In the afternoon, there was a light rain, which soon stopped. The sky above was still endlessly gray and low, making people feel stuffy.
Although there was mud everywhere, this was the return journey. Especially, the soldiers no longer had to worry about Hu Yi's words, and they felt more relaxed as they walked.
Zhou Wanping fell into the mud again, but she didn't feel Hu Yi reaching out to help her up from behind. She turned around while sitting in the mud and found that he had stopped more than ten meters behind her, looking in the direction she came from.
"What are you doing? Why don't you come over and help me?"
Hu Yi did not immediately respond to Zhou Wanping's shouting. He stood there and looked back for a while before he strode over hurriedly. Without any mercy, he pulled Zhou Wanping up and without saying a word, he pulled her forward to catch up with the team.
This made Zhou Wanping a little stunned for a moment. She looked at the frown that had not yet relaxed and said unhappily, "Slow down, I can't keep up."
Hu Yi pulled Zhou Wanping's arm without slowing down, and said as if talking to himself: "They have always been here."
"Who?" Zhou Wanping was puzzled.
"Them. The enemy. A bunch of bastards."
Section Chief Xu stopped on the road, looking extremely unhappy. He stared at Hu Yi for a long time before saying, "Are you going to keep going on and on?"
"It's not me who's endless, it's them."
"Did you see it?"
"No. But they must be following us."
Section Chief Xu sighed deeply, feeling like he was about to collapse. From last night till now, it was still not over. He was convinced. Because he was Dr. Zhou's assistant, he didn't want to say anything too harsh, but now he couldn't help it: "I heard... you had a head injury, right? Is it cured? You should stay in the hospital and not come out."
The soldiers were standing on the road looking at Hu Yi with all kinds of complicated expressions. Some were gloating, some were hating him, and some found it unbelievable. Not only was he a demon, but sooner or later he would torture everyone into becoming demons.
Zhou Wanping could understand Hu Yi, and she could also understand the thoughts of Section Chief Xu and the soldiers. Section Chief Xu's words were not nice to hear, and she wanted to say a few words for Hu Yi, but she had nothing to say and could only stare blankly.
Hu Yi looked at these soldiers one by one, and finally looked at Chief Xu expressionlessly: "Now I tell you, the reason why they haven't taken action is because we are in the division. Birds always return to their nests. If they follow us, they will find the division headquarters sooner or later. Yesterday they said they were going to Kunma Mountain. They left in the middle of the night when the rain stopped. They walked all the way, but since we left Xiaoli Village, have you seen footprints of more than 30 people? Since you think they are your own people, why lie?"
Section Chief Xu was a little confused and tried to recall that he had been leading the team since leaving the village in the morning. The rain stopped in the middle of the night. The path was muddy and anyone who walked on it would leave footprints. But all the way to Kunma Mountain...
While Chief Xu and the others were still squinting their eyes to digest the memories, Hu Yi's voice sounded again calmly: "Besides... you are right, I should really stay in the hospital. I didn't want to come out in the first place. I did and said all this for Dr. Zhou. It has nothing to do with you or any of you. I am sorry for making you worried. Now... I have said everything I should say. It is up to you whether you believe it or not."
After saying that, Hu Yi grabbed Zhou Wanping's arm and said, "Follow me."
Zhou Wanping was still stunned by what Hu Yi had just said. Suddenly, Hu Yi pulled her forward. She looked up in panic and saw that under the furrowed eyebrows, the narrow eyes revealed an unquestionable look. For a moment, she couldn't think of anything. Her body followed instinctively and she subconsciously said, "Well... OK."
Seeing Hu Yi pulling Zhou Wanping forward a few steps, Section Chief Xu finally reacted and blurted out, "You are... you... stop right there!"
"I'm her bodyguard, not yours." Hu Yi didn't slow down at all and didn't even turn his head.
Zhou Wanping couldn't help but ask: "Why not with them..."
"You have poor physical strength and are slow, so you must go first. If you stay with them, you will be held back and no one can escape." Hu Yi answered this way, but he was not thinking about this question in his heart.
The enemy may not only be following us, but also monitoring us from the same place. If they think their tracks have been exposed, they will definitely take action. Although Chief Xu has a squad, it is nothing in the eyes of the veterans. Will the Japanese who dare to go deep into this place be good people? I hope they think the two people have something to do and leave first. I hope they don't mind missing two people. I hope so.
Looking back, they were already quite far away. Section Chief Xu and his men were still standing on the road, probably thinking about what to do next. Hu Yi urged them in a low voice: "Hurry up. Run."
"He was the only one talking from beginning to end. He said we were surrounded, so we squatted in the house all night with our eyes wide open, our hearts in our throats, and what happened? He said there was an ambush, so we walked through the gates of hell with our hearts in our throats, and what happened? Now we are going back, and he says the enemy is following us. Isn't this a deadly trap?" a soldier expressed his opinion.
