Eternal Night

“Yu-ge.”

“Yu-ge.”

“Yu-ge.”

After the successive, non-stop calls came Yu Feichen’s turn of his head.
He turned over to look at Bai Song.
Bai Song not only did not have the enlightenment he hoped for, but his face was also flooded with bewilderment and puzzlement instead.

“Yu-ge.” Bai Song’s expression was anguished.
“I don’t understand, please explain further.”

Yu Feichen considered it for a while.

“He moved quite a few times,” he said.
“But if you listen carefully, he only moved two corpses.”

“Two?” Bai Song was astonished.
“Is this something that humans can tell?”

The question he asked wasn’t the question that Yu Feichen hoped he would.

He thought that Bai Song’s question would have a little more value, such as “Anfield lied?” or suchlike.

This voided the previous coaching process that he had planned when thinking just now, and he could only start afresh.

Since Bai Song couldn’t even tell that it was two corpses, he naturally wouldn’t be able to tell the weight of the corpses, much less deduce who were the people being moved.

He said, “You, and him.”

‘You’, naturally, referred to Bai Song.
When saying ‘him’, Yu Feichen looked towards the brawny blonde.
Last night, it was only those two corpses in the cell.

“Me, and Grange?” Bai Song’s eyes widened.
“Didn’t he say that we all died? Anfield even said that the four of us were stacked together—he didn’t move you and Waddams?”

The moment that these words were spoken, Yu Feichen’s newly planned coaching process was voided again.

Another minute more, Bai Song belatedly said, “So, Captain Anfield… wasn’t telling the truth?”

Finally returning to the correct trajectory, Yu Feichen imperceptibly let out a breath of relief.

Bai Song looked at Yu Feichen, then cautiously glanced at the big-nosed man.
At this time, the big-nosed man was also gazing at them from afar with a slightly probing look.

Suddenly enlighted, a chain of questions shot out rapid-fire from him, “You and he didn’t die in the cell? Why did the senior officer say that we all died then? Was he trying to scare you?”

Yu Feichen pressed on Bai Song’s shoulder, hinting for him to shut his mouth.

“The escape failed.
Everyone died in the cell.
Only big-nosed and I weren’t there.” His voice was low.
“I was the mastermind behind the escape; I wouldn’t receive the same treatment as the rest of you.”

He didn’t finish his words.
But on this last step, Bai Song didn’t have any reason not to hear the words that were left unspoken.

Everyone was executed; only two weren’t there.
The mastermind of the escape received special punishment, possibly enduring various tortures, possibly shot in the field, or also possibly already with his ashes scattered to the wind.
Or, it was also possible that he was far stronger than others and had survived.

Then, what of the big-nosed man?

Why didn’t the big-nosed man, who was completely ordinary and played no special role, die in the cell?

There was only one answer to this—he was the snitch.
He had cowed for a long time under the might of the Black Badge Army.
In the end, due to his fear of death, he survived by betraying everyone.

And this was something that Anfield couldn’t disclose.

If the big-nosed man had long harboured thoughts of snitching, once Anfield revealed the truth in the cell, he would immediately realise that his life had been spared because he had snitched.

In that way, his thoughts of snitching would only grow exponentially, resulting in unimaginable consequences.

“Why? I can’t figure it out.” Bai Song said.

“I also have areas I can’t figure out.” Yu Feichen said, gazing into the lead-grey horizon in the far yonder.

“Whoa, you have things that you can’t figure out as well?” Bai Song said.

Recalling everything that happened last night, Yu Feichen’s eyebrows subtly creased.

At around 4:58 a.m.
today, he had removed the ribbon that blindfolded his eyes and even passed it back to Anfield.

It meant: I’m going to look.

And Anfield retrieved the ribbon without a word, which meant: Look, then.

So he did look.

Sure enough, only Bai Song’s and the brawny blonde’s corpses were in the cell.
His and the big-nosed man’s were absent.

In that case, why had Anfield caught his wrist when he reached out to feel towards the gate, not allowing him to touch the corpses?

Taking a step back, since they only had to fend against the big-nosed man, why had Anfield said that all of them had died?

It was weird, very weird.
He couldn’t figure out the logic.

Right then, Bai Song’s expression suddenly turned nervous.

“Doesn’t that mean that Senior Officer Anfield could tell that big-nosed snitched?!” He stammered.
“Th-then, that senior officer would definitely be able to guess that… you’re going to lead our escape.”

