to analyze everything thoroughly before we can decide what to do.”

“How long will it take?” I asked. “Why don’t we discuss it as we go down?”

Xiao Hua grabbed my shoulder, pointed outside the tent, and whispered, “I know you’re in a hurry, but we also need time to prepare things.”

Pan Zi said, “Little Master Three, we’re going down to save lives. We have to properly prepare. Otherwise, not only won’t we be able to save them, but we may also endanger ourselves.”

I knew what they were saying was right and sat down anxiously, but Xiao Hua pointed outside the tent again, “Let’s go outside to discuss this. With this group of new guys, they’ll feel suspicious if we discuss it by ourselves in the tent.”

I sighed in my heart and followed them out. After nightfall, the strange magic lake in the remote mountains became brighter. The moonlight looked like pale speckles on the surface of the water and we could see the cliff on the opposite side. The sudden brightness had a strange effect where we couldn’t see Qiu Dekao’s team on the other side of the rocky beach.

Xiao Hua called the others over and spread both the Yangshi Lei drawing and the map from Fatty’s stomach out on the tent tarp. As we compared the maps, we found that they had nothing in common. Based on Fatty’s route, we could infer that there was a very complicated system of natural fractures in the rock of this mountain—almost like spider webs—and one of them seemed to lead to the area where Poker-Face was. But Poker-Face and the others had entered from the route marked by the Yangshi Lei drawing. In other words, these gaps in the mountain rock matched up with the Yangshi Lei route.

I didn’t know how Fatty found the right route through so many gaps and forks. Maybe it was his good luck or he had tried them out one by one, but looking for Poker-Face through this gap was obviously the best choice at present.

This meant that I had to enter that confined space again. I had sworn more than once that I would never let myself get into that kind of situation again, but fate had other plans.

“There are several points that must be considered,” Xiao Hua said. “For example, how many days was Fatty trapped in that gap? It seems like he may have been trapped for several days. Maybe the others were still alive when he had first been trapped, but now they could be dead. He was delirious when he was first rescued and asked us to save them, but it may be too late.”

“If Fatty doesn’t wake up and explain the situation, our planning is meaningless,” I said.

“Correct. Besides, we have to plan everything as if the people below are still alive,” Pan Zi said. “Whether he wakes up or not, we still have to go down. Life requires seeing people, death requires seeing corpses.”

I thought of Poker-Face’s ancient sword and became upset, “But we can’t wait indefinitely. We have to prepare now. I’ll wake him up in five hours and we’ll set off as soon as I hear what he has to say. If I can’t wake him, we’ll still set off.”

Pan Zi and Xiao Hua glanced at each other, apparently feeling a little hesitant. “We can’t waste the information Fatty brought us,” I said.

Pan Zi lit a cigarette and nodded before saying to our gathered companions, “Alright, listen to Master Three. Go prepare separately and be ready in five hours.”

The kids were excited and nodded immediately. Xiao Hua went with them, but Pan Zi stayed behind and gave me another look as if he had something to say.

“What’s the matter?” I asked him.

Pan Zi said softly, “Little Master Three, these children have led hard lives. When we think about things, we should leave some room for them. They’re not cannon fodder. They’re also human beings.”

When I looked at Pan Zi, I suddenly had a strange feeling in my heart and couldn’t react for a while. Pan Zi handed me a cigarette, “In five hours, Master Hua and I will take half of the people down. Xiuxiu and Leather Bag will stay up here. If something happens to us, there will at least be another chance.”

I nodded and immediately turned to go pack my equipment, but Pan Zi unexpectedly grabbed me, “Wait, you can’t go down.”

“Why?” I suddenly became anxious. “I’d rather go down than wait up here. Otherwise, I’ll go down with you, and Xiao Hua can stay up top.”

“There’s no other way. This is a necessary measure.” Pan Zi pointed to my face. “You are Master Three right now. If you’re here, there’s still hope. If something happens to you, it’s really over. If all three of us are dead, who here will care about us?”

I paused, realizing that what he was saying was very reasonable.

Pan Zi leaned in and whispered, “Little Master Three, since you’ve chosen this path, you should tread it well.” He lit the cigarette for me and then stood up and shouted to the others, “Master Three said to hurry up and don’t dawdle. Don’t you want to get rich? If you’re not ready in five hours, just stay here and starve!”

<Chapter 15> <Table of Contents><Chapter 17>

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Updated 1/11/2021