As I watched the mother civet cat finish eating her fill, a sense of accomplishment bloomed in my chest, like I’d just closed a major deal. Full of swagger, I turned to Xiao Shu and said, "Did we just save several little lives?"

Xiao Shu smiled at me. "I didn't expect the Water of the Sea of the Dead to save her. I guess she should be out of immediate danger."

Truthfully, I hadn't thought of using the Water of the Sea of the Dead for a rescue either. It was only when Xiao Shu said it that I remembered that stuff could save people, so it should be able to save a cat too. The only reason I gave it water earlier was pure sympathy—I just thought eating too much bread makes your mouth dry, and some water would make the experience more perfect.

Everything we could do was done; the rest was up to fate. I slung my pack back onto my shoulders and waved goodbye to the civet cat that had brought us here. "Brother Cat, this is as far as we can help. The rest is up to you."

The civet cat seemed to understand my words, letting out two soft meows toward me with deep affection. Xiao Shu and I stood up to signal we were heading back, and it didn't try to stop us again. Only then did we finally breathe a sigh of relief and confidently start walking toward the Sea of the Dead.

Having chased the civet cat for half a day, I hadn't paid much attention to the surrounding scenery. Now, heading back, I realized everything was unfamiliar; I couldn't tell north from south. Finding the way we came became quite a problem.

"Do you know which way to go back?" I nudged Xiao Shu with my elbow as I asked. Nudging each other had become second nature for us—when we weren't making eye contact, our elbows were the most convenient tools. However, this gesture only worked for a companion right beside you. Imagine if the other person was ten yards away—how long would your elbow need to stretch to make contact?

"It should be that way," Xiao Shu pointed in the direction opposite the cat's den, then continued, "I remember the path we took was straight, no winding around. If I’m not mistaken, heading directly away from the cat's den is the right way."

"Hah... hurry up, if you don't move faster, I'll skin you alive..."

"Waaaaah, I want to go home..."

Just as Xiao Shu and I were debating our route back to the Sea of the Dead, two children's voices, one high and one low, drifted from the south of the plain—one full of spirit, the other mournful.

I instinctively turned my head toward the sound and saw, not far off, two colossal monkeys running at ground-skimming speed, each carrying a small child on its back. The child in the lead was swaggering, whipping the large monkey beneath him mercilessly. The child behind was a bit more timid, hunched over on the monkey's back; perhaps he was the one crying to go home.

"Xing'er, A'Li..." I cried out involuntarily. Though they were distant and indistinct, I was certain the two children riding the monkeys were Xing'er and A'Li, whom Xiao Shu and I had traveled a thousand miles to rescue. Driven by instinct, I bolted toward them, heedless of everything else.

The two monkeys ran faster than horses. Before I had covered two hundred meters, they—people and beasts combined—had vanished into the depths of the horizon. All I was left with was heavy breathing and a face covered in dust.

I turned to look at Xiao Shu, who was still standing where he was. As I trudged back, step by labored step, he said with a hint of regret, "We couldn't catch them. Those monkeys run faster than rabbits."

"Do you think what we just saw were Xing'er and A'Li?" I bent over, bracing my hands on my thighs, looking down at the grass with infinite disappointment.

"Do you want the truth or a lie?" Xiao Shu asked with perfect seriousness.

"The truth, of course."

"I don't know. They were too far away. I haven't heard Xing'er talk much before, so I can't say if that shout just now was his voice," Xiao Shu mused quietly.

"If it really was him, showing off while riding on a monkey's back, what do you make of that?" I suddenly thought of a sharp question. Given what I'd just seen, the child with the whip seemed more inclined to bully the monkey than be held hostage by it. Were Xing'er and A'Li truly kidnapped by the monkeys?