Chapter 5: Endless Problems

Translated by: YingT, Ciel

Edited by: Isalee

Gao Yang wasn't going to just wait till he was old, immobile, and full of regret for not having experienced enough in his youth. But right now, he wanted nothing more than to be home, living comfortably with his parents.

Gao Yang clearly understood now that guns were weapons and not toys to be played with. They were made to kill.

Although Gao Yang was able to achieve his dream of using real guns in Africa, it came at too great of a cost. He just wanted to try shooting a little, but he ended up killing four people! Not only that, he could have died. All of this happened because he wanted to use real guns.

For the first time, Gao Yang felt that the gun prohibition wasn't that bad. If he could turn back time, he would definitely choose a life without guns so he wouldn't have to care about being shot dead in China at any given moment. Someone who lost something could only understand the true value of what was lost.

For someone who wouldn’t even dare to slaughter a chicken, he had killed several people. When he was up against one of them face to face, he even stabbed the guy with a knife. Even though he didn't think much of it back then, now that he'd calmed down, Gao Yang felt extremely repulsed by his actions. Fear still lingered inside him, and yet he also felt very fortunate to be alive.

He killed in self-defense. Gao Yang never regretted what came after killing those four people as he believed in the western saying: “I'd rather be judged by twelve, than carried by six.”

TL Note: The phrase "I'd rather be judged by 12, than carried by 6" basically means that the person would rather kill someone and go to prison instead of getting killed and being buried. To be judged by 12 means to go to court and be judged by a 12-man jury, while being carried by 6 refers to the 6 that normally carry a coffin.

However, as for going to Africa, Gao Yang regretted it to death. Now, all he hoped for was to go home to his parents.

After thinking about his parents, Gao Yang felt the strength to live on and stopped focusing on his past mistakes. He started planning on how to get home alive.

Once he'd calmed down, Gao Yang felt the need to identify his location. He believed Ethiopia was quite safe and was certainly not a place where there'd be wild gun wars.

Gao Yang tried his best to think back. He couldn't recollect anything in the news about Ethiopia and believed that he must of got caught up in a war between tribes. If that was the case, then his situation wasn't all too bad. All he needed to do was to find a tourist or a local in order to be rescued.

Gao Yang didn't have much time to think it through as the skies gradually got brighter and he didn’t want to wait around. He was afraid that the sound of the gunshots would attract the soldiers chasing after him.

Slightly faint from hunger, Gao Yang was not willing to waste any food. Even though the hyena was a scavenger and its corpse let off an intense foul smell, Gao Yang figured that if he were to slice up the hyena, he would be able to cook and eat it.

Gao Yang wasn't able to carry the whole hyena, but he couldn't just make a fire right there. Without much choice, Gao Yang slashed off the hyena's limbs, which was not an easy task for him. To Gao Yang's disgust, his hands were covered in blood.

Anything was possible under pressure. He took all four blood-soaked, foul-smelling limbs and tied them up with a string. He hacked off a tree branch and used it as a walking stick. Hobbling along the path, Gao Yang carried on ahead.

When he first left, Gao Yang took his AK-47 with him, but after quite a distance, he threw his gun into the gra.s.sy fields.

Besides the added responsibility and danger, there was no use for an unloaded gun. The reason why he carried it so far before throwing it away was to prevent the soldiers who were chasing after him to realize that he didn't have a weapon.

As the sun peaked over the horizon, and the skies lit up. Gao Yang realized that he'd only walked around two to three kilometers, which wasn't a safe enough distance. He wanted to go on a little further, but he was hungry, thirsty, and his leg hurt. Just getting this far had stretched his resolve and determination. 

Gao Yang decided to stop. He wouldn't move on until after he'd eaten something or drank some water. Otherwise, he would collapse head first and never have the strength to get up.

The moment Gao Yang saw a dried up tree from a distance, it was as though he had found a treasure trove. It was July, middle of the rainy season in Africa. Finding usable firewood in the gra.s.sy fields wasn’t easy, so it was no wonder that Gao Yang would save a lot of effort with the tree.

As he slowly crept towards the foot of the tree, Gao Yang was so delighted that he was a little dumbstruck.  but to his disappointment, when Gao Yang got close, he realized that the tree before him was around seven to eight meters high. The treetop towered over him, and the closest branch stood almost six meters away from him. The tree branched out like an open umbrella with its branches as thick as his waist.

If Gao Yang wanted a branch, he'd have to hack down the entire tree, but he wasn't so stupid as to take out his dagger and attempt the impossible task.

It wasn't easy to reach the foot of the tree. Seeing a load of firewood he couldn't use, Gao Yang felt a little defeated. Thankfully, there was a silver lining after all. Some branches had fallen to the ground, and although there were just a few, he could cook some meat to fill up his stomach if he collected them all.

Frustratingly, Gao Yang pulled apart the weeds with his walking stick and gathered the branches. Just then, his eyes widened after he took a few steps forward. A single branch, as thick as his arm, appeared in the gra.s.s.

Gao Yang never imagined that one day he would be so happy to see a single f*cking branch. He was so happy as he reached for the branch, but as soon as he lifted it from the ground, he felt a sharp p.r.i.c.k in his left hand.

When he felt the pain, Gao Yang immediately let go of the branch and leapt back. There, he saw a large brown snake curled up on the ground. Compared to its length, the snake was extremely thick. The upper portion of the snake was already coiled like an S and it hissed at Gao Yang. 

