Chapter Twelve: Being Pulled In

  Standing on a rock, the mouse closed its eyes, raised its head and took a deep breath with its nose, saying: "Shake it off!"

  "Ah, exactly!" The divine doctor also said, and immediately the two of them exchanged a glance, revealing a heroic affectionate smile.

  "What's going on?" I asked stupidly, having been in a rush for the past two days, my calves were trembling with fatigue. Seeing them stop, I immediately sat down on the ground and rubbed my calves.

  "It must be that military commander we tied up who sent this troop, they're quite capable, to have been able to follow us for so long!" The old ghost said, looking at me with a puzzled expression, and continued: "We squeezed out of the city when it was just getting light, and as soon as we came out, the city gate closed. I reckon it's because the duty soldier discovered the tied-up military commander in the morning, and then not long after that, this troop caught up with us."

  The divine doctor smiled at me, patted my shoulder and said: "Humans have six senses, taste, touch, hearing, smell, sight, these you must understand, but there is another feeling that cannot be described, some people are strong, some people are very weak, I call it the divine sense! You must carefully develop your divine sense and believe in it, use it!" The divine doctor looked at me without any doubt and continued: "Humans were originally also a kind of animal. All animals, such as mice or small birds, if we pass by them without malice, they may not even notice you. But if you want to catch them, they will run away at a certain distance. I call this feeling the divine sense. In fact, it is a feeling that everyone has, but humans have been separated from their primitive state for too long, and this feeling has slowly disappeared. So you must carefully develop it, then you can feel it."

  After talking for half a day, it's actually about the sixth sense. I listened patiently to the divine doctor's theory and then tried my best to recall the feelings of the past two days, trying to experience what the divine doctor called "divine awareness".

  "What's your plan?" asked Third Brother first.

  The old devil and we exchanged a look, saying: "Don't deceive your brothers, we are preparing to become bandits!"

  "Why don't you join the army? The whole nation is fighting against Japan, how can you use your skills to be a bandit instead? Why not go and fight for the country?" asked Third Brother.

  "Not to deceive you, brother, we used to be from the 21st Army. During the Battle of Shanghai, we fell into the enemy's trap." Zhuzi recounted the entire process of being ambushed and continued: "The whole third battalion was wiped out, leaving only a few of us alive. You know that now, if you're caught as an escaped soldier, you'll be shot on the spot, so we can't return to our unit... No, we also can't go to the Eighth Route Army side, because during the civil war, the 21st Army and the Eighth Route Army were sworn enemies. So, we have no other choice but to become bandits, but even as bandits, we will still resist Japan and fight against the devils." Zhuzi had revealed their entire situation.

  "May I ask, where are you brothers planning to set up your flag?"

  Zhuzi knew this was a serious matter, so he looked at Lao Gui and didn't dare to respond. But unexpectedly, Lao Gui spoke openly: "Guangxi, that place is familiar to us. Does Third Brother have any intention of going with me? Perhaps it's fate that we've met!"

  "Guangxi? Just now I heard Brother Zhu say that you are also bandits to fight against the devils, but Guangxi is too far away from the devils, can the devils reach there?"

  "This~~~~~~" This question left several of us speechless, ashamed and embarrassed, as if we were deliberately avoiding the ghost. We looked at each other, our faces not looking good, especially Zhu's face was red and white.

  When we first set our destination, everyone had their own considerations except for Haozi. Lao Gui wanted to be close to home so he could take care of his mother and wife; Zhu Zi wanted to revisit old haunts and continue being the bandit king, with plenty of food and drink and freedom to do as he pleased. As for me, I knew that history had shown that the Japanese invasion of Guangxi was relatively late, and the local customs were very rough and untamed, so the Japanese had been thwarted at every turn in Guangxi and hadn't been able to launch any large-scale sweeps. That's why I strongly advocated going there. I'm just an ordinary person, not a national hero - I'm an ordinary person living in peacetime who has only been in this war-torn era for a little over a month. I love life, although I'm impulsive and have a certain adventurous spirit... but I admit it, I'm afraid of death, extremely afraid!

  "Third brother, what are you planning? Why don't you go join the army?" Seeing that everyone was silent, I quickly changed the subject.

  "Heh heh, you brothers are all straightforward people, I won't hide it from you either, I'm actually a bandit in the Dabie Mountains." said Third Brother with a smile.

  Third Brother's words really scared me, and looking at others they also had a frightened expression. Since ancient times, thieves and bandits have not been from the same family, and those who steal generally look down on those who rob, and it is extremely looked down upon. Those who steal always think that they make a living by relying on their skills, making money with their abilities, belonging to technical workers, and their ancestors are also elegant and refined like Chu Liuxiang. They believe that bandits rely solely on brute force, robbing and plundering, bullying men and women, without any technical content. Speaking from both sides, those who rob also look down on those who steal, they think of themselves as heroic outlaws, bold and generous, while thinking that thieves are timid and cowardly, sneaky and thieving, without the heroism of the green forest, all of them are gutless rats.

