Chapter 74: The Silkworm Road [8]
The winding road around the mountain was extremelydangerous. The Shu land was mountainous and the terrain was steep but thescenery was equally beautiful.
Pei Qing drove and Qi Xi sat at theco-driver. They discussed how to get there from time to time.
“Turn left at the front intersection.”
“Why do I remember that it was themountain to the north, straight ahead?”
“I remember absolutely right. You drivelike this, be careful not to fall into the river.”
“Falling into the river means wereached the destination.”
They argued for a while before looking ateach other. Then Pei Qing pulled over and turned his head to them and said,“It’s strange. Undoubtedly, it’s more or less the direction, but the closerwe get here, the more it feels wrong.”
Qi Xi also felt something was wrong.
Sat in the back, Li Shu looked out of thewindow. It was almost dark. He said, “Find a place to rest for the nightand fly up at dark.”
“Okay.” Qi Xi nodded.
There was a ’cizi’ sound in the car. Zhang Qiu touched the walkie-talkie and GaoZhihao’s impatient voice transmitted from it. “What’s the matter? Have wearrived yet?”
“Not yet. We’re lost. We’ll find aplace to stay overnight and continue tomorrow.” Zhang Qiu said.
From inside the walkie-talkie, Gao ZhiHaomuttered, “They obviously went out for less than an hour, how did thedrive take a day? Was it intentional...”
Zhang Qiu had nothing to say. The two men infront of him pretended to be very busy and continued on their way.
Less than an hour later, there was a faintlight ahead. A village. The three vehicles entered one after another. Thevillage was deep in the mountains, with beautiful scenery, in which many peoplein the city would drive here for a trip during the holidays. Therefore, therewere many small agritourism hotels in the village. However,the day was late and in late autumn, few tourists came to visit in this season.The village astmosphere looked desolete. They went along the winding small pathuntil the fifth hotel before they stopped at the entrance.
Qi Xi pulled a scarf over his face and knockedat the door. Soon the hotel’s owner, which had been asleep inside, opened thedoor and looked at them warily.
“Benefactor, we’ve come to beg.”Qi Xi said with a grin. [T/N: Monks come to ask for donation]
Zhang Qiu facepalmed and quickly said,“He’s kidding. We want to stay here. Are you accepting guests here?”
The hotel’s owner saw several big men comingdown (from cars) in succession, and the hand that was holding the door handletightened, ready to close the door at any time. Finally, when he saw Li Shu holdinga child, he slightly relaxed his guard.
“Come in.” The hotel’s ownerloosened his hand to open the door and shouted into the hotel, “LaoDa,LaoEr, we have some more guests. Come out and clean up the rest of the room.Also, drive your cars to the back. The road at the front is narrow and if youparked here, it will be difficult for the oxcart to pass by tomorrow.”
Pei Qing and two other people drove to thebackyard where the owner said they could park. Zhang Qiu and company unloadedtheir luggage and carried it inside together. The courtyard house was perfectsquare with indented (凹) front, the entrance and exitin the middle, and the rear was the owner’s place. The two sides hosted thetourists. It was a single floor building with tiled roof, which looked neat andbeautiful.
They few of them were carrying their luggage.Xiao Jiang, who had slept all the way in the car, was very energetic at thismoment. He was skipping ahead with his own Cars bagpack. After walking a fewsteps, he turned his head back while pointing to one place and said,“Daddy, somebody is looking at me.”
Zhang Qiu looked in the direction Xiao Jiangpointed. The curtain of the side room at the opposite was swinging and thelights soon went out. Zhang Qiu didn’t think anything about it, but now itseemed that something was really wrong.
“Boss, who lives at the opposite?”
“Oh, that one arrived at noon. A gentleyoung male student, looks very smart.” The boss said a few words and added;“Now it’s late, so there’s no hot water. Hot water is at 8 am and 7 pm.Also, there’s no food. If you haven’t eaten, there’s only instant noodle.”
Young male student? That’s not Qi ZhiRong.
Zhang Qiu nodded and asked the boss to buy afew packs of instant noodles and borrow the pot. They also had the meat andbeef from lunch. They cooked a pot of noodles messily. At noon, they onlygnawed on rations. Not to mention that it was quite fragrant in the coldmountains in late autumn, once they sniffed the aroma, their stomachs wererumbling with hunger and they went to the shed in the middle of the yard.
