Corpse
The white sand that was smeared all over my body was my sense of security the moment before.
At this moment, it suddenly revealed its true form in front of me and turned into human body residue. A chill rushed up from the soles of my feet, making my whole body begin to itch and numb.
I raised my hand and wanted to brush off the white sand on my body, but my mind did not listen to me. Instead, it reminded me that this thing saved my life just now by acting as more than just a desiccant.
For the sake of your own safety, you cannot rub it off, you have to apply a little more.
But it was really disgusting. I looked at the spectacular amount of white gravel on the platform and felt a chill running down my spine when I thought about how many corpses were behind it.
After hesitating for a long time, I thought I had finally moved twice with great difficulty, but in the end I only lifted half of my index finger and couldn't do anything.
Finally, he gritted his teeth, pulled Pingping over, and poured the white sand all over her. He only felt relieved after applying two thick layers of sand on her.
Xu Ping didn't hide, but her face was completely wrinkled. She looked at me sadly and said that there was no need for me to show concern and care, and that I should just focus on applying the cream on myself and not worry about her.
"I feel like we are like the golden egg dumpling now," she also told a cold joke, "Now we are just dipping it in egg liquid, coating it with bread crumbs, and waiting to be thrown into the oil pan and fried until both sides are golden brown. Ingredients coating ingredients, pretty good."
The jokes she told were even colder and scarier than mine, so she was better than me. I patted her forehead and she groaned softly, muttering that I was stupid.
Feeling guilty, I pretended not to hear and continued to be my unreasonable, authoritarian, feudal patriarch. I carried her around three times and made sure that there was no possibility of her being attacked by the hair before I told her to turn around.
After she turned around and stood still, I took off all my clothes, gritted my teeth, and dived forward, burying my whole body in the white gravel, and rolled four or five times.
The burnt area on my leg was covered with gravel and it was still painful. I had no choice but to do this, after all, a hair almost got into my ear, and I was afraid that there were two strands of hair hiding somewhere on my body, waiting to turn around and hit me hard.
I dry-cleaned my clothes several times like this and almost peeled off my skin. My originally numb skin was rubbed until it became hot and red. I then pressed the clothes full of holes into the white gravel and washed them twice before putting them back on.
I can only say that people's ability to adapt to difficult situations is much stronger than I imagined. After doing all this, the sense of security that actually comes outweighs morality, and the sense of resistance is actually reduced a lot, and it doesn't seem so difficult to accept.
Pingping and I bowed our heads and thanked the severed limbs, and said sorry, asking the deceased ancestors to forgive us.
While Pingping wasn't paying attention, I added that in ancient times, Spartan warriors smeared their family's ashes on their bodies for protection, and now you brothers and sisters are protecting me. Just for this, I will definitely hire a brand new excavator to sort out all these messy household garbage and shovel them away, giving you all a clean and tidy life.
After making the promise secretly, I didn't have any money on hand, so I could only make up for it verbally, saying that I would make it up to my family later and find a small park with birds singing and flowers blooming for you to be your new home.
Just as I was talking nonsense, I vaguely heard a creaking sound, as if the wooden plank road from the mine to the tent was stepped on by something.
I was shocked, thinking that maybe the disappeared mountain people had come back. I immediately grabbed Pingping and ducked behind the tent.
But there was only a moment's sound, and then there was dead silence all around. After a while, I looked out but didn't see anyone.
Looking at the wooden plank road again, it was still there and there was nothing new there out of nowhere.
Am I too nervous and seeing things? Was it just another piece of garbage that exploded with flatulence?
I pinched the bridge of my nose, thinking whether I should do some eye exercises to slow down. I have done 88 bows, and it would be funny if I went crazy in the end. I couldn't help but look back at the platform, thinking that maybe the family members were so warm and generous that they recognized me and showed me their spirit. That was a bit too polite, and it was unnecessary.
But Xu Ping immediately pulled my sleeve and said that she had heard it too and asked me not to always blame myself.
"Don't look for the reason in yourself", this is actually quite wonderful. I laughed dumbly, thinking that I was really going backwards in life, and felt like I was being spoiled by this little kid, but a warm current still surged in my heart.
But with the confirmation from Pingping, if it’s not an auditory hallucination, then what could it be?
After thinking about it, I decided not to put all my eggs in one basket. I let Pingping hide and I went out alone to see the situation.
As a result, I walked all the way to the wooden plank road and stood there very conspicuously for a long time, and nothing suddenly rushed out to bite me.
Looking at Pingping, she was also standing there fine, which made my behavior of looking back every two steps to make sure she wasn't left alone seem a bit stupid.
The two of them then reunited cautiously, both crouching down beside the wooden plank road, feeling a little puzzled.
The sound should have come from here. Not to mention footprints or tire tracks, there must have been a weight rolling over it, which would have made the broken wooden board make a noise.
