Epiphanies of Rebirth Chapter 80 (Part 2)
Please get your tissues before reading
Translated by Pure
Chapter 80.2 Aiming to Marry in November
In the evening, Shi Nanxing finally came back with a gloomy face.
Qi Kai laid on the ground, as if collapsed from a lack of energy. When he watched Shi Nanxing sit down in the room, somehow mustered up some spirit and asked, "Was Sha Peng looking for you?"
"It was Sha Peng’s boss." Shi Nanxing glanced vigilantly outside the hutch, then suddenly rushed over and whispered to Qi Kai, "We have to find a chance to escape."
Qi Kai lay there blankly and looked at him.
"Remember, don't believe anything they say. Sha Peng will definitely tell you that they just want money, and let us go back after our family pays a ransom." Shi Nanxing sneered, "Truth is, he doesn’t intend to keep us alive."
"His boss has been here for nearly 30 years, but no one outside had ever known what he looks like. I have mentioned meeting him many times before but was never granted access, however this time he took the initiative to meet me. He wanted me to try opium, and use it to control me. I temporarily avoided the matter, but it won't last long." Shi Nanxing grabbed Qi Kai's arm tightly, "I can't be hooked on that thing!"
Qi Kai looked at him silently. For the first time, he saw the fear of drugs on his uncle's face. He got up and looked out the window. Sha Peng and a dark-skinned old man, with a very unique appearance, were chatting directly outside the terrace of another bamboo building, as if completely worry-free.
Qi Kai slumped back to the floor and recalled the girl's twitching body in the afternoon, and after a while, he laughed blankly.
However, on the next day he still followed Shi Nanxing, taking advantage of the time when the guards were changing.
There is a vast forest next to the village. Shi Nanxing hid behind a rock with his waist bent, and explained quietly, "I have been here several times and have walked this road before. Follow closely and don't make a sound."
Gunshots came from the village; their disappearance had been discovered. The two of them didn't dare to delay, they rolled and crawled, and ran desperately in one direction. It's just that they hadn’t consumed water or food for several days, even if they were made of steel, the human body couldn't sustain such intensity. After running for an unknown amount of time, Shi Nanxing rolled into a bush, pulled out a weed and stuffed it into his mouth while panting.
"It seems...it seems that there is no more sound..." He put his ear to the ground and listened to the movement in the distance.
Qi Kai was lying on the ground sweating profusely, seeing flashes of white from the intense physical exertion. He suddenly found the whole situation ridiculous; he was currently being hunted, like a wild animal.
"Keep your voice down!" Shi Nanxing kicked him vigilantly, "Are you crazy? Do you want them to catch up to us?"
Qi Kai turned his face over, looking at his uncle’s disheveled appearance, the same person who has always paid attention to his appearance.
In Shi Nanxing's eyes, Qi Kai had turned into a nutjob; if it wasn't for the clench for time, he would have ‘helped fix’ his mental screw. Feeling that he had enough rest, Shi Nanxing wiped his sweat, got up, and said, "Okay, hurry up, we have to reach the safe place before dark."
"Where’s the safe place?"
Shi Nanxing subconsciously wanted to answer, but immediately realized something was wrong. Like a stiff puppet, he turned his head back, bit by bit.
Sha Peng squatted on the ground with a smile, raised his head and said, "I was tricked by you again."
His coy complaint shocked the two people present. Shi Nanxing frantically shook his head and stepped back, trying to explain himself, "I didn't, I didn't mean to lie to you..."
Sha Peng smiled and nodded. "I see."
Shi Nanxing thought that he was willing to spare him, and just after he breathed a sigh of relief, he saw Sha Peng raise his arm.
Boom—
The loud sound startled the surrounding birds, as they all took flight and flew off. Qi Kai’s eyes subconsciously blinded, when he opened and wiped them in a dazed, and stared at the bright red liquid in his palm.
Shi Nanxing fell heavily on the ground, his eyes still wide open.
He died.
It was hard to describe his feelings at the moment. Qi Kai didn’t even have time to shed any tears when the world became silent. It was like an auditorium with dimmed lights during a movie screening. Qi Kai sat in the screening room, he was the only one left in the world; he knelt on the ground in a daze, and wiped the blood off Shi Nanxing's face.
"Do you want to run?"
Sha Peng retracted his gun and pointed at the jungle with a smile, "If you manage to run away, I won't kill you."
Qi Kai mechanically turned his head to look at him.
He tried to get up but quickly fell down. The second time, he finally was able to steady himself as he staggered away.
After a burst of laughter, Sha Peng squinted his eyes and handed his handgun to his subordinate, taking a long shotgun from another person. He loaded it, took aim, and leisurely led the others to follow after Qi Kai.
…
Qi Kai didn't know who he was, where he was, and what he was going to do.
But his instinct to survive drove him to run until his last breath.
With a rancid wind blowing from the dense forest, his vision remained dimmed, as if covered by a layer of red gauze.
He tripped over a stone and nearly fell, but when he came back to his senses, Qi Kai looked back in a trance, at the path behind him.
