Su Qing made a pinky promise with Tu Tutu and arranged to keep their plan a secret. Then he quietly returned to his own hospital room. In the grey house, he had learned patience and planning. 

As he learned at an astonishing speed how to control his own body, Su Qing was allowed to leave the hospital room during the day and take walks outside. At first he would accede to the little chief’s requests and play ball with him, but Su Qing only knew one way to play—throw the ball as far as possible, make the kid trot over to bring it back, then throw it again and make him pick it up again—as time went on, though Tu Tutu was little, he still understood that he was being taken for a dog and told to go fetch. The little chief showed himself very displeased with this disrespectful behavior and abandoned Su Qing for the sake of bothering the great beauty Xue Xiaolu. 

Su Qing meanwhile took the opportunity to examine the RZ Unit’s treatment area inside and out. He noticed that security was good here; anyone staying here could sleep free of worries and pass their old age in peace. But wanting to get out was a problem, so observing and plotting a route took quite some time. 

Su Qing couldn’t say clearly why he had to run. When he had been at the grey house, he had thought of getting out every moment. Though he had later returned to it, it had been for the sake of running again—he suspected that over time he had become accustomed to running and was unwilling to stay put anywhere. 

But one thing was true. He didn’t want to have any more contact with the RZ Unit. 

While this place had food, drink, and beautiful women, he still felt increasingly stifled into a panic—especially each night, when Hu Bugui snuck over like a thief to look at him. Su Qing could sense his guilt. But did he himself care or not? He wasn’t sure. After waking up clear-headed, he had said to himself again and again that in fact there was nothing you could call wrong about what Hu Bugui had done, and anyway, he was alive now, and Tu Tutu was hopping all over the place annoying the whole world—wasn’t that pretty good? 

Before, Su Qing had thought that life should consist of enjoying yourself while you could. While he had turned to a decent life now and wasn’t such a scoundrel, he still thought that while a person was alive, there were many things that could just be muddled through, and it was better not to be too choosy. Otherwise, weren’t you just making trouble for yourself? 

But he still felt that Hu Bugui’s presence was upsetting to him, especially after he woke up. Su Qing found out via direct and indirect channels that when he wasn’t doing his proper business, Captain Hu was a human oyster, suppressing everything. Though he perhaps felt very unhappy, very guilty, he wouldn’t go apologize directly in front of the “victim.” He only quietly used his own means to make up for it. 

Before, Su Qing had been used to people pampering him and spoiling him. He hadn’t felt that there was anything uncomfortable about it. But having gone through a period of misery worse than death and then having nearly died once, he had ended up covered in calluses, simply a little iron-plated. Hu Bugui acting like this made him uncomfortable. 

He thought that Hu Bugui looking after him this way, as though he was made of porcelain, was taking him for a useless person—since he knew that he had been useless, he particularly couldn’t stand this. 

Before, he hadn’t thought that there was anything bad about it. Even when Guo Julin had resentfully advised him to consider his own future, it still hadn’t moved his numb, lazy spirit… If not for being buried in the exploding house, Su Qing might have gone his whole life without understanding as deeply as he did now that however good other people were to him, however much they felt, they were still other people. Friendship had no price, but it also had no guarantee. At the critical moment, they could nevertheless turn around and go towards someone else; it all depended on them. 

Lean on the mountain, and the mountain will fall; lean on the tree, and the tree will sway—said to others, this was a sermon; but said to Su Qing, who had leaned once and fallen down, it was a deeply personal pain. So he had decided to leave this place that made him unhappy. 

As for Tu Tutu, he had been entrusted to him by Tian Feng before his death. That man had trusted him. Su Qing thought that he ought to do what he had promised. He didn’t feel easy handing the child over to anyone else. 

He thought that all he needed was to take along this little baggage and a mirror in which he could see his own reflection, and he could be on his way and leave. He didn’t need anyone else to hate him, to loathe him, to disdain him, or to feel guilty about him. He would go with himself. 

