Pure Accident (Part 2)

"I think... we need to leave..."

Having tied up the endlessly wailing Triangle-eyed man's hands and feet, Zhang Yahan said this. As for Jiaming, he used retrieving the other tent as an excuse to run off. Following his memory, he groped his way to the pistol that had fallen beneath the other tent. In the raging rainstorm, Scarface's cries came faintly from below.

Before setting up camp, Jiaming had already scouted the area. Beside the tent was a grassy slope. Now, with the heavy rain, the slope was slick, and the mountain stream below must have swelled into a small creek. From the sound of it, Scarface was already submerged in the water. But that shot had only broken his right hand, not his leg. Should he fire another shot?

Turning his head to look back at the faint light in the tent over there, he lightly raised the gun, clicked off the safety, then lowered it again after a moment. Never mind, no need to cause more trouble...

Carrying the dismantled tent with difficulty, Jiaming walked over, three backpacks already on his back. Two were their original ones, the other belonged to the two bandits. Besides money, it was full of biscuits, smoked meat, and the like. When he reached Lingjing, the Triangle-eyed man with his hands and feet bound was wailing miserably, his face twisted and terrifying, scaring Lingjing so much she only dared to hide behind Zhang Yahan. Jiaming immediately pulled out the pistol and shouted, "Stop yelling!"

Perhaps Jiaming's intimidating presence wasn't enough at the moment, as the Triangle-eyed man kept on screaming. Zhang Yahan turned her head back: "You, you picked up that man's pistol?"

"Mm." Jiaming's hands trembled slightly. "I said stop yelling, didn't you hear?"

The man on the ground kept shouting, while Zhang Yahan carefully extended her hand: "Here, give me the gun... That's not how you use it, the safety's still on..."

"Safety? Where?"

"Here..."

"Where? Here..."

"Ah, yeah, you little—"

Bang—

After the gunshot, the world fell silent.

All three instinctively shrank their necks. Smoke curled from the muzzle, and the bullet grazed the Triangle-eyed man's neck before burying itself in the ground. The man who had been howling moments before stiffened instantly, his mouth wide open, not daring to make a sound. After a long pause, Jiaming stammered, "Uh... accidental discharge..."

"Uh, hehe, it's okay, it's okay... Here, give me the gun, give me the gun..." Taking the pistol, she quickly clicked the safety back on, only then feeling a bit safer. This kid was too strange—no matter what gun he touched, it always went off by accident.

Now that both guns were in her hands, feeling that everything was under control, Yahan abandoned the idea of leaving. She tied the Triangle-eyed man even tighter, making sure he couldn't break free, before taking a flashlight and carefully heading down the slope with Jiaming to find the severely wounded Scarface.

She held the pistol, while the Triangle-eyed man's dagger was given to Jiaming. Following the faint cries of pain, they went down the grassy slope. Here, the water rushed down, already forming a small creek. As they drew near, Scarface's groaning suddenly stopped. Beside her, Jiaming abruptly turned off the flashlight: "Watch out, he still has a knife!"

In the heavy rain, the sound wasn't very clear. Rainwater streamed across their faces, even blurring their vision: "What? You..." Before she could finish, Jiaming suddenly charged out of the darkness, shoving her to the side. As he turned, a tall man holding a dagger brushed past her. If Jiaming hadn't pushed her, she would likely have been stabbed.

The flashlight fell to the ground, plunging the surroundings into darkness. Yahan's body tumbled into the creek water. In her panic, large amounts of creek water poured into her mouth and nose. The water wasn't deep, but she couldn't swim, and in her panic, she felt as if she had fallen into a bottomless abyss, flailing her limbs wildly, only letting in more water. In the darkness, the sounds were a chaotic mess...

After who knows how long, someone pulled her out of the water. Lying on her back on the grass beside the slope, the rain still poured down relentlessly. Before she could catch her breath, two heavy punches landed on her stomach, making her spit out several mouthfuls of water.

"Are you okay?" The flashlight clicked on in front of her eyes, and Jiaming's face appeared before her. Struggling to sit up, she finally heard Scarface's groans coming from not far away: "You, why did you hit me? What happened to him?"

