Chapter 19 Just One Smoke

Poker-Face and I took off almost at the same time and tackled him to the ground, which was covered in very sharp rocks. We had pressed Fatty down so suddenly that he probably ended up with a lot of cuts. But Poker-Face and I had come to the same determination— it was useless to leave here now.

Fatty’s whole face was covered in blood and he was irritated now that we had injured him. As we started dragging him back, he cursed at us, “Was it really necessary for the two of you to fucking gang up on me at the same time?”

I bandaged him to stop the bleeding and said, “Old Jin is different from you. Do you want to increase the opponent’s bargaining chip?”

“Mr. Naïve, are you giving up on Old Jin?” Fatty looked at me in shock. “I can’t give up on him. He still fucking owes me sixty thousand yuan!”

Jin Wantang had lost sixty thousand yuan playing mahjong one night and never transferred the money. Although we were just playing for fun, Fatty still felt highly aggrieved over it.

I sighed heavily. If Jin Wantang knew that he was finally saved because of his shamelessness, it would be even harder to cooperate with him in the future. I looked at my watch and then patted Fatty, “Since last night, I’m not your Mr. Naïve anymore. I’ll find a way, so don’t be impulsive. We’ll have to push ourselves to the limit this time.”

As I spoke, I looked at Poker-Face. During those long, painful years, there were many times where I thought about how much trouble could’ve been saved if only I had been able to complete those plans with him. Maybe I wouldn’t have needed so many expendable worker ants to carry out the minute details.

Thank God, now I can realize my dream.

At this time, I pulled a cigarette out of Fatty’s pocket. He looked at me in surprise but I just stood up, looked at the darkness in the distance, and covered the lighter with my hand to light the cigarette. Although I knew it might kill me, it was so damn comforting when the smoke filled my lungs.

I hadn’t smoked for a long time, so the nicotine quickly rushed to my head. If I didn’t have this thing, I really wouldn’t be able to pull my thoughts back from that time.

“Just one.” Fatty calmed down and laughed when he saw me smoking. “Little Brother can testify that Mr. Naïve is only allowed to smoke one during this extraordinary period.”

I turned back with a smile on my face and glanced at Poker-Face. He threw me the satellite phone and then looked into the darkness, very focused.

What should I do? Was there really no way to prevent Jin Wantang from drawing his last breath here? I inhaled a mouthful of smoke and slowly released it, feeling a little more clarity now. “Are you still alive?” I asked Jin Wantang.

“There’s still a little breath left in me, Little Master Three. That sixty thousand yuan…I’ll pay it as soon as I get out of here. I’ll even add fifty percent interest. Ouch!” He hissed in pain, “I’ve spit up a lot of blood.”

His voice was clear, but it was already very weak.

“What part of your body is stuck?”

“My legs and a lot of my ribs are broken. I can’t use any strength.”

“That’s because your ribs pierced your lungs, but it’s not deep. You won’t die as long as you don’t cause your lungs to collapse.”

“How do I prevent that from happening?”

“Can you find a gap to stick your hand out of?” I asked him, completely ignoring his inquiry as I beckoned Fatty and Poker-Face over.

“I’ll try,” he said. “I, I can’t see a gap.”

Fatty took out a signal flare as I spoke into the satellite phone, “In a few seconds, a light will shoot down from the gap. You have to hold out your hand so that we can correctly determine your location.”

“What are you planning?” Fatty asked me.

I took a pair of binoculars out of my backpack and asked Fatty, “Do you know Hooke’s Law?”

“I know Hook and Vegeta. They’re two mice.”

“That’s Shuke and Beita,”⁽¹⁾ I said. “You only need to know the basics of Hooke’s Law. As long as you conform to the laws of physics, you can drill holes in solid materials in order to quickly reduce their load-bearing capacity. The rocks here can be destroyed using Hooke’s law. Let’s take a closer look at those rocks holding him down and find a weak one so that we can perforate it and destroy it in order to free his feet.”

“How are we supposed to make a hole? Do you have a hundred-meter drill bit with you?”

I looked at Fatty’s gun, took a puff of my cigarette, and looked at my hand that was holding the cigarette. This gun probably had a range of more than a hundred meters, so the question was: could I keep my hand steady or not?

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

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TN Notes:

(1) The characters sound the same. Hook (虎克) sounds like Huke, which sounds like Shuke (舒克). Vegeta (贝吉塔) sounds like Beijita, which sounds like Beita (贝塔). Shuke and Beita are two mice from the popular Chinese children’s tale “The Adventures of Shuke and Beita”. They don’t want to steal food like the others, so the two friends co-found the Shuke & Beita Airlines to help other animals.