"I'll take the second way." My fingertips touch the handle of the gun, feel icy cold.

He seems to sigh, "I guess you'll choose that way." He laughs and says, "Young man, who can live in peace all his life?"

He holds up gla.s.s again and looks at me. "Come on, have another drink! Tonight is our break-up meal. After this meal, I'll take you out of here."

Suddenly a trace of confusion bursts out in my heart, and I say with a bitter smile, "So fast?"

"Just so fast." He's laughing: "This dog kennel, you haven't stayed enough yet? I'm stuffy here. If it weren't because I couldn't find someone to take care of you, do you think I was willing to stay here with you for a whole month?"

When I look at him, I'm suddenly choking. I take up my gla.s.s and drink. I stare at him and say, "Big brother Ocean..."

This is the first time I have ever called him that way, but my voice is very sincere! I smash the gla.s.s, then take a piece of fragments, cut on my thumb, let the blood flow out, and then take the empty bowl in front of me, hold the bottle and pour half a bowl of wine, squeez a few drops of blood from my thumb and drop it in the bowl.

Then I look straight at him and slowly say, "I will never forget your kindness in my lifetime! One day, if I Chen Yang will not die and make a fortune, I will repay you ten times hundred times!"

Then I pick up the bowl and drink the blood and liquor all.

He doesn't say anything, just smiles gently and sips a drink with me. Then he smiles gently and says, "I can't imagine you such a young kid also learn from our old antiques to play blood brotherhoods."

I shake my head. "What I said tonight is true!"

"I believe you." He nods: "You just live good and I'll be waiting for the day you repay me."

The meal lasted all night, and we drank up the whole bottle without wasting a drop. The dishes were all eaten too.

The next morning, he takes me away. When it is dim, we get into the van and he drives me away from the small village where we have been dormant for almost a month.

For so many days here, I haven't even stepped out of the door, and I don't even know the surroundings at all.

The van drives for about an hour. Then it seems to drive to a building material market far from the city. His van drives in and stops at the door of the back warehouse.

In front of a container truck inside, two men are squatting there smoking. Seeing fat fellow comes in, they immediately stand up and say "Brother Ocean" with a laugh.

Fat fellow nods, then pulls me over, points at me and says, "This is time we take this brother to go. Who will drive today?"

A tall and thin man immediately laughs and says, "It's me, brother Ocean." He has a cigarette in his ear. Looking at me, he says, "This young man has a command appearance. He must make a big fortune in future. Don't forget us when you are rich in the future."

Fat fellow laughs, curses and kicks him. "Is the pa.s.s ready?"

"Boss, you can rest a.s.sured!" The tall and thin man smiles and takes out the key. Then he goes to the front of the container truck, opens the door, and says to me. "Sorry to have made you go through this. Sit in there for a while. If I stop, you must not make a noise and move around, you know?"

I nod and step into the container.

I sit in the bottom. There's a bottle of water on the ground and nothing else. Then fat fellow and the tall and thin man jointly carry a lot of boxes in and pile them outside of me. No sooner people can't see me from outside.

After a while, I feel that the truck is on its way. I don't know where the truck is driven, but I'm sure fat fellow's arrangement. If he doesn't say it, I don't ask much.

The truck on this road is running steadily. It seems to be on flat roads. In the boxes piled up in front of me, the packaging looks like some electronic components.

The truck stops twice along the way. Every time it stops, I carefully huddle in, without saying a word or making a sound. On one occasion, I even hear someone outside open the door of the container, and then vaguely hear the voice of the tall thin man grinning mischievously.

I can vaguely hear him laughing happily and says, "Sir, there's no problem! All the goods are regular cargo. There're customs clearances."

Then I can't hear what they are talking about, but then the container door is closed again and the truck continues to move.

I don't know how long it takes. I almost fell asleep. The worst part is that I can't go to the toilet. I've been stuck in urine for a long time.

