Chapter 5: A Brush with Death
Chapter 5: A Brush with Death
Lan Mu was deep in the old forest. It was getting late, and night had fallen. Even though he had turned back into a human, he did not dare to wander around aimlessly.
He could only lean against the Giant Wild Boar and fiddle with his phone, hoping to find someone who could rescue him.
But then he discovered, to his despair, that his phone had no signal!
“What the heck! Seriously?”
No matter how he tinkered with the phone, there was just no signal here.
He could not make a call for help. Was he supposed to find his own way out?
Lan Mu looked dismally at the dark woods and gave up on the idea of traveling at night. He decided to tough it out and spend the night right there.
For him, apart from the moonlight, the light from his phone was the only illumination, and the battery was only at one-third.
Based on his experience, if he kept the screen on, it could only last about two hours.
With no other choice, he had to read his text messages first.
There were 21 messages; 19 were from his boss, Editor-in-Chief Liang.
The other two were from his good friend and colleague, Cheng Ming.
He read Editor-in-Chief Liang’s first. Although there were many, they all basically said the same thing, which was…
Where the hell have you been!
“Sigh… I’ve been missing for a full seven days! Chief, didn’t you think to call the police?”
Lan Mu looked at the messages that scolded him one by one. Editor-in-Chief Liang had cursed him out as an irresponsible, arrogant, short-sighted employee who vanished without a care, a thoroughly wicked bad employee.
Reading the last message, Editor-in-Chief Liang said he had been absent from work without reason for four days. He hadn’t gone to interview the relevant department as already arranged, nor had he given any explanation. Because of this, his boss had reported it and decided to fire him.
“My dear Editor-in-Chief Liang, you’re so good to me. Did it never occur to you that I might be in a special situation?”
“Sigh… I can’t lose this job.”
Lan Mu loved his job at the newspaper. It was stable, paid well, and full of passion. It suited his temper and was to his liking. In short, this job was very important to him; he did not want to lose it.
Because of this, he wrote a long reply in response, full of ups and downs and dripping with tears, using all the writing techniques he had learned in journalism school. He was determined to keep his job.
The reason he used was that while conducting undercover reporting on poaching, he was attacked by a gang of criminals. He fell off a cliff, narrowly escaped death, and discovered a poaching gang inside the protected area. He saw with his own eyes them hunting and killing a rare Giant Wild Boar.
To make it more convincing, he even specifically took photos of the wild boar, describing the events from multiple angles.
Of course, he completely hid the fact that he had transformed into a White-maned Lion for seven days. That would be the secret memory most worth savoring in his entire life.
However, as expected, this extremely long text message failed to send. There was simply no signal. He had no choice but to save it to the drafts folder.
As for the messages from his friend Cheng Ming, they were simple. One was to tell him that another good friend, Ma Xiang, had gotten engaged to his girlfriend.
The other was to ask where he had gone? Why wasn’t he contacting the newspaper, and why wasn’t he completing the work assignments he had agreed to? He was playing at disappearing.
Reading this, Lan Mu did not know whether to laugh or cry. Really? I go missing and all you do is send one text to ask?
“Looks like our supposedly deep friendship isn’t even as strong as Editor-in-Chief Liang’s concern for me!”
Editor-in-Chief Liang had sent a full 19 messages, as frantic as a rabbit.
Lan Mu wasn’t in a hurry to reply to Cheng Ming’s message. He would wait until he got home.
He checked the battery; only ten percent remained. He hurriedly shut off the phone, and the surroundings instantly plunged into darkness.
“Good thing it’s summer. Otherwise, spending a night like this, I’d definitely get seriously sick!”
Lan Mu tried to sleep leaning against the wild boar, but he just couldn’t fall asleep. The area was full of all sorts of mosquitoes and insects. The dead pig’s corpse had attracted many poisonous bugs and ants.
Although he didn’t know why, these insects simply would not land on him. But just having them flying around nearby was annoying enough.
Unable to stand it any longer, Lan Mu decided to leave this place and find a better spot to spend the night.
