Green Mountain Wild Man Valley

Kapitel 4

I remember Deng Xiaoping teaching us that we must remain calm no matter what the situation!

I didn't feel that the things around me were very fierce, so I resigned myself to fate and poked at them with my finger. Who knew that my palm would sink into it with that poke!

Is it really a corpse?

Chapter 9 of "The Empty House in the Abyss (The Salvage Worker's Adventure)"

Chapter 9 of "The Empty House in the Abyss (The Salvage Worker's Adventure)"

Author: Ghost Grinning

Date: 2008-03-12 0:40:00

My mind was immediately filled with images of swollen, obese, and drowned corpses. Although I felt incredibly hot in the water, I hurriedly pulled my hands out and took a few steps to get out of the area where there was an ambush. But I couldn't hold my breath any longer, so I had to push myself up and float to the surface.

The dive wasn't very deep, and I soon surfaced. Gazing at the dark night sky, the feeling of oxygen rushing into my lungs was incredibly comforting. I raised my palm and carefully examined the things stuck to it. Turning my head to look at the dark mass again, I vaguely understood what it was. I only needed to verify it one more step to figure it out completely.

I took another deep breath, dove into the water, and with a plan and a goal in mind, coupled with the recent close call, I headed straight for the spot where I had dropped the flashlight. If I was right, I was sure I could find the flashlight, and the water here definitely wasn't too deep.

I made a quick dive to about thirty meters, which was the maximum depth I could maintain for the necessary time without external assistance. At this depth, I touched the bottom of the lake!

The fallen flashlight lay quietly on the bottom of the lake. I quickly picked it up and carefully floated it to the surface. Under the beam of my flashlight, the dark object finally revealed its true form.

A large swamp floated in the water, seemingly endless; at least my flashlight couldn't reach the end. Below, there were wisps of mud and roots clinging to the lakebed, only a few meters away, like a plate that was originally placed on the lakebed but was lifted up by the water.

My near-embarrassment at the fight was nothing more than clumps of soaked and deteriorated mud that had broken off from the edge of the swamp. This swamp didn't seem to be natural; the mud contained some different components, just as I had anticipated before diving down again. However, I needed to figure out three things.

First, why did this swamp float up? Second, what exactly are the flashing red dots that disappeared in the swamp? Third, what chemical elements are in the swamp that can make the detached mud not only weightless but also maintain its shape?

I turned my head to look at the boat floating not far away, preparing to return. I vaguely saw a person lying by the side of the boat, who looked like Lao Gu. He was holding a gun and aiming at the rocky mountain. And under the gun barrel that protruded from the hull, close to the bow, there was a human-like thing stuck to it. It was thin and slender, with its hands and feet spread wide apart, like a gecko, and it was slightly tilting its head up to spy on Lao Gu.

Date: 2008-03-12 17:05:00

Generally speaking, if someone is focused on doing something and another person suddenly appears next to them, coldly watching them without moving, they are probably not good people. They are likely full of malice and will look for an opportunity to harm them at any time.

I watched the thing anxiously. It was stuck to the hull of the boat, its hands and feet gripping tightly. I couldn't tell if it was a person or an animal. Right now, I was in the water, Lao Gu was on the boat, and the thing was between us. If I shouted and startled it, it would jump into the water, and I could fight it off. In the water, as long as it wasn't something too strange, I thought I could handle it with my own skills.

If it were Old Gu who was alerted, and the gun accidentally went off and hit me, that would be a huge injustice. Especially if he relaxed and got pulled into the water by that thing, it would be a big problem. I couldn't think of anything to do, and I was so anxious that I had no choice but to wave the flashlight above Old Gu.

Old Gu's gun barrel twitched, aiming in my direction. I was startled and tried to dive down, but the gun barrel immediately rose. It seemed that Old Gu had recognized the flashlight in my hand and had relaxed his guard. Fortunately, the thing stuck to the hull was not disturbed. It just tilted its head slightly and nodded with the gun barrel before remaining still. However, I could see that the joints of its hands and feet gripping the hull were a little tense, as if it was about to jump up.

That's not good. I'm prepared. If this thing jumps up, I'll yell to scare it away. If it doesn't move, I'll sneak over and stab it!

Old Gu recognized me, but he didn't stand up. He remained lying there, the barrel of his gun pointing back at where it had been aimed. Was he confronting something on the rocky mountain? I felt a chill run down my spine. If that was the case, then all my fussing in the water had completely exposed me to the enemy opposite Old Gu.

