CH 6

Chapter 6 – Whacked

While the front of the village was lively with drumming of gongs, several men were walking up the mountain with four abducted girls at the back of the village.

Su Qin behaved very well. She even helped to carry quilts and bags on her own accord. The scarf that wrapped around her face slipped down a little revealing the skin under her eyelids due to vigorous movement.

It was distinctly clear illuminated by the torch.

Hence, Zhang Er’wa kept looking at this girl who was abducted here by him and his mother, Zhang Feng. This girl is beautiful. All the way back to the mountain, he had wanted to grope, touch and bed her. However, his mother, Zhang Feng, didn’t allow him to touch her for the sake of selling her at a high price to Zhang Xing.

Zhang Feng would hit the back of his hand with an iron rod whenever he touched her. But he is dying of lustfulness.

He originally thought he could take this opportunity to f*ck her in the mountain temple. But seeing the unidentified brown substances under her eyelids now, his scalp was numb with terror.

Besides resembling a shriveled-face zombie, she also looked like an old tree bark.

It seemed that Zhang Xing was right. She does indeed have a strange disease which disgustingly ruined her look. Raising the torch, he quickened his pace to move away from her.

Watching Zhang Er’wa sped away, Su Qin, who was walking behind with the bags and quilts, sighed in relief.

She subconsciously raised her hand to touch her face and felt deeply moved that Feifei’s herbal medicated ‘mask’ was useful. Suddenly, she misses the seaweed facial mask which might scare the hell out of others if it is applied on.

There are four girls and three men going up the mountain together.

The three girls, including Su Qin, walked on their own with their own quilts and bags while the other girl was being carried on a bamboo pole stretcher by two men.

Su Qin couldn’t see clearly due to the dimness of the lighting.

Only after they had arrived at the temple on the mountain and under the blazing brightness from the inserted torch did Su Qin clearly see the woman carried on the bamboo pole stretcher and turn pale with horror.

Not only Su Qin but the other two girls were also startled and shrieked ‘ah’ as they reflexively cowered to the corner.

That’s not even a human anymore.

The girl is naked and the blanket that wrapped around her body had slipped to her chest, revealing the ar*olas.

Both her legs and feet had been hacked off while her eye-sockets were hollowed. With her head lolled to the side, she had a dull look and the long hair that hung down her shoulders was half covering her body.

Zhang Er’wa then brought one of the men down the mountain and left an old man outside to keep watch.

Inside, the other two girls’ legs went limp and slumped to the ground when they looked at the girl who had been tortured to the point of being non-human anymore.

Closing her eyes, the blue veins on Su Qin’s forehead were prominent while flames of fury were seething within her chest cavity, so much so that she wanted to kill the frail old man sitting outside the door and also wanted to burn the whole village down.

But even if she has the ability, she can’t. The reason why this place is hellish is because it is lawless as no one abides by the law. There are no regulations here and the people here have obliterated humanity. If she is to become like that, how is she different from these monsters?

Su Qin walked over to the girl and pulled the blanket up to cover her body. She also spread out the bedding on the floor and carried the girl to a warmer place.

This girl can’t speak nor can she see.

She is crippled, muted and blinded.

After settling the girl down, Su Qin took a breather and intended to sleep while the other two girls whimpered and cried. One girl picked up a piece of broken tile from the ground and slit her wrist hard when Su Qin rushed over and held her hand to stop her, “Are you crazy?”

Raising her eyes to look at Su Qin, the girl’s tone was calm, “Not crazy, just want to die. That home, I don’t want to go back again.”

The girl’s name is Wen Mei. While working in a garment factory in one of the coastal cities a year ago, she met an elderly couple on her way back to the dormitory after work. As winter was very cold, the shabbily dressed old couple were starving and freezing, begging her to buy them a bowl of hot dumplings soup.

Being soft-hearted, Wen Mei was led by the old couple to the so-called backstreet dumpling shop. Once she entered the dumpling shop, the owner immediately pulled down the roller shutter door and grabbed her.

After that, she was abducted here and had regretted her own kindness. If she would have called for help first then given the money to the police to buy the dumplings, there would not be the latter incident.

But where was there a chance to do it all over again?

Su Qin held her wrist and lowered her voice to utter word by word, “If you really want to leave, bear it first, keep your life and your limbs intact. Start afresh once you are out.”

“Leave? Are you kidding me? If you can leave, why are you still here? Look at her, do you want me to become just like her?” Wen Mei raised her hand to point at the crippled girl.