I looked at Ping Ping and said, "Why do we feel like two stupid spores who just got chased away and now are curiously looking for a fight?"
Xu Ping thought about it carefully, touched my forehead, nodded silently, and actually agreed.
I suspected that she was calling me stupid, but before I could argue with her, I heard another squeaking sound in my ear.
The sound came so suddenly, without any warning, and it was so close, right next to my hand.
I froze, and in my heart I cursed all the mountain people's ancestors for eighteen generations, and cursed the prophets and hypocrites, and thought it was over, it was over.
At the same time, I made a complete mental plan in a flash. I would fall to the right and block the screen first. If there was an attacker, I could hug him tightly and delay him for three to five seconds. If that didn't work, I would bite him a few times.
It was just that he had thrown away the iron pipe in his hand during the sand bath. Now he was unarmed and would be outnumbered if he tried to resist. He could not help feeling sad for a moment.
Before my rich mental activities could be completed, a familiar chat sound came, it was two people talking.
One said: "We can't dig any further here. It seems there is a platform underneath. I don't know what is sealed in the cement."
Another voice said, "Wait a minute. The water is full of sediment and it's hard to see clearly. Let's wait for the water to clear up."
I was stunned for a moment and turned my head to look. There was still no air in the air, but the strange feeling like the surge of water told me that there were indeed two people standing here and swimming.
I recognized those two voices; they were the boss and Sanyi who had not been seen for a long time.
The boss also uses the voice of "Xu Ranxing", and there is a special tone in his speech that is hard to forget for those who have heard it. It cannot be wrong.
I was confused, so I stared at the air in front of me and asked almost stutteringly: "How did you get here?"
After saying this, I realized that they were probably not talking to me, and a strong sense of loss suddenly overwhelmed all the surprise and uneasiness.
Sure enough, the two of them ignored me and took two more steps, causing the wooden plank road to creak and groan.
San Yi said coldly, "If he's dead, I don't think it's meaningful to dig a hole for him now. We only have so much oxygen in reserve underwater, and we can't get all the oxygen cylinders dropped by the guys above. This situation makes everyone over-consume oxygen and energy, which is simply courting death."
The boss clicked his tongue and said, "Can you speak human language? I'm not digging a hole for others, I'm just going to bury myself later, okay?"
The bickering between the two of them gave me a sense of déjà vu. Why was it as if they were arguing about whether to bury me? No, I'm not dead.
Amidst the confusion, another voice interrupted: "Boss, this body is really a bit strange, come and take a look."
Look, what are you looking at? I was so curious that I wanted to answer the boss's question. But now we were separated by two sides and could only stare at the air. I was so suffocated that I was about to explode.
Pingping tapped on the palm of my hand and drew a question mark.
I came back to my senses and whispered, "It's the fake people I mentioned before who went into the water with me."
I only had time to explain this sentence when there seemed to be some big discovery over there and there was an commotion.
I heard the voices of more than one waiter becoming clearer one after another, and one waiter asked in confusion: "What the hell? A badge? This body has its own authentication?"
Another badge?
I don’t know why, but I held Wang Ping’s iron plate tightly, and my palms instantly broke out in sweat.
Then, it was probably Sanyi who took the name tag from the body and read slowly, word by word: "Fohao... Health..." He paused, and my heart suddenly rose, "Yanping City Wuhao Town Health Center, Wang Ping".
"Department: Billing Office Number: 029"
The boss was puzzled: "Doctor? And his last name is not Nian? Then what is he doing here?"
The people nearby also discussed in low voices.
I was completely stunned, my head buzzed, and I turned around abruptly to look at Wang Ping's body.
Wang Ping's mutilated body was still lying far in front of the nearest tent, but just one step away from me, the fake people who were playing hide-and-seek were obviously surrounding a corpse and discussing something in confusion, and in their vague conversation, they did not mention any of the mutilated or mutated characteristics of the corpse.
I don't think that with more than ten or twenty Xu Ranxings over there, even such an obvious thing would not happen.
What? It’s not the same body?
But what's the matter with these identical badges?
There was also a discussion over there, but due to the perspective and information gap, a different question was raised: "The brand seems to be standard, and there is no photo posted."
"They didn't put it on because they didn't want people to recognize who the owner of the brand is. Maybe they are just using a fake brand name."
The boss groaned for a moment, "He wears a badge here, as if he wants people to know his identity. It's a bit deliberate, who is he showing it to?"
The question was put aside for the time being. Another guy said, "There's something wrong with the cement. The body is covered with white gravel, and the color of this circle is a bit darker, as if it has seeped in water."
This sounded a bit strange, because the area over there was already full of bubbles and people were still swimming.
But I roughly understand what he means. It should mean that in a waterless state, after pouring the cement, some water seeps into the already dried and solidified cement, leaving some stubborn stains.
