Water accumulation (I)
The wrinkled navy blue plastic manual feels very uncomfortable in the hand.
I carefully peeled off the pages that were stuck together. The words inside had rotted away and I could only make out the radicals.
But the guide's introduction to the lake before the change was probably the same as what I guessed from reading lips at the time, which was basically all wrong and had almost no reference value. I took it, took a look at it, and put it away, but still thanked the guy.
He was quite disappointed, and went back to the second floor to look for it again, feeling a little depressed.
I said there was no need to rush and asked him to pull me up as well. I wanted to see how the manual ended up on the terrace.
Considering the dirty water on the first floor, we had the possibility of breaking the air vent and entering the room through the ceiling to explore. We first took out rain boots and raincoats from our backpacks, rolled up our cuffs and trouser legs, and wrapped them tightly with several layers of plastic wrap.
The three Zhang guys all put on thin underwear, packed up the walkie-talkies and changed clothes, and handed them over to me first.
Everyone climbed over the wall one by one. The team leader half-knelt and supported me. I pushed and was easily pulled up by the people above without any effort. When I landed, I found that the ground under my feet was very moldy, as if it was falling apart. The cement surface of the entire terrace made a creaking sound when I stepped on it, as if it would collapse at any time.
Moreover, this terrace is much smaller than I imagined. Most of it is filled with scattered debris. There is very little flat ground to stand on, and the gaps are full of ivy.
I don’t know why, but these things made from the dead aerial roots of banyan trees give me more chills than the banyan trees themselves. That kind of specious feeling, like the uncanny valley effect, shattered the two common senses about banyan trees and creepers in my mind.
If I must describe it, it was as if I saw a dog with human teeth grinning, my eyebrows kept twitching and I felt extremely nauseous.
The guy led the way for me, pushed some debris aside, and said, "The manual just fell into the gap by the window."
Then I realized that there was indeed a skylight in the middle, and on the side there was a vague human outline created by the guy who had just lay down there for observation.
The skylight had been roughly wiped by him, leaving an irregular mass the size of a washbasin among the black ash. Looking down, it was pitch black and nothing could be seen clearly.
We didn't care about the dirt at this time, we all lay down as close together as possible at the skylight, letting the guy hold up the high beam flashlight.
We all stretched our heads to look inside the first floor. The team leader was staring at the edge of the skylight. I asked him what he was looking at, and he touched the sealing strip on the edge of the window:
"Brother, where did your manual say you found it? How come it's stuck?"
In order to avoid crowding with us, the guy stood on a box of sundries that he had brought over, half bent over and stretched out his hands to shine the light above us. When he heard this, he was very conscientious and did not move at all, but said in confusion:
"Not outside, but inside."
We were all stunned, and the guy shifted the flashlight a little to show us. It turned out that a corner of the skylight had been drilled by the aerial roots of the banyan tree, and then filled with mud from the decay of the roots, and then blocked by the undulating roots, so it was impossible to see at first glance.
"The manual was on the side of the ceiling, clipped to this aerial root. I used the copper wire to hook it out of the broken corner. It took me a long time to pull it out. I also used some debris to wipe it clean." The guy was a little discouraged, "Who knew that all my efforts would be useless."
The team leader looked at the angle and estimated that someone on the first floor had tried to push the window upwards. But as far as he could see, the sealing strip had swelled a bit, and it might not be able to get it stuck tight for a while. The person pushing the window probably reached for the manual in a hurry and tried to pry the window open a little. But the manual was too soft and just got stuck.
I heard him talk like that and thought it was possible. But it was strange to think that it was not difficult to open the skylight on the terrace side. There was no need to exert too much force from below.
Moreover, we have just estimated that the height of the first floor is about three or four meters. It is unlikely that a normal person can reach the ceiling directly unless he flies.
I shone the flashlight down, but didn't see any scaffolding or other things.
Unless, I thought to myself, unless at that moment the heavy rain filled the rooms on the first floor, and the man was floating on the top of the water, trying to escape through the air vent.
But the "rainstorm" dispersed and receded in the room, and this survival move was only completed in the first half.
Looking down, there was still some water half a person's height, and rotten tree roots all around. I felt a stinging and itching in my throat and lungs, and it was difficult for me to breathe.
As the flashlight swept around, it became even more uncomfortable. The reflection of the stagnant water was dim through the air vent glass, and it hurt my eyes. It seemed as if countless shadowy masses were moving back and forth in the water.
The guy pointed a flashlight at the man on the sofa in the middle and asked softly, "It's well preserved. Shall I go down and search it?"
My heart skipped a beat again, and I subconsciously asked, "Wait a minute."
They all looked at me, but I really didn't know what I was waiting for, and this timidity seemed completely unreasonable.
But I felt uneasy if he continued like this, so after thinking for a moment I gritted my teeth and turned over the heavy backpack I had been carrying.
There is a cat in the backpack.
