It"s Not That Easy to Die
Pain.
There is nowhere in his entire body from top to bottom that isn"t in pain.
He"s dead?
At the same time as those two words flashed through Xu Bei"s mind, the past twenty-six years of his life chaotically flashed by like an exploding beer keg, his eyes were momentarily filled with the fragments, full of foam.
Various peoples" faces flip through like a high-speed photo alb.u.m, one by one they throw themselves at him, and slowly go far away, the pain on his body grows more and more intense.
He really didn"t expect that he would die an untimely death like this, but to also die with such a difficult death, Xu Bei very sorrowfully became depressed for a while.
But very soon, he then found that things apparently didn"t seem to be like he thought.
"Do you want to call the police?"
"Wake up, don"t die..." Someone was talking to the side and answered the questions his mind was most concerned about.
Xu Bei felt that if it were not for his whole body being in unbearable pain, right now, he would definitely be laughing once again. f.u.c.k me, Laozi still hasn"t died. Mother had once told him he was trash. People like him would die and even Yama, the King of h.e.l.l, wouldn"t accept them. He always believed that this was the most correct judgment of his mother"s countless curses. This now proves for a fact that she is a prophet.
He did not die, Yama did not accept him.
There was a shadow of someone swaying before his eyes, Xu Bei blinked his eyes, trying hard to see the face of this person clearly.
A nice and hot towel covered his face, the feeling of warmth slowly spread out to his whole body. Someone was bent over and studied his face for a while, and asked, "How are you feeling?"
"...hungry." Xu Bei opened his mouth to start talking only as far as the part of his brain that controls his responses are concerned, he is somewhat helpless.
"Bring him some congee." The man turned his head and said something behind him.
A few minutes later, Xu Bei was finally able to clearly see the people in front of him and the environment in which he was situated. This is an ordinary house that is frequently seen in the mountains. He is lying on a heatable brick bed, and a middle-aged husband and wife are standing by his bedside and looking at him.
The man helped him up and he drank a few mouthfuls of porridges and he felt that his stomach was terribly burning. He couldn"t keep whatever he ate down no matter what, he just wanted to vomit.
"We"ll send you off to the hospital, your injuries are far too serious. You even vomited blood just now." The man pointed towards the edge of the heatable brick bed where the bloodstain had yet to be wiped clean, "I will immediately pull out the car to take you to the County Hospital."
He can"t go to the hospital. Ban Dantong is an old fox. Even if he jumped off a cliff, so long as he doesn"t see his dead body, he will never let it go. The hospital is 100% be a place he"d be keeping watch.
Xu Bei looked at the man, but still nodded in the end and additionally pulled out a smile expression, and said his thanks with a hoa.r.s.e voice.
The mountain people are very sincere and honest, but at the same time, they are also very wary of strangers. If a seriously injured person who lost their footing and fell down the mountain from a cliff refused to go to the hospital, they may immediately send him to the police station...
"Oh, that"s right..." The man seemed to think of something and walked up to the end of the brick bed, stooped over and picked up a round, white thing from the ground, "Is this what you caught?"
Xu Bei all of a sudden became stunned, the little wolf that he just met in the snow was struggling with all its might to wriggle out of the man"s hand. From time to time, he made two "ao ao" sounds with a milky voice and indignantly thrashed his teeth. Only then did Xu discover that it even had teeth, four small canine teeth.
"Whatever for did I catch this thing... I really don"t know what it is." He was a little bit puzzled, how did this little thing even get here.
"When I dragged you back, it was followed after all along the way, it"s just an Arctic Wolf." The man put the wolf back down on the ground and the little thing quickly fled away from him, running up to the upper half of the brick beds bedside, reaching out and clinging to the top of the heated brick bed, its eyes looking straight at Xu Bei.
"Ah... Arctic Wolf." Xu Bei put out a facade of vague comprehending. Actually, in his mind, he did not entirely know what an Arctic Wolf was, only that it was a kind of wolf, just like how a snow leopard was a kind of leopard.
"I saw one once back when I was a child, I had thought for sure I wouldn"t be able to see these in the mountains anymore, they were all shot to extinction." The man said this as he walked outside of the room, his voice came from the outside, "This wolf cub is still not weaned, the mother wolf must have been killed by someone..."
Xu Bei did not pay attention to the latter half of the man"s sentence. His attention was completely attracted by the first half of the sentence, shot into extinction. No one has seen any for decades. They must be rare and valuable.
He looked at the little wolf sitting at his bedside on the ground and felt that the Heavens were being quite considerate towards him.
