We didn’t go over the cliff, we entered the village directly through the entrance.
I let the rabbit go from a distance, and the rabbit, frightened of me and with a wounded tail, ran desperately towards the village.
Half a minute later, the village dogs were barking and Yellow Hair and I hid outside the village. After the dogs had barked for a short while, the village rang with yelling and cursing, and then the light of a torch came on.
Yellow Hair was a little nervous: “Brother, what are you doing? They’re all awake.”
I laughed, “Just wait and see.”
The group was really alert, and they all got up when the dog barked. After a while, the barking stopped, and it must have been the rabbit that was caught, which had been wounded in the tail and would not have been able to run fast.
After another moment, I heard someone yell, “It’s a rabbit!”
“Everyone disperse, we’ll have wild rabbit meat tomorrow.”
“Stupid rabbit, why did it come to the cottage? We’ve been so lucky lately, catching people and rabbits.”
“Go back to bed, it’s the middle of the night.”
The group shouted and dispersed, but Huang Mao said, “Brother, shall we go in now? If we go in now, no one will probably get up when the dogs bark, and everyone will think we’ve got another rabbit. But you’re taking too much of a risk, the people in the fort are very wary because something has happened to the fort.”
I thought I knew, how could a fortress like this, where almost everyone commits crimes, not be vigilant?
I said, “Not so fast, I still have to get them up for a trip.”
After saying that, I let the chickens go and they fluttered their wings and ran away. Yellow Hair was startled at once when he heard the dog barking furiously, “What are you doing, brother? Now everyone will definitely stay up at night.”
I laughed, “You’ll see.”
The chickens couldn’t run as fast as the rabbits and it didn’t take long for the dogs to catch them.
The villagers of Blackwater Cottage were still up with their torches to check, and judging by the number of torches, they were about the same as the number of people who had just got up.
Apparently, this cottage was manned at night, and as soon as they heard the dogs barking, these people would get up.
“It’s a chicken.”
“What’s wrong tonight? These animals have gone crazy and are running towards our cottage, so we can eat wild game tomorrow.”
“How can you eat when the dogs are chewing it up like this? I got up twice in the middle of this night and it’s so cold that my legs and stomach are shaking.”
“What about the dogs, they’re always barking.”
“Bark, bark, bark, bark, I’ll stew you up and eat you tomorrow.”
“Forget it, put the dog on a leash. Who’s going to come here in the middle of the night? Keep the dog inside, so that the sparrows don’t come in at night.”
“Yes, who can come to the cottage in the middle of the night. Let’s bolt one dog at the entrance to the village and lock up all the other dogs.”
After a while, someone came with the dog and bolted it to the stone pillar at the entrance of the village.
“Well now, what do we do? We can’t get into the village.”
“Who said that, follow me.”
Huangmao and I went back around to the bottom of the cliff, and Huangmao looked at the almost vertical wall of the mountain, his whole body dumbfounded.
“You’re not going to make me climb this, are you?”
“Then you wait for me at the bottom.”
“Brother, no, I’m still handcuffed here, and you leaving me alone in the primeval forest is almost as bad as killing me. Brother, just untie it for me, I promise not to slip!”
This was indeed a problem, if this kid screamed when he entered the village, my plan would be ruined.
But he had a point. By handcuffing him and leaving him here alone in the middle of the night, I was saving food for the leopards and contributing to wild carnivore conservation.
“I swear to God, I will never run away. You’ve said it all, brother, if I escape I’ll be a fugitive. I beg you, don’t leave me here alone, I’ll really die.”
He was so anxious that he was on the verge of tears, making it difficult for me.
This was a 16-year-old kid, and if I really killed him, I would be guilty of too much.
“If you do run I’ll shoot you, I’ve got a sniper on me that can blow your head off.”
I said, stabbing him with the wire on the key fob to unlock his handcuffs. He rubbed his wrists and his eyes lit up, “Brother, you don’t use a key to open handcuffs! Can you teach me how to do that? Can I be a special forces soldier?”
“I’m afraid you won’t pa*s the political exam, you have a criminal record.”
He was cheering, but when he heard me say that, he suddenly fell silent and kept his head down.
I don’t know why, but when I looked at this kid, I was inexplicably reminded of my childhood. When I was sixteen I wasn’t quite as naughty as he was, but it was the most desperate time of my life, just as disappointed in the future as he was now.
I let out a long sigh, “Come on, don’t make a fuss and help me get the man out. Even if you have a criminal record, I’ll give you a job.”
“Really? Brother, what do you think I can do? I can do anything, I’m pretty smart ……”
The boy was chattering more than the chickens I had just caught, and I thought to myself that I would definitely give him a job away from me, or he would kill me.
“Brother, to show my loyalty, I’ll take you to a road that no outsiders know about.”
I thought for a moment that it was unlikely that this boy would lie to me, so I followed him.
The road was not really easy to find unless you were a local. It was hidden on the far west side of the cliff, and the slope was less steep than the cliff at the front of the village, about forty-five degrees.
Although it is possible to climb a 90 degree slope, this path is obviously much safer, but there is a 30 degree reverse slope near the top, in other words, the path near the top is more dangerous than climbing the cliff head-on, because it is completely overhanging.
“Brother, you’re good at this, no ordinary person can climb up this piece, no one in the village will be wary of people coming in this way, you can pull me up after you’ve climbed up.”
Huang Mao had a point. I had been climbing over mountains and ridges all day, and my physical strength was seriously depleted, so it would be a bit dangerous to climb the vertical slope again.
I took a few steps back, jumped up in a sprint and grabbed the cliff with both hands.
The place I grabbed was blocked by a couple of large rocks and I couldn’t climb up, I had to move to a place half a metre away, but there was a 10,000 foot cliff below that.
Seriously, I’ve done this kind of dangerous thing 80 times if not a hundred, so I didn’t think about it at all and moved out with my arms crossed.
I didn’t know that the rocks at the edge of the cliff were not strong, but suddenly the whole rock broke loose and my hand grabbed the rock and I fell.
Fortunately, there was a dead tree sticking out from below, so I used all my strength and hooked my feet into the tree to ease the fall.
I fell backwards in mid-air and the cold wind made my whole face tense, almost ending my day here.
“Big, big brother, are you all right?” Yellow hair was also startled.
“Give me a hand, I can’t push, this tree is too brittle, it will break if I push, you grab my hand.”
I put my hand out for Yellow Hair, but he backed away.
“You don’t want to save me ……,” I breathed backwards.
