Xiao Hua immediately whistled and yelled: “Get a shovel!”  With a loud crash, several young men tore open their backpacks and rushed up, their movements quick. Pan Zi had obviously trained them very well.

As soon as they get near, they'll know what's going on.  I was wearing a mask, and my ident.i.ty was hidden, so I couldn't do anything but watch from the side.  Under Xiao Hua's command, they immediately pried open the gap with a shovel and a brick hammer.

I soon found that although the color of the stone around the crack looked exactly the same as that of the rock, it was much harder. After a few moments, the stones around the crevice were all cracked and the men moved the gravel aside with their hands. The crack soon changed back to the width it was when I had climbed out of it, but then it became extremely difficult to enlarge any further.

I was surprised that the scene before me was a kind of concealment, and the gap was like a circle of rock growing from a wound.  In fact, it wasn't stone at all, but looked exactly like it and had almost the same texture but was softer.

I didn't have time to think about it further as Fatty was dragged out, and an extremely unpleasant smell suddenly reached my nose.  As he was dragged out, he didn't move and seemed completely unconscious.

Fatty was at least one fold thinner than the last time I saw him, and even looked lighter around the waist.  He was covered in dark green mud and his eyes were as wide as death. I went up to feel his pulse, but fortunately it was still strong.

Several people rushed to carry him to a place with good air flow by the lake, but Fatty was so heavy that several people lacking strength dropped him, and he fell to the ground a few times, making me feel anxious.

Only when we dragged him to the lake and turned on the lantern did I fully see the sorry figure he cut.  Fatty wasn't good-looking on a normal day, and was already very untidy at his most presentable. But now he seemed like a zombie just dug out of the coffin, with rotten clothes and covered in green mud. Xiao Hua rushed to get some lake water to clean him, and his exposed skin was full of rotten boils the size of eggs.

“f.u.c.k, this is a sick pig.”  One of the guys whispered.

“Is he dead, why isn't he moving?”  Someone patted Fatty on the face and I grabbed him.  Xiao Hua called a doctor to come and examine him.

I saw Mute Sister come over.  She gave me a look, tied up her hair, and bent over to examine Fatty.  I didn't bother to avoid suspicion at this time and forced myself to watch from the side.  Under the mask, my faced muscles jumped, but luckily they couldn't see.

Mute Sister cut Fatty's clothes and we all saw an amazing scene: Fatty's belly was full of countless b.l.o.o.d.y marks carved deeply.

Although it didn't seem to be in order, I could still tell at a glance that these marks had some very obvious patterns.  Mute Sister carefully wiped Fatty's blood stains with a wet towel, looking for more fatal wounds. I watched the blood be wiped away and found that the wounds were extremely fine, forming a totem-like pattern on his belly one by one.

“Is this a word?” Someone said, “There are a few words written on his stomach.”  Mute Sister continued to check Fatty's stomach and saw that more wounds were covered by his clothes. Since the clothes were no longer usable, she cut them all the way off and I saw there were more scratches on his lower abdomen. The outline of the whole line really looked like words.

These wounds should have been made by a sharp object using moderate force upon the skin.

I picked up Fatty's hand, and sure enough, I saw he had bitten the fingernail of his thumb into a sharp point.

It looked like Fatty had made these scratches himself.  Although he was very muddy, scratching so many marks onto his belly with his nail was not something an ordinary person could. What was he trying to say?

Some of the earliest scratches were scabbed, while the most recent were still stained with blood.  Obviously, the strokes took a long time, and the time from the first stroke on his belly was at least seven or eight days ago.

I thought about it and said to Xiao Hua, “We should stand up and see what's written, and move his clothes out of the way.”

As we spoke, we all stepped back and looked at Fatty from several directions to see the scratches.  I tilted my head and still couldn't understand.

“Flip through his clothes and see what's there.”  I told the people around me, hoping there would be some hints.

