Chapter 4: Secret Passage, Escaping Death 3

  Was it an earthquake? It was really a case of "when it rains, it pours". Not long after, I suddenly heard the sound of rushing water next to my ear. At this time, Jin Douzi pushed me and pointed to the cliff wall of the sky pit. I suddenly felt a tingling sensation in my back. Looking around, those black dots were now spouting water columns, which kept the same rhythm, sometimes slow and sometimes fast. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn't have believed that such a wonderful thing could happen.

  At this time, the swirling vortex looked even more striking, with countless sparkling water columns descending from the sky like a magnificent scene. I thought that the sound of accumulated water I heard in the underground tunnel might have come from these water columns. After a while, the water column gradually weakened and finally disappeared. However, I found that those vortices swirled up to the Mongolian-style building on the opposite side. Jin Douzi and I exchanged a glance, and something flashed through our minds.

  Those wooden sticks in the cave just now.

  Yes, I should have thought of that earlier. The thickness of those wooden sticks and the size of the pits are almost perfectly matched. It's possible that people left those wooden sticks behind and carved out the pits on this cliff wall in order to reach that "Mongolian yurt" above.

  "Rozego, do you remember those wooden sticks from earlier?" Jin Douzi suddenly said. I slapped him on the head again and said, "You little guy really aren't stupid."

  After finishing speaking, he hastily ran towards the underground path, and finally had some hope in his heart. Jin Douzi rubbed his head with one hand, scolding me with his mouth, while following closely behind me, rushing quickly inside.

  Once a person has a goal, even a small universe can burst forth. I recall that just half an hour ago we had only walked this route, but this time it took us only ten or so minutes. Panting and gasping for breath, I ran to the pile of wooden sticks, picked up over a dozen, and then turned back again. The first time I didn't pick up too many, fearing that my guess was wrong and I would waste my energy in vain.

  When we turned back, the two of us were already panting, and at this moment, my stomach suddenly called out loudly, followed by Jin Douzi's stomach also calling out. It seemed that it had been a day without food, thinking of this, I glanced at the wild chicken standing next to us with its neck raised.

  "My goodness, this guy really has a keen intuition, as if he understood the meaning in my eyes. He leaned over to Jin Douzi and said: 'This... you can't have any ideas about hitting it.'"

  That wild chicken let out two "cack cack" cries as if it had received approval.

  I swallowed my saliva, a faint smile appeared at the corner of my mouth and I said: "Look at you, where did you think you were going? You're also considered one of my smoking buddies, how could I bear to part with you?" After saying this, I swallowed my saliva again, and Jin Douzi cautiously held the wild chicken even tighter.

  It seems that if I continue to hit this wild chicken, Jin Douzi will have to fight me to the death. It's better to try these wooden sticks quickly. If we can make it to the "Mongolian yurt" on the other side, there might be something to eat. Just looking at the plum blossoms won't quench our thirst.

  I had Jin Douzi pull on my waistband, then carefully made my way to the edge of the platform, found that platform, carefully inserted a wooden stick into it, and then used another wooden stick to gently tap it inwards, and pressed it with my hand to make sure it was secure before standing up. At this time, Jin Douzi handed me another wooden stick again.

  I moved my body forward one step at a time, stepping on the wooden stick. It was indeed sturdy enough to support my weight. On the slant above this stick, I found another depression and gently removed the attached moss. Following the same method as before, I inserted the stick into it.

  This absolutely belongs to high-risk work, we fixed dozens of them like this, the wooden sticks we just took out have been used up, we retreated back, and Jin Douzi ran into the tunnel very consciously. At this moment, I suddenly heard a cry from Jin Douzi in the tunnel, my heart sank, could it be that the groundhog we saw earlier had rested and caught up with us? Thinking of this, I threw away the remaining half cigarette and rushed to run deep into the tunnel.

  Jin Douzi only shouted once, and then disappeared. I ran with my heart pounding in my chest, afraid that if I encountered the giant Di Gui again, all my previous efforts would be in vain. Perhaps it was because I was too anxious, so I ran extremely fast. After about ten minutes, I finally arrived at the original place where the wooden sticks were piled up, but there was no sign of Jin Douzi in front of me. I wanted to shout, but I was afraid that if I really did shout, Di Gui would attack me again.

  I slowed down my breathing, held my breath and concentrated on feeling around the ground, when suddenly a hand landed on my shoulder, I was startled, cold sweat immediately broke out from my spine.

  "Rozego, what's this?" Jin Douzi said in a very calm tone, and my heart finally put down.

  "What did you find?" I looked around cautiously, didn't see Di Gui's shadow, then followed Jin Douzi's pointing direction, at first it was pitch black, but after Jin Douzi removed the top few wooden sticks, a blue glow appeared before my eyes.

  "Just now when I came to pick up the sticks, I had just picked up a few and found that there was a bright light here, so I walked over, took away the sticks, and underneath was this thing." Jin Douzi said as he placed a blue grain in his palm.

  "Is this thing alive or dead?" I gazed at Jin Douzi's every move in astonishment.

