After waking up, Chen Jian twisted his neck, looking extremely tired and pale.
I quickly helped him up and sat him on the wooden bed I had ordered for him.
Chen Jian took a deep breath, rubbed the back of his neck, and exclaimed exaggeratedly, "Ouch, Brother Sihai! Can you take a look at my neck? Is it broken? Why does it hurt so much?"
Liu Jiaojiao brought a bowl of water from the door and handed it to Chen Jian, but still glared at him with red eyes and didn't say a word. As she walked to the door, she angrily snorted, "His neck is fine, but his brain is probably damaged."
Then he turned around and left.
Chen Jian looked at me somewhat awkwardly, so I quickly asked him what exactly had happened back then.
"What happened to you after I left? Why were you knocked unconscious?"
Chen Jian found a comfortable position to lie down, then rubbed his neck and shook his head.
“I don’t know either. Not long after you left, I suddenly heard footsteps in the woods. I thought it was you coming back, but then I realized that shouldn’t be the case. That place is at least 30 minutes away from our current camp. How could you have traveled back and forth so quickly? So I grabbed my gun and cautiously tried to hide near the tree roots. But just then, I saw a black shadow rush up, and then something hit me on the head and I don’t remember anything after that.”
Chen Jian's news was practically nonexistent; he had no idea who had attacked him.
But I didn't feel bad about hitting Chen Jian, since he wasn't seriously injured and there was no danger to his life.
The only thing I couldn't stand was that my revolver was gone.
This is a very terrifying thing.
We don't have many guns and ammunition to begin with. Although there aren't many bullets in that revolver, if this gun falls into the hands of someone with bad intentions, he can hide in the dark while we can hide in the light.
It's easy to dodge a spear in the open, but hard to guard against an arrow in the dark.
It's hard to say for sure.
But Chen Jian looked at me and sighed, "Brother Sihai, I didn't keep a close watch on that gun. It's my fault. I'll rest for a bit and then go out and look for it again. I should be able to find it."
I shook my head: "Forget it. That guy was able to attack you silently from behind. Do you think you could fight him to a draw even if you met him face to face? If you really lose your life, it's better to just lose a gun. Besides the attack you were in, things are also missing from our camp. All the short-legged birds I kept in the backyard are gone, but I suspect it was all done by the same person."
I told Chen Jian about my guesses and the muddy footprints I had found.
After hearing this, Chen Jian's expression turned even more grim: "Then who do you think it could be? Could it be someone from the mountaintop?"
I know Chen Jian suspects Bai Wei and the others, after all, there have been some disagreements between them, otherwise Chen Jian wouldn't have kept asking to move out and live alone.
But I've already analyzed this matter before; Bai Wei and his group have very little motive.
Furthermore, I absolutely do not believe that there could be such a hidden genius among Bai Wei's group, capable of stealing things under the noses of so many people, and even more capable of evading everyone to attack Chen Jian.
Even if we don't know what it is, we still know that besides Lin Xubo and that group of foreigners, there are other people studying us.
“I think we need to have a lot of people when we go out again these next two days. Tomorrow I will divide our group into two groups. One group will stay in the camp to watch over the things, and the other group will come with me to try to move those rice seedlings back. It’s not reassuring to leave them there.”
Chen Jian gritted his teeth: "I did come up with a solution back then. Why don't we dig up the seedlings and soil and put them in pots? Then we can just carry them up to the top of our mountain and have them right in front of us. That would give us peace of mind. Besides, I also saw that the sunlight on our mountain is pretty good. If we run out of water, we can carry it up from the waterfall at the foot of the mountain, bucket by bucket."
I had already thought of this, but if I want to move all those seedlings back, I need to hurry up and make some clay pots.
But now that I've discovered this situation, I've lost all interest in caring about those rice seedlings.
He looked at Chen Jian and said, "I'll leave this matter to you. Didn't I teach you how to make clay pots before? You take the other male colleagues with you. I'll make some arrangements around this cave these next two days and see if we can catch the one who's been harming us."
Chen Jian nodded, but he was still a little tired. After all, he had been hit for no reason and was still a bit dizzy.
I told him to rest first, that this matter wasn't urgent.
When I went outside, I saw Xu Wei talking to Liu Jiaojiao. Liu Jiaojiao's eyes were red, obviously she had just been crying.
When Xu Wei saw me come out, she quickly ran to my side and whispered, "Sister Xiao Qiang is very angry. I think you should go back and coax her. Also, all of us short-legged birds are gone. We don't even have any eggs left tonight. All we have left are some dried fish and snake meat."
The situation is quite difficult right now, but at least we're not starving.
“Didn’t you pick a lot of mushrooms? And the octopus and sea cucumbers that you dried earlier are stewed together. Have a bite first. After I finish my business here tomorrow, I’ll go back to that forest. I’m sure there should still be those short-legged birds there. Let’s go with more people and catch more when we come back.”
Xu Wei nodded: "That's all we can do for now."
When Xu Wei and I returned to our treehouse, we had just opened the outer gate when we heard Xiao Qiang seemingly inside.
The noise sounded like something was being smashed; the crashing and banging sounds were incessant.
I quickly glanced at Xu Wei: "What's the reason for this?"
Xu Wei shrugged at me: "How would I know why she's suddenly so angry? Besides, I can't control Sister Xiao Qiang's temper. I'm going to get some water from under me. You can figure it out yourself."
After saying that, we carried the clay pots we had made down the mountain.
I was a little apprehensive, after all, Xiao Qiang's temper is something I can't easily calm down with just a few words. But in this situation, it's up to me to persuade her.
"Hey, Grandma, what's gotten into you again?"
Xiao Qiang was sitting on the bed in her small cubicle. She had thrown the wolf skin on the stone wall and was holding the cane I had made for her earlier, tapping it against the stone wall, making a clattering sound.
"This whole thing is my fault. If I hadn't gone out to pick mushrooms, we wouldn't have suffered such a huge loss. But Xu Wei shouldn't have said those things. She kept saying that rice was important and food was important. Wasn't she just blaming me for all of that?"
I quickly tried to explain to Xiao Qiang that Xu Wei really didn't mean it that way, but the more I explained, the angrier Xiao Qiang became. In the end, she looked at me, her eyes reddened, and she started to cry.
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