"I was afraid you'd drown, so... if that hadn't worked, I would've had to use the artificial respiration the teacher taught me. Him..." Jiaming hesitated slightly. At the words "artificial respiration," Yahan unconsciously touched her own lips. Then she saw Jiaming wave his hand and say, "It wasn't my fault, he ran into me himself. I... I just swung a few times randomly, and the dagger disappeared, so I came back to get the pistol..."

Yahan's heart jumped. When she had fallen into the water, both the flashlight and pistol had been lost. She quickly went with Jiaming to search. Luckily, the pistol was found soon after. She clicked the safety off before daring to approach the groaning sounds with Jiaming.

Under the flashlight's beam, Scarface was lying on his side under a large tree. His right hand had the gunshot wound, his left arm was slashed to the bone, and there was a gash on his calf. Jiaming's dagger was buried hilt-deep in the man's buttocks.

A few random swings... Yahan looked in astonishment at the equally stunned Jiaming, then at Scarface, bleeding all over and looking utterly miserable... This kid was too much. Could he be the reincarnation of some legendary god of destruction? And they were incredibly lucky...

With such severe injuries, he clearly had no strength left to resist. The two of them dragged him up the slope, tied him up, and then took some bandages from the backpack to roughly stop the bleeding, lest he die.

The tent they had dismantled earlier was set up again, and the dying Scarface was placed inside. As for the less injured Triangle-eyed man, he was tied directly to a tree, left to endure the rain. After finishing all this, Jiaming and Yahan were both soaked through. It was still the middle of the night. Jiaming took off his shirt and pants. After a moment's hesitation, Yahan, having turned off the flashlight, also removed her shirt and pants, hanging them in the tent. The three of them huddled together, and soon fell into a deep sleep.

When morning came, the rain was still falling. Yahan followed the light and saw that the tent flap was slightly open. The boy named Jiaming had already dressed and was sitting there eating something while watching the rain. Looking back at herself, she was only wearing a bra, panties, and a pair of hiking boots. Her face flushed red. When the little boy had woken up, he must have seen everything... She quickly put on her half-damp, half-dry clothes, only then feeling a bit of calm...

After eating some biscuits, Yahan took the pistol to check on the two bandits. The Triangle-eyed man was listless, drenched in the rain. After a night of this, he would likely be half dead even if he survived. But she didn't dare put both bandits in the tent—if the knots she tied could be undone even by a child, she couldn't be sure they were secure enough.

As for Scarface in the tent, he was covered in wounds. Even if untied, he probably couldn't run. But looking at his injuries, a flicker of doubt arose in her heart: Was all this too much of a coincidence...

When the two children were tied up, she had seen it herself. Their hands and feet were bound tightly, impossible for her to break free. So how had that boy managed?

When she failed to steal the dagger, he had picked up the gun first...

When Scarface was alerted, the kid's accidental shot had hit Scarface's right hand...

When the Triangle-eyed man lunged, he had slipped strangely, and the dagger went straight into his thigh...

When Scarface tried to ambush them, he pushed her away. While she was in the water, she thought she heard... besides the rain, only Scarface's screams. Was it an illusion? But those three knife wounds were too coincidental...

If all this was the boy's doing... How could it be? He was just a child...

Kneeling in front of the trembling, groaning Scarface, Yahan's expression wavered between doubt and suspicion. After a long while, she shook her head helplessly. She was probably overthinking it.

Back in the tent, looking at the two children whispering together, she pondered for a while before finally voicing some of her displeasure: "Gu Jiaming, why did you tell them about my family yesterday? Do you know, do you know..."

"Uh." Jiaming was taken aback, then said, "I, I don't know... I just said it casually... I'm sorry..." Lingjing chimed in, "Yeah, Jiaming didn't mean it. Sister Yahan, don't blame him."

Yahan nodded. She had been about to say, "I almost got humiliated because of those words." But before the words left her mouth, she suddenly froze: Wasn't it because of those words that they had let her go? This kid, could he have foreseen that...

After a moment, she finally shook her head again. But then she saw the boy's expression stiffen as he looked up. A moment later, some strange sounds mixed with the rain. Yahan rushed out of the tent and looked up. A helicopter was cutting through the rain curtain, and on it, someone was vaguely waving at her.

.