Chapter 31 Ghost Appears

After it became completely dark, the moon gradually rose. I found a tree to lean on and felt my heart waver for the first time. I couldn’t help thinking, am I totally going in the wrong direction? Did I follow the wrong route when I walked all the way here? I also couldn’t remember whether I had learned how to find traces based on foliage damage from TV or if Fatty had taught me. Was it all a bluff?

“It’s only the first day,” I immediately told myself as I began to think about what Fatty would’ve done last night. If he discovered that I wasn’t there, then he couldn’t go back alone and proceed with the team as if nothing had happened. Since fake Wu Xie and I were both gone, he would definitely assume that I must’ve been taken away by him, in which case Fatty would definitely go back and inform the others.

No, Fatty wouldn’t notify anyone else. Based on his recent performance, he didn’t trust anyone now. Moreover, how would he say such a thing when he went back?

If Pan Zi were there, he might inform him, but now he would definitely try to find me out here alone.

I continued to speculate on what I would think first if I were in his shoes. He would feel that I was taken away by fake Wu Xie, who would either take me back to the foreigners’ team or kill me. He would determine which one was more likely according to the situation at that time and take corresponding measures. In short, it was very likely that he went out to find me by himself.

Of course, I couldn’t ignore another possibility; that is, the guy might have gone back to ambush Fatty after finishing me off. But I didn’t believe Fatty was easy to sneak up on. And since the guy dragged me so far down the steep slope, he was definitely trying to make it so that Fatty wouldn’t be able to find me. As a result, this possibility was unlikely. It was more reliable to think that Fatty was looking for me.

But even though Fatty had good eyes, he would’ve only been able to shout my name under the circumstances at that time. But I had been in a deep coma. What would I do if I looked for someone and shouted all night, but that person didn’t respond? Wait for morning and then look for any traces he might have left.

Fatty obviously didn’t find me, but the area was very large and too hard to canvass in one day. He was probably resting somewhere in this area now. But with his character, I knew he wouldn’t give up so soon.

As I was thinking all of this, I looked up at the moon in the sky. It was silent all around me, except for the slight chirping of insects. It was much quieter than it was when we first arrived during the summer and I realized that this was a good time to rest.

I looked for a tree to climb up but found it too difficult. In the end, I continued climbing the gentle slope until I could clearly see the whole valley. In fact, I didn’t reach a high position but stood by an open section of a tree’s canopy. After standing still for a moment, I yelled at the top of my lungs, “Fatty!”

With this single sound, almost all the insects stopped chirping. This seemed to be a very opportune angle because the sound traveled down and unexpectedly echoed back from the opposite mountain. It even startled a flock of birds into flight in the valley below.

I was a little surprised but didn’t immediately give up. I quickly raised my voice and continued to yell. I called a few more times, stopped, and listened carefully for Fatty’s reply.

There was no reply no matter how I called. All I heard was the sound of the wind in the valley.

I thought that maybe I couldn’t hear Fatty’s voice because he didn’t have a natural loudspeaker like I did. I was wondering if I should make a torch so that he could see my location, coordinate with my voice calling him, and maybe find me here, but at this time, I suddenly heard the sound of a rustling bush coming from the gentle slope below me.

I didn’t have a flashlight. When I looked down, all I saw was the area mottled by moonlight, but I couldn’t see anything.

“Fatty?” I called immediately. I heard the rustling in the bushes quickly move from one side to the other at a very fast speed.

I immediately shut up, thinking that if Fatty could move through the bushes at such a fast speed, then he must be a ninja. There had to be an animal down there, and it wasn’t a small one based on how much noise it was making.

I thought of the lynx in this mountain and touched the ground at my feet. Luckily, there were a lot of stones around me. I grabbed one and threw it at the place where the noise had come from.

The stone hit the bushes and bounced several times. I threw out another two, certain I wouldn’t miss, but the thing left quickly, the bushes continuing to shake until it slowly disappeared.

