Only a few people inside the cave noticed the long-haired youth's departure.
Song Sanchuan looked at his boss in shock, unable to understand how he dared to let the person go at this time.
But Xie Tianlang didn't speak. He simply walked into the crowd with a cold and indifferent expression and arranged for everyone to deal with this sudden, scorching disaster.
Meanwhile, Gou Fugui, who had caught up with the groundhog, had followed it to a corner on the east side of the subway tunnel. At the edge of that corner, he saw a familiar, dug-out hole.
The real groundhog had already circled Gou Fugui three times, looking extremely anxious.
It couldn't understand how this guy, who smelled like the leader of the sand dune cats, had suddenly turned into such an ugly human.
Gou Fugui looked down at it, pondering whether he wanted to become Fugui the groundhog or Fugui the sand cat.
After much deliberation, I finally chose the marmot. After all, the one leading the way was a marmot, and if they were the same species, there was no reason why it could go there but he couldn't.
Moreover, Fugui the groundhog is not a weakling.
At crucial moments, his soul screams should be enough to attack and escape, as long as it's not a monster of the size of a giant underground python.
Then, as the real groundhog spun around for the fourth time, Gou Fugui suddenly slapped his wrist, transforming from a human into the groundhog Fugui.
When the alpha of the groundhog family saw the cat in front of it suddenly transform from a human into a groundhog that looked exactly like it, and even had a similar size, it was completely stunned!
It even stood up uncontrollably and let out a startled squeak: "Chirp—!"
The wealthy groundhog rolled its eyes and slapped the large groundhog on the head with its paw again. Feeling the familiar slap, the large groundhog immediately stopped screaming, and then, slightly excited, wiggled its rear end and burrowed into the hole it had dug.
"Chirp chirp chirp chirp!!" Boss, come with me! I'll take you to the underground shelter!
Then Fugui the groundhog also nimbly burrowed into the hole. After crawling for a few minutes, he heard the sounds of other groundhogs ahead.
The two youngest groundhogs in the family, whom he had pitifully given cheese to, excitedly crawled out of the burrow, eager to climb onto Groundhog Fugui's body.
But he was coldly rejected by the groundhog Fugui.
Seeing all eight groundhogs in the family mobilized, the wealthy groundhog's mood sank slightly again—
Previously, the burrow where the groundhog family lived had enough grain to feed the eight of them for more than half a year. Now, the groundhog family is willing to give up more than half a year's food and move to a new place. This shows that they believe that the still cool burrow is no longer enough for them to continue to survive.
This is probably the animals' innate "survival instinct".
Fugui the groundhog was truly baffled as to why this family of groundhogs would take him along even while they were fleeing. Was it their "survival instinct"? Or perhaps...?
"Chirp chirp chirp!!"
"Chirp chirp chirp chirp~"
Looking at the two little groundhogs circling around him, and the whole family of groundhogs that were clearly walking in front but kept looking at him with their two little black bean eyes, after walking down the ground for a while, he suddenly had a flash of inspiration and understood!
"...Fuck you."
Shu Fugui paused for a moment, then took out a palm-sized piece of cheese from his spatial storage and placed it on the ground.
Then the family of groundhogs, who had just seemed a little anxious, suddenly stopped in their tracks! They rushed over excitedly and happily, using their short, round paws to snatch the cheese.
The giant groundhog stood upright on the spot and started waving its arms and legs excitedly.
Shu Fugui: "..."
After confirming the reaction, it was found that the family's groundhogs were using him as a mobile food storage warehouse with their own food.
They might even make him work as a bodyguard.
So, this "groundhog's true feelings of not forgetting and not abandoning even in the face of disaster" is just another cliché! A cliché indeed!
Even knowing it was a scam, he had no choice but to accept it.
However, if this big fat rat doesn't take him to a good place and waste his time and life, he'll end up playing whack-a-mole.
The family of groundhogs, who were eating, suddenly shivered. The big groundhog, who had been jumping around, suddenly became quiet and started leading the way seriously.
This time, the groundhog family behaved themselves, neither looking back nor causing any trouble, and quietly and quickly ran forward and downward.
This running lasted for five hours. Every hour, the big groundhog would stop to rest for ten minutes, and during that time, Fugui the groundhog would bring out a bowl of water and some food for the groundhog family to replenish their energy. Of course, he would also eat and drink a little.
Until they reached a large, somewhat cold cave where earth and rocks met.
Upon reaching this point, the giant groundhog seemed to breathe a sigh of relief and stopped moving forward, instead beginning to sniff around inside the burrow.
At this moment, Fugui the groundhog took out his communication wristwatch, carefully and somewhat nervously pressed the contact button on the wristwatch, and called Xie Tianlang.
Fortunately, the green light on the edge of the watch indicated a successful communication.
Almost the instant Shu Fugui pressed the contact button, the call was answered, and Xie Tianlang's somewhat hoarse and dry voice came through: "Yuanyuan?"
When Shu Fugui heard those two words, he couldn't help but laugh: "You're round again now?"
When Xie Tianlang heard that Yuanyuan was safe and sound and even had a smile on her face, he finally felt relieved.
“I’m worried because you haven’t been in touch for five hours.”
Rat Fugui sensed his concern and unconsciously scratched the ground with his paw: "It's alright. Shouldn't you have known long ago that I'm better at surviving than all of you? You're all dead and I'm still alive."
