When Bright Moon Encounter the Dark Clouds

————Wu Yu————

I parked the car at the foot of a remote hill where the flock of birds I had been following disappeared to. The area was very accessible and not too far away from the city, yet it was uninhabited and without any light; it was a perfect place for a criminal to hide.

Walking along the trail hikers created, I swiftly got on my way up the hill, feeling glad that Tan Jiao had not come along. After all, it would have been very difficult for her with all the overgrown thistles with thorns and possibly snakes, poisonous insects, or aggressive ants hidden in the darkness.

I hated seeing her suffer.

After about half an hour of climbing, around halfway up the hill, I saw a faint glimmer of light coming from the forest ahead, prompting me to abandon the trail for the steep slope at the side.

I arrived behind a huge boulder and peeked around the corner to find an old, rundown wooden shack with a kerosene lamp hanging around the door. Inside the shack were several children curled up in the corner, shivering badly. That man was also there, sitting on a worn cane chair, chin in hand while gazing at the children intently like he was in a trance.

Although there were around ten meters between us, I could recognize those four children that had gone missing. Yet, there was something strange about the situation upon closer inspection. While three of the children looked lean and haggard with shabby clothes on, the six-year-old boy named Zhu Zhihan was different. He had clean clothes and was munching away at a piece of bread in one hand, milk in the other. He was even sitting on a chair. The other children looked at the six-year-old boy with envy. The child that the man was looking intently at was none other than Zhu Zhihan.

Hundreds of those birds stopped around the shack like a dense, black mass guarding it, quietly and obediently waiting there.

After finishing the bread in his hand, the chubby boy Zhu Zhihan looked toward the man timidly and said, “Mister, I want to have another piece of bread.” The other children also pleaded when they heard this, “Mister, we want some food too!” “Mister, please give me one!” “Mister, why can he have food but not us?”

The man grinned before taking out a piece of bread from his pocket. He said with a stutter, “Shut...shut it! You… you boys… are not comparable to him.” After receiving the bread from the man, Zhu Zhihan looked briefly toward the other boys before devouring it. The other boys did not dare to say anything, only letting out soft whimpers.

I lowered my head slowly, intending to walk back from where I came from without alerting them. However, a bird suddenly swooped by above me, causing my heart to drop as a bad feeling filled my heart. Sure enough, that bird let out a piercing call while flying toward the shack, alerting the man. He snapped his head toward my direction before letting out an eerie grin that seemed to contain a mix of joy and sadness. The birds were startled as they all flapped their wings in a flurry of motion, creating a sound like a gust of wind blowing by a forest. Then the man let out a whistle, and the birds formed a cyclone of darkness that came after me!

There was nowhere for me to hide on this steep slope, and there was no time for me to leap off safely. As such, I immediately snapped a somewhat thick branch to use as a weapon, taking down several of the birds as I swung at them. Unfortunately, there were far too many of them, and they showered me with their attacks.

As I saw their sharp beaks and yellowish-brown vicious eyes, I abruptly understood that they were trying to take out my eyes. Immediately, I raised my arm to cover my eyes, exposing my neck and my entire arm to their merciless attacks, leaving me with countless bloody cuts.

At that moment, I felt someone coming from behind me. It was that man, and he was trying to attack me while standing on that huge boulder.

Having the low ground, I was at a complete disadvantage. I had the vicious birds trying to take my eyes out in front and that strange man behind.

My actions now would decide whether I won or lost and whether I lived or died.

On the spur of the moment, I freed both my arms before springing toward the man, grabbing his legs to bring him down with me. The man looked shocked and dropped the stick he was holding as fell down with me while the birds came at us from all directions.

Both of us tumbled down the steep slope before I heard a thud behind my head, accompanied by sharp pain, knocking me out completely.