Ghost Record

  I asked Tiantian if she knew where the exit was, but she said she didn't know. If even Tiantian doesn't know, what can we do?

  The little beast of a brother didn't take it lying down, he slapped my head and said: "You still dare to say I wet my pants? You're not scared silly too? Who are you talking to? Stupid, stupid, stupid!"

  Even Lian Tongtong didn't know the way out, how could I still have the heart to waste words with him? I shouted: "If you don't want to die, hurry up and find a way out!"

  The little beast of a brother is only five or six years older than me, I didn't treat him as an adult at all. Although I'm only fifteen, I also don't consider myself a child.

  We turned a big circle in the cave and returned to this red-spotted snake skin. Driven by curiosity, I climbed up this 30-degree small slope and came to the front of this red-spotted snake skin.

  It was too shocking, the largest snake I had seen before was a python with flower patterns that Huang Yao and Huang Laobo encountered when they went to Xian Dian Ding to pick herbs. But it was only as thick as a thigh, this snake as thick as a bucket is not on the same level at all, such a big snake can swallow a water buffalo! Just thinking about it makes me shiver with fear.

  I touched the snake skin with my hand, and just the scales were as big as half an egg. I don't know how long this big snake has shed its skin. The snake skins I've seen in the water ditch and grass are usually black or grayish white, but this red and white snake skin is the first time I've seen it, maybe it's related to the environment of the mountain cave. At this moment, how far is the red-spotted python that shed its skin from us? If we run around, who knows, we might even run into its nest and get killed.

  The situation is worse than we thought, we're not just lost, there's a huge snake in this cave, our lives are at risk, it's hard to say if we can get out alive, let alone find those four police officers.

  Although the hope of walking out feels very slim, our emotions are also very low, but we can't give up, right? Tiantian is also thinking of a way for me, she told me to find a place with water, as long as there's flowing water, she can dive in and find an exit, then send us out through the water. Hearing Tiantian say this, I suddenly felt my legs go weak, how come I didn't think of that?

  The beastly little brother saw me slapping my thigh non-stop, thinking I was scared silly, and insisted on asking me some weak-minded questions that even a three-year-old could answer.

  I told him to shut up, if he wants to get out, just follow me. Now we all know there's a red-striped snake in this cave, if it attracts the big snake, nine lives won't be enough to die.

  We've been in here for three or four hours, and it's probably around midnight now. It's also dark outside the cave. We're walking in this vast and labyrinthine cave, not caring where we end up, just following the path that slopes downward.

  After walking for more than half an hour, we arrived at a large dome hall. This dome hall is even bigger than two basketball courts and is about eight stories high. The dome hall seems to be carved out of a single large stone from the inside, and there is not a single crack on the rock wall. In the middle of the eight-story-high dome top, there is a hole as big as a bucket, and a column of water rushes down from the hole, forming a deep pool as big as a classroom.

  It's pitch black here, if you turn off the flashlight, it's impossible to see anything. Looking at this eight-story-high dome hall, plus the water column may be the river flowing down from the ground, we can infer that we are at least 50 meters deep from the ground at this time, which means we are under the ground below 12 floors, or even deeper.

  Because there are people around me, it's inconvenient for me to call Tiantian out. Even if that beastly little brother can't see Tiantian, it's also inconvenient for me and Tiantian to talk.

  Tongtong asked me to find water, but when I found the water, it didn't let her out. Isn't that the same as not finding it? If we go back the way we came, it's hard to get out, and if we're unlucky, we'll end up in a snake's belly.

  I thought for a moment and called over the beastly little brother, asking him if he believed in ghosts. The beastly little brother straightened his back and said that as a former proletarian revolutionary warrior, how could he be feudalistic and superstitious. I shone my flashlight on the crotch of his pants, which had been urinated on earlier, and laughed, saying "Don't try to fool me, do you really believe or not?" The beastly little brother then said in a very low voice, "I don't believe, but I've encountered it before!"

  I said to him, "Isn't this indirectly saying you believe me? You've been beating around the bush for so long, now I'm telling you, if you see any of my secrets later on, you mustn't breathe a word, or else both of us will be dead."

  I was just scaring him, but his head nodded like a chick pecking at rice, swearing that he absolutely wouldn't tell anyone. I shone my flashlight on the crotch of his pants with urine stains and told him to quickly go over there and take off his underwear and throw it away! Don't come over if I didn't call you.

  After the little beast brother left, I turned off the flashlight and called out to Tóng Tóng. In this extremely dark cave, Tóng Tóng's whole body was emitting a more pronounced green glow, she was floating above the water pool, with a chubby little face, smiling at me, then suddenly dove into the water pool.

  After waiting for three to five minutes, Tongtong floated out of the water surface and stood on it again. She told me that this pool leads to an underground river, the deeper the river is, the colder it gets, and you can't reach the ground.

