chapter 24

The car enters the mountains where they see a number of vehicles, and Papa Kou points at a Land Rover: “That’s Old Yang’s car.”

“Old Yang?” Papa Huo didn’t understand.

“My daughter’s boyfriend,” Papa Kou says, “Old Yang.”

“Is he very… old?” Xu ZhiFan couldn’t resist asking, because to have his own girlfriend’s father call himself ‘Old X’, how old would this person have to be?

“Not old, just thirty,” Papa Kou says, “We call him Old Yang to make him seem a little older, to hint that he has to pamper his girlfriend, to go along with his girlfriend, because you’re already Old Yang, shouldn’t you cradle this only twenty-something little lady next to you in your palm a little… you’ll get it when you become a dad in the future, isn’t that right Old Huo.”

“I actually don’t really know,” Papa Huo halts the car, smiling as he speaks, “I only have one son… those two cars can only park here, they won’t be able to go any further, the road’s too narrow.”

“What if they don’t go on the road?” Papa Kou asks, “If they travel on the side the road, on the field, on the earth, will they be able to move?”

“On the side are all mud slopes, rock piles and even ditches and woods, not good to travel on, the car might get stuck even before we find them,” Papa Huo says.

“You guys just stay here, go take a look at the conditions of the farmhouses in the village and whether or not they’re convenient to stay in and what not. Leave a couple here to wait for the police,” Papa Kou sticks his head out to shout, “If there’s anything give me a call.”

“Okay, you go on in, don’t bother with this,” someone from behind answers.

Papa Huo continues driving the car forward, and Xu ZhiFan takes a look at his phone: the messages he had sent to Huo Ran and Kou Chen both hadn’t been replied to, their group’s little chat was unusually noisy however.

Xu Chuan and Wei ChaoRen had been pulled into the chat, and the group of them were all giving all sorts of guesses regarding the situations they might have encountered.

At the start they were exceptionally worried, and had begun to discuss whether or not they should call a helicopter for an emergency rescue, but after Xu ZhiFan informed them that there shouldn’t be any problems and that they were currently relatively safe, the bunch relaxed, instructing him to remember to take photographs, that it would be best to video call if there was signal, so that they would be able to join in the fun as soon as possible.

After they’d driven a stretch into the mountains, the car started to rock, abruptly going from left to right and vice versa; Xu ZhiFan tied himself down securely with the seat belt in the back seat.

“Little friend, have you gone out to play with XiaoHuo before?” Papa Kou asks.

“I haven’t,” Xu ZhiFan says, “I don’t have much of an interest, if it were outdoor cooking or something though those are fine.”

“Children these days,” Papa Kou sighs, “Are too uninterested in nature, their stamina are poor too, hands-on abilities can’t make it either. My daughter and the others also only wanted to try something new this time, when they said they were going out trekking I even doubted whether they could trek five kilometres.”

“Kou Chen’s stamina is first-rate,” Xu ZhiFan says.

“He’s first-rate my ass,” Papa Kou says, “A good-for-nothing like him I can deal with eight single-handedly.”

Xu ZhiFan obediently shuts his mouth, because according this method of calculation, someone like him, Papa Kou could probably deal with more than ten single-handedly.2

Huo Ran had said that this route was still considered good to walk on, and Xu ZhiFan didn’t know what the conditions of roads that weren’t good to walk on were like, but in any case, the entire stretch the car drove on, there wasn’t a single second in which it wasn’t tilted. He was constantly in the state of having been tossed around to the point of wanting to sleep yet being unable to fall asleep, so he could only hold onto the window and stare outside, to see whether or not there were any suspicious people.

After driving for a period of time, Xu ZhiFan realised that his phone no longer had signal.

“There isn’t signal anymore along this stretch, how long do we have before we drive out?” he asks, “If Huo Ran’s group contact us at this time, or the police contact us, they wouldn’t be able to get through, would they?”

“No worries,” Papa Kou takes a lump of black-coloured phone out from the bag that he kept with him, waving it at him, “I brought a satellite phone.”

“Big Brother Kou is rather well-prepared, huh?” Papa Huo smiles as he speaks.

“I simply don’t have the time to play like this, but I rather like the outdoors,” Papa Kou says, “Right now, buying these toys is only for some satisfaction, I bring them along whenever I go to a farmhouse for a meal, turn my phone off.”

“You could even pitch a tent in your yard,” Papa Huo suggests.

“I really thought about it,” Papa Kou says, “Bring the wife along, sleeping in the yard for a couple of nights, if she isn’t down for it, I can hole myself up in there, but they’ll be watching television in the house, so after thinking about it, it’d be meaningless.”

Xu ZhiFan couldn’t hold it in, laughing for half a day along with Papa Huo.

In the middle of their laughter, the satellite phone rang.

