Chapter 2

Before dawn, they were already waiting at the door to pick them up. Without waiting for Aunt Wangmu to call and wake them up, they saw the door upstairs open. The man called Xiao Ma stuck his head out into the corridor and grinned widely, calling out, "Auntie, tell the driver to wait a moment. We’ll be down right after we freshen up."

Aunt Wangmu kept saying okay and told them that if they didn’t want porridge, they could take a few buns from her to eat on the road.

In the chilly, thin air of the highland dawn, Aunt Wangmu told Gongbu and the others that she’d be out soon and handed Gongbu a cigarette, teasing, “Is this what rich people are like? They pay gladly and don’t even like to get out of bed?”

Gongbu smirked shrewdly, “That’s why I chose this job.”

Just then, the four of them came out. Aunt Wangmu hurriedly handed over the steaming buns.

This time, Old Gu was carrying the girl, who still looked half asleep, mumbling something into his ear. Aunt Wangmu laughed, “That must be your wife, right? If she’s not feeling well, just go to Pianma and come back quick. There’s nothing to see—just some Burmese people and a piece of rock.”

Gu Beikun’s expression froze for a moment. He glanced down at Nana, who was actually unconscious, leaning on his neck. Their body heat brought a slight warmth to the cool dawn, inadvertently reminding him of some good times from the past.

He smiled slightly, “Yes, she’s my wife. I’ll take her home soon.”

Aunt Wangmu smiled, but Ma Zai and A Jie looked at Gu Beikun uneasily.

They were indeed going home, but it was the other side of the national border. Gu Beikun tacitly accepted Nana as his wife, but the woman in his arms would never admit it. If Old Gu thought they once had good times, for Nana, it had probably been a nightmare from beginning to end.

A Jie, being a woman and having witnessed their complicated entanglement from the start, looked away with some pity.

It was early summer, but the Yunnan region was not hot. After a bumpy day, the vehicle finally arrived at Fengxue Yakou, a mountain pass at 3,153 meters elevation.

Approaching evening, fog rose on the mountain, reducing visibility. The driver, however, increased the speed. Because they were on mountain roads and had spent the entire day in the car, no one had closed their eyes despite the dizzying ride. The driver was used to this, as these passengers weren’t like those who would fall asleep and slump around once on board.

Despite the bad weather, the driver sped up. A Jie complained, “Brother, slow down.”

Gongbu, gripping the steering wheel as he swerved left and right, smiled, “The weather’s bad and it gets dark fast. Driving slower is more dangerous. Don’t be afraid.”

The winding road made A Jie feel like vomiting. She envied Nana, who knew nothing. But since Nana’s “medicine” was guarded at gunpoint, she dared not touch it. Instead, she tore open the preserved plum Aunt Wangmu bought yesterday, popped one into her mouth, and suppressed the dizzy nausea.

At half past six, the car reached Pianma Town after twelve hours. Descending from the mountain, the sun shone brightly.

The car passed the town government office and the National Border Primary School, stopping outside a guesthouse. Gu Beikun let Ma Zai and the driver handle the lodging while he glanced briefly at the nearby Pianma border crossing, then quickly looked away. He feigned interest scanning the winding mountain road down to the valley below, where some reclaimed farmland and small houses lay bathed in sunset light, picturesque and poetic.

Gongbu was a regular here and had reserved rooms. After agreeing with Gu Beikun on the return time, he went off to visit acquaintances.

Old Gu and his group found a small restaurant for dinner and went to bed early.

At two in the morning, two adjacent windows on the guesthouse’s first floor opened. Because the building clung to a steep slope by the valley, no one could climb up, and with the local’s simple customs, no burglar bars were on the windows.

Two shadows, one large and one small, first climbed onto the edge of the dirt slope by the window, then let go and slid nimbly down the steep incline, making only faint “scratching” sounds that didn’t draw more attention than the night wind.

Ma Zai and A Jie waited at the base of the two-story-high slope. Gu Beikun, carrying the person on his back, moved awkwardly but was steadied by those below, barely stumbling.

