Deming, still feeling the ethereal, lingering sensation of freedom, a lightness in his very being, slowly turned from the cool stream. His newly sighted eyes scanned the path, and he saw Guozhao Zhiqiang standing on the road, watching him with an intense, unreadable gaze. He finally rose, his movements stiff from long captivity, and walked towards him. On the way, his gaze fell upon something small and vulnerable: a tiny ant had fallen into the water, struggling against the current. He gently picked it up, cradling it in his palm, and blew softly on it, a whisper of a breath, saying, "Little ant, go to your family," then carefully placed it back on dry land. He then continued towards Guozhao Zhiqiang, his heart filled with a strange, burgeoning empathy.
Guozhao Zhiqiang stared intently at Deming as he approached. This man looked exactly like Hu Dingxiang, yet he bore a different name. But the more he looked, the more he realized that while they might appear similar at first glance, subtle differences emerged upon closer inspection: a softer set to the jaw, a flicker of innocence in the eyes. He patiently waited for Deming to approach, then observed him closely as he stood before him, his gaze sharp, immediately noticing the many faint scars, thin lines of past pain, below Deming's hairline.
"Thank you for saving me," Deming said, his voice soft, hesitant, avoiding Guozhao Zhiqiang's intense gaze. He felt a profound discomfort whenever their eyes met, a lingering fear of being seen, truly seen, after so long.
Guozhao Zhiqiang continued to stare at Deming, his brow furrowed in thought. "Where are you going?" he asked, his voice low, a command more than a question.
"I don't know," Deming replied truthfully, a raw vulnerability in his voice.
Guozhao Zhiqiang then sent out a signal flare, a bright streak of light arching into the dimming sky, a prearranged signal to his waiting juniors.
Deming saw the flare shoot up into the sky and instantly, terrifyingly, recalled a past, desperate attempt to escape, when the boss's men had sent a similar, chilling signal, alerting them to his flight. He had just gained his freedom; he couldn't possibly give it up now. His heart seized with panic. He quickly turned and, fueled by primal terror, began to flee from Guozhao Zhiqiang.
Guozhao Zhiqiang, moving with swift, practiced precision, stepped forward, and with a series of quick, silent touches, blocked Deming's acupoints, freezing him in place.
Deming stood frozen in horror, his body rigid. His lips trembled uncontrollably, his mind racing, connecting the flare to his past torment. "Are you working for the boss?" he whispered, his voice barely audible, laced with despair and betrayal.
Guozhao Zhiqiang looked at Deming, noting his profound terror, his brow furrowing with confusion. "I don't work for anyone," he stated firmly, his voice devoid of malice. "Who is this boss, and why were you locked up here?"
"Please let me go!" Deming pleaded, tears streaming down his face, his voice rising in desperate anguish. "I don't know anything! I've never seen his face! I swear to heaven that I will never let anyone know you rescued me, or that I met you here!"
"Your face is a bit like someone I know," Guozhao Zhiqiang said, his voice thoughtful, observing Deming intently. "Do you know someone named Hu Dingxiang?"
Deming frantically shook his head, his tears continuing to flow, continuing to beg Guozhao Zhiqiang. "I don't know anyone except the boss, who visits me from time to time, sometimes to hurt me. You're the first face I've seen in nine years. But if you let me go, I will never tell anyone that I met you here. Please let me go. I just want to be free."
"Why do you think that I will hurt you?" Guozhao Zhiqiang asked, his voice soft, almost wounded by the assumption.
"Because everyone I've met so far has hurt me," Deming replied, his voice breaking with the weight of his past, tears flowing freely from his eyes. "You're the first person who helped me. Please... please just let me go."
Guozhao Zhiqiang watched Deming's tears, the raw, unbridled emotion, which reminded him so starkly of when Hu Dingxiang had cried that night, after their intimacy. The way Deming cried was too similar to Hu Dingxiang's expressions, a painful echo. He looked intently at Deming. "Have you ever been out of that cave?"
"As far as I can remember," Deming said, his voice distant, recalling a blurred memory, "about nine years ago, I went out for two days and one night." He paused, a painful memory surfacing. "I met someone who treated me very well." Deming recalled the moment that person had fed him, cherished him, because he was blindfolded and vulnerable, and fresh tears welled in his eyes, mingling with the old ones. "We agreed to leave together, to be free, but it didn't happen. I was cheated by the boss." He continued to cry, his sobs wracking his thin frame. "I know that I don't know anything about the outside world, nothing beyond that cave, but at least I was free for those two days. The boss once told me that the man still misses me. I just want to find him, to be with him." He bit his lowered lip, his voice filled with desperate longing. "I know you sent something, a flare, to let the boss know you found me. Please... let me go... I don't want to go back to that dark cave. I don't want to hear the sound of my heartbeat echo in the empty, dark dungeon anymore, not ever again."
