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墨書 Inktalez
Zhong Kui's Diary
After three or four seconds, the flashlight's beam returned to normal. Xu Wuji was still standing in front of the Copper Door, wearing that strange expression on his face. I turned around and noticed that the passage behind me seemed unchanged; the positions of the Right Angles in these four areas should be the same, I thought.
I stood up and smiled, "Old Xu, we should have reached the fourth area by now, right?"
Xu Wuji gave a wry smile. "I'm afraid we're still in the third area."
I was astonished. "How is that possible? Didn't that Portal just rotate? It can't be in the same place without moving, right?"
Xu Wuji didn't bother to argue with me. He pointed in the direction of the passage and nodded slightly, indicating that I should walk ahead and take a look.
Skeptically, I took a few steps forward, and soon I began to believe Xu Wuji's words because I saw my handwriting on the wall that I had left for Xiao Qingcheng. Moreover, I discovered the remains of a giant rat on the ground; this giant rat was the one I had initially shot with my shotgun.
A wave of helplessness washed over me as I finally understood why Xu Wuji had that expression in front of the Copper Door.
Unable to contain myself, I shouted, "What on earth is going on?"
Xu Wuji sighed. "If I knew what was going on, I would have left long ago."
After a moment of silence, without saying another word, I turned and walked to the Copper Door, pulling out my knife and stabbing at the Ring switch in the middle of the Copper Door.
Xu Wuji seemed to know what I was about to do and silently moved to the side of the passage, watching me from a distance.
Left three circles, right three circles.
A wave of darkness enveloped us as the ground trembled accompanied by a thunderous roar.
When the lights came back on, I turned around to see Xu Wuji standing behind me with his arms crossed, looking at me with a bitter smile.
Damn it, here we go again.
Left three circles, right three circles.
Once again, darkness enveloped us, and the ground trembled with a thunderous roar.
Looking back, Xu Wuji still stood in place, but his bitter smile was more pronounced. "Zhengnan Brothers, it's been ten years. I've activated this mechanism at least ten thousand times, and every time the result is the same. This passage is just a dead cycle; it's useless, we can't get out."
At this moment, I knew he spoke the truth, but I couldn't help but try again. After another bout of darkness, I once again saw Xu Wuji's bitter face.
"Damn it!" I cursed fiercely, no longer willing to try. I walked back to Xu Wuji's side, squatted down on the ground, and silently smoked a cigarette.
Seeing this, Xu Wuji also squatted beside me. I handed him a cigarette, and we chatted about various things. Finally, I casually asked, "Old Xu, you've been down here for ten years. How have you survived? How did you end up like this?"
Since it was just the two of us, there was no concern about hurting each other's pride. Pride is something that becomes more intense with more people around; when it's just a few, it hardly matters. For example, if your mother scolds you at home, you might think it's natural. But if she scolds you in public, your pride would explode like fireworks. That's generally how pride works.
Xu Wuji smiled faintly. "Actually, one sentence can explain both questions: I've survived these ten years by eating these rats."
Eating rats would make one look like a rat? That seemed to lack scientific basis. However, the rats down here were quite large; they could very well be mutated. Perhaps after eating their flesh, Xu Wuji had also mutated.
Damn it, if I got bitten by a rat, would I also mutate into someone like Xu Wuji? I tried to suppress that thought and instead asked, "What happened with you four brothers ten years ago?"
"At first, we four brothers entered here thinking there was treasure inside. We made a vertical hole from the outside and lowered ourselves down with ropes. According to our plan, Wan Li stayed at the exit while the other three of us went in to search for treasure. Not long after entering, a swarm of rats charged at us. Naturally, we three ran back desperately. Halfway through, the second brother was knocked down by them; they immediately swarmed over him and began to gnaw at him. I quickly turned back to save him but couldn't reach him in time. In less than half a minute, his body was exposed in places down to the bone. Seeing there was no hope for him, I had no choice but to continue running out." At this point, Xu Wuji sighed deeply; witnessing his brother being devoured by giant rats while being powerless must have felt terrible.
In my heart, I raised a thumb for Xu Wuji; after all, I had faced those rats before. In that situation, having the courage to turn back and save his brother was commendable bravery and loyalty. A hint of unease flickered through my mind but quickly passed without further thought.
"When we reached the exit, Old Four had disappeared while Wan Li was standing below rubbing his thigh. Upon asking, it turned out that Old Four panicked while climbing the rope and pulled Wan Li down from above. Afterward, he made Wan Li stand below so he could step on Wan Li's shoulder to climb up and then just ran off without caring about us still below. Such a bastard; it was blind of me to swear brotherhood with him." Xu Wuji spat.
