area51novel Chapter 38 Small Fishing Village
Chapter 38 Small Fishing Village
A month later.
Lu Siye stood on a coastline on the northern border of Siam, looking at the small fishing village that had been almost forgotten by the world.
Although it's called a fishing village, it's more like an abandoned shantytown.
Some houses had their roofs half collapsed, and several dilapidated fishing boats were moored in the dock.
The boat was covered in barnacles, indicating that it hadn't been to sea in a long time.
Lu Siye walked along the coastline and saw the first house.
He walked over, and before he could even lift the plastic sheet, he heard a noise coming from inside.
Someone inside was frantically moving something around.
Then came a dull thud, probably from hitting the corner of the table.
Then came the sound of suppressed panting.
No one speaks.
No one asked who he was.
No one dared to lift the plastic sheet and peek outside.
Lu Siye's hand paused in mid-air for a moment before he withdrew it.
He didn't lift the plastic sheet, but turned around and continued walking forward.
The second house.
The third house.
The fourth house.
They are all the same.
Some houses were completely silent, but Lu Siye knew there were people inside.
Because he could feel those breaths.
He continued walking until he reached the end of the fishing village, where he stopped under a withered old banyan tree.
He stood there, looking at the sea, for about five or six minutes.
Then he turned around and walked back the way he came.
This time he walked more slowly than before.
He did not stop or try to get any closer as he passed those houses.
He simply maintained a distance that was neither too close nor too far, allowing the people inside to see him.
If someone were to peek through the cracks in the wooden planks, they would see that he was not wearing a military uniform and was not carrying a gun.
There was only one person, a foreigner with a backpack who looked younger than all the men in the village.
He walked to the village entrance and sat down on a section of a fallen cement utility pole.
I put my backpack down by my feet, unzipped it, pulled out a compressed biscuit, opened it, and took a bite.
His gaze remained fixed on the sea, without looking towards any of the houses.
Time passed by, second by second.
The sun moved from the east to its zenith, and then began to slant westward from its zenith.
Lu Siye sat on the concrete utility pole, ate two compressed biscuits, drank some water, stood up and walked around the beach for a while, then came back and sat down.
From beginning to end, not a single person came out of those houses.
Lu Siye didn't stand up until the sun began to set.
He slung his backpack over his shoulder and walked along the beach toward the sea.
It's not heading towards the shipyard, but towards the rocky area east of the village.
The water in the rocky area is deeper and the waves are bigger than those on the beach.
Lu Siye placed the backpack on a flat rock, took off his coat, folded it, and placed it on top of the backpack.
Then he took off his shoes, stuffed his socks inside, and placed the two shoes side by side next to the rocks.
He walked to the edge of the reef area and looked at the sea in front of him.
He took a deep breath and then jumped into the sea.
Before me was a world of blue and green.
The underwater portion of the reef was more spectacular than the surface portion, and a school of small silver fish darted past him.
He didn't chase the fish.
He's looking for something bigger.
After swimming underwater for about two minutes, he spotted his target.
A grouper, about two feet long, was hiding in a crevice in a rock.
Lu Siye did not make a move immediately.
He surfaced, took a breath, and then dived back down, this time even deeper than before.
He approached the grouper from the side, not from the front.
Fish have a wider field of vision than humans, but the areas directly in front and behind them are blind spots.
Lu Siye's hand moved closer and closer, little by little.
Caught.
He pulled the fish out of the water, pinched its gills with one hand, swam back to the reef, and threw the fish onto the reef.
The grouper bounced twice on the rocks, its mouth opening and closing rapidly, its gill covers opening and closing quickly.
Lu Siye didn't look at it.
He jumped into the sea again.
On his second dive, he caught four sea bream, none of them very big, each about the length of a palm.
On his third dive, he was unlucky and encountered a sea snake with black and white stripes, writhing in the water.
It looked beautiful, but Lu Siye knew it was poisonous.
He ignored it and walked around it.
On his fourth dive, he caught an even bigger one, a red snapper, weighing about three or four pounds.
It struggled fiercely when he pulled it out of the crevice in the reef.
Its tail lashed across his face with a sharp, stinging sound.
I dived four times in a row, holding my breath for more than six minutes each time, which was very physically demanding.
He sat on the rocks for a while, watching the fish.
One grouper, four palm-sized sea bream, and one three- or four-pound red sea bream.
enough.
He stood up, wrapped the fish in his coat, put on his shoes, slung his backpack over his shoulder, and walked into the village.
This time he did not walk along the road at the entrance of the village.
He walked to the front of the first house and stopped.
Lu Siye placed the bag of fish on the ground by the door without lifting the plastic sheet or knocking.