“It’s that piece of shit Kou Chen,” Papa Kou glances at the phone, then answers, “Where are you guys?”1

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“Old XiKou campsite,” Kou Chen says, “Did you drive in along with Huo Ran’s dad?”

“Yes,” his dad spoke on the other end, “And one of your classmates, how’s your sister?”

“My sister’s great, full of radiance,” Kou Chen glances at Kou Xiao who was sitting next to him and eating, “Dad pass the phone to Huo Ran’s dad, let Huo Ran tell his dad about the route and what not.”

“Where’s your sister?” Dad asks again.

“Ai,” Kou Chen sighs, passing the phone in front of Kou Xiao, “Hurry up, make some noise.”

“Dad I’m fine!” Kou Xiao yells into the phone, “Pass the phone to RanRan’s dad, don’t waste time!”

“Alright,” Kou Chen then hands the phone to Huo Ran, “You talk to your dad.”

“Mn,” Huo Ran receives the phone.

It was probably still Kou Chen’s dad that was talking at the other end of the line: “Did you get a shock or what…”

“Uncle Kou,” Huo Ran says, “Jiejie’s pretty great, please don’t worry.”

“Ai okay, come, let your dad know you’re safe,” Papa Kou speaks quickly.

“Hello?” Dad’s voice sounds from the other end.

“Dad, what’s the situation on your side?” Huo Ran asks.

“My car’s about to reach Bai Mao Po,” Dad says, “I have to make a detour because I’m driving, the cops on this end have been informed, are you at Old XiKou already?”

“Mn, we’ve been here for a while now, the Municipal Bureau’s officers have also just arrived, super fast,” Huo Ran says, “Did you bump into a big sister that was wearing a pair of Arc’teryx on your way over? Her clothes were pretty tattered.”

“We haven’t bumped into anyone at all,” Dad says, “But the police definitely also have to search for her or something.”

“The police want to send us out now, but there aren’t enough cars, they only have one motorcycle with a sidecar that can sit two people,” Huo Ran says, “Why don’t I let them drive Kou Xiao and Old Yang out first?”

Dad conveys his intentions to Papa Kou on the other end, and Huo Ran immediately hears Papa Kou’s voice, “No no, my daughter can’t ride that, she’s clumsy and doesn’t have a single athletic cell, don’t let her get tossed out again, she’ll ride this car of ours.”

“Did you hear that? Are there still officers there, other than the ones that will drive you guys out?”

“There are, then I’ll leave with Kou Chen first,” Huo Ran says, “You all come in to fetch Kou Xiao and Old Yang.”

“Okay then, you say something to Xu ZhiFan,” Dad says, “He’s in the car.”

“Damnit, I just knew he’d tag along,” Huo Ran laughs, “Pass the phone to him then.”

“Hurry and take a few selfies, they want to see your sad state,” Xu ZhiFan’s voice comes through.

“Do you guys have any humanity,” Huo Ran says.

“When have we ever had humanity when it came to stuff like these, Jiang Lei’s going around broadcasting even, the whole class probably knows that you guys met with danger by now,” Xu ZhiFan says, “When you guys get back he’ll definitely also have to grab all of us for a meal to interview or something…”

“Leave that to Kou Chen then,” Huo Ran glances at him.

“What’s up?” Kou Chen raises an eyebrow right after he finishes speaking, without even waiting for him to reply, “No problem.”

“Getting you to give a speech when we get back,” Huo Ran says.

“Forget it,” Kou Chen waves his hand with a look of humility, “What’s there to say about something like this, what do I say, didn’t we only bump into a few suspected human traffickers, and conveniently rescue a lady… although we didn’t succeed, we still got down and fought…”

“We’ll talk about it when we meet up in a bit,” Huo Ran says.

“Okay,” Xu ZhiFan responds.

After both sides communicated the details of the situation, Old Yang had also finished telling the cops about what had happened before.

“We’ll find her,” an old officer says, “We’ve called Tang Jia Ao to ask and there is indeed such a person, has been married to one of the fools in their village for a number of years. Her mind is a little muddled, but the specifics we’ll have to clarify further.”

“Will you inform us if there’s a result?” Kou Xiao asks, “No matter what the situation is, it’s extremely dangerous for that big sister to be running around in the mountains like that.”

“We’ll definitely be able to find the person, we do have experience searching for people in this sort of place,” the old officer says, “Those villagers that you’ve mentioned will also be found, if there’s a result we will inform you, you’ve also left your numbers, and can call us to ask.”

“Right now I’ll drive two people out first,” a younger officer says, “You guys shouldn’t continue inwards any further, after all we have yet to find those villagers, safety precautions.”

“We’ll go out first,” Huo Ran points at Kou Chen.

“You two?” a great patch of disdain flashes in the younger officer’s eyes, “Let the girl wait over here?”

