Chapter 109

Chapter 109

"Pa Bo, you’re heading back to the mountains? It's too dangerous. Why not take your dad along this time?" Pa Bo’s mom had been fuming at first that he kept venturing into such perilous places, but the family was running low on meat, and the boy just wanted to help provide, disregarding his own safety. If she scolded him now, she might hurt his feelings.

Still, Pa Bo's mother found it odd. Her scrawny son always got crazy lucky, finding small game every time. Other kids who tagged along rarely had the same fortune—some even ended up twisting ankles or worse in the mountains.

At the time, Pa Bo's mother didn’t know that when Pa Bo was with others, the hairy man would stay hidden, waiting for them to scatter slightly before dropping game near Pa Bo. In return, Pa Bo always left food out for him.

So, back then, Pa Bo knew that if he wanted to meet the hairy man, he had to go alone. He’d often go solo into the mountains or ditched his friends to enter the forest alone.

The other children, seeing that following Pa Bo brought them little benefit and only increased their chances of getting hurt, gradually quit going with him into the mountains. Some even grew envious of his "good luck."

Pa Bo didn’t care about his friends’ opinions. A growing boy like him was always hungry for meat, and if the hairy man could provide it, then he was his best friend. Besides, roaming the hills with the hairy man was far more exciting than playing fight games or chicken with those roughhousing brats.

At first, Pa Bo’s mom insisted his dad go along with their son, but after a few attempts, they came up empty-handed. They had to give up on the idea for the time being. Still, seeing the occasional injuries on her child, she couldn’t help but worry. She thought that even if her husband struck out sometimes, at least he could keep their son company. Hadn’t she noticed how few children in the village played with Pa Bo anymore?

The villagers had no shame. Even though the game was brought back by her son, they not only hounded him about his "lucky trick" but also demanded that their family share the meat with the whole village.

As for the chief—what a hypocrite. The forest was there for everyone to hunt in, yet he kept singling out a child.

Hmph. Just wait—once they’d saved up from selling game, they would move to town and leave these people behind.

Pa Bo was clueless about the growing tension between his family and the villagers. He was either helping at home or teaching the hairy man in the mountains—when did he have time to care about others?

But the villagers weren’t the type to be ignored so easily. No matter how quick the hairy man’s reflexes were, meeting Pa Bo so often would inevitably leave traces. People had caught glimpses of him several times, though they never saw him clearly.

This time, as usual, Pa Bo refused his mother’s request and headed into the mountains with a basket on his back. But before he could reach the deeper woods, he plummeted into a pit—*whump*—

If not for the basket cushioning his fall, he would’ve injured not just his leg but his back as well. Pa Bo touched the bamboo-splinter wound on his leg and looked up at the hunting pit. What now? With his injured foot, he couldn’t climb out.

"Harvey! Harvey! Help me!" Pa Bo thought of his best friend and immediately called out his name. This was the name the hairy man had chosen for himself after Pa Bo taught him to speak.

At Pa Bo’s cries for help, Harvey rushed to the pit’s edge. He peered down at the boy, reaching out to grab him, but the pit was too deep. Panicking, he circled the pit’s edge.

"Vines! Find some long vines and throw them down!" Pa Bo gestured while explaining what to do. At that moment, he was grateful he had taught Harvey to recognize objects and understand words—otherwise, he wouldn’t know what to do now.

Harvey listened carefully, studying Pa Bo’s movements before darting off to find vines to rescue him.

Luckily, the forest had plenty of them. Harvey pulled down several long vines and tossed them into the pit, signaling for Pa Bo to tie himself to them so he could pull him up.

"Alright, I’m tied up. Pull!" Pa Bo waved after securing himself.

Harvey braced himself and heaved.

"Got you at last! What *are* you?" Harvey, completely focused on Pa Bo, didn’t notice the ambush from behind. Darkness suddenly clouded his vision, and his grip nearly slipped entirely.

"Ah! Harvey, what’s happening?" Suspended mid-air, Pa Bo abruptly dropped a short distance before stopping again, breaking out in a cold sweat.

Harvey struggled against the heavy net trapping him but feared any sudden movement might hurt Pa Bo. Instead, he mustered all his strength and yanked upward, pulling Pa Bo out of the pit in one swift motion.

Compared to his earlier gentleness, Pa Bo felt a sudden tightness before being flung upward by an immense force, quickly clearing the pit’s edge.

When Pa Bo crashed onto the ground, dazed and disoriented, he turned to look at Harvey—only to freeze in horror at the scene before him.

Why were there so many people? And what were they doing?!

