As the morning mist over the reed marsh was ripped apart by the sound of gunfire, Feng Yulan still clutched half a reed stalk in her palm. Zhang Shumin's blood dripped through her fingers, staining the muddy shallows with dark red.
Behind me, I heard the loud noise of a speedboat hitting a reef, followed by a man's yell: "They must have run into the woods! Chase them!"
"Mom, hold on." Feng Yulan shifted the harpoon to her left hand and put her right arm around Zhang Shumin's waist. Her mother-in-law was surprisingly light, like a ball of rain-soaked cotton wool. She had to hold her up to keep her moving.
They moved towards the edge of the reed marsh, one step deep and one step shallow, breaking countless dead branches under their feet. The startled water birds flapped their wings, drawing messy arcs on the gray-blue sky.
When she finally emerged from the reeds, Feng Yulan's eyes went dark - in front of her was a dark locust tree forest, with branches intertwined like the claws of an evil spirit. The midday sunlight was filtered into tiny spots of light, spreading on the layer of rotten leaves like a handful of rusty nails.
Zhang Shumin suddenly staggered and knelt on the ground. The bandage on her shoulder was completely soaked. Blood dripped from her elbow onto the moss-covered stone, blooming into enchanting flowers.
"Don't look back." Zhang Shumin gritted her teeth, ripped off the belt from her waist, and wrapped it around the wound to stop the bleeding. "Run deeper into the woods, find... somewhere with lots of broken branches."
Only then did Feng Yulan realize that the bloodstains and footprints on the muddy ground behind them were glaringly clear.
She hurriedly pulled off the hem of her shirt and wiped away the blood with dew, but she heard the sound of dead branches breaking coming from deep in the woods - not the sound of the wind, but the sound of human footsteps.
"This way!" A hoarse male voice echoed, startling the crows from the trees. Feng Yulan saw three beams of light flickering between the tree trunks. They were the pursuers' flashlights.
She clenched the fishing spear, and suddenly remembered that the detonator from Hong Gu's shop was still hidden in her underwear. The sharp metal edges hurt her chest.
"Run." Zhang Shumin pushed her away violently, but she slid down the tree trunk and sat on the ground.
Only then did Feng Yulan realize that the right leg of her trousers was soaked with blood, and there was a hole in the fabric at her knee, revealing the white bone - just now when she jumped off the boat in the reed marsh, in order to protect Feng Yulan, she hit her knee hard on the reef.
"I'll carry you!" Feng Yulan squatted down and forced Zhang Shumin's arms around her neck.
When her mother-in-law's weight pressed down on her, she heard a light "click" from her collarbone, and a sharp pain shot from her shoulder to her temple. But the footsteps of the pursuers were getting closer and closer, and the flashlight had already swept the bushes behind them.
The path through the woods was more difficult than expected. There were countless potholes hidden under the rotten leaves, and Feng Yulan nearly broke her ankle several times.
Zhang Shumin's head rested on her shoulder, her hot breath sprayed behind her ears, and occasionally one or two suppressed moans escaped.
Suddenly, a deep ditch appeared in front of us. The bottom of the ditch was covered with sharp gravel, and there were almost vertical earth walls on both sides.
"Jump down." Zhang Shumin suddenly opened her eyes and dug her fingertips into Feng Yulan's shoulder. "They don't dare to get too close, fearing an ambush."
Feng Yulan didn't hesitate. Holding Shumin in her arms, she leaped into the pit, holding her breath. As she descended, she saw the pursuers appear at the edge of the ditch, their flashlights sweeping over them. Then, the whistling of bullets whizzed past her ears—someone had fired.
Feng Yulan instinctively turned around when she landed, using her back to cushion Zhang Shumin's body. The sharp pain of her spine hitting the gravel made her vision go black and she tasted rust in her mouth.
But she didn't dare to stay, and dragged Zhang Shumin into the thorn bushes at the bottom of the ditch. The men's conversation came from above:
"See? Those two girls are like wild rabbits!"
"Old Jin said, if you want to see him alive - don't shoot yet, surround him!"
Feng Yulan held her breath and felt Zhang Shumin's body getting hotter and hotter in her arms.
Her mother-in-law's right hand was pressing on the place where she had hidden the detonator. The sharp metal edges poked her palm through the fabric, suddenly reminding her of the feeling of the first time she touched the gears of a sewing machine in a textile factory when she was a child - cold, hard, but able to turn out a whole piece of cloth.
"Don't be afraid." Zhang Shumin's voice was almost a whisper, but it was remarkably clear. "If they want to capture you alive, they won't kill you."
She paused, then gently tapped Feng Yulan's chest with her fingertips. "Keep that thing. At the critical moment... you can blast your way out."
There were sounds of climbing coming from above. Through the gaps in the thorns, Feng Yulan saw three pairs of feet in military boots testing the edge of the ditch.
The person on the far left had a leather fanny pack hanging from her waist, which swung back and forth with her movements—probably a walkie-talkie inside. She gripped her harpoon so tightly that her nails almost dug into her palm.
"Should we call for backup? This forest is so spooky..."
"Coward! Just two women—ah!"
A scream broke the silence. Feng Yulan saw one of them suddenly stumble back, with a spotted snake wrapped around his ankle, a pit viper common in the woods.
The other two took a half step back in shock, their flashlight beams flickering, and one of them fell into the ditch and shattered three meters away from them.
"Hurry up!" Zhang Shumin gave her a hard push. Feng Yulan seized the opportunity and dragged Zhang Shumin to the other side of the ditch.
Behind him came the curses of the pursuers and the hissing of snakes, mixed with the sound of rotten leaves being crushed, forming a symphony of death.
After climbing for an unknown amount of time, Feng Yulan's elbows and knees were bleeding, and the cracks between her nails were filled with rotten leaves and dirt.
Zhang Shumin was completely unconscious, her head tilted on her shoulder, and she occasionally let out a muffled moan from her throat.
When they finally climbed out of the ditch, the setting sun was dyeing the woods dark red, and the silhouettes of the treetops looked like a group of monsters with bared fangs and claws, ready to pounce and tear them to pieces at any time.
"Mom, wake up." Feng Yulan patted Zhang Shumin's face gently, and her fingertips felt an abnormally high fever.
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