sneak
"Stay close to me."
These three words felt incredibly heavy, pressing down on my heart, yet strangely bringing a sense of peace. I knew this wasn't something to be discussed, but an ironclad rule we had to follow.
We did not join the torrent of refugees who had scattered and fled in panic at the sound of gunfire. Gu Tieshan led us like a precise dagger, piercing diagonally into the denser and more rugged forest on the other side of the road.
He led the way, his steps swift and steady, as if the injury on his shoulder didn't exist. Xiao Chen followed closely behind, vigilantly bringing up the rear. I pulled Xiu Niang along, who was carrying her daughter; we were practically jogging, our lungs burning, the icy air cutting our throats like knives. The child in our arms seemed to sense the tension; she stopped crying and just stared with her big, dark eyes wide open.
The noise and sporadic gunshots behind us were gradually isolated and faded into the distance by the trees. Gu Tieshan had chosen an extremely treacherous route, sometimes climbing steep slopes and sometimes diving into valleys, trying his best to erase the traces we left behind.
He stopped in a depression where the sky was completely dark and no human activity could be heard except for the breathing of the forest itself.
"We'll spend the night here, but we can't light a fire." His voice was low, carrying a hint of fatigue from the fierce battle and the long march.
No one objected. We huddled silently beneath the rock face, relying on each other's body heat to ward off the increasingly heavy chill. Xiao Chen volunteered to climb to a higher rock to keep watch. Xiuniang took out the last bit of dry food and shared it with everyone. No one spoke, chewing silently, but their ears were all perked up, catching any unusual sound in the wind.
I sat down next to Gu Tieshan, and in the dim moonlight, I noticed that the color of his clothes on his left shoulder had darkened. "The wound must be treated again," I said, my tone leaving no room for argument.
This time, he didn't refuse again, but simply turned away silently.
I carefully unwrapped the blood- and sweat-soaked bandages, revealing a wound that looked even more gruesome in the moonlight. I rinsed it with the last of my water and sprinkled on some medicine powder. Throughout the entire process, he remained silent, only his muscles twitching instinctively from the pain.
"What do we do next?" I asked in a low voice, my hands still moving.
He was silent for a moment, his gaze sharp as an eagle's in the darkness. "We can't go to crowded places anymore. Places like Wild Chestnut Slope won't be the last. We have to rely on ourselves and find a truly remote place to settle down first."
“Linjiangtun.” I answered almost without thinking. This name had been lingering in my mind for a long time. It was one of the backup contact points provided by the organization. It was located in a very remote area, close to the border, and was a melting pot of all sorts of people. But that was precisely why it was easier to hide.
He turned to look at me, his eyes filled with inquiry.
"I've heard of this place. It's far to the north, near the river mouth, a sparsely populated area." I couldn't reveal more, only offering a reasonable explanation: "There might be an opportunity there."
He gave me a deep look, didn't press me about the source of the information, and simply nodded. "Okay. Let's go there."
His trust warmed my heart. This unspoken understanding was built up through countless life-or-death situations.
“But before that,” he changed the subject, his voice becoming serious, “we need supplies, especially salt, medicine, and warm clothing. We can’t survive that far by foraging for wild fruit and hunting.”
"I'll go get it." Xiao Chen slid down from the rock at some point, his young face showing a fearless and reckless spirit under the moonlight. "I know there's a bigger town about ten miles back, although it's been occupied, there's a market there."
"Too dangerous," Gu Tieshan immediately denied.
"Brother Gu, we can't keep hiding like this!" Xiao Chen said anxiously. "You're injured and have children, so you can't move around easily. I'm a small target on my own, so I need to go and come back quickly. We can't... we can't just watch everyone starve and freeze to death in the mountains."
His words struck a chord with the harsh reality.
Gu Tieshan looked at him for a long time before finally saying in a deep voice, "Okay. But remember, it's only for reconnaissance and procurement. You must not linger, and you must not reveal your whereabouts. Before dawn, whether you succeed or not, you must return."
"Understood!" Xiao Chen nodded vigorously.
I untied an inconspicuous cloth bag from my waist; inside were a few silver dollars and some old banknotes for the organization's emergency use. "Take this, be careful."
Xiao Chen took it, tucked it into his pocket, nodded emphatically to us, and then, like a raccoon dog, disappeared silently into the night.
After he left, the night grew longer and heavier. Gu Tieshan closed his eyes to rest, but I knew he, like me, was wide awake. Xiu Niang held her daughter tightly and drifted off to sleep, filled with unease.
I leaned against the cold rock wall, gazing at the night sky, fragmented and torn apart by branches and leaves. From the shadowy intrigues of Shanghai to this desperate escape through the mountains of Northeast China, fate could not be more unpredictable. The man beside me, from a stranger as a "companion" to someone I could entrust my life to, had changed so quickly it was unbelievable. And what kind of treacherous place lay ahead, Linjiangtun?
But I knew I had no way out. The mission had to be completed, and the child had to survive. And Gu Tieshan, this man with amnesia, carried a past that was perhaps heavier than I could imagine. His unparalleled swordsmanship, his almost instinctive battlefield reactions in the face of danger, were far beyond the reach of ordinary people.
A night wind blew by, carrying a biting chill. I gently pulled my clothes tighter and drew the child closer to my arms.
We lurk in the darkness, our hearts yearning for the glimmer of light. Our journey has only just begun.
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