Chapter 63 Rescued Again

I don’t know how we got back to Banai, but Qiu Dekao’s team rescued us after we returned to the lake. Several people were rescued separately, and I was put on a respirator.

Not only was my exhaustion beyond my body’s endurance, but they gave me so many sedatives that almost all of my masseter muscles (1) were numb. After a long period of lung lavage (2) and treatment to neutralize the poisonous alkaline gas, they mixed a gas into the oxygen I was hooked up to. I inhaled it as if it were vinegar. 

I finally fell asleep that night and slept for more than ten hours before I woke up from the pain of acupuncture. When I found that Qiu Dekao’s team was sending us out of the mountain, I immediately remembered what had happened to Xiao Hua and told them about it. They promised to send someone to look for him.

I don’t have much memory of the scattered treatment afterwards. There was no denying the fact that the ecstasy of escaping the Zhang family’s ancient building had diluted the sadness of Pan Zi’s death. But when I recovered and thought of Pan Zi, I still felt that it couldn’t be real.

Xiao Hua was found the next day. Qiu Dekao’s people got in touch with the Xie family, who took him away immediately. I didn’t see Xiuxiu, but Granny Huo’s head was missing. I didn’t know what the specific situation was, but people said that Xiuxiu had a complete breakdown.

I didn’t know what Fatty said to them, but the problem this time was that so many of us had gone in, but only Granny Huo’s head and Poker-Face had come out. But because of this matter, the Huo and Xie families’ reconciliation had developed smoothly. I figured there would certainly be many people who hated me, but I didn’t have any energy to think about it at the moment.

The local people also brought us a lot of herbs, which seemed to have some effect after we ate them.

About five days later, I was able to get out of bed and walk around. But when I was out in the sun, I suddenly saw a scene that surprised me— Poker-Face was all dressed up.

“What’s he doing?” I asked the person next to me.

“He’s leaving.”

Leaving? Leaving where?

I was startled and couldn’t help thinking to myself, it wasn’t easy to save you. Where are you going?

“Help me over,” I said to the guy standing next to me. He lifted me up and brought me over to Poker-Face. “What are you doing?” I asked him.

Poker-Face looked at me and said indifferently, “There’s no time. It’s the end.”

“What the hell do you mean?” I asked.

“I’m going to finish the last step of this thing,” Poker-Face said. “I don’t have time.” He then packed his things and put them into his backpack.

I looked at the man beside me, “You’re just going to let him go? As a doctor, you can’t let the patient leave so quickly. Where’s your boss? This guy knows a lot of things. Tell your boss to tie him up and torture him!”

“He’s fine. His health is much better than yours,” the person beside me said. “Moreover, our boss has—”

I looked at him and he sighed, “He’s getting old, after all. And time is running out.”

“Qiu Dekao already got what he wanted.” Poker-Face tightened the straps on his backpack. “He can finally leave quietly.”

“What did he want?” I asked.

“Two rings,” Poker-Face said. “People not only seek immortality sometimes but also death.”

I didn’t understand, and it wasn’t like Poker-Face wanted to explain, so I yelled, “Fatty, where the hell are you?! Little Brother wants to run!”

“It’s no use. He’s already been here once and come to a compromise,” the man beside me said.

“I can only go by myself on the road ahead. There’s no way you can go with me. It’s too dangerous and it has nothing to do with you.” Poker-Face picked up his backpack and headed outside.

This was the result?

I froze, an unknown rage rising up as all of the expectations and worries in my heart suddenly disappeared. I turned around and shook my head, Bastard. Do whatever you like.

I walked back just in time to see Fatty coming out of the house. I figured he had heard me yelling just now. He could probably tell what had happened just by looking at my appearance and the silent Poker-Face beside me.

When I walked up to him, he patted me and said, “A twisted melon isn’t sweet. How to say it… we’re outsiders. We have no right to force Little Brother to live the way we want.”

“How can we be outsiders?” I asked. “If we’re considered outsiders, then who’s an insider? Do I have to lie down and die in there to be an insider?”

“Your situation isn’t necessarily Little Brother’s situation,” Fatty said.

I looked at his expression. It seemed like he didn’t feel any disappointment at all. “Did he say anything to you?” I eventually asked.