But as soon as he stood up, he saw lights approaching in the distance. It seemed like a group of people was walking over.
“People? Great!”
Lan Mu’s happiness did not last long. When he saw the group that appeared, his heart turned cold.
There were twelve people in total. Seven of them were the poacher gang he had encountered that very afternoon!
He saw that five of them were injured, their wounds already treated, with white bandages wrapped around them.
“Why did they come back? Right, they couldn’t bear to leave this Giant Wild Boar corpse. After all this time, they must think the white lion is long gone.”
“I’m such an idiot for staying here… But maybe this isn’t a bad thing. I’ve changed back into a human. Maybe I can use them to help me get out of this damned jungle?”
Lan Mu narrowed his eyes, thinking. The light shone on his face, making it hard to keep his eyes open.
“Boss! There’s someone here!”
“Who are you?”
Hearing the poacher’s question, Lan Mu naturally replied, “Man, I’m so unlucky! I fell from the viewing platform, almost died. Look at my clothes, they’re torn beyond wearing! I walked all day, it’s dark now, and my phone has no signal. I thought I’d never get out!”
“You guys finally came to rescue me! Fuzhou’s rescue team is really on time!”
After hearing him speak, the poachers looked at each other. They understood what he meant. He thought they were the people who had come to rescue him.
But what did you just say? Fell from the viewing platform?
A burly, thick-set man pointed a flashlight closer, and shouted at Lan Mu, “Boss, it’s him! He’s that reporter!”
“Huh?” Lan Mu was confused. What was going on? I’ve already changed into a person, and you still recognize me?
But then he realized something. The other party actually knew his profession too!
“Ah! You guys…” Lan Mu felt a chill crawl up his spine.
The burly man sneered, showing his teeth. “We what? Heh.”
“Um, nothing. You know me, huh? Did my friend send you to rescue me? Wait, no, I’m not a reporter! I’m just a waiter, that’s all.” Lan Mu pretended to speak calmly, absolutely not daring to identify who these people were.
But he was now one hundred percent sure. These poachers were the same brutes who had ambushed him seven nights ago and thrown him off the viewing platform!
“Stop pretending. Look, isn’t this your ID? Chenguang Newspaper, city editor, beat reporter Lan Mu. Heh, what a long title… You’re the one I personally threw down!” The burly man directly pulled out Lan Mu’s work ID and threw it in his face.
Lan Mu’s face turned ashen. He stayed silent, forcing himself to calm down, and bent over to pick up his ID.
“Damn it, you’re still not dead? You’re really tough!” The burly man kicked Lan Mu in the stomach. The great force made him stagger backward, almost falling.
Kicked in the stomach, Lan Mu steadied himself. Enduring the intense pain, he said coldly, “You guys have absolutely no respect for the law…”
“I just asked the viewing platform staff about poaching, and you wanted to kill me? How dare you treat human life so cheaply?”
The burly man slapped Lan Mu across the face, making a crisp sound. With foul-smelling breath, he said, “Human life?”
“Which of us brothers here doesn’t have a few lives on our hands? We escaped back from Lingnan, finally found this good place. No forest patrol police, lax management. Although there aren’t many valuable wild animals, it’ll do. And you, kid, had to ruin our business?”
“Damn it, you’re pretty clever, actually suspecting right away that the forest ranger on duty was our guy. It’s only because of Xiao Tang opening the back door for us every week that we can hunt so openly in the protected area. If you, a dead reporter, messed that up, what would we eat? Drink the northwest wind?”
Lan Mu found this baffling. After thinking for a bit, he understood. The ‘Xiao Tang’ this group mentioned was probably the scenic area staff member he had questioned repeatedly seven days ago.
What the heck! Seriously? I just asked him a few more questions because his answers were vague.
His mental fortitude isn’t that weak, is he? Hasn’t he ever seen a reporter’s professional questioning before? He actually told you I suspected him… Oh heavens! So unfair!
“You… because of such a ridiculous reason… you wanted to silence me?”
