Chapter Twenty: Rescuing in the Dark

  In the corner of the room, Zhao Erhu, who had his mouth stuffed with a white cloth and his hands tied up, suddenly saw someone rush in with a big gun on their back, giving him a fright. He thought it was the village guard coming to take him away again. Because before nightfall, a village guard threatened him, saying they would take him out and shoot him after dinner.

  "Wo——, wo——." Zhao Erhu stared at the person who rushed in with his head down, his eyes wide with terror. He was about to shout "Don't shoot him!" when he suddenly realized that the man carrying a gun was none other than his sworn brother Li Guoting. He couldn't help but feel overjoyed. The tense and fearful look in his eyes had transformed into a smile.

  His body swayed back and forth, his eyes fixed on Li Guoting who was walking into the house, constantly turning. That meant to let Li Guoting release him quickly.

  Li Guoting stepped into the house and immediately spotted Zhao Erhu sitting in the corner, gagged with a white cloth and his hands tied up. As soon as he saw Zhao Erhu wanting to shout, he quickly stretched out his hand to stop him from crying out, took a step forward, used the dagger that had just been taken down from the leg of the village officer outside to cut off the rope binding Zhao Erhu's hands, and then reached into Zhao Erhu's mouth to pull out the white cloth strip. He hastily asked: "Where is Ma Fei? Where is he being held?"

  Zhao Erhu thought he was going to cough, but didn't dare to, and held it in for a while. He took a deep breath and finally stood up from the ground, brushed off the dirt on his butt, and said: "He's locked in the house across from us." Then, looking at Li Guoting in surprise, he asked: "Big brother, what's going on with you?"

  "Stop asking, I'll tell you later. Come on, let's go save Ma Fei." Li Guoting waved his hand to interrupt Zhao Erhu's words and said in a low voice.

  Li Guoting brought Zhao Erhu out of the house, and Zhao Erhu pointed to the small hut opposite him and whispered: "It seems to be in this room."

  The door is closed but not locked. A sliver of light shines through the crack in the door.

  Li Guoting carefully pushed open the door and slipped inside, while Zhao Erhu stood at the entrance keeping watch.

  Inside the house, near the window, a wooden bed was placed, and on it was spread a reed mat, without even a quilt. Ma Fei's one wrist was tied to the head of the bed, the other hand was bandaged and hung in front of his chest, neither lying nor leaning against the head of the bed, with a painful expression on his face.

  As soon as the small door suddenly moved, Ma Fei raised his head and saw a man with a large gun on his back walking in, startling him. His heart suddenly hung up.

  It turned out that Ma Fei was most worried about being caught by these people and taken to the town. He knew that the town ahead was called Yangcun Town, and there was a leader of the Paoge gang in the town named Gao Sanda. Gao Sanda was ruthless and had a long-standing feud with Ma Fei's father, Ma Huicheng. Ma Fei knew him. Moreover, the head of the security team in Yangcun Town, Yang Mazi, had helped Gao Sanda catch some of Ma Huicheng's men before. If they were caught and taken to Yangcun Town, they would be skinned alive.

  Just as Ma Fei was worried that he would be caught and taken to Yangcun Town, he suddenly recognized the person who had rushed into the house as the same young man in tattered clothes who had saved him on the riverbank that morning. He couldn't help but feel overjoyed.

  Li Guoting stepped into the house and saw Ma Fei on the small bed. He waved his hand at Ma Fei, signaling him to be quiet. He quickly walked over to Ma Fei's side, raised the dagger in his hand, and cut open the rope tied around Ma Fei's wrist. He helped Ma Fei down from the bed.

  "Brother, are you okay?" Li Guoting pointed at Ma Fei, who had finished wiping his knife and was quietly asking with a bandaged arm.

  "It's okay, no big deal." Ma Fei said in a low voice.

  "Big brother, how did you get in here?" Ma Fei looked at Li Guoting with a puzzled expression and asked.

  "Don't ask for now, I'll tell you later. There are still soldiers outside. We have to run fast, or it will be too late." Li Guoting said in a low voice.

  Ma Fei followed Li Guoting, and the two slipped out of the small hut.

