Chapter 776: Chapter 775: Escape (Part 2) Chapter 776: Chapter 775: Escape (Part 2) “`
Fearing death, Chen Shi stayed put, clutching the wrapped package as he sat by the fire, waiting for Xia Mushi to return.
As time gradually slipped by and the light dimmed, Chen Shi silently took out the knife from the package and held it in his hand, blade facing outward, his face alert as he watched his surroundings.
The fire beside him was warm and bright, its heat making the vast forest around him all the more silent and dark. The occasional flutter of a bird would startle him, yet his grip on the knife remained firm.
Jiang Feng noticed that the knife was the same one he had seen at Fen Garden, rust-covered. Now, the knife was rust-free, with only bloodstains that hadn’t been wiped clean, looking particularly sharp and bloody in the firelight.
Finally, Xia Mushi returned.
With a water jug in hand and nothing else.
“Is the water source far? Why did you take so long?” Chen Shi asked eagerly.
“Not too far. I went around to see if there were any edible fruits.” The result was obvious; Xia Mushi came back empty-handed, not bringing anything with him.
Chen Shi couldn’t help feeling a bit disappointed, and he gave up the warmest and best seat by the fire to Xia Mushi, then sat down on another, less even spot.
“I also looked around here, but I found nothing edible.”
“It’s fine, we won’t die from a few days without food, as long as we have water,” Xia Mushi was not concerned about the lack of food, handing the water jug to Chen Shi for a drink, “We just need to make it out of here in the next couple of days.”
Chen Shi took the water jug and guzzled down more than half of it in one go before stopping. He put down the bottle and carefully wiped the mud off the jug with a very dirty cotton coat, treasuring and gingerly handling this iron water jug as if it were a precious object.
“This water jug must be worth a lot,” Chen Shi opened his cloth bag and restowed the jug inside it.
Xia Mushi added a couple of logs to the fire and poked around to let air in, making the flames burn brighter: “The two strands of beads in your bag are valuable.”
“Brother Xia, you’re not fooling me, right? Are these beads really as valuable as you say? Can I really buy a few acres of land in our village with them?” Chen Shi clung tightly to the cloth bag in his arms, “I took your advice and didn’t take the gold, I only took these two strands of beads.”
“Yes,” Xia Mushi responded curtly.
More than the value of the jewels in the bag, what Xia Mushi was concerned about was whether they could smoothly make it back to Beiping after getting out: “Are you sure we can get to Xingcheng by crossing through this forest?”
Chen Shi nodded: “Absolutely, I came along this road when I came here. Let me tell you, Xingcheng is huge and prosperous, full of foreigners, with good inns, ships, docks, casinos, brothels, and girls who look like goddesses.”
“My home is just on the outskirts of Xingcheng, but we need to be careful when we get there. There are bandits around; the main road gets you robbed, and the small roads too. With good luck, you lose only your money, with bad luck, your life as well.”
Xia Mushi glanced at Chen Shi with a half-smile, his lips curving slightly upwards: “You’re afraid of bandits?”
Chen Shi knew Xia Mushi was referring to his daring deeds of killing his superior, escaping, and robbing, so how could he be scared of bandits? He explained, “The bandits there are ferocious, brutal, each one with the blood of many, even dozens, on their hands, and they have guns. Even seasoned soldiers may not have killed that many.”
“How many have you killed?” Xia Mushi asked casually, as if discussing a topic that didn’t align with the socialist core values.
“I don’t know, maybe two, or three, or maybe none at all,” Chen Shi said, “You may not realize this, but I’ve only been on the front three or four times, though that’s quite a few times already.”
“Have you ever been on a battlefield before?” Chen Shi asked curiously.
Xia Mushi shook his head.
“Then how come you’re so skilled?” Chen Shi gestured a slicing motion across his neck, “This morning really scared me, I thought we were done for, but then with one cut, you just…”
“It’s no different from slaughtering pigs or chickens.”
Chen Shi suddenly realized, “So you’re a butcher, no wonder you’re so strong.”
Xia Mushi: …
“But it’s good that you haven’t fought in a war. You don’t know how terrifying it is on the battlefield. People everywhere, slashing around with knives… Many wet themselves on their first encounter and start running around, and those who run to the front get hacked to death, probably not even realizing how they died,” Chen Shi said, “And it’s usually friendly fire. Can you imagine what this world has come to? Beiping has fallen, and instead of fighting to reclaim it, we’re killing our own here.”
While poking at the fire, not lifting his head, Xia Mushi asked, “If we were going to fight near Beiping, would you still run away?”
“I’d run, of course,” Chen Shi affirmed, “If I didn’t end up crippled or ruined, there’s no way I would go back. If I became disabled, I’d be as good as dead. Why go back only to be a burden to my family?”
