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墨書 Inktalez
From a physics perspective, this situation is truly difficult to explain. It felt as if gravity had lost its effect in that pitch-black ceiling of the mountain, with my boots floating in mid-air. I could hardly believe that above me was an infinitely deep black hole, and my boots were flying through this dark passage, as if they might escape Earth altogether.
Could it really be as Liu Squad Leader speculated, that this underground structure is layered? If so, my boots might have been thrown to an upper level. This was an explanation I could accept, especially compared to the more bizarre outcome of those damned boots appearing elsewhere.
“Brother Qiang, are there really people up there?” Zhao Squad Leader was the first to break the silence.
Everyone focused their main energy on pondering this matter, while also harboring fear about the next branch point, which naturally slowed our pace. The strangeness of this situation was beyond explanation; any speculation was possible and worth our caution. However, Zhao Squad Leader's guess was one I feared the most. Because whether there were hidden people or other creatures in this passage, they would certainly view us as prey and could attack us at any moment.
“It’s a ghost,” Liu Squad Leader said with a sarcastic tone.
I dreaded Liu Squad Leader steering the conversation in this direction because the predicament we faced could easily be explained by supernatural beings, which would lead to despair. For thousands of years in China, the unknown has often been attributed to ghosts and deities, creating a habitual mindset. This has instilled a growing fear of the supernatural, making people increasingly reluctant to resist; they would rather evade and resign themselves to fate. If we attributed everything to ghosts now, I worried that they would soon abandon their will to survive. My chest wound throbbed with anger at his words.
“There are no ghosts,” I said seriously. “Just like you think of water ghosts, they are merely large tentacle creatures. Don’t misattribute everything unknown to supernatural beings; that’s pure misdirection and will disrupt our correct thinking.”
“It really is a ghost,” Liu Squad Leader insisted mysteriously. “In our village, there was such a ghost hole that it could drain an entire lake without filling up. Later, when a living person was thrown in, it was fine.”
“Your village is quite bold; you dare use a living person to fill a pit? That’s murder, you know?” I was already irritated and quickly placed that label on him for his nonsense.
“That’s not something recent. It happened long ago; my grandmother told me about it. But it’s true; many elders in our village know about it,” Liu Squad Leader asserted confidently.
Facts speak louder than words, but I had no facts to refute him. His story could have happened countless times in ancient China—sacrificing to water gods or mountain gods, throwing offerings into rivers or lakes for exorcism or disaster avoidance; throwing someone into a hole was less common.
Yet I still needed to find a way to convince him not to let such emotions spread. Suddenly, I remembered something and asked him, “Weren’t you dragged by a water ghost before? Aren’t you just afraid of it?”
"I lied to you," Liu Squad Leader said, his tone lacking any real remorse. "I'm afraid of all the ghosts."
"Damn it," I cursed inwardly. "If I had known this, I would have never let you come along."
"I think your guess earlier was more plausible," he continued. Despite my irritation, I had to concede to him. Regret was pointless now. "This Underground Passage network is likely layered. The most probable reason is that my Boots were thrown up to the upper layer. Unfortunately, we have no tools to climb up; otherwise, I could retrieve my Boots. Of course, there shouldn't be any other life forms in this passage. Although the temperature here is higher than outside, it's still not suitable for life to survive. The air is dry, food is scarce; even if there were once living beings here, they would have starved long ago. Also, there are no animal droppings or foul odors."
My earlier words were merely analysis, but the last statement carried weight, especially for Zhao Squad Leader. He seemed skeptical about ghosts but was more concerned about the possibility of living creatures lurking here.
Liu Squad Leader didn't respond to me, but I realized I couldn't change his perspective in a short time. I could only pray he wouldn't lose control; if he went berserk, we would all be in danger, even though our fates were still uncertain.
Despite our slow pace, we eventually reached the next Branch point, and my anxiety heightened.
Feigning calmness, I instructed Zhao Squad Leader to light the torch and made a mark at the cave entrance. Then I circled around the Fork in the Road to confirm there were no signs left by Xiao Guolin before deciding to enter the right passage. This was essentially testing my hypothesis, and I believed they understood because they cooperatively didn’t object and directly entered this tunnel.
"You two go ahead; I'll make a mark here," I said as they entered the passage.
They exchanged glances but said nothing, silently moving forward. In the darkness, I carved a mark on the stone wall. At that moment, I had stepped out of the torch's light.
With one hand against the Cave Wall for support and the other pulling off the remaining Boot with force, I mentally calculated the position of the Branch center before striding over and standing still. Facing the direction of the torchlight, fear felt like a demon that pounced mercilessly upon me at that moment. If I didn’t keep my eyes on that flickering flame, I feared I wouldn’t be able to stand here any longer; I might collapse.
Taking a deep breath, I threw the Boots upward with both hands raised above my head. I needed to ensure that the Boots went straight up; this would confirm Liu Squad Leader's layered theory—provided that this time they would actually come down again. When I threw my Boots at the previous Branch point, I hadn’t deliberately ensured they went straight up; who would have thought such a thing would happen? So if Liu Squad Leader's theory was correct, it was highly likely that my thrown Boots ended up on an upper layer. If thrown straight up, they should come back down; any other outcome would be unacceptable and inexplicable.
The moment I released the Boots, my heart began to race violently as I cradled my head with both hands. I couldn't see the trajectory of the Boots flying through the air; instead, I kept my gaze fixed on that distant flame growing fainter. Yet somehow, I could sense that the Boots were going straight up. If I remained still, they should hit me on the head when they fell back down. The military boots were hard and heavy; they could knock me unconscious if they struck me. But instead of dodging, what worried me more than being hit was that nothing might fall at all.
As time passed with the ticking sound of the second hand, my heartbeat intensified. I could even feel my blood vessels pulsing, as if they might burst at any moment. The tension in my nerves drove me to madness; I removed my hands from my head and silently shouted in my mind, Damn it, just fall already!
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