vicious person - Chapter 5
Experiments in the Dark (2)
Liang Yingwu shoved the flashlight away and yelled, "What are you trying to scare me for?"
"What are you trying to scare? What were you doing just now?" I asked back.
"I'm trying to eliminate visual distractions."
"Visual interference?" I was puzzled.
Liang Yingwu turned and left the passageway he had just walked a few steps from, and I followed him out.
It wasn't just Liang Yingwu and me who got up early. My low shout, though not very loud, was clearly heard by others in this environment. One of the students got up and walked towards us. He hesitated at the edge of the designated living area, then decided to come and see what was going on. I shone my flashlight; it was Lu Yun. Bian Xiao'ou, who was on duty, didn't react at all.
"What's wrong?" Lu Yun asked softly.
Liang Yingwu gestured for me to turn off the flashlight and said, "I'm trying to figure out a way to get out with Na Duo."
He paused for a moment, then asked me, "Then tell me, why can't we get out?"
This is the most difficult knot to untangle. I went through my thoughts in my mind and cautiously said, "This is the strangest part. A relatively reasonable explanation is that somewhere in the passageway there is a spatial refraction point, like a mirror that can refract light. Once we pass through this mirror, we start to backtrack and eventually return. But this explanation is just my imagination and has no basis whatsoever. I've heard before that sometimes there are spacetime curvatures in nature, and in such areas there are teleportation points that transport people or animals who enter to another place. But our situation cannot be explained by simple spatial teleportation because we walked very smoothly and didn't feel any teleportation at all. Even I can't imagine such an exaggerated phenomenon of teleportation occurring without the person being aware of it during the journey. So I had to invent a spatial reflecting mirror."
I spoke this long passage haltingly, without any confidence. Even I myself find it hard to believe I could be so prescient, that any random guess would hit the bullseye. But right now, this is all I can come up with. What's worse, even if the facts are close to my guess, I still have absolutely no idea how to solve the problem.
Liang Yingwu pondered for a moment. I could clearly hear my own heartbeat.
In normal times, such discussions would be highly engaging, with both sides becoming animated and even using gestures when discussing key points. However, you can't imagine how different such a discussion would be from usual, conducted in a cave, in a place where absolute darkness exists only from the faint beams of flashlights a few dozen steps away and the scattered phosphorescent lights around, where even the faint sounds of wind and flowing water are absent; in a place where even familiar faces appear eerily shrouded in darkness. I could constantly feel the pressure from the darkness, a pressure born of fear, and a fear born of ignorance. Even with my eyes strained, I couldn't clearly see Liang Yingwu and Lu Yun's faces, let alone what lay hidden in the depths of darkness.
Fortunately, Liang Yingwu's silence didn't last long: "Your idea is novel; I hadn't thought of it before. But I have considered the spatial teleportation aspect. Your idea and spatial teleportation share the same fatal flaw."
Liang Yingwu paused, and I knew what he was going to say. I sighed and said, "Are you trying to say why we don't feel anything at all?"
I saw Liang Yingwu's head move, probably in a nod: "Yes, a reflection point that is completely unknown to fragile and sensitive humans can be so smooth that 14 people who are fully focused cannot detect the reflection point that suddenly starts to backtrack. A reflection point that allows 14 people to confirm that the people in front and behind them have not suddenly disappeared or other abnormalities during their journey. Even if you use all your imagination, what do you think is the probability?"
I couldn't answer. My reasoning was based on my own imagination, while Liang Yingwu's rebuttal was based on the perceptions of all 14 of us, including my own. If I rejected Liang Yingwu's rebuttal, it would be tantamount to completely denying my own and those around me's ability to judge. The facts were there: we walked back and forth several times, everyone was fully focused, yet no one noticed anything unusual, let alone the significant situation of being displaced.
My own assumptions were refuted, yet a glimmer of hope arose within me. Liang Yingwu's question and statement clearly indicated that he had his own thoughts, different from mine.
Sure enough, Liang Yingwu said, "I've thought about it for a long time, and we can't find even the slightest strange trace from the outside world. So, assuming that there's no problem with the outside world, then the problem is..."
"The problem lies with ourselves?" Lu Yun blurted out.
A thought suddenly struck me, and I remembered those rather strange stones.
"Yes, I suspect that if there is a problem with our own perception, and some unknown force is affecting all of our perception abilities, at least confusing our vision, causing us to backtrack while we think we are moving forward, then that explanation makes more sense."
"Feeling influenced?" I pondered Liang Yingwu's explanation, while also expressing my doubts about the stones from before.
“Yes, if it really is our senses that were affected, then it’s almost certain that this is an unnatural event, although it’s most likely not targeted at us, but rather our curiosity put us in danger. So, those stones might really be some kind of formation, and we’ve been trapped in it ever since we entered the cave.” With the new clue I provided, Liang Yingwu’s tone became more certain.
Recalling Liang Yingwu's actions and his words, I finally understood what he had been doing.
"Were you just now trying to walk out along the stone wall with your eyes closed, relying solely on your sense of touch?" I asked.
