Ghost Breath - C41
Zhou Yang and Zheng Huili were still desperately guarding the inside of the bus, not moving an inch away. Both of them had yet to drink a single drop of water and had not eaten a single mouthful. The weather had been especially dry recently. Their lips were split, and they lacked water from their stomachs. Their condition was much worse than yesterday. They didn’t even have the strength to talk and could only sit there weakly in a daze.
Faang Zexi, Chen Ya, Fann Wenqiang’s bodies were all gone, Zhou Yang guessed that they must have been dragged somewhere by the Toad Man.
After their tragic deaths, Zheng Huili had told Zhou Yang about her identity and the reason why she joined the Qin Mu Club. She had also apologized deeply, although she understood that at this point, apologizing was completely useless, as her selfish methods had led to the sacrifice of several members of the club.
Zhou Yang listened silently, he was not particularly surprised, and he did not blame Zheng Huili either. He only felt that the current situation was completely meaningless to discuss about this, and how to escape this predicament was the most important thing.
Zheng Huili had also told him that when she heard from Su Qin that Flower Snake Village’s family had met with a calamity, her entire person was in complete chaos. When she sent the Su Qin sisters back to Qingdao, she received a call to know that her second brother, who was working outside, had suddenly died from a heart attack.
After gradually calming down, she understood that she had to shoulder everything, but she needed help. She desperately wanted someone to help her, so she decided to join the Qin Mu Club.
After hearing all these, Zhou Yang could not help but reveal a trace of sympathy to Zheng Huili, thinking that it was indeed not easy for her, and that it was not her fault that the current situation had occurred, nor was it what she had hoped for.
The sky gradually darkened, and the two of them seemed to be shrouded in a layer of thick shadows. This was because, once the sky darkened, their vision and movements would be affected, causing them to be more vulnerable to mishaps. Furthermore, there were intermittent sounds of movement coming from outside the carriage. The two of them knew very well that the Toad Man and the cadaver had moved again.
Looking through the carriage window, Zhou Yang realized that more and more Toad Man were gathering outside. They were all crawling on the ground. It seemed that tonight would be a lot harder than last night.
When he felt helpless, he stepped on a looser floor, a spot at the back of the bus. He stopped and looked down. He pushed with his toes a few times. It was very loose. It must have been the wound caused when the bus came down the mountain.
Previously, because they rarely came to the back of the car, they were basically sitting next to the middle seat, so they didn’t notice this place.
“Lili, come take a look.” Zhou Yang called out.
When Zheng Huili walked closer, Zhou Yang heavily stomped his foot a few times. With a “ka” sound, a hole appeared in the ground, and with a pull of Zhou Yang’s hand, the hole grew larger, seemingly big enough for a person to crawl out.
Zhou Yang stared at the hole as his brain continued to think. He felt that this was their chance to escape.
However, the problem now was that there were enemies everywhere. If he went out recklessly, it would be no different from suicide.
Moreover, the hole had already been opened. If the Toad Man was aware of it, it was very likely that they would enter through the hole.
On the surface, it looked like he could neither advance nor retreat, but Zhou Yang had a feeling that there was a way.
Thus, he stood up and looked around. At this time, he discovered a strange phenomenon, which was that all the Toad Man s were gathered at the right side of the bus.
Zhou Yang immediately understood that Toad Man must have realized that the door was the only way for them to escape the bus, and not the windows. So he simply chose to block the door, and let his guard down on the other side.
He looked more closely and saw that on the other side the ground was flat, the trees were sparse, there was nothing hidden, which meant that they could no longer be ambushed. In other words, as long as he sneaked out of this hole, he would have a good chance to get out of this predicament.
Zhou Yang immediately said to Zheng Huili: “Lili, take a deep breath, let’s make a bet.”
“What’s wrong?” Zheng Huili still had not reacted.
“Listen to me …”
Zhou Yang immediately explained his thoughts and strategy to Zheng Huili, and let him prepare himself mentally.
Zheng Huili agreed with Zhou Yang’s analysis of the situation: “Alright, I’ll listen to you.”
Then, Zhou Yang carefully pulled open the hole on the floor and slowly peeked out to check the situation on the bus floor.
While the sky was not completely dark, and there was still some light, Zhou Yang saw that the Toad Man s were all quite a distance away from the opening, and were only crawling near the door. There was a bunch of weeds right below the opening, so it shouldn’t cause too much commotion. No matter how you looked at it, this was a godsend opportunity.
Zhou Yang turned around and said to Zheng Huili, “I’ll go down first, hurry up and get down.”
Zheng Huili nodded nervously.
