Chapter 4: Secret Passage, Escaping Death 2

  "Didn't you hide them in her house?" The woman said, walking towards our room. I felt a chill down my spine and saw that Jin Douzi had already clenched his fists.

  "Do you have anything to do?" The girl on the kang suddenly raised her voice and shouted outside. As soon as her words fell, it became quiet outside, and after a while, the woman who had been speaking in a sarcastic tone said slowly: "Oh, nothing, didn't disturb you, did I?"

  "There's nothing going on, you can all go back first!" The girl's voice dropped a few tones, and then let out a long sigh. Then I heard the sound of several people leaving.

  After a while, the old lady came in and said: "Young man, don't go out for now, wait until evening to leave the village!"

  "Why?" I said in puzzlement, this village was really so strange that it made me somewhat unbearable.

  "The... " The old lady looked at the half-paralyzed girl on the bed with a difficult expression.

  At this time, the girl said: "Grandma, you go out first, I'll talk to them!"

  The old lady nodded and let out a long sigh before turning around and leaving. The girl leaned back slightly and said, "Are you Luo Ze?"

  I gazed at the blind girl with a puzzled expression, and my doubts deepened. What kind of person was she, and how did she even know my name? I nodded slightly, and replied vaguely in my throat with a "hmm".

  The girl smiled again and said slowly: "Are you curious about our village now?"

  "Yes, I always feel like there's something strange about this village!" I expressed my own doubts.

  "There are no men in this village." The girl's words were like a thunderclap in my ears, although I had been mentally prepared, but when she said it, I still felt it was hard to accept for a moment.

  "What about the man in the village?" I asked curiously.

  "Those who die, die; those who escape, escape." The girl's face flashed a hint of helplessness as she said this, and then continued: "You all wait here for a bit, and when the sky gets darker you can leave the village through the secret passage!"

  It's unlikely that this village still has a secret passage, thinking about it made me even more curious. I waited restlessly for the sun to set, finally, when the sky had darkened, the old lady lifted the door curtain and walked in, saying: "Follow me!"

  I nodded, then said goodbye to the girl and was pulled into the courtyard by the old lady. As soon as I entered the courtyard, I saw a millstone in it. The old lady lightly tapped twice under the millstone, making a rhythmic sound, and then a small exit appeared.

  "There are only two roads down there, one is to the left, and that one leads directly out of the village." The old lady said as she handed me a candle, and then said: "Thank you, young man!"

  I smiled and nodded, then took the candle and jumped into the tunnel first. As soon as I entered the tunnel, a cold air hit my face. It was midsummer now, but it was abnormally icy in the tunnel. Jin Douzi also came down, and then the cover above us was covered again.

  The passage was very narrow, only allowing one person to pass through with their head bowed, but it seemed to extend downward. Jin Douzi followed closely behind me, and after walking for about twenty minutes, the passage suddenly opened up in front of us, and the road under our feet also became much smoother.

  I lit the candle, and at this moment, Jin Douzi suddenly pushed me. I turned my head around, and with just one glance, I almost fainted, my muscles tensed up like a conditioned reflex, and I took several steps back.

  On the left side of the tunnel exit, there was actually a lizard lying down. The size of this lizard's head was incomparable to those previously seen, with a length of about half a meter, and its body was not black but cyan white.

  I exchanged a glance with Jin Douzi, and even if this wild chicken's power was strong, it would be powerless against the giant Di Ku in front of us. But ahead was the exit, and for a moment, I didn't know where to go or what to do.

  I looked around, suddenly, the body of the pangolin slightly trembled, my heart suddenly racing, pulling Jin Douzi back. The pangolin had just been resting, now it seemed to have woken up, and it also seemed to be startled by us in front of it.

  We stared at each other, but my mind was racing with thoughts of what to do. This stalemate wasn't going to work; it was possible that this creature had never seen a human in the tunnel before, so it still harbored fear. If we delayed any longer, once it pounced on us, our lives would be in danger.

