Chapter 74

Chapter 74: The Silkworm Road [8]

Translator: Xah

The winding road around the mountain was extremely dangerous. The Shu land was mountainous and the terrain was steep but the scenery was equally beautiful.

Pei Qing drove and Qi Xi sat at the co-driver. They discussed how to get there from time to time.

“Turn left at the front intersection.”

“Why do I remember that it was the mountain to the north, straight ahead?”

“I remember absolutely right. You drive like this, be careful not to fall into the river.”

“Falling into the river means we reached the destination.”

They argued for a while before looking at each 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 closer we get here, the more it feels wrong.”

Qi Xi also felt something was wrong.

Sat in the back, Li Shu looked out of the window. It was almost dark. He said, “Find a place to rest for the night and fly up at dark.”

“Okay.” Qi Xi nodded.

There was a ‘cizi’ sound in the car. Zhang Qiu touched the walkie-talkie and Gao Zhihao’s impatient voice transmitted from it. “What’s the matter? Have we arrived yet?”

“Not yet. We’re lost. We’ll find a place to stay overnight and continue tomorrow.” Zhang Qiu said.

From inside the walkie-talkie, Gao ZhiHao muttered, “They obviously went out for less than an hour, how did the drive take a day? Was it intentional…”

Zhang Qiu had nothing to say. The two men in front of him pretended to be very busy and continued on their way.

Less than an hour later, there was a faint light ahead. A village. The three vehicles entered one after another. The village was deep in the mountains, with beautiful scenery, in which many people in the city would drive here for a trip during the holidays. Therefore, there were 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 path until the fifth hotel before they stopped at the entrance.

Qi Xi pulled a scarf over his face and knocked at the door. Soon the hotel’s owner, which had been asleep inside, opened the door 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 coming down (from cars) in succession, and the hand that was holding the door handle tightened, ready to close the door at any time. Finally, when he saw Li Shu holding a child, he slightly relaxed his guard.

“Come in.” The hotel’s owner loosened 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 you parked here, it will be difficult for the oxcart to pass by tomorrow.”

Pei Qing and two other people drove to the backyard where the owner said they could park. Zhang Qiu and company unloaded their luggage and carried it inside together. The courtyard house was perfect square with indented (凹) front, the entrance and exit in the middle, and the rear was the owner’s place. The two sides hosted the tourists. It was a single floor building with tiled roof, which looked neat and beautiful.

They few of them were carrying their luggage. Xiao Jiang, who had slept all the way in the car, was very energetic at this moment. He was skipping ahead with his own Cars bagpack. After walking a few steps, 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 Jiang pointed. The curtain of the side room at the opposite was swinging and the lights soon went out. Zhang Qiu didn’t think anything about it, but now it seemed that something was really wrong.

“Boss, who lives at the opposite?”

“Oh, that one arrived at noon. A gentle young 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 a few packs of instant noodles and borrow the pot. They also had the meat and beef from lunch. They cooked a pot of noodles messily. At noon, they only gnawed on rations. Not to mention that it was quite fragrant in the cold mountains in late autumn, once they sniffed the aroma, their stomachs were rumbling with hunger and they went to the shed in the middle of the yard.

Under the shed was a big stone table. The few of them encircled the pot and ate in small disposable bowls.

Pixian Hui Wang took a sip of the soup and boasted, “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’s soup bowl and said with a smile, “You haven’t had a good appetite recently, so eat more now.”

Pixian Hui Wang was really hungry and did not think deeply about Zhang YuShui’s smiling face. Carrying the bowl with both hands, he ate leisurely.

While Zhang Qiu was eating the noodles, he constantly wanted to glance at the dark room from the opposite. Previously, the moving curtain seemed to have opened his brain hole wide. Perhaps the other party was a visitor coming to have fun. It’s quite normal to take a look when one heard the stir of movement in the courtyard.

Having eaten to their fills, they hastened to tidy up. The opposite side, excluding the midday visitor, was occupied by people brought by Gao ZhiHao. Meanwhile, Zhang Qiu and company were on this side, with two in each room, but single Qi Xi enjoyed the room alone.