Guozhao Zhiqiang looked at Deming, who cried so innocently, so openly expressing his deepest feelings. A profound understanding, and a fierce protectiveness, washed over Zhiqiang. "Do you have a place to go?" he asked, his voice gentle, quickly releasing Deming's acupoints, freeing him.
Deming, still terrified of revealing too much, dared not tell Guozhao Zhiqiang where he was truly going (Cloud City, to find the man from his dream), so he had to say, his voice small, "I have nowhere to go."
"You don't recognize their faces?" Guozhao Zhiqiang pressed, trying to confirm his suspicions about Deming's long confinement.
Deming shook his head, his gaze downcast.
From a distance, the shouts of the other Guozhao Hunters came, growing louder as they ran towards Guozhao Zhiqiang and Deming.
"Senior Brother, who is this?" Tam Liang shouted, his voice a little breathless as he approached.
"His name is Deming," Guozhao Zhiqiang replied, his voice firm, introducing him simply. "I rescued him from the cave."
"The demon snake?" Tam Kun asked, his eyes wide.
"Buried inside the cave," Guozhao Zhiqiang confirmed. "Rest here for tonight. We will leave tomorrow morning." He glanced at Deming, then turned to Tam Qiu, his voice softened. "Ah Qiu, he hurt his foot when we escaped from the cave. Can you take a look?"
Tam Qiu, ever compassionate, walked immediately to Deming's side. She smiled gently. "Let me see your feet," she said kindly. Tam Qiu carefully checked the back of Deming's feet. It wasn't serious, just small cuts from rocks, easily treatable. She applied soothing medicine and carefully covered his feet with clean bandages. She looked up and smiled warmly at Deming. "Your feet will recover within ten days, completely healed."
Deming, unaccustomed to such kindness, stared at Tam Qiu, a silent gratitude in his eyes. "Thank you," he whispered, his voice thick with emotion.
Tam Qiu then walked to Tam Kun and whispered a few words to him. Tam Kun reached inside his bag and took out a set of clean, white and red Guozhao Hunter's clothes and a pair of new boots. Tam Qiu grabbed the clothes and walked back to Deming.
"Here," Tam Qiu said, handing Deming the clothes, her smile warm. "You're the same size as my cousin, so these should fit." She looked around and found a large, secluded rock. "You can change over there, for privacy."
After a while, Deming, wearing the clean, new clothes, walked back to the group of hunters, feeling a strange sense of belonging. When Guozhao Zhiqiang saw the white and red clothes on Deming's body, a color so symbolic of the Hu family, he was immediately distraught, a cold dread twisting in his gut. How could this person say he wasn't Hu Dingxiang? He looked so incredibly, unmistakably like him, especially now in this type of clothing. The cruel irony was almost unbearable.
Tam Qiu, oblivious to Zhiqiang's internal turmoil, smiled brightly at Deming. "You are very handsome," she complimented, genuinely impressed.
Deming, feeling a warmth from the compliment, noticed that while everyone else was eating, drinking, and having fun around the crackling bonfire, Guozhao Zhiqiang was staring intently at him, his gaze fixed, as if afraid Deming would disappear if he blinked.
Meanwhile, in the darkness of the night, Hu Dingxiang, his face a mask of cold fury, came to the collapsed cave again, hoping, desperately, to lure Deming into another of his cruel schemes. He needed Deming more than ever now, to seduce Guozhao Zhiqiang, as the ruthless Hu family competition was just around the corner, and he needed every advantage. Moreover, learning that Guozhao Zhiqiang was a powerful Guozhao Hunter, a truly "dumb hunter" as he thought, made it even harder to let go of this unwitting pawn. As long as Deming was by his side, he believed, the "dumb hunter" would listen to him, would be manipulated by him. When he approached the cave, he found, to his shock and fury, that it had been completely destroyed, a massive landslide blocking its entrance.
Hu Dingxiang roared in anger, a primal sound of frustrated ambition. He couldn't believe his perfect, meticulous plan was ruined, his valuable asset gone. Then, his eyes narrowed, he saw two distinct footprints on the dusty ground outside the debris—one large, one small—and the mangled, broken remains of the iron chains that had locked Deming to the mountainside.
Hu Dingxiang clenched his fists, his knuckles white, and gritted his teeth, a venomous vow escaping his lips. "Deming... If you don't come back with me, if you try to truly escape," he snarled, his voice a low, terrifying promise, "I will kill you. After all," he added, a chilling logic in his madness, "I can't let anyone discover your true identity, can I?" His eyes burned with a dangerous obsession.