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墨書 Inktalez
I didn't know how long I had slept. When I woke up, my mind was still in a foggy state. Instinctively, I reached out to the side, and a cold sweat broke out all over me. There was no one beside me.
I cursed under my breath, and my mind suddenly cleared. I shouted, "Zhao Squad Leader!"
A groggy voice came from nearby, "Huh? What’s wrong?"
I yelled back, "Where the hell is Liu Squad Leader?"
I heard a loud bang, followed by Zhao Squad Leader cursing, "Damn it, that bastard ran off again."
"Who are you cursing?" Just as Zhao Squad Leader finished speaking, Liu Squad Leader's voice came from the other side of the cave wall. "Can't I even take a piss?"
I sighed in relief. "You scared the hell out of us. Don’t blame me; your running off has turned us all into nervous wrecks. Hurry up and come back; we need to set off immediately."
In the darkness, I heard Liu Squad Leader rustling as he pulled up his pants and walked over, sitting down beside me and leaning on my shoulder.
I frowned. "You didn’t get any urine on your hands, did you?"
I felt Liu Squad Leader's hand brush against me again. It made me so angry that I wanted to jump up and kick him. Suppressing my anger, I thought: Forget it; why bother getting mad at someone like him.
I had no idea how long I had slept this time; I hadn’t looked at my watch before dozing off and had fallen asleep in a daze. During this time, I had lost the habit of checking the time; without night and day, my sense of time had become blurred. Fortunately, my automatic watch had a calendar function that allowed me to know the exact date. Before we set off, I glanced at my watch; it had been two and a half hours since we stepped onto this embankment.
There was still half a bottle of water left; we were all trying to conserve our drinking water. I wasn’t sure about the remaining food supply; the leftover fish was still with Zhao Squad Leader. I asked him, "How much food do we have left?"
Zhao Squad Leader handed me a bag, but I didn’t take it. I pinched it with my fingers and told him to take it back. It seemed we would have to implement rationing; even if we each got just a handful of fish next time we ate, that little bit of food would only be enough for two meals.
I said to Zhao Squad Leader, "Don’t go too fast; conserve your strength. Let’s move out."
After walking through seven intersections—this was only possible because I insisted—we took another break after passing this intersection. When Liu Squad Leader requested more food, both Zhao Squad Leader and I scoffed at him. Zhao Squad Leader was even more aggressive: "You have lotus root and zongzi; what are you arguing with us for?"
The next stretch was purely torturous. Thankfully, we could lean against the wall as we walked; otherwise, it would have been even harder to keep moving forward. This reminded me of a joke about drinking: One or two bottles and I walk along the wall without falling; three or four bottles and I'm walking along the wall too; five or six bottles and I'm leaning on the wall but not moving.
Currently, we weren’t drinking alcohol but had already reached that state of drunkenness. In fact, Liu Squad Leader was in the worst situation; he hadn’t eaten during our last two meals. As we moved along the left side of the cave wall, his left hand couldn’t support his body at all and had to avoid touching the wall to prevent injuring his shoulder. I often heard him complaining and cursing ahead of us. I figured Zhao Squad Leader heard him too, but neither of us had the energy to help him out.
As I walked, my legs felt weak, and I had to constantly remind myself to hold on, to avoid falling.
In this difficult state, I passed five intersections when suddenly I heard a loud "bang" ahead. Then Zhao Squad Leader shouted, "Damn it, who is it? Not good, someone’s here." Following that came the sounds of a fierce struggle.
In an instant, I snapped out of my daze, adrenaline surging to its peak. Although I was terrified, the first thing I did was reach out and grab Liu Squad Leader's right shoulder. I was ready for any sudden situation, and my emergency plan was to incapacitate Liu Squad Leader immediately, ensuring he wouldn’t have a chance to leave me.
The moment I grabbed Liu Squad Leader, we both spoke at the same time.
"Why didn't you run?"
"Brother Qiang, I didn’t run."
My fingers were already digging into the joint; with just a bit of force, his shoulder would be completely ruined. But he hadn’t run away, which surprised me.
Ahead, Zhao Squad Leader was still engaged in a fierce fight with someone. From the sounds, it seemed he had the upper hand, striking his opponent while loudly cursing. I quickly released Liu Squad Leader and pulled out a torch to light it.
In the firelight, Zhao Squad Leader’s sleeping bag-like robe had been lifted above his thighs, exposing his bare legs and other parts as he kicked at a curled-up figure on the ground. The person had already been defeated at Zhao Squad Leader's feet and was lying there in a semi-conscious state from the blows.
Seeing the person's uniform, I shouted, "Stop hitting him; he's in military gear!"
Zhao Squad Leader also sensed something was off and turned the person over using the light from the torch. I heard him exclaim, "What the hell, it's you?"
The person on the ground was facing Zhao Squad Leader; I couldn’t see his face from where I stood. Liu Squad Leader and I jumped over to take a look and were stunned. It was Hu Aiguo.
Hu Aiguo's face was pale, with two streams of dark blood running from under his nose. One of his eyes was swollen shut; it seemed Zhao Squad Leader had been quite brutal.
Liu Squad Leader glanced at Hu Aiguo and then at Zhao Squad Leader. "Do you two have a grudge?"
Hearing this made me uneasy; it felt like trouble brewing. Sure enough, Zhao Squad Leader, who had been crouching on the ground, sprang up like a rabid dog and lunged at Liu Squad Leader. Liu Squad Leader could only move one arm at that moment; he was practically inviting trouble. If this were any other time, I wouldn’t intervene; in fact, I'd be glad for Zhao Squad Leader to teach him a lesson. But now it wasn’t possible—if he got incapacitated now, someone would have to take care of him on our journey ahead. That responsibility would fall on me, which would only add to my burden.
Liu Squad Leader showed little fear of Zhao Squad Leader and even seemed quite disdainful—this had been evident since we got underground and especially during food distribution when he expressed dissatisfaction towards both of us. He didn’t dare provoke me but instead vented his frustrations on Zhao Squad Leader. Moreover, he seemed quite eager for a fight.
I was almost driven mad by the two roosters about to fight. I had no intention of wasting my breath trying to mediate; instead, I thrust the torch between them. I hoped both of them would feel the heat, and as they both stepped back, I caught a whiff of burnt hair. While they were still swatting at their singed eyebrows and hair, I jabbed the torch at their faces again. This time, they jumped back even further, glaring at me in anger.
I looked at them and said, "Don't rush, you two. If you want to settle this one-on-one, there are rules. First, let me see if Hu Aiguo is still alive after you two are done. With your current behavior, one of you is scared of dying and the other is scared of ghosts. You can't come up with a plan but sure know how to bicker."
My words struck a nerve with both of them. Although they still wore angry expressions, the bravado to act tough in front of me had faded.
Zhao Squad Leader gritted his teeth and said, "Brother Qiang, this guy is infuriating. Let me take him down."
I replied, "Sure, but you’ll have to carry him afterward. Alright, you two can start now. Once you're done fighting, we'll go save Hu Aiguo."
Upon hearing this, Zhao Squad Leader lost his temper and shot a glare at Liu Squad Leader before turning back to me and saying, "Let's save him first; we can settle our scores later."
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