Section Chief Xu sighed: "I don't want to believe this is true, but the footprints are real. What if he is right?"
The soldiers were silent. After Hu Yi mentioned it, they remembered that there were no other obvious footprints along the way from Xiaoli Village to Kunma Mountain. It rained for so long yesterday that the footprints had been softened and flattened. After the rain stopped, if someone walked by, the footprints would definitely be conspicuous, not to mention more than 30 people.
After a moment of silence, a soldier hesitated and said, "Who knows... maybe they changed their route and went somewhere else. Did we really misunderstand?"
The guard squad leader suddenly raised his head and said, "Speaking of footprints, if they really were following us, they would have left footprints, right? Let's go back a little and check the road, can we prove it?"
"Oh, yes."
"But if there really is an enemy behind us, then wouldn't we have to..."
The guard squad leader turned around and said, "Captain Xu, let's do this. I'll go back alone. If everything is fine, I'll come back. If there's a gunshot... it means it's real."
Section Chief Xu stared at the guard squad leader for a while and nodded: "Be careful. If you can come back, I don't want to hear any gunshots."
The guard squad leader turned around and started to jog, his back gradually fading in the muddy road.
"Alright, everyone, get alert and be on standby."
He fell several times and was covered in mud. He held the revolver in his hand and kept looking closely at the mud under his feet. The footprints were messy but clear. They were left by his team of more than ten people.
After turning a few corners and climbing over a low hill, there was nothing unusual, and one more mile should be enough, the guard squad leader thought. He pulled on the branches by the roadside and carefully slid down a dirt ridge, raised his arm to wipe the sweat off his cheek, raised his head, and fixed his sight.
This is... He was right...
I was thinking whether to fire a warning shot or quietly run back to tell Section Chief Xu, when I suddenly felt a chill in my back. I didn’t even have the strength to look back. I had to lower my head with difficulty and look at the tip of the knife sticking out of my chest. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the strength to pull the trigger. I’m sorry to everyone... everyone...
The tip of the knife suddenly disappeared, and then nothing could be seen or heard.
The sky was dark, the ground was muddy, and the branches and leaves around him were wet and dark green, so he had no choice but to stand there. Section Chief Xu felt inexplicably anxious, the weather was too uncomfortable, he staggered to a stone, raised one foot and scraped it, using the edge of the stone to cut off the wet mud on the edge of his shoe, and suddenly felt relieved.
He looked up at the muddy road and asked the soldier beside him, "Is it enough for him to walk several miles?"
"It looks like everything should be fine. The monitor may be back soon."
"Yeah." Section Chief Xu let out a breath, feeling more relaxed than before: "Yeah, he should be back soon." He picked up his kettle and shook it, then asked: "Is there any water in your kettle?"
The soldier smiled awkwardly: "I just drank, Xiao Zhao, where is it?" Then he turned his head and shouted into the woods: "Xiao Zhao, Xiao Zhao."
Xiao Zhao, who was on guard in the forest, did not respond.
"Hey? This kid..."
Snap—
The gun went off, not from the distant direction that I was waiting for, nor from the Mauser pistol that I was waiting for, but from the woods beside me, it was a clear and loud 79-caliber rifle.
The soldier in front of him shook his head violently at the sound of gunfire, and his body stiffened for a moment. Chief Xu saw a series of blurry splashes in the direction where he fell.
This sudden scene made Section Chief Xu dumbfounded. His mind went blank and his body was no longer under his control, as if it had lost contact with his blank brain.
Bang, bang, bang. Half a second later, more than a dozen gunshots rang out in the nearby woods, so closely that they seemed to be superimposed on each other.
There was a loud crackling sound as they fell into the mud. The seven soldiers who were standing on the road didn't even have time to react before they fell straight into the mud, with some of their faces buried or some staring blankly at the dark sky.
Section Chief Xu was still standing, still blank, not shutting up, not blinking. If he fell down, it would seem that he was dead too.
There was a rustling sound in the woods around them; several people were about to come out. A figure appeared not far ahead. He was not tall, and was wearing a dirty and torn Eighth Route Army uniform that was covered with large patches of mud and broken grass and leaves. He slung his rifle over his shoulder by the strap and walked over with his triangular eyes squinting. He walked until he was half a step in front of Section Chief Xu and stretched out a hand.
"Chief Xu, we meet again."
Even though his hands were shaking, he tried to move them behind his waist and tried to reach for his gun, but the person behind him pulled the gun out first.
The person in front of him smiled slightly and said, "It's not a good habit to shake hands with a gun. In fact, you should continue walking. I didn't mean to hurt you, really. I had no choice. Fortunately, you are not hurt."
At this time, a man ran over and reported something in Japanese.
Platoon Leader Ye raised his head, looked over Chief Xu's shoulder, looked into the muddy distance, thought for a moment, and said in Chinese, "Now we have to get down to business. Aren't three enough?"
…