Yi Wansan crouched at the cave entrance, tilting his ear to listen for movements outside. At first, there were some faint, chaotic sounds, but then everything went quiet.
He slowly retreated into the cave. In the past, when he was with so many capable people, and especially with Cao Fatty, he could reasonably be lazy, cowardly, and timid. But now, only he remained.
He needed to do something, he had to do something.
The fire was still burning in the cave, but brighter than the firelight were his eyes, which had become almost intimidating.
I’m not going to sit here waiting to die, he thought. At worst, we’ll perish together. The wild woman has such a large body—if we weigh it by the pound, I’d still come out ahead.
After waiting for an unknown period, there was finally movement outside. Like usual, there was the sound of stones rolling down the cliff as someone climbed up, but this time, whoever was coming up seemed less nimble. Eventually, accompanied by heavy breathing, a hand gripped the cave entrance.
The hand just rested there, not immediately pulling up.
Yi Wansan stared at the hand, a thought flashing through his mind: if he pushed her hand away, would she fall and die?
His throat felt dry, but this idea suddenly expanded and couldn’t be suppressed. He hesitated again and again, finally starting to rise…
Just then, with heavy breathing, the wild woman pushed herself up forcefully, revealing her robust upper body.
Yi Wansan’s heart jumped, and he sat back down.
The wild woman staggered in. Her body was covered in long hair, obscuring her form, but streaming blood was visible. Was it Cao Fatty’s?
Yi Wansan asked her, “Where’s my friend?”
The wild woman couldn’t understand and rolled her eyes at him.
Yi Wansan felt blood rushing to his head. He stood up, glancing around, grabbed a stone from beside the firewood, tucked it under his arm, and ran to the cave entrance. At the edge, he made a feint as if to jump down, then came back, pointing at the stone and asking the wild woman, “Where’s my friend?”
After repeating this several times, the wild woman understood. Her face suddenly contorted into a fierce, angry expression, her nostrils flaring. She first pointed to her leg, where she had been shot.
Then she pointed at the stone, indicating it was Cao Yanhua.
Next, she made a gesture of grabbing her leg forcefully, her face showing it was painful.
Yi Wansan understood: Cao Yanhua had grabbed her leg.
He stood in place, staring at the wound, suddenly remembering Cao Yanhua’s hysterical cries when he was taken away.
“Brother San, I’m finished! I’ll fight to the death with it! You must take the chance to run!”
The cowardly Cao Fatty dared to grab the wild woman’s wound with his bare hands, knowing it would enrage her.
He did fight, fought to the death.
Yi Wansan felt a stinging in his nose and suddenly remembered many things: when they were wandering homeless, living in garbage bins, his ragged companions under the bridge. When he was starving and stole steamed buns, running away with the hot buns, his little friend hugged the furious vendor and screamed, “Jiang Zhao, Jiang Zhao, run quickly…”
Yi Wansan’s Adam’s apple bobbed, and he asked, “Then what?”
The wild woman thought for a moment, then made a gesture of raising both hands and slamming them down hard on the ground.
That made sense. Her leg hurt at that moment, and she fell to the ground with Cao Yanhua, crashing down just like that.
Yi Wansan fell silent. He sat on the opposite side of the fire, leaning against the stone wall, his face alternating between light and shadow in the firelight.
Why had the wild woman grabbed him? Why keep him? It couldn’t possibly be for anything good. One moment offering candy, the next turning hostile—wasn’t Cao Fatty’s fate a typical example?
Damn it.
Yi Wansan gritted his teeth, suddenly clutched his abdomen, and rolled onto the ground. His face contorted in agony as he groaned loudly in pain.
The wild woman was startled and turned to look at him in surprise. Yi Wansan ignored her and made his performance increasingly convincing—cheeks bulging, eyes rolling back, lips tightly pursed, spitting white foam.
Tricking people, faking illness to escape—the street urchin’s ultimate skill, invincible and still effective despite years of disuse.
The wild woman seemed confused and tentatively poked his body with her finger. He convulsed, clutching his throat as if he couldn’t breathe.
The wild woman grew anxious, circling the cave before rummaging through her sleeping area. After a moment, she came over and offered him something.
Of course, he couldn’t look at it now—that would seem fake. Yi Wansan maintained his appearance of unbearable pain, swatting away whatever the wild woman held. The object rolled away—probably pine nuts or hazelnuts.
He wasn’t hungry; he was in pain, dying pain, the kind that needed medical attention, a doctor!
