adminI initially thought it was Wen Jin following us into the camp. Holding a stone, I intended to block him, only to find that it was actually the muddy figure of the “dumb oil bottle” who had entered the camp. His appearance left me speechless: covered in mud from head to toe, including his hair, and his shoulder wounds were caked with filth. I couldn’t tell if they would get infected, but at least he didn’t seem to have any new injuries. He must have had a more comfortable night than we did.
I couldn’t find the words to describe my feelings at that moment; I was frozen there. When he turned around, I finally reacted, put down the stone, and explained, “I thought you were… um, something else…”
He ignored me and simply asked, “Is there anything to eat?”
I suddenly remembered that when he charged into the swamp, he hadn’t brought anything with him. Given his appearance, he might not have eaten anything for over twenty hours. I took him outside and poured him some tea, and he ate the dry rations without saying a word, his face as cold as ice.
After he finished eating, I handed him a cloth to wipe his hands and quickly asked about his situation. What had happened after he chased after Wen Jin? How did he manage to catch up with us?
His expression was grave as he wiped the mud off his face and recounted what had happened in a fragmented manner. He spoke extremely briefly, but I still understood.
It turned out that after he chased Wen Jin out the previous night, he had been in pursuit for six continuous hours. Unfortunately, tracking someone in the jungle was incredibly difficult. Eventually, he lost her, not knowing if she had hidden or run far away. By the time he stopped, he had no idea where he was.
Without any lighting equipment and having lost his target, he couldn’t even see his surroundings. He calculated the time he had spent here and his speed, realizing he wasn’t too far from us. However, if he continued deeper into the rainforest, it would be even harder to return. So, he huddled under a tree root, waiting for dawn to go back.
This was similar to what we had thought at the time. The Fatty speculated that he might come back in the morning, but after dawn, things changed. He saw our signal smoke and, at the same time, he spotted the smoke from Uncle San and the others.
By judging the distance, he figured out the direction of our smoke and returned to the place where we had left a note for him, only to find that it had been flooded. He had no choice but to turn back and chase after us. However, like us, he followed the smoke, and the route was not straightforward. He never encountered us, and later that night, hearing gunshots, he made his way here and discovered the camp.
After hearing this, I thought it was quite a coincidence. If it hadn’t been for that battle last night, he probably wouldn’t have found us. Thankfully, he managed to maintain such clear judgment in such harsh conditions. Knowing he was back, I felt a weight lift off my shoulders; I had originally held no hope for his return.
At that moment, as I watched him wipe off the mud from his body, I asked, “We were also fleeing and though we were in a mess, we didn’t end up like you. What happened to you to get into such a state?”
“This isn’t a mess; I put the mud on myself,” he replied.
I was even more puzzled, thinking to myself, “Are you rolling around like a hippo? Or did you get fleas? With your constitution, even if you lay in a pile of fleas, they’d only dare to give you a massage!”
He glanced at the mud on his arm and explained, “It’s because of those snakes…”
“Snakes?”
“Wen Jin has been here for a long time. With so many venomous snakes around, there’s definitely a reason why she, as a woman, has survived for so long. Moreover, her condition is quite unusual. I feel these two points must be related. After thinking about it, I realized that this mud is the key.” The man in the oil bottle said, “I smeared mud on myself, and sure enough, those snakes seemed to be unable to see me.”
As soon as I thought about it, I suddenly understood. So that’s how it is! I wondered why Wen Jin looked like that. Snakes rely on heat to find their prey, and covering oneself in mud not only conceals body heat but also masks scent. It could indeed be useful.
I couldn’t help but feel ecstatic; this was truly good news. With this, our chances of survival in the rainforest had greatly increased. At least we wouldn’t be easy prey anymore.
The man in the oil bottle wiped off some of the mud from his body and looked around the campsite, asking me, “Is this how you all arrived?”
I nodded and recounted our experiences to him.
I started from when we parted ways, trying to keep it brief yet clear, all the way to when we arrived here not long after him. There was no one left, and the situation was a bit strange. All personal belongings were left behind, and there were no signs of violence, as if these people had calmly abandoned the camp and left without taking anything.
He listened silently, his eyes scanning the tents around us, and said nothing, just pinched the bridge of his nose, seemingly perplexed.
I told him it was good that he was back. Because of Panzi, we couldn’t leave here for the time being, and we were too exhausted and needed to rest; otherwise, it would be tantamount to handing ourselves over to death. Now that we had one more person, there was one more lookout.
