Chapter 25#
Chapter 25 Taking Root
When did He Hailou leave?
Gu Chenzhou frowned and stopped, raising his voice: “Young Master He?”
The rustling sound of leaves responded to Gu Chenzhou’s shout—but that was all. The sound that should have appeared never did, and He Hailou was nowhere to be found.
Gu Chenzhou stood in place for a while, walked back a few steps, and called He Hailou’s name again—this was not the vast Amazon forest with endless hunting animals and plants, nor was it a night full of lurking dangers—walking in the woods in broad daylight and disappearing silently, there was no second answer except leaving voluntarily.
But after walking back and calling for three to five minutes, Gu Chenzhou still didn’t get any sound from He Hailou. Feeling that the other party had probably gone a bit far, he simply stopped, took out his mobile phone from his pocket, and dialed He Hailou’s number.
Music suddenly rang in the forest. Gu Chenzhou, who was waiting for He Hailou to answer the phone, was stunned. Looking in the direction of the sound, he saw He Hailou sitting on a treetop only two or three meters away from him, tossing the monkey in his hand up and down.
“…Young Master He?” Gu Chenzhou didn’t know what He Hailou was up to.
“Young Master Gu.” He Hailou sitting on the treetop glanced at Gu Chenzhou coldly, then suddenly threw the monkey in his hand at Gu Chenzhou!
Gu Chenzhou reacted quickly. Just as he reached out to catch it, He Hailou jumped down from the tree towards where he was standing without warning, his movement as casual as the monkey he just threw casually!
This was at least two and a half meters above the ground!
Gu Chenzhou was stunned for a moment but didn’t stand stupidly in place. He hurried forward a few steps and reached out to support the body jumping down from the tree—but the person landing pushed him away disgustedly with faster speed and ruder movements!
Gu Chenzhou’s face sank. His arm drew a circle, changing from supporting to grabbing, and caught He Hailou’s wrist at once. But as soon as he touched it, he felt something wrong. Seeing the festering wound on the back of He Hailou’s hand, his expression relaxed: “Young Master He, your wound is festering.”
Low fever caused by the wound? —Started last night?
Thinking of He Hailou whispering to the monkey last night, Gu Chenzhou suddenly understood.
Saying this, Gu Chenzhou took advantage of the situation to step back, let the person stand firm, and at the same time rummaged through the backpack to take out several suitable standing medicines.
But He Hailou, who was just looking irritable, suddenly became gloomy and sharp in his eyes when he saw these medicines. He raised his arm and aimed at Gu Chenzhou’s arm.
Gu Chenzhou’s movement froze instantly—the dark muzzle pointed at his palm—he paused, opened his five fingers at an extremely slow speed, and tilted his palm slightly.
Boxed pills and canned liquid medicine fell to the ground one after another.
He Hailou’s arm moved down slowly following the fall of the medicine, the muzzle always pointing at those boxes of things.
Gu Chenzhou spread his hands and slowly retreated with the least stimulating speed and movement, one step, two steps, three steps…
“Bang!”
The gunshot rang out!
This noise seemed to break some forbidden spell. He Hailou stood in place, holding the gun with one hand, all irritability and gloom turned into indifference. He fired at the medicine falling on the ground. The canned liquid medicine was shot through the first time he fired. The can bounced high, and the dark liquid inside bloomed a small flower bud in mid-air, fleeting.
The deafening gunshot covered all other sounds belonging to the forest. Life hidden behind treetops and grass quickly fled this area.
Gu Chenzhou’s expression changed from cold at the beginning to calm. After He Hailou emptied a magazine of bullets and turned to continue forward, he didn’t say anything and followed towards the predetermined destination.
This time He Hailou walked in front. No one spoke on the way until they passed the last section of the forest, climbed up the mountainside along the stone mountain road, and watched the night cover this area for the third time.
The wind on the mountainside was much stronger than at the foot of the mountain. Dense forests and vegetation were replaced by rocks and cliffs. For safety reasons, Gu Chenzhou did not make a fire. After simply eating the remaining food, he picked a relatively leeward area to fix the tent, sprinkled insect repellent powder as in the previous days, packed his backpack, turned on the flashlight and beta light, and put the weapons within reach…
Everything was ready. Gu Chenzhou walked out of the tent and walked towards He Hailou standing on the edge of the mountain road.
