The Mongolian man's words left Song Laosan and the rest of us completely dumbfounded.
I asked Song Laosan, "When you were talking to them before, did you mention how we would cross the border and where we would be going?"
“We’ve talked to them a bit. They only said they would meet us, but they haven’t talked about the specifics yet. We’ve been communicating with them through a translator.”
Song Laosan clearly hadn't expected our time to be so tight, and said to the Mongolian man, "I need to call the translator to confirm our itinerary."
"That's not very Dong... He talks too fast!"
The Mongolian man pointed to his ear and waved his hand, then patted his watch and urged, "This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity! If you don't seize it tonight, you won't get another chance!"
After we'd been talking for a while, a white man patted the Mongolian man on the shoulder and said something. The Mongolian man nodded and translated for us, "If they want to leave, now! Otherwise, they're leaving!"
"Forget it, let's go!"
Seeing the two white men looking flustered, I knew they didn't want to linger at the border, so I asked, "How do we cross the border?"
"There, floating!"
The Mongolian man pointed to the river, then to the sand dunes on one side.
That's when I noticed several blue plastic oil drums standing on the edge of the dunes, with several inflated rubber inner tubes tied to them.
"Are you kidding me? You want to crash us into this barrel and let us float across?"
Song Laosan immediately flew into a rage: "You took 150,000 US dollars from me, aren't you just sending us to our deaths? If the barrels are washed to the edge of the river and the border guards find them, we won't be able to escape!"
The Mongolian man tried to understand Song Laosan's words and urged, "We only know the border defenses on this side, and the gap on the other side is only half an hour! If we drag this out, we won't be able to leave!"
Old Song never expected that the other party would smuggle us out of the country by having us float in a barrel to the border. He looked at me with some difficulty and said, "This method is too risky. Why don't we wait and I'll contact them again to find a safer way?"
"Fine, let's leave it at that."
I shivered from the cold wind: "How we cross the border isn't important. The most important thing is to achieve our goal. Judging from this, this isn't the first time they've done this kind of business. If this continues, who knows when it will be over?"
We reached an agreement, and the other party led us to the oil drums.
These oil drums have been modified so that they can be unscrewed in the middle, just big enough for a person to crawl inside.
I squatted inside the oil drum, and the Mongolian man gave me a knife, saying that if I felt the drum was washed ashore, or if I encountered other problems, I should cut it open inside to escape.
I took the knife and cursed inwardly. What good would it do if the three of us were separated by the current and we managed to escape?
Or worse, if the plastic bucket keeps spinning in the water, wouldn't cutting a hole in it just be asking it to sink to the bottom and drown?
Despite my dissatisfaction, I took the knife, and at the same time, the Mongolian man threw in a locator.
Once the oil drum was covered, my vision went completely black. Then I felt the drum being pushed over, and I started spinning inside.
"Thump!"
A dozen seconds later, the sound of water hitting the bucket was heard, and the plastic bucket shook violently. A bone-chilling cold spread through my entire body along the bucket's sides.
The plastic bucket drifted with the current, swaying and rocking, making it even more uncomfortable than being on a boat.
When I smeared mud on my body, my clothes were already wet. In addition, the space inside the bucket was cramped and I couldn't move around. After a while, my whole body went numb and I couldn't help but tremble.
My newly purchased Omega sports watch has a luminous dial, and I kept checking the time as it floated around.
The short ten-minute rafting trip felt like an eternity to me.
"Thump!"
Suddenly, I felt something hit the plastic bucket, and I immediately became alert.
"Thump!"
A few seconds later, the sound rang out again.
I was certain someone was hitting my plastic bucket with something. I gripped the knife in my hand, my heart pounding in my throat.
I don't know if I've reached my destination or been spotted by border guards.
If it's the latter, it's fine since I didn't cross the border; at least I can make up a reason to say I was kidnapped or robbed.
However, if they cross the border, the charge of illegal immigration will be impossible to clear.
Just as I was lost in thought, the plastic bucket suddenly shook, and then an iron hook pierced through the bucket wall, dragging the plastic bucket to one side.
Soon, I felt someone kick the bucket to stop it, and then I heard a man's voice: "Don't be afraid, we're here to pick you up."
I finally breathed a sigh of relief when I heard people outside speaking Mandarin.
As the gasoline can was turned upside down and opened, I was jolted by the cold wind.
At this moment, there were three people surrounding my bucket: two white people and a well-mannered young Chinese man.
Not far away, two other white men were dragging another gasoline drum with a rope attached to a grappling hook.
The young man grabbed my arm and helped me out: "Hello, I'm Zhou Peng, the translator."
I pulled my collar tighter to ward off the cold wind and saw that there was only one bucket on the river. I said to Zhou Peng, "There are three of us here, but we're still one bucket short."
Zhou Peng exchanged a few words with the white man next to him and translated, "Don't worry, they said there's no danger in this river. If everyone hasn't arrived by the scheduled time, they'll send people to search along the way. As long as no one gets stranded here, there won't be any problems."
I calmed down a bit after meeting someone I could communicate with normally.
The second plastic bucket was dragged ashore, and the monkey also climbed up, looking around: "Young Master Duan, where is Third Master?"
I kept rubbing my hands together, asked Zhou Peng for a cigarette, and took a deep drag: "He hasn't made it ashore yet, but the people who are supposed to meet him say they will definitely find him. Let's wait a little longer."
Although the other party made assurances to me, I still lost my patience after five minutes.
The time difference between the monkey and me getting ashore was less than thirty seconds, and I remember that when we entered the plastic bucket earlier, Song Laosan was ahead of the monkey in line.
Logically speaking, he should have arrived long ago.
Just as I, Zhou Peng, relayed the message to those white men to search for Song Laosan's whereabouts, one of the white men's walkie-talkies suddenly rang. After saying a few words, his expression changed drastically, and he pushed us while shouting loudly.
I was suddenly pushed and looked at Zhou Peng, confused: "What happened? What is he shouting?"
Zhou Peng's face also turned very grim: "Something's happened. The border patrol team that was patrolling this area arrived eight minutes early. The local security situation is completely different from that in China. If we get caught, we're all finished. We have to leave immediately!"
I looked at the lake behind me and paused for a moment: "Where are my friends?"
Without waiting for a reply, Zhou Peng grabbed my arm: "We can't worry about that now, we have to go!"
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