Chapter 14 Poker-Face

The fat guy coughed, “Comrades, it seems I’ve gotten you involved in this mess and now it looks like we’re all going to die. I, Fatty, have never been afraid of anything, but I really didn’t expect to die like this.”

He was covered in black from head to toe so I couldn’t see his figure clearly in the dark, but when I took a closer look, I found that he was a fairly chubby man. I honestly didn’t think such a fat person could be a grave robber.

Pan Zi cursed, “Where the fuck did you come from, you damned fatty? I really want to fucking beat you to death right now!”

I felt close to tears when I saw that the fire sticks were going out and said to the two of them, “Hurry up and do something! Otherwise, it won’t matter who beats up whom! The bugs will have the advantage!”

Pan Zi looked around before handing his gun to the fat guy and then handing me a fire stick. “Initially, we could have lasted a while if we had burned our clothes,” he said to us. “But the flames from the fire sticks are too small now so we might die before they can even be lit. On the count of three, I’ll distract these bugs while you two run to the wall and climb up. You’ll have to make a human ladder if you want to reach that door, but it should be enough time for you guys to get up there. I move fast, so as soon as you’re up there, I’ll run over. Not a second can be wasted!”

Before I could refuse, Pan Zi suddenly jumped and threw himself into the pile of corpse-eaters. They immediately surged up like a tidal wave, but a path really did appear in front of us. I shouted and tried to save him, but the fat guy held me back and said, “Up!”

He dragged me along as he ran the short distance to the wall, and with his support, I was able to climb up to that door. Then I stretched out my hand and pulled him up too.

After that was done, I looked down, only to see that Pan Zi was covered in corpse-eaters. He was rolling around on the ground in pain, a sight that nearly had me in tears.

“Get up!” The fat guy shouted at him. “Quickly now! It’s just a few steps! Hurry!” But it was impossible for Pan Zi to get up. The corpse-eaters were already starting to crawl into his mouth and he tried to stand up several times, only to be thrown back to the ground. I really didn’t expect these bugs to be so aggressive. Pan Zi curled up in the fetal position, looked at us shouting at him, and then shook his head miserably.

In just a few seconds, his face was completely covered in corpse-eaters. I saw him stretch his hand out—it was covered in wounds—and make a gun gesture with his fingers. I knew right away that he wanted us to kill him.

That fat guy couldn’t bear to watch it any longer and clenched his teeth before shouting, “Brother, please forgive me!”

But at this time, there was the sudden sound of the trapdoor being triggered again and another person jumped down from above. I should note that this person jumped down instead of falling down so his landing was very stable. But he landed so heavily that he exhaled sharply and had to put one hand on the ground to steady himself. The corpse-eaters were all stunned for a moment before they suddenly began scurrying around like crazy, desperately trying to stay away from this person. The big bugs that had initially come in like a tidal wave were now receding like a tidal wave and quickly disappeared into several holes in the wall.

I took a closer look at this new arrival and couldn’t help but feel overjoyed. Wasn’t this Poker-Face?

“My God!” The fat guy suddenly cried out. “This guy actually survived!”

I took a closer look at Poker-Face, but I didn’t feel as overjoyed now. All the clothes on his upper body had been torn to shreds and his body was covered in blood. It looked like he had suffered a relatively serious injury.

Poker-Face caught a glimpse of the dying Pan Zi on the ground and hurriedly went over and slung him on his back. As soon as we saw that he was saved, we quickly reached down to pull them up. One person grabbed Pan Zi while the other grabbed Poker-Face.

Indeed, the blue sea may turn into mulberry fields.⁽¹⁾ We were in dire straits just now and thought that we were definitely going to die, but now the situation had suddenly been reversed. We wanted to check on Pan Zi’s injuries, but Poker-Face waved his hand and said, “We need to go. Quickly. It’s coming.”

I didn’t understand what he meant, but that fatty had already jumped up like he knew exactly what he was talking about and put Pan Zi on his back. I picked up Pan Zi’s lamp and led the way, the four of us rushing deep into the stone passage.

