A Choice (Overhaul)
In the faint sound of flowing water, I floated up and down, feeling itchy and numb all over and very weak.
I couldn't see anything in front of my eyes, but I could still feel a bright light shining in front of my eyelids.
There was no problem with the photosensitivity, my first reaction was that I was blind.
My forehead was in severe pain, and I felt dizzy when I shook it like a hot water bottle. The strong dizziness and nausea were like a concussion, so I thought very slowly for a moment before several key words emerged in my mind one by one.
The pit, the running water, the wound on my forehead. Yes, I escaped.
After falling into a deep sleep, the last thing I felt was the shell-like mud around my body melting and falling off, like a cicada shedding its cocoon, or like a layer of eggshell breaking through, and I suddenly fell into a pool of cold water. The sudden fall into the water choked me, and the sour and spicy taste rushed to my forehead. I only had time to struggle for a moment, and it seemed that I hit some metal plate and fainted on the spot.
I don't know how long I was unconscious, or where I was. The sound of flowing water did not stop, and I seemed to be stranded on a piece of debris on the water, swaying with the current.
It should be a lake. I was forced to drink a big gulp when I choked on the water just now. It was very refreshing and sweet, but it was very cold. After one gulp, it felt like ice was freezing from the intestines to the brain.
The water temperature has warmed up a bit now, the temperature around here is probably around 17 or 18 degrees, and the air has a dry residual warmth that remains at night after being exposed to the sun for a whole day.
I felt my limbs slowly regaining consciousness, but a large area of my back and the back of my neck were completely stiff, numb and unresponsive. Most of my body was still in the water, with only my mouth and nose not completely submerged, preventing me from suffocating or drowning. My strength and body temperature were completely drained away.
Stay calm, I know I can't act rashly at this moment, so I try to move my back very carefully and lift my mouth and nose a little higher above the water. Then I feel the hard object I'm leaning on loosen a little, as if it's going to slide into the water.
My scalp exploded, and I stopped all my movements, even holding my breath. I looked at my nose, then my heart, and said to myself, "Back off, back off, back off. Don't flip over. I won't dare to do it again next time." For a moment, the world was quiet, with only occasional floating branches or some indistinguishable debris hitting me gently along the current, and then drifting away.
Perhaps my sincere repentance had taken effect, the piece behind me was stuck in a very dangerous and strange state, and remained tilted there in a state of being about to turn over but not yet turned over. But when I was hanging on it, I felt myself slowly sliding down at a speed so small that it was almost an illusion.
It was no use regretting it now. The helplessness of waiting to die surged in my heart. I still couldn't see anything, so I could only glance around as hard as I could, trying to capture some changes in the shaking of light and shadow. At the same time, questions arose in my mind.
What is that bright light shining in front of my eyes?
It was a very concentrated and small light source, and it was trembling slightly, as if... as if it was being lifted by something, and as I tried to perceive it, the light seemed to be coming towards me.
Oh my god, I got goosebumps all over my body instantly and thought, no way.
Logically speaking, the most normal reaction at this time would be that someone came to the shore so that I could call for help, lest I continue to soak in it and turn into a human-shaped tamarind.
But after all the mess that happened in the past few days, I have a clear understanding of my bad luck and I dare not think positively. I took a deep breath and prepared to turn over and kick into the water.
But, God, I raised my middle finger in my heart in anger, I can’t swim.
Then came a hypocritical thought, I was hanging on, what about the others, were they out of trouble, are they okay, what is their current situation.
As I was thinking about all sorts of things, I felt something moving above my head, and its shadow covered my face.
The thing seemed to have just crawled out of the water, so it was still dripping. When I raised my head, I felt the cold water dripping on my face.
What the hell is this? I was really confused, but surprisingly, in my invisible field of vision, I could feel that the thing was looking directly at me.
"Meow……"
The thing suddenly made a sound, a trembling cat cry that sounded very aggrieved and familiar.
"Dong cub?"
It was such a sudden turn of events. I was a little surprised and couldn't help laughing. It seemed that my good luck for the night had finally arrived.
With a "bang", the wet little fat cat fell into the water and swam towards me.
I felt a very warm thing arching into my arms, then it paddled on the water surface, kicked the water very skillfully to my back, dived to the bottom of the water and arched under my neck. I felt my whole face float out of the water immediately, without me having to raise my head, I took a deep breath, and the oppressive pain in my chest was relieved a lot.
The temperature on the back of my neck was very distinct, and a picture immediately emerged in my mind. It seemed that it was not entirely luck that I was able to remain unconscious for such a long time, but that the little fat cat kept going into the water and pushed my head back to the surface as it slowly slipped into the water. Perhaps it was also trying hard to ensure that I was always on the stranded debris.
Thinking of the water that just dripped on my face, my heart ached, and I knew that it might have just left the water tiredly. There was probably a tree above the lake, and it was lying on the tree to rest and recover its strength, while it was watching me right above me.
I don't know how many times it repeated this action. I sighed and called it softly: "Donkey? Come here, it's okay."
At this moment, I didn't care whether the things stranded behind me would turn over or not. I tried to move my arms, picked up the little fat cat behind my head and placed it on my chest.
