“Who?”
“Heishi?” A-Ka saw that Heishi wasn’t by his side. This was the first time that Heishi had left him since they left the City of Steel behind them, and A-Ka grew anxious as he shouted again, “Heishi!”
“Shh!” The clone shoved a hand over A-Ka’s mouth. “Don’t disturb the others. Come with me.”
“But my friend…”
“We have orders from Lieutenant Colonel Feiluo himself! If you have anything to say, then wait until you see Feiluo to tell him.”
A-Ka stopped struggling. Still dazed, he was brought in front of the wire fence. A crack opened within the fence to let him pass, and the clone nodded toward the guard. “That’s him.”
The clone brought A-Ka to a warehouse, and A-Ka couldn’t help feeling wary. The clone then said, “Soon enough, Feiluo will be waiting outside for you. Go in.”
A-Ka gritted his teeth and went into the warehouse, only to find that it had been remodeled into a bathroom. At this point, his head cleared, and he understood that they were letting him wash up. After his long journey, his body was itchy to the point of extreme discomfort and caked in mud. He could finally take a good shower.
A-Ka turned on the hot water, and with its rush, the inside of the bathroom filled with steam. As the hot water rained over his skin, A-Ka felt a sense of relief from head to toe.
In the foggy bathroom, he suddenly saw a silhouette. His voice rose hopefully. “Heishi?”
Heishi stood to one side, untied his own clothes, and began to wash up as well. Turning his head, he stared at A-Ka. His gaze made A-Ka feel extremely awkward, so he shifted to one side to let Heishi pass. A-Ka had seen Heishi’s body many times by now, so it was no longer strange to him, but this was the first time his own body was undergoing Heishi’s scrutiny.
A-Ka’s hair was drenched, and water dripped down his face as he smiled at Heishi. “It’s great to see you. Here I thought you might be gone…”
Heishi faced A-Ka, looking at him without saying anything, until he finally opened his mouth. “Thank you for looking after me on this journey.”
When A-Ka heard this, he felt it was a little out of the blue, but his smile grew. “It was you who protected me, you know.”
Then, Heishi reached out a hand and pulled A-Ka into his embrace.
A-Ka’s heart began to pound violently. In the foggy vapor of the bathroom, he pressed against Heishi’s naked, muscular chest, feeling the powerful beat of his heart inside his fiery hot abdomen.
A-Ka felt a sense of foreboding. “You…?”
Heishi only hugged him for a short period before letting him go and cupping A-Ka’s jaw with one hand. He peered into his eyes.
“Thank you.” Heishi’s eyes were set deep in his face, like black obsidian that had been hidden underneath the surface of the earth for millennia, shining with a mesmerizing brilliance. “Take care of yourself in the future.”
“Heishi?”
Heishi wiped away the water on his face, turned away to dry himself, put on his clothes, and left.
“Heishi!” A-Ka threw on his clothes to chase after him, but Heishi had already put on the clones’ uniform and walked away. In that instant, A-Ka sensed the worsening rumblings of something wrong.
“Wait!” He raced after Heishi, heading toward a crowded area where Feiluo stood.
“Quick! The ship is boarding!” Feiluo was waiting at the other end of the pier. At its front, many people were lining up. The surroundings were silent and peaceful, but blinding white lights shone on the dock. Many people turned their heads to look at Heishi and Feiluo. In the silence of the night, their discussion was very obvious to those around them.
“You’ve finished saying your goodbyes to A-Ka?” Feiluo asked.
Heishi nodded, and the tacit agreement between the two of them immediately confirmed many of A-Ka’s guesses.
“You’re staying?” A-Ka asked Heishi.
“He still has things to do, so he’s having me send you off first,” Feiluo said. “Just come here and be quiet, okay?”
“But what is he even going to do?” A-Ka said in disbelief.
Feiluo wore a complex expression but didn’t respond. Instead, he led A-Ka through the crowd.
A-Ka tried, “Because there’s only space for one of us, he willingly chose…?”
“No! It’s not like that!” Feiluo hurried to respond. “A-Ka, don’t ask any more. Just trust me, Heishi is only—”
“I saved him from the sea. How can I leave him behind now? I’ll go together with him or I won’t go!” No matter what Feiluo said, A-Ka couldn’t stop worrying.
