The fat man looked at me and said, “What are you thinking? Do you think I’m here to keep you company?” He gave me a light shove. “I would have come here even if you didn’t.” With that, he walked towards the darkness on one side, signaling for me to follow.
I couldn’t help but feel a mix of amusement and exasperation, and I signaled for the White Snake to follow as well—he would be taking too great a risk climbing alone; it was better for us to advance and retreat together.
The three of us carefully waded through the water into the darkness, leaving the sunlight behind. It quickly became pitch black. After walking just a dozen meters, I realized it would be impossible to continue exploring.
“I can’t tell if those birds are dead or alive,” the fat man said. “If we use our flashlights in the dark, we’ll be sitting ducks.” He continued, “Yesterday, we just wiped out their entire family; we shouldn’t go stealing from them again today. I have a conscience, you know.”
If we used our flashlights, and the light fell on those people or birds, the consequences would be unimaginable. After some deliberation, we decided to withdraw. I turned to the fat man and asked, “Do we have enough bullets to come back and clean this place out?”
He sighed. “Naive. After all these years, you’ve become heartless. You kill their fathers and then go after the sons. But I like it; in our world of total annihilation, bullets are the least efficient. Let’s go out and kill your dog, mix its meat with cyanide, and toss it here. I guarantee we won’t waste a single bullet—”
“Don’t you dare come up with ideas about my dog,” I snapped, knowing he was joking. But those dogs could understand human speech; who knows, they might sneak up and take him out tonight.
Just as I was about to turn around, the fat man suddenly grabbed me again.
“You’re getting old; you’re starting to tremble, aren’t you?” I shot back.
“Where am I old? You’re the one who’s young, and yet your eyesight is so poor,” he said, looking into the darkness and gesturing for me to look.
I squinted, but I couldn’t see anything in the dark.
“Are you hallucinating?” I asked. He pointed at the water with his flashlight. I looked down and saw many small fish swimming through the cracks in the rocks, densely moving toward the darkness ahead of us.
“These are spring fish; they only come this way if there’s a fishy smell ahead,” the fat man said, slowly moving the beam of light in the direction the fish were swimming, raising the flashlight.
The beam pierced the darkness, and I vaguely saw a humanoid shape standing against the rock wall at the far edge of the riverbank.
It was hard to make out from a distance, and just as I was about to step forward, the fat man pulled me back and took out binoculars. “New equipment,” he said, adjusting the focus while licking his lips. “Use this to look at that tall leggy woman selling jade across from my shop, even the hair—” Suddenly, he stopped speaking and turned to look at me. I asked what was wrong, and the fat man elongated his jaw but couldn’t find his voice.
After all these years, he had never been at a loss for words. I snatched the binoculars from him and aimed them at the beam of the flashlight.
I saw a naked old man standing straight in the darkness. Under the flashlight’s beam, his skin was a purplish-brown color, and he looked as desiccated as tree bark. His arms hung down at his sides, and his fingernails were dipped into the water.
“Fourth Grandpa?” My hands started to tremble.
Even though I had anticipated this, seeing the corpse of an old acquaintance, standing stiffly here after ten years, was still hard to accept.
“Zongzi!” the fat man mouthed. “No time for nostalgia, let’s run!”
“Look for the positive side,” I said, pointing to the water. We still had some oxygen left. I wanted to dive down and see for myself.
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