See you again on the ground

  After finishing the noodles, I bid farewell to the old man and went upstairs. I saw Baishou Sheng still sleeping soundly, with a great deal of uncertainty still weighing on my mind.

  A month ago?

  Was Grandpa also here? The timing was just right, a strong intuition told me that it was Grandpa.

  As I was thinking, I saw a shadow swaying outside the window. At first, I thought it was someone from the opposite room coming over, so I turned over and pretended to sleep. But after turning over, before I could fall asleep, my mind became much clearer. After some thought, I felt something wasn't right - if it were someone from the opposite room entering, they wouldn't not knock on the door. As soon as this thought occurred to me, I immediately became vigilant.

  Suddenly, he felt a wave of dizziness and a surge of sleepiness crept over his head. Then, everything became unclear to him.

  When he woke up, he found that everyone in the house was sleeping soundly like me. I took a look and they were all there, except for that strange Qi Xie.

  "Is someone burning incense?"

  A thought surged in my mind, those human traffickers in the movie used aphrodisiacs to subdue their targets, but I never expected that today I would fall into the same trap.

  Isn't this house an illegal business? Selling organs?

  "Are you all awake?"

  A calm voice suddenly came from outside the door.

  "You old dead man, looking for death, how dare you come to provoke us!" Bai Shou Xing also woke up at this time and struggled to get up and beat the old man, but his legs were unable to exert any strength and he couldn't stand up, suddenly collapsing to the ground.

  "A few of you don't need to struggle anymore, the effect of this medicine hasn't worn off yet. I'm just doing business for money, things are urgent, and I had no choice but to use this method."

  "Someone has asked me to pass on a message to you: go back, don't proceed any further."

  The old man said hollowly, as if describing the tone of the person who said those words.

  "I've taken this person's money, so the matter will definitely be settled. I've already brought up the words, how to decide is your business." The old man said indifferently and turned around to leave.

  "Wait..." I looked anxious: "Old man, didn't someone enter the mountain last month?"

  "Hmm, I reckon it's not coming out." The old man's expression didn't show much emotion.

  My eyes moistened, my throat choked with sobs, and I couldn't utter a single sound.

  I never believed Grandpa would die, even when I saw those few photos of Grandpa's body, I still didn't believe it.

  If it's really Grandfather, I hope nothing happens to him.

  Fortunately, the old man did not have the intention of killing us.

  Half an hour after the effect of the medicine wore off, his physical strength was restored. Hei Shu was the first to stand up, and he walked out with a steady pace.

  "How come I don't see Qi Xie?" I looked around at the crowd, but still couldn't find any sign of Qi Xie.

  He glanced around at the crowd and finally said with a tone of disdain: "That kid is like that, I reckon he can't sleep well here."

  "I exclaimed in surprise: 'Then where did he go to sleep?'"

  "I don't know."

  I followed Hei Shu downstairs, and the old man was listening to the radio by himself. From his appearance, those trembling hands, a face full of age spots, plus the pair of presbyopic glasses on his face, it was impossible to tell that he was a cunning and astute person.

  But it's people like this who are the most intimidating.

  I, Hei Shu, tread carefully with a hundred precautions, after all, I had fallen for this old man's trick once before.

  "Disobedient, you will all die, go back, that place is not where you can go."

  The old man suddenly said without raising his head, his voice was very cold, as if a dead person was speaking, with no strength at all. This voice seemed very familiar, but I couldn't think of where I had heard it before for the time being.

  "Old man, we have to go in and rescue them no matter what. We're completely at a loss now. Can you give us some guidance?" My expression changed, becoming somewhat pale, just as I had imagined.

  Grandpa hasn't died yet, he's trapped in the mountain.

  Before, the photos they provided were definitely fake, just to prevent me from continuing to investigate.

  I always feel that every step I take, someone comes to advise me not to get involved in this matter. However, they don't know that the more they advise me like this, the more I want to intervene.

  Anyway, letting me give up is absolutely impossible.

  After waiting for a long time, the old man still didn't respond. I thought to myself, this old man is also doing things for money.

  "How should I address you, elder?" But Hei Shu asked for his name instead.

  Most people are afraid of this old man's name when they go out, but Hei Shu is very interested in him.

  This makes me think of something - a man of his age, in such a chaotic place, yet as calm as a Buddha statue; if he didn't have the ability, how could he possibly stand firm?

  "Lao Jiu Men is just a small dish, you three big families may have risen, but that place, once you go, there's no return."

  The old man's voice grew fainter and fainter. He reached out his hand to pull the quilt over him, closed his eyes, and stopped talking.

  I clearly saw a thread of fear in the old man's eyes, and a hint of regret.

  There's no return after going, what kind of concept is that? In my impression, only hell is the place where there's no return after going. After all, hell is always embellished with myths and is not credible.

  However, Hei Shu seemed to have lost interest in asking further after hearing the man's words, but I saw a hint of respect on his face.

  From the moment I saw Hei Shu in the Zhou family's large courtyard, I thought that with such a ferocious face, he would be an outlaw living under the muzzle of a gun. However, the feeling I got was indeed that way. He always spoke with weight, even Old Master Zhou showed him respect, but in front of this old man, there was an inexplicable feeling that added a hint of reverence.

  It's admirable, probably just like that.

  "Now..." Hyakushou opened his mouth, his eyes staring at the old man with a look that seemed to want to rush up and beat him.

