A Wandering Youth

Глава 69

Just then, the floor tiles suddenly moved, slowly moving upwards from below. Yu Guang and Wu Yong were shocked; someone was gently pushing the tiles from below, trying to open the secret passage! Who was down there? Yu Guang's first reaction was to immediately turn off his flashlight and hide in a dark corner of the mud-walled house.

But when he bent down to grab the flashlight that was on the ground, in his haste, he couldn't hold on properly. His hand slipped, and the flashlight rolled to one side of the room. The beam of light swirled and danced wildly in the room, countless dust particles tumbling and leaping upwards within its beam.

Yu Guang panicked. Just as he was about to run over and turn off the flashlight, he heard a "smack." With a "smack," the paving stone was pushed aside, leaving a large hole in the ground. A large hand slowly emerged from the hole, its surface hairy with long, dark fingernails.

Who is it? Who would crawl out of this hole? Yu Guang and Wu Yong's hearts were in their throats...

32

The hand slowly emerged, followed by hair, as withered and yellow as grass. Then came a pair of eyes, dull and lifeless, their gaze unfocused.

Wu Yongjiang was stunned when he looked at those eyes, because they felt very familiar to him, and he knew the owner of those eyes!

It's Wang Mingsheng! It's the Wang Mingsheng they thought had disappeared, or even been murdered! "Wang Mingsheng, what are you doing here?" Wu Yong shouted.

Wang Mingsheng slowly crawled out of the mud-walled house, seemingly deaf, completely ignoring Wu Yong's shouts. He stood on the floor, his eyes fixed on the door. He wasn't surprised that there was light inside the mud-walled house, nor was he surprised that there were two people watching him. His neck was stiff, and his legs were rigid as he walked towards the door. His eyes remained level with his own, not looking to the side. A faint, fishy smell wafted past as he passed, slowly spreading throughout the room.

In the blink of an eye, he had walked out of the mud-walled house, leaving Wu Yong and Yu Guang dumbfounded, exchanging bewildered glances. Yu Guang asked, "Is this man Wang Mingsheng?"

Wu Yong replied, puzzled, "Yes, that is Wang Mingsheng, but what happened to him?"

"Haven't you realized yet? He's sleepwalking."

Sleepwalking?

“Yes, to be precise, he was sleepwalking under hypnosis.” A chill inexplicably crept into Yu Guang’s tone, making both him and Wu Yong shiver.

"Sleepwalking after hypnosis?" Wu Yong felt a cold sweat break out in the crevices of his back; his shirt clung tightly to his skin, wet and sticky.

Yu Guang nodded affirmatively, and the two remained silent.

Was Wang Mingsheng hypnotized? Was he hypnotized by that unknown neurotoxin? If Yu Guang and Wu Yong were poisoned with such a toxin, would they become like Wang Mingsheng? They dared not imagine. Reaching the door, they looked out and saw Wang Mingsheng walking towards the villa like a ghost in the cold moonlight. In the blink of an eye, he entered the villa, which was pitch black. What was he going to do inside?

Wu Yong returned to the edge of the cave with his flashlight and shone the beam into it. It was pitch black below, but where the beam reached, he could see a flat area with a bottomless tunnel leading down. Heaven knows where that tunnel led. "Shall we go down and take a look?" Wu Yong asked.

“Of course!” Yu Guang replied, “Since things have come to this, we should definitely continue investigating to see what kind of ‘ghost’ is causing this.” Just as the two of them were about to jump into the hole, they suddenly heard footsteps outside the door. The wooden door creaked open, and standing outside was Wang Mingsheng, who had returned from the villa. His posture was strange; his arms were draped over his shoulders as if he were carrying something, but he was holding nothing in his hands.

He walked in, his neck still stiff and his legs rigid, stood beside the hole in the floor, pushed off the ground, and slid down with a thud. Then, he pulled the paving stone back up. The ground immediately returned to its original smoothness, just as it had been when they entered. "Do you see what happened?" Yu Guang asked.

Wu Yong shook his head.

“He was hypnotized and went to the second floor of the villa. He carried the two of us away, even though they thought we were still unconscious. Look, he had both arms wrapped around his shoulders, like he was carrying two people. Let’s follow him down and see where he’s taking us.” Yu Guang said as he pried open a floor tile.

