From Robinson Crusoe

The natives' fear of demons is instilled from childhood and is ingrained in their genes.

The tribe was in a precarious situation, with a tyrannical leader and food production declining day by day, leaving everyone in fear.

In addition, the mysterious disappearance of the old priest and the inability of the new priest to take charge of the situation led to rumors circulating in private that "the leader was bewitched by the devil" or "the leader cooperated with outsiders and angered the gods."

Just then, in the dead of night, the natives in the hut were nearly scared to death when they were stepped on by a strangely dressed, non-human monster that spoke a tribal language.

Not to mention that he was incapable of resisting Sunday, even if he tried his best to resist, he couldn't outrun Sunday's knife.

Because he lived in a remote place, far from the center of the tribe.

Here, let alone whether he could shout, even if he did, by the time his companions heard his cries for help and arrived, he would already be dead.

……

Unable to ascertain Sunday's true intentions, and with a knife to their throats, the native and his recently escaped spouse obediently left the hut.

Upon seeing the other two people outside holding strangely shaped longbows, their desire to escape diminished somewhat.

Kuru coldly looked at the native woman who had given birth to his child, indifferently took out two hemp ropes, and tied their wrists tightly behind their backs.

He then took out two wads of cloth from his backpack and gagged the two men to prevent them from disturbing the other natives in their panic.

Throughout the ordeal, the two men with knives to their necks remained silent and dared not struggle, fearing they might lose their lives in the blink of an eye.

In fact, if it were natives from other tribes who came, they would never have been so compliant.

For the natives, the night was already filled with terrifying unknowns, and the three people's attire, which was completely different from their kind, and the strange weapons they carried, shrouded them in a veil of mystery.

Out of awe of the unknown, the two lost the courage to fight back.

……

Seeing that Kulu had already tied the two up, Sunday waved his hand and said in a deep voice, "Let's go."

Having said that, he led the way, guiding Kulu and Kosu to escort the prisoners to the beach.

There, they could quickly extract more information from the mouths of the two captured "tongues," select the best assault position, and thus make the subsequent operation smoother.

The native men and women had no idea where these three messengers of evil would take them.

The moonlight was dim, and without night vision goggles, they couldn't make out the three men's faces at all. In terms of height and demeanor, the skinny men were no match for the three-man team.

As they walked further and further from their home and tribe, the two of them grew more at ease.

At worst, they would just die. The current chief is not the same as the former chief. After the tribe stopped expanding, they could no longer live a relatively comfortable life by consuming the spoils of war. Instead, they were shrouded in the shadow of the brutal chief.

Rather than living in constant fear, or risking one's life to try to swim to the other side and seek refuge in a strange tribe, living a life whose fate is uncertain, death is also a kind of liberation.

But if you are killed and eaten by a demon, will you still be able to ascend to God's heaven after death and live a life where you can eat your fill every day and no longer have to work?
They can't remember anymore.

……

Before escorting the prisoners, Kulu peeked into the hut, but he couldn't find any trace of his child.

Having grown up in a tribe, a moment's recollection brought to mind several terrible possible outcomes—

Killed, starved to death, eaten...

Of all the possible endings, death is perhaps the best one.

This good-for-nothing father, by a twist of fate, arrived at the "heaven" of his dreams. After all his efforts, when he returned, he saw his child fall into hell.

Although he had not yet confirmed his suspicions with the native woman, Kuru knew that his child was most likely in grave danger.

Because of this suspicion, he did not speak to the mother of his child to reminisce. Instead, he pushed her with anger and used all his strength, almost knocking the native woman to the ground several times.

As for the cause of all the terrible outcomes, that native man was in an even worse situation.

If it weren't for the fact that they were in the middle of an operation and had to prioritize the overall situation, and that Sunday was their superior supervising them, Kuru would have strangled that guy.

……

Kuru remained silent, and the female native naturally couldn't recognize this monster covered in spots with a pair of bulging eyes as her former mate.

She obediently followed the three-person team to the beach.

This place is far from any tribe, so even if you shout loudly, you won't disturb the natives.