Ma Zai gestured for Gu Beikun to let him carry the person, but Gu Beikun refused and said to hurry.

The three moved swiftly and lightly across the valley, their starry, moonlit journey invisible but to the night.

The Pianma border stretches laterally along the Gaoligong Mountain ridge, with a border defense line marked by watchtowers, each light representing a post. This was routine for them—they made a living along this border, familiar with checkpoints like Mu Jie, Laza, Qingshuihe, and Ganbaidi.

Even Pianma was no stranger to them. The three reached the mountain foot and found a local path, scaling the nearly vertical slope with remarkable agility.

In less than half an hour, they crested the ridge and reached the outer downhill trail. This narrow path, suspended on a cliff, was carved by locals years ago when building a plank bridge. Looking up slightly, about five meters high on the rock face, a faint yellow light from the outermost watchtower could be seen.

The Nu River roared turbulently below, its relentless current unchanged for millennia, a force capable of swallowing all. A Jie felt along the rock wall, cautiously probing ahead with her toes. Her sensitive soles could almost feel the trembling stones stirred by the rushing water.

Compared to the Chinese side, Burmese control was much looser. Even if someone was caught illegally crossing at night, it rarely caused major trouble. Locals knew that desperate fugitives were often big money makers.

When A Jie and Ma Zai saw the Burmese lights drawing near, they dared signal quietly that all was safe—unaware that Gu Beikun, stubbornly carrying the person and insisting on bringing up the rear, had already disappeared.

The Nu River night was pitch black, the roaring current deafening. No starlight could penetrate this dark, cavernous mountain gorge.

For Gu Beikun, carrying Nana across was not hard. Since he was fifteen, he had traveled back and forth across the China-Myanmar border countless times. His skills were top-notch, or he wouldn’t have reached his current position. But today, he had a person on his back who never quite obeyed.

He watched A Jie and Ma Zai’s figures fade behind him, the escape ahead and a bottomless abyss behind. Suddenly, he stopped.

After a long moment, he tilted his head slightly and whispered into the ear of the person on his back with a tired breath, "Nana, I warned you—don’t be stubborn with me."

Ina Nana hadn’t found a chance to move or escape on the plane or train. In such confined space, any thought of running was foolish. Though she seemed docile, Gu Beikun never relaxed his vigilance. He didn’t even involve A Jie—he stayed close to Nana, sharing meals and sleeping in the same space.

Earlier, when Nana tried to pry open the bathroom window at the guesthouse, he caught her red-handed, standing guard outside.

She recalled that night when she fled with the documents. Gu Beikun had given her that chilling look that froze her from head to toe before he ruined her life with a single dose of heroin.

After two months of hellish detox in the bathroom, Gu Beikun pinned her in the bathtub and gave her another injection.

He didn’t want her destroyed, but for a woman who refused to obey, he didn’t hesitate to use addiction and forced withdrawal as means of torment and control.

As long as he held the heroin, Nana would never escape. No one had ever successfully quit this powder worth more than gold on the black market.

Worried Nana’s addiction would flare on the remaining journey and reveal itself before others, he gave her tranquilizers for two days straight. Because she was unconscious much of the time and barely eating or drinking, her lips were cracked and dry.

Her waist was tightly bound to Gu Beikun’s, her whole body lying prone on his back, silent throughout the trek.

When Gu Beikun finally found a stable spot to rest against the rock face, he noticed a sharp object pressing against his back—it was the Swiss Army knife clipped to his waistband, not enough to kill but enough to hurt.

In this cramped space, he couldn’t maneuver or even turn to restrain the feeble woman clinging to him.

After a long while, when his threat had no effect and Nana still didn’t release him, Gu Beikun chuckled softly. The sound was quickly carried away by the wind, but Nana hung on his back, clearly hearing every word: "Nana, this little thing won’t kill me. When we get to northern Myanmar, I’ll give you a chance—I’ll strip naked, no weapons for defense, just you and me. Let’s see who kills whom!"

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