Chapter 166

We rushed back, ran through the snake rain again, grabbed our backpacks, and then rushed out again. I looked back and saw that the shadow above the canopy was spread out like a black umbrella in the moonlight. As we were rushing back to a place where snakes weren’t raining down from the trees, Liu Sang found an open space, looked at his watch, and said to us, “We only have four hours to dig holes.”

We had reached the bottom of the valley, so it was impossible to find a new direction to run back to the mountainside or climb the cliff. I couldn’t help thinking that Liu Sang’s mind worked fast and the safest way really was to dig a hole. We took out our shovels and started digging at a distance of three or four meters from each other, but the tree roots here were all tangled together. As soon as our shovels went down, we hit nothing but roots and couldn’t dig at all. I figured that four hours wouldn’t be enough to dig a hole deep enough to bury one person.

But after four hours, that black thing may fall to our level, and it would be very dangerous for us to act again.

After digging for ten minutes, Kan Jian suddenly ran over and took a look. When I asked him what he was doing, he said, “I was wondering if you were burying yourself horizontally or vertically?”

“Is there a difference?” I glanced at him. I wanted to dig a pit that I could squat in and use leaves to make a lid, so it would be in the shape of a rice cooker. I figured I probably wanted to squat because I didn’t have a sense of security here. If I were to just lie down or be stuck in the ground like a stick, I would die if there were any changes.

In other words, I always encountered sudden changes, so I always had to give myself a way out.

Kan Jian looked at my pit, gestured at it, and then asked me, “Boss, do you want to wrap yourself in a circle?”

I went to see what he had dug. It was a slot in the ground that would have him lying on his back. Everyone has his own aspirations, I thought to myself. I just won’t demand too much of him.

“It doesn’t look very lucky,” was all I said.

“Boss, what should I do?” When he became nervous, his Mandarin was no longer standard.

I patted him, “Nothing, nothing. Meditating on one’s life can be enlightening.”

Liu Sang rushed over, furious. “You guys are still digging your own damn private rooms? Dig together! Dig a big pit and we’ll hide inside! Otherwise, we won’t make it in time!”

As soon as I heard him say that, I realized that he was right. Everyone gathered together and dug indiscriminately. After three hours, I was weak, my back was aching, and we had managed to dig a decent-sized hole. After that, two people continued digging while the rest of us grabbed some leaves to make a lid. Liu Sang kept looking around as he dug, so I asked him what he was doing.

“It’s getting lower and lower,” he said. “Hurry up, hurry up.” He had just finished speaking when we saw a cloud of mist-like black shadows hovering over our heads. Liu Sang cursed and hugged his head as everyone else immediately tried to shrink in on themselves.

I looked at the cloud with my flashlight, but I still couldn’t tell whether it was fog or flying insects.

Everyone picked up their pace, jumped into the pit, and then put the mud-covered lid on. We dug into the pit wall and used the mud to seal all the cracks in the lid. We were all covered in mud and looked battered and exhausted. Liu Sang told us not to talk so that he could listen to what was going on above us.

Time passed by and everyone gradually started to relax. “So, by doing this, we don’t know when we can get out, right?” I asked Liu Sang.

“The gas hovering in the air will move further up in the atmosphere when the sun comes out,” Liu Sang said. “We can get out of this pit in the morning. I’d say around eleven or twelve.”

He had just finished speaking when everyone heard a deafening sound. I was stunned for a moment. Hearing something so unreal in this small space was a little overwhelming, so it took me a second to realize that it was thunder.

We’re screwed, I thought to myself. Why is it suddenly thundering when we had such a clear view of the moon and stars just now. Where are the clouds coming from?

Liu Sang frowned, “It’s not thunder. Someone’s shooting artillery. Mortars, to be more specific.”

“Shooting artillery? (1) Who’s shooting artillery?” Kan Jian asked. As soon as the words fell, there was a loud bang right by us and a gust of air instantly blew our lid off.

<Chapter 165><Table of Contents><Chapter 167>

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TN Notes:

(1) Per Tiffany: Liu Sang used the words “打炮 (shoot artillery)”, which in Chinese can be an idiom that means to “have sex”. Our precious Kan Jian had apparently lost the ability to think about what he was saying and his remark became an innuendo: “Having sex? Who’s having sex?”