He suddenly heard a rustling sound in his ears, and instinctively turned to face the noise. Nevertheless, his exhaustion conquered over as he tiredly closed his eyes.
In the next second, something warm touched his hand.
Qi Kai suddenly opened his eyes, and in front of him was a curious face of the little chick-like girl.
"*&￥!" The skinny little girl pointed in one direction and mumbled a few incomprehensible words, she pulled Qi Kai and ran in the specified direction.
Qi Kai subconsciously followed, and soon heard a burst of chaotic gunshots and curses from the area he just left.
He ran for an unknown amount of time, and when he came to his senses, he had already been pushed into a cave.
The girl covered the grass at the entrance of the cave, looked out for a while, and smiled delightedly.
Qi Kai stared at the pustules on her face, everyone he saw these days, except Shi Nanxing, had many of these small lesions on their faces.
He didn't know why at first, but now he was well aware.
The little girl helped him settle down; she found some wild fruit and water from somewhere, and allowed him to drink it.
Qi Kai looked at the belt around the little girl's waist that originally belonged to him. The girl was so small that the belt had been wrapped around her body twice.
His brain was numbed, and his whole body fell into a void. Shi Nanxing's death seemed to have broken his original knowledge of the world. For the first time, he finally understood what ‘cruelty’ was.
For two whole days he laid motionless, as if he were dead.
In the early morning, the little girl observed the situation outside the cave and gestured to him that she was going out to find something to eat.
Qi Kai pulled her over and wiped her face with a handkerchief, only to find that she was quite a pretty girl.
"Thank you." With some of his spirit recovered, he asked, "What's your name?"
After trying the same question in two other languages, the girl still remained puzzled.
Qi Kai pointed at himself and slowly said, "Qi—Kai—"
The girl suddenly understood and quickly nodded. She then pointed at herself and said something, seeing that he didn't understand, she took out a flower from her pocket.
It was a flower on the eve of withering, but its beautiful appearance of the past could still be discerned.
Qi Kai patted the child's head with mixed emotions, watched her cheerfully leave, and then leaned wearily against the cave wall.
It can't go on like this, he needed to get out of here, along with this child.
However, the problem was that Qi Kai didn't know where he was now. The terrain of the forest was complex, and there were winding mountain roads led in all directions, making it difficult to distinguish where they were heading. Never had he come to realize his own foolishness until now; at this moment, he couldn't even formulate a clear escape route.
Soon, morning turned to afternoon, and his depressed mood gradually turned into worry— the girl had never come back.
Until night fell, Qi Kai finally couldn't sit still, he carefully drilled out of the hole, ready to go out to find her.
There was dense vegetation all around, he tried his best not to lose his way by staying close to the sound of running water.
Then he paused.
The moonlight came in through the gaps in the branches and leaves, and fell upon the stream. The clear water looked magnificent, with a myriad of glistening stars.
A small body laid quietly by this steam.
Qi Kai was stunned for a long time, and approached as if touching a fragile dream. He gently turned the body over.
There was no gunshot wound, but new vertical and horizontal scars riddled her forehead. The fresh wounds had been soaked white by the stream, but the original hideous appearance could still be faintly made out at glance. Qi Kai gently picked up her hand, and saw the flesh and blood dug out from her body between the crevices of her nails.
His belt was thrown to the side, the once fine leather was now riddled with teeth marks.
The curious chick had fallen into eternal sleep.
Qi Kai hugged her and ran towards an unknown distance. He had never run so fast before. The wind whistled by his ears and poured into his opened mouth that couldn't even utter a sound.
He tirelessly ran from the late of night to the break of dawn.
There were chaotic footsteps and gunshots in the woods, someone must have heard the sound of him running.
Qi Kai hugged the little chick tightly, and lightly covered her small ears.
The sound of chasing footsteps was getting increasingly closer. He could hardly hold on any longer, maybe he would die here immediately, but before that, he had to find a place to bury the little chick in his arms.
He took the knife by the little chick's waist, held it in his hand, and finally ran out of the forest and came to an open space.
There was a gunshot in front of him, halting Qi Kai in his steps. He went blank for a moment, suddenly knelt down on the spot, and started digging at the ground in front of him.
Until an unexpected voice came——
"Who’s there!"
Mandarin!
Probably because they heard gunshots in the dense forest, a group of people in military uniform approached vigilantly. The morning sun shone on them like a ray of sacred light, as if sacrosanct.
Qi Kai stared fixedly at the epaulets on their shoulders, and after a few seconds, something seemed to open up in his mind as his head dropped to the ground and hoarse cried.
"Sorry, I’m sorry!!!!"
He didn’t specify who he was apologizing to. Maybe it was the soldiers who were defending the country at the border, or maybe it was addressed to the young girl in his arms, who should have been enjoying her ignorant age, but died as a premature child.
The soldiers were frightened by his hysterical appearance. After scrutinizing his face for a while, they suddenly recognized him, "He’s a wanted smuggler! Quick, report back to the team! We need to detain him back!"