Chapter 35 We Are All Miluotuo’s Food

“Do you mean those miluotuo eat people?”

“They eat anything they can catch. The most common method is their unique way to trap creatures that have strayed into certain crevices and caves. They eat their corpses.”

We followed him back to the cave.

“What’s this unique way you’re talking about?” Fatty asked.

“They can seal caves and crevices with their secretions and trap their prey inside the mountain. The process is very rapid. There are a lot of crevices in the mountains here—just like a maze—so many people will find that their entrance has suddenly disappeared.”

Fatty and I looked at each other as we realized that was what had happened in the closed cave at the bottom of the lake.

“They can also form rocks themselves. There are two kinds of rocks here: the real rock that already exists and the rock that forms after their secretions solidify. The stone formed by this secretion is exactly the same as the original stone here. They devour and corrode the rocks and then fill in the gaps with their secretions like concrete. With this method, the whole mountain is basically like a huge jelly. They can move slowly in it since the rocks are like liquid, but this method is only effective for sedimentary and metamorphic rocks. They can’t advance when they encounter igneous rocks. Another way to stop them is to pour strong alkali on the stones.”

“Does it mean that the rock walls around this ancient road are covered in strong alkali? Although we can see the miluotuo inside, they won’t come out?” Fatty asked.

I shook my head, “Wouldn’t the rain wash it away after all these years?”

“When it rains, the mountain roads become a diversion canal. There’s an alkali seam at the top of this mountain and all the rain washed down from the top is introduced into this diversion canal. As you can see, these mountain roads look very strange. Since the rainwater flows very slowly here, these mountain roads were designed to accumulate a lot of water. So, there will be countless pools of water when the rain flows down the mountain. After these pools dry up, the alkaline substance will cover the rock surface.”

I thought of the old log-covered road Fatty led us through earlier. Sure enough, there had been a lot of pools of water there.

“So, this is an extremely unusual ranch?”

“I don’t think the word ‘ranch’ is appropriate,” Ghost said. “At that time, we thought it was like a fish pond. The rock is the water, and these miluotuo are the fish in the water. They can swim freely in this area, but they’ll never reach land.”

“But does this have anything to do with what you said about everyone definitely dying when they enter the Zhang family’s ancient building?”

“I don’t know if you’ve ever gone fishing, but there’s a very common phenomenon in fish ponds: when bait is put into a crowded pond, all the fish will be attracted to it and gather by it. After the miluotuo were put into the mountain, that ancient building was surrounded by rocks covered in strong alkali. It can’t be breached, but the miluotuo will be attracted by the heat emitted by whoever is inside and crowd around the building. More specifically, they’ll all crowd around the entrance.”

“Buddy, you mean to tell me that everyone will be trapped to death?”

“Probably so, but the situation is worse than you think. If there are too many miluotuo gathered around, the ancient building’s mechanism will be activated. A large amount of strong alkaline water will flow down from the top of the cave, forming a mist that will flood the entire building and force the miluotuo gathered around to retreat. The whole area will be covered in a strong alkaline fog. Nobody will survive.”

Fatty looked at me, but I didn’t know what to say. “Wait a minute,” Fatty said. “If you’ve been to the Zhang family’s ancient building, then why are you still alive?”

Ghost lifted his hair to reveal an extremely terrifying face and then leaned toward Fatty, “Do you think I’m really alive? I just didn’t die completely.”

When I saw his face, I immediately understood how his body had melted and become this way. It was the effect of strong alkali.

“I was in the tunnel at that time. It only took a light spray of alkali gas to become like this. Our people that were already in the ancient building were liquified in an instant.”

As he spoke, he regained his composure. Although his whole face was melted, I suddenly had a thought—I seemed to recognize him.

He wasn’t in that photo and didn’t have the kind of relationship I thought he did with Uncle Three. As I was thinking this, I immediately broke out in a cold sweat. I had met him before, but where? Who was he?

But the more I tried to remember, the harder it was. After trying to recall for what felt like half a day, I finally gave up. I knew that it was impossible to remember who he was if I didn’t flip through a photo album or relax completely. Trying to rack my brain here and now would only make it worse. 

“Brother, I sympathize with you.” Fatty walked around the edge of the cave a few times, eventually sitting down beside me once he found that there was nothing there. “What are you going to do? I know doctors from Concord, but I think it’ll be too difficult for you to look like a human being. With the whole look you have going on right now, maybe you can tell the doctors to make you look like a bat.”