The burly man impatiently raised his hunting rifle, pointing it at Lan Mu’s head, and said viciously, “Ridiculous reason? What does it matter what the reason is? The point is, we can’t let you live!”
“It’s deep into the night here, quiet and undisturbed. Perfect place to kill someone and leave the body. Putting a bullet in you, no one would ever know!”
“Decades from now, your bones would have rotted away, and probably no one could ever find you. Hahaha!”
After saying this, the burly man tensed his hand, about to pull the trigger. Lan Mu felt death approaching. This feeling was exactly like the one seven days ago when he fell from the cliff, lying there crippled, waiting to die.
No! Screw you and your whole family! How can you just casually decide to kill me like this?
“Wai… wait!”
Lan Mu trembled violently, grinding his teeth so hard they almost shattered.
At this moment, he wished for power like never before, power like that terrifying White-maned Lion had, strong enough that these people would be like ants to him!
“That’s right! White-maned Lion!”
“Don’t you want to know the whereabouts of the white lion?”
The burly man sneered, “What white lion, black lion?”
“Hold on! Huang Sheng, put down the gun!” The person speaking was the Old Hunter he had seen that afternoon. He hurriedly stepped forward and pushed the burly man aside.
The burly man, Huang Sheng, put down the gun, confused. “Boss, what’s wrong?”
The Old Hunter ignored him. His eyes gleaming, he asked Lan Mu, “You just said white lion? That male lion with completely snow-white fur?”
Seeing Huang Sheng lower the gun, Lan Mu, who had been tense, relaxed slightly and let out a breath. He knew he was temporarily safe.
“Yes, it was a white-maned male lion!”
The Old Hunter suddenly smiled and wanted to grab Lan Mu by the collar. But as he raised his arm, a sharp pain shot through. Both his shoulders were seriously injured, and the bandages were stained with blood.
Enduring the great pain, a fierce light and hatred flickered in the Old Hunter’s eyes.
Only then did Huang Sheng react and shout, “Boss, the white lion he’s talking about, it can’t be that one you guys ran into…”
The Old Hunter laughed coldly. “A white male lion like that, there can’t be many in the whole world…”
“Little reporter, did you see our fight with that white lion this afternoon?”
Lan Mu shook his head. “I don’t know. I only got here at night…”
“Don’t lie! Kid!” The Old Hunter cut Lan Mu off, wearing an expression like he had seen through everything.
“Just now, when the gun was pointed at your head, you gave everything away. You were definitely there, kid. You saw it with your own eyes!”
“Otherwise, you wouldn’t have said with such certainty, ‘Don’t you want to know the whereabouts of the white lion?'”
Hearing this, Huang Sheng also hit Lan Mu with the rifle butt and said fiercely, “Damn, knew you weren’t honest. Spit it out!”
Lan Mu swallowed. He silently scolded himself for being too green, and said, “Yes. I saw everything.”
“I was nearby, heard gunshots, and walked in this direction. I saw a majestic white male lion pounce on one of your guys and scratch him.”
“I hid behind a tree in the distance and watched. You couldn’t defeat the white lion, so you ran away.”
Huang Sheng angrily said, “What running away? What the hell do you know, kid!”
“Hold on.” The Old Hunter stopped Huang Sheng from hitting him again and sneered. “Running away is running away. Nothing we can’t admit.”
“Tell us, after we left, where did the white lion go?”
Lan Mu opened his mouth, looked at the group of people surrounding him with hunting rifles, and suddenly closed it.
“Hmph, kid, if you don’t talk, you die. If you do talk, there’s a sliver of a chance of living.” The Old Hunter said grimly.
Lan Mu wasn’t stupid. He knew if he talked, he would definitely die. Not talking was the only sliver of a chance.
Plus, he couldn’t actually say anything. He could only make something up. He himself was that white-maned lion. Where could he possibly find a white lion for these people?
Seeing Huang Sheng about to hit him with the rifle butt again, he said indifferently.
“I know where the white-maned lion’s den is.”