Then a laugh came from Xie Tianlang's side.
Then Shu Fugui explained his situation: "I think I've run quite a distance with that groundhog. I've lost track of the route because of all the twists and turns, but since the watch can still communicate, it means we're not too far apart."
"But we've been going down. I feel like we're at least a hundred or two meters deep now. I don't feel hot at all here, but I don't feel cold either. The temperature is probably... around 10 degrees Celsius. I think this is related to geothermal temperature, after all, the Earth has a magma layer."
"The deeper we went, the less soil there was and the more hard rocks there were. Along the way, I heard the sound of wind and flowing water. I think that the groundhog family and I may have passed through an area with groundwater."
"We've stopped in a cool rock cave. I feel like we're about halfway there. We'll probably have to take a nap here before continuing."
"There's no danger at the moment, don't worry. I'll contact you again once I reach my destination."
Xie Tianlang leaned against the wall of the underground cave, listening to his round face describing the journey, sentence by sentence, over the phone. His expression, which had been cold for half the day, finally softened a lot.
He wanted that sound to keep ringing in his ears, but this damned disaster wouldn't allow it.
"Yes. We're doing alright here too. The temperature rise around 5 a.m. was the limit of this sudden increase. The temperature didn't rise significantly again around 8:00 or 10:00."
"However, the daytime temperature outside is already above 70 degrees Celsius, and it probably won't drop below 55 degrees Celsius at night. For the time being, apart from having people with good physical condition take turns going out to cool down and bring back water, we won't go anywhere else."
"Fortunately, we have enough food and water for now, and I plan to have everyone dig the tunnel a little deeper. When the surface is very hot, the temperature will drop more as the tunnel goes deeper."
Gou Fugui listened to Xie Tianlang's words and nodded repeatedly in the cave, thinking that this big wolf was quite reliable. Logically, he should have hung up by now, but for some reason, he wanted to hear the guy's voice again and didn't want to cut off the communication just like that.
The two remained silent, neither willing to press the button first.
Until the big groundhog somehow pulled out a clump of meadow and skillfully offered it to the groundhog Fugui, meaning that he should go to sleep and continue his journey later.
Looking at the dirty, musty-smelling clump of grass with great disgust, Fugui the groundhog pulled out a luxurious silk cushion from his pocket, and elegantly rolled himself up on it, making himself into a round ball.
Then he said to Xie Tianlang, "Well, I'm going to sleep now. I'll call you when I get there."
Xie Tianlang was silent for a while before finally responding with a soft "hmm".
In the end, it was Groundhog Fugui who pressed the button to end it.
Then, amidst the envious gazes of his family, Fugui the groundhog curled up on the soft cushion and fell asleep.
I slept fairly soundly, but it was very short.
He slept for about four hours. At 2 p.m., he was woken up by the chirping of a large groundhog, and then he set off again with the groundhog family.
One hour, two hours, then five hours.
This time, after walking for five hours, the giant groundhog still hadn't stopped.
It was already 7 p.m., and Shu Fugui even wondered if the big groundhog was going to keep him up all night.
After crawling for another 40 minutes, he felt quite tired. The two little groundhogs in the groundhog family were so exhausted that the big groundhog carried them on its back to continue walking. When he wanted to ask them to stop and rest for a while, he thought of asking them to stop.
He didn't know where the giant groundhog was leading him, but they had been running downhill and into the distance for over ten hours and needed to rest.
?
Gou Fugui suddenly heard the faint sound of water.
That wasn't the gentle sound of flowing water; it was more like the sound of a waterfall crashing against rocks, a larger and more ferocious flow.
Besides the sound of water, he also heard the whistling of the wind, and... the chirping of birds?
The last sound made Gou Fugui so confused that he even forgot to call a halt.
Then he noticed that the large groundhog crawling at the front also seemed to have heard the sound, and became suddenly excited after hearing it.
It sped up, rushing toward the sounds of water, wind, and birdsong.
For some reason, Gou Fugui's heart began to pound wildly. He seemed to sense something extremely special, magical, and perhaps capable of changing the world ahead of him.
He started running faster and faster, just like a real little animal!
When he suddenly turned the corner and reached the end of the winding road, he saw the light.
He stood at the small opening in the stone wall, gazing in awe at the dazzling, mysterious, tiny yet magnificent world before him—
In the vast, seemingly endless underground cavern, a wide, rushing river descends from the "sky," crashing onto the blue stone like a silver river, before flowing eastward from the deep pool, never to return.
The banks of the Milky Way are teeming with life, with countless flowers and plants growing there, swaying with the wind and water, and occasionally small animals darting past.
This world may lack sunlight, yet it still shines brightly!
Above the "sky," there are still "stars" twinkling; these are small mushrooms growing on the underground stone walls, some emerald green, some warm yellow, and some deep blue.
Beneath the "sky dome," beside the "Milky Way," in the most prominent place in this world, a giant silver tree stands between heaven and earth, as if a god had descended.
Brightly colored birds flew past Gou Fugui, and colorful butterflies perched on the flowers and in the starry sky.
The sounds of insects chirping, birds singing, and flowers blooming; stars, the Milky Way, and giant trees.
This is a hidden underground world teeming with life and wonder.
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