Volume 8 Chapter 18: Reunion

I thought Wen Jin had followed us into the camp, so I took a stone and went in to block him, but I found that the person who had entered the camp was actually the muddy Mian Youping.

His appearance took my breath away: he was covered in mud, which had almost completely covered his entire body, including his hair. The wounds on his shoulders were all covered in mud, and I didn’t know if they would become infected.

I couldn’t describe the feeling I had at the time, so I froze there. He turned around, and I only reacted after that, putting down the stone and explaining, “I thought you were… that thing…”

He ignored me and asked me, “Do you have anything to eat?”

I suddenly remembered that when he rushed into the swamp, he didn’t bring anything with him. Judging from his appearance, he probably hadn’t eaten for more than 20 hours.

I took him out and gave him some tea. He ate the food and didn’t say a word. His face was as cold as ice.

After he finished eating, I gave him a cloth to wipe his hands and asked him how he was doing. What happened after he chased after us?

He wiped the mud off his face and told me in a low voice. He spoke very briefly, but I understood him.

He said that after chasing Wenjin out the night before, he had chased her for six hours. He didn’t know whether the woman had hidden or ran away, and when he stopped chasing, he didn’t know where he was.

Without any lighting equipment, he lost sight of his target and couldn’t even see the surroundings. He calculated the time he had been here and his own speed, and knew that he couldn’t have gone too far from us. But if he continued to go deeper into the rainforest, it would be even more difficult to come back. He huddled in the roots of a tree and waited until dawn to go back.

This was the same as our thinking at the time. Fatty guessed that he might also return after dawn, but after dawn, things changed. After dawn, he saw our signal smoke, and at the same time, he also saw the smoke lit by Uncle San and the others.

He judged the direction of our smoke by the distance, and returned to the place where we left him a note, but found that it had already been flooded. He had to return immediately to chase after us, but like us, he chased after the smoke, and the route was not straight. He never met us, and later heard gunshots at night, and then followed us here and found the camp.

After I heard this, I thought it was really a coincidence. If there had not been a big battle last night, I am afraid he would not have been able to find us. It was also thanks to his clear judgment that he was able to survive in such a harsh environment. But I was relieved that he was able to return, as I had given up hope.

At this point, I saw him wiping the mud off his body and asked him, “We were also running away, and although we were also in a mess, we didn’t end up like this.

What happened to you?” “This wasn’t an accident. I put the mud on myself,” he said.

I was even more surprised and thought, “Are you trying to imitate a hippo? Or do you have fleas? With your constitution, even fleas would only dare to give you a massage.

He looked at the mud on his arm and explained, “It’s because of the snakes…”

“Snakes?”

“Wenjin has been here for a long time. There are so many poisonous snakes here. There must be a reason why she, a woman, can survive for so long. And that look is really unusual. I feel that there must be a connection between these two points. After thinking about it, I realized that the mud was the key.” Muyongbing said, “I smeared mud on my body, and sure enough, the snakes seemed to be unable to see me.”

I suddenly realized that this was the reason why Wenjin looked like that. Snakes hunt by heat, and covering the body with mud not only conceals heat, but also conceals the scent, which may indeed be useful.

I couldn’t help but feel ecstatic. This is really good news. In this way, our ability to survive in the rainforest is much higher, and at least we are no longer at the mercy of others.

Muyoubing wiped the mud off his body and looked around the camp, asking me, “Is this how you came?”

I nodded and told him about our experience.

I started from when I separated from him, trying to be as concise as possible but clear, and talked about how we got here not much earlier than him, that there was no one here, and that the situation here was a bit strange.

He listened quietly, looked around at the tents, and didn’t say anything. He just pinched his eyebrows, as if he was also confused.

I told him that it was good that you came back, because because of Pan Zi, we can’t leave here for the time being, and we are also too tired to rest, otherwise it would be like sending ourselves to our deaths. Now there is one more person to take care of.

He didn’t say anything, looked at me and said, “In a place like this, one more or one less is the same.”

