Chen Ergou clearly remembered the first time he used a hunting knife to disembowel a hare. He had to carefully make a small incision under the breastbone, then use his left hand to insert two fingers into the abdominal cavity and gently pry it open. The knife would then be inserted through the gap between his fingers and used to cut along the soft, white belly skin, taking care not to puncture the intestines or stomach. This was a delicate process that required great skill. Later, the knife that had been left in the hare's abdomen became a specialized dissection tool. Chen Ergou had skinned and disembowelled countless hares with it, and he could have easily done the same to Zhao, but he didn't have the guts. He believed in fate and was afraid of going to hell after death, so he didn't kill Zhao directly, instead leaving his life in the hands of heaven. If Zhao had died, Chen Ergou wouldn't have regretted committing murder, because it would have been heaven's will. But since Zhao hadn't died, it meant that heaven didn't want him to die, and Chen Ergou was willing to let him live. In the world of martial arts, there were sayings like "cutting the grass without removing the roots" or "releasing a tiger back into the mountains," but Chen Ergou was just a small-time farmer who didn't understand these things. His mother had been a kind and compassionate woman who would often recite Buddhist scriptures before slaughtering pigs or chickens, and she had instilled in him a sense of mercy and benevolence. It was only because of the constant ridicule and humiliation he suffered at the hands of the villagers in Zhangjiashan that Chen Ergou had developed his cunning and ruthless streak. It was unfair to expect someone like Chen Ergou, who had never even met a government official before and had only seen famous people on TV, to possess the kind of grandeur and magnanimity that would allow him to spare his enemy's life.

  From start to finish, Zhang Sanqian didn't know what happened, only saw Wang Hu's solemn face and Wang Jiefang's injuries, as well as the determination on Third Uncle's face when they parted ways. Something big must have happened again, otherwise Wang Hu wouldn't leave Hei Bao at Ah Mei's restaurant, and Wang Jiefang wouldn't give up Eagle, who was finally caught after a long time on Chongming Island. Zhang Sanqian didn't like this suffocating feeling, being dragged by Wang Hu to the train station, where they bought tickets to Nanjing. It was very crowded, and they had to squat in the aisle. Zhang Sanqian finally got a chance to catch his breath, shrinking between Wang Hu and Wang Jiefang like a kidnapped child, asking: "Brother Hu, what's wrong with Third Uncle?"

  "Don't ask, kid."

  Wang Hu shook his head and said, perhaps it was because he ran too quickly, that the middle part of his hair, which seemed to have used a whole bottle of hairspray, became disheveled, making people laugh. Wang Jiefang had a solemn expression, looking up at the ceiling tiles, having killed people and escaped many times before, running away was nothing new, but following Wang Hu and wandering across provinces like bandits in the old days felt great, even though he got beaten up for no reason, it was worth it.

  Zhang Sanqian was furious, and with a single punch, he sent Wang Huren flying, almost sending him to heaven. He quickly drank some mineral water that he had bargained for from 1 yuan to 90 cents, a new habit he had developed since coming to Shanghai. As soon as he heard Wang Huren's nonsense, he directly resorted to violence, and his fist was not just a gentle scratch. It was a genuine Eight Trigrams Fist frame, which would have knocked Li Sheng down long ago.

  A big buttocks beauty swayed back and forth as she walked through the corridor, her chest heaving up and down, her buttocks twisting and turning, dazzling everyone's eyes. Her face was quite delicate, but her makeup was a bit too thick. The Louis Vuitton bag in her hand was clearly a counterfeit, but Wang Hu didn't care about that. His two eyes were fixed on her buttocks, swallowing his saliva, as if he wanted to stick his eyeballs onto her buttocks. When the beauty glanced at this country bumpkin with a traitor's head that followed her proud buttocks like radar, she immediately became displeased and cursed in a low voice: "Stinky shameless, hooligan."

  Wang Hu was furious, but not at the big-bottomed beauty who had just scolded him. Instead, he slapped Wang Jiefang on the head and shouted: "Did you hear that? She called you a hoodlum! You're staring blankly at the ceiling, what's wrong with you?"

  Wang Jiefang, who suffered an unprovoked disaster, didn't dare to lose his temper with the young master's sharp eyes. He immediately turned his spearhead towards the vase and sneered: "You cheap slut, trying to fool people with a fake LV? Even I, a peasant, know it's fake. Are you not afraid of being laughed at? If your man can't afford to buy you real goods, I'll buy them for you. The question is, is your ass worth that much money? Let me play with you for two consecutive nights, and I might consider it."