“The wind is a bit strong here, no fire tonight. There are rocks around and not many animals, so nothing will happen mostly. Young Master He go to rest first?”
The wind by the cliff blew fiercely. Walking silently all day made He Hailou’s face look much better. He seemed not to hear Gu Chenzhou’s words, pointing to the dark mountain below and saying: “Young Master Gu, how high do you think it is from the foot of the mountain now?”
“More than two hundred meters.” Gu Chenzhou answered. The distance from the forest to the foot of the mountain, and the height from the foot of the mountain to the top of the mountain, these were all investigated before coming.
“Can fall to death.” He Hailou murmured. The night had covered down from the sky like a layer of opaque black gauze. Gu Chenzhou couldn’t see the other party’s expression clearly, only feeling that the voice of the person standing beside him seemed a bit vague, “Sometimes I think, jump forward from here, and then… Bang!” He made a gesture, accompanied by a soft plosive sound in his mouth.
Gu Chenzhou laughed cooperatively: “Young Master He also likes bungee jumping?”
He Hailou turned his head and glanced at Gu Chenzhou.
This was not a city with heavy traffic and neon lights.
It was very quiet on the mountain road, and the two stood very close, but with He Hailou’s sideways glance, Gu Chenzhou could still only vaguely distinguish the other party’s expression by the faint moonlight.
He seemed to be smiling.
Just as Gu Chenzhou thought so, He Hailou put his hands in his pockets and jumped gently towards the darkness ahead in front of his eyes.
Gu Chenzhou stood in place for a full minute.
Then he didn’t take any action to attempt rescue—such as shouting, dialing the phone fiercely, rushing to the edge of the mountain road and reaching down—just like He Hailou, he jumped forward easily.
After a very short fall, his feet stepped heavily on the stone ground. Gu Chenzhou stood firm and saw He Hailou leaning against the stone wall on this small platform, lighting a cigarette, looking at him with astonishment.
The tiny firelight illuminated the square inch of land: this was a stone platform of about three meters. Gu Chenzhou stood in the middle. One meter forward was the real cliff. Retreating a few steps could stand in the depression of the cliff, avoiding the sight looking down from the mountain road.
The surrounding wind seemed stronger.
The cigarette at He Hailou’s fingertips had been lit long ago, but he seemed to have forgotten to extinguish it and didn’t feel the heat, staring blankly at Gu Chenzhou with the lighter on.
Bright light can illuminate too much fog.
He Hailou’s gaze at Gu Chenzhou was chaotic, not purely surprise or anything else, as if mixed with too much and precipitated too much, so much that it drowned himself.
“You—” He spoke, his voice clearer, “Why did you jump down too?”
“Young Master He,” Gu Chenzhou’s heart moved slightly, feeling as if he had grasped something—but what was it? “You are not the only one who pays attention to the surrounding environment.”
This sentence was like a basin of ice water poured on He Hailou.
His expression stiffened instantly, his fingers slipped, and the flame flickering in the wind went out with a hiss.
“…Hehe,” He laughed and sat down against the rock wall. The spark of the cigarette butt brightened suddenly in the darkness.
A few seconds later, Gu Chenzhou smelled a strong smell of smoke. He looked at the blurred outline in the darkness, walked slowly to the depression of the cliff, and sat down next to He Hailou.
He Hailou suddenly spoke: “Which unlucky guy is Young Master Gu dragging me out of Beijing to fix this time?”
“Young Master He is asking knowingly.” Gu Chenzhou closed his eyes in the darkness: This kind of place has its benefits. He doesn’t have to spend much effort to make a suitable expression.
He Hailou bit the cigarette and took another puff before laughing: “Dragging me out alone is mostly to create the appearance of tacit understanding between the Gu family and the He family—this person is related to the Gu family or the He family. Young Master Gu himself is the eldest young master of the Gu family. To fix someone relying on the Gu family doesn’t need to be so troublesome, so it can only be about the He family… Young Master Gu has been quite leisurely these days. The main force of fixing people is not Young Master Gu. This person’s status seems not low…” He said slowly, “Is it the Sun family?”
He said the Sun family, not Sun Peiming—with Gu Chenzhou’s status and arrogance, would he drag him out specially to fix a second generation?
“Congratulations, correct answer, full marks one hundred.” Gu Chenzhou paused, “The reward has been cashed.”
“You mean this trip?” He Hailou said, “The reward is indeed good. If it were earlier, it would be no problem for me to help you fix him together.”