“They hoodwinked me into joining in the first place. At first, they promised food and a monthly allowance, and without telling me it was about being a soldier and fighting, I ended up here cluelessly. Now there’s only food and hardly any sight of money, with the risk of losing my life too. My parents are still waiting for me to return home, marry, and have sons. I can’t afford to lose my life here.”
Xia Mushi smiled and remained silent.
“Right, Brother Xia, you’re so eager to return to Beiping, is it because your parents are there, waiting for you to come back and get married? I’m telling you, I’ve figured it out—everywhere there’s war is dangerous, especially in the north. After you get back to Beiping, you should quickly get your parents out of there. The south is still a bit safer,” Chen Shi advised.
Xia Mushi paid him no mind and closed his eyes to sleep.
A few minutes later, Xia Mushi suddenly opened his eyes: “I’ll sleep first. If you get too tired to hold on, wake me up and I’ll take over the night watch.”
“Okay.” Chen Shi obediently guarded the night, clutching the parcel.
The night passed without incident.
Xia Mushi slept for the first half of the night, and Chen Shi for the second half. Neither of them really slept well. They only did so out of necessity, to be able to continue their journey the next day.
Jiang Feng stayed quiet and vigilant by the campfire all night. Not to mention wolves or leopards, even a small creature like a rabbit did not approach. The woods were eerily silent.
But, in a way, this silence also brought some peace of mind.
As soon as daylight broke, Xia Mushi first put out the fire, then went to the river to fetch water. Only after filling a kettle did he wake Chen Shi, and they continued on their way.
Still lost.
In Jiang Feng’s view, every part of this forest looked the same; there was nothing but trees everywhere, and even trying to discern by species brought no distinction. Xia Mushi and Chen Shi were much in the same situation; neither were masters of wilderness survival—they were at most compass readers, but even discerning east, west, north, and south was difficult under these circumstances.
Xia Mushi was slightly better off. At least he could find water sources by the color and dampness of the soil and determine whether he and Chen Shi were going deeper into the forest by the density of the trees.
But that was as far as he could go. Xia Mushi and Chen Shi’s abilities could not help them find a way out of this forest.
The two walked the entire day again.
Chen Shi’s shoes were completely worn through. Reluctant to discard them, he carried the tattered shoes in his arms. Fortunately, it was winter but there was no snow on the ground. Otherwise, walking barefoot might have caused his feet to freeze and become frostbitten halfway through the day.
Being lost in such a dense forest without navigation, unable to find direction or path, not even knowing where one is or when they might get out, with no food or animals, only water—it was truly terrifying.
If Xia Mushi and Chen Shi had been a bit weaker mentally, just the fear and despair alone would have been enough to kill them.
Though not masters of wilderness survival, they were certainly masters of survival in general. Even the usually very cautious and fearful Chen Shi did not give up or collapse under these circumstances. As they walked, they searched for edible berries. Without berries, Chen Shi looked for edible bark, using the knife in his arms to peel away the tough outer bark and share the softer, chewable inner layers.
Another day passed, and night fell.
Compared to the previous night, Xia Mushi and Chen Shi were visibly much more exhausted. Nearly two days without eating, just drinking water, and walking non-stop without direction or goal, perhaps even feeling a bit hopeless, the dual pressures of physiological and psychological stress made their spirits far from good.
Almost immediately after setting up the fire, Chen Shi collapsed onto the ground, not wanting to get up. He just brought his feet closer to the fire, to keep them from freezing stiff.
“What kind of forest is this, anyway? Why doesn’t it have anything?” Chen Shi complained despairingly, picking up a stone from the ground and flinging it forcefully at a tree, startling two birds from the branches into flight.
“Aside from birds, there’s not another living creature, but we don’t even have a slingshot to catch birds.”
“It’s winter, creatures are naturally scarce. The ones on the outskirts have probably all been caught and eaten by nearby people a long time ago. If you want to find living creatures, you’d have to go deeper, and then we would really not be able to come out,” Xia Mushi said.
Chen Shi despairingly dropped his arm.
“Don’t you remember that story? The one about the pig and the rabbit. Can’t we have a rabbit run over here now and die by smashing itself against one of these trees?” Chen Shi gestured idly at the biggest and thickest tree nearby.
“You know that’s just a story made up by other people. How could there be a rabbit silly enough to knock itself dead against a tree?”
“If you’re tired, you sleep first, and I’ll keep watch. I’ll wake you up later tonight,” Xia Mushi said.
There was no response.
Chen Shi had already fallen asleep, evidently exhausted to the core. Sometimes mental fatigue could be more frightening than physical exhaustion.
Yawning, Xia Mushi turned his head to look at the tree Chen Shi had pointed at earlier.
Jiang Feng read the longing for a rabbit in his eyes.
Clearly, even the young version of Xia Mushi, a man not given to many words and who killed as easily as slaughtering pigs, harbored some hope for the fable he would normally scorn when pushed to the extreme of hunger and weariness.
It was just uncertain whether there’d be a foolish rabbit to fulfill his expectations and crash into the tree.