The night was black as ink. In the darkness the rain came pouring wildly out of the sky, and the drumming on the tent canvas was like a string of firecrackers going off; a little farther off, voices could no longer be made out. But not far away, through the curtain of rain, the sound of a commotion still drifted over faintly.
"Ah... let go... don't..."
"Goddamn it... stay still, or I'll gut you..."
"Brother Dao, don't do this, her family..."
"Her family? What about her family, I—"
"It's still not safe today... better wait a couple of days, then..."
Moving carefully, Lingjing pressed herself close to Jiaming, trembling slightly. In the pitch darkness the rainwater seeped in under the tent; summer or not, it still left a person feeling cold.
"Jiaming, what are they going to do to Sister Yahan..."
"Uh." Jiaming thought for a moment, then shook his head and played dumb. "I don't know... Don't worry, it's fine."
Both children now sat in this tent that held no tools of any kind, hands and feet bound with rope — at least, that was how it looked; they could only huddle together in that sitting position. Testing the strength of the ropes, Jiaming narrowed his eyes.
Ropes like these would be simple enough to break out of. But if he simply charged over the way things stood, the robbers would still effectively have a hostage in hand, and he had no weapon, and his body was not trained to any frightening level. He should hold back as much as he could, and only hope that what he had said really had some effect. Otherwise...
He looked at the little girl beside him. In the darkness he could feel her looking back at him. He lowered his head and pressed his brow gently against hers, and said again, "Don't worry. It's fine."
If that bastard really meant to go through with it, then frightened or not, he was going to have to try something. At the very least, he could not let anything ugly leave a shadow on Lingjing's heart.
He settled on that plan, and luckily, a moment later, Triangular Eyes came over from the other side with Zhang Yahan, her hands tied. It seemed he had finally talked Scarface around — after all, they had been in the forest only one day, and though the heavy rain covered a great many of their tracks, the odds of being caught were still high. In a situation like that, they did want to leave themselves a way out.
That made these two nothing more than ordinary thugs; dealing with them would be simple. The problem was how to do it without making the girls suspicious...
"Get in there! I saved your life once, remember..." Triangular Eyes shone his flashlight into the tent, then shoved Zhang Yahan through. The rain outside was truly heavy; in the short distance between the two tents, both of them were soaked through, especially Zhang Yahan, who must have struggled on the ground a good long while — her hair was in disarray and her clothes in disorder, a thoroughly bedraggled sight. A smile flickered at the corner of Jiaming's mouth; Yahan shot him a furious glare, then was pushed down to sit inside the tent.
Triangular Eyes followed her in, flashlight in one hand and that double-barreled sawed-off in the other — the two robbers had evidently agreed on the order of the night watch. After tying Zhang Yahan's legs, he sat down to one side, laying the sawed-off on his inner left.
Four people in the tent made it rather crowded. Triangular Eyes took up nearly half the space, so the other three had to sit squeezed back to back. With tens of thousands of yuan from this robbery, he was clearly restless, shifting about, pulling out a stack of bills and counting them greedily in the flashlight's beam. Then he carefully wiped the sawed-off down with a cloth a few times, and now and then he would fix Zhang Yahan with a lewd stare; each time, the young teacher's body instinctively edged a little closer to the two children.
After about an hour of this, the flashlight finally went out. The endless rain outside seemed to wrap everything in a bottomless abyss; there was no other sound at all — only rain, rain, rain.
Under such a dark night, exhausted Lingjing soon fell asleep leaning against Jiaming. Zhang Yahan's mind was a tangled mess, and she did not dare sleep for anything. If what Scarface had wanted to do really happened, she would rather be dead. From what they said, if they could get through two days without the police catching them, then they would certainly do it to her... and to this wretched brat as well. And to think I was actually moved when he came over to save us... Who would have guessed he would pull a stunt like that.
"...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."
With the fact of her family's wealth spoken out loud, she might not merely become a target for rape — the two of them might also use her as a hostage for ransom, and then they would not let her go for a long while. The two children, meanwhile, might be released as so much dead weight. He's far too clever by half... Though of course a child couldn't possibly think of all that. I must be imagining things...
Her heart brimming with resentment, when the boy's body suddenly squeezed against her, she instinctively tried to shift away — but the next moment, her hands, bound behind her back, were caught by his.
He's untying my ropes!
Her heart lurched. There was no time to wonder how the boy had slipped his ropes; if her hands were free, there was hope. Better to take a gamble than to sit and wait for the worst!
Lightning suddenly split the night sky, briefly lighting the inside of the tent. On the side nearer her, Triangular Eyes had a dagger at his waist; the gun he had set down over on the other side. So should I take the knife or the gun...? Trembling, she reached out her hand...
Her breathing was quick, her heart racing; for a moment the pounding of her pulse and her own breath nearly drowned out the downpour outside the tent. Slowly she crouched up and reached for the dagger at Triangular Eyes's waist.
I have to get it, I have to get it, don't miss, don't miss...
Reaching out by the memory of that instant, she endured a span of seconds that felt as long as a lifetime. At last her fingers found the dagger's hilt, and just as she was about to pull it free, another hand abruptly pressed down on hers.
"What are you doing— mmph—"
Triangular Eyes shouted — and the next moment something seemed to jam in his throat and no sound would come out. The hand pressing on hers was trembling too, and it let go. She had no idea what was going on, but Yahan seized the chance to pull the dagger out; then another flash of lightning came, and she could finally see the scene before her clearly.
That boy, Gu Jiaming, had somehow gotten hold of the sawed-off, and now the entire barrel was jammed into Triangular Eyes's mouth. The sight revealed in that instant left Yahan almost certain she was seeing things. She hurriedly grabbed up the flashlight, but before she could switch it on, a shout came from the other tent.
"What's going on?!"
A faint flashlight glow appeared outside the tent; Scarface was obviously heading this way. Yahan's thoughts raced — she was just about to tell Jiaming to hand her the sawed-off when, all at once, the gun went off!
The sawed-off spat flame, the whole tent jolted, and Lingjing screamed in terror — while out in the curtain of rain a sudden agonized howl rose from Scarface. Yahan switched on the flashlight. Triangular Eyes was already lunging at her, but as he came up he seemed to slip; his body twisted sideways, and his grab for the dagger sent his other leg, swinging over, straight onto it, and the blade sank into his thigh. Then a still more hideous wail filled the tent.
Seeing the man thrashing and howling right beside her, Yahan could only back away instinctively. In the flashlight beam, Jiaming — who had just fired — flung the sawed-off away, then yanked the dagger straight out of Triangular Eyes's thigh and held it in his hand. Blood sprayed. His hands shook around the knife and he looked utterly panicked: "I— I— I... I killed someone... Don't you move—"
That yell was aimed at Triangular Eyes. The truth was, the sawed-off held only one shot; if Triangular Eyes came to his senses, gritted his teeth, pulled the dagger from his leg and turned it on the three of them, Jiaming really would have no choice but to act.
"Jiaming!" Seeing how panicked he looked with the knife still in his hand, Lingjing hurriedly threw her arms around him, on the verge of tears. As for Zhang Yahan, she too spoke cautiously: "It was an accidental discharge. It's all right, Gu Jiaming, it's all right. Here, give me the knife..."
And so a single accident, by this point, seemed to have come to a satisfactory end.