When Qingmu woke up, he saw a young man carrying a bamboo basket feeding him water with a leather bag. The water was bitter and had a fresh grassy smell.
"Oh, you're awake!" the young man said. "You ate the ox liver umbrella, didn't you? Luckily, I know how to counteract it."
Although the poison had been neutralized, Qingmu was still very weak. The young man then offered to carry him. He said:
"This place is not safe. Let's head north. Once we cross the Nangou River, we'll be safe. Although our place is poor, we don't fight, and we certainly don't eat people."
After walking in the mountains for a day and eating two meals of dry rations, Qingmu was able to get out of bed and walk on his own with a wooden stick. He also became familiar with the young man, learning that his name was Enkun and that he came from a small border town in the north.
Qingmu asked him what he was doing there. He said he was looking for someone.
"People have been losing their lives a lot in the past few years. Some ran away because they were poor, and some were tricked. There are both men and women. Most of the men work illegally in the opium poppy workshops in Masuba, and we don't know where the women have been sold. I come here twice a year to look for them. If I find them, I take them back; if I don't, there's nothing I can do. I also collect some medicinal herbs. We lack medical care and medicine in our area. The hospitals are too far away, and we can't afford to go. The herbs from the mountains are the best; they've saved so many lives!"
Qingmu, leaning on his long-time wooden stick, followed Enkun northward. When they passed Guaizi Ridge, they encountered a yellow-skinned Tiger with black stripes.
When the man and the tiger met, neither moved; for a moment, it was so quiet that one could hear the leaves falling from the treetops.
Enkun said, "You'd better hurry up and leave. I'm enough to feed the Tiger. Once the Tiger is full, it won't hurt anyone for a while. Go north from here, and when you see a big river, walk east along the river for about ten miles until you see a ferry crossing. Just tell them you're China, and the people on the other side will take you there."
Qingmu said, "I haven't fully recovered yet, and I can't walk that far by myself. You go ahead, I'll stay."
Enkun stubbornly refused, saying, "Go, go! Otherwise, I've saved you for nothing, only to have the Tiger eat you, causing you pain twice. A good deed has turned into a bad one!"
As he spoke, he took out a machete and stood in front of Qingmu.
When the Tiger pounced, Enkun forcefully pushed Qingmu aside and charged forward with his machete, intending to fight to the death. But life is not a novel, and Enkun hadn't drunk eighteen bowls of strong liquor. A man weighing a hundred or so pounds facing Tiger weighing two or three hundred pounds head-on is basically doomed.
But then a miracle happened.
For some reason, the Tiger stumbled at the last step. Although it still had the strength to pounce, it went astray and crashed headfirst into a large tree next to it. However, its claws only grazed Enkun's thigh.
Ignoring his leg injury, Enkun swung his knife and stabbed the Tiger in the neck. This was an instinctive reaction to danger, not intended to be of any use. The novel also describes the Tiger as having a series of combined punches—a pounce, a slash, a swipe—though its veracity is unknown. However, if Tiger misses its first strike, it will surely have a follow-up attack; it will never sit idly by and wait to die. Its reflexes are far faster than a human's. Moreover, Tiger have thick hides; even if stabbed by a machete, it wouldn't be fatal, but rather would only provoke its ferocity.
But somehow, Enkun's machete pierced the Tiger's neck. The Tiger, however, became drowsy, as if it were about to fall asleep.
Seeing that the opportunity was too good to pass up, Enkun mustered all his strength and stabbed the Tiger several times. During this time, the Tiger suddenly struggled to its feet, as if to fight back, but then collapsed to the ground, no longer moving. Enkun saw that Qingmu had somehow appeared beside him, the wooden stick in his hand pointing at the tiger's head, the tip of the stick less than two inches from the tiger's forehead, and still trembling slightly.
After the Tiger died, Qingmu threw down his stick and collapsed, his body going limp.
Enkun helped Qingmu up and said, "Although your poison has been neutralized, your internal organs have been damaged. You need to recuperate for a while before your qi and blood can recover."