Zhou Yang did not hesitate, with one hand he opened the wound, with the other hand he supported himself on the floor, his legs went through the hole first, and then slowly dropped to the ground. When he was steady on the ground, he waved at Zheng Huili and moved an empty seat away.
Zheng Huili did as she was told, and with Zhou Yang’s help, she successfully landed on the ground.
The two of them were currently laying on top of a pile of weeds. Zhou Yang indicated them with his hand, and the two of them slowly crawled forward.
They were about to leave the bottom of the bus, but when they reached a pile of weeds, they suddenly felt empty beneath them and fell to the ground. There was a hole in the ground beneath the car. However, the hole was covered by a pile of weeds!
Accompanied by a wave of pain, the two of them fell into a hole in the ground. Fortunately, the soil inside the hole was very soft and moist, otherwise, the consequences would have been even worse.
The cave was pitch black, and the faint light from the ceiling could be ignored.
Zhou Yang didn’t have enough time to think, he held his chest tightly, because he was on his back with his breastbone injured. At this moment, he felt as if his chest was split open. On the other hand, Zheng Huili was fine, she slowly got up, and then went to support Zhou Yang.
When Zhou Yang stood still and looked around, the two of them immediately realised that the cave seemed to be unusually wide, the hole above their heads was only about two meters away, but in this short two meters, they did not know how to go out.
Zhou Yang randomly grabbed around and confirmed that this cave was very big and empty. Despair rose in his heart and Zheng Huili felt like dying even more.
This was the feeling of going from heaven to hell.
“What should we do?” Zheng Huili asked with her trembling voice.
“It’s over …” “We’re finished …” Zhou Yang was not a person who would easily give up, but at the moment, he was truly helpless to do anything.
Zheng Huili began to cry again, crying extremely sorrowfully.
Zhou Yang made Zheng Huili sit on the ground with him, trying his best not to wander around. After all, the entrance of the cave was above them, at least there was a sign.
Zhou Yang told himself that if he wanted to live, he had to remain calm, calm down and think of a way to do so.
First of all, there was something wrong with this cave, it was definitely not dug by the villagers for no reason. Then he thought of the bus above the cave, he vaguely felt that the bus was moved to the entrance of the cave because of this cave. As for the ones carrying the buses, it was most likely those Toad Man s.
“Lili, tell me … Where are the Toad Man s usually located at? ” An idea suddenly popped up in Zhou Yang’s mind as he asked Zheng Huili urgently.
Zheng Huili did not understand what Zhou Yang was thinking, and only said: “Where? I don’t know. ”
“Who could have dug this underground cave?”
Zheng Huili was startled, and slowly realized the crux of the problem.
Zhou Yang could imagine that near the Flower Snake Village, there must be many other caves like this, the lair that the Toad Man had dug and used to hide. No wonder all the villagers disappeared in such a short period of time. They actually dug holes in the ground and hid in them!
But why have these burrows never been discovered? A new question surfaced in Zhou Yang’s mind.
Zhou Yang looked up and saw the bus and a bunch of weeds. That’s right, the answer was obvious. Not only did the Toad Man dig a hole in the ground, he also found various ways to cover up the hole, protecting himself in all aspects. The bus had purposely shifted its position to hide the entrance to the hole that appeared so out of place in the grass.
Zhou Yang immediately told Zheng Huili his conjecture, causing Zheng Huili to be extremely surprised.
“Yeah, the Toad Man can crawl out of the cave, but we can’t.” Zheng Huili said helplessly.
Zheng Huili’s words reminded Zhou Yang, causing him to feel even more despair.
Zhou Yang thought, before, when they were hiding in the bus, at least they had some hope, but now that they had reached the Toad Man’s lair, it was impossible for them to leave, and they had lost all their protection. On the contrary, Toad Man was free to enter and leave. The moment they discover that they were in the cave, they would die without a doubt.
“You’re right, we have nothing else to do but wait for our deaths.” Zhou Yang laughed bitterly.
Just like that, the two of them sat side by side in the darkness, accepting their fate.
After an unknown amount of time, the sky outside had already turned completely dark, and Zhou Yang gradually felt that something wasn’t right.
At this moment, Zheng Huili was in a daze, her head resting on Zhou Yang’s shoulder.
“Lili, wake up. Listen to me.”
Hearing Zhou Yang talking to her again, Zheng Huili slowly opened her eyes.
“What?” Zheng Huili asked weakly.
“Why didn’t any of the Toad Man come back?”
“I don’t know.” Maybe they don’t live in holes in the ground at night. ”
“It probably isn’t that simple.”
With that, Zhou Yang stood up again. Facing the pitch black darkness of the cave, he thought to himself: Since death is at hand, why not inspect this cave thoroughly?
