Underground (three)
I stayed there for about a minute or two, not only to regulate my emotions, but also because my senses seemed to be becoming numb and dull.
More importantly, a very important intuition emerged in my mind:
The storm broke the overlap and cover of the day, and pure, real night came.
The visibility all around has been reduced to the lowest level, but the darkness in front of my eyes is still deepening, and in the end it has completely turned into a visually infinite depth.
In theory, the human eye's ability to adapt to low-light environments is limited, and when it gets darker than a certain level, it becomes like blindness. At this time, humans are not machines, so they have no way of distinguishing what "darker" is in this extreme situation.
If we are to be more specific about the "no light" at night, even though the sun has set, there are still countless starlights in the vast sky, but they have been weakened to the point of being almost non-existent when they reach the surface of the earth. The night itself is not really without any light at all.
But at this moment, it was the first time that I had such an intense and idealistic experience. I felt that the light was not weakening, but actually disappearing, just like the screen of my mobile phone which was still hot at this moment.
It or they still shine, but night comes and the light is eaten up.
The night sky that was originally on the surface seemed to be sinking slowly layer by layer, and was now covering the shallow surface where I was. I didn't know where it would eventually sink to.
As a person in the night, what I feel is not even sleepiness, but the stillness of things around me and the disappearance of many features.
It's not me who is falling asleep, but everything around me is sleeping and fading.
The feeling of loneliness reached its peak at this moment. I don’t know why I could still stay awake, but the two palms inside the car and the fleshy ground under my feet, that kind of petrified representation, seemed to be a kind of "sleep".
They had moved before, grabbing my coat, grabbing my earphones when they heard the sound, or the ground's breathing after being eroded and assimilated by the banyan tree. At that time, I couldn't observe directly, so I couldn't see the specific process of the change.
So, can they "wake up" again? How long will this dark night in the town last?
Moreover, since the sun and the moon coexist, why is its night so horrible, absolutely black and silent? Where has the moon gone?
More and more puzzles piled up in my heart. At this moment, in the darkness, probably right under my feet, something happened that I could not understand.
There is a voice speaking.
It was a very strange voice, which seemed very familiar, yet extremely strange and deformed, as if the person who was speaking was using this voice for the first time in his life, and was very stuttering and uncomfortable.
As soon as I felt numb, two contradictory feelings emerged in my senses at the same time:
One feeling is that the surroundings are still quiet, the sound, light and movement are still in the dark, and nothing can be an exception;
Another feeling is that even so, the vague voice is still talking to me, and I can hear it.
I listened again, and the voice was still there. At this moment, I was almost madly in the huge gap, and I subconsciously tried to learn it, as if to try out what the other party was saying.
When I learned this, I felt a chill in my heart and screamed out loudly.
Because that voice was clearly calling me.
And, and, that stuttering and uncomfortable feeling is it trying to speak in my voice!
Damn, I got goosebumps all over my body and wanted to run away.
But at the moment when I was about to turn around, the voice was still faint and small, but this time it was very clear. I suddenly realized why I could hear it even though there was no sound.
Because that voice sounded in my head.
No, to be more precise, it was as if there was a part of me under my feet that was talking, allowing me to synchronize with this "voice of my heart".
For a moment, Lei Zige's "legs flying" joke flashed through my mind, and I stood still suddenly and shouted:
"Young man!"
The little bit of flesh and blood I lost on the bus now has a clear whereabouts.
It must have been swallowed up by the fleshy banyan tree floor. What is the situation now? Is Nian Ziqing in there?
I can tolerate everything else, but when I think about stepping on a bunch of people, my hair stands on end and the soles of my feet itch. I want to just lift my feet and jump into the air and hover there.
The voice mumbled a few more times, still very softly, as if there was poor contact.
I slapped my forehead and thought, it was just poor contact. The part I lost was just a small scratch. I'm afraid the connection between the two is smaller than I thought.
At this moment, I calmed down, because as I slowly figured things out, I could hear a hint of urgency in that voice.
I was prepared for ambush, so I fumbled to take the coat from Lao Zhao, stretched it out in front of me, and blocked my face and chest. This was something I learned not long ago to deal with those flying people.
Then, I slowly lay down, wrapped my sleeves around my chest, and tapped the ground with my fingers.
The semi-rocky ground felt very strange to the touch. When I knocked on it through my clothes, I could feel a faint rebound and swaying beneath the gradually hard and rough surface, as if there was a layer of flesh or gelatinous substance underneath that was resisting.
This process is quite long, so I won’t go into details. Anyway, I don’t know how long it took, so long that I gradually became familiar with the vague murmur and almost ignored it as background noise, and then I heard the sound suddenly become louder.
I stopped, took a deep breath and touched it, and found that the stone shell under the banyan tree was uneven, and there was vaguely a floating human face.
When I touched it, the face seemed to be startled, as if it woke up from a dream, and shrank back into the depths.
Strange, that must be Nian Ziqing, how come he seems to have entered an unconscious state again? And what is his current condition? At present, it seems that his shouting to me just now was an accident, and he may not know what he said in his confusion.
I touched the back of my head and my scalp was still numb. I said to myself, "Damn it! Don't let me find out that you were just having a nightmare and are still scolding me."
If I touch it further outside, I’ll be a little scared.
Here I would like to recall what I saw of the bus from a distance when visibility was still good.
At that time, we could see that the bus was stuck on a half-broken metal banyan tree root. The subsequent struggles of the fleshy banyan tree were probably caused by the platform figure crawling along the hollow pipe and pulling the fleshy banyan tree into the pipe to complete the original filling.