Facing the deep, dark cave, Yu Guang jumped down first, only to hear a "bang." Below was hard ground.

Without thinking too much, Wu Yong jumped down as well. His feet went numb, and he found himself standing on the underground passage. He could clearly hear Wang Mingsheng's footsteps ahead, "tap, tap, tap..." heavy, not far in front of him.

"Let's follow." Yu Guang nudged Wu Yong's arm, then turned on the flashlight and followed along. The passageway was pitch black and full of side paths, but fortunately, with Wang Mingsheng's footsteps guiding them, they weren't having too much trouble keeping up.

As he passed a fork in the road, Wu Yong heard a "snap" as if he had kicked something. Looking down with his flashlight, he saw a hair clip. Wu Yong bent down and picked it up.

“It’s Beibei’s,” Yu Guang said with certainty.

"Yes, it's hers. It seems she really was brought here; our analysis and reasoning were correct!" Wu Yong was somewhat excited. From the current situation, it seemed the two of them were in the shadows, while Zhao Lianpu and Old Chen were in the open. This more or less increased their chances of winning the upcoming battle. Just then, Wang Mingsheng's footsteps suddenly disappeared.

Yu Guang and Wu Yong quickened their pace and turned a corner. In front of them was a wooden door.

Under the beam of the flashlight, the wooden door revealed its mottled and worn appearance. A faint sound emanated from behind it, like gears turning or a winch agitating. "What's behind that door?" Wu Yong asked.

"It sounds like an elevator..." Yu Guang wasn't entirely sure. And indeed, the sound of the gears and winch was remarkably similar to an old-fashioned winch-type elevator. Wu Yong grabbed the wooden door handle and pulled hard.

The door opened.

Section Fourteen

33

The door swung open, releasing a wave of heat that opened up a surprisingly large hall, bustling with activity. Behind long tables sat young people, some fat, some thin. Their only commonality was their eyes—all unfocused, staring blankly at the tables. On the tables lay white powder, which the young people were carefully weighing on a scale before them, then dividing it into transparent plastic bags.

"It's drugs! Heroin!" Wu Yong exclaimed in shock, whispering into Yu Guang's ear.

"Hmm." Yu Guang didn't say anything, but simply pulled Wu Yong and walked into the hall with small steps.

The busy young people were unaware of their arrival. They were all engrossed in their own tasks.

“They’ve all been hypnotized,” Yu Guang whispered to Wu Yong.

"I'm afraid it's not as simple as hypnosis."

"how?"

"Do you remember what Zhao Lianpu said? He once lived in an island nation in the Caribbean," Wu Yong asked in return.

"Yes, I remember."

"Now I realize, he must be staying in that country."

"What country?"

“Haiti!” Wu Yong answered resolutely. “Haiti? Why would you think that?” Yu Guang asked, puzzled.

Have you heard of the Voodoo cult?

"What religion?"

Wu Yong pulled Yu Guang behind a pillar in a corner of the hall and explained in a low voice, "Voodoo, also known as Voodoo religion, is a mysterious religion that originated in Haiti, a Caribbean island nation. Voodoo originated from the Ewe people in the Gulf of Slavic West Africa and flourished in Haiti with the influx of black slaves. Legend has it that Voodoo witchcraft and spells can resurrect the dead and then drive them to do all sorts of arduous labor."

"That's bizarre? How is that possible? The dead can't be brought back to life," Yu Guang said.

“Yes! Of course, it wasn’t the dead coming back to life.” Wu Yong said, “Later, scientists investigated on the island of Hispaniola and proved that it wasn’t the dead who actually came back to life, but rather that the Voodoo Cult used some method to make the living appear dead, just like hypnosis, to drive these living dead to work as slaves for physical labor.”

"Fake death? How did they manage to do that?" Yu Guang was utterly bewildered.

"Scientists extracted blood from the living dead and analyzed it, saying it was very likely a nerve paralysis caused by pufferfish toxin. It is said that voodoo sorcerers use toxins extracted from pufferfish to induce a state of suspended animation in living people, and then use some method to awaken the living dead and make them their slaves. It's truly horrifying." Wu Yong's knowledge was quite extensive.

"Pufferfish toxin? Something doesn't seem right." Yu Guang was still puzzled.