"Damn it! That guy really is something!" I echoed. Yet inside my mind, I wondered if Wang Bafan sounded like 'bastard' in Chinese; knowing he was a bastard yet still swearing brotherhood with him? What a problem!
"If it were just that out of survival instinct, I wouldn't hold much resentment," Xu Wuji's expression changed as it gradually became ferocious.
"Did he do anything else?" I asked in surprise.
Xu Wuji continued resentfully, "That exit is about five meters high from the ground. I had to let Wan Li stand on my shoulders and push him up to the opening. After Wan Li got up, I threw the rope to him, and he pulled me up. At that moment, rats started to pounce on me. But what I never expected was that Old Four, that bastard, was so afraid of the rats escaping that he blew up the exit with explosives from above. That was the last time I saw light, and it was also the last time I saw Wan Li's horrified face because he happened to see me being dragged into the darkness by the rats."
I recalled Brother Five's words; no wonder he was vague when mentioning Old Four, looking all strange. It must have been because of this incident. And Wang Bafan felt a bit guilty, which led him to blame Black Cat for not catching rats when he saw it while riding his motorcycle, resulting in his own crash and death.
I told Xu Wuji about Wang Bafan's crash, and Xu Wuji was taken aback, unable to help but laugh out loud: "Karma! It's karma!"
"How did you survive afterward?" I was very curious. Xu Wuji, how did you negotiate with the rats not to eat you and even willingly let you eat them?
"I don't know what happened. Just when I was being dragged down by the rats, suddenly a kind of energy appeared within me. With this energy, the rats stopped biting me, and I survived by eating those rats," Xu Wuji shook his head and fell silent.
"I have a question; I don't know if I should ask." I pondered for a moment, feeling my doubts were hard to dispel.
"Go ahead."
"Weren't you in the entrance area? How did you end up in the third area?"
"After the rats stopped biting me, I thought Wan Li would come to rescue me soon. But after waiting for a long time without seeing him come in, I started to worry that he had been killed by Wang Bafan. So I wandered around the passageway and by chance discovered the secret of the Copper Door. I opened the Copper Door and it spun me here; since then, I've never gotten out," Xu Wuji said with a bitter smile.
It's your brother Wan Li who lost his courage and didn't dare to come back in; of course, I wouldn't say that out loud. I had to change the subject: "How have these rats survived until now? Rats need food too, right?"
Xu Wuji smiled and stood up: "Follow me!"
He led me to the hall and walked over to the Copper Pillar in the center. He knocked on the dragon pattern on the Copper Pillar with his hand, and that spot surprisingly made an empty sound; clearly, it was hollow inside. When he lifted it up, he revealed a basketball-sized hole underneath.
After showing it to me, Xu Wuji put down the panel and knocked a few more times. A faint rolling sound could be heard—clattering—until finally there was a ping sound as a gray object broke free from under the panel and rolled around on the ground before letting out a scream and quickly disappearing into the passage.
It turned out to be a giant rat.
"Do you see that? As long as I knock here, a mouse will fall out," Xu Wuji said with a smirk. "It's just like the bell for meals in the cafeteria; as long as you knock, mice will drop."
"Is someone controlling that over there?" I couldn't help but ask.
"I'm not sure. Anyway, no one pays attention to it, and we can't climb out," Xu Wuji laughed. "Zheng Nan, soon you'll be eating mouse meat with me!"
"I don't want to eat that!" I took out a pack of biscuits from my Spatial Bag. "I have enough food on me to last several weeks!"
Xu Wuji already knew about my Spatial Bag and wasn't surprised. He just smiled and said, "What about after a few weeks?"
"Then we'll see!" I replied firmly, determined in my heart. Damn, if I end up like you, I'd rather commit suicide.
We chatted about various random things—my experiences over the past ten years and some strange encounters he had while tomb raiding. I was particularly interested in the story of how his four brothers faced off against zombies. I shook my head in confusion. "I've heard that zombies are very strong. Is that true?"
Xu Wuji nodded. "Yes, they are indeed very strong."
"You guys can handle zombies, yet you can't deal with mice?"
"There's only one zombie, and it's not very agile. But when mice come out, they come in groups; one bite and you're down to the bone. Who's tougher?" Xu Wuji pointed at the wound on my shoulder. "You're also skilled, yet you got bitten to shreds by these mice?"
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