Your Back Is Covered in Blood!

The shantytown was pitch-black and silent at night. Tong Zhao slung his bag across his chest and climbed onto the old heavy-frame bicycle, telling Shu Sizhuo to hold him tight from behind.

He knew the route by heart. Once they were out of the shantytown, it was another twenty-odd minutes by bicycle to the bus station.

As Tong Zhao rode, he kept an eye on his surroundings. Whenever he saw a strange person or vehicle, he grew suspicious and especially alert.

The bus station had yet to wake in the middle of the night. It was so quiet that all he could hear was the soft snoring of travelers sleeping haphazardly by the entrance.

Tong Zhao had bought tickets for the earliest bus, which left at five thirty. There was still an hour and a half to go.

He locked the bicycle in a corner and led Shu Sizhuo into the crowd of travelers. He found a spot in front of a pillar, took out two sheets of old newspaper he had prepared, and spread them on the ground for Shu Sizhuo to sit on.

Tong Zhao sat down beside Shu Sizhuo and looked around again. Only after judging it safe did he whisper, "Get some more sleep. You can lean on my shoulder or lie down with your head on my lap."

Shu Sizhuo looked at Tong Zhao's shoulder and legs, then lay down on his side with his head on Tong Zhao's lap.

Tong Zhao smiled and loosely put an arm around him. "Go to sleep."

Shu Sizhuo obediently closed his eyes.

Tong Zhao leaned his head back against the pillar, his eyes half-closed, not daring to sleep.

But the place was so quiet that Tong Zhao didn't last long before his eyelids began to droop and he fell asleep.

He didn't know how long he had slept when a disturbance woke him. He saw several tall figures coming in from outside the station. They carried no luggage and didn't look like travelers; they looked more like they were searching for someone.

Tong Zhao's heart skipped a beat. He looked down to see that Shu Sizhuo was awake too, rubbing his eyes as he asked, "What's wrong?"

"Shh." Tong Zhao nervously cut him off and cast another panicked glance at the group, gripping Shu Sizhuo's slender arm. "Go hide behind the pillar first."

By now, the blue of the dawn sky had begun to lighten. People around them were gradually waking up, getting to their feet to loosen their sleep-stiffened limbs or gathering their things.

Shu Sizhuo paused at his words and followed Tong Zhao's gaze. His pupils instantly contracted.

They were from Ode Mountain House!

"Hide first. They don't know me," Tong Zhao said.

Shu Sizhuo nodded and bent over, quietly moving to slip around behind the pillar, when a troublesome little child of two or three suddenly came running over, giggling and calling, "Big brother... big brother..."

"Little girl! Come back and finish your steamed bun!" the child's parent bellowed, drawing everyone's attention their way. Some people who had been woken up cursed a couple of times in annoyance.

Almost the moment the people from Ode Mountain House spotted them and charged over, Tong Zhao swung the bag onto his shoulder, grabbed Shu Sizhuo, and ran.

Tong Zhao ran to the bicycle, but as he hurriedly unlocked it, the group closed in.

"Sit in front!" Tong Zhao told Shu Sizhuo as he opened the lock.

Shu Sizhuo nimbly hopped onto the bar at the front of the bicycle. Tong Zhao swung himself onto the seat, but just as he pressed down on the pedal, a sudden pain struck his back, and an angry roar sounded behind him: "Stop! Or I'll hack you to death!"

Tong Zhao didn't pause for an instant. He pedaled madly forward, going so fast the tires might as well have been throwing sparks.

The footsteps and shouts behind them gradually grew fainter, but Tong Zhao didn't dare slow down at all. He held Shu Sizhuo protectively in his arms as beads of cold sweat rolled down his forehead.

Shu Sizhuo turned to look at him.

By now, daylight had broken. Tong Zhao's handsome face was pale as paper, and his lips had lost their color too. Shu Sizhuo's heart lurched. "Tang Xu, what's wrong?"