Su Qin swallowed a mouthful of saliva and continued, “Do you know why they sent us to the mountain? Because 3 teachers under the education program for the underdeveloped areas have come to the village and they are staying in Zhang Xing’s house. As the mountain path is rugged, they will stay for at least two days. Someone will come up the mountain to send me bedding and clothes tomorrow and I will find a way to get her to help me deliver the message.”

She took a glance out the door once she finished speaking.

The other girl is Meng Sisi, who is only 14 this year. Seeing the two of them whispering about something, she squatted down too and moved closer to listen.

Hearing the second half of the conversation, she cried out immediately, “What? You –”

Su Qin covered her mouth quickly.

Hearing the commotion, the old man outside the door came in to look at them and said with a sigh, “Girls, go to bed early. It’s cold in the mountains when it’s late at night, you won’t be able to sleep even if you want to.”

As the mountains are too cold, it’s unbearable asking him to guard outside all night. He reckoned these three girls are not ballsy enough to dare running down the mountain and even if they do, they still can’t run away from the village.

After drawing in a mouthful of the tobacco pipe, the old man went into the only bedroom in the back of the temple to sleep.

Su Qin and the others could only make their beds on the floor of the temple’s main hall.

Su Qin breathed a sigh of relief once the old man left and frowned angrily, “So loud, are you afraid that others won’t know we are thinking of escaping?”

Meng Sisi shook her head hurriedly, “No…no.”

Exhaling a breath, Su Qin said, “Listen to me if you want to get out. You cannot trust anyone except me, understand?”

Wen Mei’s eyes somewhat carried a slightly dubious look, “Why should we believe you?”

“You don’t have to believe me, but you can’t mention what I’ve said tonight to anyone.” Su Qin’s gaze was sharp while her tone was solemn, “My current mother-in-law trusts me a lot. If any of you dare to snitch, I can retort with a counter charge. When the time comes, you can try to see who the villagers really believe after all.”

Su Qin’s piercing hawk-like gaze clearly frightened the two girls, one of whom is still a child and the other is only 18 years old.

Someone seemingly had turned back when a dog barked outside the mountain temple.

The three girls immediately got under the quilts.

As the mountain temple was full of leaks, Su Qin who was afraid of the cold did not take off her head scarf which was still tightly wrapped around her.

Feeling that he could not let this good opportunity slip tonight, Zhang Er’wa turned back when he was halfway down the mountain. Once he pushed open the door to come in, he saw the four girls sleeping obediently on the floor and lust instantly went to the head.

He then closed the front door and secured the back door before taking off his shirt. He got into the girls’ quilts and pressed himself on top of Wen Mei.

Wen Mei gave out a frightened shriek when Zhang Er’wa’s big hand covered her mouth, “Don’t scream. If you dare to scream, Laozi[1] will slaughter you and toss you out to feed the bear!”

Wen Mei bit her lip and wept, letting the man take off her clothes.

Meng Sisi, who was beside her, had subconsciously clutched a piece of broken tile before she got under the quilt. Listening to the movement beside her at this moment, with her eyes closed and biting her lips, she could not fall asleep no matter how. Zhang Er’wa’s movements were so massive that his elbow poked her waist.

The sensitively nervous girl immediately sat up and whacked the back of Zhang Er’wa’s head hard with her eyes closed.

As the man was at his defenseless moment, he became confusingly disoriented being thwacked like this. Before he could strike back, the girl seemingly went crazy and whacked his head continuously.

Su Qin sat up once her outstretched hand touched a block of brick but Meng Sisi had already whacked the man unconscious.

The room was deathly silent for a moment.

Sitting up, Wen Mei pulled her clothes back then kicked the man, who was no longer moving.

Instinctively, Su Qin went to probe Zhang Er’wa’s breathing before sighing a breath of relief then turned to look at them and said, “Not dead, still alive.”

Meng Sisi dropped the piece of broken tile in her hand and her heart was in a great mess as she whimpered out, “What’s to be done? I have hurt him. He will definitely chop off my arms and legs.”

Wen Mei was also anxious since Meng Sisi hit Zhang Er’wa because of her.

The two of them were panic-stricken.

If setting aside her previous lifetime, the 15-year-old Su Qin would surely be as flustered and panicked as they were. But her soul is after all a grown woman of thirties and at such a time, although panicked, she tried her best to control her emotions and calm herself down by thinking of a way out.

She spoke after a moment of silence, “Meng Sisi, you have the smallest built. So you stay and watch the old man. If the old man wakes up in the middle of the night, feign ignorance of our whereabouts and pretend that you have just woken up. We will come back soon.”