Hell is other people. 

When Su Qing worked out a route, he brought Tu Tutu to sleep in his room. He said to the child, “Tonight we advance quietly, no need for gunfire. Little chief, this escape relies on you. You can’t drop the ball.” 

Suddenly receiving his revolutionary mission, Tu Tutu felt his little body grow stalwart. He indicated that he was resolved to fulfill his mission. 

So that night, when Xue Xiaolu came to inspect the rooms, she encountered Tu Tutu’s shameless offensive. The little thing really did have some smarts. He twisted his neck and his butt, drawing out his words, making Su Qing break out in gooseflesh. He really did get the little beauty to agree to let him stay the night in Su Qing’s room. 

Tu Tutu stuck out his tongue and jumped onto Su Qing’s bed like a little monkey. “Now what do we do?” 

Su Qing patted the space next to him. “Come here and pretend to sleep. I’ll call you when the time comes.”  

Tu Tutu squirmed into his arms like a caterpillar and obediently closed his eyes. Normally he needed to be coaxed for ages before going to sleep; today, when he was told to pretend to sleep, he dedicated himself to his work. Not much time had passed before he really was asleep. Su Qing turned his head to look at him and quietly reached out to pinch his nose. The child snorted twice and used his little paw to knock him away. The idle youth was entertained and also closed his eyes. 

When Hu Bugui came to report as usual, he saw Tu Tutu curled up in Su Qing’s arms, one pudgy hand clutching his collar. Su Qing had turned slightly in the direction of his pull. His soft hair covered his forehead. His profile looked especially gentle and beautiful in the darkness. 

Hu Bugui froze at the door for a while. He couldn’t resist holding his breath, feeling that there were two angels, a big one and a little one, lying in that bed—though the little angel had a ridiculous bowl cut. 

This actually gave him a sense of unworthiness. For once, he didn’t go in. He only stood at the door for a while, then silently left. 

As soon as he left, Su Qing opened his eyes, listened attentively for a moment, determined that there was no one in the corridor for the moment, then pushed Tu Tutu awake. He picked up a towel hanging nearby and, ignoring everything else, wiped the child’s face. Lowering his voice, he said, “Division Commander Tu, we must prepare to break out of the encirclement!” 

Division Commander Tu blankly let him mess around. 

Su Qing opened the beside cabinet, took a bottle of capsules from inside, and put it in his pocket—the capsules were one of Lu Qingbai’s prize creations: a high-purity nutritional substance. Supposedly others couldn’t eat this stuff; it was like the Heaven's One Holy Water in Mr. Gu Long’s Chu Liuxiang¹. Eating a single one could fill a dinosaur to bursting, but it wouldn’t do the same to Su Qing. 

Since finding out that he had returned as a hungry ghost, Su Qing firmly believed that nutritional substances and so forth were good things. Otherwise, he would do nothing but eat from morning to night; he wouldn’t even have enough time for that. He was still wearing his hospital gown, his original clothing being pretty much in rags. Since he had been staying in the hospital, the RZ Unit hadn’t prepared any other clothing for him. Su Qing frowned, planning to resolve this problem with a spot of pilfering after he got out. 

He pushed open the window and stuck his head out to have a look. There was a guard rail outside the window. This was the fourth floor, and supposedly falling from here wouldn’t kill him… Su Qing swallowed. He didn’t know whether Lu Qingbai could be relied upon in this instance. There was a security camera at each turning on the stairs, and the lobby downstairs had fairly tight security. Su Qing made his mental preparations and decided to go with his original plan—go by the window. 

He reached out and shoved the iron window guard rail and only then unfortunately found that though he had become a freak, he still wasn’t as strong as he imagined, able to send an ox flying with one punch and knock down a building with one kick—it was likely that quality of that floor tile he had cracked hadn’t been up to standard. 

This time, exerting all his strength, Su Qing at last managed to bend the iron bar into an arc with his bare hands. Fortunately he was quite thin and didn’t need much room. 