Date: 2008-03-12 18:38:00

Ignoring everything else, I quietly swam towards the barrel of Old Gu's gun, trying not to make a sound. As I got closer to the thing stuck to the hull, I suddenly felt something strange behind me. It seemed like an undercurrent was surging towards me, and I heard strange gurgling sounds coming from the swamp. I even felt ripples of water flowing towards me.

I've experienced this feeling of danger before; it usually comes from animals causing trouble in the water, and I'm on high alert, ready to face an attack from behind.

A fishy, foul smell wafted over first. When I smelled the water, I calmed down. I figured there was probably a catfish lying at the bottom of the lake. It had been living in the swamp for a long time and thought I was some kind of food, so it followed me to scavenge for scraps.

I held the knife in my hand, tip pointing outwards. Catfish are quite formidable against other freshwater fish, but they are not very big. I have dealt with many of them by myself in reservoirs and ponds, so eliminating this one was a piece of cake.

But I misjudged the situation. The sudden surge of foul-smelling water almost made me faint from the stench. A huge fish silently slid up from behind, its gray back emerging from the water. I estimated it to be nearly 1.5 meters long from head to tail, with a large head and a small tail. Many soft whiskers brushed against my thigh, giving me goosebumps all over. This was definitely not a catfish!

It should be a catfish with a leathery beard!

There are many kinds of catfish, but they all basically like to eat rotting animal carcasses. The dirtier the place, the fatter they get. Sometimes when I'm fishing in ponds, I've encountered them. Farmers feed them rotting pig and dog carcasses. They eat so much that they die from bloating, and the whole pond smells stinky and sticky. They're just trash fish.

I was feeling suffocated as I submerged myself. This strange fish wasn't from Zhejiang. It looked like an Egyptian catfish, which was introduced from Thailand in 1981. I had only seen a very large dead specimen in Fujian before I retired from the military. It had a wide mouth and long whiskers. Because it was so fierce and big, it had become a plague in Guangdong. But in the three years I've lived in Zhejiang since I retired, I've never heard of any reservoir with such a large catfish.

Chapter 10 of "The Empty House in the Abyss (The Salvage Worker's Adventure)"

Chapter 10 of "The Empty House in the Abyss (The Salvage Worker's Adventure)"

Author: Ghost Grinning

Date: 2008-03-12 18:39:00

The trash fish's whiskers brushed against me, then it turned and charged at me again. The foul stench it emitted made me wonder if it had just eaten. Anyway, as a fearless veteran, dealing with a freshwater fish was a piece of cake for me. It's hard to exert force in the water, and besides, this thing has no scales, so gutting it would be quite difficult. But I'm not one to be trifled with when I have a diving knife. Injuring it shouldn't be a problem. After thinking for a second, I decided to stab its eyes. I'm bigger than it, so I'm not afraid of it swallowing me whole.

The dark catfish was swimming very fast in the water. I had just prepared my knife when I saw the catfish pause and its whole body back up. What was going on? Fish lose speed when swimming backwards, and speed is precisely the mark of a fish's survival. Catfish also swim backwards belly up, but how come this thing in front of me is backing up so smoothly?

With a flashlight, I saw behind the catfish, clusters of dark shadows darting and leaping in the swamp, and after entering the water, they were densely packed together.

One by one, toads were tangled up in knots, their color the same as old, stale dung. Their eyes bulged out and glowed red. I got angry, surfaced, grabbed a knife, and ran away.

The catfish seemed to have ripped open a toad's belly in its struggle, and the splattered blood stung my face. When I touched it, a string of large blisters appeared.

Before I could swim very far, the catfish was already upside down, covered with hundreds of toads of all sizes. Its belly swelled up and down like leeches sucking blood. When the toads dispersed, the pile of bones left behind was completely unrecognizable, and it was impossible to tell what it was or what it originally looked like.

I was really scared. The swamp was a man-eating swamp, even the toads were poisonous. It couldn't possibly be something from this reservoir!

I frantically swam towards the boat, yelling and screaming. In the chaos, my tense emotions almost got out of control. When I finally climbed to the bow, exhausted, I suddenly remembered that someone was spying on Lao Gu from a hidden spot. I hurriedly got up, but there was no one at the bow. Lao Gu had vanished without a trace! Only the hunting rifle was still lying quietly on the deck.

Date: 2008-03-12 21:44:00

By this time, it was almost dawn, and the cool pre-dawn breeze felt chilly on my skin. Although it was springtime, it was bone-chillingly cold.

The lake remained calm and still. In just one night, many things had happened. Zheng Jian and his men had taken Zhang Liheng off the boat without warning, and Lao Gu had also disappeared. In particular, I had a feeling that Lao Gu was in grave danger. The guy who was spying on him might have thrown him into the water and left no trace of him.

