Upon hearing the name of Sun Tiedan, Song Haizhu covered his groin and said, "Do not kick my groin, do not kick my groin."
Nose Cannon remarked, "Big guy, you're really afraid of getting hit there, truly remarkable."
Sun Tiedan quickly turned around, managing a faint smile. "I haven't done anything. I just checked, we have exactly one bottle of water per person, and some snacks. We've finished them all, so we'll be traveling light."
"Now that you mention it, I am quite thirsty," Nose Cannon said, grabbing some bread and water, indulging heartily.
Sun Tiedan called out to us, "Stop pondering, hurry and eat and drink."
Stone Quiet Xia, Nose Cannon, and I sat together, while the White Gang sat nearby. Sun Tiedan sat alone, picking at his fingernails.
"Guangting, look," Stone Quiet Xia pretended to drink water, whispering softly.
White Ruoxue was staring at us, a cold smile playing on her lips.
"Xiaojing, Nose Cannon, stay vigilant, they might be about to take action."
Before the words had finished, the bottle of mineral water in White Ruoxue's hand suddenly dropped.
Simultaneously, the sound of the moving walnut tray abruptly ceased, and Huang Erhei stood up from the ground, taking large strides towards me, extending two fingers straight towards my chest.
Liu Yuanbao had also risen, wielding a military dagger, and lunged towards me.
White Granny was alarmed, reaching out and shouting, "Don't hurt Guangting."
In the blink of an eye, Nose Cannon suddenly stood up, adopting a defensive stance with an M3 submachine gun, his eyes wide open.
"Stay still, anyone who moves will be shot dead!" he declared.
Huang Erhei and Liu Yuanbao halted in their tracks.
"Xue'er, what are you doing?" White Granny asked.
"Granny, if we spare them, we'll suffer great losses. They must die," White Ruoxue replied firmly.
"Xue'er, you..."
White Ruoxue cut her off. "Don't say anything, Granny. Haven't you always taught me to be decisive in this line of work? In this field, one must make resolute decisions; one cannot afford to be overly compassionate."
Granny was rendered speechless.
White Ruoxue looked at the M3 submachine gun in Nose Cannon's hand with disdain.
"Hillbilly, can your gun even fire?" she mocked.
Nose Cannon stretched his neck. "If you don't believe me, feel free to try."
It was a standoff, both sides unsure whether the other's weapons would function. Before anyone could grasp the situation, they chose to remain still.
In such a tense atmosphere, a few dozen seconds felt like an eternity, becoming extremely unbearable.
"They're just bluffing, let's attack," Liu Yuanbao said as he lunged forward with his military dagger. Nose Cannon closed his eyes and cursed.
"Son of a..."
Then, he pulled the trigger.
"Rat-tat-tat-tat," the gunfire rang out, tongues of fire flickering erratically. Liu Yuanbao let out a miserable scream and collapsed to the ground.
As Nose Cannon had his eyes closed and had never used a gun before, the recoil caused him to lean back, and most of the bullets missed.
Huang Erhei moved quickly, seizing the opportunity to tackle White Ruoxue to the ground, narrowly avoiding the gunfire.
"Who's next? Come on!"
Nose Cannon trembled and then turned to me, saying, "Brother, I'm feeling a bit dizzy."
"Clang!" Stone Quiet Xia's kitchen knife fell to the ground, and she too held her head, saying, "I'm also feeling a bit dizzy."
Immediately after, we heard Sung Haizhu's loud and concerned voice, "Ailian, my Ailian, what's wrong with you? Mom, Ailian has fainted."
One by one, people began to collapse.
"Xiaojing, Nose Cannon, are you..."
I also felt dizzy and drowsy, and without standing firmly, I fell down.
Someone walked past me and put the Thunderous Ding into a urea bag.
I struggled to open my eyes and saw that the person was Sun Tiedan.
"Iron Egg, you're in the water..."
Sun Tiedan turned back, smiled at me, then waved and said, "Goodbye."
Song Haizhu chased a few steps, but stumbled and fell. His grip was strong, firmly holding onto Sun Tiedan's ankle.
Sun Tiedan tried several times to break free, but couldn't. So, he resorted to kicking Song Haizhu's head with his other foot, kicking dozens of times in a row.
As for what happened later, I don't know.
"Guangting, wake up."
"Grandfather, is it you?"
"Do not fall asleep, survive, do not fall asleep, survive."
"Grandfather, I'm so tired."
"Good grandson, remember this: in this line of work, as long as there is a glimmer of hope, do not speak of surrender lightly. Otherwise, even nine lives would not be enough. Survive, survive."
This sentence echoed in my mind like a tight spell.
After some time, I slowly opened my eyes, feeling weak all over, leaning against the wall and gasping for breath.
"Xiao... Xiaojing, you guys, wake up."
Before long, the others woke up one after another, all looking disheveled, sighing deeply.
Bai Ruoxue gritted her teeth: "Sun Tiedan, you wait, I'll kill you with my own hands."
Shi Jingxia snorted: "The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind, serves you right."
"What did you say, you ugly monster."
Shi Jingxia chuckled in exasperation: "Hmph, I may be an ugly monster, but at least someone loves me, unlike you, you wicked witch. Go be a nun."
"I... I'll kill you first."
Nose Cannon aimed his gun at Bai Ruoxue: "Move and try."
Song Haizhu got up from the ground, his face covered in blood, his hair a mess.
"I remembered, that guide is Iron Egg."
Seeing that we didn't quite understand, Song Haizhu wrote two words on the ground: Iron Egg.
Everyone suddenly realized that the pronunciation of "铁" in southern dialects was misread as "踢" (kick).
Nose Cannon grumbled irritably: "Even if you have a big tongue, why cover your crotch? Are you nonpartisan?"
Song Haizhu glared, almost scaring Nose Cannon into dropping his gun.
"I mentioned before that the guide is Iron Egg. I haven't seen him, and my head is infected by bats, hence the instinctive reaction to cover my crotch."
Huang Erhei sighed: "It's too late now, it's useless to say more. We should hurry out. Mrs. Bai, what do you think?"
Mrs. Bai nodded in agreement.
Immediately, we hurried towards the cave entrance. From afar, we could hear the incessant chirping of bats.
Looking closer, the cave entrance had collapsed, trapping the bats inside. They were tearing each other apart in a chaotic mess, and a layer of corpses lay on the ground.
The smell of blood quickly attracted the attention of the bats.
"Quick, let's go back, the bats are coming to kill us."
As we spoke, several bats had already flown over, their sharp beaks and fierce appearance terrifying.
Nose Cannon fired a shot, and a bat fell to the ground, but more reinforcements were rushing towards us.
We turned and ran, all the way to the sitting stone, where the pursuing bats were also eliminated.
We got a momentary respite, but this was not a long-term solution because we were already at our wits' end.
I asked Nose Cannon, "Do you still remember the tofu from that lady?"
At these words, everyone looked at me in shock, especially Shi Jingxia, who seemed to shoot steel needles from her eyes.
"What? Brother, what time is it? Why are you still thinking about that? Besides, isn't your sister-in-law right here?" Nose Cannon said, glancing at Shi Jingxia.
I hurriedly explained, "Where were you? I remember that the tofu lady said there's a depleted coal mine here."
"Yes, yes, there is such a thing. I was eating tofu at the time. Oh, her tofu was really delicious. What she said, I vaguely remember."
Shi Jingxia shook her head vigorously, casting disdainful glances at us.