Tu Tutu was craning his neck beside him. He yawned and haughtily said, “Haven’t you done it yet? Why are you so slow?” 

Su Qing glared at him irritably. “Because your head is so big that I’m worried you’ll get stuck. Come here!” 

He leaned down and picked Tu Tutu up, then stood on the windowsill. Tu Tutu gloomily explained, “A big head means you’re bright.” 

Su Qing smacked his butt. “Shut your mouth, big lightbulb². Mind the wind.” 

Then, with a whoosh, Tu Tutu felt Su Qing jump down holding him. Though the rate of falling was also “played in slow motion” in Su Qing’s eyes, he still felt uncertain and couldn’t resist reaching out with his feet to catch the railing outside the second floor. The two of them hung upside down in the air. 

Tu Tutu didn’t know what fear was. He chuckled, probably thinking that he was on a rollercoaster. Su Qing covered his mouth. Like Spider-Man, he used his back muscles to bend himself and turn his sight of the world right-side up at last. Then he grabbed the railing with one hand, let go with his feet, and continued to fall from the second floor, making a landing that was frightening but not harmful. 

Just as he touched down, a flashlight beam swept over. Su Qing thought, That’s it. What rotten luck. Just down, and they had run into a patrol. The patrolman heard movement and initially wanted to request support, but when the words came to his lips, he saw that of these two people, one was a patient, and one was a child. So he walked over and asked in friendly way, “Why are you out so late? Aren’t you afraid of catching cold?” 

Su Qing’s eyes turned, and he immediately shivered cooperatively. The young man on duty was fairly attentive. He took off his coat and gave it to him, and even smiled understandingly. “Sick of staying in the hospital, so you snuck out to get some air, huh? That’s not out of the question, but don’t stay too long. It’s better to listen to the doctors.” 

Su Qing took the coat he had won by trickery. He didn’t shed any tears of gratitude. Looking at this soldier’s stiff army uniform, malicious intent formed in his heart. He squeezed out a smile like a weasel’s. “I’ve been in the hospital so long I’m about to put down roots. It’s this little whelp who won’t sleep in the middle of the night and insists on going out to look at the stars.” 

As he spoke, he pinched Tu Tutu’s butt. Tu Tutu immediately howled, his small mouth drawing back. He began to cry. “Wah—I want to look at the stars—I want to see ‘Cirrus’ and Vega, and I want to see the bird bridge³, wah—I want to see…” 

The soldier was stunned. He helplessly patted Tu Tutu on the head. “Don’t cry, kid, I didn’t say you couldn’t look. Look for a while, then go back. Hurry and stop crying.” 

Pathetically, his ears had been so pierced by the little whelp’s demonic voice that he had forgotten in his torment—it was a cloudy night.

Su Qing pinched Tu Tutu’s butt again. As though he had an on/off switch, Tu Tutu stopped his tears at once and peeked out from between his fingers. “Really?” 

The soldier grinned at him, displaying a mouth full of charming white teeth. He waved a hand at Su Qing and turned to go, glad to have helped someone out. 

The moment he turned, Su Qing’s non-standard chop nimbly came down on his neck. His bodily hardware was good, and he acted extremely quickly; an ordinary person had no way to react. 

The soldier silently fell forward, giving Su Qing a scare. He carefully tested his breathing, found that he was all right, then let out a sigh of relief. He patted himself on the chest and told Tu Tutu to stand by. He deftly removed the soldier’s clothes and changed out of his hospital gown. 

Before leaving, he rather considerately covered this living Lei Feng⁴ with his cotton hospital gown. Using the clothes as cover, Su Qing pulled the brim of his cap very low, and, according to the original plan, with several soul-stirring narrow escapes, he finally got out with Tu Tutu, frightened but unharmed. 

He took off the cap and waved in the direction of the RZ Unit’s treatment center. He gave it a slightly malicious smile, then went off with a swagger.