“Brother, we have to stop here. The truck can’t get into the city in the daytime.” The long-face man looks at me in a sincere voice, “Take care!”

After a pause, he lowers his voice: “You can rest assured that when we are back, we will not say we have seen you.”

I smile. This guy is not bad. He’s pretty smart. But I’m not worried at all. He says or not, it won’t be any matter to me, and I’m not going to stay in HaiCity for a long time.

I take out my wallet and give them the other half of the money. After thinking about it, I hand them two more notes and say: “Take more money, not to cause any further trouble. Come outside, wallet is the man’s courage, you can not have no money.”

The long-face man declines for a moment and take it finally. Then they get on the truck. The fat man waves to me in the truck, then drives away.

Dorra and I are standing on a small street in the suburbs of HaiCity. There are no pedestrians on the way. Her face is tired and leaning close to me with a bag in her hand. She looks weak and helpless.

I take her searching on the street. My leg and knee are injuried, so I’m limping a little when I’m walking. I can only bite my teeth and hold on. Early in the morning, the temperature is the lowest of the day. I’m dragging such a girl on the street and finally find a small hotel.

This small hotel, that is, like a regular hotel, has a lobby with seven or eight clocks hanging behind the counter, including Beijing time, London time, New York time and Manila time, all marked clearly. But most of the clocks have stopped, and only half of them are still running at most. The waiter is dressing up in uniform, which is all dirty. The room is the same standard room as the star hotel, but the sheets don’t change for you every day, and there’s no room service. Although there’s a TV in the room, but there is absolutely no cable TV. There is only soap in the toilet without the bath fluid. Hot water for bathing is supplied regularly time. Out of that time, there’s only cold water.

There’s also a water dispenser in the room, but the bucket doesn’t know how long time hasn’t been changed. If you dare to drink the water in it, people with poor body resistance will have diarrhea for sure!

The floor was covered, but it is greasy. Don’t know how many days it hasn’t been washed. The walls are also pasted the wallpaper, but some of the wallpare has fallen off.

And, there’s only one room available.

The advantage of this kind of shabby hotel is that its management is lax. The waiter who is woken up by me from his sleep does not even glance at the registration form I’ve filled out. He just takes it and throws it directly into the drawer. Then he takes a bunch of keys and leads us into the room.

“Bath water is supplied from six to nine every night.” Then he goes back to sleep.

Looking at the dirty room, I throw my bag at the bedside, point to one of the beds and say to Dorra: “Just take some sleep.”

The girl gives me a timid look and is opening her mouth as if want to say something, but she dares not to.

I smile and say: “Why? Do you think it’s inconvenient to stay in a room with me?”

“No…” She is biting her lip, “Chen Yang… I’m sorry!” Her voice is soft and weak, somewhat imploring.

I sigh: “Don’t think too much. Just take some sleep. We need to be energetic.”

It’s not that I’m stingy or unwilling to forgive her, but that such a big thing has happened. I’m really in a bad mood, very bad! Obviously, I’m not in the mood to coax this girl. I have too many things in my mind.

She’s biting her lip and seeming to want to cry, but dares not. She’s just sitting silently on the bed. Then she’s pulling over the quilt, taking off her coat and lying down, wrapping herself with the quilt.

I debug for a while, the air conditioner is working, can make the heat, but the noise is very big. There is no idea about it. This air conditioner is the brand that existed more than ten years ago. After that, the manufacturer went bankrupt and did not produce it anymore. Looking at this antique that makes as much noise as a tractor, I give a bitter laugh and say to Dorra: “Hold it up, it’s cold at night, you’ll get frostbite without air conditioning, and if you feel noisy, put a tissue in your ears.”

She utters an “Umm” without saying anything.

I sit down and begin to clean up the wounds. Bumping on the truck, and was at outsider, I just took care of it in a hurry. I know that when in outside, the healthy is one of the most important things. If the wounds are not handled properly, once I fall down, the girl will die with me too for sure.

My fingers are already swollen out of shape, and it’s hard to bend my thumbs and index fingers, especially where the nails are. The nail caps are already purple.

I find a pair of scissors and carefully cutting off the broken nails. When I lift my fingernails, I’m so painful that I’m inhaling. As soon as the scissors is cutting, the congestions are coming out and it takes two three paper towels to stop it.

Dorra is lying silently from the bed, looking at me carefully and saying: “I… Let me do it for you.”