Under the shed was a big stone table. Thefew of them encircled the pot and ate in small disposable bowls.
Pixian Hui Wang took a sip of the soup andboasted, “Xiao Qiu, you cooked this well.”
“Rarely do you have an appetite.”Zhang YuShui exchanged his own bowl, then took a sip from Pixian Hui Wang’ssoup bowl and said with a smile, “You haven’t had a good appetiterecently, so eat more now.”
Pixian Hui Wang was really hungry and didnot think deeply about Zhang YuShui’s smiling face. Carrying the bowl with bothhands, he ate leisurely.
While Zhang Qiu was eating the noodles, heconstantly wanted to glance at the dark room from the opposite. Previously, themoving curtain seemed to have opened his brain hole wide. Perhaps the otherparty was a visitor coming to have fun. It’s quite normal to take a look whenone heard the stir of movement in the courtyard.
Having eaten to their fills, they hastenedto tidy up. The opposite side, excluding the midday visitor, was occupied bypeople brought by Gao ZhiHao. Meanwhile, Zhang Qiu and company were on thisside, with two in each room, but single Qi Xi enjoyed the room alone.
At six o’clock the next morning, Zhang Qiu brokea yawn and sobered up a lot after washing his face. The owner’s twodaughters-in-laws had already made breakfast and put it on the stone tableunder the shed. There were pickled bacon, steaming big mantous and porridge.
Qi Xi came out of the room lazily and seeingZhang Qiu, he greeted with a smile. When he turned his head, he saw Li Shu witha cold face coming out of the room and he shrugged his shoulders. “You looktoo tense up. I only have a pure man-man friendship with Xiao Qiuqiu.”
“Don’t do that.” Zhang Qiuhastened to say. Just friendship was enough, but he even added man-man whenthey were all gays. He had a headache when it comes to Qi Xi. He didn’t knowwho could control/cure this drama queen.
“Xiao Qiuqiu, you hurt my heart.”Qi Xi sat crookly in the chair with chest cupped in both hands.
Zhang Qiu was too lazy to deal with Qi Xi.This person chose his profession right. Zhang Qiu had never seen anyone so fondof acting.
After a while, Pixian Hui Wang and Zhang YuShuialso came out. The few of them sat down for breakfast. Then Pei Qing came outfrom the backyard. In the late autumn morning, he wore a T-shirt and wascovered with water beads. Apparently he had just taken a bath and it showed offhis nice buff figure. He returned to the room after taking the mantou and porridgewith pickles, which seemed to be for Ling Dang.
Qi Xi clicked his tongue, supported his chinand said, “Pei Qing is really busy. Driving for a day last night and stillcould toss Ling Dang around.”
“Be careful or Pei Qing will beat youup.” Zhang Qiu calmly fed mantou to Xiao Jiang. He looked up at the closeddoor at the opposite building. Gao ZhiHao had breakfast brought in to eatinside. There was no movement at all from the curtain that moved last night.
“Xiao Qiuqiu, you still worry aboutme,” Qi Xi said emotionally.
Zhang Qiu:...
He didn’t want to talk to Qi Xi, he wantedto throw a Qi ZhiRong towards Qi Xi.
They talked trivial matters during thebreakfast. When Gao ZhiHao finished his meal, he stood in the yard and lookedat the entrance frequently while telling them to start the cars and move. Thoughhe did not explicitly urge them, but Zhang Qiu and company were not going toable to stay.
Getting out of the village, Pei Qing pulledout a hand-drawn map from his bosom while driving. Although the scrawl wasrough, all the signs were visible at a glance. It was a topographic drawing ofthe terrain he and Qi Xi explored last night.
“This river is quick tricky, we havebeen circling around. There is a shortcut we can go. We drive to the top and haveto abandon the car to go down. About an hour, we can see the river. If we drivearound, we’ll get to this place. Then we’ll go through theplain field of the wild monkey’s area, where the trees are so thick that a carcan’t get through.” Pei Qing said while gesturing the area on the map.
Zhang Qiu saw that river was hanging like awaterfall in the deep wrapped mountains, and then it (waves) pounded slowlydown. fre ewebno vel.com
“Take the shortcut and we’ll gostraight to the waterfall’s mouth. If we go around through the plain, it ishere——” Pei Qing pointed to a wide river. “Now I don’t know where exactlyit is.”
The river stretched very long, from onemountain to the other. The area was so wide that also they didn’t know whereexactly it was.
