Green Mountain Wild Man Valley

Kapitel 5

Author: Ghost Grinning

Date: 2008-03-13 11:59:00

Standing on the muddy swamp, with only a few sparse water plants and bottomless pools covered by a thin layer of sewage, it was impossible to run or jump around.

As I approached the rocky mountain, my eyes squinted as I watched the dark, gaping opening draw ever closer, trying to gauge its height.

Old Gu gripped my wrist tightly: "Brother, you can't abandon me. It looks like you're planning to climb the mountain by yourself. I can't do it! My leg looks like it's broken. If you leave, I'm doomed. For the sake of us being in the same boat, don't leave me all alone!"

I glanced at him; his face was full of sincerity, a yearning for life.

I shook off his hand: "Hey, I just praised you for being a real man, why are you crying like this? Don't you have a lot of secrets you don't want to tell me? Look at your legs, even if I went into this Water Curtain Cave with you, I can't exactly carry you around, can I? Even Dong Cunrui was willing to sacrifice himself to blow up the bunker, we can't fall behind!"

Old Gu quickly said, "It's not the Water Curtain Cave inside, so I really don't need you to carry me. Once we're inside, as long as you find me a dry place, I'll tell you everything I know. Besides, even if you climb to the top of the rocky mountain, there might not be a path up there. I don't know about anything else, but I can assure you of one thing: Zheng Jian and the others will definitely be entering this cave!"

I hesitated for a moment. I hadn't planned to leave him behind. I just wanted to bluff him and see if Lao Gu knew any inside information. After all, he was an official in the local fisheries administration department and knew more about the ins and outs of the reservoir than outsiders. But I didn't expect that this guy actually had some information. So let's go into the cave together and take a look. Anyway, I'm a good swimmer and I'm not afraid of him causing trouble.

I helped Lao Gu up, tore off a strip of his clothes, and tied it tightly above his knees, making him grimace and cry out in pain.

Looking at the wound, it didn't seem like it was bitten by any animal...

(Guess)

Date: 2008-03-13 22:00:00

Looking at the wound, it didn't seem like it was bitten by any animal...

When I lifted it up to look at the knee, I was surprised to find that there was no bleeding, bruising, or swelling at the wound site. Instead, the entire knee was white, very white, with a dark mark raised on the pale skin, like a large mole, covered in fine hairs, which looked disgusting.

I frowned and asked him, "What is this? A mole I've had since I was little?"

Old Gu grinned and said, "It can't be a mole, it's been hurting ever since! Last night after you went into the water, I saw some startled night birds cawing loudly on the rocky hill from the boat. I glanced over there to see what was going on. Then you surfaced and disappeared again. I had just relaxed when I was inexplicably pulled into the water. Oh, you know I can swim, so I struggled underwater for a long time before being dragged up the rocky hill by my leg. When I got up this morning, I looked around and saw nothing, so I quickly went into the water to try and swim back to the boat. But when I got to this swamp, I found my leg was hurting terribly. You know what happened next."

Normally, I would definitely take a knife and cut it open right now to see if there's anything strange inside this mole-like thing, maybe even some parasites!

But as soon as the old saying was spoken, everything went black before our eyes, and we disappeared into the gap at the foot of the rocky mountain.

The swamp was about the size of a football field. Now, it squeezed in headfirst, making a dull thud as it crashed into the rocks in the gap. Meanwhile, the swamp behind us continued to be eroded by the water, piling up higher and higher, and it looked like it was about to collapse and bury me and Lao Gu alive.

How to describe this feeling? A friend I was drinking with just now recalled the grueling decompression training he endured back then: "It was so tough! We were stuck in a tiny decompression chamber, and all the food was brought in through a small window. Those apples, bananas, and pears were so fresh, and they'd be ripe in no time after being handed in."

That's true. Pressure cookers only have three or four atmospheres of pressure, but the decompression chamber we practiced in had fourteen atmospheres. The sound is very faint at high pressure, so faint that you can't hear it.

Lao Gu and I feel like we've crawled into a decompression chamber, and it's extremely uncomfortable.

I have professional training. Old Gu couldn't take it anymore. He was limp and sweating profusely. The air pressure in this damn gap was completely different from the outside air pressure. We could only communicate by gesturing and reading lip movements!