Gao Yang glanced at the bite on his left hand. The injury was on his palm. He stared at the two gaping holes. His brain drew a blank and he cursed at himself. He had repeated to himself over and over again to not carelessly pick up a rock or a stick in the plains. There could always be a poisonous snake hidden underneath. How could he have made such a critical mistake? 

Soon enough, Gao Yang awakened from his thoughts. In a rage, he raised the walking stick in his right hand and smashed it onto the snake’s head, knocking it backwards. He then used his foot to continue crus.h.i.+ng the snake’s head. He pulled out his blade and chopped the head off in one swift motion. 

Gao Yang could already feel his life slipping away. Killing the snake was only to let out his anger and frustration. But once he cut off the snake’s head, a furious desire to live suddenly gripped Gao Yang. 

With every fiber in his body, he tried to remember just what he was supposed to do after getting bitten by a snake. He quickly pulled out some rope from his bag and then tied it around his arm. After biting down onto the rope, he tugged it into a thick knot. 

In those short few minutes, Gao Yang could already feel a burning pain in his hand. Blood slowly oozed out from his wound. Gao Yang didn’t hesitate. He immediately took the hunting knife he had used to kill the snake, steadied himself, and cut into his hand as he clenched his teeth. 

The cut that Gao Yang had given himself was a touch too harsh, and had cut right into the bone. Pain exploded up Gao Yang’s hand. Even so, he slashed another two times across the bite marks. 

As the blood dripped from Gao Yang’s left hand, he felt gooseb.u.mps rise all over his body. He watched his injury swell up and blood stopped oozing out. His only resort now was to suck it out with his mouth. 

The problem was, Gao Yang would die even faster if he tried to suck the poison out while he had gingivitis. Unfortunately, Gao Yang had gingivitis ever since he was young. Strangely enough however, the pain had not muddied his reasoning. In this fight for survival, his thoughts were quicker than ever before. 

This was the moment that Gao Yang’s condom came to use. Gao Yang had only packed it in the first place so that it could carry water. But now, it had become the most important thing to save his life. 

Gao Yang ripped open the condom and put his hand around it. He then put it against his lips, and prepared to suck the poison out through it; that way, the poisoned blood wouldn’t enter his mouth. 

It was actually quite pathetic. This was the very first time Gao Yang had ever used a condom. Right as he brought it to his lips, Gao Yang’s thoughts suddenly turned to dark humor. 

“D*mn, normal people keep this around to feel cool and this is my first time using it for the sake of survival. There are even some people who’re using it on girls, and here I am, tasting my own condom. F*ck it, I should just die here and now.” 

While he felt indignant, Gao Yang still sucked the blood. Through all his efforts, he managed to get an effect. Soon enough, no more blood flowed out of the wound. 

He stared at his swollen left hand. It was practically the size of a bun. Gao Yang then thought of another thing. If he tied the rope around his left hand, his hand would die from a lack of blood after a long period of time. And at that point, if he didn’t amputate, he would still die. 

Gao Yang finally loosened the rope around his arm in desperation, and blood returned to his hand. He tried sucking more of the poison out, but at that point, without the rope around his hand, there was no way it would work. 

Intense pain, blood loss, as well as the effects of the poison, made Gao Yang’s head whirl. He was starting to see flashes of light in his eyes. 

Afraid that he wouldn’t be able to loosen the knot on his arm after he lost consciousness, Gao Yang completely untied the knot. He then wrapped the condom around his wrist. It was elastic, so while it could stop the poison from traveling to the rest of his body, his left hand would still have blood. 

Gao Yang wasn’t sure what kind of snake had bitten him, all he knew was that it wasn’t a cobra. Plus, Gao Yang wasn’t even sure if his methods were correct or not. All he knew was that he needed a way to force the poison out. 

Thinking back to what he had been trying and whether or not there were any mistakes, Gao  Yang suddenly thought of another problem. The blade he had used on himself had once been used to kill a hyena. And hyenas were corpse eaters, which meant that they a lot of diseases in their bodies. 

Well, if he wasn’t killed by the poison, he might be killed by the disease and bacteria on the knife. Gao Yang shuddered. Oh well, there was one thing Gao Yang’s bag was full of, and that was immunizations. 

Gao Yang’s first aid kit was small in size, but it contained a lot. There were antibiotics, malaria immunizations, as well as medical treatments. It also had mosquito repellant. But due to the lack of s.p.a.ce, he only had small amounts of the different medicines. This time at least, the antibiotics were going to be useful. 

Gao Yang took out all of the antibiotics and opened up the packaging. There were around sixteen different types of medicines. Gao Yang was desperate however, and had no care for which he needed. He tilted his head back and gulped them all down. While he knew it was bad practice, Gao Yang was afraid he wouldn’t even have the chance to digest the medicine. 

Just as Gao Yang stretched out his neck and forced the pills down his throat, his vision began to blur. But as his eyes rolled back, Gao Yang thought he saw some human figures run towards him. 

Gao Yang’s first thought was that those mercenaries had finally caught up to him. He immediately stood up, which only forced the world to spin around in his eyes. Gao Yang narrowed his eyes and saw four people running towards him. 

 He couldn’t stand up any longer and fell right back. His last thought before falling unconscious: “Well, I’m going to die anyway, do what you will.”