“Of course not. I guessed that old crazy woman was lying, so I stayed here to wait for you.”

“Then why did you do this?” Jack pointed at the rope on the ground. The other person’s actions seemed more like blocking than helping.

“I was afraid you’d run away.” Eric seemed to think this was so simple it needed no further explanation.

Brian Smith hurried to speak up, “It was my idea. I thought if you saw… Eric, you might speed up and run off. But I didn’t let them jump out and start a fight.” Brian Smith shot an annoyed glance at Lance, who had just failed to hold back.

There were eight boys blocking the road in total. Besides the brothers Brian Smith and Bruce Smith, the other six were all from Eric’s group. If Jack had seen them, he would have jumped on the horse with Grace and sped away long ago. “Why are you helping me?”

“Because you’re doing a good thing.” Eric turned to Grace, his voice so solemn it sounded a bit affected. “Grace, on behalf of the Shen family, I apologize to you. I hope I can make it up to you.”

Eric’s change was unexpected. Jack and Grace were both stunned, exchanging glances, half believing, half doubting. Jack finally got a good look at Grace’s face.

She was not quite the same as the little girl in his memory. In just a few years, Grace had changed a lot. Only one thing remained the same: her big eyes always held a look of anxiety, as if she might be called out at any moment to speak in front of a crowd of strangers.

She handed the power to decide over to Jack.

“I don’t trust you,” Jack said. Even with the brothers Brian Smith and Bruce Smith present, he still found it hard to accept the change in Eric’s group.

“I can make you trust me.” Eric was very confident. He paused. “Where are you going?”

“None of your business.”

“You’re going to take the main road anyway. Let me tell you, you’ll only make it as far as Linhe Town. Any further and you’ll be caught. My dad sent people to Xiao’er Fort to report to the authorities. By now, the Xuanfu Army has set up a net everywhere. You won’t get anywhere.”

Jack was startled. He had seen the Xuanfu Army once when he was seven. The soldiers, clad head to toe in black armor, had left a deep impression on him, filling him with awe. He never imagined he would one day become their target. But he refused to give in. “I have my own way to get past them.”

“What if you can’t? Grace will still have to marry my brother. My dad already doesn’t like her anymore. And you—my dad is furious and said he’s going to beat you to death.”

Jack felt a bit discouraged. He knew almost nothing about the world outside Wild Forest Town and had no way to evade the Xuanfu Army. He glanced at Grace, who looked even more lost than he did, then looked at Brian Smith, who nodded, clearly already convinced by Eric.

“All right, I trust you.” It was hard for Jack to say this, but once he did, he actually felt relieved. The heart of a youth—forgiving or hating someone always comes easily. “We’re going to Xijie City. There… there’s someone we know there.”

“Xijie City!” the boys exclaimed in unison. Like Jack, they only had a vague idea of their own nation’s capital, thinking of it as a faraway place.

Eric was the only one who didn’t look surprised. “Xijie City is good. You can hide there easily. My uncle’s family lives there. I stayed there for a few months once.”

The boys looked at Eric differently now. He was already the tallest, and now he seemed even more imposing.

“You have a way to get past the Xuanfu Army?” Jack asked.

Eric nodded. “We can’t take the main road. We’ll have to take the small paths.”

Jack had never even taken the main road, let alone the small ones, so he could only nod.

“There’s a map at my house.” With this, Eric firmly established himself as the leader. The brothers Brian Smith and Bruce Smith gasped, and even Jack parted his lips in surprise—they had never even seen what a map looked like.

Eric squatted down, picked up a sharp, long stone, and first drew a circle, then a few lines, some horizontal, some vertical. “Our Wild Forest Town is in the east. Xijie City is to the southwest. Actually, it’s not that far, but there’s a big mountain and a vast forest in between. The main road winds around and makes it much farther. My plan is to take the shortcut, enter the forest, and follow the river southwest. I estimate it’ll take five or six days to get out, then we’ll get back on the main road, and it’ll only be a few days’ journey to Xijie City.”

Eric spoke with such certainty, as if he had taken this shortcut before, so no one objected. On their first day away from home, all they felt was excitement.

“All right.” Jack completely trusted Eric now. “We’ll take the small paths. You help me buy us some time—don’t let the Xuanfu Army catch up.”

Eric stood up and shook his head vigorously. “We’ll all go to Xijie City together. I’ll lead the way.”

Jack still didn’t quite understand. “You… why are you helping us?”

Eric rubbed his head twice. “Just because I called out ‘good job,’ my dad beat me up yesterday, said I was betraying my own people. I want to show him what real ‘betrayal’ looks like.”

And so it was settled. The boys who had just been fighting with Jack now, in the blink of an eye, became comrades in the same boat, each coming up to pat him on the shoulder.