Chapter 5 The Vanished Third Person

  Su Yi looked at me searching for half a day without any result, and anxiously said: "What's the idea, I'll say it out loud, let's discuss it together."

  I thought so too, and stood up to say: "Actually, I think of the old man and Wen Long disappearing, apart from having a voice and suddenly disappearing, there is another common point."

  Wu Feng said: "We also discussed it together, but didn't find any more common ground."

  I shook my head and said, "That's because the clues provided were unclear."

  Su Yi said: "Then, what is the third same point?"

  "I said: 'That's when both Old Master and Wen Long were injured and bleeding.'"

  "It's impossible, Sergeant was fine when he disappeared, and there's nothing here, how could he have been injured."

  Su Yi also echoed: "Yes, according to the situation provided by Pang San, my father did not get hurt when he disappeared, and this place had already been cleaned up at that time, let alone getting hurt."

  I said: "I didn't say they were seriously injured, but judging from all the clues, their fingers were scratched to varying degrees."

  Wu Feng sneered, "I now think you're just like Conan. You weren't even there at the time, so how can you be certain that their fingers were cut?" This was also everyone's question, as they all looked at me with questioning eyes.

  I continued: "Because of Wen Long's spitting sound and the Creat poster." No one responded, so I went on to say, "Wen Long is a soldier and doesn't smoke, he usually doesn't spit, so this action should be a habitual action." I glanced at Little Du.

  Xiao Du suddenly reacted and said, "Could it be that his finger was cut and bleeding, he sucked the blood with his mouth and then spat it out?" Everyone looked at Xiao Du again, their strange gaze seemed to say: How did you know? Xiao Du felt embarrassed under everyone's gaze and said, "I pricked my hand while mending my pants yesterday and treated it the same way. I just poked a small hole in my mouth, so I applied a band-aid."

  I continued: "That's right, Wen Long was the same. And after Old Master disappeared, Fat Three found this." I took out the outer packaging of the band-aid that Fat Three gave me yesterday and said, "Old Master had already opened the band-aid at that time, proving that Old Master was also injured at that time, but not seriously, and could be stuck with a band-aid."

  "Alright, I admit it makes sense, but what does this have to do with their disappearance?"

  "So it's just a hypothesis, I'm thinking that their disappearance might be because of bloodshed, and the blood opened some kind of mechanism. That's why I'm looking for bloodstains. But obviously, there are no bloodstains here. Maybe my hypothesis is wrong."

  I had just finished speaking, but then Su Mei suddenly snatched the magnifying glass from my hand and walked to a position not far from me, crouched down to observe. In just over ten seconds, she stood up, pointed to the ground, turned to me and said: "Maybe your hypothesis is correct, there are bloodstains here."

  I ran towards Su, but Wu Feng was obviously faster than me. He also snatched the magnifying glass and crouched down in front of Su, looking at the ground where she pointed. Sure enough, there was a small drop of blood there.

  Wu Feng looked up at Su Yi and said: "How did you know that there would be bloodstains here?"

  Su Yi said: "Dad's habit, every time he gets hurt, he will first find something to bandage, then use force to fling the blood on his hand away, and then bandage the wound."

  Wu Feng and I exchanged a glance, and deep down it seemed like we had indeed been in such a situation before. But what exactly it was still couldn't be recalled.

  "There is also." Wu Wen shouted beside Su Yu, "Still not pointing at one."

  This sentence is even more explosive, Wu Feng fell to the ground and looked at the place pointed by Wu Wen, suddenly bursting out a sentence: "There are at least six or seven bloodstains here."

  I'm going! I reckon my face turned green at that time. Big brother, you're joking a bit too much, we've only lost two people in total, right? One sentence from you and six or seven bloodstains appear, what kind of stuff is that? Are you even letting Lao Yezi and Wen Long live? Although it's said that Wen Long can take on dozens alone, this is still too frightening.

  Wu Feng looked carefully for a while and said: "It should be from different periods, only one is fresh, the rest are from very early on."

  "Big brother, can you please not stutter, I was almost scared to death." I patted my chest. I looked up and saw that Su Yi had already put down her equipment and pulled out a needle box from inside it. I snatched the needle box away and said, "Wait a minute, I'm not finished speaking yet."

  Su Yu raised her foot to kick me, but I'm quite experienced now. This time, I dodged quickly and managed to avoid it, but the needle box in my hand was snatched away by Su Yu. It was a feint. Wu Feng stood up and said to Su Yu, "Since we know the method, let's not waste this little gathering. We also need to make preparations."