  "Die!" Golden Bean said as he gently pressed the blue grain in his palm and said, "It seems to be sand!"

  Jin Douzi finished speaking and handed something over to me, I hesitated for a moment before taking it with some trepidation, placing it in the palm of my hand and pressing on it gently with my fingers, indeed it was as hard as a stone, only then did I feel at ease.

  Jin Douzi stretched out his hand towards the place that was flashing with blue light again, and suddenly said: "Strange, why is this soil so cool? It seems to be frozen!"

  As soon as he finished speaking, I suddenly felt that the blue particles in my hand seemed to be trembling slightly. My heart skipped a beat, and I gently pressed the blue particles with my fingers again. At this time, the blue particles in my hand had already begun to soften somewhat. At the same time, Jin Douzi pushed me again and pointed to our heads. I looked up in confusion, then sat down on the ground with a thud.

  I don't know when dozens of blue light spots gathered above our heads, this is not a joke, they are swirling above our heads, the light is flashing, I am stunned.

  "What's that?" Jin Douzi asked dazedly, and I immediately covered his mouth. Suddenly, the blue particle in my palm began to vibrate, and I looked down at it. In an instant, it flew out of my hand. Jin Douzi stared at me incredulously, and I quickly pushed him away, using the mud beside us to cover up the thing that was still flashing with blue light. The blue light point seemed to be summoned by its companions and flew upwards, and I quickly picked up the remaining dozen or so wooden sticks and prepared to head towards the cave entrance.

  But who would have thought that at this moment, a "pa pa" sound suddenly came from the depths of the tunnel, and the sound was getting closer and closer, and the speed of approach was very fast. It seemed that the earthworm had really rested now. At this time, those blue light points began to move again, gathering bigger and brighter, and Jin Douzi standing beside me stared blankly at the scene in front of him.

  I thought it might be the sound of the earthworms jumping that enraged these strange things, who would have thought that when they were all gathered together they flew straight towards me, I quickly pushed away Jin Douzi and pounced to one side.

  As soon as I landed on the ground, I felt a heavy object hitting my body. When I came to my senses and looked around, that land tortoise had fallen into my arms. Looking at the blue light ball again, it didn't succeed in one hit, and without any slackness, it pounced towards me again, just hitting the land tortoise's body once more. The land tortoise weighed over 100 catties, and after being hit, its body convulsed violently. I took advantage of this to crawl out from under its body and quickly ran in the direction of Jin Douzi.

  I and Jin Douzi stood still beside Di Gui, watching as the blue light rushed into Di Gui's body. Di Gui struggled with all his might, but in just a moment he was no longer moving. Seeing that Di Gui's belly had completely turned blue, like it had been painted with fluorescent paint, suddenly a blue light point drilled out from Di Gui's body, and I thought to myself "this is not good", this thing may attack us next time.

  Thinking of this, we took the opportunity to pick up all the wooden sticks on the ground. I had more than 20 in my hand and Jin Douzi had over 10 in his hand. Then we quietly retreated backwards, and after exiting the hundred-meter range, we immediately accelerated towards the entrance of the cave.

  When we arrived at the entrance of the cave, we were so tired that we couldn't run anymore. We threw down our wooden sticks and sat on the ground with a thud. The wild chicken was still staring at the half cigarette thrown on the ground. I took out a cigarette, lit one up and shared it with my "chicken friend".

  After smoking, I suddenly felt energized and stood up straight, saying: "Jin Douzi, it seems we can't stay here for long. Let's hurry up and insert these wooden sticks to see what's inside that 'Mongolian yurt' across the way?" My words stopped there, but in fact, at that time I was also wondering, if it was still a dead end, what would we do?

  So we continued to install those wooden sticks, and after about two hours, the Mongolian package was already close at hand. No matter whether there is a way out in front or not, after all, there is still a little bit of hope.

  I stretched out my hand towards the golden bean behind me, but after a long time, the golden bean didn't pass me the wooden stick. I turned my head around and was about to scold him, when I saw that he was standing on the platform behind me with a helpless expression, the wooden sticks we had just brought were all used up. I looked forward again, there were probably five or six more holes left. Suddenly I remembered, at that time, the golden bean and I burned several in the tunnel to keep warm, alas, now it's too late to regret.

  I retreated cautiously and found myself face to face with Jin Douzi again, the spark of hope that had just been lit was extinguished once more. What were we supposed to do?

  "Rozego, are those blue things still there?" Jin Douzi suddenly spoke up and broke the silence.

  I helplessly shook my head. At this moment, I no longer had the courage to turn back and see if those blue things were still there. If they were, then I would be the next one to fall.

  Jin Douzi stood up, walked to the edge of the cliff, and shook the wooden stick embedded in the pit with force. At first, it was probably for safety reasons, so the wooden stick seemed to have grown out of those pits and couldn't be pulled out at all. If you use too much force, the wooden stick will come out, but people will also fall into the deep valley below.

