Chapter 153: Dead End (Second Part)

"Damn you, you stupid bird! Whatever you are looking for is right inside my belly, so come and get it if you've got the guts, you moron!"

A bead of cold sweat leaked from his forehead. Not knowing where he suddenly got the courage and confidence, Zhu Dachang shouted these words with reddened eyes at Yang Wei and Wang Chao. Then, he broke into a frantic sprint with only a single thought in his mind: he had to lure these two bastards away, especially that murderer in the grey jacket.

The further he got from Hou San, the safer Hou San would be.

He had considered rushing back into Hou San's ward to fight side by side with him using guns, but Yang Wei was right about one thing: a muzzle-loader took time to reload. He could dodge, but Hou San could not move. That murderer was truly capable of killing, whereas Zhu Dachang lacked the nerve to pull the trigger while aiming at someone's vital spots.

A person must not kill another human being; kindred must not slaughter their own kind. These were the words Zhang Xiaoman had spoken while poking him in the forehead in the small woods of Elm Willow Village.

Zhu Dachang could read very few characters and understood little of the world's ways, but this principle had been firmly engraved in his heart. Therefore, the optimal solution for now was still to run. The very phrase "optimal solution" was something Zhang Xiaoman had taught him a few days ago; that man understood a great deal, and following his advice could never be wrong.

Glancing back at Yang Wei, who was closely trailing him, and at Wang Chao, who was gradually drawing nearer, Zhu Dachang swallowed hard, pushed open the small side door leading to the street on the left side of the hospital, and stepped briskly outside. As he did so, he picked up a wooden stick from the side and jammed it through the door handle. Then, wading unevenly through the deep snow, he ran toward the hospital grounds. Glancing up briefly at a certain direction in the horizon, his eyes brimmed with hopeful happiness.

During these past few days, he had often gazed into the direction of Elm Willow Village, always feeling that it was a very beautiful place. He still remembered that afternoon over twenty years ago in the small woods of Elm Willow Village when he first saw that monkey of a man, draped in a tattered cloth shirt and wearing shoes full of holes. When he drew closer, he realized the monkey wasn't a monkey at all, but merely a human who looked like one.

"My name is Hou San, and from today onward, I am your big brother!"

Zhu Dachang had smiled, giving neither assent nor refusal. Upon seeing Hou San's ribs, which were nearly piercing through his skin, he handed over the first protection fee of his life: half a steamed bun.

Monkeys and pigs were natural friends, just like Sun Wukong and Zhu Bajie; one pretended to be clever while the other pretended to be foolish, making them a perfectly complementary duo.

The children in the village always called him Little Fat Pig, so the very moment he laid eyes on Hou San, he decided that he and Hou San would be lifelong friends.

He always liked calling Hou San "Brother Monkey, Brother Monkey" because he genuinely felt Hou San was just like the Monkey King. Hou San looked remarkably similar when fighting other children for his sake, when climbing trees to pick wild fruits to quench his thirst, and even when stamping his feet and scratching his cheeks in anxious agitation when angry.

They had played together since childhood, witnessing each other grow up bit by bit. The name Dachang—meaning "Great Growth"—was given to him by Hou San himself.

"Growth reversed is great growth. The characters themselves carry a magnificent and imposing aura, holding infinite room for progress."

Just as when he first met Hou San, he gave neither agreement nor refusal. Upon seeing Hou San stagger out of a mud hut with a bruised and battered face, shoving three eggs into his hands, he shed the first tear he could remember since childhood and made his first birthday wish: to never part ways.

Later on, when Hou San married a wife and settled down, he was genuinely happy, thinking that he too now had a home.

However, good times do not last. One day, after the earth shook and mountains trembled, Hou San ran over to find him covered in dust and ash. They drank sorghum wine for three days and three nights, and shed sorrowful tears for three days and three nights as well.

"Heaven is unjust... Zhu Dachang, I want to live a different life!"

After he spent a long period delivering three meals a day to Hou San, Hou San finally stood up from his bed. Then, he uttered the first lie of his life: that Zhang Cuihua's mother was marrying Zhang Cuihua off to Wang Maza, whose testicles had been crushed.

A clever lie is seven parts truth and three parts falsehood. It was true that he liked Zhang Cuihua, and it was also true that her mother was anxious to marry her off, but the groom was not the crushed-testicle Wang Maza—it was himself. Between a fool and a eunuch, Cuihua's mother had shrewdly made the correct choice.

The one-year deadline for making a fortune was also something he had previously agreed upon with Cuihua and her mother. On the one hand, preparing for a wedding genuinely required money; on the other hand, he wanted to give Hou San a change of environment to help him get back on his feet.

He simply had not expected that this massive city would have no place to accommodate him and Hou San. The rich lived in song and dance while the poor struggled just to stay alive. Upon learning that the real estate developer stubbornly refused to pay the wages owed to him and Hou San, the two of them sat in desolate silence on a hill on the outskirts of the city, enduring the wind for an entire night and staring at the grass all night long—the kind of grass upon which human lives were treated as dirt.

Hou San had finally become Sun Wukong, wishing to raise havoc in City A and achieve notorious fame through sheer tyranny. Following Hou San through numerous trials and tribulations, he suddenly felt that since the city could not tolerate them, they might as well go back. Just now in the hospital ward, he had originally intended to tell Hou San his true feelings, but out of frustration over Hou San's words, he ended up speaking only in sharp and sarcastic taunts.

The only people who can hurt you, and whom you can hurt, are forever those closest to you.

Thinking up to this point, Zhu Dachang exhaled a heavy cloud of white mist, brushed the flying snow from his face, and cast a glance back toward the hospital.

The distance was not far, and the hospital was not large; Zhu Dachang could see the end of it at a single glance, and he also spotted the heads of Yang Wei and Wang Chao.

Zhu Dachang felt around in his trouser pockets and pulled out two black USB flash drives and a kraft paper file bag. Hesitating for a few seconds as he passed a trash can, he tossed the kraft paper file bag right inside.

Yang Wei and Wang Chao reached that trash can almost simultaneously, both of their eyes lighting up. The difference was that Yang Wei hastily picked up the file bag, whereas Wang Chao walked past it with utter disdain, pressing forward. A moment later, failing to find the black USB flash drives in the trash can, Yang Wei yanked his legs out of the snow and chased after them with an excited expression.

Every road eventually reaches an end. When Zhu Dachang ran in blind panic right to the dead end of a narrow alley, he knew his journey had reached its limit. Sweeping his gaze from left to right, he hid the two black USB flash drives into a pile of snow in a corner. Checking the footprints left in the snow, Zhu Dachang feigned a fall and rolled around on the ground a few times, neatly erasing those conspicuous footprints.

Wang Chao caught up to the entrance of the alley, glanced at Zhu Dachang who was clumsily scrambling up from the ground in panic, but did not make a move immediately. Instead, he leaned sideways against the wall at the alley entrance, quietly waiting for Yang Wei to arrive.

A minute later, Yang Wei ran into the alley panting heavily. He glanced at Zhu Dachang at the far end of the alley, then at Wang Chao by the entrance, took off his sunglasses, exhaled a long breath of stale air, and squinted his eyes. "This is getting interesting now. Turns out I'm the prey as well..."