Date: 2008-03-13 22:56:00

Although I don't understand why there is such high atmospheric pressure in this gap where there is water below and mountains above, I know one thing: staying here for too long will not do me any good. I must escape quickly. My skin has started to itch, and I can feel countless tiny insects crawling on it. This is a sign that the nitrogen in my body is rapidly dissolving!

Dragging along the old man who had slumped into a limp heap, I anxiously looked around, searching for a way out in the damp air sparsely illuminated by a sliver of light.

Old Gu pointed ahead with difficulty, telling me to be careful. I gritted my teeth and went into the water. With so much water in the lake, there must be somewhere to go. Staying here in the mud is too dangerous!

The water flow wasn't very fast, and the huge volume at the bottom of the swamp was being scraped by the rocks below, making it move even slower. I carried Lao Gu on my back and slid into the water. I tried to pry open the rocks next to me with my fingers, but instead touched something slippery and warm.

The hairs on my body stood on end. Could it be a toad? It does look a bit like one!

The blisters on my face haven't even gone down yet. What if I get bitten by a toad? Wouldn't that be suicide? I can't be that reckless, can I?

I hurriedly let go and swam desperately forward a few meters. I couldn't resist picking at the rocks next to me again. Damn it, it still felt the same way—slippery and a little warm!

My face turned pale with fright. Was this a toad's hole?

Something's not right. I tried desperately to calm myself down, but it didn't seem right. I almost forgot that toads have many bumps of different sizes on their bodies, but I didn't feel any. In the dim light, I strained to see what I had touched, and saw that on the stone wall above the water, there were patches of human skin!

Why could I tell it was human skin at a glance? Because this human skin was different from others. It had a thicker texture than cowhide but wasn't as sturdy. Also, it was nailed to the wall with its head facing down and its two ears glued to the sides. And I, the unlucky one, just happened to touch the ears!

Chapter 13 of "The Empty House in the Abyss (The Salvage Worker's Adventure)"

Chapter 13 of "The Empty House in the Abyss (The Salvage Worker's Adventure)"

Author: Ghost Grinning

Date: 2008-03-13 23:49:00

Why could I tell it was human skin at a glance? Because this human skin was different from others. It had a thicker texture than cowhide but wasn't as sturdy. Also, it was nailed to the wall with its head facing down and its two ears glued to the sides. And I, the unlucky one, just happened to touch the ears!

The human skins nailed to the wall, head down, many still intact, gave me a faint smell of gunpowder. It seemed they weren't leftovers from animal consumption, but rather artificially made, which was a bit troublesome.

I was horrified. When I was in the army, I attended ideological education classes where the instructors talked about the atrocities committed by the reactionary ruling class in the old society, including the practice of skinning people alive. Everyone was stunned, because although we knew about this ancient punishment in private before, this was the first time we had heard about it in such detail.

Looking at the human skin nailed to the wall, it seems that a cut was made from the back of the neck down to the buttocks, then spread apart to the sides before finally peeling off the skin. The technique was skillful and the knife work was expert. It's quite possible that the hole we came in through was actually created by someone with great effort.

Last year, I read a novel that mentioned an ancient method of skinning people alive: burying the person in the ground, digging a small hole in the top of their head, and filling it with mercury. As the mercury seeped in, the person would itch and twitch upwards. Finally, a complete, undamaged skin could be peeled off. In reality, this method is inaccurate. Most people have subcutaneous fat, so mercury cannot completely seep into the entire body. This method is just a scare tactic and certainly wouldn't work in practice.

Before this place became a reservoir, I don't know if anyone had ever been here. How could something so abrupt and terrifying have been preserved until now? There isn't even a single clue about the dynasty it dates back to. I can't tell whether it's ancient or modern. It certainly doesn't seem to be something that happened recently!

Old Gu was about to faint from the high pressure, and I was also starting to feel the strain. The eerie human skin clinging to the stone wall made my heart pound with anxiety, and it would be troublesome if I didn't find a way to get away soon.

Just as I was about to dive down to take a look, something suddenly covered me and Lao Gu, even our heads. The smell of gunpowder made it clear that a piece of human skin had fallen off the wall and, coincidentally, covered me and Lao Gu on my back.

"Oh my god!" I screamed and dared not stop. I carried Lao Gu and swam forward with all my might. Just as I dived into the water and was about to feel relieved that my skin had been washed away by the current, I felt a lightness all over my body. Lao Gu and I tumbled down a waterfall, falling head over heels.