He vaguely felt that there seemed to be some kind of power preventing the Toad Man from entering the cave.
He told Zheng Huili that Zheng Huili was willing to follow him.
“Alright, follow behind me. We’ll take a look around.” Zhou Yang said.
After taking a few steps forward, Zhou Yang realized that the underground cave was even wider than he had imagined, and he even had a strange feeling that a lot of eyes were watching them from the darkness.
The two of them were like blind people as they slowly walked forward. Because it was too dark, they could not tell the way back. All they knew was that they seemed to have walked into a long passageway that seemed endless, allowing them to walk forever.
Zhou Yang’s strange feeling became more intense, and some light sounds were even entering his ears. He was sure that there was something strange inside the cave, not the Toad Man nor the cadaver.
The two of them walked for a while. First, they smelt a terrible stench, and then, Zhou Yang’s knee bumped lightly into a soft spot. He made Zheng Huili stop, and after touching it for a moment, he suddenly took a few steps back in fear.
“What is it?” Zheng Huili asked.
“Don’t… “Don’t move …” Zhou Yang steadied Zheng Huili, gathered his courage, and once again stretched out his hand, probing forward. This time, he forcefully endured his fear, and finally found the answer.
“A corpse!” Zhou Yang said loudly, “There is a dead body in front of us, I can feel his face, wait… “No, no, no. There are quite a few corpses!”
In the darkness, Zhou Yang touched many other faces, including his hands, clothes, shoes, bags, jewelry and other items. He felt that there were a lot of bodies, and that they should be stacked together.
Zheng Huili touched all the corpses, and was so scared that her whole body started to tremble.
Just then, Zhou Yang found something in a dead body’s pocket. He immediately took it out and realised it was a lighter.
The long awaited fire ignited in Zhou Yang’s hands, but at the moment Zhou Yang ignited the lighter, the corpses also appeared in front of them. There were at least 10 of them, all of them laid out in a mess, each of their corpses had already seriously rotted away, and the state of their deaths was a sight to behold.
However, the most unusual thing about these corpses was that they were covered with needle-like wounds. Every corpse was present, and there were countless of them.
Zheng Huili felt a strong wave of disgust, and retched a few times. If she did not have an empty stomach, she could spit out everything she ate that day.
Zhou Yang tried his best to stay calm, finding a few branches from the place and tearing some clothes from the corpse to wrap them up, preparing to make a fire. After the torch was made, the originally dark area instantly became bright. Zhou Yang then saw that they were in a circular stone room, with stone walls on both sides. The corpse in front of them was piled up like a mountain, and many corpses were piled up high. As for the strange needle-like wound on the corpse, he had no idea what kind of weapon it was made of.
He looked at the pile of corpses and suddenly thought of the bus above, and an answer came to him.
“Lili, do you think these people are the passengers of the bus?”
Zheng Huili thought for a few seconds, then nodded and said: “It’s possible, definitely possible!”
“Yeah, there are a total of 20 people missing from the bus. I think the number of people here is pretty close.” Zhou Yang said.
“Un, but why are they here? Furthermore, based on their degree of decay, they should have been dead for a long time, right? Who do you think did it? ”
“I guess it’s those Toad Man s outside, or maybe… “Something else.”
When Zhou Yang mentioned something else, Zheng Huili was not only stunned, she was just about to ask, but Zhou Yang turned and said: “Let’s go, they temporarily have nothing to do with us, now that we have the torch, we can think of a way to get out of here.”
He followed the two as they walked out of the stone room. It was also because of the torch, that Zhou Yang felt that the route inside the cave was not complicated, there was only a wide path, and should be leading directly to the cave entrance.
Just as they were about to approach the cave entrance and saw the glimmer of light, Zhou Yang was extremely uneasy in his heart. He was certain that something was moving above their heads, and he had also heard some noise.
“What is that sound?” Zheng Huili also sensed it and stopped in her tracks.
Zhou Yang hurriedly used the torch to shine on them, but this light caused their hair to stand on end. Countless eyes appeared above the ceiling of the cave, staring at them menacingly. In an instant, the crowd of eyes began to move and blocked their path.
Zhou Yang quickly saw through them and realised that they were not some eyes but many round, bulbous-looking, strange insects. Furthermore, on each of these strange insects, there was a thin black thorn, which looked like a sharp blade. Zhou Yang immediately thought of the corpses that were covered with pinhole like wounds, and there was no doubt that the wounds were caused by these strange insects!
The two of them stood in their original positions in panic, while the Eyeball Monster took the chance to slowly surround them. Zhou Yang immediately felt that something was wrong and quickly pulled on Zheng Huili’s hand and shouted, “Let’s go!”