Looking at the girl’s pleading eyes, my heart is softening, holding the medicine and gauze in my hand: “Do you know how to do it?”

“Yes.” She’s immediately running down from the bed, coming to me and squating down. She raises my leg and checking the bloody wound on my knee. All of a sudden, her eyes are red, and she turns sideways to wipe the corners of her eyes. She takes the medicine from my hand and carefully applies it to the wound. Then she cuts off the gauze and wraps it up for me layer by layer.

Her movements are so astringent that hurts me several times, but I don’t say anything. After all this, she looks up at me and says: “Do you want to drink water? I’ll pour you a glass of.”

I look at the water dispenser with a thick layer of ash. The liquid in the bucket is really suspicious. I grin bitterly: “No. You cannot drink that water too. It must be out of date.” She’s in tears, then suddenly burying her head into my legs and crying in a low voice, “Chen Yang… I’m so scared. I’m really so scared.”

I look at her quietly for a while, then put my hand on her back, gently pat her twice, and say lightly: “Don’t be afraid. You’re safe now. I’ll protect you.”

“I’m so sorry!” She’s crying and sobbing. Her face is full of the tears. Her eyes are filled with regrets, “It was all my faults. I’ve done you such a disservice.”

When the little girl finishes saying, she raises her hand to slap herself. I squeeze her wrist and say lightly: “I have tried all my best to protect you. Do you want to hurt yourself in front of me?”

I stare into her eyes and say slowly: “If you are really feeling sorry, you should live well and be responsible for yourself. You are eighteen years old, not a child. Before you do anything in the future, you should think about it with your brain. Do you understand?”

She’s nodding desperately and wiping her tears at the same time.

I sigh and relax my volice: “OK! Just go to bed and keep your spirits up.”

“We… Where are we going?” She’s blinking at me like a helpless chicken.

“Let’s talk about it tomorrow. I haven’t thought about it yet.” I meditate for a moment and do not elaborate with her.

I can at least guarantee that the people who are chasing us now don’t know we’re here. But I don’t know how long it will last. Maybe they will find here soon. They can’t find me in the original place and will certainly search the surrounding cities anyway.

At least last night at the railway station, they must have known that I was ready to flee. So according to normal speculation, on the one hand, they will continue to block and search at the local station and wharf; on the other hand, if there is no news, they will search in the surrounding cities.

I choose to come to HaiCity for a reason. This is an international metropolis, with a large number of migrants, and it’s convenient to hide. Looking for someone is like looking for a needle in a haystack!

I’m a little sleepless, the whole person is very alert, always feeling there’s something outside. Blurr to dawn, I feel some soreness in my neck and swelling in my fingers. I move a little and they don’t hurt so much when I bend them. But after sleeping, my knees hurt even more. I know it’s a normal reaction, so just get up.

This room is on the second floor, next to another building. Even if the windows are open in broad daylight, the sun can’t shine in at all. Dorra is still sleeping. The girl is tired both physically and mentally. She’s even snoring slightly in her sleep, seems to be very tired.

The antique air conditioner is still roaring. I sigh, wear my coat and go out.

Out of the hotel’s door, I feel the air is somewhat cold, and the weather is not very good today. It’s cloudy, and the sky is very grey, as if it is going to rain. I tighten my clothes, lower my head, walk a few steps and find several breakfast stalls at a small road junction. I buy two snacks and a bag of soy milk back.

I walk with my head down along the corner, and look carefully to the nearby before I enter the hotel.

When I return to the room, Dorra hasn’t awake yet. The girl is sleeping a bit unsteady. The quilt is wrapped tightly around her. She is curled up like shrimp, but she’s half across the bed and the pillow has fallen to the ground.

I ignore her, just go into the bathroom, close the door, take out my mobile phone and dial a number.

This number was left after Jim came to find me last time.

He left an envelope with Dorra’s information, money, and this phone number. But he said, don’t call if it’s not necessary, and this number can only be called during the daytime on weekdays, and don’t call at other times. I tried to make a phone call last night, and it turned out that it could not be connected.

I thought it was strange at that time. Why did they make it so mysterious? But Juan and Jim are surreptitious in movements. I can’t find them at all. Their phone numbers had changed long ago, and if Jm hadn’t come to me last time, I would have lost touch with them.

I think about it and dial this number.

It rings three times and gets through.

“Hello!” It’s a man’s voice, very thick and deep.

“Hello.” I’m asking tentatively, “Jim asked me to make this call.”