Chapter 248: The Signal Flare

However, what left us utterly stunned was that Third Uncle's reply to our signal flare actually rose from the opposite direction, from behind us, from the middle of the swamp—meaning they were already inside the swamp.

Panzi couldn't believe his eyes: "Holy shit, what's going on? How are they in there?"

Afraid it might be a mistake, I immediately raised my binoculars to look. No mistake—the smoke definitely wasn't from a fire; the color was an unnatural red.

"Dapan, looks like your Third Master moved faster than you," Fatty murmured.

"Impossible. Did Third Master and his team go in through another canyon? But that's not what we planned—they were supposed to wait for my signal. And hell, they're way too fast..." Panzi couldn't figure it out.

"Could it be not your Third Master's team, but that young man set it off?" Fatty said.

"He didn't bring anything last night, so it couldn't be him," Panzi replied. "I'm the only one who brought smoke grenades, and they're all here."

"That's strange. Looks like there's a miscommunication between you and your Third Master."

"What does this smoke mean?" I suddenly remembered that the color could convey information, so I asked.

Panzi took the binoculars from me, looked toward the smoke, thought for a moment, then his face suddenly changed. "Not good—they're in trouble."

"Trouble?" I saw Panzi's expression shift but didn't understand what he meant, so I asked him to explain in detail.

He said the smoke colors had simple meanings: yellow smoke meant danger ahead, proceed with caution; orange smoke meant stop and wait for confirmation; red smoke was more severe, meaning absolutely do not approach, generally used under extremely dangerous conditions to warn later arrivals. In normal activities, red smoke was almost never used.

But he also hesitated a little—after all, they weren't conducting a survey; this method was improvised. He couldn't be sure he remembered the usage correctly, and the other side might have gotten it wrong too.

Still, this wasn't good news. I asked Panzi if we could send another smoke to ask what was going on.

Panzi shook his head, paused, clearly growing anxious, and said to me: "No good. Third Young Master, you stay here. I need to go over and see—Third Master might be in trouble."

I was also worried about Third Uncle, but I knew what was at stake, so I quickly grabbed him and said: "How can you do that? That young man hasn't come back yet. If you go, there'll only be two of us left. Besides, going in alone is too dangerous. Wait until Poker-face returns."

Panzi shook his head. "Third Master has over thirty men, all strong and well-armed. Under normal circumstances, they wouldn't send red smoke. Something must have happened over there. Damn it, that Black Blind is still too green. Third Young Master, don't worry—I've crawled through jungles like this plenty of times back in Vietnam. I can make it through. You guys stay here and wait for that guy, then decide what to do." As he spoke, he began packing his gear. Seeing I couldn't stop him, I urgently signaled Fatty with my eyes.

To my surprise, Fatty also started packing his gear immediately. My head started to ache—why was Fatty suddenly so concerned about my Third Uncle? Just as I was about to speak, Fatty said to me: "Stop giving me those puppy eyes. It's not just Dapan who has to go. I'm telling you, this time we all have to go in. The equipment we have on us isn't enough to cross the Gobi. We have to meet up with your Third Uncle—at least get their supplies. Otherwise, even if we get out of the canyon, we'll die of thirst on the road."

I thought about it, and damn, he was right. I suddenly felt at a loss. Fatty added: "Dapan going in alone isn't impossible, but if something happens to him, it'll be even more trouble for the two of us to go in later. Better we go in together, all three of us advance and retreat together—higher chance of success. Otherwise, staying here is just waiting to die."

"But what about that young man?" I asked. "If we leave, won't he come back and not find us? Maybe I should stay here and wait for you."

"Wouldn't that be suicide? With your slight frame, those snakes would make a meal of you. Alright, we'll need extra hands to haul things out once we're inside—just Dapan and I won't be enough. We'll leave a marker to guide him in the right direction, and at worst, we can send up a smoke signal for him. But," Fatty glanced at the jungle, "I doubt that young fellow will be coming back."

The situation was terrible but now clear. Although I felt uneasy about it, I knew Fatty was right. After thinking it over, I nodded in agreement.

When we entered the canyon there were five of us; now only three remained—one dead, one run off. The original supplies obviously needed to be redistributed. But Fatty said we shouldn't take Poker-face's share; we wrapped it in waterproof cloth, weighed it down with a large rock, and wrote our destination on the inner layer of the cloth with a marker pen. Then, beside the bundle, we banked the campfire to the lowest burn so it would last three days—if Poker-face came back at night, he wouldn't fail to find it.

After all that, we actually lightened our load considerably. Panzi said the signal flare would burn for at most three hours. This time we had to go in without rest, so we needed to travel as light as possible. Since we'd pass through here again on the way back, we left behind anything nonessential.

Next we went through our gear, leaving behind heavy items like gas masks and Luoyang shovels. Then Panzi moved some of the heavier things from my pack into his own. With his professional marching load, carrying extra weight didn't affect his speed, but it did mine. He said jungle marching was extremely exhausting, and this was mainly to ensure I could make it to the destination.

Saying that made me lose face. I wanted to argue that in the past six months I'd built up some muscle, but he didn't give me the chance; he just kept packing, clearly already focused elsewhere. Once we were ready and about to set off, Fatty suddenly grabbed us and made us look up at the smoke in the distance.