He put down the fish, turned around, and left.
He paused in front of the second house, looking at the window that was boarded up.
There was no sound behind the window.
But he knew someone was there.
He could feel that gaze.
He took two palm-sized sea bream out of his bag and placed them on the stone by the door.
Then go.
The third house.
The fourth house.
The fifth house.
He distributed each fish.
By the time he received the last fish, he had already reached the other end of the village.
There was nothing at the door of that house, not even a piece of plastic sheeting.
The door was just a wooden board, leaning against the door frame with a crack showing.
Lu Siye peered through the crack, but it was pitch black inside, and he couldn't see anything.
But he heard a voice.
The sound of an old man coughing.
Lu Siye placed the last fish at the door and covered it with a palm leaf.
Then he returned to the old, dead banyan tree, sat down against the trunk, and closed his eyes.
He was not asleep.
He was listening.
Listen to the sounds coming from those houses.
The first house to open its door was the most dilapidated one in the middle of the village.
It was around 2 a.m., and the whole village was pitch black.
Then came the sound of footsteps.
The footsteps stopped for a moment, probably because they had discovered something at the door.
Then came an even longer silence.
Lu Siye could imagine that scene.
An old man stood at the doorway, bent over, looking down at the things on the ground.
A red snapper weighing three or four pounds.
The old man squatted down and looked at it for a long time.
So long that Lu Siye thought he had already taken the fish away.
Then he heard a voice.
A trembling sob.
It only lasted a few seconds.
Then the crying stopped, and the sound of footsteps resumed.
This time it was faster than before, with a soft rustling sound, and it quickly disappeared behind the door.
Next was the second house.
The third house.
The fourth house.
One after another, the sound of doors opening, footsteps, silence, and then the sound of doors closing.
Some houses remain silent for a long time after the door is opened.
Lu Siye was so worried that the people inside hadn't noticed the fish at the door.
But he could hear those breaths.
Those who, upon seeing food, suddenly become rapid and almost lose control of their breathing.
Then came a series of thanks.
It wasn't said to him.
It is addressed to Heaven, to Buddha, and to some unknown deity.
Lu Siye leaned against the trunk of the old banyan tree, staring at the sky above that was covered by clouds.
He didn't think about anything.
I just listened to those sounds until dawn.
The next morning, when Lu Siye woke up under the old banyan tree, he found something in front of him.
A rough earthenware bowl, half-filled with thin porridge.
It was almost entirely water, with a few unknown wild vegetable leaves floating on top.
A person was standing next to the bowl.
An old man.
He looked to be at least seventy years old, and his back was severely hunched.
He stood about three steps away from Lu Siye, slightly bent over, with his hands hanging at his sides.
He looked at Lu Siye, opened his mouth, then closed it again, still unable to utter a word.
Lu Siye looked at the bowl of porridge without saying a word.
He picked up the bowl and drank it all, sip by sip.
The porridge was indeed cold, the rice grains were hard, and the wild vegetable leaves had a slightly bitter taste, but the salt was just right, neither too salty nor too bland.
He put the empty bowl back on the ground, looked up, and stared at the old man.
"Thank you," he said.
The old man's eyes immediately welled up with tears.
He squatted down in front of Lu Siyue, his hands resting on his knees. His lips trembled for a long time before he finally managed to utter only one sentence.
"You...you're not here to arrest someone, are you?"
"No," Lu Siye said.
The old man's shoulders suddenly slumped.
He squatted there, covering his face with both hands.
Lu Siye did not comfort him.
He just sat there and waited for the old man to finish crying.
After a while, the old man took his hands off his face and wiped his face haphazardly with his sleeve.
That smile was awful; his face was full of wrinkles, and he had lost several teeth.
But that was the first smile Lu Siye had ever seen in this village.
"Come on, come on," the old man stood up, patted the sand off his knees, and reached out to pull Lu Siye's arm. "Come sit at my house, come sit at my house."
Lu Siye was pulled by him towards the middle of the village. As they passed the houses, he noticed that some of the doors were already open.
There were people standing behind the door, all of them elderly, some with hunched backs, some leaning on canes.
They looked at Lu Siye with fear, curiosity, gratitude, and a hint of probing in their eyes.
Lu Siye walked past them without looking at anyone.
The old man led Lu Siye into the room where he had released the red snapper the day before.
It's the most dilapidated-looking house in the middle of the village.
It looks dilapidated from the outside, but it looks even more dilapidated from the inside.
A bed made of wooden planks, covered with several newspapers and a thin blanket so light could pass through.
There was a basin on the table, half full of water, with a layer of oil floating on the surface.
The head and bones of the red snapper were soaking in the water; the fish meat had been cleaned up, and even the eyes were gone.
