She covered her mouth and nose tightly, struggling to get up, but her feet couldn't find their footing on the slippery gravel.
In the chaos, a trembling hand suddenly grabbed her arm and forcefully pulled her out of the water.
"Little...Little Stone! Are you...are you alright?" It was Li Dachui's voice, broken and filled with terror amidst violent coughing.
"N-nothing!" Jiang Chan gasped for breath, grabbing Li Dachui's arm with her other hand to steady herself.
The icy black water reached up to my thighs, and every sway was terrifying.
"Where's the... flashlight?!"
"I don't know... I can't find it!" Zhu Zi roared from a short distance away, his voice trembling with tears. "It's all collapsed! Is the breach... is the breach still there?!"
The flashlight is gone! The only light source! The entrance to the rat trail has only been dug up a little; how much has been buried by the collapsed coal and rocks?
She forced herself to calm down and listened intently amidst the pitch-black darkness and the deafening echoes of the landslide.
The rumbling gradually subsided, leaving only the clattering sound of falling gravel, along with more frequent and painful coughs and groans than before.
"Old Nian'er? Old Nian'er, answer me!" Uncle He's voice trembled.
"Cough cough cough... I... I'm here... cough cough cough..." The old man's cough was heart-wrenching, as if he was coughing up his lungs, and his breath was extremely weak.
Air!
Jiang Chan's heart sank. The second collapse made the space even smaller, and dust filled the air. The already thin air was compressed even more!
Old Nian'er, being so frail, probably won't last much longer!
"Don't move! Stay where you are!" Jiang Chan shouted with all her might. Her childish voice was unusually sharp and piercing due to anxiety and the dust she had inhaled. "Watch out for your heads! There are still stones falling!"
In the darkness, the commotion subsided slightly, leaving only heavy, labored breathing and suppressed groans of pain.
Despair, like invisible, icy seawater, once again engulfed everyone.
The newly ignited flame of hope was completely extinguished by this sudden landslide, leaving not even a spark.
"There's...there's no way out..." Zhu Zi's voice rang out, choked with sobs and filled with despair, "God...won't you give me a way to survive...?"
Jiang Chan's mind raced, and the next second, a gas mask appeared in her hand.
It feels cool to the touch.
This thing looks a bit like a weird mask with its eyes gouged out, with a cylindrical jar protruding in the middle and an elastic band attached to the back.
Jiang Chan put it on based on her intuition.
The countdown on the panel was tugging at her nerves.
Her heart tightened, and she immediately turned to the others, her voice booming in the darkness, "Don't panic! Listen to my instructions! What collapsed just now was mainly coal and rubble! The entrance to the rat tunnel is definitely still there! If it's buried, we'll dig it open again! If you don't want to suffocate here, get moving! Those who are strong! Pillar! Uncle Hammer! Uncle He! Move over here!"
Her words were like a shot of adrenaline, plunging deep into the mire of despair.
Zhu Zi was the first to react, and with a choked voice, he roared fiercely, "Dig! I don't believe we can't dig it open! Little Stone! Where are you? I'm coming over here!"
"This way!" Jiang Chan groped around, roughly determining the direction of the entrance to the Rat Path based on her memory and the position she was in before she fell.
She remembers that she was lying face down in that direction just before the landslide.
She carefully stepped on the wet, uneven pile of debris, moving slowly and deliberately towards the spot she remembered.
Every step was incredibly difficult, relying entirely on feeling and hands to grope in the dark.
"Watch out!" Li Dachui's voice rang out from the side, followed by a large hand steadily supporting Jiang Chan who almost slipped. "I've found the pit wall on this side!" His voice carried a sense of stability, as if he had found a reference point.
"Okay!" Jiang Chan perked up and immediately followed Li Dachui's directions, feeling her way along the cold, slippery pit walls covered with coal dust and sharp stones.
Her fingers were cut in several places and burned painfully, but she didn't care.
The collapsed material consisted mostly of loose coal chunks and gravel, unlike the original rock face which was very hard.
Zhu Zi groped his way over, panting heavily, "I'm here too! What do we do?!"
"Feel the pit wall! Use the knife to pry where you can find a crack!" Jiang Chan shouted instructions as she frantically dug and pried at the base of the wet pit wall with the pickaxe provided by the system.
He then took out several sharp knives from his spatial storage and handed them to Zhu Zi and the others.
She kept digging through the coal cinders and gravel.
In absolute darkness, time loses its meaning.
Only heavy breathing, the clatter of hands scraping through rubble and coal dust, and occasional muffled groans of pain echoed through the air.
The air grew thinner and more murky, and each breath felt like swallowing scalding sand, causing a suffocating pain in my chest.
"Damn it...it's all rocks..." Pillar growled impatiently, his voice filled with exhaustion and frustration.
"Don't stop! Go down! Stick to the edge of the pit!" Jiang Chan gritted her teeth, her voice hoarse.
Jiang Chan let out a low roar and plunged the tip of her pickaxe into the tightest crevice of the pile of rubble at the base of the pit wall, then pried it open with all her might!
Snap! Splash!
She loosened the small pile of rubble and cinders!
"There's a way!" Li Dachui roared immediately, his rough hands plunging into the gap he had pried open, desperately shoveling away the broken stones.
The pillar rushed over and started digging frantically.
Pry! Scrape! Dig!
Ignoring the soreness and numbness in her arms, Jiang Chan repeatedly plunged the pickaxe into the most stubborn cracks and pried with all her might.
The pillar and the sledgehammer's hands, like iron shovels, pried apart the loosened gravel and coal slag.
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