After trudging who knew how much farther, Chen Youzai felt as though his body had reached its absolute limit. Suddenly, someone ahead of him toppled straight backward. Chen Youzai jerked aside, narrowly avoiding having the man fall on top of him. When he looked down, the man’s eyes had rolled back, his face was deathly pale, and white foam spilled from the corners of his mouth. After two brief convulsions, he stopped moving altogether.
It was the first time Chen Youzai had ever seen someone die right in front of him. The terrifying face made his whole body shake uncontrollably. His stomach lurched, he coughed up two mouthfuls of blood, and then everything went black.
When Chen Youzai woke, he was sitting in an earthen pit with quite a few people around him. His stomach seemed to hurt less. In his haze, he vaguely remembered someone feeding him something. Relief flooded through him. He was still alive, which meant he still had a chance to change back.
He lowered his head with difficulty and discovered he had no pockets. If he had no pockets, where could the silver coin be? Chen Youzai racked his brains until he noticed a strip of cloth tied around his waist like a belt. If the coin had not been lost, it could only be tucked there. He forced his head even lower, trying to bring his hands close enough to reach it.
It was hopeless. Chen Youzai twisted and wriggled as though performing some strange dance, trying position after position, but his hands were still nowhere near the belt. At last he dropped back to the ground, panting angrily. Don’t panic. If I panic now, I really won’t be able to think of a way home.
Then inspiration struck. He could shake the coin loose. Once it fell out, picking it up would be much easier. Besides, no one else could see the silver coin. Even if it landed on the ground, no one would take it.
With that thought, Chen Youzai began jumping with all his might. The body he occupied was already thin and weak, so even his most frantic effort looked more like a languid stretch, oddly graceful rather than violent.
A drowsy official nearby cracked open his eyes, ready to shout at him. But when he caught sight of Chen Youzai’s slender figure through the torn clothing, he swallowed instead. Then he looked up at the face and immediately lost interest. It was far too ugly. If only the face were fairer and cleaner, in this wilderness with no women in sight, he might have been tempted to take advantage of him.
At last, Chen Youzai heard a crisp metallic sound. His eyes lit up. The life-saving silver coin lay on the ground not far away. “Yeah!” he shouted, dropping down and scrambling toward it like a child rolling across the floor.
Just as he was about to celebrate the end of his suffering, Chen Youzai’s vision blurred. A foot came down squarely on the hand he had finally managed to stretch toward the coin. Through the gaps between people’s legs, he watched in despair as three or four naked men fought over the silver coin. Moments later, the commotion receded into the distance, and someone ran off laughing with the prize.