Chapter 50: Leeches

For a moment, I was completely stunned.

Turning my head, I saw Old Chen carrying a small sika deer on his back, walking toward us at a leisurely pace. The deer was not large, about the size of a sheep.

When he reached the threshold of the hunter's shack, Old Chen dropped the deer to the ground, then raised his head and looked directly at us.

I handed the robe hem to the young woman.

Hurrying over to Old Chen, I asked in bewilderment, "Master Chen, what did you mean by what you just said? Are both of them still going to die?"

Old Chen did not answer. Instead, he sat down right at the doorway of the shack and stared fixedly at the two of them.

The young woman held the piece of the robe, unsure whether to accept it or not.

She swallowed hard and asked, "What... what do you mean by that?"

The man chimed in defensively at that moment, "What is wrong with you people? Why are you cursing us the moment we meet?"

Old Chen glanced at them dismissively, calmly loaded gunpowder into his hunting rifle, and then aimed it straight at them. Without a trace of expression, he spoke one word at a time, "Now... both of you... take off your shirts."

Hearing this, I froze on the spot.

The two of them were also instantly paralyzed in place, seemingly unable to comprehend Old Chen's demand.

...

Seeing that neither of them made a move, Old Chen placed his index finger directly on the trigger of the hunting rifle. Staring at them coldly, he repeated, "I'll say it again. Take your... clothes off."

"What kind of person are you, trying to..." The young woman said angrily, starting to step forward to argue.

However, Old Chen raised the barrel of the rifle toward the sky and pulled the trigger. A loud, deafening bang echoed through the air.

The young woman and the man froze in place once more. Old Chen lowered the rifle, aimed it back at them, and said, "Last time... take off your clothes."

Silence.

Endless silence.

The two of them wore expressions of fury and confusion; and of course, I was just as baffled.

I simply could not fathom why Old Chen would ask these two people to take off their clothes. What kind of strange habit was this?

Yet, despite my confusion, the man looked utterly enraged and clearly had no intention of complying. But the young woman, after staring fixedly at the hunting rifle in Old Chen's hands, bit her lip.

Finally, she said, "Fine! I'll take them off."

With that, she whispered a few words to the man.

It was evident that the man was initially resistant, but after hearing what the young woman whispered, he fell into a deep and complex train of thought.

In the end, he nodded heavily.

Ten seconds later, the two of them removed their outer coats first.

Old Chen kept the rifle raised and said coldly, "Keep going!"

A minute later, the two were stripped down to their base layers. It was at this exact moment, as I looked at them, that I sensed something was terribly wrong.

There was something... on their bodies.

"Take off the last layer too!" Old Chen frowned and demanded.

The young woman shot a speechless look at both me and Old Chen, then hurriedly removed her final upper garment, leaving only her undergarments exposed.

Before either Old Chen or I could say a word, the man gasped in utter shock, "What... what is that on you?"

The young woman startled, instinctively looked down at her own body, and froze.

Then...

A piercing, shrieking scream tore through the air.

"Ah!"

Following that, the young woman collapsed straight to the ground, her hands trembling as she stared in horror at her waist, her abdomen, and her chest...

Yes!

At that very moment, clinging tightly to the young woman's bare stomach were dozens of blood-sucking leeches. Each and every one of these leeches was roughly the size of a lighter.

Seeing the terrified woman frantically reach out her hand to pull the leeches off, Old Chen said coldly, "If you want to die, go ahead and pull them!"

At those words, the woman's fingers stopped mid-air and froze.

She looked up at Old Chen and cried out desperately, "Save... save me!"

Old Chen did not pay attention to her at first. Instead, he stared at the dumbfounded man and said coldly, "You... strip too!"

By now, the man was likely terrified out of his wits. He swallowed hard, glanced at the leeches crawling all over the woman, and with trembling hands, stripped off his own base layer.

The moment I laid eyes on the man's torso, I gasped sharply.

"Hiss!"

Because the leeches crawling over this man were even more numerous and much larger than the ones on the woman...

Upon seeing the sheer mass of leeches covering the man, the young woman forgot her own terror for a moment, covering her mouth with her eyes wide and round.

"Master Chen... this..." I swallowed hard.

Hearing me speak, Old Chen gently lowered his hunting rifle.

"How can there be so many? How... how are there so many leeches, and they're so huge..." The man muttered in disbelief, staring at his own body.

Old Chen calmly spoke up, "Have you never seen leeches this large in the primeval forests of Europe?"

"This..."

The man's face turned completely pale. Old Chen narrowed his eyes, inspecting the leeches on him closely, and said, "There are simply too many of them on you. Some have already burrowed half their bodies deep into your flesh, so you... are beyond saving."

His body staggered, and his lips quivered.

At that moment, Old Chen turned to look at the young woman and continued, "You still have a chance to live! But you need to act quickly!"

"Okay..." The young woman nodded frantically, but before she could finish, the man let out a frantic, booming roar.

"No!"

"I don't want to die... Save m—"

Before he could finish his sentence, Old Chen raised his hunting rifle once again, took aim, and pulled the trigger.

Bang!

The gunshot rang out.

The man's body stiffened instantly, and then he collapsed heavily to the ground, drawing his final breath.

The young woman and I stared at the scene in utter disbelief.

I truly had not expected Old Chen to be so resolute.

After finishing the deed, he looked at me with a completely expressionless face and instructed me, "Sanqi, deep in the old forests, when you encounter someone who is beyond hope, putting them out of their misery right away is the most merciful and efficient method. Kindness and benevolence are the cheapest commodities in these deep mountains. Do not hesitate... hesitation will sometimes cost you your own life!"

I swallowed hard and nodded heavily. "Understood, Master."

...

After that, puffing on his cigarette, he looked at the dumbcuddled, shell-shocked young woman and asked indifferently, "Still want to live?"

The young woman ignored Old Chen. Instead, she stared blankly at the man's corpse and stammered, "You... you actually killed him? How could you kill him? This is... this is murder!"

Hearing her say this, to say nothing of Old Chen, even I felt she was being utterly naive.

Because I had long since understood that for hunters roaming the deep mountains, there was no simple concept of right and wrong...

These hunters, who spent half their lives dealing with fierce beasts, deep mountains, primeval forests, bizarre supernatural occurrences, and the darkest depths of human nature, believed in nothing.

The only things they truly trusted were the hunting rifles and knives in their own hands.

Everything else was just sheer nonsense.