  Su Yi let out a sigh, put away her needle box, and looked at me saying: "Great detective, speak quickly."

  I made a gesture of surrender, then said: "To make a long story short, first, this passage can probably only allow one person to enter at a time, because the last two times the old man and Wen Long had people with them, but nothing happened, only the two of them entered. Secondly, the speed of entry is likely to be very fast, because they disappeared without making a sound. Finally, and most importantly, this door will close, and the closing speed is also very fast, so it must be that the person is at the door, and the blood is here, in order to enter."

  Su Yuer was taken aback for a moment, clearly having not considered these possibilities. Wu Feng followed up by saying: "So what do we do now?"

  "I said, 'Everyone's stupid, only a few people are left in the house, and then we all stand here, trying to observe this drop of blood. See where there is an entrance, how to open it, how to close it, and then think of a way to block that entrance and go down to rescue people.' I was very proud of my own idea."

  Wu Feng gave a thumbs up and gestured for the others to leave, so only six of us were left in the room: me, Wu Feng, Su Yi, Xiao Du, Wu Wen, and Wu Bin. We all gathered around the spot where the blood was dripping, with Su Yi volunteering to be responsible for the blood dripping, while the rest of us observed. A bright red drop of blood fell quickly to the ground, and we all stared with wide eyes, watching in amazement as nothing happened anywhere else in the room.

  Wu Feng stared at me blankly for a moment, then said: "Maybe your guess is wrong."

  Su Yi also stood up and said: "Don't you guys look carefully? Really nothing happened?"

  Wu Wen said: "I have received professional training. If something happens, I will definitely find out at the first time. In fact, nothing has happened."

  "I said, 'This is impossible. There's clearly bloodstains here, at the very least something should have happened. Otherwise, our ancestors would be stupid, what's the point of dripping blood if not for some sort of ritual or oath-taking between sworn brothers?'"

  Wu Feng patted me on the shoulder and said: "Maybe it's really about making brothers with a ritual. Forget it, let's go up and talk again, looks like we failed this time too."

  I let out a wry smile and sighed, originally thinking I was quite handsome for solving this unsolved mystery. But the result was that we made a big fuss over a blood test. Wu Feng had already led his people outside, I shook my head and found Su Yi still staring at the drop of blood on the ground. I patted her and said: "Sorry, it's my fault, let's go." She nodded but didn't move.

  I had no choice but to follow Wu Feng. The sunlight outside was dazzling, while my heart was a dull gray. What the hell is going on? Wu Feng turned his head and looked at me, saying: "Don't be discouraged, at least we've made some progress."

  I dejectedly said: "What's a little bit? It's obviously just a tiny bit."

  Wu Feng smiled and said, "Isn't that a bit too much?" I knew he was joking, but this time I really couldn't laugh. Wu Feng looked down at the house below and said, "Hey, where's Su Yi?"

  I waved my hand and said, "Just now I saw blood over there, it should be behind." Then I raised my head and saw Wu Feng and the others' faces that had lost all their color. A chill ran up my entire body, I quickly turned my head back, my hair standing on end immediately.

  Su Yi has disappeared!

  "You succeeded, but we failed." After a long time, Wu Feng was the first to speak up.

  I slowly calmed down and said, "Actually, I also failed. This mechanism is not that fast, it should be a delayed mechanism."

  Wu Feng said: "Delayed mechanism, what does it mean?"

  I said: "It's just opening the switch of the mechanism first, and then it takes some time for the mechanism to really start."

  "What should we do now?" Wu Feng said.

  "I gritted my teeth and said, 'Let's try another experiment.'"

  This time we got more people in, Wu Wen was bleeding, we stared with wide eyes, watching and waiting, one minute, five minutes, ten minutes, fifteen minutes.

  "I said," I began, "it absolutely wasn't this long just now."

  Wu Feng nodded and said: "I was just thinking about this thing, I saw a ghost."

  "Is there another way?"

  Wu Feng nodded and said: "I thought of that too, Wu Wen. You were the last one to leave, we all backed out. I really want to see what this bird device is."

  "I said: 'Big brother, you're playing with your life. Or rather, someone else's life.'"

  Wu Wen said: "I'm fine, we can only take it one step at a time now."