Date: 2008-03-14 12:39:00

It seems that the bottom of this so-called rocky mountain has been hollowed out by the water flow. Lao Gu and I have no idea what the surroundings are like. With the help of the little light from the gap, I can't see very far. The light is getting dimmer and dimmer, as if the gap is about to be blocked.

The moment I tumbled down the waterfall, thankfully the pressure suddenly lessened, and the agonizing itching all over my body gradually disappeared. But I knew that if I had just tumbled into the pool below the waterfall, I would most likely have died.

Old Gu was slightly conscious in his semi-conscious state. He only knew to cling to my back and hug my neck tightly. I was swept away by the rapid current and couldn't stand up at all. In my panic, my toes hooked onto an underwater rock, which slowed my fall a little. I glanced down and saw that the pool below was teeming with catfish, all of them dark and swarming.

I couldn't make out how long or how many there were, but judging from the splashing sounds in the water, there must have been quite a few! There were also some faint white bones in the pool, tossed around among the catfish's long whiskers. I was horrified. These garbage fish that like to eat carrion might mistake us for dead people and swarm us to eat us if we fell in!

Guga—Guga—

The loud croaking of toads nearly made my legs cramp. The poisonous toads lurking in the swamp were finally disturbed. Listening to the splashing sounds of them jumping into the water and the chorus of frogs, I felt a sense of desolation and thought that I might die here.

I waved my hands frantically, trying to grab onto the rock, but Lao Gu was on my back, weighing me down so much that I couldn't exert any force. His arms were gripping my neck tightly, almost choking me to death. He begged me not to abandon him, but in the end, I ended up in the same situation. I was extremely angry, so I gritted my teeth and made up my mind to throw Lao Gu off. Anyway, he looked like he was going to die anyway!

Date: 2008-03-14 13:15:00

The thought flashed through my mind, and I immediately reached back to grab Lao Gu's head, but was blocked by a tree branch as thick as an arm. I changed my mind and took advantage of the situation to grab the branch tightly. I pushed off with my feet, flipped over and hugged the swaying branch, and desperately climbed up using both hands and feet.

If the living person I was carrying turned into a corpse, the weight would be almost twice that of a living person—a strange phenomenon I've never understood. But at this critical moment, I felt my body's potential was pushed to its limit. With a person weighing over 100 pounds on my back, I managed to climb a tree—a difficult feat I would never have dared to imagine normally—and I actually succeeded.

I clung to the tree branch, dizzy and unable to speak, my head bowed as I gasped for breath.

The old man on my back was dangling his legs below, I didn't know if he was dead or alive. The evil thought that had just flashed through my mind made me feel a little guilty. It turns out that I am not only a naturally suspicious person, but also have such a vicious thought deep in my heart. I am really ashamed.

Looking at Lao Gu's dangling legs, I was surprised to find that one of his shoes was missing, and there seemed to be something on his bare foot. Just as I was about to take a closer look, the only sliver of light suddenly disappeared, the gap through which light was being passed was completely blocked, and the flow of water in the waterfall quickly became barely perceptible.

Just before darkness completely enveloped us, out of the corner of my eye, I was trying to get a clear look at Lao Gu's feet, but I unexpectedly saw something else: most of the lumpy toads above the waterfall had fallen into the pool and gotten tangled with hundreds of stinky catfish. Those that hadn't fallen in, as the current slowed down, actually turned their heads to look at the tree branch where Lao Gu and I were. This was too unexpected!

If that were all, it wouldn't be so bad. At worst, I'd just be startled by the red eyes of those poisonous toads. I don't believe they can jump that high or that far. You know, when I was desperately climbing forward, I had already climbed quite a distance, almost reaching the tree trunk.

Before my mockery had faded, I realized something was wrong. As darkness fell, those red eyes, gleaming with menacing light, began to build a ladder, one on top of the other. What the hell were these stinking dung-like things thinking? What were they up to?

Chapter 14 of "The Empty House in the Abyss (The Salvage Worker's Adventure)"

Chapter 14 of "The Empty House in the Abyss (The Salvage Worker's Adventure)"

Author: Ghost Grinning

Date: 2008-03-14 14:20:00

Do these toads seem to have some intelligence?

I don't believe they stacked up one by one just to jump onto the branches of my and Lao Gu's tree, because they were on top and our branches were below. Even if they wanted to jump, they shouldn't have stacked up. They should have just jumped as hard as they could. So why were they doing this?

It was only then that I noticed an even stranger phenomenon: the gap through which we slid down the rocky mountain was most likely a cave, or at most a giant boulder that had been half-washed away by water. In either case, there shouldn't be a large tree here.