“Yes, something is very wrong. How could Haiti have pufferfish? Even if they do, I don’t believe the local sorcerers have the ability to extract the toxins from the pufferfish. I’m more inclined to believe it’s the toxins from some kind of mysterious local plant.”

"Plants? Yes! Maybe they're the plants that almost suffocated us during the night burial!" Yu Guang suddenly realized.

"Yes, everything can be explained now. Zhao Lianpu stayed in Haiti for a long time, learned the Voodoo religion's methods of creating and controlling the living dead, and introduced this mysterious plant to the Cursed Village. They extracted the toxins from this plant and experimented on the young villagers of the Cursed Village, making them slaves to produce drugs for Zhao Lianpu." At this point, Wu Yong couldn't help but gasp at the sinister intentions of Zhao Lianpu and his accomplices.

“That makes sense. So, it's possible that Wang Mingsheng's brother died because they used the wrong dosage at the beginning of their experiment.” Yu Guang's voice trembled slightly. Faced with such a formidable opponent, they had no idea how they could possibly have any chance of winning. Just then, the room suddenly fell silent. All the young people who had been busy with their work put down what they were doing, stood up, their necks stiff and their legs rigid, and gathered in the center of the hall.

Across from the main hall, there was a small door that creaked open at that moment.

The first person to emerge was Wang Mingsheng. His arms were still draped over his shoulders, his eyes glazed, but his face was visibly swollen, as if he had been slapped hard. Then, a roar erupted behind him, filled with intense rage. The language of this roar was one that Yu Guang and Wu Yong had never heard before; it sounded like some kind of African dialect, a jumbled, rolled "r" sound with constant lip-twitching. It sounded more like a curse. With this near-curse-like roar, Wang Mingsheng's body crashed to the ground, the floor rumbling and kicking up a thin layer of dust.

Wang Mingsheng lay motionless on the ground, a trail of dark blood dripping from his nostrils, eyes, ears, and lips. The young people gathered nearby instantly showed expressions of extreme terror, their faces contorted and features distorted. But only for a moment, and then their expressions returned to blankness, their eyes staring empty at the wooden door of the small hut. Behind the door emerged a short, limping figure—it was Zhao Lianpu's steward, Old Chen.

34

Yu Guang and Wu Yong hid motionless behind a pillar, terrified of being discovered by Old Chen. They had no way to deal with this room full of living dead. Now, their only option was to hide themselves. If only they had the legendary invisibility technique, disappearing into the room like gas molecules—that would be the most reliable method. Old Chen stood at the entrance to the hall. Although it was just a simple standing posture, his short stature exuded an aura of authority that sent chills down the spines of the living corpses before him.

Old Chen twitched his nostrils slightly, his eyes scanning the hall suspiciously, but he saw nothing. He took a breath and muttered something. Then, he waved his hand, and a person emerged from the small hut behind him.

It was a child, with a stiff neck and straight legs. Wu Yong glanced at him and recognized him; the child was Lü Guihua's son.

The child was holding something in his hands; upon closer inspection, it was a large gourd, its surface densely covered with curved knives. This was strange enough, but even stranger was that a large, speckled rooster was perched on the child's head. The rooster's legs were bound, its comb stood out brightly, and its eyes shone piercingly. What was the child doing? Wu Yong was very curious. What was the rooster for? Was it a catalyst for the voodoo? And what was the gourd the child was holding for? Was it a container for the poison? Old Chen kept muttering incantations; he was chanting some kind of spell. When he finished the spell, the faces of the living corpses beside him turned crimson, and beads of sweat appeared on their cheeks. They looked to be in great pain, as if they were undergoing some kind of torture.

Old Chen stopped chanting and said, "Just now, one of you failed in your duty, so I'm punishing you all. Now, I'm going to give you a new spell, and see who dares to fail in their duty again?"

As he spoke, Wang Mingsheng, who had been lying on the ground, slowly got up. His face was covered in blood, and his eyes were staring straight ahead, showing no sign of feeling anything.

