Chapter 22: The Flickering Flames on the Mountain Waist

  The path is no longer a mountain road, but a forest. In Myanmar, it is rich in precious woods such as red sandalwood and rosewood. The big ones are difficult to surround with several people, and the small ones are also as thick as a bowl mouth. The branches and leaves that cover the sky and block the sun make it hard to see the sky even on sunny days, let alone among the towering trees, where some tropical plants grow densely.

  Dong Li Mao let Zhang Da Li use the warrior knife taken from the black-clad man to clear a path, advancing at a very slow pace. Everyone was extremely cautious, knowing that the danger hidden in the bushes wasn't an enemy, but venomous snakes. At this moment, it seemed that the snakes were even more terrifying than any enemy, as they could see moving people, but the walkers found it difficult to discover them.

  Mosquitoes the size of flies occasionally bit exposed skin, but no one raised a hand to swat at them because the itching from their bites was nothing compared to the threat of venomous snakes hidden in the underbrush, and everyone's attention was focused on the possibility of poisonous snakes lurking in the bushes beneath their feet.

  Li Yuyuan followed behind Dong Limao, her high-top leather boots played an effective protective role, no matter how venomous the snake was, it would be difficult to bite through the tough leather for a while. However, it was hard to prevent the snake from entwining around her feet, a python that had crawled out of the bushes tightly wrapped itself around her left calf.

  "Jia Cheng, I've been bitten by a snake." Li Yuanyuan whispered to Dong Limao walking in front.

  Dong Li Mao turned around and said in a low voice: "Don't move!" He slowly crouched down, but couldn't see anything: "Which side is it on?"

  "Left foot." Li Yuanyuan felt her left foot was being tied so tightly that it was almost numb and she could hardly stand.

  Dong Li Mao didn't turn around and whispered to Zhang Da Li: "Heavy machine gun, give me the knife!"

  Everyone stopped moving forward and stood still, Zhang Dalie walked back a few steps and handed the knife to Dong Li Mao.

  Dong Li Mao took the warrior's knife and pointed it at Li Yuanyuan's left foot. With the faint silver light emitted from the blade, he saw a python as thick as an arm wrapped around Li Yuanyuan's entire calf, her leather boots were no longer visible, only the snake's open mouth facing upwards, spitting out red saliva, its tail still thrashing on the ground, seemingly still exerting force, refusing to let go of its prey until it was bound and killed.

  "Jia Cheng, I've lost all feeling in my foot..." Li Yuanyuan was so scared that her whole body was shaking, thinking she had already been bitten by the snake.

  "This is a python, not a venomous snake. It's just coiling around you and hasn't bitten you yet, hold on for a bit." Dong Li Mao used the tip of his knife to tease the snake's head, trying to get it away from Li Yuanyuan's foot, then swung his knife to chop off its head. However, the python seemed to dislike the cold blade and instead stuck even closer to Li Yuanyuan's high leather boots, slowly slithering upwards as if attracted by the warmth above.

  Zhang Dali picked up a piece of dry wood as long as his arm and the size of a palm from beside him, handed it to Dong Limao and said: "Put the stick between the snake's head and feet, then chop it with a knife."

  Dong Li Mao followed Zhang Da Li's method, with his left hand placing the wooden stick between Li Yuanyuan's calf and the snake head, while his right hand swung the knife down almost simultaneously. With a "pu" sound, the sharpness of the warrior's knife took effect, and Dong Li Mao didn't use much force to cut off the snake head, which fell to the ground at Li Yuanyuan's feet. The severed snake head still writhed violently on the ground, making its final dying struggles.

  Zhang Dalì stretched out his hand and grabbed the body of the python that had been beheaded, quickly untying Li Yuanyuan's legs.

  Li Yuanyuan seemed to have lost all her strength after Zhang Dalai completely peeled the snake's body off her calf, and she fell to the ground with a thud.

  "Is your foot still numb?" Dong Li Mao asked with concern.

  "I'm awake." Li Yuanyuan replied softly.

  "Everyone use ropes or vines to tie up their pant legs." Dong Li Mao was inspired by the high leather boots that Li Yuanyuan wore, reminding others.

  Although they lost a few minutes, after everyone rolled up their pant legs, they seemed to have some protection and no longer cared about anything, and their speed increased.

  Dong Li Mao's judgment was correct. The bright light Wang Jia Gui saw on the tree was indeed sent out by Japanese intelligence personnel.

  In a cave on the middle of a mountain, there were five people dressed in Dai ethnic costumes, four men and one woman.

  Just as Dong Li Mao and Li Yuanyuan were sitting at the base of the tree, a man and the only woman among them quietly got up from between the three sleeping men in the cave, walked out of the entrance, stopped under a large tree, leaned against the trunk, and the man took out a cigarette and lit a match.

  The woman immediately blew out the fire in the man's hand and whispered in Japanese: "Nakamura-kun, you can't light a fire, it will expose us!"

  That was the flash of fire Wang Jiagui saw on the tree.

  The man had no choice but to put the cigarette under his nostrils and sniff it, opening his mouth to say in Japanese: "Keiko, let's get out of here together. I don't want to die under the guns of those Chinese."

  "Where else can we go? This place is full of Chinese people and you don't even speak Chinese." The woman sighed.

  "We can hide in a remote, uninhabited place deep in the mountains and live like primitives. It's safer than doing this job. You saw it earlier, more than 20 specially trained men were killed by the Chinese army. Not to mention us, if we encounter them one day, both you and I will be dead." The man put his arm around the woman beside him and said: "Besides, that dog Mountain is always eyeing you covetously, I'm really worried that one day when I'm not by your side, he'll take advantage of you."

  "Hey Nakamura, I know you're doing this for me. Don't worry, I'm already your woman. No other man can touch me. If Captain Yamamoto dares to lay a hand on me, I'd rather die than let him...” The woman's body was tightly pressed against the man's chest, but before she could finish speaking, the man lifted her face and covered her mouth with his lips, silencing her from saying anything further.

  The two stood under the tree, passionately kissing for a while, as if arousing their instinctual desires. They began to tear each other's clothes with their hands. The man panted heavily and said: "Ji Xiang... I want..."

  The woman replied: "Nakamura-kun... give me..."

  They didn't dare speak loudly, as if they were afraid of being heard by the three men who were fast asleep in the cave.

  When the woman's upper body was wiped clean, the man turned her body over and made her face the tree trunk.

  The woman's hands were placed submissively on the tree trunk, her back to the man, and her buttocks, still clad in a tube skirt, slightly raised.

  The man reached out and lifted the woman's skirt, pulling it up onto her back, then quickly dropped his pants, placing both hands on the woman's buttocks. He thrust forward from behind, entering the woman's body, and all that could be heard was the woman's long, drawn-out: "Oh..."

  The man stood behind the woman, his upper body leaning against her back, and said while swaying his body: "Keiko... I love you... from the day I joined the special task force and saw you... I was deeply attracted to your beauty... I want both of us to live well..."

  On the eastern horizon, a faint white light gradually expanded, and the darkness was driven away by the strong light that emerged from the horizon, retreating obediently.

  The woman named Keiko and the man named Nakamura seemed to have entered a state of ecstasy, completely unaware of the three men emerging from the cave at this time.

  (Collect! You won't miss every wonderful moment!)