“Her dad wants to pick her up personally,” Kou Chen says, “Her butt is way more precious than ours, can’t take the sidecar, even after she started junior high her dad still piggybacked her on the main street…”

“Listen, this jealousy that shows in both words and on his face,” Kou Xiao turns the corners of her lips down.

In the end, Huo Ran and Kou Chen got onto the motorcycle with a sidecar: Huo Ran sat behind the officer, and because Kou Chen’s foot was injured, he sat in the sidecar, his leg stuck out in front.

But the officer hadn’t driven ten metres before he retracted his leg.

“Jesus fuck ,this jerking,” he hugs his knees, “Even a good leg resting like that could be jolted into a fracture, couldn’t it?”

“Can’t do anything about it, only these vehicles are good for entering the mountains, vehicles too large or with a low chassis can’t get in,” the officer says, “Sit tight, hang on a little.”

“Big brother,” Kou Chen was hugging his legs, “Do these things happen quite often here?”

The officer gives him a glance: “At the moment this issue hasn’t been fully investigated yet, if you’re talking about the abduction and sale of people, it actually has been rare these few years. This area of ours isn’t extremely remote, there are usually quite a number of trekkers and the like that come here, so our correspondence with the outside is on the more frequent side, don’t worry.”

“If it weren’t abduction and sale but a fool having married a wife that isn’t too good in the head, then hitting her every day,” Kou Chen asks, “Do you guys manage these?”

“If it’s been reported then we definitely have to manage,” the officer sighs after he speaks, “But how many reports get made? We even took up a case previously where the person had already been beaten to death, and they still thought it was a family matter.”

Kou Chen doesn’t speak anymore, Huo Ran doesn’t know what he should say either, so the three jolted around on the vehicle in silence.

After jolting a moment, Kou Chen reaches a hand over, grabbing hold of Huo Ran’s hand.

“Mn?” Huo Ran looks at him.

“Mn?” Kou Chen looks at him as well.

“What’s wrong?” Huo Ran glances at his hand.

“Does something have to be wrong because hands are held?” Kou Chen was a little impatient, “I’m just holding a hand for a bit, do you have any objections?”

“The hand you’re holding is his though,” the officer smiles as he speaks.

“I’m worried he’ll get jolted into flying,” Kou Chen says.

“Then you holding on to his waistband would steady him better,” the officer says.

“Gege,” Kou Chen looks at him, “Why do you have so much to say, drive your car properly damnit!”

The officer starts laughing: “Relax a little, don’t worry.”

“What am I nervous about, what do I have to worry about?” Kou Chen disdained.

“Trust the police, we’ll investigate everything thoroughly,” Officer-gege glances at him, “Is it that you don’t trust us?”

“Honestly speaking,” Kou Chen says, “A little…”

“Then let me word it another way,” Officer-gege thinks for a bit, “There are still many officers like me.”

“Which type are you?” Kou Chen asks.

“Officers that are willing to talk, and who also dare to tell you ‘believe in me’,” Officer-gege answers.

“Fuck,” Kou Chen was momentarily at a loss, then faces away, “Ge don’t be like that, the way you said that almost made me want to cry.”

“Cry, cry, cry, man…” Officer-gege suddenly starts singing, “It is not a crime… how’s that, are you a little more relaxed now?”

[*tl note: lyrics from andy lau’s 男人哭吧不是罪 (nán rén kū ba bù shì zuì) / Guys should cry too, it’s not a crime, lyrics taken from lyricstranslate(.)com]

Huo Ran behind him couldn’t help but laugh half a day, only speaking after a good while: “Thank you.”

Whether or not Kou Chen relaxed a bit, he wasn’t too sure, because in any case he kept holding on to his hand without letting go, and whenever the vehicle gave a sharp jolt, the two held onto each other like they’d sworn to never part.

Held onto a handful of sweat.

The vehicle was driving midway when they bumped into an incoming Jimny, which was flying down from a mud slope.

“Aiyo!” Officer-gege slams the brakes, “This one’s here to fetch you guys isn’t it! So wild.”

“Definitely rushed by Kou Xiao’s dad,” Kou Chen finally releases his hand, jumping down from the car, “Might even be regretting that he hadn’t called a helicopter to come over to pick up his precious daughter.”

Huo Ran got off as well, waving towards the Jimny: he’d already seen that the one in the driver’s seat was his dad.

The person seated in the shotgun seat, based on appearances, one could tell that this was Kou Chen’s dad, the artistic model Rainy Night Butcher Kou Chen had been talking about.

“Unc…” Huo Ran hadn’t even finished his greeting when he gets cut off.

“We’re not getting off we’re not getting off!” Papa Kou sticks his head out and sweeps two glances across both their bodies, shouting at the officer, “Thanks Comrade Officer! We’ll go in to pick people up first! We won’t bother about these two lads.”