  "Go back to your room." Hei Shu glanced at the figure and left two words before turning around and going upstairs.

  In the end, this matter also came to an end. We didn't want to stir up trouble outside of our own circle of influence either. Although this place is so deserted that not even birds would shit here, after all, there are still police forces present. Provoking them would be a problem, whether we could leave or not. After all, this isn't Changsha.

  I stood there until everyone went upstairs, stayed for a while, and then slowly went upstairs.

  Because I always can't figure out who this old man is entrusted by, is it Grandpa or Old Man Zhou's? Or maybe it's Skinny Uncle and the others?

  My room is on the second floor. Every time I finish walking up the first flight of stairs, I always feel like there's a gaze behind me, a chill runs down my spine. I quickly turn around to look at the quiet scene downstairs, no one's there. I couldn't help but laugh at myself, I must be too tired these past few days, getting all paranoid and jumpy.

  As soon as I lifted my foot, my gaze glanced up, and I was startled. I stared blankly at the person hanging high above, forgetting how to react.

  I thought I was seeing things wrong, so I rubbed my eyes hard and looked again. The person on top was still there, motionless.

  I was so scared that my legs went soft and I collapsed on the stairs.

  Now, my worldview has been subverted.

  A wooden board suspended in mid-air, merely a small piece of wood embedded in the ceiling, no thicker than an arm, and yet someone was lying on it, as steady as can be.

  In ancient times, there was a little dragon girl who slept with a rope. Now, however, there is someone who sleeps in mid-air. If I hadn't looked carefully with my eyes, I would have really thought that person was stuck to the ceiling.

  I recognized that person as Qi Xie, and I was immediately at a loss for words. Bai Shou said Qi Xie was eccentric, but I didn't expect him to be this eccentric. At this time of night, people with heart problems would directly need emergency treatment in the hospital.

  Having a bed but not sleeping in it, instead resting over there, is this person an unevolved hominid?

  I patted my chest and was about to speak, but he put his hand on his mouth, signaling me not to make a sound.

  So I didn't say anything, after climbing up from the board, saw Qi Xie turning his head, and then there was no movement.

  Seeing this, I knew he didn't want to talk to me, so I didn't disturb him and went back to my room directly.

  Ever since I saw Qi Xie, he only said two words and didn't say anything else. I suspected multiple times that he was mute.

  After returning to the room, Hyakushou had a gloomy face. I took a look around and was stunned for a moment before asking: "What's going on?"

  The room had been searched. On the bed, just like when we were drugged, the backpack was still lying there, moving slightly. All of this seemed quiet and normal. But I always felt that someone had searched here.

  Because of this, a strong and pungent smell emerged, just like the smell emitted by the map I picked up from the ghost market, making me want to find a trash can to vomit.

  I don't know why I have such a strong reaction to this smell?

  I didn't say a word and directly dumped everything out of my backpack until the last thing appeared, leaving people shocked.

  Hyakushō also saw that thing and opened his eyes wide in surprise, asking "How did you get this?"

  It seems that Hyakushiki knew the origin of this map.

  My hands were stiff in mid-air, and I was stunned, how did that map end up with me?

  It was indeed Qingbo and his men who brought us here, but this time when we entered the mountains, we only knew it was at the Yunnan-Guizhou border, but didn't know the specific location.

  This thing is absolutely impossible to appear in my backpack, but this kind of thing happened, and it's so bizarre that I couldn't accept it for a while.

  I don't know why it appeared in my backpack. Before getting off the bus, there was clearly nothing in the bag, but as soon as I arrived here, the map...

  Firstly, the confidential files mysteriously disappeared, now the maps mysteriously appear, what does all this imply?

  It made me wonder if I had encountered evil spirits or something, why were all these strange things happening.

  "How did you get this thing?" Hyakushiki asked with a puzzled expression.

  After a long time, I came back to myself, turned my head and looked at him, even more puzzled and bewildered. So I helplessly replied: "How would I know?"

  "Our time is limited, let's enter the mountain as soon as possible."

  Baosheng said, looking at me, I was surprised that he had such a speculative gaze again, exactly the same as when I first met him in Guishi Market. And this gaze of his made me feel very suspicious from the start, as if he had been studying me all along, or rather, as if he had already known me for some time.

  "What time?" I asked in surprise, not understanding what he was saying at all.

  "They've already gone in ahead of us, I'm afraid they're already there." Hyakushiki said with a calm face.

  In these few days, I have never seen Bai Sheng being so serious, as if he was entrusting something to me, but he didn't say it clearly, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't guess what it was.

  "Who are they?"

  "I don't know either."

  After that, we didn't speak. I glanced at the map, picked it up, and just like in Ghost Town, it was very heavy and had a strong smell of blood.

  I saw this map in a temporary house where Xiao Bo and others went. At that time, Xiao Bo asked me what I thought it was, and I felt like it was a design drawing from the Han Dynasty. However, Xiao Bo and the others all believed that this map was a design drawing for a Han Dynasty tomb.

  My eyes stared fixedly at the map in my hand, a strange and eerie feeling occupied my entire head, it felt like this was right, but somehow, it shouldn't be.

  Suddenly, a glimmer of light flashed before his eyes, and he jumped up all at once. He finally caught sight of something and exclaimed: "They're not the same!"