At six o’clock the next morning, Zhang Qiu broke a yawn and sobered up a lot after washing his face. The owner’s two daughters-in-laws had already made breakfast and put it on the stone table under the shed. There were pickled bacon, steaming big mantous and porridge.

Qi Xi came out of the room lazily and seeing Zhang Qiu, he greeted with a smile. When he turned his head, he saw Li Shu with a cold face coming out of the room and he shrugged his shoulders. “You look too tense up. I only have a pure man-man friendship with Xiao Qiuqiu.”

“Don’t do that.” Zhang Qiu hastened to say. Just friendship was enough, but he even added man-man when they were all gays. He had a headache when it comes to Qi Xi. He didn’t know who 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 fond of acting.

After a while, Pixian Hui Wang and Zhang YuShui also came out. The few of them sat down for breakfast. Then Pei Qing came out from the backyard. In the late autumn morning, he wore a T-shirt and was covered with water beads. Apparently he had just taken a bath and it showed off his nice buff figure. He returned to the room after taking the mantou and porridge with pickles, which seemed to be for Ling Dang.

Qi Xi clicked his tongue, supported his chin and said, “Pei Qing is really busy. Driving for a day last night and still could toss Ling Dang around.”

“Be careful or Pei Qing will beat you up.” Zhang Qiu calmly fed mantou to Xiao Jiang. He looked up at the closed door at the opposite building. Gao ZhiHao had breakfast brought in to eat inside. There was no movement at all from the curtain that moved last night.

“Xiao Qiuqiu, you still worry about me,” Qi Xi said emotionally.

Zhang Qiu:…

He didn’t want to talk to Qi Xi, he wanted to throw a Qi ZhiRong towards Qi Xi.

They talked trivial matters during the breakfast. When Gao ZhiHao finished his meal, he stood in the yard and looked at the entrance frequently while telling them to start the cars and move. Though he did not explicitly urge them, but Zhang Qiu and company were not going to able to stay.

Getting out of the village, Pei Qing pulled out a hand-drawn map from his bosom while driving. Although the scrawl was rough, all the signs were visible at a glance. It was a topographic drawing of the terrain he and Qi Xi explored last night.

“This river is quick tricky, we have been circling around. There is a shortcut we can go. We drive to the top and have to abandon the car to go down. About an hour, we can see the river. If we drive around, we’ll get to this place. Then we’ll go through the plain field of the wild monkey’s area, where the trees are so thick that a car can’t get through.” Pei Qing said while gesturing the area on the map.

Zhang Qiu saw that river was hanging like a waterfall in the deep wrapped mountains, and then it (waves) pounded slowly down.

“Take the shortcut and we’ll go straight to the waterfall’s mouth. If we go around through the plain, it is here——” Pei Qing pointed to a wide river. “Now I don’t know where exactly it is.”

The river stretched very long, from one mountain to the other. The area was so wide that also they didn’t know where exactly it was.

Zhang YuShui talked to Gao ZhiHao with his walkie-talkie. Soon the walkie-talkie jarred. The other side was busy turning over 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 hurriedly nodded, “Let’s take the shortcut first. We should find it by following down the river.”

Pei Qing had no objection. He started the car and went to the top of the mountain. The narrower the road was, the more it was pitted. Moreover, there was no guardrail. It was like a bumpy car that could take people down. Zhang Qiu swept a glance out of the window. The steep mountainside was astonishing.

“Here we are. We can’t go up ahead.” Pei Qing parked his car in the sparse woods; there was no way to go further up.

When the latter two cars arrived, Gao ZhiHao got 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 he heard the voice of vomiting, his chest also was assault with tide and he covered his mouth wanting to vomit. Li Shu then shielded him and took him to a distant for fresh air, far away from Gao ZhiHao.

Zhang Qiu swallowed his saliva to press down his uncomfortable stomach. After Gao ZhiHao had vomited up, they started to carry luggage from the cars. For right now, they only carried up the necessary items for mountain climbing. Other item such as tent was unnecessarily.

The mountain formed perfectly straight precipitous and with each person carrying a full and bulging backpack, it looked like people would fall down. Li Shu chose a big tree and knotted the rope around it skillfully. When the rope pulled down by heavy objects, it turned into dead knot. 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 was greatly improved. In the beginning, Zhang Qiu was worried about Xiao Jiang, but as a result, he saw Xiao Jiang jumped up and down onto the branches. He was lighter and even more agile than him, just like a little monkey.

