Chapter 40: Unveiling the Mystery

  Chu Fei Fan and Su Jin Er walked into the leftmost cave, the cave was still pitch black, only Su Jin Er's mobile phone emitted a faint light.

  "I think my phone is running out of battery, and it seems like we've only walked less than half the way." Su Jiner looked at her phone's remaining battery life.

  "And what about my phone?!"

  "Your phone's electricity must be reserved."

  "Do you think our phones will have signal in this place?"

  Su Jiner sniffed, furrowed her brow and said: "Do you smell a strong odor, like the stench of a dead animal's carcass?"

  She felt like vomiting as soon as she smelled a bit of it.

  "Is it possible that there's an animal carcass up ahead?"

  "You've noticed, haven't you, we've been going downhill all along, and it seems like the terrain is getting lower and lower."

  Chu Fei nodded slightly, then thought again that she couldn't see and said: "I've found it, are we heading underground?"

  "Don't forget, we entered the cave from halfway up the mountain, which means we may be able to walk back down to the ground, or we might have chosen the right path at once, and that village is still at the foot of the mountain, it's just that we didn't discover it."

  "It's possible!"

  The stench of the corpse grew thicker, and Su Jin'er covered her mouth and leaned against the wall to vomit. Her stomach churned with wave after wave, as if she was about to throw up everything inside.

  Chu Fei stroked her back with a comforting pat. They had brought some food when they came out, but she hadn't felt hungry and so hadn't eaten.

  "Let's go back! This smell is really unbearable."

  The air circulation in the cave was not very good to begin with, and now that it's been polluted, they're having an even harder time breathing.

  "It won't work, if we don't go out, we will never find the answer."

  "Alright then! How about we eat something first, it's already two o'clock and we haven't even had lunch."

  "In this kind of environment, can you eat? I couldn't eat."

  "Alright, let's hurry up and move forward."

  Her empty stomach was cramping in waves, and at that moment, her phone automatically shut down.

  "My phone is out of battery."

  "Looks like we have to hurry up and move forward, my phone's battery is running low too."

  They quickened their pace, fear gradually occupying their originally calm hearts. They had walked so far yet still hadn't seen an exit. The terrain continued to extend downward, as if it was a passageway leading to the eighteenth level of hell. They completely didn't know in which direction they were heading, nor did they know what kind of world lay at the end of the cave. Unknown things always made people fearful.

  Su Jiner vomited again, and Chu Feifan also couldn't bear it and vomited. In this warm cave, the corpses rotted relatively quickly.

  "We're close to that disgusting corpse, I just want to get out of this haunted place immediately." Su Jin'er said with her hand covering her chest in distress.

  "I think we can see the corpses now."

  Chu Fei Fan held up his phone and took a closer look, saying: "Perhaps that's not the carcass of an animal, but a human."

  At a distance of one or two meters from them, a corpse was lying horizontally. They pinched their noses and slowly approached, and the face of the corpse could no longer be seen clearly.

  Chu Fei Yan stared at the corpse with wide eyes, if he wasn't mistaken, it should be Zhang Yang's body. How did he end up dead here?! And who was it that killed him?!

  "It's Zhang Yang."

  "What? His face has rotted to this extent and you can still recognize him. I think even his mother may not be able to recognize him."

  "Whether his mother can recognize him or not is none of my business. I remember his clothes, this is what he was wearing when we rescued Li Yiqian."

  "But I remember Li Jing telling us that he was caught! How could he have died here?"

  "I also find it strange, could Li Jing be deceiving us?" After a pause, Chu Fei Fan continued: "I might know where the entrance of this cave is, I really didn't expect it to be like this."

  "Where is it?"

  "Let's just keep moving forward! Go back and call the police over, next time we come, we'll bring everything we need to use, and come together with everyone."

  Su Jiner nodded in agreement, facing the rotting corpse and the suffocating stench, no one wanted to stay here any longer. They had to leave before Chu Feifan's phone ran out of battery, or they would have to grope their way forward, not knowing what lay ahead.

  Although Chu Fei had guessed what was at the end of the cave entrance, it was just a guess after all, and he didn't have complete confidence.