Was it a wild boar or something? I breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that I had to find a tree to climb up; otherwise, there was a big possibility of encountering wild animals. I had to rest well tonight, or I would be ruined tomorrow. The further I delayed, the lower my chances of survival were. If I couldn’t find any clues by noon tomorrow, I would have to go back to the place with the stream so that I could drink some water and follow it to find a way out.

The stream would probably lead to the canal beside Banai, or at least I hoped so.

I held the tree trunk and walked down the gentle slope again. At this time, I was already struggling to walk and just wanted to find a bush-covered area quickly so that I could go to bed after shouting a few more times. But after taking a few steps, I suddenly felt that something was wrong. In the mottled moonlight, I saw a short tree in the dark that looked a little strange.

I felt my heart jolt as I stood and looked at it carefully. I suddenly realized that it wasn’t a tree, but a person.

The figure’s shoulders were completely collapsed like a ghost and he was standing motionless in the darkness. I couldn’t even tell if he had been there the entire time.

I froze in place, not knowing whether I should rush to catch him or turn my head and run. Then I realized that I couldn’t do either now and the choice was in his hands.

I simply stopped moving and stood there looking at him. He didn’t move either, and in the dark, I didn’t even know if he was facing me or had his back turned.

If the latter, he would now be motionless with his face against a tree, which was really creepy. Was this thing human or not?

My hands began to sweat as we stood there in a long stalemate. Then, I suddenly saw him standing with a very strange posture. It was probably because of his body structure, which didn’t seem like something a human being could manage at all.

I thought for a while and realized that it was an invitation for me to come over. I felt buzzing in my head, but before I could react, the shadow moved toward the bottom of the gentle slope.

He was—telling me to follow him?

Confused, I saw the shadow take a few steps, stop, and make a movement. It was still the same meaning—follow me.

I thought for a moment and realized that if it was bad for me, it wouldn’t be necessary to do this. He didn’t kill me out here in the wilderness, and if I didn’t go, he might think I wasn’t worth it and would be all too happy to kill me right here.

I held the tree trunk and walked with him.

I didn’t know how long we had been walking, but every time I couldn’t hold on, he would stop and wait for me. After a while, he suddenly stopped and I also immediately stopped. I didn’t dare get too close to him, because I had a genuine fear of what he might really look like.

I looked up and found that there was a huge rock in front of me. It was so big, in fact, that I couldn’t see the top of it. In the moonlight, a huge cave appeared in the rock wall, with a faint light coming from it.

He walked into the cave without looking back, but I hesitated for a moment. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, I told myself before following him in. A few meters after I entered the cave, the firelight became brighter and I finally saw him sitting there, the original black shadow clearly illuminated.

When he motioned me to sit down in front of him, I felt my heart beat faster. I looked at his face and body and started trembling a little.

It really was a person; or at least, he should’ve been. But now, no one would doubt that he came from another world.

His whole body was like a mass of wax that had quickly melted at first. All the skin was mottled with holes, but the melting process seemed to have stopped abruptly. His shoulders were practically nonexistent, his hands hung on both sides of his body, and all the flesh and skin on his shoulders were wrapped around his body. I could even see the joints through the thin skin covering his shoulder bones.

His whole face had been melted and his hair was so long and unkempt that it was practically knotted together.

But I found that he didn’t have a beard. If his hair was so long, then his beard should be very long, too. But I couldn’t see a beard on this man’s face at all.

I felt a little scared and thought of a possibility that made me uncomfortable, is this a woman?

He was bare to the waist, but it was completely impossible to tell whether he was a man or a woman from his upper body. His physical appearance had been damaged to such an extent that it was pointless to wonder whether he was a man or a woman. But if a man became like this, I could accept it. After all, if I put myself in his shoes, as long as my heart was steeled, I wouldn’t be unable to cope with it. But if she was a woman, then she was awfully pitiful.

Maybe the hair follicles on his face have just been damaged, I thought to myself. It’s not like I can take his pants off just to see if he’s a man or a woman.

He didn’t speak, but grabbed the dead branches and leaves on the side with his hand and threw them into the bonfire. As the fire slowly flared up, I saw that there were other amazing things in the cave.

<Chapter 30> <Table of Contents><Chapter 32>

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Updated 2/14/2021