“Go on then, take care of your safety,” Officer-gege says, “You’re driving too quickly!”

“Yes yes,” Dad also sticks his head out and waves at them, “You guys go on out first.”

“Xu ZhiFan!” Kou Chen walks up to the car, shouting, “Are you getting off?”

“Would I fucking get off so I can walk my way out?” Xu ZhiFan’s face reveals itself from behind the car seat, raising his phone up for a series of snapshots of the two of them, “How are you two?”

“Pretty good, nothing’s wrong,” Huo Ran touches his face, “Don’t send your photos out anyhow!”

“I’m just keeping them for memory’s sake,” Xu ZhiFan looks downwards, “What’s wrong with Kou Chen’s foot?”

“Sprained it a bit,” Kou Chen says.

“Old Huo quick start driving, go go go, why’d you start chatting, you all chat when you get back!” Papa Kou shouts inside the car, “It’s just a bit of a sprain, not like he’d broken it!”

“See you in a bit..! In a…” Xu ZhiFan hadn’t finished speaking, but his face had already vanished from their sight.

The Jimny shoots past the motorcycle with the sidecar with a swoosh, a trail of smoke extending from its rear, disappearing from sight ahead.

As they continued on their way out after getting back onto the vehicle, Kou Chen’s hand reaches out once more to grab Huo Ran’s hand.

Huo Ran doesn’t ask him what’s wrong anymore, he just stares at him for a while.

“If you keep staring I’ll smack you!” Kou Chen turns to glare at him.

Huo Ran turns away a little helplessly, and continues to hold his hand, holding onto each other and swearing to never part along the bumpy road.4

Right before the sky started to darken, they reached the mouth of the road, and saw police officers as well as three hefty fellows.

The hefty fellows were probably friends of Kou Chen’s dad, the younger brothers* of the Rainy Night Butcher.

[*tl note: it actually would more accurately be ‘the uncles of the rainy night butcher’ but I wasn’t quite sure which way she meant it: I think it would make more sense for them to be younger brothers (which would make them kou chen’s uncles) rather than uncles though, because of the next line]

“Are you alright!” an uncle came over, looking both of them up and down, then pats each of their shoulders, speaking to Kou Chen, “Your dad says they’ve picked them up, and are almost here.”

“Thank you Uncle Wu, thank you Uncle Liang, thank you Uncle Li,” Kou Chen says, “Even troubling yourselves to come over.”

“You’re welcome, don’t worry, even if your dad hadn’t come to pick you up, we’d also come!” Uncle Wu heroically pats his back, smiling as he speaks, “If your sister weren’t here, your dad really might not have come.”

“You all understand him too well,” Kou Chen starts laughing.

“Thanks Comrade Officer!” the few uncles surround Officer-gege, “Have a smoke and take a break.”

After telling the officers that had been waiting at the entrance what had happened in the mountains once again, Kou Chen takes his phone out, sending a message to the group, “We’re both out”.

More than one person immediately sends video call requests in.

“What do you want?” Kou Chen answers, raising his phone and angling it towards himself.

“Fuck, are you two okay!?” Jiang Lei’s eyes are widened, and his face was probably almost plastered to the screen, because they could only see a nose, “Where’s Huo Ran?”

“He’s here, hang on,” Kou Chen pulls Huo Ran over after grabbing his arm, then hugs his shoulders, “Look at both our states, aren’t we pretty good?”

Huo Ran smiles at the screen: “Were you guys waiting to see how sorry we looked?”

“Xu ZhiFan said you two even fought with people,” Xu Chuan asks, “You didn’t get hurt did you? Villagers can’t be compared to students, they’re really good at fighting.”

“Not inju…” Huo Ran says.

“Whether or not they’re good depends on who they’re fighting with,” Kou Chen says.

Huo Ran turns to look at him.

They were both people who had roared ‘run’ in the face of villagers and effectively realized the running, yet Kou Chen was able to say that with such naturalness and smoothness, without bringing along with it any hints that would give his fronting away.

“God damn,” Wei ChaoRen says, “It’s fortunate it was the two of you, if it were me, I’d probably have enough to suffer.”

“You both count as people that have experienced something big now huh,” Jiang Lei says, “What’s this called, ‘friendship cemented in adversity’ pretty much?”

“Mn,” Kou Chen nods, turning to look at Huo Ran, “Come.”

“Come wha…” Huo Ran asks midway before suddenly coming to a realization, immediately thinking to push Kou Chen away, “You fucking…”

Kou Chen doesn’t wait for him to exert his full force before abruptly pulling his arm in.

Smack!

Landing a kiss on his face.

This mouth was of rather abundant strength; there was an instant in which Huo Ran felt that he’d been bitten instead, his face even fucking feeling damp.