This mountain was a deserted area with weeds and cluttered withered branches. Gao ZhiHao was so used to his privileges that he cursed at the withered branches. “Why don’t you cut it off?! Why is it everywhere?”

The five hired thugs he brought were all big, stalwart rough men. They were fine with fighting, but mountain climbing was not so easy. At first, they were flustered and afraid of falling down, but then they were scolded by Gao ZhiHao. Every one of them had a blushing face in a cold and impetuous way.

The rope was not long enough. They jumped down to a slightly leveled ground. Li Shu pulled the rope down. After trying twice, 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 covered nothing.

Gao ZhiHao waved indifferently. “Don’t worry about the rope. Anyway, it’s important to find the place.”

Li Shu frowned, released the rope and looked up at it. Gao ZhiHao’s men pulled another rope out of the bag. All of them people were tied up and continued downward.

“Did you hear that? The sound of the water.” Gao Zhihao said excitedly.

Zhang Qiu had heard it earlier. The place they went down was off somehow that it was still a little way from the mouth of the waterfall. However, this way was safe. As he was thinking, suddenly something jumped on his back and pulled his bag down.

Almost instantly, Li Shu pulled his hand and carried him up.

“Grab properly.”

Almost at the same time that Li Shu’s words dropped, his that was hand holding the dagger had already gone behind Zhang Qiu’s back. Zhang Qiu only heard the thing screamed, before he felt his back weighted less. 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——”

Zhang Qiu clung onto the branches and looked down. There had been a wild monkey on his back just now, but it was driven away by Li Shu and quickly jumping onto the hired thugs’ heads at the back and scratched at them indiscriminately. Fortunately, it was not very steep here. Li Shu seized his waist and the two of them arrived at a gradual slope.

Pei Qing was carrying Ling Dang, while Erge and ErSao were all right. Only Gao ZhiHao was cutting a quite sorry figure. On his face were bloodied scars from being scratched. Meanwhile, two hired thugs were dragged down and Qi Xi pulled them. Although they suffered some flesh wounds, they were fine.

“There are also wild monkeys here.” 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 hand and said, “Don’t run too far. You are so small, what to do if you are caught by a monkey?” The monkey that just fell on his back was a small one, but its strenght was surprisingly high, and if it were not for Li Shu, he would definitely fall.

Xiao Jiang nodded his head and said cleverly, “Daddy, I’ll protect you. When the monkey comes, I’ll hit it.”

“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 the path. Besides insects and snakes, there was no danger along the way. The farther they went, the louder the sound of the waterfall, and the more humid the air became.

“Wait a minute.” Li Shu stopped.

Zhang Qiu looked around, and suddenly a black shadow came up in front of him. Li Shu pulled him up beside him before hearing the squeaking noises; hundred of thousands noises. From within the dense big trees, emerged each and every ash gray heads, standing on the branches and surrounding them.

These wild monkeys were much larger than those just now. They looked like gorillas, with gray furs and some of them were nearly white.

It was the first time Zhang Qiu saw white monkeys, but no appreciation at this moment. He was holding Xiao Jiang in one hand and stared at the monkeys while holding a dagger in the other.

“Bang—”

It was unknown who had fired the gun, but the wild monkeys had just jeering around them rushed down.

It was suddenly chaotic. Zhang Qiu was pulled forward by Li Shu. He looked back and immediately he paled. His good son stood in the ground, brandishing his soft claws and baring his tiger teeth, intended to fight with the group of monkeys.

“Xiao Jiang!” Zhang Qiu released Li Shu’s hand, went back and grabbed Xiao Jiang before carrying him onto his shoulder and ran.

Li Shu flying-kicked the monkey that flew on him and shouted: “Run towards the waterfall.”

The jungle was the battlefield for the monkeys. In particular, these monkeys were very powerful. Zhang Qiu dared not delay. He rushed forward with Xiao Jiang on his shoulder, and Li Shu handled the monkeys behind him. The two legs that did not seem like his ran at lightning speed, 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 then there 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 the flesh, clutching him tightly while the white-furred wild monkey agilely swayed back and forth on the trees. Zhang Qiu’s forehead sweated in pain. He felt dizzy with his eyesight dimmed and his belly hurt. He was holding the dagger in his hand. When the white-furred wild monkey jumped, he threw it up sharply.