"Stop! Don’t hurt him!" Seeing Harvey struck unconscious by a thick club, Pa Bo felt his own pain intensify.

"It’s a wild man! Who knows where he came from—he’s dangerous!" The one wielding the club was a village ruffian, a deadbeat who only cared about easy money.

The others surrounding Harvey were also from the village; their gazes held a complexity Pa Bo couldn’t decipher. Later, Pa Bo would realize it was a mix of greed, fear, and indifference.

"No, he’s not dangerous at all. He’s good—he just saved my life!" Ignoring his own pain, Pa Bo crawled toward Harvey, trying to stop them.

"Good? Doesn’t look like it. Just look at his savage appearance—what’s he wearing? Clothes made of leaves? Animal pelts? Can’t even speak properly." The speaker was Kenya, the village chief’s son, who yanked off Harvey’s fox-pelt skirt and shook it in his hand.

Watching Kenya’s actions, Pa Bo’s face flushed with anger. He could spare food for Harvey, but he couldn’t give him clothes.

Clothes were carefully rationed at home—his own were too small for Harvey, and his father’s were all locked away by his mother. He didn’t dare take them, so he had learned from his mother and made Harvey a few garments from hides.

"I made those. He shared food with me, so I..." Seeing the sudden gleam in their eyes, Pa Bo realized he might have said the wrong thing and immediately clamped his mouth shut, glaring at them resentfully.

"Tch, your word means nothing here. We’ll take him back and question him first. If he really is harmless, we won’t trouble him. Judging by his looks, he’s still young—the village is surely better than the mountains." Recalling how the feral boy had saved Pa Bo, those who had initially wanted to abandon Pa Bo on the mountain decided to bring him back as well.

"R-really?" Pa Bo blinked at the older neighbor, a glimmer of hope in his eyes. If Harvey could truly be accepted by the villagers, wouldn’t they be able to play together every day?

"Relax, we’re fair folk." The neighbor patted Pa Bo’s head and had someone take him back, but they acted as if his bleeding leg didn’t exist, making no move to bandage it.

Exhausted, frightened, and still bleeding, Pa Bo was hauled down the mountain in a daze.

By the time he woke up, a full day had passed.

"You reckless boy! I should never have let you go alone. Look at these injuries—it’s like carving a piece of flesh from my heart." Pa Bo’s mother hugged him tightly, her swollen eyes brimming with tears again.

"H-how did I... Ah! Harvey! What happened to Harvey?" Seeing his mother cry like this, Pa Bo felt guilty. He shifted slightly, the pain in his leg reminding him of what had happened before he passed out. He immediately looked at his mother anxiously.

Meeting Pa Bo’s worried gaze, his mother stiffened for a moment, her sorrow fading slightly. She turned her face to wipe her tears. "You mean that mountain wildling? He’s fine. He even found his family."

"Really? Whose child is he? When did he go missing? Is he older or younger than me? When can I see him?" Hearing that Harvey had found his family, Pa Bo’s heart swelled for him.

"See what? Your injuries aren’t healed yet—you’re not going anywhere. Don’t look at me like that. Fine, he’s a Meka. They’re celebrating finding their son." When mentioning Pa Bo’s injuries, her eyes flickered with hatred, and her tone turned dismissive and cold when speaking of the Meka family.

Pa Bo only heard that Harvey’s family was happy to have him back and rejoiced for his friend, completely missing his mother’s odd behavior.

When Pa Bo finally saw Harvey again, he was horrified by his skeletal frame.

"What happened? How did you end up like this? Haven’t you been eating? That can’t be!" Staring at the figure in the room, Pa Bo could hardly believe this was the same Harvey who could wrestle a boar with his bare hands.

"I-I’m fine. How’s your injury?" Harvey looked at Pa Bo with a mix of joy and fear, even taking a few steps back as Pa Bo approached.

"My wound is healed! Look, I can run and jump again!" Pa Bo circled Harvey excitedly before stopping in front of him, trying to figure out what was wrong.

"What’s really going on? Did they do something to you?" As he spoke, Pa Bo glanced toward the door, catching the smile on Harvey’s mother’s face.

"Th-they kept me locked up and asked... how we met, where the gifts I gave you came from. I wanted to find you, but every time I ate what they gave me, I’d fall asleep. S-so... I stopped eating much. They said if I behaved, I’d see you again. And now... I have."

Harvey shuffled his feet, wringing his hands, leaving out large parts of the truth. When Pa Bo eventually learned everything, he was burning to be strong enough to beat them all up. The sheer cruelty of it!