Chapter 22: Entering the Village Again

The car came under the moonlight, and there was a sudden brake, raising a lot of dust. Uncle He seemed to be used to it, and at this time he jumped back and covered his nose and mouth in time.

After the car had come to a stop, a man jumped out of the car. I recognized him in the moonlight as Qin Huai, but he didn’t look like him.

His hair was messy, his face unshaven, his cheeks sunken, and he looked extremely thin. His clothes were also in a mess, and he was a far cry from the image of Qin Huai that I had in my mind, who was more concerned with his appearance.

But he is my brother, how could I not recognize him? I opened my eyes wide and looked at the moon in the sky, and then I tried hard to hold back the tears in my eyes.

“Uncle He, really don’t come fishing tomorrow. I’m sorry I’m not in the mood to pick you up. I’m really irritable, irritable about everything.” Qin Huai didn’t see me hiding behind the tree, or he was simply distracted by everything. He walked towards Uncle He and spoke in a hoarse voice.

Uncle He didn’t say anything, or maybe he didn’t have time to say anything. Qin Huai began to yell, “Uncle He, I really don’t understand. You’ve watched me and Chengyi grow up, so how can you be so heartless? You come here every day to fish. Is fishing really that important?

“Maybe it can calm you down. Qin Huai, you’re so old now. Can’t you be a little more calm when you encounter things?” Uncle He’s voice was a little helpless.

“Calm the fuck down? Fuck calm down! That was my brother, a brother closer than a real brother. We’ve been through life and death together several times. I hate that I can’t die in his place. How can I be calm?” Qin Huai was like an angry lion at this moment, almost roaring.

Uncle He sighed, and I couldn’t hold back any longer. I walked out from behind the tree, and with great difficulty, I said, “I’m not dead yet, and you keep saying you’ll die for me. What do you mean? If I really die, you don’t have to die for me. Just take care of the people who need your care.”

After that, I looked at Qin Huai with a smile. I didn’t want to be too sad, because the people who cared about me had been sad for me for too long. My existence was not to make them sad. I hoped that my existence could help them, protect them, and make them happy.

Qinhuai looked at me smiling and was suddenly stunned. The next moment, he ran towards me as if he didn’t believe his own eyes, but because he was so excited, he stumbled a bit and finally fell to the ground less than two meters away from me.

Then he knelt on the ground and suddenly yelled at the sky, “Oh my God, I’m so fucking…” Then he couldn’t speak, and his voice turned into a choked sob.

I walked over to help Qinhuai up, but I was actually crying very hard, just not wanting to cry out, so I distracted myself.

Qinhuai, however, reached out and grabbed me, and suddenly gave me a fierce bear hug, slapping and beating my back with his hands. He shouted, “Fuck, it’s hot, it’s alive, Chen Chengyi, it’s alive.”

After that, Qin Huai stopped talking. I could feel that he was crying, but as a man in his thirties, he didn’t want to cry out anymore.

I wiped my eyes and said, “Well, it’s alive.”

“You’re really alive.” Qin Huai patted me twice, finally let go of me, and then pulled me to my feet. At this point, he had already dried his tears and looked at me and laughed: “Look at you, are you going for the beggar look?”

Yes, I deliberately didn’t shave for a month in order to change my image in the future, but I have a beard, and at this moment my beard is all over my face, I guess I’ve suddenly aged ten years, and I don’t need to look in the mirror to know that I look decadent.

In addition, I am afraid of the cliff, and my clothes are also worn and torn. With this beard and unkempt hair, Qin Huai said that I look like a beggar, and he is right.

“Let’s talk about it in the car. If we’re delayed for too long, the people in the village might suspect something,” said Uncle He, who couldn’t help but come over and talk to us.

“The people in the village? You mean the people who are interrogated every day when they enter and leave the village?” Qin Huai obviously didn’t know, and when he saw that I was alive, he was so happy that he forgot everything and had no questions.

“Yes, I have kept it from you before, but I had no choice,” explained Uncle He.

Qin Huai, however, surprisingly did not seem to care much about it. Instead, he opened the car door and quickly got in, saying, “Those guys, I said I didn’t like the way they looked, and I said they were helping to find Chengyi. They just stood there every day, and I didn’t see them doing anything. What are they nagging about? Get in the car.”

Qin Huai urged, but Uncle He shook his head and said, “You can’t let Chengyi get in the car like that. Don’t you forget that they have to check every time they come and go? Sometimes they have to look in the trunk.”

“Yeah, how could I forget this? We’ve argued about this several times! They just kept stalling me, saying that the person who hurt Chengyi was too powerful, and that he could sneak into the village in any way, and that Chengyi would really not be able to live, and so on. Fuck! What should I do, Uncle He?” Qin Huai slapped his head and said with some annoyance. After seeing me, this guy was so excited that his thinking became a bit slow.

“This car has a secret compartment.” As he spoke, Uncle He flipped up the seat cushion in the back seat. Underneath the cushion was a small space that could accommodate me lying sideways inside. There were also a few clever holes that allowed me to breathe without difficulty. After lifting up the cushion, Uncle He looked at me and said, “Chengyi, I’m sorry for putting you through this.”

“What’s there to be upset about?” Having experienced life and death and climbed over the cliff, I really didn’t think that I would be too uncomfortable in this small space. I lay down inside very quickly, and Uncle He looked at me with relief and then closed the cushion.

Actually, lying in here is really uncomfortable. When I stopped at Qinhuai, I almost vomited, but I forced myself to hold it in to avoid being discovered.

Then I heard the sound of the car door opening, and a strange voice asked, “Uncle He, did you catch any fish today?”

“Same as yesterday, just one. The fish in this lake are not easy to catch, and often there is no catch.” When he finished, I saw through the small hole that Uncle He had taken the fish basket, presumably to show the others the “results.”

These people are really suspicious!

Then I heard Qin Huai scolding: “Fishing, fishing, Uncle He, don’t you know that fishing is all you do all day long? And you guys, you don’t do anything, but you check on me every day. When you have time, go find my brothers. You just stand here and do nothing, right?”

This kid is good at acting. I praised him in my heart, but then I heard the car inspector sneer and say in a strange voice, “Yang Qinhuai, don’t let your rich boy temper flare up in front of us. We are just little shrimps. Can barefoot people be afraid of those in shoes? Besides, what we do is an order from the top. We can’t let you talk nonsense there. Do you really think we are afraid of you?”

These people are naturally not afraid of Qinhuai. They are simply people from another faction, but they sound so serious!

Qin Huai was furious and rushed out of the car. It looked like he was going to fight, but he was stopped by Uncle He. Under normal circumstances, if someone provoked him when he was in a bad mood, it would be abnormal for him not to be angry.

After the car was searched, the group finally let Qin Huai leave. This time, it was as if they were deliberately making things difficult for Qin Huai. These people even searched the trunk carefully. Of course, they didn’t find anything.

The car drove into the village. In the car, Uncle He said to Qin Huai in surprise, “You don’t see it, kid, but you’re quite perceptive.”

“I’m not really stupid. I know what to do.” Qin Huai’s tone had become cheerful and calm, and he had returned to his old self, no longer the anxious and irritable person he had been.

Uncle He smiled in relief and said nothing more. A few minutes later, the car finally stopped, and then I saw Qin Huai pull open the seat cushion and say to me, “Come down quickly, there’s no one around.”

Didn’t you go to Zheng’s yard? I didn’t have time to think too much, so I quickly got up and jumped off the car. Uncle He over there pulled me over and dragged me into the yard.

It was really not in Zheng’s courtyard, but in a more remote courtyard in the village. I was familiar with Hucun, so I knew where it was.

“He deliberately lives here, so it’s more convenient to find you.” Uncle He explained, and then took me into the house.

There was no one else in the house, just Uncle He and Qin Huai. It seems that the people who originally lived here should have moved to Zheng’s house to make room for them.

I suddenly sat down in a chair. The events of the past two days and the safe environment finally released my exhaustion. I felt limp all over, but what should I do next?

Drag Qinhuai down? That’s something I absolutely don’t want to do!