Finally the truck stops, someone outside take away a pile of boxes. Fat fellow laughs outside and says, "Come out, kid!"

I watch several uniformed workers come in and carry the boxes down. Fat fellow stands outside the truck and smiles at me with cigarette in his hand.

Those workers are very quick at work, but they don't look at me at all. It seems that they are not surprised that there is a person hiding in the truck at all!

When I jump out of the truck, fat fellow sees the confusion on my face and says lightly, "The goods are all real, legitimate commercial goods, there is no problem. These worker are porters of a logistics company. In fact, most of the logistics companies in HK's freight terminal stations are controlled by societies. Many workers themselves are registered members of societies. Take people across the border in their trucks, they've seen too many, no one will say, and no one will be surprised. I've been using this line for a long time. Their boss has relations.h.i.+p with me and won't say anything."

Here is a warehouse, next to the dock. The sea breeze is blowing. Suddenly, I feel like a man of two generations.

"This is HK?" I open my mouth.

"Strictly speaking..." Fat fellow stands by the sea, pointing to the sparkling lights on the opposite sh.o.r.e: "That's it."

I nod and run down the steps to the beach.

The fat man shouts, "What are you doing?"

"Taking a leak!" I laugh and scold, "I almost explode!"

When I come up, I ask him, "Are you going to send me to HK?"

"No." He shakes his head: "HK is too close, you are still within Juan's sphere of influence."

I looked at him and ask, "Where are you going to let me go then?"

"As far as possible!" He does not explain it again.

Then he takes me to the dock, where there are many containers, but most of them are empty. It looks like a container yard.

He takes me to an unlabeled container and opens the door. It's a room with a bed, cabinets, chairs, and a lamp.

"Sleep for a while, and a s.h.i.+p will pick you up at night." Before he leaves, he looks at me and suddenly laughs and says, "By the way, ask you a question. Are you seasick or not? If you are seasick, stop eating from now on."

So is this smuggling?

I sleep in the container and am woken up at night. When fat fellow wake me up in the evening, he pulls me out of bed with a light expression on his face and sighs, "You're lucky... Well, at last a boat is found."

I grin bitterly: "Don't you find it just today?"

He pouts his mouth. "Do you think I run an airline? Are there regular flights to all parts of the world every day? d.a.m.n it. This kind of work depends on luck. I don't belong to those snakeheads. If I find someone who is carrying, I just take a hitchhike for you."

He takes me back to the dock and we wait for a moment. A small motorboat comes by, very small, with canvas on the back.

I stare at him. "How can such a small boat go to sea?"

He kicks me into the boat and scolding, "Are the police useless? Nowadays, it is very difficult to smuggle. They are all go from Southeast Asia. Now there is a boat pa.s.sing by on the high seas. We take this boat to sea, and then let you board that s.h.i.+p! It all depends on my relations.h.i.+p, they just reluctantly agreed to stop for an hour to wait for you boarding!"

The motorboat is driven by a black, strong man, with a fierce face, who is so absorbing in sailing that he does not look at me at all.

Fat fellow pulls me sit behind the boat.

I'm at sea for the first time. Although there is no wind, the boat's hull fluctuated quite a lot. The man is sailing very fast. Fat fellow takes a bag and stuffs it to me. He looks at me quietly for a moment and then says, "This bag contains clothes and some money."

He takes his breath and says slowly, "No much money, you just save spending."

I nod.

"When you get there, you go ash.o.r.e and change your clothes and tidy yourself up. Lest you be seen by the police, if you dress like a beggar, be careful to be caught." Fat fellow then slowly tell an address to me: "After arrival, find this person at this address."

He says a name, then let me repeat the address and name, and finally says: "When you see him, don't say much, just say I let you go, you just say: Knife Mountain and sea of fire! He will understand when he hears it!"

"Knife Mountain and sea of fire!"

I nod and sign that I have remembered.