Chapter 9: Debt? Fraud?

  "So, I want you to work to pay off your debt." The butcher pressed me down with one hand.

  "Work to pay off debts? Be a slave! Don't cheat me, I'll tell you, it's easy to kill me, but wanting me to be humble and obedient like a dog, no way!" Although I'm usually a person with little backbone and sense of justice, that doesn't mean I'll be someone's servant.

  "Calm down, calm down, did I say you'd be a slave? Of course not! I just want you to work for us, it's not slavery, it's not being a dog, and it has nothing to do with dignity. It's definitely not what you think!

  The butcher looked at my disbelieving face and continued: "You'll understand when we get to the workplace. Don't forget, you still owe me $25 million, how long will it take for you to pay us back by doing that kind of service work? That's not a good deal for me!"

  "2.5 billion? Don't take me for a fool, selling the three of us wouldn't even be worth 2.5 billion!" I had just sat down when this enormous number scared me into standing up again.

  "You're not worth it, doesn't mean we two aren't worth it. We are the best bodyguards! And you're not worth it now, doesn't mean you won't be worth it in the future! Don't believe me? Ask him!" The butcher nodded his head towards Bak. Seeing Bak nodding his head, I fell to the ground with a thud. 250 million US dollars, 250 million US dollars...

  I looked at these two guys worth 25 million US dollars: "What do you want me to do?"

  "I can't tell you now, you'll know when we get there!" The butcher smiled and I also smiled back at him, but my smile was uglier than crying. A person under the eaves has to bow their head after all.

  In the following days, I followed them in the mountains, turning left and right, crossing mountains and ridges, walking an unknown distance. The hardships can be seen from the tattered cloth strips on my body and the scratches all over me. What's strange is that my clothes are almost not covering my buttocks, but the two of them don't even have a single hair injured.

  "How much further do we have to go? I'm about to die from exhaustion!" I said, bursting open another blister on the sole of my foot, which I just couldn't take anymore.

  "We're not far, don't rush, look at you, just walking this short distance and you can't take it. Back then when your Chinese Red Army marched 25,000 li on the Long March, I reckon the ones who died on the road were probably people like you!" The butcher usually doesn't speak, but when he does, it's always something unpleasant to hear.

  "You also know the 25,000-li Long March? You can still speak Chinese, you guys are really something! Are you spies or not?" I ignored his sarcasm, and under the premise that I couldn't beat him, I could only endure.

  "Idiot, would you send a white person to China as a spy? Or do you think a black person is less noticeable?"

  "How much further do we have to go? If it's not close, I'll run around naked." I pointed at my ripped jeans.

  "You must adapt quickly, for you will be spending many more days in the forest!" Bark said to me with deep meaning.

  "You're not saying we work in the jungle, are you? Is this a place for humans?" I let out a miserable cry.

  "So the pay will be very high! You'll have a chance to repay your debts faster!" Hearing Butcher shamelessly bring up non-existent debts to coerce me, I feel more wronged than Dou E.

  "Here, take this!" The butcher tossed me a pair of army pants from his backpack.

  "You had pants on and didn't say anything earlier, was that intentional?" Because I found out they weren't hard to get along with, now I'm speaking more boldly.

  "You didn't even ask me for it!" The butcher's face was full of innocence.

  Put on army pants, a bit longer, but still okay. Military products are good, wear-resistant, and let me get rid of the danger of being butt-naked.

  Another three days passed and I gradually got used to their pace of advance and the forest floor.

  Standing on a large stone, the butcher closed his eyes for a moment, opened them and said something inexplicable: "Got rid of it!"

  Ba Ke also nodded, and I curiously asked: "What did you shake off?"

  "Somebody's following us! It's a Chinese scout! He's been tailing us for quite some time!" Buck replied to me.

  "Are scouts following us? Why didn't you say so earlier?" I said with annoyance.

  "Did I say you could escape? If it weren't for you, we would have probably shaken him off earlier! Chinese scouts are quite formidable! They can follow me for such a long time! Probably without the order to snipe, he's just tailing us and hasn't circled around to our front. Maybe he wants to see which route we're taking." The Butcher said with a sinister tone.

  "How did you know he was following us?" Curiosity surged up in my heart after a moment of dismay.

  "It's just a feeling! Trust your feelings!" The butcher patted me on the shoulder and continued walking forward.

  They say women's sixth sense is formidable, but I didn't expect men's to be not bad either, and they're two big and rough guys. What a freak! I helplessly followed up. The team's speed obviously slowed down, it seems that the first two days were a forced march to shake off the pursuers.

  "Two days ago, you could keep up with our pace, that's already good enough! Your physical endurance is pretty good!" Bark praised me.

  "I'm actually trained by my brother, and he's a Chinese special forces soldier!" I proudly declared.

  "It's a pity that China's policy is more conservative, otherwise we could have met China's special forces!" Butcher and Baker said regretfully.

  Before it got dark, we entered a dense forest. The forest was already dimly lit with little visibility. I felt that something was off somewhere. I walked and turned back to look around, but there was nothing. I walked and turned back to look around again, still nothing. It's strange!

  "What are you doing, dawdling!" The butcher in front called out to me.

  "Butcher, I think something is wrong!" I whispered to the butcher as I drew closer.

  "What's wrong?" The butcher looked at me

  "I don't know, I just feel uncomfortable!" At this time we walked into a circular open space surrounded by several large trees.

  "Heh heh, 'Tzee tzee!' 'Tzee tzee!' The butcher curled up the corner of his mouth and then raised his head to mimic the bird's call in a very real way."

  Then, the grass beside slowly bulged up, and a pair of cold, emotionless eyes appeared from among the leaves. Next, in the woods behind us, on the big trees, six or seven "people" slowly emerged one after another, just like they were growing out of the tree trunks, all holding guns aimed at us.

  "Watch your fire!" Buck said with a grin to a sniper in the tree.

  "I never miss!" The cold voice was devoid of human emotion.

  A 40-year-old bearded middle-aged soldier with a fake expression jumped down from the tree, looked at me and said to the butcher: "What's going on? Who is he? Why did you bring a kid here?"

  The butcher pulled the man aside and whispered something, vaguely audible, which seemed to be something like: "He's just a kid!... Yang is dead?..." and so on. Finally, it seemed that the two men reached an agreement, and the middle-aged soldier walked up to me, looked at me and said: "Hmm, my name is Roger, I'm their captain. The butcher told me about you... hmm... hmm... and that debt thing. Hmm... hmm... he said you're willing to work to pay off the debt. So... hmm... from now on, you'll be our... hmm... comrade... welcome to join us." He stared at me without blinking.

  "Thank you!" I looked at that captain, except for the best sentence, stuttered and spoke for half a day, can such a person lead a team?

  "Alright, let me introduce you to your future... comrades." He seemed a bit uncomfortable with the word "comrades". "The blonde is Cowboy, the green-eyed one is Devil, the big guy is Grizzly, and that one over there is Vanguard. The one with the sniper rifle is Quickdraw. And the one in the tree is Bottom Fire." Roger introduced them to me one by one.

  Just then, a loud rumbling sound came from the sky, and a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter descended from above.

  "Let's go!" The captain waved his hand, and all team members including me got on the plane within five seconds. After taking off, the captain pointed at the driver in the front row and said loudly: "Meet Eagle Eye. This is Xing Tian, the new one!"

  "Eagle Eye turned around and shouted at me: 'Welcome to join the Wolf Pack Mercenaries!'"

  Click to view picture link: UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter