Chapter Four: Dry Bones

Someone?

Hearing Old Chen say that, I was stunned.

Someone here?

We had been running for hours just now, and although this place might not yet be the deepest part of the Great Khingan Range, it was still extremely dangerous.

How could there possibly be anyone here?

Even the villagers who lived near the mountains would, at most, move around the outer edges. No one, let alone one or two people, would ever dare go deeper in.

I slowly let out a long breath, and the heaviness in my breathing finally eased.

Seeing me relax, Old Chen removed his hand from my mouth.

I stood up and looked toward the direction he was staring at...

But at that glance, I froze.

The sun had already set, and the dense, heavy leaves blocked most of the light, leaving everything dim and gloomy.

Yet in that murky darkness, I suddenly saw a small wooden cabin not far from us.

The cabin looked as though it had been built a long time ago; even the spiderwebs were clearly visible.

And around the cabin, some kind of creeping vines had spread until they nearly covered it...

But the cabin was not the main point. The main point was that there was an awning at its front.

Under the awning stood a plain wooden table and chairs of moderate size... On one of the chairs sat a person, wearing a dark military-green coat and a large straw hat that concealed the face. Both hands were folded behind the head, the legs crossed, the whole figure looking utterly at ease.

On the table beside this person were a teapot and teacups... It looked as if someone were vacationing deep in the Great Khingan Range.

I was curious.

If this person wanted a vacation, what an outrageous place to choose. A vacation here?

"Old Chen, could it be one of the people who were chasing us before?" I asked quietly.

Old Chen frowned and said nothing.

After studying that person for a long while, he finally spoke in confusion: "No, something's off. This person looks far too strange."

Hearing that, I also felt something was wrong.

First of all, how should I put it... if you said this person was lying in the chair resting, that would be one thing, but he had not moved an inch. That made no sense.

Normally, someone lying in a chair would at least drink some tea or move a little...

But after all this time, after nearly twenty minutes of watching, the person had not moved at all.

I narrowed my eyes and said first, "Old Chen, why does this person look... like a dead body?"

Old Chen paused slightly, then after thinking it over, said to me, "Mm. Come on. Let's go take a look."

After that, Old Chen and I stood up and quietly walked toward the person.

As he walked, Old Chen even smiled and called out, "Hey there, buddy. We're hunters who came into the mountains for rabbits and got lost!"

The person did not answer.

Old Chen and I exchanged a glance, then slowly approached. Looking at the figure, filthy with dust and caked in bird droppings...

I reached out first and lifted the person's hat.

Then a skull appeared before us.

"He's really dead?" I said in shock.

"Mm. There probably aren't many people who come here. Fine, this cabin can serve as our temporary camp while we're staying here."

Old Chen put away his gun and said calmly.

I was not especially afraid of dead bodies or skulls; after all, how could I not be used to such things? During my three years in the hunting grounds, what had I not seen? What had I not heard?

Looking closely at the skull, I guessed in my mind that, judging by the state of the corpse, this person had been dead for at least several years, yet no one had ever discovered him. He had remained exactly as he was at the moment of death. Just as I was thinking about whether I should dig a grave and bury him, Old Chen simply picked up the skull and tossed it into the nearby bushes without the slightest hesitation.

A crackling rustle came from the thicket.

A little embarrassed, I said, "Old Chen, the dead deserve respect. Isn't doing this a little disrespectful... After all, this cabin belonged to him. At least we should dig a grave and bury him."

Hearing me, Old Chen gave a cold laugh. "The dead deserve respect? Thirty-seven, let me tell you: in the old forest, there is no such thing as the dead deserving respect. Dead is dead, but the living still have to live. Dig a grave? Aren't you tired? I think it's tiring. Just throwing him away is much better. In another ten or twenty years, when his bones have dried out and the wind blows, they'll be clean as can be, and there'll be nothing left."

After hearing Old Chen, I stood there dumbly, unable to think of a single rebuttal.

Old Chen ignored me, gathered some firewood nearby, and lit a campfire beside the cabin...

"All right, Thirty-seven, I'm going to hunt a few rabbits. We still don't have supper settled," Old Chen said.

I shook my head. "No need."

"What?" Old Chen blinked.

I blew the eagle whistle.

A few minutes later, two wild rabbits dropped straight from the sky.

Winterfall landed on my shoulder, and I patted its head...

Old Chen saw this and exclaimed, "Good heavens! I had only heard the saying that if a family had an eagle, it could feed the whole household. I thought it was just a tale, but I never expected it to be true!"

I smiled faintly.

Old Chen was not wrong.

In the past, if a peasant family in the mountains had an eagle, it was basically enough to support them all. It could catch rabbits, snare roe deer... sometimes it could even bring down a young wild boar piglet without trouble. That was the might of an eagle.

While skinning the rabbits, Old Chen tossed me a cigarette.

I had originally wanted to refuse it, but then the image of Dongjia before his death surged into my mind, and grief rose like a tide.

I lit the cigarette and took a fierce drag.

In an instant, my head swam, and I coughed uncontrollably. Old Chen glanced at me thoughtfully, saying nothing.

As I silently smoked, Old Chen continued to ask, "Thirty-seven, what breed is your falcon?"

I said flatly, "A peregrine falcon."

Old Chen seemed about to say something more.

But I gave him no chance and spoke first: "Old Chen, who attacked us and killed Dongjia?"

Old Chen froze. He placed the skinned rabbit over the fire to roast and said with a bitter smile, "Thirty-seven, it's useless. They even dared to kill Dongjia; to them, we're nothing but two ants. Forget it sooner rather than later. Our goal now is to survive here."

I clenched my teeth, and tears burst out again.

"No! I can't forget! I must take revenge!"

After saying that, Old Chen looked at me calmly, and I looked back at him just as calmly. I could not understand why he showed so little emotion, as if Dongjia's death were to him no more significant than the death of an ordinary man.

"Thirty-seven, once you've seen enough life and death, you'll view death with the most ordinary of hearts."

Old Chen said this in a tranquil voice.

I wiped away my tears and was just about to say something when, suddenly, a strange, mournful sound reached my ears.

Old Chen and I both froze, then jerked our heads toward the source of the sound, only to witness something bizarre.

There was no wind at the moment.

Yet the cabin door before Old Chen and me gave off a grating, unpleasant creak.

Then, slowly, it opened...