The little fat cat squatted on my chest, its body dripping with water, but it didn't run away. It just moved its paws, curled up and lay down, whimpering softly.
I could feel that it was also very tired, so my heart softened and I gently touched its completely soaked fur.
In just a moment, the lights on the shore were not far away.
I startedled, but the cat on my chest didn't respond or warn at all, its breathing was very hazy, and it seemed like it was about to fall asleep in my arms.
It's hard to say what my mood was at that moment. I couldn't tell myself. I could only use my hands to try to pull the little fat cat up to my chest, trying to lift it up and away from the water. I didn't have the mind to think about anything else.
The light is in sight.
The second good luck tonight: along with the lights, there was a faint humming sound, belonging to a young man.
The tune he was humming was still a nursery rhyme, which seemed to be about pulling radishes.
The singing came from far away and was very relaxing.
I was at a loss whether to laugh or cry. I wanted to run to the shore and grab this strange guy by the collar and give him a good scolding for coming out to scare ghosts in the middle of the night. But at the same time, I immediately felt infinite gratitude and hope.
You know what, now that I'm in the mood to listen to it, I find that although the singing is hazy, the pronunciation is very clear and the singing is quite good. A nursery rhyme is sung with such clear and melodious voice that it can be performed on stage.
So who is this guy? Is he the fisherman who traveled halfway across the world to fish at night?
I called for help immediately and heard the sound of water splashing. Someone had gone into the water and was swimming towards me slowly.
The wait at this time was longer than ever before.
A minute later, my vision was wiped and it became clear. It turned out that there was something hanging in front of my eyes that blocked my vision. It was just that I didn't feel it was blocked, so I didn't notice it.
When my vision was restored, I looked carefully and saw in front of me a very bright small head-mounted miner's lamp, which almost made me cry.
The next thing I saw was a strange person, his whole body was milky white with a little yellow, and when I looked again, I found that he was wearing an old water jacket.
I wondered and blinked to control the tears that were still flowing out, thinking to myself, buddy, why don’t you tilt the light a little bit, or I’ll be blinded, and looked at him in confusion.
Behind the mask and goggles, the man made no further move and said nothing. He just floated in the water, looking at me very quietly.
Cold sweat slowly broke out on my body. When the night wind blew, the sweat and lake water mixed together, making me shiver violently.
He, let's call him, took off the waterproof mining lamp he was wearing and put it in my hand.
The miner's lamp was a little hot, my eyelids jumped, and I almost lost my grip on it. But the man had already reached out and held my hand, directing the light from the miner's lamp to all directions.
All people.
When I couldn't see, this quiet and sweet lake was full of people.
The water was full of floating things, black and looking like tree roots or hair, and they were twisting in the water like they were alive.
The lights shone on each figure one by one like a roll call. My stomach began to churn and I felt so nauseous that I wanted to vomit out all the water I had choked on.
Those were all floating corpses that had been soaked beyond recognition, turned pale and swollen.
Behind the floating corpse's back and head, a large number of things that looked like aerial roots of banyan trees were growing. The root system continued to extend into the depths of the seemingly crystal clear lake. The tangled tree roots underneath were as thick as a human arm and as thin as a hair, constantly floating in the water.
I looked up stiffly. Under the light of the mining lamp, there was indeed a huge tree above my head. It was very old and looked like an albino with no other color. It was bare without any leaves. The extremely weird paleness and bareness made the whole tree look like a deformed hand of a floating corpse stretched out to the sky.
What's this.
I don’t know if I lost my voice at this moment, or if I asked the question at all.
But my palm and the mining lamp were pushed, and I saw out of the corner of my eye that my back, which had been extremely numb and unconscious, had something like a hair trembling constantly with the flow of water.
The man looked at me through the water, through the mask and goggles.
My heart sank as I realized what he was doing. Some kind of ridiculous intuition and tacit understanding made me understand that after he made me fully aware of my situation, he was waiting for me to make a request or a question.
But I'm afraid there's only one.
Save me, what happened, who are you? Chaotic emotions kept rolling in my mind.
My survival instinct immediately made me want him to help me get rid of those ghost things on my body and take me to the shore. However, the cold eyes of the man in front of me made me know that this was the person closest to everything. If I gave up asking questions, then the answer to the mystery in front of me would probably never be answered.
Thirty seconds, about thirty seconds of violent heartbeats.
I took a deep breath and handed the sleepy and exhausted cat to him.
He looked at me and gently lifted the cat onto his shoulder.
Save me, save me, save me.
"...I want the truth." I said calmly, unable to go against my nature. "Tell me everything. I must know what happened."
"What happened to Xu You? Why was I mistaken for someone else? Why am I here after I escaped? Are those strange stories and experiences fake? What are these? The man in the wall? No, why were you able to give me the final clue at that time? Where are my companions?"
"Also, there is one biggest problem with the pitfall experience: there is one person missing."
"Eight years ago, when Yan Mo led the team to a vote, in that environment, who recorded those three videos for them? This person does exist, was it you? At that time... were you just like in the team, watching, always... "inside the wall"? "
Countless questions came to my mind, along with the long-lost familiarity I gradually regained with the figure in front of me and the song just now. I felt a lump in my throat, and it finally became a question I had to know.
"I know you, don't I? You've been away from home for eight years. Brother."
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