  As I was thinking, the body of that thing began to twist and turn slowly, I knew it was about to attack, so without hesitation, I pulled Jin Douzi towards the right hole and ran. Our running seemed to give this damn thing an injection of stimulant, its body stretched out "whoosh" jumped very high, landing behind us. We had already entered the right hole, now there was no choice, we could only run forward.

  That thing was like a blood feud with us, relentlessly pursuing us. Fortunately, the hole on the right side seemed to be more open as we ran deeper, and that thing didn't stop for a moment, jumping very powerfully each time, and landing not far behind us every time. After running for over 20 minutes, suddenly that groundhog stopped jumping and stayed still in place.

  "Jin Douzi, look and see if that grandson has caught up yet?" I said, bending over with my hands clutching my stomach.

  "Why don't you go?" Jin Douzi retorted.

  I slapped him on the head and Jin Douzi rubbed his head while shouting loudly: "Why did you hit me!"

  "Haha, you're not stupid after all!" I said with a laugh, then sat down on the ground, took out the small bag of old cigarettes that the little bear had stuffed into my pocket when we parted ways, lit one up, and calmed myself down.

  "You said why didn't that grandson chase after her?" I asked while comfortably smoking.

  Jin Douzi shook his head, a pair of curious eyes staring at the smoke in my mouth, saying: "You're also quite strange."

  "What's wrong with me? What's so strange about me?" I said disdainfully.

  "This thing, Di Gui, usually won't chase people, but I heard from Grandpa that the first time he saw you, he almost got eaten by Di Gui. At that time, I didn't believe it, now looking at you, you're really a special person!" Jin Douzi's words made my heart skip a beat, thinking of Old Jin's expression when he first saw me, I guess I'm really Di Gui's arch-nemesis.

  "Rozego, I think I hear a sound from up ahead!" Jin Douzi suddenly stopped trembling and whispered. After hearing his words, I leaned my ears forward and listened carefully. Upon listening, the gentle gurgling of water could be heard, but why hadn't I heard it earlier? I pondered this, thinking that even if we turned back now, it would still be a dead end. It's better to go ahead and take a look. With that thought, I stood up and pulled Jin Douzi along as we continued forward.

  Just now, being chased by Di Gui all the way, he didn't notice the trend of this passage. Only now did he realize that this passage was going down all the time, and the deeper he went, the colder his body felt.

  At this moment, I suddenly felt that my foot seemed to be tripped by something. I lit the lighter and took a look, and it turned out to be several large piles of neatly arranged wooden sticks. These wooden sticks were generally long and short, thick and thin, and the texture was very solid. More importantly, these wooden sticks seemed to have been soaked in some special liquid, and they didn't get damp at all. Who put these wooden sticks here? Never mind that now, anyway, Jin Douzi and I had almost frozen to death. I immediately lit one of them, and the wooden stick burned very easily, almost igniting as soon as it touched fire. After several wooden sticks were burned out, our bodies finally didn't feel so numb anymore. So we continued to walk deeper into the cave.

  After walking for about half an hour, a bright light suddenly appeared in front of us. We were like newborns, and people who stay in the dark for too long will slowly lose their confidence. It turns out that humans also have phototropism. We rushed forward, and the light ahead grew brighter and more intense, which was somewhat dazzling. However, no matter what, we managed to get out, but as soon as I reached the entrance of the cave, I almost fainted.

  Right in front of me was a massive pit, with a diameter of over ten meters. The smooth walls were covered in moss, leaving no place to get a foothold. Below was a precipice of hundreds of feet, fortunately my running speed wasn't too fast just now, otherwise I would have directly rushed out of the cave entrance and fallen into the cliff.

  I and Jin Douzi sat limply at the entrance of the cave like deflated balloons, I thought about taking out a cigarette again, possibly because the damp air in the tunnel was too heavy, after several attempts it still didn't light up, and at this time I found that Jin Douzi's eyes were staring straight at the opposite side of the sky pit.

