Chapter 38 Strange Shadow in the Wall

The situation inside was exactly the same as what Fatty had said. Although Ghost didn’t explain the principle behind these tunnels, I could also roughly guess that these mechanisms must have been skillfully designed using human psychology and natural fissures in the mountain. Maybe we would find more clues after we went further in.

Using this entrance, we could enter the tunnel that Fatty had gone through all kinds of hardships to get out of. We hunched over and went. Since Ghost and Fatty had said that there wouldn’t be any danger, we walked quickly without any worries. We used a flashlight to shine on the tunnel’s rock walls and searched the entire way for the unusual shadow that Ghost had mentioned.

The entire wall was a translucent green and our flashlight was wrapped in a green cloth Ghost had given us. In this way, it would act like an x-ray lamp we could see through. It was obvious that the stones here were especially suitable for the penetration of green light.

In this light, we could even see the skin of some of the shadows that were closer to the surface. I hadn’t gotten a good look at these things before, but what I was seeing now was definitely more than a shadow. I found that the faces of these things were especially strange. The smaller the shadow, the more similar the face was to people. But if it was larger, the face would be very elongated. They all had their eyes closed as if they were sleeping among the green stone.

Fatty told me not to get too close since Ghost said that these things would gather in places with high temperatures. We also couldn’t stay in one place for too long, either.

As we continued all the way through, we tried to concentrate all of our energy on searching. We were afraid of missing the shadow, but we didn’t see the kind of “strange” shadow Ghost had mentioned.

“Do you think this is unusual?” Fatty preferred to be wrong rather than letting one slip by, so as soon as he saw something strange, he would say, “Look at this shadow. It’s just like Zhao Benshan (1). Is it this one?”

“I don’t think that ghost had the chance to know who Zhao Benshan is. He probably wouldn’t think something was wrong with the shadow,” I said.

“What about this?” Fatty pointed to another shadow, which was making a swimming pose. “Doesn’t this look like the dog paddle?”

“I don’t think the difference has to do with just looking at them. It’s definitely not that simple. Otherwise, there’d be a problem with all of the shadows here.” As I said this, I couldn’t help but have some misgivings about whether Ghost might have overestimated our ability to judge. Fatty shook his head and said he didn’t think Ghost would make such a mistake in that situation. The guy was a spy, so it was impossible for him to give an “inaccurate account”.

I had to believe it. The two of us continued moving forward, looking at the shadows one by one. Soon, our activities became a test of our imaginations.

“Look, this shadow looks like it’s peeing.”

“Shit, look at this one. The chest is very big. Why is there a tail underneath?”

In fact, it was quite interesting at first and helped relieve our anxiety. But we had looked so much that we eventually didn’t even have the desire to speak and just mechanically looked at one shadow after another.

I didn’t know how long it had been since we came inside. I didn’t see Xiao Hua or find the shadow, and the tunnel seemed endless. Just as we were on the verge of sleepwalking, we suddenly saw a strange shadow.

Fatty and I came to our senses almost at the same time. We both shivered and looked at each other. I realized that Ghost really had been right and we had finally found it. Indeed, we would never miss it as long as we were paying attention during our search.

This was definitely a shadow that made people feel very strange. What we saw in the rock wall had very long hands and feet that even exceeded its height. According to the proportions, it was like a shadow formed by five snakes twining together, or a dancer wearing a long dress with long sleeves.

“Hands past the knees Liu Bei (2),” Fatty muttered. “This twenty-headed body is truly the same as the descriptions.” 

“Why is this shadow different from others? Is it a deformity?” I felt a little uneasy as I illuminated it with my flashlight. But this shadow was quite deep in the rock, and when the flashlight shined on it, there was only the dark shadow and nothing else.

“What’s next?” Fatty asked me. “What did he say? I forgot.”

“Find this shadow’s location and use the oil there. Where’s our oil?”

Fatty took out the canteen and gave it to me, “Here, save some.”

“It’s fine. Don’t we still have you when we run out?” I asked. I took the canteen and immediately poured the contents on the ground.

“You damn psycho, you think I’d allow you to do such inferior things with my godly fat?” Fatty scolded. “And we don’t have any equipment to boil the oil anyways.”

As soon as the oil touched the ground, it began to seep through. I found that the rock surface there seemed to have been roughly chiseled, but the lines on it were actually done skillfully. The oil immediately began to spread rapidly and flowed to one place.

“That’s the way,” Fatty said. We walked slowly in the direction the oil flowed to. After a few steps, we saw a fork in the tunnel in front of us. It was so small that we had no choice but to bend over to enter.

“Damn, why didn’t we see it just now?” Fatty asked. “How did this hole come into being?”

I approached the fork and found that the tunnel was wet. After feeling around, I found that it was very sticky. I thought it was strange, but then an idea suddenly flashed through my mind and I felt as if I understood the principle of how this mechanism operated here.

But when I thought about it carefully, I still didn’t understand it. As I stood there in a daze, I suddenly saw a white light appear at the mouth of the fork, as if there was a flashlight over there.

I immediately looked at it and saw a source of white light in the depths of the tunnel. I couldn’t see it clearly because it wasn’t as bright as a flashlight, it was far away, and there was also a backlight.

I used my flashlight to counteract the white light. The beam went more than ten meters in, but I found that there was no one inside. Fatty also saw it and shouted into the tunnel, “Who’s there?”

When I moved the flashlight away, the white light dimmed.

“What was that just now? Fireflies?” I asked.

“Those are some amazing fireflies. With the light that bright, how big is the bug? It has to be at least as big as my shoes.”

“Then what kind of light was that? Was it a ghost fire?” I asked. “The white light was too real just now. I think it’s an artificial light source.”

“You have no imagination,” Fatty said. “Based on my life experiences, that light should be a cell phone.”

“Cell phone? Is it Xiao Hua’s?”

<Chapter 37> <Table of Contents><Chapter 39>

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TN Notes:

(1) A Chinese skit and sitcom actor, comedian, television director, and businessman. Info here.

(2) Liu Bei was a warlord at the end of the Han dynasty who was said to be REALLY tall with long arms that extended beyond his knees, and ears so large that he could see them. More info here.

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Random note: Sorry I skipped uploading yesterday, I actually did get about 20 pages done but I needed a break after going almost nonstop for a month. I used that time to finish watching the King’s Avatar (it’s good, you all should check it out on Netflix) and can I just say that Yifan and Mo Fan are just the most precious cinnamon rolls EVER.

Updated 3/7/2021