Volume 9 Chapter 16: Waiting continues

We did nothing here for three whole days. During those three days, the only thing I paid attention to was the hole where they disappeared. It was such a long and anxious process that only those who have been in the same situation can understand.

During this time, I tried more than once to enter the hole, but failed every time. It was really not an ordinary human-made passage, and the highest I could climb was ten meters, and I was completely exhausted, my calves shaking like a sieve.

Among the group, Uncle San’s men were definitely not brave enough to go in. The only one who might have gone in was Black Blind, but he never showed any interest. I think he probably didn’t think he could get out. The atmosphere in the camp was very dull. The mop kept urging us to leave, saying that the two of us might have died inside. Since we couldn’t possibly go in, we should save our strength and food to prepare for getting out.

I couldn’t accept that we had come all this way only to end up like this. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, my mind was only thinking about what had happened inside.

Wenjin untied the rope. She did it on purpose. I remembered her smile before she left. I felt that she might have planned it long ago. In that case, she knew what would happen inside and that this kind of situation would happen.

Wen Jin had been talking about fate all the way here. Her life in the past few years was indescribable. It was possible that she had such thoughts. Maybe she found that there was no way to solve her problem of being a corpse inside, so she was completely disheartened and chose to end her life. But what about the oil bottle? Why didn’t he come out? This doesn’t make sense. I’m sure something must have happened inside.

What could it be? I had no idea where to start thinking. Were they lost? I thought that the winding passages inside formed an endless maze, and that once you entered, you could never get out. But that didn’t explain why Wenjin had untied the rope.

I was filled with anxiety. When I took a break, I saw a deep hole in front of me. Even when I closed my eyes, I could still see a deep hole.

I really don’t want to write about what happened next.

From the fourth day onwards, the mop and the others began to complain incessantly. I was in a terrible mood and wanted to fight with them several times, but there was still no movement in the cave. At one point, I even wondered if Wenjin and Mianyouping had never existed at all, and that all of this was just our imagination.

My uneasiness and anxiety grew stronger and stronger. I began to admit to myself that what the mop and the others were saying might be true, but my reason told me that I had to argue with them. This almost drove me to collapse.

On the sixth day, the mop finally left with the others. In their opinion, there was no doubt about the matter anymore. Even if Wenjin and Wenjin hadn’t died, they would have died in a few days. They had originally hoped to rely on our experience to get them out, but now they obviously weren’t willing to waste any more time in this situation. Black Blindness patted me, meaning for me to leave as well, but I refused. He sighed and left, leaving only me and the fat man.

They also took a lot of food with them, which I knew was more than the average amount, but I was too lazy to argue with them.

Fatso had actually tried to persuade me, but he knew my temper. I had gone through all this, and even if I didn’t have a perfect ending here, I should at least have a broken stop sign. But to end it like this, I suddenly realized how stupid I was. What was I doing here? Was this really the end of everything? I absolutely couldn’t accept it.

The fat guy had no choice but to stay with me. The two of us just looked at each other, waiting. I suddenly remembered an absurd play called “Waiting for Godot,” and I couldn’t help but cry. I thought to myself, my absurd play is actually a tragedy.

This went on for a few days, I can’t remember exactly, but it couldn’t have been too long because we didn’t have much food, but we didn’t finish it all.

After dragging them away, I was actually almost desperate, and I would have collapsed if it weren’t for the fact that I was completely unable to think about what I was doing here. According to Fatso, it was the behavior of a madman.

That day, I woke up groggily after sleeping. Fat Man was supposed to be on guard duty, but he fell asleep and snored there. I slept well these few days, and my wounds healed.

I had no motivation to wake him up. I walked to the bottom of the hole and looked up at it many times, but still saw nothing. I looked at it for more than ten minutes, almost in a daze, and then went to have breakfast.

There was very little food left for me and the fat man, so I dug it out and found half a cookie that I had left over from the previous day. As I was eating it, I suddenly heard a strange sound, like singing or a dream.

I thought it was Fat Boy talking in his sleep, so I didn’t pay any attention to it. I finished the biscuit in a few bites and wanted to wake him up. At this moment, I suddenly had a chill. I saw that there was a person lying between me and Fat Boy.

I suddenly snapped out of my trance and took a closer look. It was actually the oil bottle.

He had obviously lost a lot of weight, and was curled up there under the blanket, not making any movements.

When did he come back? While we were sleeping?

At first I thought I was dreaming, but then I realized that I wasn’t. I was almost crazy. I immediately rushed over, grabbed his blanket and yelled, “You bastard, where the hell have you been?”

When I pulled him up, I wanted to strangle him, but when I saw his face, I suddenly realized that something was wrong. His expression was strange, completely different from his usual appearance, and his eyes were glazed, his whole body shaking, and his lips quivering as if he were possessed.

I felt a chill in my heart, immediately kicked the fat man awake, then helped the suffocating man up, pressed his neck and called his name. But he didn’t respond at all, as if he couldn’t hear our voices, and didn’t even move his eyes.

I had a very ominous feeling. The fat guy came over to look at me and asked me what was going on. I said I didn’t know. He pressed his hand on the bottle’s temple and looked at his expression. He said, “Fuck, no way, is the little brother stupid?”

“No way, don’t bullshit,” I said, calling out a few times, ‘Don’t pretend, I know you’re pretending, you can’t fool me!’ I heard him shaking and shriveling there without a soul, muttering something in his mouth from time to time.

I leaned in close to his lips to hear him say, over and over again, in a rapid succession, “There is no time.”