He did not respond, looked at me, and said, “In a place like this, it doesn’t matter if there is one more or one less.”
I was a bit surprised that he would say such a thing. However, after he finished speaking, he stood up, picked up a bucket, and went to the water pool outside the camp to fill it. Then he stripped off his clothes, turned his back to me, and began to wash himself, rinsing off the mud on his body. I could tell from his demeanor that he didn’t have much to say to me, and I felt a bit gloomy. Nevertheless, it was still a good thing that he was back.
After he finished washing, he returned to sit quietly, eyes closed. I didn’t want to disturb him, but I couldn’t sleep either, so I took a shower as well. After washing up, I felt slightly refreshed, then fetched some water to wipe Panzi down. He felt a bit warm and was sleeping restlessly; after I finished, he fell back into a deep sleep.
When I came out and saw Fatty, I thought he probably didn’t need me to attend to him anymore. I sat down and started massaging my calves, not thinking about looking at Wen Jin’s notes again. I turned to look at the man in the oil bottle; he was also asleep. I realized he must be more exhausted than we were. Even an iron Buddha couldn’t withstand such turmoil.
I kept watch like this until around three or four in the afternoon when Fatty finally woke up. Groggily, he looked at the man in the oil bottle and muttered, “Hmm,” taking a long time to react. Then he said, “Damn, I’m not dreaming, am I?”
The man in the oil bottle immediately woke up, clearly not in a deep sleep. He looked at Fatty, then at the sky, and sat up. Fatty rubbed his eyes and said, “Looks like I’m not dreaming. Comrades of the working class, you’ve finally joined the Red Army.”
The “Muffled Oil Bottle” is truly a remarkable person. Although he is taciturn, his presence is like a shot of adrenaline; I can instantly see that the Fatty is genuinely happy. I asked him, “What are you so happy about? Didn’t you say you wanted to go solo?”
He stood up and sat next to me, spitting out a few mouthfuls of bloody phlegm, and said, “That was before. Now that the Little Brother is back, I definitely have to follow him. If I follow the Little Brother, there will be meat to eat, right?”
Seeing the blood in his phlegm, I realized he had also suffered internal injuries, but he seemed unconcerned, so it probably wasn’t too serious. I just told him to be careful.
The Muffled Oil Bottle didn’t respond, and the Fatty handed me a cigarette. He poured some water from the kettle to wash his eyes and then asked the Muffled Oil Bottle about the situation before. I recounted what the Muffled Oil Bottle had told me earlier.
As the Fatty listened, he nodded along. When he heard that mud could prevent snakes, he exclaimed, “Damn, that’s a good remedy! With this, we can save some energy in the swamp. Just now, when I was sleeping, I dreamed there was a snake crawling on me, stuck in my pants and wouldn’t come out. It scared the hell out of me!”
I laughed. It seemed that only when the Muffled Oil Bottle was around did the Fatty’s jokes sound funny. I said, “I guess it’s interested in the little chick in your pants. By the way, did you hatch it yet?”
The Fatty replied, “Not yet. I’ve been soaking in the water all day; it’s turned into fish eggs. I need to take it out to dry later, or it’ll get moldy.”
I burst out laughing, and the Fatty laughed too, giving me a few pats. “Stop laughing! I don’t believe yours is still dry. Why don’t we take it out and give it a squeeze?”
I shook my head and said it wasn’t necessary. The Fatty then told me to go rest. Although I felt a bit excited, the fatigue in my body was overwhelming. I lay down and soon fell asleep. Perhaps it was because the Muffled Oil Bottle was there; I fell into a deep sleep, feeling particularly at ease, and didn’t wake up until evening.
The sun was already setting when I got up and smelled something delicious. The Fatty was cooking something, but I didn’t know what it was. As I moved, it felt as if I were a zombie rising from a grave; the muscles in my body were so sore that they felt “bitter,” making it hard to describe the sensation.
My hands and feet had no strength at all, and I almost crawled over to the campfire, leaning against a stone. My hands were trembling as I heard the Fatty talking to the Muffled Oil Bottle. He was asking the Muffled Oil Bottle about his plans.
I thought to myself that this guy was starting to engage in separatism again. With Panzi out of commission, no one would pressure him to find my uncle, and now he was trying to pull the Muffled Oil Bottle into his schemes. I leaned in closer and heard him say to the Muffled Oil Bottle, “I say, this matter absolutely cannot let Wu Xie know; otherwise, he’ll go crazy…”