“Yes,” Liang Yingwu answered affirmatively, “If there is no problem with the passageway itself, and the problem lies with our senses, then we should be able to get out by feeling along the stone wall.”
Experiments in the Dark (3)
“Let’s try it together. You touch the left side, and I’ll touch the right side,” I said.
“Okay,” Liang Yingwu agreed. He turned to Lu Yun and said, “You wait for us here. Whether we get out or not, it will take a long time. If any classmates wake up and ask, just tell them about our situation and our speculations. Don’t worry, if we get out, I will have Na Duo contact the outside world at the cave entrance, and then I will come back.”
Lu Yun suddenly grabbed my arm, her voice trembling slightly: "You...you must come back."
My heart pounded a few times. I knew what she meant. She wasn't afraid that we would abandon them after we left and never come back; she was afraid that once we entered this dark tunnel, we wouldn't be able to get out or come back, and would simply disappear. In a place like this, no one could rule out such a possibility.
I once tried walking with my eyes closed. At night, on my way home, when I was bored, I would close my eyes and walk a short distance in the dark. But usually, I wouldn't walk more than 20 steps before opening my eyes again. Even though I knew there was no one or any cars ahead, and I wouldn't bump into a wall, I still couldn't control myself from opening my eyes. It's human instinct; we can't walk for long in the unknown.
I thought that walking along the cave wall would feel better, and since I had already been in the dark for so long, it wouldn't be too difficult to close my eyes and block out the faint light of the flashlight. But after walking 30 steps, I realized I was wrong.
The stone walls felt cold and rough to the touch. After sleeping all night, I was already chilled to the bone, and now I was trembling slightly, with cold sweat beading on my forehead. In this cave that had swallowed the exit, walking with my eyes closed, abandoning my sight to detect danger, the feeling of helplessness grew stronger with each step.
I gripped the stone wall tighter and tighter, but my progress slowed. I even felt ashamed. Was this really me, a well-traveled person who prided himself on having an adventurous spirit? But if I were an ordinary person, I think I would have opened my eyes and run back after taking less than a hundred steps.
Normally, I might walk along the wall with my eyes closed, and although I might experience some psychological barriers due to the loss of sight, I would never feel like I couldn't keep going. But inside the cave, hundreds of skeletons were flickering with phosphorescent light not far away. To be honest, I was really worried that I might touch a living skeleton, or that as I walked forward, a hand might suddenly appear out of nowhere and gently pat my back.
"Are you still there?" As I rounded the first bend, the immense pressure of the darkness and the unknown overwhelmed me. I kept hearing heavy footsteps beside me, knowing Liang Yingwu was still there. But talking as we walked would have been helpful in relieving the pressure. At least it would have confirmed that someone was indeed walking alongside me in the darkness. Talking shouldn't affect the experiment, right?
"Yes," Liang Yingwu replied. Judging from the location of the voice, it seemed to be a little behind me.
So he walked even slower than me. This at least shows that Liang Yingwu's fear was no less than mine.
"Is there anything unusual on your end?" Actually, Liang Yingwu was only a few meters away from me, so I would know if there was anything unusual. But I had to find something to talk about to distract myself. With such heavy pressure, someone with a low tolerance for stress would probably need to see a psychologist even if they managed to get out of the tunnel.
No, what about you?
"No, we should be almost at the second bend."
"There's still a way to go."
“Um…” I suddenly remembered something I really needed to ask him, “What was that discovery you didn’t mention yesterday?”
...
Liang Yingwu did not answer. If it weren't for the sound of his footsteps still ringing in my ears, I would have almost suspected that something had happened to him.
What exactly did he discover that he's so secretive about?
"I found those skeletons. Those people died in a rather strange way." The voice clearly came from behind me. It seemed that as soon as he heard my question, Liang Yingwu slowed down instantly.
"Their deaths are a bit strange. Weren't they supposed to have starved to death?" I slowed my pace, a sense of foreboding creeping into my heart.
"Perhaps the cause of death can be attributed to lack of food, but for some, and perhaps most, the cause of death was not as simple as starvation."
"If he didn't starve to death, then how did he die?"
"You should have noticed that most of the remains are incomplete, with leg bones, arm bones, and ribs scattered all over the ground."
"You mean, they were killed?" I guessed what Liang Yingwu meant.
“I picked up a few scattered bones yesterday and examined them. There were two pieces with some marks on them.”
"trace?"
In the darkness, I heard Liang Yingwu's breathing become rapid.
"I think those are teeth marks."
I opened my mouth to ask, but before I could finish, I suddenly understood what Liang Yingwu meant, and for a moment I felt every hair on my body stand on end.
"Eating people?" It felt like a huge boulder was pressing on my chest, making it hard to breathe.
"Yes, I think they were just like us back then, unable to get out and without food, so they killed each other. The victors ate the losers, but in the end, probably no one lived more than the others."
I'm trying to process this news. No wonder he didn't tell me this yesterday while he was with the students: "It's better not to tell the students this; they can't handle it."
“No,” Liang Yingwu’s voice was icy, “I’m afraid that if they find out, they’ll have inappropriate thoughts.”