Xu Bei is short on money, extraordinarily short. In spite of him living up to now, there was never a time where he had a shortage of money, but this time he is seriously running short, and that deficiency almost made him lose his life. As soon as he thought of that Ban Datong as a greedy vulture with a frighteningly malicious gleam in his eye. He was not afraid of Ban Datong, but he was very afraid of dying by Ban Datong"s hand.
Even if the Arctic Wolf can"t sell up to the figure that Ban Datong demands, at least it can let him hide in the process of avoiding Ban Datong for a while.
Although the mountain people are mountain people, they are not foolish. The man starts up the tractor in preparation to send Xu Bei to the hospital in the county. As soon as he heard that he was going to take this wolf cub, the man immediately began to intensively scan at his face.
"What do you want to do with this wolf?"
"You see, this is a protected animal in this country..." On one hand, Xu Bei struggled to reach out and felt around the inside of his pocket and on the other he opened his mouth blather out some nonsense. He was completely unsure if the Arctic Wolf was a protected animal or not in the end. He just a.s.sumed that the husband and wife before his eyes also didn"t know just like him.
The hand touched the small rectangle in his pocket, very good, it"s still here.
Xu Bei fished out the small rectangle from his pocket and handed it over to that man. This is a student ID card from a certain well-known college graduate school in China. On it is a serious one-inch photo of Xu Bei. He put his face towards the man to make it easier to verify through comparison and then continued to swear: "I will send it to wildlife protection center, it will get better care at that place..."
The little wolf that was crouched on the ground was very quiet, raising its head, its taupe eyes stared fixedly at Xu Bei fluently talking rubbish without stuttering or reddening in shame.
The certificate is naturally fake. When Xu Bei was expelled from high school, the cla.s.s teacher had then held back the tears threatening to fall as he clenched his hand and said you have finally been expelled, the manner in which he spoke was full of joy.
Although the certificate is a fake ID, the one who made this fake ID, Ma Saner, is actually a person on outstanding talent in the fake ID business. This husband and wife who have stayed in the mountains for a lifetime are without a doubt shocked by the certificate from the capital"s famous school sealed with a red steel stamp.
The husband and wife found a burlap sack, put some cotton cloth in it, taking hold of the frantically struggling little Arctic Wolf cub indiscriminately biting with its four small canine teeth and squeezed it in, tying the opening of the sack shut. The little wolf still didn"t calm down and has been continuously wailing out, bashing sideways and colliding head-on inside of the burlap sack.
"You are honestly a bit stupid," Xu Bei was a little helpless. He endured the sharp stabbing pain as he coughed, "How am I supposed to take you away with me if you keep on tossing and squirming so much?"
Just as he had finished speaking the sentence, the bag suddenly quieted down, the wolf stopped struggling and crying out.
Xu Bei was lying in the back bed of the tractor. Although the married couple had both given him a thick quilt, the whole journey was b.u.mpy and made his soul fly out and scatter. Every time his body left the vehicle"s cargo bed and then fell back down, he even felt that he was experiencing being murdered for the second time.
The burlap sack with the little wolf was handed over to his side, it groaned inside from time to time. When Xu Bei"s hand stroked over it, it stopped right away. As soon as his hand was taken away, it once again began to quite restlessly groan.
Thus, Xu Bei simply placed his hand on its head separated by the burlap sack and began to figure out how to escape. The county town is fast approaching, he can"t just keep lying down on the vehicle"s cargo bed and be taken to the hospital. Ban Datong will be at the hospital waiting for him...
He felt around his pants pocket and there was a cell phone inside. The phone was very shabby. When the man helped him get onto the vehicle, he was able to get it from his pocket. When he got this phone, he didn"t think too much about it. It was a conditional reflex. It was like simply putting something in his hand for him to take free of charge. He couldn"t help but not grab it.
He really does need a mobile phone. His mobile phone was sacrificed when it rolled off the cliff, he doesn"t know which stone crack it fell into. After he too rolls off the vehicle, he needs to contact the outside world immediately.
"Little thing," Xu Bei strained to prop up his body through the b.u.mps and untied the burlap sack wrapped around the little wolf. "I have to get off this vehicle, you"ll be dragged along and forced to suffer a bit of hardship..."
Xu Bei looked up and glanced at the man who was concentrating on driving in the front of the vehicle. He clenched his teeth and with all his strength, tried to aim his throw of the little wolf down onto the snow piled on the side of the road. The little thing smashed out a hole into the snow pile, and then it rolled to the roadbed, sliding into the woods by the side of the road.