“Squeak—”

The white-haired wild monkey screamed, its claws loosened and Zhang Qiu was thrown out. On his face was torrential cold water and his hands were grabbing at anything randomly. Then his stomach cramped and he felt dizziness before his eyes. His hands were gradually loosing strength.

Zhang Qiu bit his lip to sober himself up. He strengthened his grip on the branch and was pulled up by someone. “Hold tight.” He looked up, and the cold water hit him on the face, making him squinting. The person holding his hand suddenly slid down and hit him straight on.

Fcuk!

It was too late for Zhang Qiu to call for help. His eyesight darkened and he fainted.

The stomach cramped was too severe to endure and his whole body was cold, Zhang Qiu shivered and opened his eyes. His clothes 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, drenched from 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 not be angry. If there was no Yue QinCang, he could still grit his teeth and climb up. In the end, the guy hit him straight in the face. But this was not the time to say that. Zhang Qiu stroked his stomach and endured the pain. “Where are we now? What about Li Shu and the others?”

Yue QinCang had a wound on his forehead. The wound turned pale because he was soaking in water. His lips were purple due to too much blood loss and cold.

“I don’t know either. Your LiShu and the others should be above.”

Zhang Qiu looked around. There was the sound of rushing stream from above. They took cover on a rock slab, and it was very narrow against the rock wall, in which, if one peeked out a head, one would be splashed by the water above. He could only stick to the rock wall closely. The cold 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 and chocolate. There was also a lighter, but there was no firewood to make a fire.

Zhang Qiu bit his lip to keep himself awake and 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 it into 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 feeling pain. He stood up, bent over the rock wall. His legs were so weak that he almost fell down before he was supported by Yue QinCang. Then Zhang Qiu saw Yue QinCang’s arm. There was a scar on the arm, and it was very serious. The skin was turned over.

“Were you the young student in the village last night?”

Yue QinCang nodded and Zhang Qiu knew it that Yue Donghui had more than one piece of research data. Yue QinCang probably came down from the tied rope that could not be pulled down. They opened the road in front of him, and the guy picked it up readily from the back.

“Stop talking nonsense. If you delay any 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 hadn’t gone, I wouldn’t have taken over the family business.” Yue QinCang said a couple of words that he did not want to mention, then added, “Grab properly, let’s go.”

The two men had their heads out and were frozen by the pour. The water from the mountain during late autumn seemed to be cold enough to reach their bones. Drenched for a while, Zhang Qiu already could not feel anything. Numbed, he followed behind Yue QinCang. They were thrown a little far, but the stream was not particularly rapid. A foot into the deep water area, and his calves felt like not his own. The stomach felt cold being soaked. Zhang Qiu bit his lip to make himself sober. Each step was difficult to walk and the rocks under his feet were very slippery. Luckily, Yue QinCang pulled him.

It was a short distance of several meters. For Zhang 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 be used.

The swelling pain of Zhang Qiu’s brain felt like it was going to burst open. They mutually lent an arm to support each other 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 for some dead branches. Zhang Qiu handed the lighter over. Yue QinCang looked at it and said, “Waterproof. Gao ZhiHao actually stole my dad’s notebook.”

When the fire started, Zhang Qiu dragged himself to the fire and wished he could get into it. Slowly, he got a little hot air. He blew air on his hands before he said with trembling lips, “You intent for a revenge. It’s too bold of you to come here alone.”

“I already memorized these things before my 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 was spinning. He couldn’t hear what Yue QinCang said behind him. He really couldn’t carry on. He wanted to go to sleep but YueQin Cang’s voice was so loud that it kept him awake. He had a headache and a stomachache.

“Don’t make any noise. It hurts.”

“Don’t sleep, fool. Do you want to sleep to death?”

“Li Shu, Li Shu. I’m hurt, my stomach hurts…”

Zhang Qiu had that dream again. When the crimson fog dispersed, a mini version of a child smiled at him. Then, a ball of black shrouded over and completely devouring the child.

Lao Er! 

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