Qingmu, panting, chuckled, "I'm fine, you take care of your leg first."
Enkun's leg was ripped open by tiger claws, leaving it a bloody mess. He grimaced as he sat down on the ground, picked some grass from his basket, chewed it up, and applied it to his wound.
Enkun knew that Tiger weren't wild boars and wouldn't knock themselves unconscious by running into trees, so he asked, "Are you a Gu master? I've heard that Gu masters in Nanyang can drive away snakes, insects, tigers, and leopards!" Seeing Qingmu frown and look at the sky, he shook his head and laughed self-deprecatingly, "Oh dear, how could I be so stupid! How could a Gu master be poisoned by a cow liver umbrella? I was just rambling on, I won't say anymore!"
After a short rest, the two continued their journey. Enkun was injured, Qingmu Enkun gave him his wooden stick to use as a crutch.
Enkun said, "What a waste of this tiger skin."
Qingmu said, "Then why didn't you peel it off?"
"They're protecting animals! I can't sell them back home. I'd have to go south to sell them, but with my limp, I might not even survive. Tigers eat people and spit out the bones, but people eat people and don't even spit out the bones! Tigers ignore you once they're full, but people are never truly satisfied!"
Enkun sighed with emotion, shifting his gaze from the dead tiger, and laughed, "If there's a tiger on this mountain, there won't be any wolves. The scent of a hungry tiger can travel for miles. The rest of the way is safe. Let's go."
Instead of looking for a ferry, they crossed Guaizi Ridge and silently crossed the Nangou River at the mouth of a deserted ravine. After walking for another day, Enkun pointed to a mountain in the distance and said, "My home is over there, called Kuaziba."
Qingmu didn't go to Kuaziba. Ever since he crossed the Nangou River, he had smelled another familiar scent. For the first time, he thought of home, even though he didn't know where home was.
He and Enkun parted ways at the dam entrance, Enkun asked him, "Where are you planning to go?"
Qingmu shook his head and said, "I don't know, I'll just go with my gut feeling."
Enkun said, "I know you're from the city, and the mountains can't keep you here. Go to Shenzhou; I've heard you can make a lot of money there."
Enkun didn't know where Shenzhou was, only that it was to the east. He went to the plain and got a lot of dry rations, then told Qingmu to head east. Qingmu walked away, he heard Enkun calling after him, "Hey, your stick!"
Qingmu said, "Keep this handy. You might not be able to fight a tiger, but you can at least catch a dog. If I need it in the future, I'll come back to you."
He went to the other side of the mountain and found a hidden cave along a ravine piled with decaying leaves. The entrance to the cave was sealed with an iron gate covered in rust.
He stood at the door for a while, but couldn't remember anything, so he left.
He traveled from the mountains of Southern Yunnan all the way to Eastern Guizhou, then from Eastern Guizhou to Eastern Guangxi, and finally arrived in Yangcheng. He lived in a tunnel under a bridge in Yangcheng, which was crowded with people who had come south to find work.
There lived a man named Liu Daqing in the bridge tunnel. He always smiled at everyone he met. His pockets were practically Ding Dong, but he always carried two packs of cigarettes, which he would hand out to anyone he met. Although the cigarettes were the cheapest Daqianmen, for people living under the bridge tunnel, having cigarettes at all was already a blessing, let alone handing them out to everyone he met. He was being excessively generous.
Qingmu was sitting next to Liu Daqing in the bridge archway. He knew that besides Daqianmen, Liu also carried a pack of Hongtashan in his pocket, which he used when he went out on business.
Liu Daqing didn't stay long before moving out of the bridge hole. Everyone said he was eloquent and quick-witted, and that he found a good job. Unexpectedly, after half a year, Liu Daqing returned. But this time, he no longer distributed Daqianmen, nor even Hongtashan cigarettes; instead, he distributed imported 555 cigarettes.
Liu Daqing came to recruit people. He said to Qingmu, "I plan to open a wool textile factory back in Wuzhong. Brother, come with me. As long as I have food to eat, you'll never go hungry."
Qingmu then went to Wuzhong with Liu Daqing.