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墨書 Inktalez
Severe Cold took the rope and wrapped it tightly around himself, securing it firmly. Ziya watched him with a tense expression, her hand gripping the car keys that Severe Cold had given her, her phone also in hand.
"Hey, give me a smile," Severe Cold teased, flashing a playful grin that revealed his white teeth.
"Ugh! As if you still have the energy for jokes," Ziya replied, feeling a mix of exasperation and amusement as she watched Severe Cold step cautiously along the branches deeper into the Silt. She hurried to the car and jumped into the driver's seat, where a rope was tied to the bumper, connecting to Severe Cold.
The rope beside the bumper was gradually pulled away as Severe Cold ventured further into the Silt. Ziya's heart raced as she saw him disappear into the depths of the Silt at the center of the Riverbank.
Seeing Severe Cold suddenly vanish made Ziya's heart leap into her throat. Her hands on the steering wheel became slick with cold sweat. Time ticked by agonizingly slowly, and Severe Cold still hadn’t resurfaced. The Silt seemed to be in a deep slumber, and even the branches that had helped him reach the center of the Riverbank began to irritate her.
Ziya frowned at how the branches obstructed her view of the Riverbank and Silt. Her heartbeat thundered in her ears, and she dared not breathe as she fixed her gaze on where Severe Cold had disappeared.
In silence, she counted silently in her mind: if he didn’t come up after several counts, she would drive back to pull him out from the Silt. Just then, there was a stirring in the Silt, and the branches shifted slightly. Severe Cold emerged, his face obscured by clumps of Silt, but his black-and-white eyes were clearly moving.
"Ziya... I might need to go a bit deeper. Don’t worry... understand?"
"Okay..." Ziya leaned out of the car, looking at Severe Cold in the center of the Riverbank. Regardless of whether he could see her or not, she nodded and whispered in response. At that moment, an overwhelming urge to cry surged within her, but she forced herself to hold it back.
Severe Cold spat out a mouthful of foul-smelling rotten Silt and dove forward again. The Silt felt like thick black oil and smelled worse than any animal waste—its stench was truly nauseating.
Inside the car, Ziya was filled with anxiety. Why was this time taking so long? She wanted to start the engine to pull him out but feared it would ruin everything he had accomplished so far.
Patience, patience, stay calm... Ziya kept commanding herself as her nerves frayed with tension. She repeatedly cast her gaze toward where Severe Cold had vanished from sight. He had moved several meters away from his previous spot, making it increasingly difficult for Ziya onshore to discern his movements.
It had been a long time, and Ziya was so anxious that she didn't know whether she should pull the rope attached to the car's bumper. She really didn't want to delay for even a minute, so without waiting for Severe Cold to emerge from the silt, she ignited the engine and attempted to reverse the car toward the road.
Severe Cold held his breath, trying his best to keep the muddy water from entering his nostrils. He pushed aside the silt that blocked his way and used the momentum of the rope around him to kick downwards. When his legs accidentally pushed against something solid, he crouched down to feel around… This touch startled him, and he didn’t take a moment to examine what the child looked like. Severe Cold wrapped his arms around the child's lifeless body and kicked upwards. The rope tightened around him as he surfaced from the silt, gasping for fresh air.
Just as Ziya started the car and prepared to pull on the rope, a shout came from the center of the riverbank.
“Alright… Ziya… give me ten minutes.” Severe Cold suddenly emerged from that spot, shouting at Ziya.
“Okay…” Ziya wiped away her tears and nodded vigorously in response, as if Severe Cold were right in front of her.
Severe Cold's face was covered in dark silt, his hair looking as if it had been smeared with black shoe polish—sticky, thick, and foul-smelling. He didn’t have time to wipe off the silt; instead, he grabbed hold of a boy's corpse that he had pulled out.
The sky was rolling with clouds, and it looked like a heavy rain was about to fall. Sweat beaded on Ziya's forehead; she had pressed the accelerator all the way down, but Severe Cold and that child below couldn’t be pulled up at the same time.
“Put more gas into it, push it all the way down…” Severe Cold was already exhausted. All Ziya could do was quickly pull him away from the silt; if they didn’t leave before the rain came, the river would rise again, posing a risk of sinking once more.
With Ziya's vigorous acceleration, they managed to drag Severe Cold and the child a little further from the center of the beach. However, when she pressed down fully on the accelerator, the car began to slide back slightly because it was positioned on a steep slope by the riverbank. The front bumper of the car was tethered by a rope pulling Severe Cold.
Ziya, operating the steering wheel in a panic while sitting in the car, felt desperate just like Severe Cold trapped in the silt. The vehicle jolted a few times before starting again to pull Severe Cold away just a little bit more. Time dragged on for nearly an hour before Severe Cold and the boy's corpse were only two meters away from shore. Ziya sat in the driver's seat feeling frantic; she realized that reversing was no longer an option. Due to her lack of driving skills, during her last attempt to reverse, one of the tires got stuck in a dip on the steep bank.
The wind picked up, and a few raindrops fell onto Severe Cold's forehead. He muttered curses under his breath: “Damn it, it's raining; we’re running out of time.” With that thought, he clutched onto the corpse tightly and struggled against the blocking silt. Fortunately, they were still not far from shore; at this moment, Ziya had already jumped out of the car.
Severe Cold grasped a tree branch with one hand while holding onto that cold child's corpse with the other. With Ziya’s help from shore, after some pulling and tugging, they finally made it onto dry land.
Two living people and one dead body lay slumped against the riverbank in the Sedge. Severe Cold gasped for breath for a moment, then crawled up from the ground, placed the Child's Corpse into the car, and got in with Ziya.
"Wait, I need to check something," Ziya said as she attempted to get out.
"I'll handle it..." Severe Cold replied in a commanding tone.
"You rest for a bit. I'll just take a quick look and be right back. The tire is stuck in a rut," Ziya said, feeling a pang of sympathy as she looked at Severe Cold, who appeared utterly exhausted.
"Girl, I'm dead tired right now. How about you give me a smile?" Severe Cold's face was covered in black silt, with only his lips showing a faint red and his eyes darting around. Despite his condition, he still had the energy to joke, leaving Ziya speechless.
"You're joking, right?" Ziya huffed as she slammed the car door shut. She got out and looked at the wheel trapped in the rut. Using the car's headlights to guide her, she spotted a large rock not far away and hurriedly carried it back to fill the hole.
"Alright, give it a try," Ziya shouted.
With Severe Cold's ignition, the car trembled slightly before finally climbing over the stone and out of the rut. Ziya hopped back in as Severe Cold turned the car around, heading toward the villa with the Child's Corpse. The heavy rain began to pour down under the force of a strong wind, making the mysterious villa shrouded in mist appear even more eerie than before.
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