The sounds of the ocean waves and the wind would mask most unusual noises, and fatigue would lull the natives into a deeper sleep, making interrogations and even executions largely unaffected.

……

Seeing that Kuru looked very anxious, Sunday gave his silent subordinate a chance, signaling him to take out the cloth ball the native woman had mentioned and begin asking him what he wanted to know.

Seeing this, Kuru quietly thanked Sunday, then roughly pulled the wad of cloth out of the native woman's mouth and removed the night vision goggles and helmet from her head.

"Do you still recognize me?"

He asked in the indigenous language.

The female native was nervous, shocked and frightened. When she first heard the Kuru's voice, she did not recognize that the speaker was her two spouses who slept in the same room during alternating periods of rain and drought.

It wasn't until Kuru repeated it that her eyes widened in disbelief.

This familiar yet unfamiliar voice had been gone for a very long time, never appearing again after he set off with the group searching for the old priest.

The indigenous woman never dreamed that this "dead person" would actually come back to her.

She tentatively uttered Kuru's name.

But Kulu showed no joy. He kicked the female native to the ground, pressed down on her chest, and asked sharply.

"Where are my children? Where is my son?"

The native woman, hoping to gain favor with someone among the demon's messengers, was trying to ingratiate herself with them.

In primitive tribes, spouses are not fixed, and their moral values ​​are very shallow. It is not uncommon for women to abandon their husbands and join more powerful warriors.

Now that Kuru, who had been missing, has returned to the island, and looks different, he is an even more reliable person to rely on.

The indigenous woman was overjoyed, but she forgot about her child.

It wasn't until she crashed heavily onto the beach that she remembered the child. Seeing Kuru's fierce attitude, she had a bad feeling.

"We can have another one..."

Instead of answering Kuru's question directly, she said something else entirely, something Kuru least wanted to hear.

……

Unlike most indigenous people in primitive tribes, Kuru is a rare child who grew up smoothly under the pampering of his parents.

This family environment shaped his unique family values.

He valued his spouse and children far more than other indigenous people.

When he was away fighting, he often thought about his wife and children at home. When the spoils of war were divided, he would always leave a share for his family.

After the landing operation failed, he was captured and gradually learned Chinese and was influenced by Chinese culture, his sense of family became even stronger.

Chinese people have always placed great importance on the cultural heritage of family and clan.

Ancient stories illustrate the extraordinary bonds between rulers and subjects, fathers and sons, even husbands and wives, and friends.

Listen to the leader tell new mythological stories.

The most touching myth for Kuru is the story of Yu the Great controlling the floods.

In that myth, there was a father and son named Gun and Yu. As members of the same family, they carried on the same mission and ultimately accomplished the great task of controlling the floods. Although the story doesn't contain any details about the relationship between the father and son, this grand and romantic plot always captivated Kuru.

He dreamed of holding his child and telling him this story—

In that safe and sturdy little house where all kinds of delicious food could be made.

He also wants to teach his children to speak Chinese, write Chinese characters, recite the Three Character Classic, and recite the Thousand Character Classic.

Kuru knew his son was extremely intelligent and would surely learn these things quickly. He was confident that both the Saturday teacher and the chief would appreciate the clever little fellow.

Every night on the island, he would miss his child, the continuation of his bloodline.

And now, all those beautiful memories have been shattered by this woman's words.

……

"What happened to my son?"

Kuru's voice trembled as he unconsciously increased the pressure of his knee on the woman's chest, pressing down so hard that she could hardly breathe, like a fish out of water, only able to gasp for air, unable to speak at all.

Father, like son.

Wearing night vision goggles, Sunday coldly watched all this. Seeing that Kuru was about to crush the woman to death, she stepped forward and pulled the man away from the man who was almost out of his mind.

"Let me ask."

Grabbing Kulu by the back of the neck, he pulled him aside, and Sunday squatted down.

"Now, I will ask the questions, and you will answer them."

It's best to tell the truth, otherwise he'll become your role model.

Sunday's voice wasn't as mature as Kuru's; it carried a youthful naiveté.