Thinking about this ship, besides the cockpit that Lao Gu mentioned and the person who was steering the ship, I'm just a lonely ghost wandering around. Wasn't Zheng Jian supposed to be back by dawn? Why hasn't there been any news yet?

All the information about Zheng Jian came from Lao Gu; I hadn't heard or seen any of it myself. Only my personal experience underwater could be considered true. So, I found myself walking toward the cockpit, not knowing whether I wanted to verify Lao Gu's words or find some clues.

The cockpit door was indeed locked from the inside. I looked at the lock; it wasn't a civilian lock, but rather quite complicated. I shook my head and climbed onto the roof, clinging to the iron bars nailed to the outside of the window. Looking down from the top, perhaps due to the difference in temperature, a layer of frost had formed on the glass, making the cabin foggy and unclear. I breathed on it for a while before I could peek through a round hole.

The cabin looked rather warm and rather filthy. I looked around for a while but didn't find any signs of anyone. Were they asleep? They should be awake by now that it's broad daylight!

Just as I was about to knock hard on the skylight, I heard a thumping sound coming from the lower cabin door, as if someone was desperately trying to break it open from the inside.

I frantically searched for the door through the skylight, but a metal bar blocked my view, preventing me from seeing who was banging on the door. Anxious, I couldn't help but pound on the skylight.

The banging on the door stopped immediately, and the surroundings became quiet and still.

I got impatient and pressed my face against the sunroof to try and peer inside again. I had just pressed my face against it...

Date: 2008-03-12 22:42:00

A face was silently pressed against the inside of the sunroof, right nose to nose with mine. I was so careless and so close that I didn't even realize I had a face right next to me. When I realized what was happening, I quickly looked up and refocused my eyes to take a closer look.

Oh dear, I finally couldn't help but let out a soft groan; this face was quite strange.

I said it was strange because when we first arrived, we had already seen a flattened face in the water. The facial features looked awkward no matter how you looked at it, but it was far away and separated by the lake, so it wasn't too creepy. But the face I'm seeing now is right up close, just a pane of glass away. If it weren't for the iron bars blocking the way, I'm sure I would have slapped it.

The most peculiar thing about this face is the arrangement of its features. At first glance, it seems fine, but upon closer inspection, something is off.

When I was in the army, I saw a shadow puppet show. I was so curious that I went backstage and saw the props that hadn't been used yet. The face in this picture looks a bit like that one. Because the shadow puppet is made by pasting two halves of the face together, the audience can only see half of it. So, when you cut the head in half, apart from the eyes which are in a fairly good position, the nose, mouth, and chin are all on the side. The face that I was looking at through the glass was just like that. I could see the texture of the skin very clearly. It was made using the authentic openwork paper-cutting technique, and it was only covered with a layer of clear varnish.

Generally speaking, the design pattern of shadow puppet masks is: black for loyalty, red for fierceness, floral for bravery, white for treachery, yang for righteousness, and yin for evil.

What I saw was completely colorless and transparent, much like it was made of human skin. Why? Because the eyes on this face were made of real eyeballs. The only thing on the strange face that had a three-dimensional feel was the two black eyeballs staring straight at me.

Is there some kind of sorcery involved? How can the shadow puppet props be turned into living people and sent into this cockpit?

Chapter 11 of "The Empty House in the Abyss (The Salvage Worker's Adventure)"

Chapter 11 of "The Empty House in the Abyss (The Salvage Worker's Adventure)"

Author: Ghost Grinning

Date: 2008-03-12 23:16:00

The face stared at me for only a few seconds, then its eyes darted left and right, and with a thud, the entire face rapidly shrank until it was as small as a piece of paper, before falling off the glass.

This strange shadow puppet face is quite old; you can tell at a glance it wasn't made recently. Suddenly, I remembered something Old Gu had mentioned. During a casual chat, he talked about how, during the Republic of China era, the warlord Sun Da'erduo, also known as Sun Chuanfang, once sent troops to blockade the sinkhole caves upstream. He heard that he even sent in several opera troupes that played gongs and drums. Surely these opera troupes weren't shadow puppet shows?

I racked my brains for a while, but I still couldn't figure out who was inside banging on the door.

The entire boat began to rock and shake. I was clinging to the sunroof, which felt a bit precarious. I gripped the iron bars with all my might to hold on. I didn't want to fall into the water. The thought of the toads in the swamp made me nauseous, and the large blisters on my face became increasingly painful.

In the midst of my busy schedule, I turned my head and saw a person standing on the swamp in the lake. In broad daylight, I recognized him at a glance as an acquaintance. Who else could it be but Lord Gu?