Even elementary school students know that trees need sunlight to photosynthesize and continue to grow and survive. How could there be a big tree growing in this dark cave or some other place? I touched the tree trunk I was hugging, my heart filled with doubt.

In just a short while, those toads frantically stacking ladders up above seemed to have made some progress.

Guga—Guga—

Many red-eyed creatures jumped up, but didn't hop towards the branches where we were perched. Judging from the sound, there seemed to be tree trunks above our heads, much closer to the toads. These foolish creatures jumped up and bent the tips of the branches downwards, then silently climbed up one by one.

I tensed up, my hair standing on end. Were these things planning a flanking maneuver? Did they know we were too far apart, so they decided to try and find a way through the nearest tree branch?

We can't stop on this branch. I tugged at Lao Gu's hair: "Lao Gu! Wake up, you son of a bitch! We're doomed! Get up!"

Old Gu just groaned and moaned, "Legs! Legs! My legs...it hurts!"

I said irritably, "I know your legs hurt, but we're still carrying you, aren't we? But you have to be strong enough to help. If you fall down without my help, I really won't be able to save you!"

Upon hearing this, Lao Gu immediately gripped my neck tightly, and I immediately blushed and yelled, "Loosen up! I can hardly breathe!"

Old Gu said softly, "Don't move, I feel something on my toes! Oh no, I'm definitely wearing shoes!"

Date: 2008-03-14 15:10:00

There were toads above and deep pools below. Just then, Lao Gu told me that there was something on his toes, which almost made me faint with anger.

She scolded him irritably, "How can you be so blind? You didn't even notice when your shoes fell off. Did you know you were going swimming or something? What could be on your feet? Is it mud?"

Old Gu didn't say anything, but he gripped my shoulder arm tighter, as if he was kicking hard, trying to shake something off.

The whole branch was swaying back and forth, and I quickly stopped Lao Gu from kicking: "Stop, Lao Gu, if it keeps swaying, we'll both fall down. Hold on tight and don't move. I'll climb a little further in and see if we can get over there."

This damn tree is really huge. I carried Lao Gu and slowly climbed forward. We had just moved a little when we heard a thud behind us—

Thud—another sound, just like a toad falling from a tree branch overhead!

I immediately started crawling forward again, using both my hands and feet, while Lao Gu shouted from behind, "Brother, slow down! I can't hold on any longer! My toes are so itchy! Wait, I need to scratch them! I can't be happy without scratching them!"

I ignored him and kept climbing forward because it seemed that a ray of light was shining through the gaps in the branches. This was a blessing of light! Old Gu, please, even if your toes are going to be chopped off later, I won't stop now to let you scratch me. You've never seen the poison of a toad. I still have big blisters burning on my face!

In my memory, toads don't climb trees, so why are these fat toads climbing trees here?

I felt that many of my beliefs were being severely challenged. The croaking of the toads behind me grew closer and closer. I finally saw the thick tree trunk in front of me, which was probably the main trunk of this tree. It was straight and tall, and I didn't know how high it was. The only sliver of light I had was now dim and indistinct.

I clung to the main trunk, wanting to keep climbing, but wait!

Should I go up or down? Let's guess what this demonic tree is. Maybe it's supporting the dome of a stone cave? I'll go down, at least there are toads up there, and I can handle the stinky fish down there more easily. Besides, where there's a tree, there's mud. I don't believe this tree grows in a pool of water; that would really make it a demonic tree!

I stretched out one leg as far as I could to step down, looking for something to support my weight. When I turned my head, I saw Lao Gu's feet still dangling. In the extremely dim light, I finally saw the tips of Lao Gu's toes...

Date: 2008-03-15

I stretched out one leg as far as I could to step down, looking for something to support my weight. When I turned my head, I saw Lao Gu's feet still dangling. In the extremely dim light, I finally saw that there was something very different about the tips of Lao Gu's toes.

The big toe was exceptionally long and excessively thick, with strands of hair-like material trailing from its tip—I couldn't tell if it was seaweed or mud. But that wasn't all; what surprised me most was that at the very end, there was a lump of flesh. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be two toads, withered and emaciated, their round bellies gone, and their blood-red eyes bulging out white bubbles. They were clearly half-dead, barely clinging to life.

I glanced at Lao Gu, who was still half-dazed and confused, not knowing what was wrong.