Chapter 9: The Six Bowels of the Gallbladder

  Looking at the carriage going further and further away, I said lightly: "Let's go, I'll take you to get the letter." As I spoke, I walked towards Zheng Xiong's big black horse.

  I sat up behind Zheng Xiong and said: "There is a stone bridge 50 miles away from the official road, do you know? The letter is hidden there."

  Zheng Xiong listened and then rode his horse towards the direction of the bridge. Sitting behind him, I felt a familiar aura emanating from his body and asked: "This horse of yours is really good, I think it's the best in the whole camp."

  Zheng Xiong said with a proud smile: "This horse of mine is a famous Dawan horse, named Wuyun Gai Xue, it was seized from a Wanfu Zhang during the battle against the Tujue people back then, I knew you've been eyeing it and drooling, don't worry, after this matter is settled, I'll give it to you."

  I exclaimed in surprise: "You're willing to part with it? This horse is worth a fortune!"

  Zheng Xiong said: "Even if it's hard to part with, I have to give it to you; this time I owe you an apology, as long as you don't hold a grudge against me, no matter how precious the thing is, I'm willing to give it to you."

  I sighed and said: "I would have given you the letter long ago, but I've been wronged along the way."

  Zheng Xiong laughed loudly and said: "You know it's fine".

  I continued to ask: "You guys should tell me what's going on now."

  Zheng Xiong slowly said: "I'll tell you when the time comes."

  After daybreak, we arrived at the bridge. The unlucky bandit was gone, and so was the horse carriage.

  Zheng Xiong and his men jumped off their horses and surrounded me, asking: "Where did you hide the letter?"

  I said: "There is a loose stone on the bridge, I'll go get it."

  After arriving on the bridge, I bent down and rummaged through while turning my head to ask Zheng Xiong: "Do you still remember the 'Six Principles of the Fierce Soldier' that you taught me when I first entered the camp?" As I spoke, I recited: "The fierce soldier knows victory but is not arrogant, encounters defeat but does not become disordered, hears the drum and forgets death, encounters strength and becomes even stronger, falls into desperate situations without being startled, knows he will certainly die but does not humiliate himself. Right?"

  Zheng Xiong suddenly shouted "Stand still, don't move!" after hearing what I said, and then he rushed over.

  I smiled at him and kicked off with both legs, jumping down towards the bridge below.

  After jumping into the river, that momentum of heroic sacrifice was washed away. The hope of survival made me struggle in the water with my hands and feet. The turbulent waves rolled me downstream at a rapid pace. My body was tossed about like a leaf, and the wooden sticks and stones mixed in the water hit me until I was dizzy and nauseous. After swallowing several mouthfuls of water, I began to lose direction.

  It's clear that this time it's going to be a return trip, both hands crazily grasping, the body sank down to the river bottom. Just when about to lose hope, was heavily bumped on the back, turned around and tightly hugged that thing, then didn't know anything anymore.

  When I woke up again, I found myself lying in a large tent, my body as weak as if it had been torn apart, unable to move at all. My eyes were swollen and could only open a slit, wanting to speak but my throat was hoarse and couldn't make a sound.

  He glanced around with his eyes and saw a small charcoal stove at the entrance of the tent, with a clay pot on it, Zheng Xiong was squatting on the ground blowing hard into the stove. The aroma from the pot wafted over, making my stomach growl loudly. I thought to myself, how many days has it been since I last ate? Why am I reacting like this just from smelling some food? I tried to move my hands and feet, but couldn't, however, I could feel that they were all still attached to my body, which made me feel at ease.

  Zheng Xiong then brought a bowl over to the bedside and said to me: "Now that you're awake, eat this."

  Then he fed me the stuff in that bowl, and it tasted pretty good, it was beef soup. After I greedily drank it all up, I still stared at the bowl in his hand with a hungry ghost-like expression. Zheng Xiong looked at me with a bitter smile and filled half of the bowl again to feed me. This time after finishing eating, he didn't give me any more. He said to me: "You can't eat too much, you're completely exhausted now, just rest for a few days." After saying that, he left.