  I followed his gaze and saw that the pit was several hundred meters deep, and we were in a precarious position. On the opposite cliff face of the pit, there was a strange building with a domed roof and a square base, all made of green bricks. From afar, it looked like a Mongolian yurt, but it was much larger than one.

  It was embedded in the cliff opposite, if there was no road, how was that building built? Thinking of this, I started to look around and suddenly found that the protruding platform under my feet seemed to be a small path extending outward, but it was neatly cut off. I sat back on the ground again with a loss.

  Jin Douzi was walking towards the edge of the platform at this time, then carefully crouched on the edge of the platform, gently removing those mosses attached to the cliff...

  "Hey, what are you doing?" I asked, rubbing a damp cigarette between my palms to dry it out with the heat of my hands.

  Jin Douzi seemed to have not heard, intently scraping the moss on the cliff. I didn't bother him either, taking out a lighter and lighting up the cigarette that had been twisted into shape by me, although it could barely be lit now, but still felt suffocated when inhaling. The wild chicken stood opposite me, still with its head held high, I took a hard drag on the cigarette, then leaned in close to the wild chicken and suddenly spat out the smoke in my mouth, unexpectedly, the wild chicken seemed to be enjoying it, raising its neck.

  This discovery suddenly made me a lot more fun, I spit out some with every puff to that wild chicken, the chicken slowly approached me, really didn't think before dying could meet like-minded people, this wild chicken is also a tobacco ghost. After finishing one, I hurriedly rubbed another, and Jin Douzi was always scratching those mosses on the cliff edge, I occasionally looked at him, lest he suddenly fell down, with him there was at least someone to talk to.

  Just as I and Wild Chicken were happily smoking, Jin Douzi suddenly shouted: "Luo Ze brother, come quickly to take a look!"

  Jīn dòu zi's voice was filled with excitement, loud and echoing repeatedly in the sky pit, layered and overlapping, making people feel a kind of creepy feeling when they heard it.

  "What's wrong? Why are you making such a fuss?" I said, taking another deep drag on my cigarette. The wild chicken looked up at me pitifully, waiting for me to blow the smoke into its mouth. Suddenly, I froze, and swallowed the smoke instead.

  Next to the cliff where Jin Douzi was standing, a hole about the size of an arm appeared. At this moment, I suddenly felt a pain in my foot and turned around to see that wild chicken pecking at my foot with force. This guy must have been anxious because I hadn't spat out that mouthful of phlegm yet. I quickly took a puff and sprayed it towards the chicken. Only then did it stop and, seemingly satisfied, raised its head. I stood up and walked step by step in the direction of Jin Douzi. As for me, I've had acrophobia since childhood, and now with the hundred-meter deep cliff beneath my feet, just thinking about it made my back feel icy cool.

  I cautiously made my way forward, then lay down on the edge of the platform and looked down. A hundred feet below was black water, and if I wasn't careful, I would fall in and either be smashed to death or drowned. As soon as this thought occurred to me, I suddenly felt a wave of dizziness wash over my head, and my body lost its balance. I almost fell off, but fortunately, Jin Douzi grabbed hold of me.

  I swallowed hard, took a deep breath, and let my heart calm down a bit. I looked at the depression on the edge of the cliff again. The edge of the pit was very smooth, but you could still see signs of artificial carving. What were these depressions used for?

  "Rozego, there are more of these depressions going up..." As he spoke, Jindouzi grabbed me with one hand and pointed upwards with the other. I followed his pointing direction and only then discovered that under the coverage of those green mosses, there were many dark black spots. These black spots were distributed on the four walls of the heavenly pit, each about 20 centimeters apart from each other.

  I retreated back to the entrance of the cave in doubt, it's still safer here. I sat at the entrance thinking about the purpose of these black dots. Suddenly, I felt a violent tremor coming from the ground. I quickly pulled the golden beans that were still on the platform back and shrank into the cave.