Meng Sisi asked her, “Where are you … going?”

“First, tied Zhang Er’wa up then dragged him to the mountains to hide him. No one saw him turn back anyway.” Su Qin gulped and continued, “Tomorrow morning, we will pretend this had never happened and we had never hit him, okay?”

“But… where are we going to hide him? If the villagers find him, we will die a horrible death!” Wen Mei’s voice was tinged with sobs.

Su Qin lowered her voice and reprimanded angrily, “What are you flustering about? You are not even afraid of death, but still afraid of this? It’s death anyway, so why not go against the tide and defy death? Listen to me, hide him first! I know a cave. If there isn’t any mishap, no one should find it.”

Biting her lips, Wen Mei nodded, “Okay, I’ll go with you.”

Ripping the bed sheet into strips, they tied the man’s limbs and gagged his mouth.

The bamboo pole stretcher that carried the crippled girl was still lying outside. The two girls lifted the man cautiously onto the stretcher then continued walking up the mountain.

They lit a small torch and tied it together with the man on the stretcher.

As the villagers often used the mountain path, the path surface was fairly smooth. They could still manage to find the footpath using the flame and by opening their eyes wider.

The two girls are physically thin after all. After lifting for a while, both were already tired and panting heavily.

A person is usually tired enough carrying a backpack on this kind of mountain path, let alone carrying a man of more than 140 pounds. They were already sweating profusely just a few steps away.

Halfway, Wen Mei, who was behind, knelt on the ground due to weakened legs, and painfully making an ‘ouch’ sound. Su Qin stopped to ask her, “Do you want to rest?”

Wen Mei asked her, “How much farther?”

Fortunately, Su Qin had just drawn the map today and was familiar with the terrain. As her memory is pretty good, she still remembers that path clearly even after so many years.

She glanced at the trees then the cliff by the sides and said, “About an hour more to go. I can still hold on, how about you?”

Seeing the girl who is even slightly smaller built than her could still hold on, Wen Mei gritted her teeth, “I can too, go!”

In order to survive, the two girls’ were burning with fervor that they forgot about their fatigue, as if boundless ability was gushing out of their bodies.

At about 4.00 am, the torch was almost burnt out and their path was blocked by a huge chain of mountains.

In front of them was a bare cliff with no plant nor a way out.

Wen Mei was on the verge of collapsing when she looked at the cliff, “Su Qin, did we take the wrong path?”

“It’s here.”

Putting the stretcher down, Su Qin ran towards a big rock that was two meters away and pushed it where a cave mouth of about one meter wide revealed behind it.

Holding the torch at the cave mouth, Su Qin gestured to her, “Drag him over.”

The man is still unconscious and has not awakened yet.

Following Su Qin, Wen Mei dragged the man into the cave with a hunched back. The further one goes inside the cave, the wider the cave entrance is. Ten meters later, this actually is a huge natural cave with a stream and a cliff waterfall at its end.

The surrounding rock walls are blanched while the water is pure blue, just like a deity dwelling cave which is totally unlike the mortal world.

Wen Mei was stunned and astonished by the beautiful scenery.

Regaining his consciousness, the man opened his eyes and caught sight of the two girls. With eyes opened widely, he struggled with his gagged mouth and made the ‘urgh, urgh, urgh’ sound.

Su Qin kicked him in the face, “Shut up.”

The man moved and tried to struggle more strenuously but his limbs were bound with cloth strips, and there was simply no way to break free from the restraints that he just gave up.

Su Qin patted Wen Mei’s shoulder, “It’s getting late. Let’s go quickly. We have to get back before the old man wakes up.”

“En.”

Before they barely took two steps, they saw a fire torch approaching the cave mouth.

Their hearts instantly constricted. Holding their breaths, they looked at the cave mouth and instinctively drew back.

Gripping Wen Mei’s hand, Su Qin retreated to the water’s edge with the intention of escaping by diving into the water at the crucial moment. Even if this is a desperate attempt, they cannot fall into the hands of that group of unruly people again.

The fire torch entered gradually. Watching the thin and long shadow, the two girls’ hearts were in their throats.

There is only one shadow, which means that only one person is here.

Su Qin lifted a watermelon-sized rock at her feet, preparing to attack.

Making a ‘woah’ sound, the person jumped out suddenly with the fire torch and also assumed an attacking stance.

After a short moment of staring at each other, Su Qin looked at the boy who was holding the fire torch in front of him and let out a breath, “Why are you here?”

[1] 老子 (Lǎozi) – in this context it’s self-proclaimed for I, used arrogantly or jocularly