Now, if the picture I have sketched in my mind through exploration is not too biased: in order to better grasp and climb on the bus, the fleshy banyan tree seems to have chosen to spread out over a larger area, and part of it has been integrated into the iron sheet at the bottom of the vehicle body, forming a layer of elastic something that looks like a fungal blanket.
Nian Ziqing seemed to be trying to escape from the banyan tree, but he bumped into the human figure on the platform first, and because of the unpredictable cognitive bias, he was directly contaminated and captured by the human figure on the platform.
The reason I made this judgment is that I felt two twisted vertebrae through the stone shell on the fleshy ground.
One vertebra is wider and is oriented in the direction of the metallic aerial roots.
Going in that direction, I unexpectedly came across a few sleeping faces. The figures on the platform also seemed to be asleep, and all the heads had their eyes closed, just like in the video the broker sent me.
Moreover, those faces seemed to have some subtle changes in their facial features, and their facial features were adjusting and transforming in the same direction. However, due to the innate differences in each person's facial bones, the synchronization was not successful.
One of the vertebrae made a half-turn in a very twisted posture.
In other words, this scene may actually be Nian Ziqing waking up from the process of being polluted and assimilated. When most of his body has sunk into the connection between the two banyan trees, he cannot break free, so he tries to abandon the skin he is wearing and escape alone.
However, even if it is regarded as a disguised cloak of protection, under the rules of moving rats, the driver Lao Zhao himself is still conscious.
Probably it was on this twisted human body that the driver, Lao Zhao, reached his hand into his body, and like grabbing a cunning parasite, he twisted the fleeing Nian Ziqing and his own intestines.
It was this hindrance in their movement that slowed them down for a beat, and they encountered the darkness that slowly fell from the sky, and were gradually frozen here.
As I realized the full picture, my throat started to itch.
I can’t imagine how tragic and vicious the scene was, and I’m somewhat glad that I didn’t witness it with my own eyes.
But the driver Lao Zhao's head was still hanging on the car window, with only an arm suddenly connected to it, also making a grasping motion, which shows that the fight for the body was extremely fierce. In the end, the driver Lao Zhao's head was separated from his body, and most of his body was taken over by the young man's head.
But even so, Nian Ziqing probably could not have imagined that such a beast with a chaotic mind, cruel and almost ignorant, who was obviously ignorant and at a disadvantage, would have such a strong desire to survive and revenge.
Now, he was under the banyan tree carpet and the skin of the driver Lao Zhao, with double protection, and still a human face trapped in it.
I don't know why, but I suddenly had an evil thought:
If I try to dig him out now, without even the human skin that disguises him, what will he be? What will happen to him?
Thinking of this, I shuddered.
When I was on the bus, I had the same evil thoughts about the driver, Lao Zhao, but at that time, my explanation was that it was not my inner voice, but the whispered temptation of a young man.
Now what?
Is it that the little bit of consciousness he has left is still trying to pollute me, seduce me, and deceive me in my past?
I suddenly grabbed the coat in my hands and took a step back.
Although I couldn't see in the darkness, I could still feel through the part of me that had resonance that the drowsy face suddenly opened its eyes and stared at me, uttering frantic curses and insults.
Amid those silent curses, I slowly backed away.
I kind of understand now that outerwear is meant to protect people.
The banyan tree's armor will protect the giant human figure; the driver Lao Zhao's skin can protect Nian Ziqing, allowing him to temporarily hide in the identity of a "human" and remain immortal; now, in turn, the fleshy banyan tree carpet and Lao Zhao's remaining limbs on the ground are also protecting me.
The young man had no way of breaking through these two skins, so he came out and parasitized on my body.
It wants me to destroy my skin myself.
My best option at the moment is to stay away from it immediately and not have any contact with it. As time passes, it will either be petrified like Lao Zhao, or be forced to merge into the giant human figure and sleep together until dawn.
...So, when the time comes and those voices calling me consultant during the pursuit, will there be young people among them?
There seemed to be a faint tingling sensation, and at this moment I suddenly felt an indescribable unwillingness.
It was a somewhat naive thought: I didn't want him to become part of the giant humanoid figure.
Those faces…those faces are different.
After a long silence, I slowly reached for the car window.
On the bus, there is usually a window-breaking hammer for emergency escape.
I groped on the ground again. I don't know how long it had been. I was covered in sweat. When I stood up suddenly, I could vaguely see something colorful in front of my eyes.
I found the mop stick which had no use at this point.
There was my flesh and blood and that of my driver Lao Zhao on it, and I had some strange thoughts, so, no matter whether this world is good or bad, it should be fair and everyone who sees it should get a share, right?
I staggered to where Nian Ziqing was, and to prevent making a mistake, I laid the coat Zhang Tianyi left for me on him to position him.
"... Did you know that faces can be separated and isolated?"
I whispered, not listening to what it was saying to try and seduce me, and raised both the metal mop handle and the window breaker high up, aiming them at where the face was.
"I have even seen a fellow sneak out to slack off, and I, a feudal capitalist, caught him and gave him a good beating."
Nian Ziqing's voice seemed to understand what I was going to do, and he suddenly let out a resentful howl.
The sound was so loud, it made me feel dizzy and nauseous in my head.
It said, No. No, no, no, without tourists, the distorted order here will be unbalanced. This behavior is completely irrational. We will die together!
"I don't agree with you joining the Zhang family, I said that."
"No matter what!" I gritted my teeth, hammered down hard, and nailed the mop handle down, "Get out of my guys!"
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