Not far behind, two men dressed in yellow and blue, who thought they were being stealthy, were now both sprawled on the ground, having taken a nasty fall.
"Damn it!" the man in yellow cursed aloud, pounding the ground in bewilderment, "What the hell is happening today, keeping falling over!"
The man in blue winced in pain and glanced ahead into the night, saying, "Sam, stop complaining. It’s more important we catch up to that kid and make sure he doesn’t spill our beans."
"I know, you don’t need to remind me," the man in yellow muttered irritably, trying to get up.
But as he was halfway up, there was a loud "thud", and he crashed back down to the ground again.
The man in blue also tried to stand, almost in solidarity with the man in yellow, and with a "thud", found himself back on the ground too.
Both of them were surprised and looked down at the ground beneath their feet.
At nightfall, the ground had frozen hard and was indeed slippery, but it shouldn’t have been slippery enough to cause them to keep falling over and over.
"I don’t believe this," the man in yellow declared, preparing to stand up for the third time with a defiant attitude.
He fell hard for the third time.
"Damn it, I must get up!"
The man in yellow was furious.
He fell for the fourth time.
"Freaking hell, is this for real!"
He fell for the fifth time.
The sixth time, the seventh time, the eighth time...
By about the tenth attempt, both the man in yellow and the man in blue had completely changed their expressions, now filled with panic.
After twenty tries, they were becoming desperate.
After thirty, they were utterly terrified.
They didn’t know why they couldn’t stand up, but the reality was grim.
A cold wind blew, causing them both to shiver uncontrollably.
At that moment, they knew if they really couldn’t stand up, they might have to stay there all night and possibly freeze to death.
The man in blue swallowed nervously and looked at the man in yellow, asking, "Sam, what... what do we do?"
"I...," the man in yellow hesitated, his facial muscles twisting as he thought for a moment and then gritted his teeth, "Crawl!"
"Huh?" the man in blue was stunned, "Crawl what?"
"What do you think, we have to crawl back, unless you want to freeze to death out here?" the man in yellow snapped, then got down on all fours, crawling towards their place like a dog.
The man in blue watched the man in yellow slowly move away, his mouth twitching, but eventually, he grimaced and started crawling forward too.
As he crawled, he called out, "Wait for me, wait for me."
Thus, the man in yellow and the man in blue crawled on, one after the other. Occasionally, passersby would give them strange looks, to which they responded unabashedly with rude retorts, "What are you looking at? I’ll do what I want, none of your business!"
Pedestrian: "...", lowering his head, secretly laughing, and walking away.
The man in yellow and the man in blue snorted coldly and continued to crawl forward. They saw a beggar also sneaking a laugh by the roadside, glaring fiercely: "Hey, filthy beggar, get lost from here! And, you didn’t see anything, understand! Otherwise, beware I’ll beat you to death!"
The beggar was startled, glanced at them with surprise, not daring to provoke them. He suppressed his laughter and quickly left, running into a wind-sheltered alley.
The man in yellow and the man in blue snorted coldly again and continued to move forward. They did not notice that after the beggar ran into the alley, he suddenly screamed, "Plop" falling down.
Afterward, the beggar was swallowed by a cloud of black mist, his body convulsing violently. The black mist crazily forced its way into his mouth and nose, entering his body.
After a long while, the beggar slowly got to his feet, looked at his hands, moved them as if getting used to his new body, then stepped out of the alley.
The man in yellow and the man in blue, both panting heavily, kept crawling forward and were joyful to see their dwelling ahead.
Unexpectedly, in the night, the sounds of "woof woof" approached, and several large dogs ran towards them.
The dogs arrived, glanced curiously at the two men, sniffed in circles, then got excited. Their forelegs went up, resting on the men’s bodies, followed by the frantic humping of their hind bodies.
The two screamed, cursed, angrily hit the dogs, and ended up in a chaotic fight with them.
After a long time, all battered and filthy, they finally managed to drive the dogs away and suddenly realized that they could stand up without knowing when.
Yes, they could stand up!
"Ha ha, we’re okay now, Ais!"
"We’re really fine now, Sam!"
The man in yellow and the man in blue laughed heartily. While laughing, their voices faltered, and they saw someone not far away watching them—it was the beggar they had encountered on the road earlier, who, for some reason, had followed them here.
The man in yellow and the man in blue exchanged glances, quickly understanding each other’s thoughts: the incident just now with the pack of dogs absolutely could not be spread around.
The man in yellow looked at the beggar and shouted, "Hey, filthy beggar, I warn you, you didn’t see anything just now, understand? Otherwise, beware of your little life!"
"Is that so?" the beggar let out a hoarse voice, showing no fear, slowly stepped closer to the man in yellow with a sinister smile on his face, "But I saw everything!"
The man in yellow suddenly turned pale: "It seems, I need to teach you a lesson!"
He threw a furious punch towards the beggar’s face.
But at the next moment, "click," the beggar effortlessly blocked the man in yellow’s fist with a single finger, breaking his arm instantly.
"You! Ah!" the man in yellow was both shocked and scared.
The beggar didn’t say much, simply pointed a finger at the man in yellow’s body, and with a "plop," the man in yellow fell to the ground, lifeless.
The man in blue was shocked, turned around to run, but "smack" fell to the ground, and was easily caught up with by the beggar, who then pointed a finger at his back.
The man in blue convulsed severely and followed in the footsteps of the man in yellow—he died.
"Fragile lives," the beggar whispered softly, somewhat lamenting, then shook his head, preparing to leave. The next moment, as if remembering something, he paused to carefully compare the clothes on his body with those on the bodies lying on the ground. His eyes flickering, he began to strip the bodies.
Because the clothes of the two bodies were somewhat filthy, the beggar ultimately chose the yellow shirt from the man in yellow and the trousers from the man in blue. Once dressed, he waved his hand, turning the two bodies and removed clothes into charred remains, then walked into the darkness.
In the darkness, a vague voice drifted with the wind.