Fatty shook his head and said, “If he didn’t say anything to you, why would he say anything to me? But we know Little Brother. He has his reasons once he’s made a decision. This reason is beyond our reach and there’s nothing we can do to stop him.”

I sighed. The two of us sat in the building’s corridor and watched Poker-Face move further and further away from us. 

As my heart slowly calmed down, I couldn’t help but ask, “Will he come back?”

“Did you ever worry when he suddenly disappeared before?” Fatty countered.

I shook my head, “During those times, we just happened to notice that he was gone so there wasn’t much of a difference. But this is the first time he’s refused our help. I think things are different.”

“It’s not different,” Fatty said. “Just act like you didn’t see him leave.”

I turned and asked him, “What are your plans?”

Fatty tsked, “I have a lot of plans. Maybe I’ll go back to Beijing and live a safe and stable life. I don’t know if the Crescent Hotel affair has been settled, though. If I can’t go back, I’d like to stay here and see my little wife. Anyway, the scenery here is good, the air is good, and the girl is beautiful. With my little savings, I can be a big uncle here for many years. How about you?”

I was silent. I didn’t know, but I felt as if once I stopped searching for the answers to these mysteries, my life would be meaningless.

In fact, my life really was meaningless. I sat there in a daze, thinking about the utilities next month and then about the meaning of my life. I smiled bitterly. I had nothing to say when my life was like this.

“I don’t know. I have to think about it,” I said to Fatty. “But not until this is all over. I’ve probably learned some things about these mysteries and can speculate on others. I think this matter will soon have a result. I’ll wait until things calm down and see what the reefs that finally emerge from the water will look like.”

I was telling the truth. I had a hunch that this matter was almost over.

Fatty patted me. “Anyway, you’d better change your face first.”

I touched my mask, thought of Pan Zi again, and felt all of my worries sink in, “I don’t care anymore. This face is still useful in the end.”

After talking with Fatty, I went back to my room, thinking that this was the end. I couldn’t remember the whole process of escaping the Zhang family’s ancient building, but I felt that everything should have calmed down like it usually did at this step.

But I was wrong, because another thing happened not long after that. Although this matter has nothing to do with the development of the story, I still have to write it down.

On the third day after Poker-Face left, Yun Cai died.

At that time, I vaguely heard a commotion outside. When I got up to see what was going on, I heard someone say that a girl was dead.

I didn’t realize that it was Yun Cai at all. I already felt that no one else would die since everything had been so stable under these circumstances. We were all out, but people were still dying.

After she died, they found her body in the stream. She had been shot, the bullet passing right through her lungs. At that time, she certainly hadn’t died immediately, but fled to the stream and was washed away.

All the villagers believed that Qiu Dekao’s people did it, which created a fierce conflict. I didn’t really react, though. There had been so much sadness that I simply stared at the pale body expressionlessly.

I knew who did it. It was Ghost, the man with the collapsed shoulders. I suddenly remembered the figure I saw on the second floor of Agui’s house.

Ghost had been watching us from the beginning, so who had opened the door on the second floor for him?

I couldn’t ask Agui at this time, but I knew that apart from Father Pan Ma, Ghost and Agui must’ve had other contacts. Agui probably didn’t know who he was, but he must’ve had interactions with him.

Maybe Yun Cai was the person Agui sent to connect with Ghost. Maybe she hadn’t really been that interested in us, but pretended to be naive and mingle with us so as to spy for him.

And now, Ghost had to erase a lot of things. Yun Cai obviously knew too much so she was taken care of. I bet if I went to that cave again, I definitely wouldn’t see him again.

But it didn’t make sense to me. Why would anyone want to snuff out such a lovely life?

When Fatty pushed the crowd away, I chose to withdraw. I had no strength to face the grief of my companions. I heard a wail resounding through the valley and knew it belonged to Fatty, “Who? Who did it?” He was so carried away by this sudden incident that he didn’t think what I had thought. I found an inconspicuous corner and sat down, feeling very tired.

<Chapter 62> <Table of Contents><Chapter 64>

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TN Notes:

(1) Primary chewing muscles around your jaw.

(2) Procedure that uses saline solution to “wash out” the lungs

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Updated 6/13/2021