A chilly gale howled, curling a corner of the leaden grey sky.

Yu Feichen suddenly gave a start.

Like sparks flying from steel and flint, he suddenly understood!

Anfield had first seen this cell, in which Bai Song and the brawny blonde were dead, but was without the bodies of Yu Feichen and the big-nosed man.

When he looked over at the opposite cells, everyone was dead.
So, piecing together their purposeful scouting of the concentration camp, he could immediately arrive at a correct conclusion: Yu Feichen had planned the escape, the big-nosed man had snitched, the escape had failed, and everyone was executed.

But before this, the senior officer had already told the chief warden that they were all being brought to chop wood tomorrow.

In other words, Anfield had his own plans for where to bring the people of the concentration camp.

Anfield, who already had a plan thought out, found that there was another person also with his own plan.
Further, their plans didn’t mesh together, possibly even counteracting each other.

What Anfield must have felt at that time was probably similar to how Yu Feichen felt when suddenly informed in the morning that they were to go lumbering.

So next to him last night was a senior officer who was possibly in a poor mood because his plans had been disrupted.
That was the key.

So those words—’You are all dead’—also not allowing him to touch the corpses, weren’t only to dissuade the big-nosed man from snitching, but also to give him a hard knock to his head, telling him not to attempt vainly to escape.

Or perhaps there weren’t that many twists and turns to it.
It was obvious that the senior officer had long held a position of power where no one dared to disobey him and was used to everything going according to plan.
He was probably a bit annoyed at the appearance of factors beyond his control.

Yu Feichen continued to step into the other’s shoes.
If Anfield had been beside him when the chief warden had announced their lumbering, he would surely have been unable to resist making a few snide remarks to the senior officer too.

So, everything had its own reason.

They had both tripped the other and got even.

Yu Feichen suddenly felt much better.　

The reason why he couldn’t figure it out before was also instantly clear to him.
Subconsciously, he hadn’t even considered Anfield’s subjective emotions.

Why was that?

“Yu-ge, Yu-ge!” Bai Song’s hand was waving before his eyes.
“You’re spacing out.”

Yu Feichen’s thoughts pulled back to reality.
The northern wind blew a falling leaf that scraped past his hair.

He did get distracted.

Translated on ninetysevenkoi.wordpress

***

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At noon, the truck for carrying timber brought back lunch for the prisoners.
The soldiers and foremen finally came out from the driving compartment, bringing their bread, bacon, and abundant wine to make a fine spread on the grass.
Situated a distance from the concentration camp, the northern mountains gave them more freedom than at the brick kiln due to the lack of supervision from above.

The afternoon wasn’t as bitingly cold as the morning.
The foremen’s interest in waving their whips around was reignited, and with it came an unceasing tide of screams that got the three soldiers to laugh.
Two Koroshans drug a beech log that had been vertically split in half on a rope, and a drunken soldier jumped onto its cross-section, standing with his arms crossed like a coachman on an imperial horse, bellowing at them to hurry up.

But his weight put a tremendous burden on the wood haulers, additionally with the unevenness of the mountain road, after barely a few steps, he was upended and fell off.

Seeing this, the two other soldiers laughed raucously.
He climbed up from the ground, laughing and cursing as he raised his gun, shooting down one of the two wood haulers.

The Koroshans gave a start at the echo of the gunshot, and then they silently lowered their heads and went on with their work.

Yu Feichen passed through a thicket.

“Where are you going?” Bai Song whispered.

“Don’t follow me,” Yu Feichen said.

With his axe, he slowly weaved through the crowd and walked to the back of a truck parked on the fringe of the lumber camp.
There were two people hard at work chopping stumps, producing a loud noise.
Ten minutes later, the big-nosed man, as their inspector, dutifully wandered over to the vicinity.
All was as it should be.

This was a hidden nook.
Only a corner of it could be seen from the centre of the lumber camp.
The soldiers were tipsy with drink and playing games amongst themselves in the middle.
No one was worried that any prisoner would make a break for it, because the lumber camp had been cordoned off with an electric fence, on which was a sign that read ‘Minefield Area’.

However, Yu Feichen’s objective for coming over wasn’t to escape through the minefield.
He wandered erratically in this nook, sometimes concentrating on chopping firewood behind the truck, sometimes helping his fellow wood haulers lift the heavy beechwood onto the cargo bed of the truck.

