TL: Milaryn
Edit: IlkonEbi
I think… We can escape…
Zhang Yahan said this after they securely tied the hands and legs of the triangular-eyed man who was groaning in pain. As to Jiaming, using the excuse of taking along the other tent, he actually went to retrieve the gun that was lying by the scarred man. The wailing and cursing of the scarred man could still be heard, even under the violent rainstorm.
Before setting up the camp, Jiaming had taken a good look at their surroundings. There was a grassy slope next to the tents, however because it was raining so heavily, the rain going downhill had gathered and became a small stream. Also, from the sound of it, it seemed that when the scarred man got shot, he rolled down the hill and was currently lying in a puddle. However, the shot should have only hit his right hand and not his leg… did he need to shoot him again?
He turned to look at the dim light in the tent nearby, then cocked the gun and took off the safety. After a moment, he lowered it and decided against it. He did not want to cause more issues to arise…
It was a bit difficult for Jiaming to carry the disassembled tent over. He now had three bags – two were originally theirs, while one belonged to the two bandits; the money, the biscuits, bacon and other edibles were in that bag. When he returned to Lingjing, the tied up triangular-eyed man looked extremely miserable and was still wailing in pain. Lingjing was scared and could only hide behind Zhang Yahan. Jiaming raised the pistol and loudly shouted,
Stop crying!
It seemed that Jiaming was not enough of a deterrent as the triangular-eyed man continued keening. Zhang Yehan did a double-take at him,
You, you picked up that man’s gun?
Mmhmm
–Jiaming’s hands trembled slightly–
I told you to stop wailing, did you not hear me?
The hoodlum on the floor paid him no heed and continued howling in pain, Zhang Yahan carefully reach out a hand,
Come, give me the gun… It should not be used like that, the safety is still off…
Safety? Where?
There…
Where? Is it here…
Ah, no, please be care–…
Bang
After the gunshot, the world quieted down.
The three of them unconsciously shrunk back as smoke rose out of the gun barrel. The bullet barely passed by the triangular-eyed man’s neck and embedded itself into the ground. The previously bawling man stiffened, his mouth slack but no sound coming out. After a long pause, Jiaming sheepishly said,
Um… that was an accident…
Um, haha, don’t worry about it… Come, just give me the gun already…
Yahan took the gun from Jiaming and then hurriedly clicked the safety back on before letting out a sigh of relief. This kid was really too strange, any gun that landed in his hand would misfire.
Now that the two guns were in her hands, she felt accomplished and abandoned the idea of leaving. After making sure that the triangular-eyed man was tied up securely, she and Jiaming took the flashlight and carefully went to search for the heavily injured scarred man down the hill.
She was holding the gun while the triangular-eyed man’s dagger was given to Jiaming. Weak cries could be heard from the bottom of the grassy slope. They followed the small stream caused by the rainstorm and, as they went near, the scarred man’s cries suddenly disappeared. By her side, Jiaming suddenly turned off the flashlight,
You should be careful, he’s still holding a knife!
Under the violent storm, the rain fell unceasingly so sounds could not be heard clearly. Her sight was also somewhat obscured,
Sorry, what? You…
she did not finish her sentence when Jiaming suddenly rushed out into the darkness and pushed her to one side. When she turned her body around, the tall dagger-wielding man brushed by her, if Jiaming had not pushed her, she would have likely been stabbed by the blade.
The flashlight dropped to the ground and everything was plunged into darkness. Yahan’s body also fell into the stream and she started panicking as large quantities of water surged into her nose and mouth. The stream was actually not that deep, but she was unable to swim. Because she was panicking, she struggled to coordinate her limbs properly and inhaled even more water. Everything was chaotic in the darkness.
After an unknown amount of time, someone pulled her out from the water and she lay on her back on the meadow. The rain was still pouring down without any intention of stopping. Two fists heavily hit down on her lower abdomen and she suddenly spat out a few mouthfuls of water.
Are you ok?
The flashlight was turned on and Jiaming’s face appeared in front of her. Winded, she struggled to get up as she tried to listen for the scarred man’s whereabouts,
You… why did you hit me? Where is he?
I was scared you were going to drown so… if that didn’t work, I would have used mouth-to-mouth resuscitation that the teacher taught. He…
Jiaming responded slowly, when Yahan heard the words ‘mouth-to-mouth resuscitation’, she unconsciously touched her lips then looked as Jiaming waved his hand in the direction behind him and said,
It wasn’t my fault, he rushed up here himself. I… I hacked down with the dagger a few times, but then it disappeared, so I wanted to take the gun…
Yahan suddenly looked up in shock, when she fell into the water, she dropped both the flashlight and the gun. They both rushed to looked for it and thankfully the gun was found quickly. She unlatched the safety and then went with Jiaming towards where the scarred man was.
