Chapter Fifty-Five Blind Fish

  My heart skipped a beat and I almost crawled out, then hugged Su Haicheng from behind and stuttered: "There, there are eyes over there!"

  Kakaxi was crouching on the ground, roasting sweet potatoes he had brought with him using an alcohol stove. He had insisted on buying this stove initially, citing a recommendation from a zombie survival manual written by Americans. He looked up and said in a bad temper: "Pfft, people who show affection should all die!"

  I just felt that I had gone too far and quickly let him go, saying: "Over there, on the wall, there are eyes, glowing eyes."

  "A ghost?" Kakashi exclaimed, and before he had even finished speaking, he was already heading over with his flashlight. Well, he was just that kind of person who would rush over to see the commotion even if it was a ghost.

  This time, not only did he rush over with him, but also Hei Lian. Hei Lian had also changed into the cheap street stall camouflage suit that Kaka Xi had previously worn. Was Kaka Xi the kind of person who followed the crowd, and even Hei Lian was infected by him?

  Su Haicheng turned to me: "Don't be afraid, it's just a fish. When we first came down, we were also startled by those eyes."

  "Fish?" I exclaimed in surprise, but what I saw were clearly a pair of eyes on the wall.

  Su Haicheng helped Kaka Xi flip the sweet potatoes, saying: "A kind of fish that is unique to the underground dark river. The whole body is black, without eyes, but there are two fluorescent points on the top of the head that reflect light. I guess it's a protective color for self-protection."

  "Is it really fish?"

  "Yes, but I also saw it in a book before, and this is the first time I've seen a real one of these fish."

  Arrange your clothes, sit down by the stove, Hei Lian and Kaka Xi have also returned, and they are really holding a fish in their hands. The whole body is black fish. At the same time, Ah Tian has also returned, and his hands are also holding two of this kind of fish.

  Atian began to dissect the fish with a knife, and Kakaxi also studied it with relish. I leaned in close to Su Haicheng and asked, "Can this fish be eaten?"

  "Don't worry, you can eat. You'll have some later too. We've been stuck down here for a whole day and night already, and who knows how many more days we'll be stuck here."

  "Hasn't that key, whatever lock it is, or even the Ghost Gate thingy been found?"

  Atian was helping to cut the fish with a knife on the other side, and said: "I now suspect that the legend of opening the ghost gate with some key and the dead returning is referring to the place where we passed through with floating corpses. Didn't you guys break the balance there when you came over? If not careful, the corpses there have all floated up to the surface of the lake by now. Isn't that the return of the dead?"

  In my mind, the scene automatically emerged. Under the clear and serene moonlight, the calm lake surface surrounded by mountains began to bubble up, and then one after another corpse floated to the surface, second, third... soon the entire lake was filled with corpses. Some of the corpses gradually regained consciousness and started walking towards the lakeshore. Then on the sandy beach by the lake, the corpses lined up in a queue and walked back into the village. And then? They would clean up the ruins in the village and continue living. Nobody knew that actually everyone in the village was dead.

  The dead have all come back!

  "Four one!" Su Haicheng patted me lightly and handed me a fish. I finally came to my senses, took a long breath, and accepted the fish.

  In this kind of environment, I'm not so particular anymore. Seeing them directly use their hands to grab it, I also grabbed some over, carefully picking out the thorns, only to discover that this fish has very few thorns, except for one on the main spine, there aren't any others. The fish isn't very smelly either, with a slightly salty taste from Kaka's seasoning, it's not bad. Maybe I was really hungry, which is why I think this fish is okay.

  While eating, Su Haicheng said: "Our current situation is that we can't find a way out. There are two possibilities: first, there's nothing below us; second, we took the wrong path and couldn't find the lock for this key. We've been here for a whole day, but we've circled back several times."

  Kakaxi blew fish and said: "According to the survival manual, if there is underground water in the cave, we can follow the water and definitely get out."

  "A Tian retorted, 'Do you think all underground water is as big as this pond? Some are only as thick as an arm, do you think you can drill through with your lock bone skill? Go with the flow? Be realistic!'"