“I won’t leave here,” Ghost said after taking a sip of water. “I brought you with me just to ask you something. What you want to do afterward has nothing to do with me. There’s nothing you can do here, anyway.”

I felt my heart thump and looked up. I was just wondering what he was going to ask, when he said, “I’ve said so much, you should also tell me something I don’t know.”

“What do you want to know?” I asked, feeling a little nervous. But when I thought about it, didn’t that mean I could just make something up since it was something he didn’t know?

“Who’s in charge of you now?” He asked.

“You mean—”

“I don’t care about those in the Chen Qing group,” he said. “Nearly thirty years have passed, so Old Yu definitely won’t be in that position anymore.”

“Nobody cares about us,” I said. I could only roughly guess that he was asking about the management of the archaeological team that year. “The world changed a long time ago. None of us are in charge now.”

In fact, I didn’t know if it really was nobody’s business but based on the Xie, Huo, and Wu families’ development, there was no obvious possibility of political interference.

“Nobody cares?” He muttered to himself, “He also said that nobody cares. Is it true what he said?”

“Who else have you heard from? Did you have any contact with the outside world during this period?” I asked him. Based on his statement, it seemed like he had heard someone else say this.

“You know their habit of doing things. I haven’t contacted anyone. I know too much. If I want to live a more comfortable life, it may be better here,” he said.

“But times have really changed,” I said to him. “When you leave here, no one will persecute you. The organization from those days has disappeared. Everyone—everyone is making money.”

“Impossible. Times will change, but that thing won’t change. Wu Sanxing, why are you lying to me?”

I sighed, not knowing what to say. This guy had been here for so many years. Banai was a very small and isolated village, so he would probably keep thinking that the whole environment was the same as it was back then. There really wasn’t a way to let him know that the outside world had changed dramatically.

“Stop pretending.” Fatty finally spoke up.

When I looked back at him, Fatty said, “You speak so fluently. You’ve definitely not been here alone for thirty years. In a place like this, even if you were a disabled person with all kinds of abilities, it’s impossible to stay so sane for such a long time. I’ve seen it before. If you spend too much time alone and don’t talk, it’s hard to understand what’s being said.”

I also knew this and said, “Fatty’s right. What are you hiding?”

He made a few strange sounds that sounded like laughter, “Wu Sanxing is still Wu Sanxing. He can always see things that others can’t.”

“I pointed it out first.” Fatty was dissatisfied.

I shook my head and motioned for him not to speak. “I survived because the team’s guide saved me back then,” Ghost said. “Many people in that village have seen me and think I’m crazy. I only have a little contact with the old guide. He brings me some food and I exchange some things with him.”

“Is that why you killed those people?” Fatty asked. “You stripped me of my clothes and wanted to exchange them for something.”

“The old guide you mentioned is Father Pan Ma, right?” I asked him.

He nodded, “No matter what the outside world looks like, the things buried in this mountain shouldn’t be known. Now, what happened to the others?” He suddenly asked.

I scrambled to think, what should I say? I also felt very emotional, so I made up some stories, tried not to mention personal matters, and only talked about a few of the families and some gossip.

After I finished speaking, he remained silent. I could tell that he hadn’t been listening to the later parts.

At that moment, I suddenly remembered that Xiao Hua and I had come up with a theory— was the archaeology team’s real purpose actually archaeology?

Was it possible that Leather Bag was right and the archaeological team was a funeral procession?

I looked at the man and suddenly felt that such an opportunity wouldn’t appear again. In this world, there was probably only one person left from that archaeological team. It would be a pity if I didn’t ask him some very practical questions.

But I wasn’t sure what his attitude towards us was. I tried to imagine myself in his shoes and felt that his attitude towards us now should be very dangerous.

He was so willing to kill all the others, but he didn’t kill us. We were only here because we knew him in some way and he wanted to know something from us. People like him wouldn’t change their principles because of their feelings. I thought he had said so many things carelessly, but he had obviously maintained his extremely high vigilance, which showed that he could commit murder at any time.

Fatty’s gun was with him. We had no chance.

I couldn’t ask directly and knew I had to be very careful. I thought up a series of questions and picked out a few to ask him. Each of them left room for maneuvering, so I went through them again before I dared voice them.

“What exactly is it?” This was the first question.

He paused and looked up. “What exactly did you bring in that year?” I asked him. 

<Chapter 34> <Table of Contents><Chapter 36>

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Updated 2/19/2021