As they were talking, Heishi finally couldn’t stay quiet. “Why do you care about me so much?”
A-Ka sighed before his temper spiked. He’d been a little moved by the look on Heishi’s face, but as soon as he heard these words, his desire to care evaporated.
“Hmph! None of your business,” A-Ka sneered. “Whatever. Up to you. If you want to stay, then stay.”
Feiluo smiled in the background as Heishi said to A-Ka, “I have a few things I need to handle. If fate wills it, we will meet again.”
A-Ka’s heart once again rose in his throat as he looked at Heishi, trying to figure out from his expression if he was lying. From afar, the ferry let out a whistle, breaking through the awkward silence hovering between the three of them.
“It’s time to get on the ship,” Feiluo said. “Come, Percy!”
Feiluo led a small boy over. In the darkness of the night, A-Ka couldn’t see the child’s face clearly; A-Ka could only tell that the boy was a little smaller than him.
“This is Percy. Percy, this is A-Ka.” Feiluo introduced them to each other first, then continued, “A-Ka, I’m leaving Percy in your care. After you reach Phoenix City, please bring him to the human orphanage.”
A-Ka felt this was a strange turn of events, but since Feiluo had entrusted Percy to him, he took the boy’s hand in his own.
“Quickly,” Feiluo said.
They boarded the ship from a small side passage. Looking out from the side, A-Ka saw that Heishi was still standing alone under the pier’s spotlights.
“Will we never see each other again?” A-Ka asked suddenly.
Heishi lifted his head, gave A-Ka a look, then turned and left.
This guy…
A-Ka’s heart was filled with all kinds of emotions, but he didn’t know what he should say. After a short silence, he pulled a chip from his shirt pocket. That was the chip that the old doctor imprisoned underground had given A-Ka when they escaped from the City of Steel. He had demanded that A-Ka bring this chip to the rebel camp and hand it to General Liber.
But the revolution had failed, and right now A-Ka had no idea who to hand this chip over to. Maybe the chip itself could serve as a reminder for Heishi, or perhaps he could decode the contents of the chip and deliver them to the right person.
“Help me pass this to Heishi,” A-Ka said. “As a memento.”
Feiluo took it and stored it securely before saying to A-Ka, “Take care of yourself.”
A-Ka tugged on Percy’s hand as they were brought to the lower levels of the ship. Inside, many humans who had escaped were all crammed together.
After Feiluo showed them a space behind a pile of boxes, he had them sit down, and with one knee on the ground, he said to Percy, “Percy, Dad is leaving.”
A-Ka’s eyes went wide with shock, and he didn’t dare to speak. Was he actually sending his own child to an orphanage?!
Percy reached out a hand and hugged Feiluo’s neck, clearly already missing him. After a long time, Feiluo let out a sigh and shifted Percy’s hands aside before telling him, “Listen to A-Ka-gege. When things are finished here, Dad will come to Phoenix City to find you.”
After A-Ka heard this, he relaxed. “Heishi will also come then, right?”
“He will,” Feiluo assured him. “May the winds be in your favor.”
Feiluo left the hold of the ship, his footsteps gradually receding into the distance.
Loaded with its cargo of human immigrants, the large ship set off, leaving the Central Mainland behind as it headed toward unknown islands over the seas.
The moon shone down on them. A-Ka was still worried about Heishi. Since the day he had appeared, he had seemed as if he was carrying some secret that was unknown to anyone.
The only sound outside the ship was the sound of waves lapping against it, and the quiet, peaceful moonlight scattered across the endless waves, shining over A-Ka and the lonely Percy. Everyone around them was already deep in slumber, and it was then that Percy gently wrapped his hand around A-Ka’s and tugged at it.
“Is Heishi your good friend?” Percy asked quietly.
“A comrade in arms. We fought guarding each other’s backs, and we escaped from the City of Steel together.”
Percy nodded. His hands reached into his own bag slung at his side.
“Let me do it,” A-Ka offered. “What are you looking for?”
A-Ka helped Percy dig through his messenger bag, pulling out a small dagger, a piece of chocolate, a portable water filtration device, and a transmitter, inside of which was a picture of Percy and Feiluo: the two of them standing shoulder to shoulder under the sunlight, against the backdrop of a desolate landscape.