Zhang YuShui talked to Gao ZhiHao with hiswalkie-talkie. Soon the walkie-talkie jarred. The other side was busy turningover the book. After a while, Gao ZhiHao could not make a decision. Obviously,the note only wrote down the river, but nothing else.
“Waterfalls.” Li Shu concluded.
In the walkie-talkie, Gao ZhiHao hurriedlynodded, “Let’s take the shortcut first. We should find it by followingdown the river.”
Pei Qing had no objection. He started thecar and went to the top of the mountain. The narrower the road was, the more itwas pitted. Moreover, there was no guardrail. It was like a bumpy car thatcould take people down. Zhang Qiu swept a glance out of the window. The steepmountainside was astonishing.
“Here we are. We can’t go upahead.” Pei Qing parked his car in the sparse woods; there was no way togo further up.
When the latter two cars arrived, Gao ZhiHaogot out of the car. His face was white as he leaned down against a tree root,vomiting in a complete mess. At first, Zhang Qiu was very well but when heheard the voice of vomiting, his chest also was assault with tide and hecovered his mouth wanting to vomit. Li Shu then shielded him and took him to adistant for fresh air, far away from Gao ZhiHao.
Zhang Qiu swallowed his saliva to press downhis uncomfortable stomach. After Gao ZhiHao had vomited up, they started tocarry luggage from the cars. For right now, they only carried up the necessaryitems for mountain climbing. Other item such as tent was unnecessarily.
The mountain formed perfectly straight precipitousand with each person carrying a full and bulging backpack, it looked likepeople would fall down. Li Shu chose a big tree and knotted the rope around itskillfully. When the rope pulled down by heavy objects, it turned into deadknot. When they reached the ground, with skill and strength pulling the rope,it would fell off. [T/N: there is a mathemathical eq involved]
Zhang Qiu hadn’t learned this technique yet,but he admired Li Shu very much every time he saw it.
The safety of climbing down with rope wasgreatly improved. In the beginning, Zhang Qiu was worried about Xiao Jiang, butas a result, he saw Xiao Jiang jumped up and down onto the branches. He waslighter and even more agile than him, just like a little monkey.
This mountain was a deserted area with weedsand cluttered withered branches. Gao ZhiHao was so used to his privileges thathe cursed at the withered branches. “Why don’t you cut it off?! Why is iteverywhere?”
The five hired thugs he brought were allbig, stalwart rough men. They were fine with fighting, but mountain climbingwas not so easy. At first, they were flustered and afraid of falling down, butthen they were scolded by Gao ZhiHao. Every one of them had a blushing face ina cold and impetuous way.
The rope was not long enough. They jumpeddown to a slightly leveled ground. Li Shu pulled the rope down. After tryingtwice, the rope did not fall off.
“Could it be caught by a branch?”Zhang Qiu looked up and saw that the layers of branches and weeds coverednothing.
Gao ZhiHao waved indifferently. “Don’tworry about the rope. Anyway, it’s important to find the place.”
Li Shu frowned, released the rope and lookedup at it. Gao ZhiHao’s men pulled another rope out of the bag. All of thempeople were tied up and continued downward.
“Did you hear that? The sound of thewater.” Gao Zhihao said excitedly.
Zhang Qiu had heard it earlier. The place theywent down was off somehow that it was still a little way from the mouth of thewaterfall. However, this way was safe. As he was thinking, suddenly somethingjumped on his back and pulled his bag down.
Almost instantly, Li Shu pulled his hand andcarried him up.
“Grab properly.”
Almost at the same time that Li Shu’s wordsdropped, his that was hand holding the dagger had already gone behind Zhang Qiu’sback. Zhang Qiu only heard the thing screamed, before he felt his back weightedless. Under their feet, came the cries of Gao ZhiHao’s hired thugs.
“There are monkeys.”
“Damn, I have to kill it.”
“Fcuk.”
“Save me, save me——” freew(e)bnovel.com
Zhang Qiu clung onto the branches and lookeddown. There had been a wild monkey on his back just now, but it was driven awayby Li Shu and quickly jumping onto the hired thugs’ heads at the back and scratchedat them indiscriminately. Fortunately, it was not very steep here. Li Shuseized his waist and the two of them arrived at a gradual slope.