Old Chen walked to the child's side, pulled a curved knife from the gourd, and a hissing sound came from within. At the same time, the zombies in the room began to groan in pain, and chaos erupted. Wu Yong cursed inwardly; as soon as the knife was pulled from the gourd, the poison inside began to leak out, and if he and Yu Guang smelled it, they would also turn into zombies. At this moment, he already felt a tightness in his chest, and his heart was pounding faster. He quickly grabbed the half-section of steel pipe from Yu Guang's hand and struck it against his own, producing a clanging sound. He dared not strike too hard, for fear of being discovered by Old Chen. If discovered, Old Chen could unleash a spell, and all the zombies would attack them, leaving them with no chance of survival. The rhythm of Wu Yong's striking was the same as his own heartbeat, the sound so gentle that only he and Yu Guang could clearly hear it. Hearing this sound, his heart, which had been gradually becoming uneasy, immediately returned to normal. He breathed a sigh of relief, thinking how close he had come to disaster! Old Chen was unaware that two other people were hiding in the house. He chanted incantations, sometimes loud, sometimes soft. The zombies in the house swayed back and forth and side to side, but their feet were rooted to the ground like nails. They swayed more and more violently, but they did not fall down.

Old Chen's incantation suddenly stopped. His eyes, sharp as torches, swept across the room. The zombies' movements abruptly halted, frozen in place, some crooked, some swaying. A sinister glint flashed in Old Chen's eyes. He slightly raised his hand, his curved knife pointing near the rooster's head above the child. The knife didn't touch the rooster, yet it seemed to have been struck a heavy blow. In the blink of an eye, without feeling the blade move, the rooster collapsed, limp and lifeless, only its dying breaths trembling. Yu Guang and Wu Yong stared in disbelief. They seemed to understand: to punish Wang Mingsheng for failing to bring Yu Guang and Wu Yong back, Zhao Lianpu had instructed Old Chen to punish all the zombies. Old Chen first used incantation to unlock the zombies' sealed sensory systems, then tortured them with incantation. After the torture was complete, he opened the sealed gourd, allowing the toxins to dissipate and form new voodoo. This was truly horrific. Zhao Lianpu and Old Chen, those two cold-blooded executioners, were utterly depraved. After the rooster collapsed, the eyes of the zombies standing in the center of the hall immediately became unfocused again. They turned around as if sleepwalking, returned to the original table, and continued to sort the pure white powder on it.

Old Chen snorted coldly and went into the small house behind him. Wu Yong and Yu Guang jumped out and followed him to the wooden door of the small house.

The zombies inside seemed oblivious to the sudden appearance of Wu Yong and Yu Guang, their eyes filled with a cold indifference, as if it were none of their business. Perhaps deep down, they sensed that these two had come to rescue them, so no one spoke, and no one informed them. Wu Yong and Yu Guang stood outside the wooden door of the small house. Wu Yong turned sideways and looked into the house.

There was nothing inside, just an empty room. Where did Old Chen go? Where did Zhao Lianpu go? Where did Weng Beibei and Shen Tian go?

Section 15

35

Old Chen limped into the small house, then sat down grimly on the only piece of furniture in the room. It was a beautifully crafted red rosewood chair. After sitting down, his gaze darkened, and his finger pressed a black button on the armrest. The instant his finger pressed down, the chair sank to the ground and vanished from the small house in an instant. Below the small house was a narrow passageway, filled with a foul musty smell, with slivers of light shining through at its end. At the end of the passageway was a large house, made of wood...

There were speckled marks on the door.

Old Chen gave a sinister smile, then pushed open the door and went inside. "Writer Zhao, how is it now?" Old Chen asked with a sneer.

Zhao Lianpu, slumped on the sofa in the room, stared wide-eyed, his eyeballs almost bulging out: "What did you put in me? Why can't I move at all?"

Old Chen laughed and said, "I've given you plenty of face in front of others, making them think I'm just your servant. What more do you want?"

"You bastard! If you hadn't made me addicted to heroin, how could I have been so obedient to you? If I had known this would happen, I would never have brought you back from Haiti!" Zhao Lianpu roared hoarsely.

"It's too late to say all this now. If you hadn't read so many detective novels in my lighthouse back then, and tried to write one yourself, hoping to get it published, we would never have come here. To be honest, it was all your vanity that got in the way. If you didn't want to come back to publish your novel, but lacked the money for the trip home, how could we have banded together like this? You can get rich by writing books, but that doesn't stop me from getting rich by growing opium, does it?" Old Chen said smugly.

