Chapter 17 Ruined My Big Event

The leather figurine women were suspended below the water. They were pulled aside by the current, but not washed away because of the bronze chains around their feet. Black Glasses dove down, grabbed a bronze chain, and lowered himself towards their feet. As soon as he stopped, the fluorescent substance around him was washed away and his surroundings became dark.

Black Glasses slowly crawled along the bronze chain and swam under one of the leather figurines.

The corpse had been processed into leather a long time ago, and there appeared to be something inside of it. Black Glasses didn’t know what it was, but the corpse was still in the shape of a human instead of just a lump of leather. He let go and surfaced, but when he dove down again, he couldn’t see the leather figurines anymore.

When I heard this, I figured it was also a project to make leather figurines.

The human hand shellfish had the physiological characteristics of secreting liquid while eating the flesh, and the body fluids could leatherize the corpses’ skin. So, the South Sea country sank those corpses to the bottom of the river and fed the human hand shellfish, thus obtaining leatherized human skin.

Black Glasses didn’t know how long he floated down the river, but the current gradually began to slow down, the river became wider, and embankments began to appear on both sides. After coming all this way, he must’ve been in a section of the river that was deep underground.

But this wasn’t a no-man’s land. On the contrary, there were many boats and fishing nets on the riverbank.

Black Glasses swam to shore and climbed up. In the darkness, he could see that there was a very simple altar by the riverbank.

There was a skull on the altar that was covered in gold and jade. The bones were yellow and had been covered in hundreds of layers of paint, probably to prevent them from weathering. The paint had oxidized in such a way that a thousand layers had formed and lifted up like scales.

Black Glasses saw that there was a smooth-edged hole on the skull’s forehead. He could tell that it had been artificially made when the person was alive, because the bone had regrown. He looked around to make sure no one was nearby and then pulled a fishing net over. He cut it with his knife to make a net bag, broke off the skull, put it directly into the net bag, and then slung it on his back.

If he got out alive, he could take this thing to Wu Erbai.

Then, he found a place to sit down and rest.

There was only the sound of running water. With so many boats here, this place had to be like a fishing port during the fishing season. But now it was the rainy season, and since it rained every day, the water level was very high. The big fish in the underground river would definitely end up in this part of the river. When it wasn’t the rainy season, the water level would be much lower and the underwater ruins would be exposed to the surface.

“It’s only the two of us here now,” Black Glasses said to the thing on his back. “Either you go back by yourself now and we part on good terms, or I’ll kill you.”

The pressure behind him was still there. This thing is still quite nostalgic for the world, he thought to himself. If Thunder City can alleviate all regrets, then it must be something like a wonderland among individuals. Why don’t you want to go back?

“Then I’ll kill you.” Black Glasses stood up. What did I do last time? He wondered.

At this time, a bright dot of light suddenly appeared in the underground river.

He wasn’t wearing sunglasses and the light was brighter than the phosphorescent light from earlier, so it looked as dazzling as the sun to him.

He quickly took out his spare sunglasses and put them on as a person struggling with a flashlight in the underground river quickly passed in front of him.

It was Chuchu. Not only did she not climb back up the cliff, but seemed to have fallen into the underground river.

Just let her rush to the center of the earth, Black Glasses thought to himself, feeling a headache coming on. But there was no way he could really do that, so he jumped into the underground river and fished her out.

Chuchu, who was shivering from the cold, was lifted up and thrown onto the riverbank.

“You ruined my big event,” Black Glasses said to her.

“Funny Uncle?” Chuchu looked at him and signed shakily. “I finally found you.”

“What are you doing looking for me? Shouldn’t children find new playmates and forget the old ones soon enough?” Black Glasses said to her. “Are you going to cry now? I’ll knock you out if you cry.”

Chuchu looked at Funny Uncle, wanting to cry but not daring to. Black Glasses took a deep breath and recalled all the tragic situations that had happened whenever he brought children with him in the past.

He didn’t know why, but in recent years, he had been having a hard time with these children. He had trouble handling Wu Xie, Li Cu, and Su Wan, and now there was this girl.

“But I missed you so much,” Chuchu signed. “Why didn’t you come and see me at all?”

“I needed to make a living.” Black Glasses looked at the girl.

“Why aren’t you old at all?” Chuchu asked. “If you didn’t speak in a different tone, I would’ve recognized you as soon as I saw you.”

Black Glasses couldn’t answer her question, so he just laughed and stretched out his hand. Chuchu immediately protected her neck and took about a dozen steps back. Black Glasses followed her, “Be good.”

“I won’t!” Chuchu shook her head desperately.

Black Glasses tried to force her to faint, but at this time, he saw a person standing in the water behind her.

This mysterious person was a dark shadow that was just standing there, doing nothing.

“Who?” Black Glasses rolled, grabbed onto Chuchu’s flashlight, and quickly turned it off. He then took off his sunglasses and saw a woman standing in the water behind them.

It was another Chuchu.

He paused and then looked back at the person who was still holding onto the flashlight. He saw that Chuchu, who had been crying just now, had somehow become a soaking wet leather figurine.

When he turned his head again, he saw more than a dozen leather figurines standing up in the water on the riverbank. In the dark light, they were all half in and half out of the water.

And they were looking right at him.

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