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墨書 Inktalez
First, I turned to Fatty, eager to hear his explanation. I suspected this person must be one of the two who had been following him; otherwise, Fatty wouldn't have been so determined to chase him down.
To my surprise, Fatty's response was, "If you don't run, how could I chase you?"
He said it with such confidence.
I was completely taken aback. What kind of reasoning was that? With his appearance and the intensity he had just shown, even a ghost would run away.
"If you don't chase me, how could I run?" the mud-covered figure retorted, his mouth smeared with muck.
This Hakka person could barely open his mouth; his nostrils were clogged with mud, and his eyes were likely sealed shut beneath a thick layer of filth. He was breathing through his mouth at this point.
I gestured to Fatty with my lips, asking, 'What’s going on? Is he the one who was following you?'
Fatty nodded.
'Are you sure? Didn't you say you didn't see anyone following you? How can you be so certain it's him?'
"Intuition."
"Dead."
I almost blurted those two words out. How could I not be angry? Just relying on intuition had nearly killed someone, and that included me. I felt like I had charged down the hillside as if I were barging through the gates of hell.
The problem was that our relationship with the Hakka People was already tense. His sudden outburst was just adding fuel to the fire.
We were on Hakka territory. If we really pissed them off, a villager could easily wipe us out. Moreover, there were other forces in the village stirring things up. Instead of searching for outsiders hidden in Hakka Village, he had directly confronted the Hakka People.
Fatty was still sitting on top of the Hakka person, and I imagined a few bones must have cracked under his weight.
I glared at Fatty, signaling him to get off. I couldn't tell if he was reluctant to leave his soft cushion or unwilling to end this interrogation. He glared back at me and shook his head.
"Get off!" I finally shouted in frustration.
The Hakka person's head looked like a super potato wrapped in mud, and his hearing was undoubtedly affected. Perhaps my heavy pronunciation of "dead" made him feel threatened, as if we were planning to silence him. Suddenly, he began to struggle violently, his hands breaking free from beneath Fatty's backside and aimlessly reaching for him.
Fatty was not one to let things slide. Seeing the Hakka person's reaction ignited my anger even further, and I directed it all at him. I lifted my foot and stomped down hard, pinning both of the Hakka person's arms into the mud.
At that moment, Fatty suddenly smiled at me, as if relieved: "Alright, it's your turn. But don’t let him go; we can’t let him ruin our plan."
Fatty gestured with his chin towards the mountains outside the forest. I understood what he meant, and I knew that we couldn't let this Hakka person leave us without first seeing Tang Yumo and getting the information we wanted from her. We had to ensure he didn't leak any of our information.
I pulled the Hakka person up, wiping the mud off his face so he could open his eyes and breathe freely. It was then that I noticed his expression. Not only did he still look terrified as when I first saw him, but now there was also a look of pain etched across his features.
I could only comfort him, "Let's get you cleaned up outside. Don't look so glum. What are you doing here? It can't just be a coincidence that you ran into us."
The Hakka person patted something wrapped in mud at his waist. "I came out to hunt, and running into you is bad luck, not a coincidence."
I turned the object at his waist over to take a look and realized it was a rabbit. What bad luck this guy had.
I chuckled awkwardly. "Come on, let's get out of here. You’re not hurt too badly, are you?"
"My arm is broken."
It was then that I noticed one of the Hakka person's arms was hanging limply at his side, and that shoulder had sagged down as well. I gently lifted his arm, and it bent at an odd angle towards the ground. It was indeed broken; both bones in his arm were fractured.
I heard a creaking sound. Looking up, I saw beads of sweat rolling down the Hakka person's face, washing away some of the mud and leaving streaks on his skin. His jaw muscles were tensed as if they were about to burst. It seemed the sound came from him biting down too hard in pain.
I quickly released his arm and cast a complex glance at Fatty. It must have been intentional on Fatty's part; by doing this, he had neutralized the threat posed by the Hakka person and ensured that this individual would not interfere with our next actions, even eliminating the need to keep an eye on him. However, this was rather inhumane. While it wouldn't leave him disabled, the pain that the Hakka person would have to endure was undeniable, and it would last for quite some time. At least until we met Tang Yumo, he wouldn't receive any effective treatment.
Honestly, I felt guilty. I would have preferred to restrict the Hakka person's freedom to eliminate his threat while climbing the peak of the mountain rather than inflicting this kind of suffering on him. This was the biggest difference between how Fatty and I handled things.
I supported one of the Hakka person's arms and said apologetically, "Come on, when we get back, Dr. Tang will set your bones, and you'll be as strong as before."
To my surprise, the Hakka person shrugged me off forcefully and said, "I can walk by myself."
With one useless arm hanging limply, he made his way out of the forest. Fatty shot me a disdainful smile before following the Hakka person. I trudged along at the back, feeling frustrated.
The earlier sprint and struggle had drained us of too much energy, and now with the Hakka person injured by Fatty, the journey back down to the foot of the mountain seemed unbearably long.
At a spring near the foot of the mountain, we washed off the mud from our bodies. Then we sat on clean stones to bask in the sun for a while.
The sun had already shifted to the other side of the mountain; it seemed we needed to hurry, or else we might not make it back to the village before dark.
Fatty and I sat side by side on a flat rock while the Hakka person sat a little below us.
I looked at the dangling arm of the Hakka person and said to Fatty, "Give him a splint; otherwise, he won't be able to make it to the top."
Fatty shook his head and mouthed to me, "No need. Anything we do now is unnecessary; he’s fine."
I stared at Fatty. "What if he can't make it halfway? Are you going to carry him up?"
"We won't even get halfway; I doubt he’ll agree to go up the mountain at all. He'll probably make things difficult for us."
I looked at Fatty in confusion. He gave a mysterious smile and suddenly shouted, "Let’s go up the mountain."
The Hakka People, sitting on a rock, jumped up immediately. "Why go up the mountain? I can’t go. My arm is broken; I need to go back and find Dr. Tang."
If Fatty hadn’t warned me in advance, I would have been baffled by the Hakka People's intense reaction. But now, I was even more surprised by Fatty's judgment. Their performances were like they were reciting lines from a script, and Fatty had clearly read it beforehand.
Fatty ignored the Hakka People and turned his face toward me. "We need to persuade him to come with us. Are you going to do it or should I?"
(To Be Continued...)
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