All that's left is a skeleton.
The old man's gaze followed Lu Siye's line of sight to the basin, and his expression changed slightly, as if he was a little embarrassed and a little distressed.
"We've eaten all the fish... the fish meat," the old man said, rubbing his hands together in a low voice. "If we boil the bones a little longer, we can get some oil out."
Lu Siye's gaze lingered on the basin for a second before shifting away.
He didn't say anything.
"Where...where did you come from?" the old man asked.
"Eastern Continent," Lu Siye said.
"The Eastern Continent?" The old man's eyes lit up for a moment, but quickly dimmed again. "The Eastern Continent is good, the Eastern Continent is good, the Eastern Continent is not at war..."
"Here in our area, sigh..."
He didn't finish his sentence, but Lu Siye saw it all.
On his way there, he passed through several villages, some of which were deserted.
This village is neither the first nor the last.
"How many people are left here?" Lu Siye asked.
The old man thought for a moment, then stretched out his hand and counted on his fingers one by one.
"Me, Old Yang, Old Zhao's wife, Li the Cripple, Aunt Mute, and... who else... Oh, Aunt Wang, her husband died last month, starved to death, she's all alone now."
"Is there...is there any more? I think there's one more, the one at the end of the village, what's its name again..."
He counted on his fingers several times, and each time the number he came up with was different.
Finally, he gave up, put his hand down, and shook his head.
"There aren't many left," he said. "The young people have all left, some were arrested, some ran away, anyway... there aren't many left."
"They've been arrested?" Lu Siye asked.
The old man glanced at him, his lips moved as if he was considering whether to speak.
He finally spoke up.
"Arrest soldiers from both sides."
The old man's voice was very low.
"We would seize any young and strong men we saw, make them carry guns, make them dig trenches, or make them cannon fodder."
"The first few times I came here, there were a few young people in the village hiding in the mountains, but they were still found, dragged away, and never came back."
"Later they came again, searching for grain and valuables. They took all the pots and pans, and didn't even leave a single chicken."
"I came two or three times, but I guess I realized there wasn't much profit to be made here, so I stopped coming."
"The last time I came here was probably... seven days ago? Eight days ago?"
He couldn't remember.
Lu Siye didn't ask any more questions.
He stood up, walked to the door, and looked out at the village.
"Can I stay here for a few days?" Lu Siye asked.
The old man paused for a moment, then nodded vigorously.
"Yes, yes, of course you can stay as long as you want, my home is your home."
As he spoke, he stood up and began rummaging through drawers and cabinets, probably looking for a clean quilt or blanket.
Lu Siye watched him rummage through the pile of junk.
The things the old man found were either moldy or had holes, and he became more and more anxious as he searched.
"No need to trouble yourself," Lu Siye said.
The old man stopped, turned around and looked at him, still clutching a blanket in his hand.
"I'll just sleep under that banyan tree," Lu Siye said.
The old man opened his mouth as if to say something, but seeing Lu Siyue's expression, he swallowed his words back.
He nodded, put down the blanket in his hand, walked up to Lu Siye, and patted Lu Siye's arm with his calloused hand.
"You're a good boy," he said.
Lu Siye did not answer.
He stayed in the village for three days.
On the first day, he spent most of the day looking around the village.
The village is nestled against a small mountain. The mountain is not very high, but the vegetation is quite lush, and there are some wild fruit trees on it.
But all the fruit had been picked, leaving only bare branches and fruit pits scattered on the ground.
There are animals in the mountains, but not many. Lu Siye walked around and only saw a few squirrels and a snake, which was a viper and quite venomous.
At the foot of the mountain is a wasteland, which used to be farmland, but is now overgrown with weeds.
Lu Siye stood at the edge of the wasteland, looking at the grass, and a rough plan had already formed in his mind.
In the afternoon, he started working.
He did not use primordial energy.
It wasn't because he was afraid of being discovered, but because he felt that in this place, in this village where people couldn't even get enough to eat, he didn't want to use superhuman strength.
He found a shovel and sharpened the blade with a stone.
Then he started digging.
On the first day, they dug half of the cellar, at the foot of the mountain behind the village.
The location was carefully chosen; it's high up, not prone to water accumulation, sheltered from the wind, and not visible from the village entrance.
He didn't dig too big, about two meters deep and three meters square, enough to store enough food for a dozen people for one or two months.
He tamped the cave walls down with a shovel and then plastered a layer of mud on top.
The mud is mixed with chopped rice straw, which will form a hard shell after drying, making it less prone to collapse.
He built a cover for the opening using planks and branches.
