odor
In just three to five minutes, countless white sands were spread out completely, and it was no longer possible to tell where the flat land was and where the original circular mud circle was.
It is said that people's memory of smell is the most lasting and profound.
I don't know what the principle is, or whether it's just a pseudo-scientific rumor. But at this moment, when those broken palms were floating in the white quicksand, I did smell an indescribable and unforgettable smell.
It's not very pungent, nor is it disgusting. It's a light sweetness hidden under the salty and bitter taste of salt dust.
There is also a strange smell of hair oil and fishy smell.
I wasn't afraid of the large number of broken palms, nor did I care much about them. But when I smelled this smell, I almost subconsciously asked, "What's that smell?" My voice was tense for some reason.
But "Zhang Jia" and Zhang Tianyi were both puzzled. They frowned and looked at each other, as if they didn't understand what I was saying.
The two people's reactions didn't seem fake, and my heart skipped a beat again. I felt a sense of uneasiness that I had never felt before. This time, I didn't need anyone to dissuade me. I just walked away, feeling extremely embarrassed.
There was no conversation at that moment, and the three of them walked carefully towards the stone forest in the distance.
After walking for less than an incense stick of time, the stone forest was getting closer. However, Zhang Tianyi, who was leading the way in front, noticed something, stopped suddenly and looked back.
Strangely, he seemed to be looking at my feet.
I just came here to find the wall. The series of uncertain events and unfamiliar emotions have made me upset. I gradually lost patience with Zhang Tianyi, who was suspected to be a fellow human being, and stared at him with a gloomy face.
But he didn't pay attention to my attitude. He just hesitated for a moment, then turned back, walked lightly to my side, then squatted down, and pressed the ground with his fingers.
“Not good.”
He asked "Zhang Jia" to try it too. It seemed that he had discovered something important in an instant and no longer wanted to take me seriously.
"Zhang Jia" exclaimed, and also reached out to feel the ground, his expression suddenly changed: "Why is the ground so loose?"
I vaguely felt that something was wrong. Why did these two people seem to have a tacit understanding that I was unaware of? Before I could make any move, I heard "Zhang Jia" cursing, "There are traps everywhere here, damn it."
My face darkened: "What are you talking about?"
It was at this moment that "I" suddenly shuddered vigilantly, looked around, and smelled that inexplicable smell again.
What exactly happened? This question is not only what Taiwanese people want to ask, but I can't help but feel curious about it.
I paused my story again and asked Xu You to explain to me what had happened first, instead of playing with me in such a vague way.
Otherwise, if you keep talking in such a confusing way, even if Taizi doesn't explode, I will be so confused that I want to bang my head against the wall.
Xu You smiled bitterly. He had nothing to hide from me. That was the case. Taizi was walking at the back and might not have noticed it, but he and Zhang Tianyi were the first to notice that the soil beneath their feet seemed to be getting weaker and weaker.
It's like suffering from osteoporosis, there seem to be holes everywhere, and it's vaguely unstable to step on.
Moreover, this situation full of gaps seemed to be centered on the quicksand, slowly spreading outwards until it reached their feet.
Now I understand.
"Like a self-growing beehive? Or a sponge cake?"
Xu You nodded.
He said not only that, as they gradually approached the stone forest, there were a little more grass and trees. Although there were still no tall shrubs, the soil was covered with mosses and the compost of fallen leaves was also in better condition. Therefore, the soil was actually a bit soft and they couldn't use much strength when they stepped on it.
Walking like this is like stepping on the thin layer of cream on the outside of a cake. No one knows when the ground beneath your feet will collapse and you will fall.
No matter what plans they had originally made, Xu You and Zhang Tianyi reacted in unison at that moment, which was to save their lives first and retreat, and make plans afterwards, not wanting any further accidents to occur.
"So..." My eyelids jumped, and I asked an irrelevant question, "Is the smell that Taizi smelled real?"
Xu You was silent for a moment before nodding slowly.
"I smelled it all, but I feel it's better not to pay attention to it as much as possible."
Xu You thought about it and used a description, saying that the smell gave people a bad and dangerous feeling. It was as if it was not someone who suddenly smelled it, but it had been spying in the dark and just accidentally exposed its existence. Moreover, how to describe that smell, it smelled like "the corpse of the same kind".
My scalp tingled and I wondered what a corpse of the same kind meant, but my body thought first and shuddered slightly.
Because if you put yourself in their shoes, this description is probably the most appropriate.
Although they are both corpses, the intuitive shock and fear that humans feel when they find birds, small animals, or human remains in the wild or next to a community trash can are definitely different.
If the body of a small animal has not yet begun to rot, most people would only feel a little surprised and sad, and would not react much.
"You mean..." I thought about it and found that I really couldn't find a suitable metaphor for the moment, "Maybe there are a lot of corpses underground that have been dehydrated by the salt dust?"