A few people were scrambling to flatten the cut-off clothes, but Mute Sister said, “If you want to look through them, go further away. Don't get in the way here.”

Only then did I realize that Fatty himself didn't know what to do, and I immediately waved them away. Xiao Hua led the men to the side.

Worried about Fatty, I lowered my voice and asked Mute Sister, “Is he in danger?”

She pressed Fatty's neck and didn't answer me. I thought she was counting his pulse and dared not ask again.  She dropped her hand and said, “Are you finally willing to talk to me?”

s.h.i.+t. I felt my heart jolt and wondered, how should I answer this?  I was worried about Fatty and didn't want to turn around and run away.

A thought flashed through my mind, and I wondered how, with Uncle Three's character, he would answer such words.  I knew what he looked like when eating, drinking, whoring, and gambling, but I didn't know what feelings he had for this girl or what he looked like with women in private.

I didn't answer for a long time while she opened Fatty's eyelids and didn't look at me, but she continued, “I don't care what you did this time. Only those idiots believe what you said. I believe you had your reasons for doing things.  But when you came back, why didn't you come to me first? “

“w.a.n.g Ba Qiu and Lao Liu…” I prevaricated a little.

“It's not been a day or two since they wanted to oppose you.” Mute Sister said, “Can't I help you?  You really don't believe anyone but your crazy Pan Zi, do you? “

“I didn't want you to be involved this time.”  My legs were shaking a little. I didn't expect to lie to a woman under so much pressure.  I lit a cigarette immediately, but before I could take a puff, she turned around and grabbed it and stubbed it out on a stone. “Since your throat was operated on, don't smoke so much.”

I gave a dry laugh; this isn't a mistress, but a clear example of an empress.  But I think it's quite good, and if Uncle Three is still alive, he would really need someone like this to take care of him. However, it seems pointless since Uncle Three's fate is still uncertain.

“You haven't explained it to me.”  She touched Fatty's bones.

“Things are a little complicated…” I was thinking about how to say it.  If I tell her the truth that I'm her nephew, would she promise to stand by me?  It's hard to say, and I bet she'll have difficulty believing me anyways. After all, the things that Uncle Three and I have experienced in recent years weren't what ordinary people would believe.  If she thought this was a conspiracy, we would be in even more trouble. “I think you…”

Before she finished speaking, I don't know where she pressed Fatty but suddenly he grabbed her hand. She was startled and exclaimed.

Fatty's strength was obviously so great that she couldn't break free, and he started talking nonsense while almost convulsing.

His p.r.o.nunciation was extremely vague so I went up and held his hand, pulled it away from Mute Sister's wrist, and bent over to listen to him.  It took a long time to tell what he was saying, but when I did, a hot and dry heat made the hair all over my body stand up.

When the people around us heard the noise, they thought something had happened and all gathered around.

“What did he say?” Xiao Hua asked as he came up with the medicine bag.

I told him: “He said they are still alive, but the situation is very dangerous. Let's go down and save them immediately.”

In fact, Fatty had said these eight words: “They're alive. Save them by following the map!”

He kept talking and you could hardly hear it clearly. Only someone who was very familiar with his speech could understand it.  Fortunately, I was that kind of person.

For a moment, I suddenly felt like collapsing.

f.u.c.k, Fatty thought of himself as a messenger. He came out to give us the news.

I couldn't tell whether I was relieved, anxious, ecstatic, or something else.  Before, I was constantly worried about their situation below the mountain and I tried my best not to think about it, because I really didn't know what would happen.  Now that I had settled down, I didn't know what emotion to express.

Fatty kept talking, and went into a state of madness. I had to lean down and whisper in his ear, “I am Mr. Naive, I heard you.”

After repeating it several times, he grabbed my wrist and slowly relaxed, until he finally collapsed and fell into what seemed to be a coma.

“What map?” Xiao Hua looked at Fatty's stomach. “Is that the picture on his stomach?”

I nodded, and now I knew what it was: “Get someone to trace all these patterns.”

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