  "Divine Doctor Brothers, what about you?" Hao Zi asked after listening for half a day.

  "I'll follow Third Brother wherever he goes"

  Third Brother patted the shoulder of the Divine Doctor.

  "Why don't you join us? We have wine, meat and can kill devils, how cool is that! What do you say, Ghost Brother?" San Ge also figured out that Lao Gui was the leader of this team, so he asked directly.

  "Third Brother is right, we can recognize each other is fate, why don't we go up the mountain to fight the devils together." The divine doctor also came up and echoed.

  The current situation has us in a dilemma, if we insist on saying to return to Guangxi now, it would be too embarrassing, obviously just being a turtle hiding from the devils, not to mention that Zhang wouldn't be able to save face, even I couldn't open my mouth, Third Brother has almost pushed us to the brink of disaster, either become a turtle or agree with Third Brother.

  I took a look at Lao Gui and his men's faces, then asked: "Third Brother, can I ask a few questions first?"

  "Of course, brother, go ahead and ask!"

  "First, who is the boss of your mountain? Second, how do we get in and out? Third, if we go in and don't want to stay, can we leave?" The first two are no big deal, but the third one is crucial. If we can leave, I'll just take a look and turn back, I don't want to go to Dabie Mountain at all. The anti-Japanese war there was extremely brutal, it was surrounded by large enemy troops many times, eight years of war, the flames of war never stopped. If we really enter Dabie Mountain, I have no confidence in being able to come out alive."

  "Hehe, first, our big brother used to be a soldier and had been abroad, receiving special training, we all call him captain; second, in our team, except for the captain, there are no other officials, just ordinary soldiers; third, if you don't want to stay, you can leave at any time, of course, if you come, the captain thinks you're not good enough, you'll have to leave too." The third brother quickly answered my three questions, paused and continued: "You guys discuss it among yourselves, we'll take a rest, I'm waiting for your news!"

  After the Third Brother and the Divine Doctor left, Zhu Zi said: "How about it, Ghost Brother, do you want to join or not? The other person is right, at least let's go take a look. If we can't beat the devils, what are we going to use our guns for? We can set up another stronghold in Dabie Mountain if needed!"

  "Yeah, listening to these people is quite interesting, let's go take a look!" Curious little mouse also wants to broaden his horizons.

  "I also agree to go and take a look, if not, then just leave." I said with my head down in frustration. Alas... Guangxi is currently inaccessible, can only wait until 2 years later when the devils attack Guangxi to have an opportunity.

  "Alright, let's go take a look. I'm not going to be a turtle hiding in its shell either. If it doesn't work out, we'll start our own mountain," said Lao Gui. After finishing speaking, he walked alone towards San Ge, the three of them stood and chatted for a few sentences, then nodded at each other and came over together. Everyone continued to head towards Dabie Mountain.

  After walking for several more days, we finally entered the Dabie Mountains. I never thought that after all my efforts to avoid it, I would end up in this land of anti-Japanese resistance. I don't know what happened to Qin Xueyan either; we parted ways as soon as we left the city gate, and I have no idea how she is doing now.

  Hao Zi and Shen Yi were in front, one of them suddenly stopped, we were in the middle and it was much easier, saw San Ge was next to us, hesitated for half a day and finally started gossiping.

  "Third Brother!"

  "Huh?"

  "May I ask something?"

  "Are you asking about the divine doctor's situation?"

  "Hehe, how did you know?"

  "Most people who have seen the divine doctor's second face would ask, you can endure for so many days, it's already impressive." Third Brother smiled slightly at me, then looked at the divine doctor in the distance and continued: "The divine doctor brother has another nickname - Judge, Divine Doctor Judge, but we usually just call him divine doctor. Only during interrogations will the divine doctor brother become that kind of person, as if he's two people. I used to think the divine doctor brother was possessed by a ghost and even found someone to exorcise him, but later the captain told me it's nothing, some people are just like that, very normal. Oh right, you were scared in the military commander's office, weren't you?"

  One person can instantly change from an angel to a devil, who wouldn't be afraid? I read it in a book before, saying that people have 24 personalities, and some people's extreme situations squeeze out another personality that is completely opposite to their current one, this is called dual personality. I really didn't expect to meet one here, looking at the team behind me, the divine doctor with a clear face, thinking about the divine doctor during the interrogation of the military commander, my back couldn't help but feel a chill, goosebumps instantly crawled all over my body. "Hehe." I grinned at Third Brother and continued walking forward, where was their mysterious old nest? And what kind of person was that captain, able to make Third Brother, such a lone wolf thief, willingly surrender? Thinking about it in my heart, my feet couldn't help but quicken by a few steps.