America 1881: Legend of the West

The lieutenant stared at Chen Jianqiu, who was about to lie down in the chair in front of him, his anger not diminishing.

"What are you doing here? Are you waiting for me to kill you with a gun?" the lieutenant asked angrily.

"I'll stay here today, and you have to leave a bed for me." Chen Jianqiu was half-lying in the chair, looking like a scoundrel to the end.

The lieutenant called the adjutant in.

"We don't have any spare beds here." The lieutenant said fiercely, "Don't forget, you tied up my son."

He turned to the adjutant: "Throw him into a cage and put him in a cage with that middle-aged Indian woman."

The adjutant dragged Chen Jianqiu up from the chair: "Sir, do you want to tie him up?"

"No need, he won't make much noise here unless he wants to be shot." The lieutenant waved his hand, signaling to get the Chinese out quickly.

"Hey, you can't treat me like this. Your son and my brother are providing me with delicious food! Besides, I came here to be a hostage, and you treat me like this?" Chen Jianqiu expressed his dissatisfaction appropriately, but Soon two armed soldiers walked in.

"Get out!" The lieutenant's anger reached a critical point again.

Chen Jianqiu was taken out.

The lieutenant called the adjutant to the table, and together they began to look at the map and discuss possible locations for tomorrow.

"Sir, could they have an ambush?"

"It's impossible. I've learned about it. There are only three of them, and one of them is injured. So what if there's an ambush." ​​The lieutenant disagreed.

"Tomorrow you find three smart people to follow me. Leave one or two people in the camp, and take the rest with you. Follow us and keep your distance. Don't let the Chinese notice it, but don't be too far away. I guarantee there will be someone. Anything can be done right away."

The adjutant nodded, but quickly asked another question: "What about the people on Morris' side? The sentry reported that they camped not far from us."

"If they make any move, kill them all!"

The lieutenant's order was extremely chilling, but what he said next made the adjutant shudder even more.

"It's almost time for the transaction to begin. You guys, quietly gather around us. After we rescue the second lieutenant, kill the others!"

After all, it was Morris who brought him out, and he even had the same idea. From the beginning, the lieutenant never wanted any insider other than him to be alive.

After the lieutenant finished his instructions, he sat back in his chair and slowly tasted his cup of coffee.

……

Chen Jianqiu was held at gunpoint by two soldiers as he approached the iron cage.

He turned around and took a closer look, and was happy. One of the soldiers had gauze wrapped in his hand. Wasn't this the man who had just been bitten?

The soldier noticed that Chen Jianqiu was staring at his hand and kicked him angrily. As a result, he didn't see the man in front of him making any big moves, but he kicked the iron cage.

The iron cage was motionless, but his feet were swollen. Old wounds were not healed but new ones were added. The soldier sat down on the ground and began to cry.

Chen Jianqiu stood aside and looked at him with a smile.

Another soldier couldn't stand it any longer, so he stepped forward, opened the door of the iron cage, and made a gesture of invitation to Chen Jianqiu.

Chen Jianqiu was not polite and walked in without forgetting to say thank you. He watched as the injured soldier was hobbled away.

When no one was around, he turned around and looked at the corner of the iron cage.

Asuka's mother looked much weaker than before, with faint traces of blood visible at the corners of her mouth. She had actually felt the movement in the cage and wanted to open her eyes to see what was going on, but she didn't have the strength to even move her body.

When Chen Jianqiu saw the scene in front of him, he thought something bad in his heart.

Damn it, these beasts probably didn't give her any food, and she wouldn't be able to survive tomorrow.

He stepped forward, gently held the woman's bony wrist, motioning her not to move, then pulled off a corner of his cloth vest and wiped the blood from the corner of the old man's mouth.

He walked to another corner near the cage, sat down cross-legged, and started shouting: "Where's my dinner? I want a drink of water! You sons of bitches!"

The voice became louder and louder, and the words became more and more unpleasant.

Not long after, the adjutant came over with two soldiers. After approaching the cage, he took a bag of water and a piece of bread from the soldier and threw them into the cage.

"Hey, is the bed we arranged for you comfortable?" The adjutant bent down and looked inside the cage.

"Not bad, the environment is okay and quite safe." Chen Jianqiu picked up the water bag and bread.

The adjutant laughed and turned around and left, sincerely thinking that this man was a country bumpkin with no bottom line and no shame.

As the adjutant left, the smile on Chen Jianqiu's face suddenly disappeared. He quickly returned to the woman, opened the water bag, and slowly fed the water into the woman's mouth.

The woman's throat was rising and falling slightly, and after taking a few sips, water overflowed from the corners of her mouth.

Chen Jianqiu carefully wiped the corners of the woman's mouth, turned around, took the bread, and broke off a small piece from the corner. He looked around and found no containers.

He picked up his left hand, poured a little water into his palm, then put the corner of bread in it and dipped it in the water little by little.

He didn't want to put something as hard as iron directly into the bird's mother's mouth.

The bread becomes slightly softer under the influence of water. Chen Jianqiu then carefully put the bread in.

Feiniao's mother could no longer chew and even found it difficult to swallow. Chen Jianqiu had to feed the woman some more water.

After a while, probably because she had eaten some food, the woman's eyes slowly opened.

She saw Chen Jianqiu, sat up slowly, crossed her arms on her chest, put her right forearm close to her body, made a fist with her right hand at the heart, with the back of her hand facing outward, and her left wrist pressed against her right wrist.

This is a sign language of North American Indians, and the woman took a long time.

Chen Jianqiu looked at the woman quietly and waited patiently. Although he could not fully understand it, based on the old man's demeanor, he should be expressing his gratitude to him.

He also tried to convey a message to the woman in his own way, telling her that someone would come to save her tomorrow.

Looking at the dancing young man in front of her, a smile appeared on the woman's face, and she seemed to understand.

The subsequent communication seemed to go much smoother. Although the two did not understand each other's language at all, sometimes, communication after trusting each other does not need to care about too many details.

……

Early the next morning, Chen Jianqiu was awakened by the crisp calls of birds in the valley. A small brown bird sat on top of the cage. The edges of its wings, back, and chest and abdomen feathers were pink.

Chen Jianqiu recognized this bird. It was called the brown-crested sparrow, and Feiniao once told him about the origin of this bird.

He believed the bird would bring him good luck today.