The Mystic Nine (5) Black Back the Sixth (Part 2)

(There are many crazy people, but how many of them can really take every step as firm as a rock? Look at Black Back the Sixth.)

In Hu’erling, Changsha, a group of more than thirty people were walking alongside an ox cart on the mountain road to Yunnan.

Torches dotted the road like starlight, and a heavy snow fell from the sky. No one knew how many years it had been since such a heavy snow had fallen in Changsha. The whole road was covered in a layer of it that reached as high as their boots. The snow floated down from the sky like cotton. At the rate it was falling, it would definitely reach their knees by tomorrow.

A lot of women could vaguely be seen on the cart. The thirty or so people escorting it were all dressed as farmers, but it was clear to see that they were all carrying knives and guns. The leader was Lao Qi, one of the more competent traffickers in Changsha. He sat alone on the ox cart’s frame, looking at the women behind him and thinking about things.

His cousin, Hu Ba, had just recently entered the business with him and was walking beside him. This was the first time he had gone on such a trip, so he was very curious and kept asking a lot of questions along the way. Lao Qi also wanted to teach him something because he kept feeling like things were going to get bad—was the country going to change or something? He had experienced many wars before, but the situation right now wasn’t quite right. It was best not to do too much at this time. Instead, it was safest to find a woman and stay in bed every day.

As a result, Lao Qi wanted his cousin to learn more from him so he could travel in his place. He was his kin, after all, and easy to control and to talk to. But this line of work wasn’t doing very well recently. It made him angry whenever he thought of it. He used to be able to take a batch of women and sell four or five of them to last him half a year. But now women were becoming fucking clever, and he didn’t dare sell anyone who was too beautiful. If an official took a fancy to them, he’d be the one facing the consequences.

Now, he was stuck with the stupid old women who owed a lot of money. If it weren’t for the foreigners tossing them a line now, these women really wouldn’t know who to turn to.

“How much are these women worth?” Hu Ba asked as he walked. “They’re all old and ugly. They’re past their prime and all dried out, so can they really receive any patrons? Who the hell would choose these kinds of goods? You can’t even find this kind of stuff in the remote areas right now.”

“Who said they’re going to be prostitutes? Have you ever seen such a prostitute sold like this? Prostitutes are at their peak value the first time, but once they’re sold, they lose their value. Who would engage in this kind of unprofitable business? Those who have money all go to the countryside and collect some young girls. With the war going on, they’re not all that expensive.” Lao Qi took a few puffs of his cigarette, revealing the few yellow teeth he had left. He poked his tongue out between the gap in his teeth, and then whipped the ox as he tried to decide what he wanted to eat tonight.

“Where are we sending them?” Hu Ba asked.

“To the South Sea to work as laborers. Just because they can’t serve men anymore doesn’t mean they can’t work for another thirty years.”

“These women used to separate their legs to make money. Can they even do hard labor?”

“When they get there, they can’t not do it.” Lao Qi coughed a few times and spit out a mouthful of phlegm. A few of the nearby escorts looked at him, thinking he was going to speak. They were all from Vietnam, so there was a language barrier even though a lot of money had been spent to hire them to escort the cart. It made things a bit difficult, but he waved them to continue walking.

The mountain road ahead was getting more and more rugged as it led all the way to the sea. There was a small boat that would shuttle everyone to a big ship anchored out at sea, but they weren’t there yet. It took more than ten days to walk from here to the beach, and he felt bored whenever he thought of it.

He took a few more puffs, threw his cigarette down with a sigh, and suddenly remembered that Hu Ba hadn’t taken a wife yet. “By the way,” he said, “why don’t you pick one to relieve the fire first? Although they’re a little old, you can still pick out a few if you want to. It’s getting dark so you won’t have to see them clearly.”

“The boss won’t care?” Hu Ba asked enthusiastically.

“Just don’t kill them. Don’t strangle the goods like that idiot before. The boss obviously wouldn’t let him go after something like that. These people are used to playing with men and being handled very roughly, so if you don’t put in some effort, they probably won’t get off.” With that said, Lao Qi laughed. Hu ba looked at the women in the cart behind him and also laughed.