I didn’t know how long we had been running nor could I tell how many turns we had made before Poker-Face suddenly grabbed the fat guy and said, “Okay. The design of this stone passage is a bit odd so that thing shouldn’t be able to catch up in a short amount of time.”

We finally stopped and I found that I sweating all over. I quickly asked what they were talking about, but Poker-Face sighed and didn’t answer me. Instead, he helped lay Pan Zi flat on the ground. That’s right, I thought to myself, the most important thing right now is to check on Pan Zi’s injuries.

Pan Zi was badly injured and I could see that his whole body was practically covered in wounds. If he was wrapped in bandages—if we even had enough—then he would definitely look like a mummy. I checked his wounds over, but fortunately, most of them weren’t deep. There were several places on his neck and abdomen, however, that were almost fatal. These bugs appeared to be very good at attacking the soft, vulnerable spots on people’s bodies. I thought of the corpse I had touched before and recalled that its abdomen seemed to have the most bite wounds.

Poker-Face pressed on Pan Zi’s abdomen with his hand, pulled out that black-gold blade from where it was hanging on his waist, and said to the two of us, “Help me hold him down.”

I was shocked and suddenly had a bad premonition. “What are you planning on doing?” I asked him.

He stared at Pan Zi’s stomach, just like a butcher looking at his victim, and then slid his two oddly long fingers around the wound. “He’s got one in his stomach,” he said to me.

“No way…” I looked at him suspiciously and then glanced at the fat guy, who was already holding Pan Zi’s legs down.

“Based on your all’s performance so far, I believe him a little more,” the fat guy said.

Left with no other choice, I moved to hold Pan Zi’s arms down. Poker-Face then lifted his sword up, made a cut in Pan Zi’s stomach, and inserted his fingers into the wound at lightning speed. He probed around and hooked something in an instant, quickly pulling out a bluish-green corpse-eater. These movements were all done very fast, but Pan Zi’s whole body arched up from the pain. He was so strong, in fact, that I could hardly hold him down.

“This one suffocated in his stomach,” Poker-Face threw the dead corpse-eater away, “but the wound is too deep. If it’s not sterilized, it may become infected, which will be very troublesome.”

The fat guy took the Glory Bullet out of the gun and said, “Why don’t we learn from the Americans’ vast experience and use this Glory Bullet where it’s really needed? We can take it apart and use the gunpowder to cauterize his wound.”

Pan Zi grabbed the fat guy’s foot and clenched his teeth in pain before cursing at him, “I wasn’t shot! Do you want to fucking…burn my intestines?!” He then pulled a bundle of blood-stained bandages from his pants pocket. They appeared to be the same bandages he had used to treat his head wound from before. “Fortunately, I didn’t throw these away,” he said. “Use these to bandage me up. And wrap them tightly! This wound is nothing!”

“Heroism is out of fashion these days, comrade,” the fat guy said to him. “I’ve already seen your intestines so you don’t have to put on a brave face.”

After he said this, he was about to start taking the bullet apart, but Poker-Face and I immediately stopped him. “Don’t mess around,” I said. “The bullet will burn his internal organs and kill him. It’s better if we just wrap the wound up first.”

The fat guy agreed and we scrambled to help Pan Zi wrap the wound. Once we used up all the bandages, I tore off a few pieces of my clothing and wrapped them around the wound to act as another layer of protection. Pan Zi almost fainted from the pain, and I couldn’t help but feel very emotional when I saw him leaning against the wall, gasping for breath. If I hadn’t dropped the fire sticks at that time, he might not have ended up like this.

But at this time, I suddenly remembered something and asked the fat guy, “By the way, who the hell are you?”

He was just about to speak when Poker-Face suddenly made a gesture for us to be quiet. We all fell silent and I immediately heard a creepy “gege” sound coming from one side of the passage.

<Chapter 13><Table of Contents><Chapter 15>　　

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TN Notes:

(1) It’s an idiom that can be interpreted as “time will bring a great change into the world” or “everything will change in time”. It’s also half of a proverb: “The blue sea may turn into mulberry fields and mulberry fields may turn into the sea”. Info here.

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I think it’s about time to whip our favorite meme out