The tractor was loudly roaring, the man did not hear the slight movement behind him, Xu Bei clutched his chest with his hand, just this single hard pull on his injury, the pain even made him sweat.
He sat on the vehicle for a moment, closed his eyes and thrust himself behind the car, rolling down sideways.
The shoulder landed first, although this was the landing site he planned well in advance, his shoulder was the only thing that did not seem to be hurt, but when it didn"t hit snow but frozen earth, he nearly cried out.
He didn"t have time to waste, he held it back and st.u.r.dily rolled a few times to the roadside, following along the roadbed, he also slid into the forest, and then very unwillingly slammed his lower back into a tree and fainted.
When he woke up, the sky was already somewhat dusted with black. Xu Bei"s whole body was already completely numb. Only his right hand had some feeling. He moved his fingers and felt that there was a warm and wet thing touching his hand.
The little wolf was using its tongue to lick his hand on one hand while on the other it was whining, and it even from time to time nuzzled down with its ice-cold nose. Xu Bei touched the tip of its nose with his finger, and laughed with his hoa.r.s.e throat as he spoke some: "Don"t blow your f.u.c.king nose in my hand."
As soon as he heard him wake up, the little wolf staggeringly and slowly walked up to the side of his face, licking at his face for a little while and shrinking into a small ball leaning forwards down onto his neck. Xu Bei did not expect the little wolf to come over looking for him. It is probably feels that it would be impossible for it to live if he stayed by itself in the woods, so it decided to follow him.
Xu Bei took the phone out of his pocket, moved his fingertip down and pressed a string of familiar numbers by heart.
His ability to remember is not very good. As far as phone numbers are concerned, except for 10086, he can only use his brain to remember two people, one is Xu Ling and the other is Qiao Qian.
(TN: One of the most commonly used phone numbers in mainland China. Customers of China Mobile dial 10086 or send message to it for services.)
In this kind of situation, the phone call can"t be for Xu Ling.
Xu Ling is his younger brother, his younger brother is just like his father and mother, his excellence is simply incomparable to that of his younger brother. Towards this disappointing older brother, his approach is to push him a thousand li away and not be in the least concerned. Xu Bei is also not willing to be in front of Xu Ling as well. His image is already approaching the lowest points with his worth already going into the negatives.
So he can only use the phone to call Qiao Qian, Qiao Qian and they are like brothers who went through thick and thin together growing up. The most important thing is that Qiao Qian can help him find a doctor.
This worn-out phones signal was very bad. Once it was connected, it incessantly put through a grainy static sound. He hears that Qiao Qian is calling out "hey" to his side. He said it three times over and Xu Bei couldn"t hear what Qiao Qian was saying clearly.
"G.o.d f.u.c.king dammit..." Xu Bei a little hopelessly swore.
"Xiao Bei? Is that you?" The phone"s grainy static finally faded away and Qiao Qian"s voice clearly sounded out.
"Thank the Jade Emperor, ah." Xu Bei completely relaxed and once again couldn"t help but cough, his chest burst out in pain with his heart tearing and his lungs being split open. "I am in Beiling, quickly come get me back, It"s getting late, I have to hang up."
"How are you in Beiling!" Qiao Qian shouted with his full voice and immediately controlled his voice. "I have to drive for more than 2 hours right now, where are you in Beiling?"
"Don"t know..." Xu Bei looked at his surroundings and there weren"t any landmarks. He was a bit regretful he jumped off the vehicle a so early. "On the side of some small road leading to a county, it should be very close to the county town..."
"Then how do I find you! Are you injured? Is it serious? Are you outdoors?" Qiao Qian"s series of questions made Xu Bei a bit dizzy.
"In the woods, I don"t know which ones are broken, maybe they"re all broken."
"...I am coming over right away does that phone still have some battery?"
"There is one third."
"I am going to call you, stay awake, don"t fall asleep!"
Hanging up the phone, Xu Bei stuffed the phone back into his clothes, trying to struggle to change his posture, by pushing his lower back against the tree trunk and slowly gaining perception. It was very uncomfortable, but he twisted for a long time, yet his body was unexpectedly unable to move even one inch from its original place.
"Even if I don"t die, I suppose I"ll also get a high cut," Xu Bei said turning his head sideways. He said this to the little wolf who was engrossed in licking his neck and reached out his hand and stroked it. "You"re cold aren"t you?"
The little wolf cried and whimpered. Considering it to be a response, Xu Bei clenches his teeth and pulled the down zipper his down-filled jacket. He pulls the wolf by its hind legs wraps it in his clothes. Then he once again pulled the zipper up: "Don"t you die, ah. If you die, how will I sell you..."