There was a moment of silence, and I couldn't tell if they were passing around the cement or the body to check its condition.
I have never lived a life that felt so long. I was getting impatient waiting, but there was nothing I could do. I just looked around and thought to myself, yes, the boss and his men have dug up the ground of the mine, and there is a layer of cement underground, so what about me?
I didn't have time to dig the ground to check when I was in the mine, but now I'm waiting with my ears pricked up, so I might as well verify it.
I lowered my voice and asked Pingping to help me get the iron pipe next to the garbage pile on the platform so that I could use it to dig a hole on the spot. I still dared not breathe, waiting to listen to the movement over there.
Pingping hesitated for a moment, as if she wanted to say something, but went anyway.
And the more I expected something on this end, the less response I got. It just became quiet over there, as if the connection had been cut off.
I was getting a little impatient waiting, but I didn't give up and waited for them to make one or two more noises.
But how did they get out of the mine? I suddenly thought of this question and felt something was wrong.
The reason why so many things happened is that the people playing hide-and-seek games are trapped in the mines and cannot leave, otherwise they will be attacked and cut in two. If we can move like Pingping and I, we can just run out and it will be over. Why do we have to do so many tricks?
No, rather, how can I be sure that they have left the mine?
Judging from the tone of their conversation, especially when Sanyi raised the issue of oxygen usage, the context of all the conversations should still be inside the mine.
I was a little confused, so I shook my head and looked towards Pingping, waiting for her to come back to discuss.
When I saw it, I was stunned again.
She stood among the tents, as if she had discovered something, and from the side her face showed a solemn and confused expression.
As if she had discovered something important, she began to use the iron pipe to sweep away the garbage piled on the platform, as if she was trying to sweep out the ground underneath to have a look.
It was at this time that the wooden plank road began to make noises again, and finally there was the sound of conversation.
I heard Sanyi's voice a little suspicious: "Wooden? Are you sure?"
"Sure, we were busy while you were discussing. The body of Wang Ping was found about five meters below the surface, and we have already dug six or seven meters below the surface.
The cement seal is intermittent, with another layer of cement at intervals. I don't know what it is protecting against. I counted and there are at least eight layers of partitions.
"When we dug just now, the cement disappeared, and there was only wood underneath, and it was soaked and rotten, like a coffin board."
"I think something is really wrong, so I'm going to stop it. Come and see what's going on."
This conversation gave me chills. At the same time, San Yi immediately said, "Fill it back and restore it to its original state. There may be something incredible underneath."
After working hard to dig a hole of six or seven meters in the deep water, they decided to fill it up immediately. No one was hesitant and they quickly agreed to take turns in groups of three and then started to work.
Sanyi was probably helping with an engineer shovel, and he seemed very silent. While the others were working and discussing the corpse and cement sealing layer, he only occasionally responded with a nod, and seemed to be very worried.
On the other side, there was a muffled "clang" sound, and Xu Ping called me from afar. He had a little sweat on his forehead and looked abnormally uneasy.
"Of course, have you finished listening?"
She called me at this time, it must be something very important. I took a deep breath and walked over without thinking, then jogged.
But she suddenly stopped me and told me to stand still.
Not only that, she almost aggressively asked me to step back and return to my previous position.
I became nervous and asked her what was going on, suspecting that something was wrong with me.
But her expression didn't seem like she saw some kind of danger in me. It was more like she was too confused after discovering some facts and had developed a resistance to the things around her.
In this weird atmosphere, I looked at her worriedly. Her throat moved and she said two words that completely made my brain shut down.
"We... seem to be still in the mine."
"Of course, I mean, the tent area and the mine are the same place. We went out of that wooden door and just walked back in."
I was stunned and looked at her blankly. "What?"
"When Wang Ping carried us out, we all seemed to be asleep and woke up halfway. We didn't even see the moment we stepped out of the wooden door."
She asked me, "Are we really out of the mine?"
My mind was in a mess:
"Everything has changed. When the villagers were evacuating, they did make noises on the wooden plank road outside. Wang Ping was indeed carrying us and moving...
According to common sense, we should think that we have left the mine and entered a new area, so there should be no problem."
But her expression didn't seem fake. As I was talking, I felt a little unsure and hesitated. "Didn't Wang Ping go back and forth in front of us? And isn't the wooden door still standing there?"
"So, so..."
But she shook her head firmly and took a deep breath, "Do you still remember the mountain villager who kicked and beat us during the day and was later killed by Wang Yongfu because he got angry and talked back?" She smiled as she spoke, but her smile was very ugly, almost like crying.
I seemed to know what she was going to say. My heart started beating wildly and I was completely frozen in disbelief.
"His body..." Xu Ping pointed at the ground she had swept away, trembling a little, "There is no trace of blood or movement from dragging. I am sure he is still in the same place as before."
"He, he's lying here."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
