The wanderer hadn’t finished speaking when he hurriedly grabbed Tang Ye’s shoulder and pressed down, bending his own body as if to avoid sothing.
At first, his attempt to press Tang Ye down was futile, but as soon as Tang Ye realized what was happening, he crouched down as instructed. At the sa ti, another unfamiliar scent of a living person reached his nose. Indeed soone had co in. Judging by the vagrant’s instinct to hide as soon as he sensed soone approaching, this must have been a common way of life for the locals.
Now, Kimberlite City was completely engulfed in darkness, with only a streak of golden twilight on the western horizon barely allowing one to discern so objects in the broken and decrepit alleys.
The man lay down without moving, becoming like a statue in an instant. Evidently, he was accustod to such situations.
With night vision far superior to ordinary people, Tang Ye quickly spotted a figure on the street below after crouching down following the man’s lead. The figure seed cautious, walking forward while looking around.
The hurried footsteps started from a distance and passed by the building where Tang Ye and the second wanderer were hiding, then quickly moved away. Tang Ye glanced at the wanderer beside him, who seed only aware of the passing individual. However, from the scent, Tang Ye detected another person nearby, his eyes failing to locate them but likely lurking around.
It must be said, the scent his nose picked up was quite strong, even Tang Ye’s zombie-like nose faintly slled a pungent, sour odor.
Once the blinded passersby had gone far enough, the second wanderer stood up, looking in the direction the person had left. Tang Ye then spoke up in broken, halting English: "You... that person? Know them?"
The other did not respond imdiately, staring at Tang Ye with a furrowed brow as if trying to comprehend his words. After a mont, his face showed surprise and he asked, "Did you co... from outside?"
"Ah?" At first, Tang Ye didn’t understand, but after thinking it over, he quickly grasped the aning, nodding while saying "Yes yes!"
As Tang Ye confird it, the man’s expression turned strange. He said sothing to Tang Ye, then shook his head, while Tang Ye was also clueless about what had just been said.
Tang Ye watched the man return to his previous spot, groping in the dark for the bag used as a midday al bowl, and grabbed a handful of white powder to stuff into his mouth. He spoke while eating, seemingly reminding Tang Ye about sothing important to understand in this city. But then he paused, the tone of his voice dropping a bit as he again shook his head, realizing Tang Ye didn’t understand him.
Tang Ye approached and peered into the bag, now noticing that it was not the powder he had imagined. The uneven crumbs inside suggested it contained various crushed biscuits, so parts still showing the crushed filling mixed with the biscuit fragnts.
"Do you... know anyone here... who can speak Chinese?"
Tang Ye asked the question in English with great effort.
After thinking, the man eventually shook his head at Tang Ye: "I’m sorry, people here don’t know each other. It’s dangerous here. To put it bluntly, in Kimberlite, the only person I know is you, buddy. Maybe we could cooperate, I’m willing to share my stuff with you."
Tang Ye did not understand the man’s reply, but he saw the other person extending the bag of biscuit powder toward him, so he could guess so of his thoughts.
"NONO, I won’t be staying here for too long."
Seeing Tang Ye shake his head, the man did not hear Tang Ye’s following Chinese words, but he understood Tang Ye’s intention, a hint of disappointnt in his eyes. He took back his food, stood up, ca over to Tang Ye and said, "That’s okay. Maybe you’ve got your own things to attend to. But if you ever need my help here, please co find . I just hope we don’t end up crossing swords. Oh, it feels good to talk to soone; life here is a complete ss."
"Speaking of Chinese, I know a phrase, ’the paths never imagined’... I hope we won’t cross swords, ok buddy?"
Saying so, the man suddenly uttered four Chinese characters, and Tang Ye was montarily stunned.
"The paths never imagined?"
The man’s Chinese pronunciation was really poor, as bad as Tang Ye’s English. Initially, Tang Ye didn’t understand the aning, but considering the man’s poor Chinese pronunciation, and then basing it on the phonetics of the words, he quickly made the connection to crossing swords and guessed the aning from what the man had said in English previously.
"OK."
"Are you planning to go out next? If you’re going to do that, I think you need to consider, if it were last year, nightti would be safest. But now, the bandits have caught on to people moving about at night. They are the most dangerous."
The second wanderer once again cautioned Tang Ye, but he couldn’t understand the man’s words at all, nor could he grasp their aning. He only understood the beginning part, which seed to ask if he intended to go out. Without pondering, Tang Ye imdiately replied: "Yes, I need to go out. I... ah, I need to find out more."
Glancing at the sky, it hadn’t been too long after dusk. According to the content of Xiaojie’s letter, he needed to follow the curfew regulations, so he must fall asleep before the curfew began. Of course, there might be no such rules here, but to be safe, as a beginner in this "Pit", he should learn the local rules. So the first night, he decided to follow the curfew, whether it existed or not.
The curfew started at nine-ten in the evening. The ti displayed on the mobile phone was incorrect, and Tang Ye had no other way to determine the ti, so he set himself a one-hour tifra. During this hour, he would look for others. With so luck, maybe he could find soone who spoke Chinese within this hour.
But just in case, he also had to prepare for the possibility that there was no one who spoke Chinese in Kimberlite City. If that happened, he would have to consider learning English with this second wanderer. Half a year’s ti? With his learning capability, it shouldn’t take too long.
"Alright, I don’t understand, but it’s okay..."
"Brother, wait a mont... I’ll be back, I need a... place to stay?"
"Hmm? OK, you’re always welco. Here, two are safer than one."
Reviews
All reviews (0)