Under the beam of the flashlight, they saw the scarred man lying under a large tree. He had a gunshot wound on his right hand, his left arm had a slash so deep that the bone could be seen; there was another slash wound on his calf and the blade of Jiaming’s dagger, sans the handle, was buried in the man’s buttocks.
‘Hacked a few times…’
Yahan bewilderedly looked at Jiaming who was also wearing a dumbstruck expression, then looked towards the pool of blood and the unfortunate scarred man… This child was really too ridiculous, he was like the reincarnation of the legendary god of destruction and she was lucky he was on their side…
Being so heavily wounded, it looked like the scarred man was no longer able to resist them, so the two of them dragged him up the grassy slope and tied him up. Once he was secure, they took out bandages and helped him staunch the blood to prevent him from dying of blood loss.
The originally taken down tent was reassembled and they dragged the scarred man into it as Lingjing stood guard. As to the less-injured triangular-eyed man, they tied him to a tree and let the rain drench him. It was only around midnight and Jiaming and Yahan were both already soaked to the bone after dealing with the situation. Returning inside the tent, after hesitating for a bit, Jiaming took off his shirt and pants. Yahan turned off the flashlight and also took off her clothing and hung it up in the tent. The three of them gathered together to keep warm and then fell asleep.
In the morning, it was still raining. When Yahan woke up and looked over, the tent door was ajar and Jiaming was fully clothed, sitting on the side and eating some food while observing the rain. When she looked down at herself, she blushed because she was only wearing a bra, panties and her pair of hiking shoes. When that little boy had woken up, he would have seen her body… she hurried to put on the half-dried clothing so she would feel less embarrassed…
Yahan ate some of the biscuits, then took the gun with her and went to check on the two bandits. Having been rained on for the whole night, the triangular-eyed man was slumped against the tree and looked half-dead. However, she did not dare to put the two bandits together in the tent – if a child could free himself from the ropes, she was not confident that she had tied the ropes securely enough.
As to the scarred man inside the tent, he was wounded everywhere and even if he managed to loosen the ropes, he would not be able to escape. However when she looked at all the wounds, she felt slightly suspicious and thought, ‘Wasn’t all of this too much of a coincidence…’
When the two children had been tied up, she saw that the ropes were done very tightly and she was unable to escape from them no matter what she did. So how was the boy able to do so?
Also when she wanted to steal the dagger, he had somehow managed to pick up the pistol first…
When the scarred man had heard the commotion, this child misfired and somehow hit the scarred man’s right hand…
The triangular-eyed man had lunged at her, but somehow mysteriously slipped and ended up stabbing his thigh with the dagger…
As to the scarred man’s sneak attack, he had pushed her away and when she fell into the water, she thought she heard something… apart from the rain, there was only the scarred man’s pitiful wailing. Was it possible that it was just her imagination? But the slashes on the scarred man were just too coincidental…
‘Was this all planned out by the boy… But how is it possible, he is just a kid…’
Squatting down in front of the scarred man, Yahan’s face filled with suspicion, but after consideration, she shook her head and decided that it was probably just her thinking too much.
When she returned to the other tent, the two children were sitting next to each other and whispering. She sat in deep thought for a bit, but unable to hold back her suspicion, she finally asked,
Gu Jiaming, why did you tell them about my family background yesterday? Did you know that…
Uh,
Jiaming was startled and said,
I-I didn’t know… I was only rambling… I’m sorry…
Lingjing piped up,
Yeah, Jiaming didn’t mean to. Elder sis Yahan, please don’t blame him.
Yahan only nodded, originally she wanted to say
I was nearly dishonored because of that
. However she did not say it as she was suddenly stunned by the thought, ‘Wasn’t it because he said it that’s why they didn’t do anything to her? This kid, did he actually anticipate that…’
After a brief pause, she finally shook her head.
She saw the child’s expression stiffen and looked around in alert. Suddenly, a strange sound could be heard through the rain. Yahan rushed out of the tent and looked up into the sky. Further in the distance, a helicopter was cutting through the rain and it looked like someone was waving at her from the helicopter.
Thank you for all the votes on my fledgling novel! sniffs I also read every comment and try my best to respond to them, I’m sorry if I missed any >_<