Tong Zhao looked back and saw no one behind them. Only then did his taut nerves ease a little.

He slowed down as he rode toward the rented apartment. As they made their way through the web of narrow alleys, he gradually began to feel safe.

He rode up to the apartment building, where the big yellow dog barked twice and wagged its tail. As soon as Tong Zhao got off, he nearly lost his footing, but Shu Sizhuo jumped down and caught him.

Seeing that Tong Zhao's complexion was terribly abnormal, Shu Sizhuo immediately looked at his back and pulled aside his jacket.

The sight made Shu Sizhuo turn even paler than Tong Zhao. "Tang Xu, your back is covered in blood!"

Tong Zhao said through chattering teeth, "Let's go upstairs first."

Back in the rented apartment, Shu Sizhuo helped Tong Zhao onto the sofa and switched on the light.

Under the light, the blood on Tong Zhao's back was even more shocking. Shu Sizhuo rushed over, his voice thick with tears. "Tang Xu!"

Tong Zhao frowned and turned his face to the side. "Does it look that bad? Help me lift my clothes and take a look."

With trembling hands, Shu Sizhuo carefully lifted Tong Zhao's clothes, only to see a bloody blur.

Seeing that Shu Sizhuo's little face was crumpling and he was about to cry, Tong Zhao instead comforted him. "I'm not going to die. It just hurts a little, that's all. Help me get the medicine box."

Shu Sizhuo went to fetch the medicine box, his eyes red. Following Tong Zhao's instructions, he held back his tears and cleaned the wound with grave concentration.

The wound was as long as a finger. Though it wasn't deep, it wasn't exactly shallow either.

"Tang Xu, your wound needs stitches," Shu Sizhuo said tearfully.

"Huh? It's not that serious, is it?" Tong Zhao turned around with a miserable look. He was about to argue his case against getting stitches, but the moment he saw Shu Sizhuo looking at him and struggling to hold back tears, he changed what he was about to say. "Then... is there a clinic open this early?"

"There is! Wait here. I'll be back soon!" Shu Sizhuo wiped the corners of his eyes, turned, and ran.

"Hey! Where are you going?" Tong Zhao's back hurt when he shouted. He looked after Shu Sizhuo and called out again before the door closed, "Don't go running around. Watch out for those people!"

There was a private clinic in the shantytown. When the medicine Tong Zhao had been applying to Shu Sizhuo ran out, he had taken Shu Sizhuo there once to get more.

It was just beginning to get light, and the clinic hadn't opened yet. Shu Sizhuo pressed himself against the door, calling "Doctor Zhou" as he pounded on it.

After two or three minutes of pounding, the door opened from inside. Doctor Zhou had a coat draped over his shoulders and put on the glasses he was holding. "Who is it? Oh, it's you, handsome little fellow. What's wrong so early in the morning?"

Tong Zhao lay on the sofa, still shaken when he thought about what had just happened.

The people searching everywhere for Shu Sizhuo were from Ode Mountain House, and they had even tried to kill him. That meant Ode Mountain House probably hadn't told Uncle Ou and Qin Yan that he had taken Shu Sizhuo away. They probably wanted to kill him to silence him, then take Shu Sizhuo back and lock him up again.

Or they might dispose of Shu Sizhuo too, so they could give Uncle Ou an explanation.

The young master of the Shu family had died at Ode Mountain House, because of illness, an accident, or something else...

Tong Zhao frowned and shifted into another position, wincing in pain.

It seemed he had to find Shu Sizhuo's uncle even sooner, or both he and Shu Sizhuo would be in mortal danger.

As he was thinking, the door lock clicked, and he turned to look.

Shu Sizhuo burst through the door, pulling Doctor Zhou, who had a medical case on his back, in after him. Then Shu Sizhuo crouched beside Tong Zhao and said breathlessly, "Doctor Zhou, quickly... hurry and stitch him up! Please, save him."