“Why are you walking around?” A Koroshan finally asked him.

Yu Feichen motioned for him to stay silent.

He carried a bundle of firewood from the back of the truck to the doorway of the truck tent.

—one of the soldiers, drinking and making merry in the middle of the grassy area, suddenly lifted his head to look at him.

Yu Feichen also happened to be looking right over that way just then.
They stared at each other for a full three seconds.

Three seconds later, he averted his gaze and got into the back of the truck, placing that bundle of firewood inside.

When he came back out from the cargo bed, out of his peripheral vision, he saw that that soldier had already picked up a beer bottle, swaggering over towards this way.

Yu Feichen’s expression didn’t change.
He turned over to go back behind the truck, sitting on a high stump, continuing to chop firewood, doing work assigned to him by that Captain Anfield.

People had limited attention spans, especially when surrounded by the activities of many people in a lumber camp.
At this time, only those who made peculiar actions or noises would be given special attention.

But Yu Feichen didn’t consider himself to be someone who played to the gallery.

Snakes could only see moving objects.
In actuality, humans also followed a similar principle.
If something flickered in and out of one’s vision, it would be hard to go unnoticed.

His frequent pacing back and around the sides of the truck was to attract this type of attention.

The one who he was luring over—

Heavy footsteps crunched on the fallen leaves and twigs.
The person walking over had a big build, and his breathing, coming out in pants, was like a boorish beast.

—was a man that Yu Feichen was familiar with.

It was the very man that he had sparred nine rounds with at the brick kiln, the stocky soldier ultimately knocked down to the ground by him.
Yu Feichen still recalled the vicious look in his eyes when he got back up that day, the gaze directed to him clearly stating—Mark my words, sooner or later, I’ll get you killed.

Except, not only would he appear overly enraged from shame, it would have been a dishonour to draw a gun on the man who had just defeated him.
The stocky soldier didn’t give Yu Feichen a hard time, even calling him “good boy” through clenched teeth.
He wasn’t on duty at the brick kiln the next day because he was still recovering from his injuries.
Yu Feichen was clear of his strength; those injuries would force him to bed rest for a day.

By now, the stocky soldier had recuperated.
In that case, it was only a matter of time that he would get back at him.
Yu Feichen had already felt his gaze following him in the morning from the truck window.
So, after the soldiers got out of the truck, he went to the fringe of the lumber camp, finding a way to attract that stocky soldier’s attention, as well as a suitable place for their inevitable confrontation.

The footsteps neared.
He could hear the gun crisply knocking against the stocky soldier’s belt buckle.

To ease communication, he had numbered several of the soldiers he often encountered.
This stocky soldier was no.
1, the first to bear the brunt.

The number one didn’t refer to the bulk of his build, but that he was the only one, among these soldiers, who had professional military training.
From the way he stood, the way he held the gun, to the way he fought, all of it irrevocably proved this point.
He held a pistol rather than a long, imposing rifle like the other soldiers, because this wasn’t a battlefield.
Rifles were far less adaptable than pistols.
His uniform bulged slightly at his shoulders, a sign that he was wearing a bulletproof vest.
There wasn’t any need to wear an item that would only bring discomfort in a concentration camp.
The only explanation for wearing it was habit.

Then, there were those two beastly eyes; the bloodthirst spoke of experience with real combat, not something that could be gained just from torturing a few defenceless prisoners.

This was also the primary reason that Yu Feichen had picked a fight with him.
When finding an opponent, he only chose the strongest.

The dazzling sharp blade cleaved the second last birch log when no.
1’s footsteps stopped beside him.
The muddy sound of his breathing also came just inches away.

Yu Feichen didn’t pay him mind.

He didn’t turn his head, nor did he even turn his eyeballs.
He merely brought the last birch log before him, raising his axe and splitting it in half.

“Good boy.” The coarse voice spoke again, seething with rage.

Yu Feichen’s motive was simple.
He had always carried things through.
Since he was chopping firewood, he had to finish the last one.
But when he heard that wrathful ‘good boy’, he confirmed that he had inadvertently grown in his ability to anger others.

He picked up the two halves of firewood, placing it right on top of the pile, where it formed a perfect equilateral triangle.
Then, in an even tone, he spoke.
“Good afternoon, Sergeant.”