Chapter 10: Tracking Lao Ba
On the first and fifteenth day of every month, Lao Ba sneaked out of the camp twice, and no one knew where he went or what he was doing. Orange had observed it clearly.
On this day, Lao Ba put the boiled opium paste into a cloth bag, threw it on his back like he was carrying food, and walked towards the forest. Juzi guessed that Lao Bashi was probably going to the market outside the mountain to sell opium.
Juzi had been waiting for this day for a long time. When she saw Lao Ba walk out of the shack, her heart started beating !
She secretly followed Lao Ba and tiptoed into a forest.
As soon as Lao Ba entered the woods, he started turning left and right in front of him, making Juzi feel confused.
As she walked, she suddenly realized that the ground was covered with shiny coins of various denominations, as if someone had accidentally spilled their money while walking.
Juzi couldn't help but squat down and hurriedly picked a few. She suddenly felt something was wrong. When she raised her head to look at Lao Ba again, his back had disappeared in the woods.
Juzi ran after him, but after taking a few steps, she felt a black screen in front of her eyes and her body fell straight down. When she realized what was going on, she found that she had fallen into a deep trap.
Through the light from the hole she had trampled through, she saw that there was already a corpse in the trap, which looked as if it had been gnawed by some wild beast. Pieces of colorful clothes were still hanging sporadically on the skeleton.
This must be a woman who wanted to escape! Judging from the withered appearance of her skeleton, she must have been there for at least one or two years.
Oh my God, could it be that Shadiuer's mother told her that the wolves on this mountain were fattened by Lao Ba with human flesh? This woman must have been eaten by wolves the night after she fell.
Juzi remembered what Lanzi said, about the woman who fell into a trap while escaping, and cried all night on the mountain but no one came to rescue her, and in the end she was eaten by a wolf.
She suddenly got goosebumps all over her body. Was she going to be the second person to suffer the same fate?
Orange clung to the wall of the pit, trying to stay as far away from the dead body , but the entire trap was so small, and the grinning skeleton made weird faces at her.
She swallowed down her stomach that had already risen up her throat, suppressed her fear, and thought about how to escape.
As luck would have it, there is always a way out. To Juzi's surprise, the damn woman had stepped on a wooden stake when she fell, and it was leaning against the edge of the pit. Lao Ba didn't notice it when he restored the trap to its original state.
Juzi grabbed the only life-saving stick and began to dig small holes on the wall of the trap pit, each of which was just big enough for a foot to fit in.
By the time Juzi climbed out of the trap with great effort and covered in mud, several hours had passed and Lao Ba's ghost had long disappeared.
She sat unwillingly on the edge of the trap, thinking about her own things blankly, until the sun went down and it became completely dark. Then she was frightened and ran back in a hurry.
But on the second day, and the day after, she secretly ran to the woods to wait for Lao Ba for two days in a row.
She wanted to see which direction he would appear from when he came back.
It was not until the afternoon of the third day that Lao Ba returned from outside the mountain.
At that time, Juzi was sitting on a hillside not far from the trap. Her figure was hidden under a natural shed made of wild vines next to a big rock. She wore a grass circle made of vines on her head as a camouflage.
She was holding a piece of dogtail grass in her mouth, the fur on top of it was bouncing up and down, she looked relaxed on the surface, but she was extremely anxious in her heart.
At this moment, Orange was daydreaming, but his ears were perked up to catch every movement on the mountain.
Suddenly, Juzi heard the rustling of branches in the distance and immediately became alert. She hurriedly crouched in the grass, leaving only her two big eyes exposed, and peered towards the place where the sound came from.
After a long while, the bushes about a hundred meters ahead shook for a while, and Lao Ba's black face appeared in the valley.
Following Lao Ba were two strangers, a man and a woman. The man was carrying a bag on his back. The bag didn't look big, but it was heavy. Juzi thought it must be a bag of salt.