The lid was covered with a layer of soil, and some dry grass and fallen leaves were scattered on it. From a distance, it looked no different from the surrounding ground.
By the time they finished digging the first cellar, it was almost dark.
He sat by the cave entrance, drank a few sips of water, and watched the old people come out of their houses, one by one, carefully approaching him.
They didn't speak.
She just stood there, looking at him, at the disguised cellar entrance, her eyes filled with complex emotions.
"Will this... will this work?"
Old Yang, the old man who brought him porridge in the morning, squatted next to the cellar entrance and patted the layer of camouflage soil off the cellar.
"It can be done," Lu Siye said.
The next day, Lu Siye continued digging.
The second cellar was dug to the east of the first cellar, about fifty meters away, and connected by a narrow passage.
The passage was dug very narrow, only wide enough for one person to crawl through sideways.
It takes a lot of effort for adults to squeeze in, but the elderly and children... can barely get through.
He disguised both ends of the passage with planks and stones, making it impossible to find without careful searching.
The third cellar was dug to the west, seventy meters away, and there was also a passage between it and the second cellar.
The three cellars are arranged in a triangle. If any one is discovered, people can be moved to the other two through underground passages.
Lu Siye set up several obstacles in the cellar passage.
Some of the rocks and tree roots that look like they were formed naturally were actually piled up there on purpose.
If the search party climbs into the passageway, these obstacles will slow them down, while those hiding inside can use the concealed side paths to temporarily escape.
He taught these escape techniques to Old Yang.
Old Yang studied very diligently, so diligently that Lu Siye felt a little sad.
An elderly man in his seventies crawled on the ground, inching his way into the narrow passage that could barely accommodate him.
Climbing it once isn't enough, twice isn't enough, three times, four times, five times.
He only stopped when Lu Siye said, "That's enough."
"That's good," he said, brushing the dirt off his knees. "That's good."
The next afternoon, Lu Siye went hunting in the mountains.
The mountain isn't big, but the forest is very dense.
The woods were unusually quiet.
There were no birdsong, no insect chirping, and even the sound of the wind rustling through the leaves seemed exceptionally lonely.
Lu Siye knew why.
This mountain has been searched far too many times.
The rest are either things they can't escape, or things they dare not eat.
He wandered around in the woods for about an hour before finding the first snake.
It was a cobra, about a meter long.
Lu Siye stood three steps away, watching it.
He picked up a branch from the ground, then squatted down, extended the branch, and slowly approached the cobra.
The cobra's head moved with the branch, and its body began to retract, assuming an attack posture.
The branch swayed in front of the cobra, and the cobra's fangs snapped into the branch.
In that instant, Lu Siye's other hand reached out from the side and accurately pinched the cobra's head.
With fingers wedged tightly behind the venom gland, the cobra's mouth was forced open.
Its body wrapped around Lu Siye's arm, tightening its grip, its scales scraping against his skin, feeling icy cold.
Lu Siye ignored it.
This level of attack is harmless.
He took a small knife out of his bag, made a cut in the snake's neck, then put the knife in his mouth, freeing his right hand to grab the snake's head and pull hard.
With a click.
The spine is broken.
Lu Siye buried the snake's head under a large tree, coiled up the snake's body, and put it into a makeshift bag woven from banana leaves.
He stood up and continued walking deeper into the woods.
The second snake was a python, not very big, about two meters long.
When Lu Siye saw it, it had already seen him.
This time, Lu Siye didn't use a tree branch because he had figured out the snake's attack methods.
He walked straight over, squatted down, and accurately pressed the python's head down with his right hand, pinning it to the ground.
The python immediately coiled up and wrapped around his arm, much stronger than the cobra from before.
He pulled a small knife from behind his waist with his left hand, placed the tip against the python's neck, but did not cut it.
He looked into the python's eyes.
Lu Siye saw something inside.
It's a very primal instinct to survive.
He hesitated for a second.
Then he put the knife away.
Forget it.
He held the snake's head down with his left hand and slowly pulled his right hand out of the snake's coils.
The python's body tensed up briefly, then slowly relaxed.
Lu Siye lifted its head off the ground, walked to the edge of the forest, and placed it on the branch of a large tree.
He turned and left.
The third snake was a viper, which was highly venomous, but had little meat.
Lu Siye did not hesitate and killed him with a single strike.
They also caught two lizards, which were incredibly large, about half a meter long from head to tail.
Lizards don't taste good; their meat has a strange flavor. But protein is protein, and in this place, no one will complain about the taste.
He stayed on the mountain for the entire afternoon, until the sun began to set in the west and the light in the forest began to dim, before he came down the mountain.
When he returned to the village, his banana leaf bag contained three snakes, two lizards, and a rodent of unknown species.