Aunt Bai was in the ox cart and could hear the whole conversation clearly. She sighed. She had heard such foul language so much that she thought she didn’t care anymore. But that was when she was listening to it in the teahouse. Listening to it from the back of an ox cart was a whole different story.

Some of the women started crying as they listened, and Lao Qi patted the side of the cart and shouted, “Why are you crying? It’s a little too late for that! You’ll attract the fucking ghosts! Now you listen to me. You can’t blame anyone but yourselves for your bad lot in life. I’ll tell you a little something: if you get on the foreigners’ boat and don’t want to suffer, it’s better to jump into the sea. Death ends all troubles. It’s better than being a slave in the South Sea. They’re treated worse than pigs.”

The women were so scared, they cried even more. In the heavy snow, this line of people really did look like a ghostly procession in the wilderness.

Aunt Bai felt sad when she heard this. She was shivering in the corner, but she didn’t know whether it was because she was freezing or scared.

She knew that everyone in this cart had their own sad story, but she had really asked for it if she had gotten to this point. She had been unwilling when she took the first step, but as she went down step by step, it was like she was possessed. In fact, there had been a few really good people who liked her. They didn’t care about her origins, and even wanted to redeem her. But she was choosy and picked others instead. She always dreamed of finding a champion who would redeem her, so that she could fly to the branches and become a phoenix.

She owed those ingrates so much money by this point that she should’ve expected it. She didn’t know what kind of suffering was awaiting her when she arrived in the South Sea. Maybe she should die halfway and end it all.

She was really desperate this time. This was completely different from all the difficulties she had faced before. With those, she would worry, panic, and curse, but she knew there was still a way out. But this time, she felt cold from the inside out. Except for the regret, she had completely given up.

Just as Aunt Bai fell into despair, she suddenly heard the Vietnamese people in front whistle a few times. As everyone became alert, they heard Lao Qi scold, “What’s going on? We haven’t even left the province yet, but somebody’s causing trouble?”

As Lao Qi was scolding, he pulled out his gun. He was upset at first, but now he was interested in seeing who had decided to try their luck. Lao Qi had just jumped off the ox cart and taken a few steps when he saw an unkempt man with a knife in his hand standing under the torchlight in front of him.

Lao Qi looked at the man’s familiar appearance and felt his scalp go numb. Not good, he said to himself, why is the plague god here? But as soon as he went to speak, Hu Ba took it upon himself to shout to the Vietnamese, “Kill the beggar!”

Lao Qi’s mind buzzed, and his heart stopped.

Aunt Bai listened to the noise in front of the cart, and quickly covered her ears in fright when the sounds of gunshots and knives rang out. But after some time had passed, there wasn’t any sound besides the heartbeats of the women holding their breath in the cart and the sound of snow falling on the ground.

Then, she heard the sound of someone walking on the snow. She saw Black Back walk up to the cart with a torch in hand, cut off the lock with his knife, and stick his head in.

As the cold wind blew into the cart, everyone immediately broke out in goosebumps. Black Back stuck the torch into the cart and looked around. When he saw Aunt Bai, his snow-covered face broke out in a smile: “So this is where you were.”

Aunt Bai nodded her head. Black Back put his knife into its sheath and stretched out his dark, grimy hand, “Let’s go home.”

Aunt Bai nodded again. Under the gazes of all those people, she was pulled out of the cart, only to find that her shoes weren’t suitable for walking in the snow at all. They got wet as soon as they touched the snow.

She was about to grit her teeth and take a few steps when she suddenly found herself lifted into the air and put on Black Back’s back as if she weighed nothing at all.

Amid the heavy snow falling like goose feathers from the sky, she found that his back was scalding hot. As he advanced step by step through the snow, the woman on his back suddenly put her arms around him tightly and leaned her head against the back of his neck. Black Back didn’t hesitate and didn’t stop, but continued to walk. Every step was as firm as a rock.

It was as if they were the only two people between heaven and earth.

<The Mystic Nine (4) Xie-Wu Matchmaking><Table of Contents><The Mystic Nine (6) Er Yuehong>

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Woah, now that’s a man lol (discounting the whole crazy/opium addict thing he’s got going on)