Her eyes were fixed on the actions of the three people. She saw them put down the things on a large stone slab in the valley. The woman was so tired that she sat down on the stone slab.
The two men looked around for a while, said a few words, and then walked into the woods next to them together, as if they were going to relieve themselves.
The woman was the only one left. She looked around, then hurriedly unbuttoned her pants and went to the bathroom.
Juzi felt that this scene was quite strange, so she turned her head and looked into the woods beside her. When she turned back, she saw Lao Ba had already walked out of the woods. He was holding something in his hand, but it was too far away for Juzi to see clearly what it was.
I just felt that Lao Ba looked very tired. He almost staggered as he walked towards where the woman and the package were.
When the woman saw that it was Lao Ba, she hurriedly stood up and pulled up her pants.
Juzi was also worried about the woman and broke out in a cold sweat. But she watched helplessly as Lao Ba threw the woman to the ground and the two rolled in the bushes. Juzi heard the woman's suppressed screams, and then, only Lao Ba's back was left in the bushes, and the woman had been completely pressed under him.
Juzi was speechless as she watched all this, thinking that Lao Ba was really a bastard, there was a man next to him, and he dared to do this! She guessed that when the man came out, there would be something interesting to watch.
But the man who entered the woods seemed to be deliberately going against Juzi and disappeared for a long time.
She saw Lao Ba finally climb up from the woman and heard the woman crying loudly. Only then did she realize that the woman had been harmed by Lao Ba.
What's going on? That damn man seems to be hiding in the woods on purpose to help Lao Ba do good things, and he never comes out! Juzi suddenly has a bad feeling, she seems to have guessed something...
Lao Ba was gesticulating and saying something to the crying woman. He was talking in a long, endless speech.
Finally, the woman stopped crying, followed Lao Ba, carried the bag that the man had carried, and slowly walked towards the camp.
The woman kept looking back into the woods as she walked.
Orange's heart suddenly started beating fast, and her thoughts were all on the man who no longer showed up.
When Lao Ba and the others came over, she hid in the grass. After they were far away, she quietly moved towards the forest where Lao Ba and the man had entered.
Unfortunately, the scene before her was exactly what she had guessed: the poor man had fallen under a red pine tree, with a thick and long wooden stick thrown beside him.
Juzi didn't care about being afraid. She gritted her teeth and moved closer to see if the man was still breathing...
On this day, Goudan wandered around the village for the whole morning and felt so restless that he was neither up nor down. So, when his mother wasn't paying attention, he ran to the woods at Beishanzui again.
Goudan was looking around as he walked towards the familiar place, and suddenly he felt a little scared.
Yesterday, after he heard his mother screaming in the woods, he ran there in one breath and saw the horrifying scene: a dead ghost whose flesh had been eaten by wolves was lying in a hole in a fallen log at his mother's feet. A skull with several black holes was exposed, staring at him and his mother. It was so disgusting!
Like all other children, Goudan rushed over and hugged his mother's arm tightly as if asking for help. He hid behind the old lady, then stuck half of his head out and asked tremblingly, "Who is this person?"
The mother and daughter stumbled back to the village and called for help, only then did they recognize the dead man as Erzhuzi. His two leg bones, one thick, one thin, one long, one short, confirmed his identity.
How did Erzhuzi become like this? Last month, Goudan found his wicker basket in the woods! When Goudan thought of this, he felt very uncomfortable.
Now, passing by the fallen tree where Erzhuzi's body was hidden, Goudan subconsciously walked over again, bent down, and looked into the hole in the tree core below, as if he hoped that Erzhuzi was still hiding inside.
Of course there was nothing inside. Erzhuzi had been transported to his family's grave and buried at the foot of the mountain at the south end of the village.
At this moment, Goudaner heard the rustling of branches deep in the woods. He raised his head and saw a man.
The man was emerging from the bushes in the woods, a sun hat pulled low on his head with a long brim that looked like a duck's beak.
Goudan just stood there stupidly behind a big tree, leaning tightly against the trunk to help support his body with his two soft legs.