  Outside the hut, Zhao Erhu, who was looking out with his head stretched out, saw Li Guoting and Ma Fei coming out from inside, and said in a low voice: "Those people are still drinking wine in the kitchen. Let's go quickly."

  Li Guoting said to Zhao Erhu: "You come and support him, you two run out along the dark eaves of the house. I'll cover you from behind."

  Zhao Erhu nodded, reached out to support Ma Fei, crouched down, and quietly slipped out from under the eaves of the three unlit rooms on the west side. The two of them slid out while vigilantly keeping their eyes wide open, watching for any movement in the two lit rooms.

  Li Guoting didn't idle, he thought for a moment and came up with an idea. He turned around and took the black hat from the corpse of the rural policeman on the ground in the dark corner of this house, put it on his head, slung the shotgun over his shoulder, disguised himself as that rural policeman, and stood guard at the door.

  Just as Zhao Erhu and Ma Fei had slipped to the front gate, a man suddenly came out of one of the two brightly lit houses where the village militiamen were eating and drinking.

  Ma Fei and Zhao Erhu were startled. The two of them hastily dodged to the side and hid in the dark behind the gate, nervously watching the movements of the person who had come out.

  Li Guoting was also surprised, he hastily stretched out his hand to press down the top hat on his head, trying to cover his face as much as possible, and stood still in a pretended calm manner.

  The man who came in stood at the door and shouted to Li Guoting: "Are those two kids okay?"

  Li Guoting deliberately coughed and hoarsely waved his hand at the person, saying, "Nothing's wrong. I'm fine."

  "What's wrong with you, kid? Got a sore throat?" The man asked, raising an eyebrow.

  "Cough...cough..." Li Guoting pretended to cough again, coughing several times. He waved his hand and pointed at his throat.

  "Alright, we've finished eating, don't worry, the dishes are all left for you. And there's wine too. Just no women. Haha..." The man laughed and then turned around to go inside.

  Just at this moment, Zhao Erhuo pulled Ma Fei along, opened the door and slipped out.

  Li Guoting saw this and didn't dare delay any longer, taking big strides as he rushed towards the door.

  Just as Li Guoting had run to the door, the man who had just come out of the house again, with a large gun slung over his shoulder and a cigarette in his mouth, stumbled out drunk.

  "Alas, the old man has changed shifts. You young fellow are lucky, go drink quickly, they all drink... drank too much." He walked towards Zhao Erhu's house door while muttering to himself, when suddenly he turned his face and saw Li Guoting who had already run to the gate, then opened his mouth to ask: "You... you ran there to do... what. Come back."

  "I'm going to pee." Li Guoting said, suddenly opening the door and rushing out.

  "Urinating and still running outside. You——you——." The village head hadn't finished speaking when he saw Li Guoting had already run out. Suddenly waking up, he hastily took down the large gun from his shoulder and loudly shouted: "Who are you? Stop right there!" As he spoke, he held the gun and chased after him.

  Those who were drunk in the room also ran out when they heard the commotion outside. Among them, Captain Liu loudly asked: "What happened?"

  "Report to the captain, there is - someone ran out." The village officer said as he turned his head.

  "Is anyone there? What's going on? You few go take a look if those two little ones are still there! Where's Lao Liu? He was supposed to be on guard. Lao Liu?" Captain Liu shouted out loud.

  The people behind the captain suddenly rushed towards the two rooms where Zhao Erhu and Ma Fei were being held.

  At this time, someone discovered the corpse of a rural policeman nicknamed "Thin Donkey". "Oh no! Thin Donkey has been killed."

  This shout suddenly exploded in the midst of this crowd. Captain Liu hurriedly ran to where the donkey's corpse was found.

  At the same time, someone entered the two rooms where Zhao Erhu and Ma Fei were being held, only to find that they had also disappeared.

  "Report to Captain Liu, those two kids are also... nowhere to be found." A village militiaman hastily ran out of the house and reported to Captain Liu.

  "Damn it, they're all useless. So many people and those two kids slipped away right under our noses. They're all eating the food of the dead." Enraged Captain Liu slapped one of the village militiamen without hesitation, then turned around and yelled at the others: "What are you standing there for? Chase them! Quick, chase!"