Chapter 19 Fatty Wakes up

Fatty finally woke up four hours later. We were all anxiously waiting for him while Xiao Hua made all the preparations. But after he woke up, he only lasted ten minutes before he fell asleep again. After that, he woke up two or three more times but was sluggish and unable to communicate at all.

Mute Sister said he was extremely weakened and gave him some protein. In the meantime, we had been studying the picture on his stomach, trying to determine the general direction based on the condition of the old and new wounds. Each turn of these scratches must’ve been a fork, and judging from the complexity of the pattern, the path through the crevices below was far more complicated than we had expected.

I was very impatient since I didn’t know if we were wasting time waiting like this. Fatty had told us to follow the map to save everyone so we should’ve been able to rely on it. Xiao Hua was the calmest among us and believed that we didn’t have any useful information other than this map. There was a lot of danger in going down now and it was possible that not only might we fail to save them, but we would also get trapped down there ourselves.

Pan Zi had reminded me before that I was responsible for everyone’s lives, so I knew Xiao Hua was right. I had been telling myself this the entire time, but no matter how many times I repeated it, all I could think about was my own anxiety.

After another four hours of waiting, Fatty still showed no signs of waking up completely, so Xiao Hua decided to move.

He and Pan Zi would copy the map and take some people down first to see if it was accurate while I waited for Fatty to wake up. This was basically Pan Zi’s original plan.

I told Xiao Hua to be careful. He and Pan Zi were too important to me and I couldn’t play this game alone. He told me that once he realized the dangers we were facing, he wouldn’t take any risks; otherwise, he would have split the team with Pan Zi and gone down separately. The two of them were going down together, so if something happened, one of them could bring us the news while the other one waited for our second team to arrive.

After they left, I went to Fatty’s tent to take care of him. I brought Xiuxiu with me in case Mute Sister challenged me when we were alone.

A whole day had passed since Xiao Hua and the others went down into the crevice and Fatty fully woke up the evening of the next day.

Everything seemed to be going well and there wasn’t any bad news—which barely lessened my anxiety—so when Fatty woke up, I waited patiently for him to recover.

It was the first time I saw someone wake up like that. He opened his eyes first and stared at the top of the tent for ten minutes before he finally moved them. Then, his eyes slowly swept towards us, and after that, he closed them again.

I thought he was going to sleep again and couldn’t help but want to pour cold water on him. I didn’t expect him to open his eyes again and say, “There are men in this dream, so it’s definitely not a dream.”

“Do you feel uncomfortable anywhere?” Mute Sister asked him.

“Yes, but I figured you’d call me a scumbag if I said so… I would like that place massaged,” Fatty said slowly.

Mute Sister looked at me. She had obviously never seen such an unreliable person before, so she turned around and left the tent.

Fatty’s eyes turned again, “Master Three, aren’t you dead? What, am I dead too and you came to pick me up? Damn, that smelly bitch didn’t even come to see me when I died?”

“Cut the crap,” Xiuxiu said. “Can you do it or not? Tell me the situation quickly. We have to go down and save those people.”

When she mentioned this, Fatty’s eyes glazed over and it took him a long time to respond, “Fuck, I almost forgot. How many days have I been out?” Then he seemed to return to his senses and tried to sit up, but he had slept for too long and his muscles were stiff, so he fell back down. Xiuxiu immediately went to pull him up and put some backpacks behind him to lean on.

His eyes were still a little glazed, so Xiuxiu covered his head with a towel and opened the flap of the tent to let the sunshine in and stimulate his nerves.

She gave him a rough idea of how we found him while he looked up at the sky and seemed to be thinking. After a long time, he said, “I was away from that place for twelve days.” He turned his head and said, “Mr. Naïve? I seemed to have heard his voice before.”

“He already went down. You said he should follow the map to save those people. He and Pan Zi have been down there for nearly forty-eight hours,” I said.

After Fatty heard this, he murmured, “How many people went down?”

“Four,” Xiuxiu answered.

Fatty thought for a moment and then said, “In that case, I still have some time. That boy managed to do something right this time. I thought we were all going to die. What’s the matter with you, Master Three? Why did you show up again?”

I gave a quick laugh, “It’s a long story. Tell us what happened to you first.”

Fatty made a gesture of wanting something to drink and Xiuxiu immediately went to make him a cup of coffee. Fatty took a sip and said, “I’ll tell you later. How many more people do you have?”

When I gave him the number, he said, “We have to leave in twelve hours. I’ll lead the way. We may still be able to catch up with them.”

“You want to go back in?”

“The situation there is very special. I’ll tell you about it later. But you should know that there’s basically no danger in following my map. Mr. Naïve should be able to cope with it, but they definitely won’t be able to pass the final hurdle.”

I knew Fatty very well and could tell from his expression that he wasn’t joking. I immediately called to Leather Bag outside the tent and asked him to prepare everything immediately.

Fatty moved his hands and feet but was still a little slow. His face became clearer to see in the sunlight and I noticed it looked very swollen and tired. I asked him if he would like to sleep again, but he shook his head, drank the rest of the coffee, and continued, “I don’t have much time. I have to hurry up and tell you what happened to us.”

When I nodded, he sighed, “Fuck, Master Three. This time was really an eye-opener. I didn’t think there was such a strange place in the world.”

<Chapter 18> <Table of Contents><Chapter 20>

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Updated 1/15/2021