My body jolted. Could it be? They were still students, still children. But in such a life-or-death situation, the worst and cruel aspects of humanity would be fully exposed. If they knew there was a precedent… I swallowed hard, my mouth feeling incredibly dry. At that moment, the stone wall I touched began to bend, and I passed the second bend.
Experiments in the Dark (4)
Whether we can use our sense of touch to walk out depends on this last section of the passageway.
Liang Yingwu and I quickened our pace without prior arrangement.
Is it a chance to escape or to fall back into the abyss of death?
Liang Yingwu suddenly stopped in his tracks.
"What's wrong?" I asked nervously.
A sigh reached my ears.
"It's nothing, let's go," Liang Yingwu said.
After walking another dozen or so steps, I suddenly stopped, and my heart sank.
"You noticed it too." Liang Yingwu's voice was filled with deep weariness.
Yes, I've realized that too. I don't know where the path I'm on leads, but at least it's not the way out.
Because the terrain beneath their feet remained flat, without any undulations. Liang Yingwu had clearly noticed this long ago.
After walking a little further, I sensed a red glow through my closed eyes. Was it the sunlight outside, or...?
"They're back! Teacher Liang and Na Duo are back!" The students' shouts announced our defeat. I opened my eyes, and the beam of the flashlight shone on my face, dazzlingly bright.
We've come all the way back. Relying solely on our sense of touch to move along one side, we've somehow ended up back where we started.
Liang Yingwu followed me out of the passageway.
"Did you get out? Did you get out?" He Yunkai asked. Although most of the students could guess the result from the way Liang Yingwu and I looked when we returned, He Yunkai's question still brought a hint of anticipation to everyone's faces. Unfortunately, they received a negative answer.
“Don’t be discouraged, we’ve only just begun. What we need to do today is to conduct various experiments, eliminate some possibilities, find the one that best reflects our current situation, and then move forward. Have you ever heard of a scientist succeeding on just one experiment?” Liang Yingwu’s firm tone made these college students begin to rediscover their lost ability to think, and some of them looked thoughtful.
If this really is a kind of formation, then what will happen when modern scientific spirit and scientific experiments encounter classical and profound formations? I suddenly felt a little more confident about going out.
"Now distribute today's food. You can decide when to eat it based on your own situation."
I received five compressed biscuits, which wouldn't even be enough for one meal normally. But even though everyone received so little food, the pile of food was almost completely reduced.
As for the water, Liang Yingwu and I were the first to fill empty Coke bottles from the pool. I took a small sip first, then drank half the bottle down. The water was clear and slightly sweet. Ever since I learned how these skeletons died, I was certain that the water in the pool was safe. If there had been a water shortage back then, people wouldn't have survived to the point of having to eat human flesh.
I ate three compressed biscuits, carefully wrapped the rest in a napkin, put them in a small plastic bag, placed it in my pants pocket, and zipped it up. At the last minute, I might even eat the napkin that held the biscuits. I just walked through the tunnel again, using a method that required several times more physical and mental exertion than usual, and coupled with the constant tension, my stomach had already started cramping; otherwise, I would have left the three biscuits in my pocket.
I glanced at Liang Yingwu; he seemed to be doing something similar to me. As for the students, they were already starving by now, and it was already quite remarkable that they could resist touching the communal food. Now that they had their share, they devoured it all in the blink of an eye.
If it were yesterday when they first entered the cave, it would have been hard to imagine that these students could eat amidst piles of bones. Overnight, their fear of the bones had lessened somewhat. The reason was simple: they were now gripped by a fear far greater than the mere sight of the dead.
It's dawn now, but inside the cave, there's no day or night, only darkness and phosphorescent light. So, none of the usual morning energy was present in any of the 14 of us. We only had 7 working flashlights left, and they were being used up at an alarming rate. Even with four batteries left, they wouldn't keep burning for very long. If we were still at a loss before darkness engulfed us, we'd be in big trouble. Of course, we were already in a very bad situation.
Liang Yingwu was clear-headed and articulate, so the task of conveying our analysis of the situation to the students was clearly his. He laid out all the speculations, doubts, and possibilities to the students, emphasizing that in the current situation, preserving anything was obviously not a good idea; we needed to gather the wisdom of everyone to have any chance of survival. Of course, Liang Yingwu did not tell the students about cannibalism—that was an exception.
Despite some unusual ideas, in the end, the students generally leaned towards Liang Yingwu's and my judgment: that our own perceptions had been influenced. Since there is no known scientific theory to support the fact that following the same path would lead back to the starting point, and we cannot create a new scientific theory to support this fact, we can only conclude that, objectively speaking, there is no path that leads back to the starting point, and the problem lies within ourselves.
This is the only direction we can think of right now. I dare not say it is 100% correct, or even 100% correct, but this is the only direction we have. Otherwise, we will only have the option of sitting down and waiting to die.
If the problem lies not with the path itself, but with ourselves, then this situation must have a flaw. We must be able to prove, in some way, that our perception is indeed flawed. Once we find this flaw, we can follow it to find a way out.