Chapter 133◀︎Table Of Contents▶︎Chapter 135
Chapter 134 Return The Same Way
🌺Translated by Nessie 🌺
Please do not re-upload or copy my translations to other websites.
You can read this translated novel at the translator’s website at www.theredoaktree.com.
The old man realized that something was wrong and quickly returned with his assistant, but he could no longer find the way back to the cave.
About twenty minutes later, the old man stopped, sat on a boulder by the side of the road, wiped his sweat and asked his assistant, “What did I say just now? Can you repeat it?”
The assistant’s memory was still very good. He repeated the words that the old man had said to Chi Yan.
After listening, the old man was silent for a while. Then he sighed with a complicated expression, “I didn’t expect to have set my sight on the wrong thing. I had been watching out for that ghost… but the most terrifying thing is probably the one next to him. “
The assistant was puzzled when he heard this, “You mean that tall and handsome young man? Can’t be him, right? That’s a person, and he seems to have a close relationship with that young man with the surname Chi.”
The old man raised his head, looked tiredly at his assistant and shook his head, “…This type is the most terrible.”
The assistant felt inexplicably cold, “…Then what do you think we should do now?”
The old man shook his head and stood up from the boulder looking powerless and sorrowful, “Let’s go back first. I will look for some friends to find a way and try my best to save him.” His unfinished sentence meant there’s nothing he could do if that was heaven’s will.
Translated by The Red Oak Tree
www.theredoaktree.com
That thing had deliberately lured the young man into the cave. He would be lucky if he was not being swallowed or skinned alive. How was it possible to still let him out unharmed?
Chi Yan still hadn’t an idea what was going on.
He cautiously entered the cave with Ye Yingzhi, but unlike the previous time, the entrance of the cave was not sealed immediately. Looking at the unobstructed entrance, Chi Yan was a little more calm, but he still took a picture of the stone wall with his mobile phone. He remembered there were ghost shadows in the photos taken by Li Fengkai.
Looking at the photo he had just taken, he could only see the bare stone walls, just like the caves he had visited before, except for the colorful lighting decorations. There were no ghost shadows in his photo.
Ye Yingzhi stood beside him and laughed, “He had already said that there wouldn’t be any problem, let’s hurry up and go.”
Chi Yan nodded, held Ye Yingzhi’s hand and walked forward.
He didn’t see it – not long after they walked in, the entrance disappeared silently. The entire cave was actually a closed loop, with no entrance and no exit. All living creatures could enter but couldn’t get out.
He was the only exception a few years ago.
The cave was very clean, cool and slightly humid. He hadn’t realized it before until they went on a trip, that Ye Yingzhi’s physical strength was really very good and was very suitable for surviving in the wild. He was very fit when it came to climbing and jumping, even when he was in the pitch black cave, he was very steady and calm, and could even spare most of his attention taking care of Chi Yan.
After the two walked for more than an hour, Chi Yan gradually became alert. He remembered that after walking for this duration of time previously, a water pool appeared a little further ahead. That was where Cheng Tao had fallen into the water, and then that thing mixed into their team and led them to the left of the forked road.
Translated by The Red Oak Tree
www.theredoaktree.com
Thinking of this, he squeezed Ye Yingzhi’s hand and reminded softly, “Be careful and look at what you’re stepping on.”
But the situation this time was different from the previous time. He and Ye Yingzhi had been walking for a long time and they hadn’t come across forked roads or water pools. The cave was very dim and they were surrounded by stone walls and rocks that looked similar. When he was in the cave back then, Chi Yan just followed the dim light of the flashlight and walked forward. He did not observe the two sides much. After many years, his memory was blurred and he couldn’t remember if they were taking the same route.
What increased their difficulty was that not long after entering the cave, their mobile phones had no more power and Chi Yan could only estimate the duration of time that had passed by looking at the lighted incense in Ye Yingzhi’s hand.
The cave was empty and quiet, only the footsteps of the two people echoed in it. The first incense gradually burned to the end. Ye Yingzhi lit the second incense as Chi Yan got more anxious.
He was very sleepy, confused and almost unable to walk any further. The strength of his hand holding Ye Yingzhi was getting weaker and weaker, but he kept holding on and said nothing.
This can’t be helped. He got up at 6 o’clock in the morning to prepare for this trip and it was already 11 o’clock in the night. There was almost no rest time in between. For an ordinary office worker who neglected exercise every day, this was really a big challenge.
Ye Yingzhi realised his abnormality. He helped him to sit down and lean against a clean stone wall, “If you are sleepy then sleep for a while. We’ll rest for some time and then continue walking.”
Translated by The Red Oak Tree
www.theredoaktree.com
Anxiety lingered in Chi Yan’s heart. But now he really didn’t have the strength to resist this temptation, so he leaned into Ye Yingzhi’s arms and muttered softly, “I’ll nap for a while and then we’ll continue…” He was scared. He was so afraid that he would be trapped in this cave with Ye Yingzhi and never get out again. But they hadn’t seen any forked roads so they couldn’t have gone the wrong way.
If they got lost then they could just go back the same way.
Chi Yan admitted that he was a selfish person—nothing was more important than Ye Yingzhi. The living, the dead, and everything in this world were not as important as Ye Yingzhi’s health and safety. They still had two sticks of incense left, which should be enough for them to walk back to the entrance.
Chi Yan was so exhausted that he fell asleep as soon as he closed his eyes.
As if in a trance, he came to the edge of a swimming pool. There were many people swimming in the pool, but as he approached, the number of people got fewer and fewer until there was only one person left. That person swam towards him slowly and poked her head out of the water.