To enhance the effect, Yi Wansan began crawling outward, making whimpering sounds from his throat, raising his head to reveal a face streaming with tears.
The wild woman seemed stunned for a moment, showing anxiety by stamping her feet and wringing her hands. After a while, she made up her mind, grabbed Yi Wansan’s arm, and hoisted him onto her back.
Yi Wansan was “too weak” to resist, hanging his head limply, but while the wild woman wasn’t looking, he quickly opened his eyes for a brief moment.
If he pretended to be deathly ill, there were only two possible outcomes: either the wild woman would find him annoying and throw him out of the cave, or she would take him out to seek help.
It seemed his gamble had paid off.
What next?
The wild woman laboriously began climbing down. The night wind felt cold against his skin, and Yi Wansan’s body swayed in mid-air, his heart uneasy.
What should he do next?
He couldn’t think of anything at the moment, so he put more effort into groaning loudly in pain.
The wild woman began climbing down faster.
Torches were lit, but the cave high above remained silent, looking as small as an eye.
Clear whistles echoed around them. Mu Dai turned back to look at Cao Yanhua with confusion.
Cao Yanhua was overcome with sorrow: “It’s over! The wild woman has run off with my Brother San! If she hides him for ten or eight years…”
Luo Ren pointed his torch toward the high stone wall, uncertain: there was relatively fresh blood on the cliff, suggesting the wild woman should have returned, but why was there no sound from above?
Mu Dai tightened the vine around her waist: “I’ll go up and take a look.”
Unable to find rope on short notice, they had fashioned two long cords from nearby vines—one for Mu Dai and one planned for Yi Wansan—both tied around Mu Dai’s waist.
Luo Ren helped her secure the flashlight at her back and said quietly, “Be careful.”
Mu Dai smiled, took a deep breath, and began climbing with her bare hands. The cliff was easier to climb than a smooth wall, with many indentations for footholds. She climbed quickly, and halfway up, she looked back and gestured to Luo Ren, telling him not to worry.
Luo Ren smiled at her, but when she turned away, his gaze betrayed uncontrollable concern.
Soon, Mu Dai reached the cave entrance.
Luo Ren began to feel anxious, the back of his hand growing cold, but Mu Dai quickly poked her head out and waved at them with large movements from above.
Her meaning was clear: no one was there.
Luo Ren’s heart first settled with relief, then sank with disappointment.
Cao Yanhua sat down heavily on the ground.
In their current situation, they weren’t afraid of the wild woman attacking; what they feared most was her hiding. In this vast forest, who knew where they might hide?
The flashlight beam above wavered, and Mu Dai began climbing down. Luo Ren went over and caught her as she neared the bottom.
As Mu Dai touched the ground, she heard Cao Yanhua sobbing, showing Huo Zihong a stone: “Look, I wrote ‘help’ on this stone…”
Huo Zihong didn’t know what to do either and looked up at Luo Ren and Mu Dai. Cao Yanhua suddenly became determined: “We must find Brother San! Whether alive or dead! We can’t just leave him in this god-forsaken place with that crazy wild woman!”
Luo Ren spoke up.
“We’re out of food, and our equipment is insufficient.”
Cao Yanhua looked up in shock: “Brother Luo, what do you mean? We can’t find Brother San!”
Luo Ren remained silent.
Cao Yanhua’s face alternated between white and red: “Luo Ren, you can’t just leave after finding the murder note! We came in together—my Brother San’s fate is still unknown…”
He grabbed Huo Zihong’s arm: “Sister Hong, say something.”
Huo Zihong didn’t speak; after everything that had happened, she had grown accustomed to following Luo Ren’s lead.
Luo Ren said, “I’m not abandoning Yi Wansan, but we’ve been in these woods for a long time. Our clothes are wet, our stomachs empty, and if we continue, our strength will only deteriorate. You’ve seen the wild woman—knife wounds and gunshots barely affect her fighting ability. We need help, more people, more weapons.”
Cao Yanhua opened and closed his mouth, unable to find words to refute him. Though he knew Luo Ren was right, he desperately sought an ally.
“Little Master Sister, you’ve known Yi Wansan the longest, you…”
Mu Dai was silent for a moment, then said, “Seven Raise Village is closest to here. We should hurry out because…”
She suddenly added “because,” and everyone looked at her.
Luo Ren asked her, “Because what?”
“It seems… there’s more than one wild person.”
With these words spoken, everyone fell silent for a few seconds. Huo Zihong looked outside vigilantly, shrinking back slightly. Cao Yanhua’s voice also grew quieter: “My Brother San and I stayed in the cave for several days, and from beginning to end, there was only that one female wild person.”
