Chapter 8 The Swap

"Mister... could I swap places with them, please?"

The moment the words were out, robbers, hostages and onlookers all stared wide-eyed, unable to believe their ears. A beat later, both Scarface and Triangular Eyes burst out laughing. "Ha! So there's still a live Lei Feng left in this world! What do you think you're doing, kid? That young and you already know how to play the hero and save the beauties? That's far enough!"

Jiaming stopped where he stood. He pointed first at Zhang Yahan: "Because she's my older sister. And she..." He pointed at Lingjing and hesitated for a long moment, and when he finally spoke his face was red. "She's my girlfriend. I can't let anything happen to them, so... Mister, if you need hostages, let me trade places with them. I'm begging you..."

He had deliberately mumbled the word "girlfriend," but everyone still heard it clearly. Lingjing's eyes seemed to light up, and then, choking back tears, she said, "Jiaming, don't come over here..."

But by then Jiaming was already walking on. He came slowly. The two robbers exchanged glances, plainly unable to make up their minds. It was at this moment that Huang Haoyun, who had been cowering off to the side, plucked up his courage. "Y-you two wait, I'm from the Huang family of..."

"Don't come over here! You got a death wish?!" A child was one thing; a grown man was quite another. The instant Huang Haoyun opened his mouth, the pistol in Scarface's hand swung around at him, and he hurriedly threw both hands up and said nothing more. Jiaming, meanwhile, had already come up close.

"Brother Dao." Triangular Eyes turned his head aside. "My thinking is, just swap the one in your hands for this kid and be done with it. Carting a grown woman along, there's bound to be trouble sooner or later."

"Hmph. What trouble could there be?" Scarface looked at the woman he was holding and hesitated inwardly. In fact, he had another idea in mind: this big girl was the prettiest woman by the pond. With the money they had robbed they meant to hide out in the deep mountains for a good while before coming out, and with a woman along, the days would be a lot easier to bear. While he was turning this over, Zhang Yahan, who had heard every word, said, "No. I won't swap!"

"Who the hell do you think is giving the orders here!" Scarface shouted, jamming the muzzle against Jiaming's head and shoving Zhang Yahan away with one hand. Jiaming took Lingjing's hand and said softly, "It's all right. Don't worry." Lingjing nodded through her tears. "I'm not scared..."

"Damn. First time in my life I've seen a real hero, and he turns out to be a little kid," Triangular Eyes marveled. Then the four of them started walking toward the mountain trail, and at that moment Liu Huaisha came charging out from behind them: "Let me swap for Lingjing!"

Before either robber could react, Jiaming was already shouting, "Shasha, stay right there! Go call the police and get us out of here."

That stopped the little girl in her tracks, and she stood there sobbing out loud. Scarface patted Jiaming on the shoulder. "Hey, you seem to know a thing or two. Tell you what, we've done what we've done, we're not afraid of you calling the cops. Go ahead and call them!"

The four of them had gone a dozen meters and were just about to enter the woods when Zhang Yahan suddenly dashed out again, running straight up close. Scarface raised his gun and put it to her forehead. "What the hell do you want now! You really do want to die, don't you? You think I don't dare to finish you off!"

"I'm coming with you!" she said, trembling from head to toe, though her eyes did not flinch. "I can't let two children go with you. Either I swap with them, or you take me as well!"

"What's gotten into people today..." Scarface stared at her in disbelief. "Every last one of them wants to be a live Lei Feng. If anyone comes one step closer, I'm shooting!"

"Then shoot." Zhang Yahan was plainly in the middle of a violent inner struggle, yet she still moved forward against the muzzle. "Either kill me or bring me along. I can't let the children go with you..."

Jiaming looked at the muzzle pointed at Zhang Yahan, then at the hunting knife Scarface was carrying. If he made his move now, he was seventy percent sure he could take Scarface down before the man could fire. But Lingjing was right beside him, and there were far too many people here besides... He thought it over, then cursed at her: "Get the hell away, you rotten woman! Who asked you to save me? Go back and sleep with Huang Haoyun!"

At that coarse abuse Zhang Yahan only glanced at him and said nothing. Murder, after all, was a far heavier crime than robbery and kidnapping, and Scarface did not dare fire lightly either. He backed off a few paces, looked up at the sky, and gritted his teeth. "Fine! So you want to tag along, do you! Those tents on the ground over there — bring two of them!"

He meant the travel backpacks with the tents on them. Hearing that, Zhang Yahan nodded, ran back and picked up Jiaming's and Lingjing's, then said to the weeping Liu Huaisha, "Remember to call the police." As she turned, Huang Haoyun caught her by the hand. "Yahan, you can't go with them!"

"Get off me!" Yahan flung his hand away. "You're worse than a child!"

With that, she ran off toward the four of them.

By the afternoon, clouds had begun to gather in the sky, and looking up, it seemed it might rain at any moment.

The five of them wound their way through the mountain forest: Yahan in front with a pack on her back, the scarred man behind her; Jiaming, also carrying a travel pack, walking in the middle holding Lingjing's hand; and at the rear the triangular-eyed man with his sawed-off gun. The whole way Jiaming's teeth itched with hatred.

I'd sooner just wash my hands of that self-important idiot woman! If it had only been him and Lingjing, there would have been plenty of chances along the road to kill both robbers. Lingjing was young, and she was so used to him that it would have been simple enough to show his skill once and swear her to secrecy. But now there was a stranger in the mix: not only would the robbers be warier, he would have to keep it hidden from Zhang Yahan too. Which meant the chance to act would have to wait until night.

Lingjing, whose hand Jiaming was holding, was in a muddle inside, with something sweet mixed into it. She was only thirteen, but she had reached the age when a girl's heart first stirs, and every time she thought of what Jiaming had just said, her small hand and her cheeks burned hot.

And what was more, amid all that tangled daydreaming, her fear of being dragged off by robbers had faded a great deal.

Remembering the confidence and calm in his voice when he said "It's all right," the little girl truly felt that so long as she was with Jiaming, nothing could go wrong, and there was nothing to be afraid of.

Of the five, the two robbers kept urging them to walk faster. Yahan gradually ran out of strength, but she forced herself to keep up. Jiaming and Lingjing ran every day for training, so on these mountain paths they actually held up better than most adults.

If they had been hoping for rescue, they ought to have walked slower to drag out the time, but Jiaming was not counting on the police at all, and simply kept an even, unhurried pace behind the others.

In time the two robbers even came to feel a certain admiration for him and occasionally asked him questions, and Jiaming of course put on a timid look again, sometimes answering with a sob in his voice.

"Hey, he's still just a kid after all," Triangular Eyes said at dusk. "But scared as he was, he kept up anyway. If my son had that much guts, I'd be satisfied. Don't worry, we're only after money. As long as we get away, we won't kill anybody."

Enjoy that while you can — your son's about to be an orphan. Out loud he said, "If you want money, why not go straight to Sister Yahan? Her family is the Zhang family of Jianghai. They're rich — tens of thousands of yuan is nothing to them."

At those words both robbers froze, and Zhang Yahan turned her head back, her face dead white. Jiaming waved his hands in a fluster, as though he had let something slip by mistake: "Ah, I... I... I was just talking off the top of my head, it's not... not..."

"Ha! Never thought we'd go and catch ourselves a big shot!" Triangular Eyes said, staring at Zhang Yahan with his eyes shining.

Scarface nodded, then turned his head. "The way you talk, she's not your sister after all."

Jiaming got out one answer: "Sworn sister." A tremendous clap of thunder tore across the sky, and then bean-sized raindrops came pouring down.