Volume 8 Chapter 8: The Fog

According to Pan Zi’s estimate, if we hurried all night and walked for another five or six hours, and if nothing unexpected happened, we could reach the signal smoke before midnight today.

As a result, we were unable to move forward. We relied on our compass and continued to walk in the forest for another 20 minutes. Although Pan Zi was anxious and frustrated, he dared not move forward.

Although we could maintain the correct direction, we could not travel in a straight line in the forest. Now the visibility was even lower, and it was possible that we had passed by Uncle San’s camp without noticing it, and we might even have been walking in an S-shaped route.

In addition, the reduced visibility and the extreme physical exertion of walking in such a rainforest are unbearable. We can’t walk more than a few meters without stopping to catch our breath, and the gray haze around us is extremely unsettling.

The fog became thicker and thicker, and by the time we stopped, the visibility had dropped to almost zero. We could only see a black shadow one meter away. The canopy was already incredibly dark, but now it was like night. We had to turn on our headlamps to illuminate the way. It felt like we weren’t in the jungle, but in a cave full of trees.

Pan Zi said that it was no longer possible to reach Uncle San according to the original plan. Now we could only find a safe place to rest for a while, and then start walking again when the fog had subsided a little. Generally speaking, this kind of fog would gradually dissipate after nightfall. It came quickly and went quickly.

Pan Zi had experience in the jungle, and what he said was irrefutable. I was really relieved, feeling as if I had returned from the gates of hell. If I had to walk any further, I might have died of overwork and exhaustion.

We found a withered log that had fallen in the mud. When the log fell, it crushed the nearby trees. The space around it was a little bigger, so we rested on it. At first, Pan Zi said we couldn’t make a fire, but in the end, we were so uncomfortable that we collected some nearby dry branches and vines, poured oil on them, and made a bonfire.

These dry branches and vines were said to be used to start a fire, but they were actually wet. At first, there was a lot of black smoke, but after they were dried, the fire caught. The fat guy didn’t waste any time, and he put more dry vines aside to dry.

We were all too tired, and even the most restless of us fell silent. We rested separately.

I took off my shoes and found that my socks were completely worn out, like a mesh bag, and my feet were full of blisters. After returning from Changbai Mountain, my feet had developed a thick layer of calluses. I thought I would never get blisters again, but I didn’t realize that the hardest part of the journey was yet to come.

Massaging the soles of my feet and the muscles in my calves, Pan Zi recalled the route we had just taken, saying that we couldn’t see any smoke at night, and it would definitely be extinguished by morning. Fatso redistributed the equipment, moving the contents of my backpack into their backpack.

I was a little embarrassed, but at this point it was impossible to save face. I was too tired to keep up, and Fatso told me to sleep for a while. He said that resting in this way would make me even more tired, so I didn’t want to be a show-off and closed my eyes.

However, I was already too tired at this point, and the surroundings were really hard to calm down. After squinting for a few minutes, I couldn’t sleep, so I closed my eyes to rest.

I was just about to fall asleep when I heard Fatty ask Pan Zi, “Pan Zi, to be honest, if we get to that place and your third uncle isn’t there, what are you going to do?”

Pan Zi said, “I want to see him alive, and I want to see his corpse. Of course I’m going to look for him. Why are you thinking about this?”

The fat man said, “I came here to make a fortune, not to clean up after your uncle. Your uncle is not acting according to plan, and he has messed things up. I didn’t say anything when Wu was awake and I was taking care of him, but now I have to say it. I’m going to say it in advance. If your uncle is gone, I’ll take my share of the equipment and go off on my own. This forest is so big, I’m not going to follow you to find them.”

Pan Zi sneered, “Scatter? This forest is very mysterious. We haven’t encountered any problems yet. If we encounter a problem, can you handle it alone? Besides, there are hundreds of kilometers of desert outside. Even if you manage to find something and get out alive, can you walk out of the desert alone?”

The fat man laughed and didn’t respond. He said, “You don’t need to worry about me. I have a plan for everything. I’m telling you in advance.” However, from the tone of his voice, it seemed that he had a plan for this matter.

Pan Zi shook his head and sighed, “I’m not forcing you to do this. If you get the equipment, you can leave if you want to, but don’t expect us to save you when you’re in trouble. Don’t expect to get a share of the things we find either.”

“You’re still bluffing me. You don’t even know who you’re talking to. I’m the master of bluffing people.” The fat man said, “I’ve already figured it out. Your third uncle didn’t come in here to touch the spirit vessels. If he wanted to touch something good, I would have to work alone, just like that little brother. The first two times that little brother left us, he probably got a bellyful of good stuff and we didn’t even know it.

I couldn’t help but laugh when I heard that. I thought to myself, I’m sure that the stuffy oil bottle didn’t leave us for money.

The fat man saw that I was awake and stopped talking, saying, “What do children listen to when adults are talking? Go, go, go. Go to sleep.”

I felt that the fat man knew I was pretending to sleep, and that these words had a hidden meaning. He was probably talking to me, but I didn’t know what he was trying to say. It seemed that he was reminding me of the fact that the oil bottle disappeared every time. Could it be that he had noticed something and wanted to talk to me alone?

But in this situation, I couldn’t avoid Pan Zi, so I just didn’t say anything, waiting for the right moment. And I was too tired to think about these complicated things.

After that, everyone fell silent again. I leaned against a branch and gradually calmed down, falling asleep without even knowing how.

I must have had some dreams during that time, but I slept so deeply that the dreams were all hazy. I don’t know how long I slept for, but I woke up and found that the fog around me had thinned out a lot. I looked at my watch and realized that I had only slept for less than three hours.

I slept quite well and my spirits were suddenly restored, but my body was as sore as rust. It looked like it was even worse than before. I had also thought that this kind of muscle soreness could never happen again, but I still couldn’t escape it.

I moved around a bit to soothe my muscles and felt much better. I saw the fat guy sitting there, looking up at a tree with his head up. I didn’t see Pan Zi anywhere.

I was curious and asked him, “Where’s Pan Zi?”

The fat guy immediately made a gesture to me to keep quiet and pointed to the tree.

I stood up with my back aching and walked over to him. I looked up and saw that the moon’s faint shadow could already be seen in the mist.

I asked what was going on. This kid is now like a monkey, he likes to rest in the trees. The fat boy whispered, “There was some noise just now. He climbed up to take a look.”

Before he finished speaking, there was a hush from the tree, telling us to be quiet.

We quickly calmed down and looked at him. After waiting for a while, we saw Pan Zi making a gesture to us, telling us to climb the tree immediately.