It was someone he knew, Liu Yu.
Chi Yan remembered this elegant looking and gentle-mannered lady who almost became his sister-in-law. He squatted beside the pool and asked, “Xiao Yu jie, why are you here by yourself? Where is my ge?”
T/N: Chinese terms – “jie” is older sister; “ge” is older brother.
The lady looked at him quietly, “Your ge has been sent away.”
Chi Yan said “oh”, but he felt that something was wrong. He couldn’t tell what was wrong in his dream, but asked again, “Then what about Xiao Yu jie ?”
Translated by The Red Oak Tree
www.theredoaktree.com
“I should be going for rebirth too. “He” is letting us be reborn if we hadn’t harmed anyone.”
Chi Yan didn’t realize what it meant by “hadn’t harm anyone”. He only heard Liu Yu’s tone becoming more agitated and hurried suddenly, “Xiao Yan, I came to tell you, be careful of that man next to you, he is not a human…”
The water whirled, and a huge water wave swept towards Chi Yan.
Chi Yan was startled and awakened from his dream. The person beside him hugged him gently, his left hand patted his back gently while his right hand touched his forehead, “You woke up? What did you dream of? Scared until you are full of sweat.”
What did he dream of? Chi Yan suddenly remembered Liu Yu’s face. After waking up from the dream, he instantly realized what was wrong—Liu Yu died a long time ago and she was killed in this cave.
He suddenly felt a chill running up and down his spine. He inched closer towards Ye Yingzhi and remembered the last words Liu Yu said to him in his dream — “Be careful of that man next to you, he is not a human…”
The man beside him? Chi Yan was at a loss for an instant. That is Ye Yingzhi. How could Ye Yingzhi not be human, and how could he have such a weird dream?
Chi Yan calmed himself down and whispered to Ye Yingzhi the scene in his dream. Ye Yingzhi listened quietly in the dark. His black eyes looked deeply at Chi Yan while his left hand wrapped around him as he stroked his back slowly and gently, as if he was lying on his bed with his lover in a leisurely manner.
After listening, he leaned over and kissed Chi Yan’s eyelids soothingly and murmured, “You were too nervous, that’s why you had this strange dream, don’t be afraid.”
Translated by The Red Oak Tree
www.theredoaktree.com
As he leaned over, Chi Yan saw the burning incense — it was going to burn out soon. He had slept for so long.
Chi Yan didn’t bother to ask Ye Yingzhi why he didn’t wake him up earlier. He got up immediately, pulled his lover and said, “Yingzhi, let’s not proceed into the cave anymore. The situation is not right. We’ll retrace our steps and walk back to the entrance of the cave.” It took them about the duration of an incense stick to get here. If they increased their speed, they should be able to return to the entrance of the cave before the last stick of incense was burned out.
Ye Yingzhi had no objection. He comforted him and led him to the direction where they had come from.
Due to the darkness, and the stone walls looking similar everywhere, Chi Yan didn’t pay attention to the route they took. Even if they were to walk back in the same direction where they had come from, they were in fact walking on a different path.
Chi Yan didn’t know if it was his illusion. The more they moved forward, the darker their surroundings became. It seemed as though they were being engulfed by darkness and the light from their flashlight wasn’t able to penetrate and light up the spaces. The air was also getting colder. This type of coldness was not similar to when the temperature dropped. It was a bone-penetrating type of chill which even thick clothings had no effect on.
By now, the two of them had consumed a lot of their supplies. Ye Yingzhi stopped and transferred all the useful things in Chi Yan’s backpack to his backpack, and then threw Chi Yan’s backpack on the ground. Then he stretched out his arm, hugged Chi Yan and continued walking forward. .
After being hugged by Ye Yingzhi, Chi Yan didn’t feel as cold as before. He stared at the incense stick in his hand which was already half burned out. He panicked and quickened his pace.
Translated by The Red Oak Tree
www.theredoaktree.com
The incense in his hand was getting shorter and shorter. He estimated the distance they had traveled and slowed down a little. He decided not to be stingy with his supplies and took out another battery-operated flashlight, illuminating the left and right walls, trying to find the entrance of the cave where they entered. It should be daytime outside, and there should be natural light coming in from the entrance of the cave, so it shouldn’t be too hard to find.
As Chi Yan walked forward looking for an exit, he suddenly stopped and was stunned.
What appeared in front of them was a circular stone hall that he had never seen before. The light of the flashlight passed through the center of the stone hall and illuminated the opposite stone wall, reflecting small flickering oval light spots.
It was a dead end in front of them.
The final bit of the burning incense slowly extinguished as its ashes dropped onto the ground.
Chi Yan looked at his lover and called out apprehensively, “Ye Yingzhi…” An unprecedented panic firmly gripped his heart, making him at a loss. A faint voice in his heart murmured, they might really be trapped here, they couldn’t get out anymore.
He and Ye Yingzhi might both die here.
At this time, it was just natural that he leaned towards his lover.
But the man still looked at him calmly, as if oblivious of their current situation. Ye Yingzhi responded softly and walked towards him as if nothing had happened. “I’m here. What’s the matter?”
Looking at that familiar pair of bottomless black eyes, this was the first time Chi Yan felt fear instead of comfort, fear from the inside out.
He involuntarily stepped backwards, but the man bent down at this moment, took him completely into his arms in an irresistible posture, and sighed in his ear, “My baby Ah Yan. What’s wrong?”
Translated by The Red Oak Tree
www.theredoaktree.com
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Chapter 133◀︎Table Of Contents▶︎Chapter 135
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