I was a little surprised that he would say such a thing, but after he finished, he stood up, picked up a bucket, went to the pool outside the camp and filled it with water, then stripped off his clothes and began to scrub his body with his back to me, washing off the mud from his body. I could tell from the look on his face that he had nothing to say to me, and I was a little depressed, but at least he was back, which was a happy thing.

After he finished washing, he came back and closed his eyes to rest. I didn’t bother him, but I couldn’t sleep either, so I took a shower too. After I felt a little better, I went back to fetch some water and gave Pan Zi a bath too. His body was a little hot and he slept a little uneasily. After I finished, he fell asleep again.

When I came out and saw Fatso, I thought he didn’t need me to serve him anymore. I sat down and massaged my calves, and I didn’t want to read Wenjin’s notes again. I turned to look at Mian Youping, and he was also asleep. I thought to myself that he must be more tired than we were. Even an iron-willed Arhat couldn’t stand such a toss.

I waited until 3 or 4 o’clock in the afternoon, when the fat guy finally woke up. He got up groggily and saw the bottle, and said, “Huh?” It took him a long time to react, and he said, “I’m dreaming, right?”

The bottle immediately woke up, obviously not having slept deeply. He looked at him, then looked at the sky, and sat up. The fat guy rubbed his eyes and said, “It seems like I’m not dreaming. Comrade worker, peasant, and soldier, you’ve finally come to the Red Army.”

Muyoubing is really a magical person. Although he is taciturn, his appearance is like a shot of stimulant. I can tell at once that the fat man is genuinely happy. I asked him what he was so happy about. He said, “That was before. The little brother is back. I have to follow him. I can eat with the little brother, right?”

I could see that there was blood in his phlegm, so I knew that he had also suffered internal injuries, but he didn’t seem to care. It shouldn’t be too serious, so I told him to be careful.

Muyoubing didn’t answer, so the fat man handed me a cigarette and washed his eyes with some water from the kettle. Then he asked Muyoubing about the situation before. I told the fat man what Muyoubing had just told me.

The fat man nodded as he listened, and when he heard the part about the mud protecting against snakes, he said, “Fuck, this is a good idea. With this, we can spend less energy in the swamp. When I was sleeping, I was dreaming that a snake was crawling on me, and it wouldn’t come out of my crotch. It scared the shit out of me.”

I laughed, and I suddenly felt that the fat man’s jokes only sounded funny when there was only the smelly oil bottle around. I said, “I guess it’s because it likes the chicken in your crotch. By the way, have you hatched it yet?”

The fat man said, “Not yet. I’ve been soaking in the water all day, and it’s all turned into fish eggs. I’ll have to take it out and dry it later so it doesn’t get moldy.”

I laughed, and the fat man laughed too. He patted me a few times and said, “You’re laughing your ass off, but I don’t believe your dick is still dry. Why don’t we take it out and twist it?”

I shook my head and said no, and the fat man let me go to rest. Although I was a little excited, the fatigue of my body was irreversible. I fell asleep soon after I lay down. Probably because of the relationship with the stuffy oil bottle, I fell asleep this time. I felt particularly at ease and didn’t wake up until the evening.

The sky was already red with the setting sun. I got up and smelled the fragrance. It was the fat guy cooking something. I didn’t know what it was. I moved a few times. The feeling was like a zombie lying in a grave had been resurrected. The muscles on my body were so sore that they were “bitter.” I couldn’t describe this feeling.

I had no strength in my hands or feet. I almost crawled to the edge of the campfire and leaned against the rock. My hands were shaking. I heard the fat guy talking to the Mian Youping. He was asking Mian Youping what he planned to do.

I thought to myself, this guy is starting to engage in separatism again. Pan Zi is useless, and no one will force him to find my third uncle. He has started to recruit Mian Youping to engage in his conspiracies and plots. He immediately leaned over and heard him say to Mian Youping, ” I said that Wu Xie absolutely must not know about this, or he would go crazy…”