After the man came out of the woods, he looked around for a while, then turned and climbed up the back of a hill.
Goudan's eyes lit up and he followed the figure and chased after him. He was so excited that his heart was beating wildly and his legs moved forward involuntarily.
They entered an old forest, where the trees were thicker than those in the previous place, and the black bark looked older. Gou Dan'er suddenly stumbled and fell behind a big rock, too tired to walk anymore.
Maybe I have misjudged the person?
Goudan lay on the stone slab suspiciously, breathing heavily for a while, then he felt a wave of tiredness coming over him and fell asleep unknowingly.
After an unknown amount of time, he vaguely heard two people talking from behind the stone:
"This is 20,000 yuan. Shit! When will the next batch of goods be delivered?" Goudan was so excited that he almost shouted. He felt that the young man's voice was too familiar! Especially his phrase "Shit!" that had not changed for more than ten years proved that the speaker was his brother-in-law Dalong.
"It's the same old rule, the first day of next month." The man's voice seemed familiar. Who was it? Goudan couldn't remember for a moment.
"Fuck, well, I'll come back then."
"No need, I'll deliver it myself when the time comes."
"Fuck, let me do it. I can go home and see my wife on the way."
"Come on, you can't even keep your head in this line of work, why bother looking at a wife? Don't forget that you are a wanted criminal! There are wanted posters everywhere. Go back to the village, are you going to die?..."
"Don't scare me! If I were afraid of death, I wouldn't do this, fuck..."
"You're not afraid of death, but I am! Please don't get me into trouble. Let me do this. If you want to send money to your wife, I'll do it for you."
"You old bastard? Fuck! I'm afraid you'll take this opportunity to sleep with my wife..."
"Come on, you are allowed to keep a mistress outside, but your wife is not allowed to have a secret affair with a man at home?"
"You bastard! Damn it, if you dare to touch her, I will never let you go!"
"Hey hey...what if I've already touched it?"
"I'll fuck your ancestors for eight generations!"
Goudan was confused and had no idea what was going on.
He was about to get up and go forward to see what was going on, but he felt that the two people he was familiar with seemed to be very angry at the moment, and he was a little scared. It is best not to provoke adults when they are angry. This is the valuable experience he has gained from being a child for more than 20 years.
So Goudaner remained obedient, lying on the stone slab, waiting for a suitable opportunity. But as he listened, there was no sound at all.
After a while, he suddenly realized what was going on and stood up, but there was no one around.
"Brother-in-law!" Goudan'er's tongue suddenly became more flexible. He fluently shouted towards the forest: "Brother-in-law! Brother-in-law..." Then, a series of parrot-like echoes rang out in the mountains: "Brother-in-law, brother-in-law, brother-in-law..."
Goudan shouted at a vague figure in the woods and hurriedly chased after it.
He was certain that the man in the sun hat was his brother-in-law, Dalong, who had said he had been "out making money" for more than a year!
As for why he suddenly appeared here, why he was with that Old Eight, and what they were talking about, he knew nothing and didn't want to know.
No matter how Goudan shouted or chased, the figure in front never looked back. It just flickered in and out of Goudan's vision.
I don’t know how far I ran, but the man’s shadow suddenly disappeared like an illusion, and everything was as if it had never appeared.
Goudan blinked and shook his head. He couldn't understand what had just happened in the forest.
With Goudan's intelligence, what would he do even if he really met his brother-in-law Dalong? But at this moment, Goudan was thinking strongly of the "old love". He was thinking of Dalong before he left Banpo Village, the brother-in-law who took him to the ditch to catch fish, climbed up the eaves to catch birds, and was as patient with him as if he were his own silly son.
The heartbroken Goudaner found out that he had lost his brother-in-law, and he kept spinning in circles like a puppy trying to catch its own tail.
He was unwilling to leave the forest and go home, so he wandered around in circles in the forest until it got dark, when he realized it was time to go home.
But where is the road?
