Like right now, with five figures resting before her eyes, Ye Jian1 silently hid behind the trees and observed the party under cover of the leaves.
All five men were bald, and they huddled together in a circle. Every so often, it was clear they had tense nerves just by looking at their complexion, their continually moving eyes, and their anxious looks.
These people… must be the ones the border police are after.
The leaves were rustling after being beaten by the rain; their voices were projected fragmented into Ye Jian’s ears.
“Brother Hong, exactly how long will this take? Can you at least give us something concrete? We’ve already been walking for one day, and we’re still not there yet! There’s plenty of rain in the mountains and there’s also lots of snakes. All of us are tired and hungry, if we continue like this, we’ll all collapse before we reach where we’re going.”
“That’s right, Brother Hong. Please give us something concrete, one moment you’ll say ‘just in front’, and you’ll say ‘not too far away’ in the next one. We’ve already walked one day, all of us are worried and can only feel anxious.”
“Brother Hong, are you sure there are people coming to get us?”
“Brother Hong, the four of us are sincerely following you, if you say that someone is going to get us, then we’ll follow your leadership without another word. You’ve also seen how sincere we are, but Brother Hong, you should at least let us see some of your sincerity, right?”
The four bald men spoke one sentence after the other at the man who they had surrounded in the middle. Ye Jian did not immediately avoid them. Instead, she was silently waiting for the man in the middle to answer.
The sound of the rain was loud. To not miss out on the details, the courageous Ye Jian gently squirmed another half a meter towards them, then slowly laid herself prone in the bushes. Her gaze swept over them, to prevent being discovered by them.
Because there was an infection in his leg wound, Brother Hong currently had a low fever. After hearing that these four men wanted to hear his reply, Brother Hong sighed: “So are the four of you not trusting me? We truly still need to continue moving, and my men are truly waiting for me to return.”
“Why didn’t I make my men come get me at the hospital? That’s very simple, because I’ve already sent a letter to them while in prison, telling them the date I’ll return to the village. That I’ll continue bringing my fellows huge riches! If you guys believe in me, then you can keep following me, if you don’t, I won’t force you to stay and you can choose to leave!”
The four bald men went to jail because they got caught while they helped traffic drugs. Why did they choose to follow Brother Hong? All of it was because before they were arrested, they had heard of ‘Brother Hong’s infamy! They knew this man controlled his own drug trade!
But they hadn’t seen anyone come get them after such a long time had passed! It was hard for them not to doubt whether or not the ‘drug trade’ in Brother Hong’s hands was razed to the ground by the armed police!
After he was done, a younger bald man said with sudden excitement: “Brother Hong, you you you… what you mean is you’ll bring us to where you left your ‘goods’? You’ll bring us straight there?”
“Well of course, the four of you managed to get me out, how can I not show some sincerity?” Brother Hong’s Mandarin also had an accent, a village accent that came somewhere from Sichuan. He sighed, making it look as if he was really sincere.
The young man probably knew something; his expression seemed more excited; Ye Jian could only hear him repeat himself: “Thank you Brother Hong, thank you Brother Hong! We’ll follow Brother Hong from now on! Thank you Brother Hong, thank you Brother Hong.”
Brother Hong waved his hand, “You guys saved me regardless of the cost, I definitely must thank you guys. I’ll be resting for a few more minutes, then we’ll have to keep moving after that.”
“Okay, okay, you should rest, you should rest.” It was as if the young man had just seen money raining from the sky, and he was suddenly treating Brother Hong as his ancestor.