Mu Dai answered obliquely: “When you and Yi Wansan were in the cave, did you see the paintings on the stone wall?”
“Yes, we did.”
“What about the ones on the cave ceiling?”
There were paintings on the ceiling, too? Cao Yanhua gaped blankly, then closed his mouth. The cave was quite dark, and whenever they lit a fire, it only illuminated a small area around them. He had never thought to look at the ceiling. Yi Wansan didn’t seem to have noticed either.
“When I went up just now, I shined the flashlight on the ceiling and saw paintings there too—a woman carrying a basket, surrounded by two children. Then I suddenly remembered the dolls we saw in that woman’s cave—there were two of them as well.”
Luo Ren felt this didn’t make sense: “But Cao Fatty is right, from beginning to end, we only saw one wild person.”
Mu Dai said, “Initially, we also thought the murder note only possessed the wild person. That woman appeared very late, but that doesn’t mean she wasn’t there.”
These few sentences gave Cao Yanhua goosebumps all over.
He stammered, “Then… let’s go out and find help…”
He looked at Luo Ren pleadingly: “Brother Luo, we’ll come back, right? We won’t abandon Brother San, right?”
Luo Ren reassured him: “Don’t worry, no matter how many wild people are in these mountains, as long as Yi Wansan isn’t found, I’ll lead people back in.”
There was no benefit in staying longer. The group decided to travel through the night. Although their nighttime speed wouldn’t match daytime progress, every bit of distance covered was worthwhile.
Luo Ren primarily navigated by the stars and compass, combined with his previous memories. Sometimes, Mu Dai would hear him murmuring numbers, 1 or 2.
When she quietly asked him about it, Luo Ren explained that this was something he had to memorize. Simply put, they had previously entered a maze with branching paths, and to avoid backtracking, he needed to remember each route. The maze directions were relatively simple—left or right. Left was 1, right was 2. A seemingly simple string of numbers like 122122111 represented an entire path.
For more complexity, climbing up or going down would add numbers, 3 or 4, creating a three-dimensional map.
Mu Dai listened with wide eyes and tried to memorize the pattern herself, but got confused after a short while.
When she mentioned this to Luo Ren, he smiled and said, “With your little brain…”
He suddenly stopped mid-sentence. Mu Dai felt a pang in her heart and looked up at him. Luo Ren’s expression remained normal as he held her hand, reminding her to watch her step.
Mu Dai felt somewhat empty inside and glanced at Luo Ren’s face several times.
She had the feeling that he already knew some things she didn’t want to discuss.
Near dawn, they sat down to rest. Morning fog blanketed the forest, making everything hazy. Objects two or three meters away were barely visible. Everyone looked worried, and Luo Ren furrowed his brow: he had planned to increase their pace after daybreak, but in this weather, direction would be even harder to determine.
He would need to tell Cao Fatty and the others to stay close.
Just as he was thinking this, there was a sound from up ahead.
Mu Dai heard it too and tensed. Luo Ren made a hushing sound, crouched down, and pressed his ear to the ground to listen.
They were footsteps, somewhat jumbled but not heavy, unlike a wild person’s.
Luo Ren stood up and gestured for Cao Yanhua and the others to stand behind him.
The footsteps drew closer, and shadowy figures appeared in the mist. The person in front seemed to spot them as well, quickened their pace, and burst out of the fog with a shout.
Luo Ren sighed with relief and smiled slightly.
It was Zhama.
He had a bow strapped to his back, a saber tucked at his waist, and was holding a hunting rifle. Gesticulating excitedly, he shouted, “Here they are! Found them! They’re here!”
He repeated it in the local dialect.
The footsteps grew louder as several men dressed as local hunters arrived one after another. Like Zhama, they were fully armed, with shy smiles on their faces as they examined Luo Ren, Mu Dai, and the others.
Luo Ren sensed something wasn’t right: “You came looking for us?”
Zhama nodded: “Yes, your friend said you were still in the mountains and might be in danger, so we came.”
Friend? Yi Wansan?
What was going on? Luo Ren couldn’t connect the dots. Cao Yanhua pushed forward, so excited he could barely speak coherently: “Is it my Brother San? Did he escape? Did he get away from the wild woman?”
Zhama didn’t understand who “Brother San” was, but he understood the words “wild woman.” He proudly puffed out his chest, brandishing his hunting rifle: “The wild woman? We killed her!”