  Just as they were passing by the corpse, it suddenly came to life. Zhang Yang's rotting hand was trembling, as if trying to lift it up.

  Su Jiner was frightened and shrank into Chu Feifan's arms, they stared at the corpse with wide eyes, waiting for its next reaction. Then, under the faint light of the phone, a mouse scurried out from under his hand, squeaking as it ran away.

  "It was just an old mouse! You scared me half to death, I thought we were going to run into a zombie or something!" Chu Fei Fan let out a sigh of relief and laughed.

  "We've encountered many strange things, I just can't figure out why Li Jing wanted to deceive me?"

  They walked and discussed the strange things that had happened recently. They went forward for a while, turned a corner, and then Chu Fei Fan squatted down to examine the ground. If he wasn't mistaken, this was where he and Zuo Yi had hidden that day. So this really was the cave in the woods, and if they went a bit further, they would be able to see the traces of Li Yi Qian's fire.

  As expected, he really saw the traces of burning fire, and there were still the ropes and plastic bags that Zhang Yang had brought over that day, but Li Yi Qian's roasted dog meat was nowhere to be seen. It was really unknown where Zhang Yang had caught a dog for Li Yi Qian to roast and eat, and his stomach churned with another wave of turmoil.

  "Someone has been here and even made a fire." Su Jinyan said, looking at things on the ground.

  "Yes, this is the cave where we rescued Li Yi Qian."

  "That means the woods are just ahead, we've already returned to school."

  I think so.

  They were just worried about not knowing where the cave would lead to and how to find their way back, but unexpectedly they returned directly to school. However, this did not reduce their worries, but instead increased their doubts. What was the purpose of this cave? It shouldn't be for hiding corpses.

  The road behind them was very smooth, and they had just walked to the school gate when they met Zuo Yi and Lin Yuan. Seeing Su Jin'er return safely, Lin Yuan happily hugged her.

  Chu Fei Fan roughly told them about their encounter and then asked Zuo Yi: "How are you guys?"

  "We found that strange Professor Zhang, but he refused to say anything. We had no choice but to go find our lovely chairman, but she said she can only talk if you are present."

  Chu Fei Fan felt a pang of unease, he secretly glanced at Su Jin Er and found that she seemed to be thinking about something, as if she hadn't heard Zuo Yi's words, Chu Fei Fan gave Zuo Yi a signal with his eyes.

  However, he cleared his throat and said loudly: "Since our senior sister wants to see me, let's go together then."

  He spoke louder on purpose, and all along he felt that his feelings for Jin'er were one-sided. She had never made any response, perhaps with this opportunity, he could know whether Su Jin'er had feelings for him or not.

  Lin Yuan also saw Su Jin'er spacing out, she used her elbow to nudge her and said: "Did you hear what Zuo Yi said? Big sis said that we have to see Chu Fei Fan before telling us the things she knows!"

  Su Jin'er came back to her senses and looked at Chu Fei Fan saying: "Oh! Then let's go together!"

  After she finished speaking, she walked forward by herself with a distracted look on her face. The three of them exchanged glances and followed in Su Jin'er's footsteps.

  Su Jiner kept thinking about why Zhang Yang's body would appear in the mountain cave. If it was really Zhang Yang who killed Xu Mengguang, then who killed Zhang Yang? Or did Zhang Yang commit suicide because he was exposed for his crime and wanted to escape? But that didn't seem very likely either. If he wanted to kill himself, why would he still try to escape? What kind of hidden truth was behind all this? And what about the person who inhaled strange gas by themselves, who were they and how were they connected to these events? The more she thought, the more her head hurt, and she subconsciously rubbed her temples.

  "Jin'er, what are you thinking about? You're so absorbed?" Lin Yuan asked, holding her arm.

  "There's nothing, just thinking about all the things we've encountered, feeling very strange, but can't figure it out. Chu Fei Fan, do you have a way to find a forensic doctor? I think I now know the cause of Zhang Yang's death."

  "Sure! But didn't you say you knew Li Jing from the police station? Maybe she'd be willing to help."

  "I'm now very suspicious of her, I think she always intentionally or unintentionally leads me into a dead end."

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