Yes, before going up the mountain, when I got the anti-heat supplies, I stuffed Dongzai in. It was sleeping soundly in the hot sun and didn't resist. As I walked along the way, I could hear the vibration of the snoring of the little tabby cat behind me.
"Dong cub?"
When I took the cat out, the fat little cat had sleepy eyes. It licked my fingers blankly, looked around, and was stunned.
I became nervous and stared at it carefully for a long time, but I saw that the little fat cat did not show any alert or stressful reaction.
"..." I slowly breathed a sigh of relief, thinking to myself, maybe I was overthinking it. Or was it just wishful thinking that I would rely on Dongzai's warning? Thinking back to the several times Dongzai's abnormal behavior during the previous adventures, I still put it on my shoulders.
The guy was a little dazed when he saw me suddenly pick up a cat. In his opinion, Dongzai should have gradually appeared from nothing when I called him because of his ability to be invisible. For a moment, he looked at me and then at the cat with a confused expression.
It was not convenient for me to explain, so I skipped the question and asked him if he could tell how deep the water was underneath, and whether a landlubber like me could wade through the water or whether I should stay on the terrace to avoid causing more trouble.
He opened his mouth and finally found some voice, saying it was okay. The reflected water looked deep, but it was only up to our waists at most. It would not be difficult to walk through the water if we were careful.
So they took out the lock picking tools. It didn't take much effort to remove the air vent, and soon the whole thing was moved aside.
They went down one by one, all turning on their flashlights.
The damp, moldy and rotten smell rushed up at once, hitting me head on, choking my eyes and making them red. I had to call for help again, and they built a ladder for me to use as a buffer, and then I jumped down by pulling the traction rope.
It's not that I'm trying to show off, but I always remember that in Snail Man's memories, Glasses muttered "rain" and "mural" when he was unconscious. I already understood the word "rain", but I didn't understand the word "mural". I was afraid it was some important information.
The first floor of this homestay is tightly sealed, and I was worried that if the air circulated, the murals or patterns on it would quickly oxidize and fade, so after I came down, I looked around before I even stood still.
However, there seemed to be nothing on the walls that had become uneven and had fallen off due to water.
The four people around me asked me what I was looking for. I roughly described it to them. The guy was very puzzled and finally asked hesitantly:
"There are no murals, but if anything... there seem to be tattoos. Do they count?"
I was stunned when I saw the tattoo: "Which one? What does the tattoo look like? And how can you tell what the tattoo is in the dark?"
"It seems to be something like a thangka or a picture of flying celestial beings. Aren't these often used in murals?"
Before the guy finished answering, I felt a movement on my shoulder. Dongzai suddenly stood up slowly on my shoulder, his pupils quickly shrank into a line, and he looked around.
From this angle I could clearly see that it first blinked slowly, as if confused, and then began to blink rapidly.
As the cat moved, I felt something strange almost at the same time. I subconsciously pressed the flashlight downwards, shining the light on the puddles, and looked around.
In the field of vision, the straight light path illuminated some dust in the air, but there was nothing else.
There were no ripples on the surface of the water caused by any moving objects. Those scattered moldy debris sank to the bottom in the still water.
But the tabby cat suddenly arched its back for the first time in a long time and began to breathe heavily.
This violent reaction suddenly awakened some long-lost memories in me, and I realized that it must have noticed something.
However, as I stepped on the cold and moldy puddles, the chill seeped through my rain boots and clothes. I looked around but really didn't see anything.
The team leader and three guys around me were also very alert. Without any questions, they prioritized my reaction, surrounded me with their backs turned, and shone their flashlights into blind spots that were easy to be overlooked and attacked.
But, still no.
Everything in this room is so stagnant, even the flow of air. If there was something, we should have discovered it by now.
...No, that's not right.
I suddenly realized that the cat squatting on my shoulder didn't seem to be looking at anything, but more like "not seeing" something.
Because it was still blinking, at a very deliberate speed.
Given the tacit understanding between us, Dongzai's action is actually easy to understand.
It is to quickly close the eyes and then open them suddenly, in this way staring closely at the space in front of it.
The cat and I are both on the side close to the door, so from the cat's perspective, it can cover almost half of the room in front, making it very convenient for it to patrol.
Cats have very strong dynamic vision.
Only some weak light is needed to capture the traces of even the smallest fly.
For no apparent reason, my throat suddenly tightened and I felt an indescribable discomfort.
I thought of hide and seek.
Put your hand in front of your eyes and make it disappear or appear suddenly, and the baby will giggle in surprise. Children often play with cats and understand the logic behind it.
That's what cats are like right now.
It thinks there is something hiding in the darkness, and it might be moving closer, so it closes and opens its eyes suddenly, pretending not to look at the object, trying to disrupt the object's movements and lock onto it.
In the room, what came out from under the puddles?
"..." Team leader Zhang Jia's light moved slightly, as if Yu Guangzhong noticed something. He whispered slowly, "Is the person on the sofa... gone?"
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