  The woman who was afraid of the soft and hard didn't fear Wang Hu Zei, who looked very rustic and rural, but she was a bit intimidated by Wang Jie Fang, who had a foul mouth and a bandit-like face. As soon as she heard this, she was furious and ashamed, but she didn't dare to retort and quickly ran away. Wang Hu Zei had always disliked Wang Jie Fang's arrogant attitude in front of the woman, and when he saw that the big-buttocked girl had been scared away again, he immediately framed him: "Sanqian, reward him with a beating, he spoke ill of your third uncle yesterday." Zhang Sanqian did as he was told, fortunately Wang Jie Fang's ability to withstand beatings was strong, and since it was Wang Hu Zei who ordered it, he didn't take it to heart. In fact, Wang Jie Fang quite liked this poor child, not just out of pity, but because the child had a certain flavor that made him, a fugitive, like him. As the saying goes, "at three years old, one can see what they will be like when old", Sanqian was only ten years old, but it's estimated that if he followed Chen Er Gou to dig graves now, he would dare to jump down without hesitation, he was a wolf cub who would not back down from danger.

  Zhang Sanqian's face suddenly turned sorrowful, and he asked in a low voice: "Tiger Brother, is Nanjing the city where 300,000 people were slaughtered by Japanese devils?"

  Wang Hu nodded slightly. To him, who understood a bit of Feng Shui and Kan Yu, the Qinhuai River flowing was not the charming scenery in the eyes of scholars and poets, but a river of scarlet blood, thick and tragic like the setting sun.

  Zhang San lowered his head and muttered: "Three million ah."

  Wang Hu smiled and said: "You don't even know what 3 million is like, so what's the point of sighing?"

  Zhang Sanqian raised his head and calmly said, "I know that Zhangjiashan has exactly 150 people. Two thousand Zhangjiashans add up to three hundred thousand. Uncle Fugui said that three hundred thousand corpses can fill the Egunna River outside our village."

  Wang Hu leaned against the corridor wall and muttered to himself: "Nanjing is a lucky place for Er Gou, it's definitely right to go."

  "Hu Shengge, tell me the truth, am I really born to be a jinx, bringing bad luck to others? The people in Zhangjiacun all say that I was the one who brought about my mother's death, and at four years old, I brought about my father's death. At nine years old, I brought about my uncle's death. Now, Third Uncle is having trouble again. I don't want to go to Nanjing; I want to return to Zhangjiacun. Wherever Third Uncle goes, I won't go there."

  "Nonsense."

  Wang Hu's face turned red with anger: "You can't beat your Third Uncle. Don't think you can sneak back to Zhangjia Village alone, even if you want to go back, you have to see Er Gou first, this matter is up to him to decide. Zhang Sanqian, remember, your name was given by your Third Uncle, according to our rules, half of your life belongs to Er Gou, don't think about escaping, did you hear?"

  Zhang Sanqian buried his head in his knees and remained silent.

  ——————————————

  Chen Ergou hesitated for a few minutes at the train station, originally planning to go to Shenzhen alone to make a living, and even thought about going to Inner Mongolia to find Sun Manqiu, an acquaintance. But thinking of Wang Hu's unyielding face and Zhang Sanqian's weak back, he finally bought a ticket to Nanjing instead. White Bear had died, and Sanqian was like Chen Ergou's second dog, unable to be abandoned or given up on. Chen Ergou always had more feelings for dogs than for people.

  Xiongzi is dead or alive, now can't take care of it, listen to the sky and sit in the train window seat. Chen Erdou's hands are still shaking, stabbing people after all is not killing a roe deer, but shaking back, not purely afraid, mixed with a few threads of inexplicable excitement. This makes Chen Erdou very surprised, because this shows that stabbing people and bleeding is an easy thing for him to get used to, cutting a few more times, bleeding a little more, just like peeling a roe deer, soon it will be habitual. Looking at the night scene outside the window, Chen Erdou secretly touched the deposit slip in his pocket.

  No one paid attention to this young man in simple clothes, and the attention he received was not as much as that given to the cigarette in his hand. Who would have thought that such an unremarkable migrant worker from elsewhere had, before fleeing Shanghai with his tail between his legs, knocked a fierce third-generation descendant to the ground and left a person who looked as delicate as a beauty with lifelong terror?

  Chen Ergou raised a smiling face towards the window.

  Shanghai, I will be back.