The kid was kneeling on the swamp with one leg intact, covered in mud, staring blankly at me on the roof of the boat.

I yelled, "Old Gu, what are you doing up there? Don't move, I'm coming to save you!"

Old Gu remained silent, just staring blankly at me.

I was a little worried, so I looked around him as much as I could. There were no poisonous toads, nor was there that thin, frail figure spying on him, which made me feel a little more at ease.

Date: 2008-03-12 23:46:00

Clinging to the cockpit, I couldn't figure out what was happening in the water below, and I didn't dare to jump in rashly. I was at a loss. All my skills could only be used in the water. Outside the water, I was just a slightly better-fitting retired veteran.

I can't understand why the ship is rocking. What exactly happened in the cockpit? I'm really eager to see Lao Gu; maybe he can tell me the whole story.

I glanced at the distance to the swamp, gritted my teeth, took a deep breath, and jumped off the boat, rushing towards Lao Gu's location at what was probably the fastest speed I'd ever been in my life.

When I climbed out of the swamp, my legs were weak. It wasn't because I was tired from swimming, but because I was very nervous. The boat couldn't possibly be rocking for no reason. What if there was something waiting for me in the water? Wouldn't I be walking into a trap?

I was out of breath and wanted to go to Lao Gu's side, but wait! I have a problem, which is also a bad habit, that is, I am too suspicious. I know it is not good, but I can't change it. The current situation is complicated and there are too many things that I don't understand. Everyone around me is a little suspicious, so I'd better be careful.

Standing a few steps away from Lao Gu, I gripped the knife in my hand and asked in a deep voice, "Lao Gu! Stand up! You're a man, after all. Who kneels on the ground like that?"

Old Gu hesitated and slowly stood up, but his face was full of pain.

I breathed a sigh of relief. My worst fear was that he would end up in a vegetative state like Deng Tou. In this vast expanse of water, there would be no ambulance to take him away. Now that he can understand what I say and can stand up, at least he is a friend, not an enemy. Judging from his demeanor, he doesn't seem to have any ill intentions. So, I quickly went over to help him up, wondering if he had hurt his leg with something.

Date: 2008-03-13 0:52:00

Old Gu finally stood up, grimacing. I helped him up and saw that his knees were covered in blood, so he was indeed injured. His face was pale, and with my support, he seemed to be about to collapse.

I looked around; many places seemed like bottomless puddles of mud. I wondered if giant catfish or toads might jump out of them. Standing on this swamp didn't look safe. Luckily, we were both standing on the edge, our feet sinking into the deep black mud, so we weren't in immediate danger.

I dared not move, and grabbed Lao Gu, asking him, "What exactly happened? Lao Gu, don't fall down, or it'll be just the two of us left!"

Old Gu laboriously raised his hand and pointed slightly at the boat behind me, as if asking me to turn around and look.

My heart skipped a beat. This ship absolutely cannot sink. I quickly turned my head and saw that the ship was getting closer and closer to us. What was going on?

Not only was the boat moving, but the swamp we were standing on was also moving, all drifting in one direction. Ahead of us was the foot of the rocky mountain, where a dark mouth gaped open, and a lake several tens of feet wide was flowing into it with a rushing sound.

The boat was too low to slide in, and we, along with the swamp, would inevitably slide in with the current. I could only pray that the boat would get stuck on the other side of the gap in the rocks. If we slid too close, I was afraid the boat would capsize and crush us; if we were too far away, I was afraid it would drift away and we wouldn't be able to find it.

As the water approached the gap at the foot of the rocky mountain, it gradually picked up speed. Old Gu and I huddled together, hoping we wouldn't hit a big hole.

The boat drifted over from the other side, making a clanging sound as metal scraped against the rocks, and ran aground about ten meters from the gap, tilting slightly and motionless.

I suddenly remembered the terrifying poisonous insects in this swamp. I couldn't say for sure if there were any other insects besides toads. What if they all jumped out if I entered the gap?

Old Gu and I should climb up the rocky mountain to wait for rescue. Zheng Jian isn't an enemy of our class; at most, he's just carrying out a mission and has no choice but to treat us this way. Moreover, judging from the situation, we originally needed a retired diver with good diving skills to help us, but he abandoned me after we arrived at the destination. This means that the place he took with him is probably unrelated to diving. So, it seems that climbing the mountain gives us a better chance of being rescued.

Chapter 12 of "The Empty House in the Abyss (The Salvage Worker's Adventure)"

Chapter 12 of "The Empty House in the Abyss (The Salvage Worker's Adventure)"