But his tone sent chills down the woman's spine, like a beast gently licking the flesh at the corner of its mouth, its calm demeanor concealing a ferocity that could devour someone at any moment.

……

The woman nodded tremblingly, listening intently to Sunday's first question, fearing punishment for not hearing it clearly.

Where did his child go?

Asked on Sunday.

The native woman's eyes darted around, and she hesitated before answering—

“My son is very smart. The new priest likes him very much and has taken him to be a junior priest. He is sleeping in the priest’s room now.”

……

After hearing her answer, Sunday shook his head slightly and said nothing more. He simply pressed the male native next to the female native onto the beach, then took out a multi-tool and cut off one of his ears.

The male native's hands were bound, making him unable to resist Sunday, and the gag in his mouth was not removed.

After his ear was cut off, he couldn't even let out a loud scream to vent his pain; he could only whimper and roll around on the sand in agony.

“You see, he suffers when you lie.”

Sunday smiled and continued.

"But don't worry, as long as you keep lying, what happened to him will happen to you too."

I'll ask you again, where are Kuru's children?

……

The female native struggled to turn her head and look at her new spouse beside her; her fragile defenses finally crumbled.

Through her fragmented narration, Kuru understood the whole story—

Not long after he disappeared, the lone indigenous woman agreed to his request to start a new family with another indigenous man.

Kuru's child originally lived in the hut with his birth mother and stepfather.

At first, the child was able to sleep inside the house, but later his birth mother and stepfather thought he was in the way and kicked him out.

Even during the rainy season, he could only rest in open spaces with no shelter.

Perhaps it's because the indigenous people are good at adapting to the natural environment, or perhaps this child is just lucky.

Two long rainy seasons, the ostracism from his birth mother and stepfather, and even hunger did not take his life, but only made him more emaciated.

But the threats within the tribe are far more numerous than these.

His birth mother drove him out, but she would secretly share some food with him. Although the other boys bullied him, they would not kill him.

This child is like a tenacious insect, struggling to survive in the tribe.

The threat only intensified when he was chosen by the drunken leader to become the raw material for the "human feast," forcing him to choose between risk and death.

According to the woman, it was evening.

Kuru's son ran out of the tribe with all his might, and under the watchful eyes of many warriors, he jumped into the sea and swam towards the opposite shore, disappearing from sight.

The enraged leader ordered several volleys of arrows to be fired, and then led his soldiers to throw more than a dozen wooden spears.

Some say the child was hit and died in the water, while others say he was missed and may have swum to the other side.

Of course, it's more likely that the child wasn't hit by the shot, but also lacked the strength to swim to the other side.

He drowned on his way to escape.

……

"It's up to you to handle."

On Sunday, he patted Kulu on the shoulder, grabbed the rope binding the native's hands, and dragged the man, who had lost an ear and was still struggling in pain, aside.

He had just dealt with Kuru's private matter, and he didn't care about the outcome.

He had never been a father or had a spouse, so he couldn't understand Kuru's feelings. He only knew that this taciturn man was in great pain at the moment.

It's best to leave other people's problems to them to solve themselves.

Sunday never forgot the purpose of his trip to the island.

……

The decisive act of cutting off his ear had made the native man realize what a ruthless character he was facing.

When questioned on Sunday, he dared not hide anything he knew and told everything truthfully, like beans spilling from a bamboo tube.

He thought his compliant behavior would save his life.

No sooner had he finished answering the last question than Sunday flipped him over, making him face the sand, and then pulled out a long knife.

Hearing the strange sound of the knife being drawn, the male native already knew what was going to happen and begged for mercy repeatedly.

However, Sunday remained unmoved.

The long knife slowly pressed into the sand, like a shark lurking beneath the sea, only its sharpened blade visible, before swimming down to the male native's neck and easily severing his artery.

The gushing blood flowed downwards, making the already damp sand even more pungent.

She carefully withdrew her long knife, pressed her foot firmly against the male native's head, and avoided getting her clothes dirty with the splattered blood.

While wiping the blood-stained longsword with the convulsing body of the male native, Sunday turned to assess the situation on Kuru's side and skillfully sheathed the sword. (End of Chapter)