Gu Chenzhou smiled and didn’t speak.
He Hailou continued intermittently: “Is the Sun family involved in Wei Xiangjin’s car accident?” This was not difficult to guess. The movements on the surface recently were just those few. With the Gu family’s status there, it was rare to trouble Gu Chenzhou to take action from the side.
Gu Chenzhou didn’t say anything like before.
He Hailou got tired after talking for a while, threw down the cigarette smoked to the end and stood up slowly: “Okay, I’m going up.” He said going up, but walked straight forward.
“How to go up in the dark?” Gu Chenzhou grabbed the other party’s arm with quick eyes and hands, but was shocked to find that the heat coming through the clothes was hot to the touch.
Gu Chenzhou frowned: “You don’t feel anything burning like this?” Saying this, he exerted a little force on his hand and pulled He Hailou, who had no strength, down to sit.
“What does it matter?” He Hailou’s voice was frivolous, “I have medicine myself.”
As if to prove his words, he moved in the darkness, took out something unknown and shook it. A clattering collision sound rang out.
“Look.” He said slowly, moved his fingers, unscrewed the lid, poured out a few round things from it, but didn’t swallow them into his throat. Instead, he turned his hand, let those few pieces fall to the ground, and then crushed them into powder one by one with his heel.
Then he sneered suddenly. Very loud and clear, like laughter with ice prisms in the voice.
He raised his hand, and the box of things drew a shadow in mid-air and disappeared far into the darkness.
“Let’s go up.” He Hailou suddenly lost interest again. He wanted to stand up again, but this time, Gu Chenzhou grabbed his arm from the beginning.
If grabbing the person just now was caution, now Gu Chenzhou really dared not let He Hailou climb up by himself: with his current state, maybe even if he didn’t slip halfway, he could actively let go and let himself fall down on a whim… Then he could really only fall into a pile of mud with a “bang”.
“Can’t go up now, at least wait until dawn.” Then let the helicopter come directly, the road ahead can’t be walked. Gu Chenzhou said. The current situation is a bit troublesome, but as long as he watches He Hailou through this night, there will be no problem.
Just… don’t burn into pneumonia.
He Hailou over there whispered something again, seemingly not to him, just talking to himself.
Gu Chenzhou divided half of his attention to watch He Hailou, and the rest was used for rest and thinking.
After two failed attempts to leave, He Hailou seemed much quieter. He sat shoulder to shoulder with Gu Chenzhou, quiet except for occasional whispers… Until Gu Chenzhou was a little sleepy sitting, he suddenly spoke to Gu Chenzhou:
“If there was no platform underneath, would I really have fallen down just now?”
The sudden question made Gu Chenzhou shiver and wake up again. He habitually glanced at He Hailou, but naturally couldn’t see the other party’s specific expression in the darkness.
Before Gu Chenzhou could answer, He Hailou began to mutter to himself again. This time Gu Chenzhou easily judged that the other party was not talking to him—he just lowered his head and repeated the same few syllables in an extremely low voice.
The strange feeling in his heart became stronger and stronger. Gu Chenzhou evaluated and was about to approach the other party when the person beside him suddenly quieted down.
“Young Master He?” Gu Chenzhou probed.
A force pressed on his shoulder and arm. He Hailou fell asleep.
A bit late.
Gu Chenzhou felt a little regretful, but didn’t take it to heart. He just sat quietly for a while, then took out his mobile phone and dialed a number: “Let the helicopter come tomorrow morning… The location has changed, the position is where you receive the signal now. Bring a doctor… not me.”
He was silent for a moment, listening to the voice on the phone.
“Sun Peiming wants to see me…” The corner of Gu Chenzhou’s lips curved, “Promise him, I’ll see him when I go back.”
Clouds covered the crescent moon, and the sky became darker.
Gu Chenzhou said a few more words and hung up the phone. The force on his shoulder became heavier and heavier, and the person beside him seemed to be fast asleep. He lost his sleepiness instead, bent one leg and cast his gaze to the dim distance: those shadowy deep blacks were trees rubbing shoulders, those undulating light grays were peaceful and contemplative mountains. He looked into the distance, looked into the distance, following the big bird flying in the night, spreading wings high, plunging into the heavy shadows of the sky.
In the quiet night, he heard his own heartbeat.
So gentle and firm.