"You monster! Making a fortune through drugs is an utterly depraved act. You'll die a horrible death one day!"

"A good death? Everyone has to die eventually. We should enjoy every day we live." Old Chen smiled slightly again. "I never thought that in this remote corner of the southwest, I could find such a place with the best climate for growing opium. It's like God is helping me. What I didn't expect was that I found the plant I thought only existed in Haiti, the 'Bewitching Grass,' here. We can even create living dead here so they can grow opium for us for free and make pure heroin for us."

"What do you mean 'we'? I didn't collude with you! Don't drag me into this!" Zhao Lianpu roared.

"Heh, what do you mean by not going along with the corrupt practices? When Yu Guang and the others came today, you were still helping me cover for them, you did a good job. However, you also did some things behind my back, don't think I don't know. Now that I've drugged you, it's a punishment for you. If I didn't want to continue using you as my puppet, I would have sent you on your way long ago."

"What did I do? I did whatever you told me to do, I didn't do anything!" Zhao Lianpu yelled.

"Hmph! You think I don't know? I added a potion of mind-altering herbs to the meatballs. Even if they only ate vegetables, they'd be unconscious until this time tomorrow. Just now, when I sent Wang Mingsheng back to carry them, he didn't bring anything back. They're already awake. If it wasn't you, who was? You must have poured cold water on their faces when I wasn't looking, that's why they woke up so quickly. Also, two flashlights and two steel pipes are missing from the armory. You must have hidden them and secretly left them for them. Don't think I'm stupid. Starting tomorrow, I'll inject purer heroin into your veins. If you dare do this again, I'll make you wish you were dead. If you don't die after just one day without drugs, come find me!" Old Chen said menacingly.

"You devil! Humph! You think you can get away with this? You're dreaming! I saw it all along, Yu Guang and Wu Yong are no ordinary people. They are skilled and shrewd. They will be your nightmare!" Zhao Lianpu shouted hysterically.

"Heh heh." Old Chen sneered, "Even if they're powerful, I don't believe they can withstand my voodoo spells and the poison of the mind-altering herb. Besides, I've already captured two of the four of them. Tomorrow, at the moment the sun rises in the east, I'll cast the first spell on that man and woman named Weng Beibei and Shen Tian at the opium den behind the mountain. Then, I can command them to deal with Yu Guang and Wu Yong."

"You despicable beast!" Zhao Lianpu tried to stand up, but his whole body was limp and he couldn't move. Old Chen left the house with a sneer, leaving Zhao Lianpu alone lying on the sofa in the small house, completely limp.

36

Yu Guang and Wu Yong searched the small house for a long time but couldn't find any secret room. Just as they were wondering where Old Chen had gone, they suddenly heard a slow, slight "clicking" sound of gears.

Just as I was about to hide, I realized that the empty room offered no place to hide. What should I do? Just as I was getting anxious, a floor tile in the center of the room slowly opened, and a chair slowly rose from the ground.

Yu Guang and Wu Yong, utterly helpless, had no choice but to dart behind the chair, gripping their steel pipes, ready to deliver a fatal blow to the person seated there. The rosewood chair slowly rose, and they saw the back of a head directly in their line of sight. Judging from the hairstyle, they knew it must be Old Chen, that thief.

Wu Yong gripped the steel pipe and slammed it down. With a loud "bang," a spurt of blood gushed from the back of Old Chen's head, and he immediately collapsed to the ground like a dead dog.

He checked his breathing; there was still a faint exhalation. "Never mind him, hurry and find Zhao Lianpu, he's the real mastermind!" Yu Guang said. At this moment, they didn't know that the real mastermind was Old Chen, and Zhao Lianpu was currently imprisoned in an underground secret chamber.

“Look, there’s a button on the chair. It must be the mechanism to go down!” Wu Yong said.

“Okay, let’s take turns going down. Maybe Beibei and Shen Tian are locked up down there.” Following the narrow passage, they arrived at the wooden door. They were fully expecting Weng Beibei and Shen Tian to be imprisoned inside, but to their surprise, when they pushed open the door, they saw Zhao Lianpu slumped on the sofa. They were both filled with astonishment.

"You're here. I knew you'd come. I knew you'd find the flashlight and steel pipe under my bed." Zhao Lianpu smiled when he saw Yu Guang and Wu Yong.