  I still had fish in my mouth, and I quickly raised my hand. Su Haicheng looked at me and said, "Speak."

  I hastily swallowed what was in my mouth and said, "I told Kakashi that this formation and the tomb on the mountain are definitely connected. It should be the same Feng Shui master who set up the array. If we can get out of here, maybe we can start from the tomb."

  "Girl, we also need to be able to get out, right? If you guys hadn't come down, the three of us were already prepared to die in there."

  Kakashi climbed onto Tsunade's shoulder: "So didn't I just save your lives? So..."

  "Are you kidding me?" Ah Tian furrowed his brow and glared over, feeling that if Kakashi dared to say "with my body as a guarantee", Ah Tian could beat him up.

  "Be a cow and a horse!"

  Hei Lian let out a long sigh, fell silent, and slightly turned his body, not looking at us. A Tian and Ka Ka Xi also stopped their quarrel and looked at Hei Lian.

  It wasn't until he felt like everyone was staring at him that he said, "I have no idea what's going on with my wife and kids now. They're probably worried about me too."

  Everyone fell silent. I didn't dare to speak, I was afraid that as soon as I spoke, I would burst into tears. Now I especially miss my parents. Su Haicheng said after everyone's silence: "Hei Lian, have you ever thought that your comrades who died were all sacrificed for the country's interests? Here, after so many years, with a wife and children, you can completely put down this obsession. Live a good life."

  "National interest? Ha! You sound like a leader when you say that. But I think they're not doing it for the national interest, but for someone's personal interest. If we don't get to the bottom of this, I'll always have a knot in my heart, and I won't be able to sleep peacefully, every night I'll dream of those comrades who suddenly got into an accident and were hastily cremated!"

  Everyone was silent again, and after a long silence, Hei Lian stared straight at Su Haicheng: "Do you know something that you haven't told us?"

  Su Haicheng remained silent, and Ah Tian broke the silence: "Alright, alright. No matter what, our priority now is to get out first. With equipment, it's much easier. If all else fails, we can just blast our way out. This time if we can't find any clues, we can prepare for a third or fourth attempt. For now, let's not think about anything else and focus on escaping with our lives! That's the most important thing. Hurry up and eat, after finishing, we'll make another trip."

  After eating, everyone packed up their gear and divided it among themselves to carry. Or rather, the three of them carried the heavy stuff, so Kakashi and I had a much easier time.

  To save electricity, the five of us walked with Su Haicheng in front holding a flashlight forward, Hei Lian in the second row holding a flashlight in the middle, and Ah Tian at the back holding a flashlight backward. This was also my first time knowing that when there is an unknown danger, it is necessary to shine the flashlight backward.

  Cave, this is a cave. Formed by underground water, it's a very strange landscape of mountain caves. The ground is an irregular platform. It's naturally formed. Next to it are also irregular stones, with stone bamboo shoots and stone pillars. However, it's dark here, but not as beautiful as the colorful lights shining out in the scenic area. Those suddenly appearing stone bamboo shoots are completely dangerous, they can scratch our skin outside of our clothes, and the short ones will trip us up.

  As we walked forward cautiously, Su Haicheng was also talking with Hei Lian in front.

  "Black face, when you first came to carry out the mission, didn't you initially not know what the specific task was?"

  "Yes, we've been here for several days, wandering around in the mountains before receiving our mission."

  "We found a half-burned diary in the ruins of our village that was burned nine years ago."

  "A diary? It should be Ma Zi's. At that time, we were all recruited as soldiers when we were still in junior high school. Only he was able to attend high school and only he kept a diary."

  "It can be seen from the diary that they didn't know it was to burn the village when they entered the village for the second time. We didn't either. At first, we were just asked to come and deal with things. We followed the usual procedure for infectious diseases. The bodies were buried deeply. It wasn't until the third day in the afternoon that we received a notice to set fire and burn everything away. In other words, this team that came to investigate the private hunting may not have known their true mission either, which was to find us."