  I stopped talking, and the people outside were observing the situation inside through the windows and doors. We retreated one by one without any issues. Wu Wen was the last to walk towards the door, and under everyone's gaze, he also walked a bit awkwardly. I can imagine how it would feel like having a special forces soldier walking out of a fashion show on a beautiful T-stage. Wu Wen cautiously approached the door at an average speed, and we just watched him until he walked out of the gate without anything happening. Oh my god, this time I really saw a ghost!

  The people outside are getting up, I can understand this situation, even I feel a chill on the back of my neck. This time, it's probably really hard to hold down these temporary workers who want to escape.

  "Is it related to blood type?" I shouted loudly at Wu Feng, and at the critical moment, I played a trick of deceiving people in my daily life, diverting everyone's attention.

  "Don't talk nonsense." Wu Feng also said loudly, "Do ancient people still know how to determine blood type?"

  The crowd listened to the two of us speaking loudly like we were arguing, and slowly quieted down again. I said: "Who's bullshitting, isn't it bullshitting that people disappear in such a situation? Let's not care about bullshitting now, as long as it's a theory, we have to try it."

  Wu Feng stopped talking, because the others also supported my idea, and they all looked at Wu Feng with a "let's try it" gaze. Wu Feng lowered his head and thought for a moment, saying: "I'm type A blood, Old Master is type A, Su Yi seems to be type AB, Wen Long..."

  "The class monitor is of blood type AB." Wu Wen said with a smile, "I saw it when we had our physical examination."

  I nodded and said: "I'm type O blood. It's clearer now, maybe only people with A or AB blood types can go in..."

  Wu Wen patted me and said: "I'm also type AB, I've told the class monitor before that we have the same blood type."

  I'm so angry! I'd like to beat up Wu Wen right now, even though I might not be able to take him down even with a dozen or several dozen more of me. Just when I finally felt like I had found a tiny lead again, he came along and messed it all up with one sentence. The crowd is stirring once more.

  "Wu Feng shouted, 'What's the panic about?' The crowd slowly calmed down again. Wu Feng continued to arrange, 'Little Du, take the others back to the campsite, tell Pang San to stop exploring, disperse the other personnel, and only leave a few of you behind. We'll hold on for three more days, if it still doesn't work out, we can only report the situation to our superiors.'"

  Xiao Du took the others and left, leaving only the four of us standing alone downstairs. I asked Xiao Du to leave me some equipment, who knows what might happen, having some equipment is still good. I carried that heavy equipment on my back. Then I followed Wu Feng into the house again.

  "Huh." Wu Wen exclaimed as soon as he entered the house, "Why didn't my blood drip in?"

  We quickly arrived at the place where the blood was dripping, and indeed, Wu Wen's drop of blood was still intact on the ground, while Su Yi's blood had already seeped into the soil. Wu Feng took out a tissue paper, gently wiped it, and Wu Wen's drop of blood was wiped onto the tissue paper.

  "Looks like your ancestors don't recognize you." I joked.

  "How is this possible." Wu Wen also scratched his head and said, "There's still room for improvement."

  Wu Feng took out a needle box and dripped his own blood onto the ground. Before long, the blood had merged into the earth. We immediately looked around in all directions, but there was no movement, no reaction, just silence.

  "I said: 'Nothing has happened, although the ancients acknowledged your blood.'"

  Wu Feng did not refute, perhaps he could not find anything to refute either. He said resolutely: "You keep an eye on me, I'll move around, if there's a situation you record it."

  I said: "Big brother, at least give you a rope or something. If you fall down, we can still pull you up."

  Wu Feng shook his head and said, "This won't do. If that mechanism opens when you're pulling me up, and I'm stuck in a position where I'm neither up nor down, then when the door closes, it'll crush me to death."

  I nodded and said: "I admit you're right, but this is playing with one's life."

  I think Wu Feng had a somewhat urgent tone when he replied: "There's no other way, we have to stake our lives on this."

  Tension spread through everyone's nerves, Wu Feng was tense, and we were tense. He slowly walked towards the place where those people disappeared, and we could only stare at what might happen with our eyes wide open. As it turned out, this experiment was indeed successful. When Wu Feng reached that place, the mechanism was triggered. The ground opened up, or rather, a slope was formed, and the ground suddenly became a sixty-degree angle slope. Although Wu Feng said he had prepared for everything, at that moment he clearly had no reaction at all and fell down instantly. Wu Wen and Wu Bin rushed towards him in the first instance, but it was still too late by over ten steps. The ground returned to its original state, and Wu Feng disappeared.