No, that's not right. The three people present are probably well-informed. What they all avoid talking about must be something more intuitive and essential.
I subconsciously began to try to recall the remaining impressions of Taizai, and the conclusion I came to surprised me.
Because if you feel it deeply, Taizi and I, who feel as if we are in the same situation, will feel two completely different emotions of fear.
Logically speaking, I just experienced a dream after all, and saw certain scenes from a Taiwanese perspective, but I was not a personal witness.
But at this moment, the unforgettable sweetness actually appeared, as if lingering around my mouth and nose. But this doesn't make sense at all.
In my opinion, it was not even a sense of smell, but more like some kind of distinctive graffiti mark, a trace of alertness and fear that transcends will and is engraved in instinct.
It was as if I didn't need to understand or actually smell the smell, nor did I need to associate it with what it meant. As long as it appeared, there was an order forcing me to flee as far as possible.
How can I put it? A baby has never seen a snake, but the moment he sees a gorgeous venomous snake, he will immediately burst into tears. That's about it.
As for Taizi, the strong emotions he left in me were pointing to something I seemed not to be aware of.
It seemed like... at that moment, a layer of irregular shadows appeared on the ground?
This may seem strange, because this is just a flat and empty valley. There is nothing taller than a person except moss. The stone forest is right in front, but the shadow can't teleport here. As for the sky, it is clear and cloudless.
In other words, there was actually nothing in the scene at that time that could cast a shadow from top to bottom.
I suspect this is some mechanism or contamination that is triggered only when Taizai smells the odor, and only he can see it.
When asked about this, Xu You indeed shook his head and knew nothing about the existence of shadows.
I was wondering, could it be that the smell and the sudden appearance of white quicksand were just a sign of the danger caused by the shadow?
It’s just that none of us can see it directly. Only Taiwanese can get a glimpse of it because of their highly inhuman alienation.
This speculation cannot be verified for the time being. I am not sure what my brother Zhang Tianyi observed at the time, but the three of them did make the same move at the same time and ran quickly with their heads down.
But at this time, the images I could see in my dream seemed to be different from those of others.
According to Xu You, Taizi seemed to have gone crazy all of a sudden. He stopped walking straight and started circling around in the air with a serious look, as if a lot of things were blocking his way.
I felt a chill down my spine when I heard this, because from my perspective, Taizi was hiding from the shadow, looking for open space to avoid stepping on its edge.
On the contrary, the other two people walked straight in for some reason. After they went in, the rustling sound could be faintly heard from them.
If it were me, I would first determine who is crazy and dissuade the other two from taking action to reach a consensus.
But for Taizai, the life and death of his fellow men and his clothes were obviously not as important as his own. He quickened his pace without any hesitation, and even had a hint of murderous intent towards the two people who might have mutated.
When Xu You heard this, he cursed "Fuck you!" and then immediately looked at the broker awkwardly, became more polite, and started cursing Taizi's ancestors.
However, he wondered and asked me why I stopped talking.
I was also puzzled, and said helplessly: "Because my dream ended here. The long section after that was full of irrelevant things, and most of them were the childhood memories of the three of us siblings, which have nothing to do with this."
In fact, a dream can be so detailed and full of details, and the content is actually very huge, and it is already very long for me.
Xu You seemed to be thinking about something, so I asked him what happened next. Why did I lose contact with Taizi? I asked him to explain and supplement so that I could find out what the reason was.
Unexpectedly, this question actually stumped Xu You for a long time.
I was very surprised. What was so difficult to answer? Could it be that Taizi shook off the two of them and left on his own?
"No," Xu You's expression was a little complicated. "In fact, we were worried that this guy would run around on his own. After a brief discussion, we decided to grab him first and ask him what happened. We also wanted to be prepared to avoid being silently tricked."
However, when Xu You and Zhang Tian looked at each other, he nodded, and reached behind Taizi to subdue the man, when he suddenly heard a sudden laugh for the second time.
The laughter was squeezed out of Taizi's throat.
Taizai, who was walking quickly and carefully avoiding shadows, started laughing, but he seemed to be completely unaware of it. When Xu You suddenly approached him, he turned around in surprise and anger.
But at the same time as he made this move, Taizi uttered a few confused sounds, covered his neck, and suddenly fell to the ground. Several streaks of dark blood mixed with white sand flowed straight from his facial features.
I was stunned, and for a moment I didn't understand what Xu You said. Could it be that Taizi had fainted?
So how did he survive in the end? Could it be that Xu You and Zhang Tianyi somehow found a way to save his life and mercifully saved him and took him away from here?
Xu You looked up into my eyes, and after a while, his facial muscles twitched uncontrollably.
I suddenly took a deep breath and felt that there was an answer that I had never expected right in front of me, which was horrifying.
Xu You said softly: "That's the problem."
“He didn’t survive. He died.
At that moment twelve years ago, Taizi died in front of us. I buried him with my own hands afterwards.
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