Pei Qing was carrying Ling Dang, while Erge andErSao were all right. Only Gao ZhiHao was cutting a quite sorry figure. On hisface were bloodied scars from being scratched. Meanwhile, two hired thugs weredragged down and Qi Xi pulled them. Although they suffered some flesh wounds,they were fine.
“There are also wild monkeyshere.” Pei Qing frowned. He didn’t see it when he came last night.
“Be careful,” Li Shu said.
Zhang Qiu nodded and took Xiao Jiang’s handand said, “Don’t run too far. You are so small, what to do if you are caughtby a monkey?” The monkey that just fell on his back was a small one, butits strenght was surprisingly high, and if it were not for Li Shu, he woulddefinitely fall.
Xiao Jiang nodded his head and saidcleverly, “Daddy, I’ll protect you. When the monkey comes, I’ll hitit.”
“Okay, Daddy depends on you.”Zhang Qiu said very seriously.
Continuing to the mouth of the waterfall,the path was much easier now with the hired thugs at the front to open up thepath. Besides insects and snakes, there was no danger along the way. Thefarther they went, the louder the sound of the waterfall, and the more humidthe air became.
“Wait a minute.” Li Shu stopped.
Zhang Qiu looked around, and suddenly ablack shadow came up in front of him. Li Shu pulled him up beside him beforehearing the squeaking noises; hundred of thousands noises. From within thedense big trees, emerged each and every ash gray heads, standing on thebranches and surrounding them.
These wild monkeys were much larger thanthose just now. They looked like gorillas, with gray furs and some of them werenearly white.
It was the first time Zhang Qiu saw whitemonkeys, but no appreciation at this moment. He was holding Xiao Jiang in onehand and stared at the monkeys while holding a dagger in the other.
“Bang—”
It was unknown who had fired the gun, but thewild monkeys had just jeering around them rushed down.
It was suddenly chaotic. Zhang Qiu waspulled forward by Li Shu. He looked back and immediately he paled. His good sonstood in the ground, brandishing his soft claws and baring his tiger teeth,intended to fight with the group of monkeys.
“Xiao Jiang!” Zhang Qiu releasedLi Shu’s hand, went back and grabbed Xiao Jiang before carrying him onto hisshoulder and ran.
Li Shu flying-kicked the monkey that flew onhim and shouted: “Run towards the waterfall.”
The jungle was the battlefield for themonkeys. In particular, these monkeys were very powerful. Zhang Qiu dared notdelay. He rushed forward with Xiao Jiang on his shoulder, and Li Shu handled themonkeys behind him. The two legs that did not seem like his ran at lightningspeed, but he still could hear the screaming curses and gunshots.
Zhang Qiu subconsciously turned back,“Li Shu—”
A white shadow came in front of him, and thenthere was pain in his shoulders before his whole body was highed up in the sky.Xiao Jiang was thrown out from his bosom and shouted: “DADDY!”
The sharp claws on his shoulders entered theflesh, clutching him tightly while the white-furred wild monkey agilely swayedback and forth on the trees. Zhang Qiu’s forehead sweated in pain. He feltdizzy with his eyesight dimmed and his belly hurt. He was holding the dagger inhis hand. When the white-furred wild monkey jumped, he threw it up sharply.
“Squeak—”
The white-haired wild monkey screamed, itsclaws loosened and Zhang Qiu was thrown out. On his face was torrential coldwater and his hands were grabbing at anything randomly. Then his stomachcramped and he felt dizziness before his eyes. His hands were gradually loosingstrength.
Zhang Qiu bit his lip to sober himself up.He strengthened his grip on the branch and was pulled up by someone. “Holdtight.” He looked up, and the cold water hit him on the face, making himsquinting. The person holding his hand suddenly slid down and hit him straighton.
Fcuk!
It was too late for Zhang Qiu to call forhelp. His eyesight darkened and he fainted.
The stomach cramped was too severe to endureand his whole body was cold, Zhang Qiu shivered and opened his eyes. Hisclothes were wet.
“Are you awake?”
Zhang Qiu looked towards the voice warily.“Yue QinCang?” At the side, it was Yue QinCang, Yue Donghui’s son, drenchedfrom head to toe with pale face, leaning against the rock wall.
“Good memory.” Yue QinCang smiled.“Don’t worry, I didn’t mean anything (bad). I saved you just now.”