  Tongtong had just finished speaking and then dived into the water column that was rushing straight down. After a few minutes, she floated back up to the surface. She told me again that this is the bottom of the Xun River, and the water column is a whirlpool formed by the rocky cave entrance at the bottom of the Xun River, with several layers of rock as thick as a building separating the top of the cave from the riverbed.

  After listening to Tongtong, I couldn't help but look up at the top of the cave. Even if we could fly to the top of the cave, how would we get through these several layers of thick rock? The water pressure at the bottom of the river is not small either. The water column rushes straight down from the top of the cave, and a cow pulled down there would probably be washed away, let alone a person!

  In fact, even if you enter a deeper cave and get lost, the distance from the ground is not very far, just tens of meters upwards. This is like saying on the vast ocean that it's only one kilometer to land, but it's one kilometer downwards, which is unrealistic.

  Tongtong told me to go back and look for water again, maybe I can find an underground river that flows upwards. As soon as I heard there was an underground river flowing upwards, the water flowed higher, my brain got flooded! Tongtong stood with his hands on his hips and glared at me, asking what that spring water was.

  Wow! I suddenly realized that the spring water is actually coming from an underground river. As long as we can find such an underground river, we can totally rely on the spring water to come up.

  Tongtong drilled back into the willow wood, I called out to my little brother that he could come over, but after shouting twice there was no response. I turned on the flashlight and shone it over, but didn't see anyone. I panicked and searched the entire cave again, even checking the gaps between the rocks, but still couldn't find him.

  Where did he go? How can he just leave without saying a word, it's unreasonable and illogical! I shouted again several times, but no one answered. Then I asked Tiantian if she saw anyone in the cave, or where that beastly uncle went.

  Tongtong told me that there was a crack on the wall underground, and it's estimated that he fell inside. Under Tongtong's guidance, I found the crack, and it was really strange - this crack was actually covered with a layer of stone-colored mucus at the entrance, no wonder I didn't see it earlier.

  I used my foot to pry open the membrane, but it closed again immediately. I simply picked up the membrane with my hand and threw it aside, then shone a police flashlight downwards. Wherever the light landed was all water, there wasn't even a landing point, wouldn't falling in mean drowning?

  I told Tongtong to go down and take a look, Tongtong floated down along the stone seam, and soon floated back up, saying that it was an accumulation of water below. Tongtong compared the size of this accumulation of water, estimating it to be about two football fields in size!

  I asked her how deep it was, and if the little beast brother was underneath. Tongtong told me it wasn't very deep, about three stories high! Hearing Tongtong say that three stories isn't deep scared me wide-eyed, indeed the water ghost's and human's definition of depth is different, for me anything over 3 meters is very deep, I'm afraid there are water monsters inside.

  Tongtong told me it's safe in the water, Uncle Beast didn't see him under the water. He wasn't under the water, so where did that beast go?

  I want to go down and take a look, ask Tiantian if he wants to jump down, will jumping from such a height break our waists? Tiantian calls me to the side of that small pool, this small pool can lead to the big pool below the stone seam.

  But I'm holding a flashlight, how can I get in the water, if it gets wet and breaks, I'll be in trouble.

  Tongtong told me to wait a moment, then jumped into the water. Before long, she swam up with a fish weighing 20-30 kilograms, its entire body white. Tongtong asked me to put the flashlight into the fish's mouth, and after I did so, the fish swallowed it into its belly in one gulp.

  The fish swallowed the flashlight and dove into the water, after a while, Tongtong emerged from the surface of the water and said that the flashlight was placed on the stone at the bottom of the water pool, let me jump in!

  I took two steps back, then rushed to the edge of the pond and jumped into the water. Before I could feel the chill of the water, my head spun and I felt as if I had drunk too much. I knew that Tongtong was possessing me. When I came to, I was already on the ground, next to a pond about two football fields in size.

  I stood up, took the flashlight and randomly shone it around. When I shone it on the mucous stone seam from earlier, I was so scared that I sat down on the ground. No wonder my little brother wasn't seen anywhere, at this moment he was stuck to the top of the hole on the left side of the stone seam, about three stories high above me.

  That is to say, the beast fell into the crevice of the sticky stone, but did not fall into the big pool, but instead stuck directly to the top of a cave on one side. Then what was it that stuck the beast, and why didn't he shout for help?

  I let Tóng Tóng float up and put him down to see if he was alive or dead. Tóng Tóng floated over to the beast's side, then loudly told me that the beast uncle had just fainted. After Tóng Tóng finished speaking, I saw the beast fall from the top of the three-story hole into the large water tank. Thanks to Tóng Tóng's help, his falling posture was even more beautiful than a diver's, so he didn't get hurt. What I don't understand is why Tóng Tóng didn't let me use this posture to jump down earlier? Maybe I wouldn't have been willing to do it myself either.

  After the beast went into the water and came up, Tongtong quickly slipped back into the willow tree. He was like a drunkard who suddenly became sober. Originally he had been in a daze, but the icy cold water of the pond was enough to wake him up.