  I stood up, looked ahead at the trestle bridge I had built, and wondered if we were really going to be trapped here. I walked back onto the bridge, step by step, until I reached the top, then stretched my neck to look towards the "Mongolian yurt" on the other side. At this point, I vaguely saw a small bulge on the stone platform where the yurt was located. From my current position to that bulge was only about two to three meters away.

  I suddenly had an epiphany, and then carefully turned back. I returned to the platform, quickly taking off my clothes, at this time, I finally felt grateful for my figure, a pair of pants with two legs stretched out was over two meters long, and then tied the top and pants together with a rope carried with me, and then took down the backpack's shoulder strap, after that, made it into a circle and tied it to one leg of the pants.

  I tried it out and made sure it was solid enough before turning around to Jin Douzi and saying, "Will it fly?"

  "Jīn dòu zǐ yí huò de yáo le yáo tóu: "Fēi bù yuǎn...""

  Translation:

  "Golden Bean shook his head in doubt: 'Can't fly far...'"

  "It's done if it can fly for several meters." I said.

  "That should be about it." Jin Douzi looked at me with a puzzled expression, not knowing what I was going to do. I took out a cigarette from my pocket and lit one up, then carried that wild chicken over and said: "Smoking buddy, you'll see in a bit, help me put this loop on that rock."

  After finishing a cigarette, I put the backpack strap around the wild chicken's neck and then went up along the plank road. Standing at the highest point of the plank road, I threw the wild chicken with force, and it really did have some spirit, flying directly to the opposite platform after leaving my hand.

  After falling onto the platform, it actually put the strap on that protruding stone as if it had understood what I said.

  I pulled hard on this side, then swallowed and jumped forward. As soon as I went down, I felt the piercing wind sound in my ears. Finally, I stopped and my body was stuck to the opposite cliff, with both hands tightly grasping the self-made rope.

  My heart almost stopped, I held the rope with one hand and kept searching for footholds with my feet, afraid that this homemade rope would suddenly break, and the consequences were unthinkable. The cliff walls were covered with smooth moss, every inch forward was extremely difficult, although it was only about two meters away, but I felt like it was longer than the Long March.

  Due to the prolonged exertion, my hands and arms' joints were sending waves of numbness, sweat had penetrated through my palms, but I knew in my heart that I couldn't relax for a single step, moving forward was survival, giving up was death. Struggling finally got me less than a meter away from the edge of the platform, my feet also found a foothold, my hands relaxed slightly, and the numbness became even more intense than before.

  At that moment, I suddenly slipped underfoot, and my whole body lost its balance in an instant. My mind also became a complete blank at that moment.

  I felt my body rapidly falling, and even the sound of rushing wind could be heard in my ears. I subconsciously grabbed the homemade rope in my hand, but my body was still sinking, and a burning pain spread through my palm.

  I slid down another section and finally came to a stop, with both hands grasping the lower end of the rope, while my lower body was completely suspended in mid-air. The wind blew and my body would involuntarily sway back and forth. It felt a bit like being on a Ferris wheel, especially in winter, when you reach the top and even the slightest breeze makes you feel like you're going to fall off.

  At this moment, I dare not be the slightest bit slow, I deeply know that below is a hundred-foot deep cliff, and falling down will result in death. I gritted my teeth, waiting for the wind to blow again, using the force of the wind to slowly get closer to the cliff wall, starting to move up inch by inch as before, at this time Jin Douzi was standing on the opposite side with his heart already in his throat.

  Just as I slid down, the palms of my hands were already worn out and my pants were stained with fresh blood. However, it's possible that my fingers had gone numb and I didn't feel any pain at all. This time, my ascent was even slower than before.

  After a while, I crawled back to the original position, and my foot stepped on that protruding small stone again. But now I didn't dare to relax like before. After a short rest, I continued to climb up, and finally, my right hand tightly grasped the protruding stone on the platform, then I used all my strength to push my body up, and my upper body climbed up completely.

  After I got on the platform, I was panting heavily and sat next to the wild chicken. I wanted to take a cigarette to relieve my tense mood, but found that both hands were curled up and no longer obeyed orders. The few tendons under my forearm had become stiff and bulged out.

  After a while, the fingers finally relaxed, and at this time, numbness and pain came together from the forearm that had begun to swell. But looking at Jin Douzi still standing on the other side, I could only take another breath and bring him over as well. I walked to the stone and prepared to take down the rope, but when I saw the rope tied to the stone, I was shocked.

  The rope was almost worn out, and if I hesitated a little more, I would have fallen into the deep valley before losing my strength. It seemed that this rope could no longer be used, so I shouted to Jin Douzi standing opposite me: "Jin Douzi, wait a minute, this rope is broken, let me see if there's any other way!"

  Jin Douzi nodded, although only a few meters away, but it felt like we were worlds apart. I turned my head and walked towards the "Mongolian yurt" behind me. From a distance, I didn't think this "Mongolian yurt" was very big, but as I got closer, I saw that it had two floors, each over five meters high. The lower floor had a half-open stone gate with a familiar pattern on it, which I couldn't quite recall at the time. Now that I think about it, my mind was probably preoccupied with how to save Jin Douzi.