Without mentioning this, Zhang Qiu would notbe angry. If there was no Yue QinCang, he could still grit his teeth and climbup. In the end, the guy hit him straight in the face. But this was not the timeto say that. Zhang Qiu stroked his stomach and endured the pain. “Whereare we now? What about Li Shu and the others?”
Yue QinCang had a wound on his forehead. Thewound turned pale because he was soaking in water. His lips were purple due totoo much blood loss and cold.
“I don’t know either. Your LiShu andthe others should be above.”
Zhang Qiu looked around. There was the soundof rushing stream from above. They took cover on a rock slab, and it was verynarrow against the rock wall, in which, if one peeked out a head, one would besplashed by the water above. He could only stick to the rock wall closely. Thecold feeling from his back made Zhang Qiu shiver.
With the backpack missing, it was really terrible.Zhang Qiu felt in his jacket’s pocket. There were two packs of beef jerky andchocolate. There was also a lighter, but there was no firewood to make a fire.
Zhang Qiu bit his lip to keep himself awakeand caressed his stomach. He threw his chocolate at Yue QinCang. “Eat it.Let’s get out of here first.”
He tore open a packet himself and stuffed itinto his mouth with trembling hands. Yue QinCang was no better. After eating,they were still in poor condition. Zhang Qiu’s stomach was no longer feelingpain. He stood up, bent over the rock wall. His legs were so weak that healmost fell down before he was supported by Yue QinCang. Then Zhang Qiu saw YueQinCang’s arm. There was a scar on the arm, and it was very serious. The skinwas turned over.
“Were you the young student in thevillage last night?”
Yue QinCang nodded and Zhang Qiu knew it thatYue Donghui had more than one piece of research data. Yue QinCang probably camedown from the tied rope that could not be pulled down. They opened the road infront of him, and the guy picked it up readily from the back.
“Stop talking nonsense. If you delayany longer, inside your stomach will be in danger.” Yue QinCang said.
Zhang Qiu was stunned. “How do you know——”
“I was studying medicine. If my dad wasn’tgone, I wouldn’t have taken over the family business.” Yue QinCang said acouple of words that he did not want to mention, then added, “Grabproperly, let’s go.”
The two men had their heads out and werefrozen by the pour. The water from the mountain during late autumn seemed to becold enough to reach their bones. Drenched for a while, Zhang Qiu already couldnot feel anything. Numbed, he followed behind Yue QinCang. They were thrown alittle far, but the stream was not particularly rapid. A foot into the deepwater area, and his calves felt like not his own. The stomach felt cold beingsoaked. Zhang Qiu bit his lip to make himself sober. Each step was difficult towalk and the rocks under his feet were very slippery. Luckily, Yue QinCangpulled him.
It was a short distance of several meters. ForZhang Qiu, however, it was very far away. Finally, they landed on the shore.Yue QinCang’s lips had turned white and Zhang Qiu’s face was no better without blood.The lighter was soaked in the water; he did not know whether it could still beused.
The swelling pain of Zhang Qiu’s brain feltlike it was going to burst open. They mutually lent an arm to support eachother to lean in. At this moment, they did not worry about the monkeys coming.They just wanted to quickly make a fire.
Yue QinCang scrambled around looking forsome dead branches. Zhang Qiu handed the lighter over. Yue QinCang looked at itand said, “Waterproof. Gao ZhiHao actually stole my dad’s notebook.”
When the fire started, Zhang Qiu draggedhimself to the fire and wished he could get into it. Slowly, he got a littlehot air. He blew air on his hands before he said with trembling lips, “Youintent for a revenge. It’s too bold of you to come here alone.”
“I already memorized these things beforemy dad died. I just want to see it.” Yue QinCang said with a sneer,“Of course, can’t let that cheap Gao ZhiHao succeed.”
Zhang Qiu was shaking and his head wasspinning. He couldn’t hear what Yue QinCang said behind him. He really couldn’tcarry on. He wanted to go to sleep but YueQin Cang’s voice was so loud that it kepthim awake. He had a headache and a stomachache.
“Don’t make any noise. It hurts.”
“Don’t sleep, fool. Do you want tosleep to death?”
“Li Shu, Li Shu. I’m hurt, my stomachhurts...”
Zhang Qiu had that dream again. When the crimsonfog dispersed, a mini version of a child smiled at him. Then, a ball of blackshrouded over and completely devouring the child.
Lao Er!
Please excuse any mistake from former, current and later chapters... The chapters are getting longer, and my eyes are too tired to check on it ❤
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