  After finishing the soup, I felt a bit of energy returning, and the numbness in my hands and feet gradually disappeared, replaced by pain, which was both sore and swollen. I knew this was my hands and feet recovering their strength, and I secretly rejoiced. After a while, my hands and feet could move again, and I strongly resisted the urge to jump out of bed and run around. Instead, I slowly massaged them together with my two hands and two feet.

  After a while, the sound of chaotic footsteps came from outside the account, and I stopped in a hurry. The curtain was lifted, and a group of people entered, including Zheng Xiong, Ma Liu Jin, and more than a dozen familiar faces from the camp. Looking at these familiar and intimate faces, I truly felt fear. I didn't expect so many people to be traitors. They dared to expose these people in front of me, probably because they wouldn't let me leave alive. My only reliance was still that letter. As long as they knew the whereabouts of the letter, they would no longer keep me here.

  I gave them a cold glance and then turned my head away, ignoring them from now on. Seeing this, Ma Liu's temper flared up, he jumped over and scolded: "You've reached this point and still put on that arrogant air? Believe it or not, I'll hang you from the tree and beat you until your skin splits open! It was hard for me to pull you out of the river!"

  I closed my eyes and ignored them. At this time, a person named Zhu Lian Sheng spoke up: "Old Six, stop scaring him, you little thing is quite slippery, that mouthful of anesthetic almost choked me to death, when I woke up later, I saw that the pot was short by more than two taels."

  "See you later, don't say anything," Zheng Xiong said: "You just take good care of yourself first, we'll set off tomorrow. You want to know what kind of people we are, right? We'll tell you when we get there, don't worry, we won't harm your life." After finishing speaking, he waved his hand and they all left.

  As soon as they left, I started massaging again. In the evening, Ma Liu Jin brought a large bowl of hot noodles in broth, with an egg inside. When he placed it in front of me, I pretended to be too weak to even lift my head. Looking at the steaming bowl, Ma Liu Jin broke up the noodles and fed me while continuing to chat with me. I ate the noodles with my head down, then turned away and ignored him. He slammed the bowl on the wooden stool by the window and left in anger.

  After he left, I moved my hands and feet, although still weak, but much better than during the day, satisfied with that, I moved a few more times and fell asleep.

  It was midnight when I woke up. I got out of bed and drank the remaining half-bowl of congee. Then, I tiptoed to the entrance of the tent and took a peek outside. The area was brightly lit by firelight. About 12 feet away from me, there was a bonfire with several strings of white yams roasting on it. A night watchman named Qi Guozhong was patrolling around the camp.

  I saw all this and came back, sat on the bed to estimate the situation, this camp is not big, only a dozen or so square meters, there are two tents in front of my tent, listening to the snoring sound coming from behind my tent, it seems that there are also two tents behind me, inside the camp there is a night patrol, the firelight shines brightly throughout the whole camp, wanting to run out doesn't seem like an easy task.

  After thinking for a while, I came up with a plan and crawled to the entrance of the tent, then I used the most awkward and humiliating posture to crawl towards the fire pit with great effort. Panting heavily, my body moved forward, my eyes fixed on those roasted white potatoes by the fire.

  Qiguo Zhong was startled and immediately walked over to look at me. I just ignored him as if he didn't exist, crawled to the side of the fire pit, grabbed a scalding hot sweet potato and started gnawing on it.

  He rushed over and grabbed it, saying: "Damn, you little devil is born to starve! It's not even ripe yet, aren't you afraid of getting burned?"

  I used a low, hoarse voice to call out to him, my hand trembling as I reached out to grab the white potato from his hand. Seeing me like this, he said: "Alright, don't snatch it, I'll get you something to eat, go lie down in the tent."

  After finishing speaking, he picked me up and walked back to the tent, put me on the bed and said: "Wait for a while, don't go out to find food again. Your behavior really scared me, I'll come right away." After that, he went out.

  After he went out, I got out of bed, picked up the big bowl from the bedside, stood at the entrance of the tent and quietly waited for him to come back. After a while, Qi Guozhong returned with half a sheep's leg in his hand. When he entered the tent and saw that I was not on the bed, he was stunned. I smashed the bowl hard against the back of his head.

  The little guy fell down at the time, quickly stripped off his clothes and took the long knife in his hand, looked at him, gritted his teeth, swung it around and chopped towards his neck.