Chapter 26: Meat Soup X Nasal Mucus Worm

  I answered the phone call from Village Chief Du, and he sounded extremely anxious on the phone. He said: "Thirteen, I've found Du Jie's father. He's not doing well, and he wants to see you before he goes. But only you, no one else is allowed to go with you. He says he has some secrets he wants to tell you."

  "I said: 'Okay, I'll come right away, where are you?'"

  Du Yizhi said: "You've been walking along the village tail to Xianrenmai, and now we're at Xianrenmai. Du Jie's dad said that only you can come, and absolutely don't tell anyone else."

  I only thought about seeing Du Jie's father as soon as possible, without thinking too much about why they ran to Xianren Mai. I said to Kui Ruo Lan and Chen Qiuyang: "I have something that needs to be done immediately now. You take care of Huang Yongfei here, the medical staff should arrive soon."

  After leaving home, I sprinted all the way. The rain grew heavier again, with low visibility, and every step I took splashed mud onto my thin raincoat, but at this point, I couldn't care less. I had to hurry up and get to Xianrenmai to see Du Jie's father. 20 minutes later, I finally arrived at the foot of Xianrenmai Mountain, panting heavily.

  This is a lush forest with no roads, growing all kinds of tall trees and green thorns and moss. The scenery reminds me of the humid and green south. Du Yizhi appeared from behind a giant tree, his whole body wet, and said to me: "Thirteen, you've finally arrived, hurry up, follow me."

  He turned around and ran into the dense jungle, I quickly followed behind him. The green plants all around were washed by the rain to be dark green and shiny, those grayish-black tree trunks were covered with countless snails, white, gray, black, each one was fatter than what I saw in the south.

  I followed Du Yizhi and ran for a long time, with no road in front of me, just breaking through the low shrubs and thorns to run forward. My inner doubts grew bigger and bigger, I didn't know why Du Jie's father, who was inconvenient to move, would come to such a difficult place. Fortunately, Du Yizhi finally stopped running in front of me.

  He pointed to a cave in front of him and said to me, "Du Jie's father is inside. You go in, all the secrets you want are hidden in this cave."

  This is a strange and rugged stone cave, with a very small entrance, only about 1 meter high, and the two sides are covered with dark green moss. The moss is also crawling with dense white, gray and black snails. There is no light inside, it looks like an unfathomable black hole, just like the mystery we have been searching for.

  I said to Du Yizhi: "Thank you."

  I stooped and walked into the cave. A faint firelight came from inside, casting a glow on the walls around me. The walls were made of a light gray stone that was very dry. I walked along the tunnel for several minutes before it suddenly opened up in front of me. Inside, it was surprisingly large and empty, about the size of a classroom. There were torches stuck into the stone walls, emitting the fragrance of pine resin. On the ground, there was a long black wooden table, with two rows of white bowls placed on it, one row on each side, for a total of 12. And at the far end of the black wooden table, sat an old man - Du Jie's father.

  I looked at the bowls and chopsticks on the table and said, "Here, here is where dinner will be served?"

  Du Jie's father raised his hand high and signaled for me to sit down.

  I sat down in front of him. He stared at me, and I suddenly discovered something strange - at this moment, Du Jie's father had an extremely spirited gaze, a sharpness that ordinary old people rarely possess. His face was full of dignity. He said: "You're so persistent, I think it's time for me to tell you the truth."

  "I said: 'Old man, thank you, I'm ready.'"

  "No rush, I believe you must be thirsty from running over here, have a sip of the soup first. I know you're from the South, people from the South all like drinking soup."

  I saw an old man walking out from inside, and it was actually Du Huang Niu. He seemed not to recognize me, lowering his head like a giant snail slowly moving along, holding in his hands a white porcelain bowl covered with a lid. He placed the white porcelain bowl in front of me, then silently retreated without making a sound, looking just like Du Jie's father's servant.

  "Please have some soup, it's old fire stew which is a favorite among you southerners."

  I was indeed thirsty, so I didn't stand on ceremony with Du Jie's father either. I lifted the lid of the bowl and immediately a refreshing aroma wafted up to my nose. There were the tender aromas of mushrooms and meat. The broth in the white ceramic bowl presented a clear deep yellow color, just like the tea water brewed from high-quality tea leaves. On the surface of the soup floated two slices of white mushrooms and a piece of dark brown meat.

  I picked up the spoon and took a sip.

  Cool and sweet.

  "I said: 'Very delicious soup, very sweet, is it chicken or pork?'"

  Du Jie's father said lightly: "Human flesh."

  I was drinking my second mouthful of soup when I suddenly heard the two words "human flesh", and I was so shocked that all the soup in my mouth sprayed out. I stood up, staring at Old Man Du, saying: "Old man, what did you say?!"

  Du Jie's father revealed a sinister and eerie evil smile, saying: "I said it was human flesh, the flesh of that blonde-haired kid who came here to travel."

  Indescribable nausea, retching, and churning, my whole body convulsed, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't vomit. I desperately hoped to let out a loud whoosh and expel everything from my stomach, but what terrified me was that no matter how nauseous and queasy I felt, I just couldn't throw up. This terror left me chilled to the bone and convulsing.

  "You, you killed them" I hadn't even finished saying this when the back of my neck suddenly suffered a very violent attack. My eyes went black and my whole body was paralyzed, fainting away.

  I don't know how long it took, but I finally came to. My body was tied up with rough ropes. In front of me stood Du Jie's father, Du Huang Niu, Du Yi Zhi and several villagers from Liu Long Village. They looked like a group of ghosts crawling out of hell, emitting a rotten smell all over their bodies.

  "Another one has been added, Du Jie's father, what do you say, how to deal with him. The internal organs of that group of travelers have not been eaten yet, and now another one has been added."

  Du Jie's father sat in the middle, looking like the biggest leader in this village. He said coldly: "Then let him stay here for now. We'll go back to the village first, lest those people suspect us, and the police are still investigating us, one by one we'll deal with these intruders."

  "I shouted: 'Don't go away, you bunch of psychologically warped perverts, you cannibals?'"

  "Cannibals? Haha, this title is quite nice and fitting." Du Jie's father stood up and said to one of the elderly men: "Jianjun, you stay here and guard him."

  Jian Jun laughed strangely, revealing a row of rotten black teeth.

  Now only this big black tooth is staring at me, I must think of a way to escape from this cave as soon as possible. The longer the time drags on, the more dangerous I am, because they might suddenly want to eat me. Just thinking about it makes me shudder. These old people in Liulong Village are actually all mentally abnormal cannibals. My stomach suddenly started cramping again, producing a huge pain. Although Huier and Chen Qiuyang knew that I went out, but they didn't know where I went exactly. I must contact them as soon as possible, but my hands were tied up and the phone in my pants pocket was inaccessible.

  It seems that the only way now is this big black tooth that has been watching me.

  "I said: 'Old man, I'll give you money, just let me go.'"

  The big black teeth stared at me like a beast, and I felt that in his eyes, I was a piece of fragrant braised pork. He grinned strangely and said: "I'm almost ready to enter the coffin, what do I need money for? Heh heh, don't say anything else, I absolutely won't let this piece of fat meat go."

  His tongue stuck out, licking his lips and teeth. His tongue was very sharp and purple-black in color, with some large nasal mucus like those on the big trees outside the cave.

  A massive chill rose from my lower back, like a mushroom cloud erupting, and my forehead began to experience intense physiological reactions, with numbness, coldness, and dizziness...