It's Kai's voice!
Hearing that scream, my heart skipped a beat.
Everyone else seemed to be frozen in place, stunned for a moment.
Immediately afterwards, everyone's eyes turned to the direction from which the sound came.
"Ah Kai! It's Ah Kai's voice!" Xiao Sanzi shouted, pointing in that direction.
"Walk!"
Although Dapao had previously said he didn't get along with Akai, he was the first to rush forward.
Everyone present was a young man, and they were all related. As soon as they saw the cannon rushing over, they quickly followed.
When we got there, we didn't see Kai.
All that could be seen was a dry well next to a crooked old tree.
The well opening was half-covered by weeds, revealing a dark hole.
"This... how could there be a dry well here?" I asked, panting as I looked at Xiao Sanzi and the others.
Aren't most people digging wells in their own homes or in the middle of the village?
How could there be a dry well in this desolate wilderness, on the way to visit graves?
Old Pao stared wide-eyed at the well, muttering to himself, "Could Ah Kai have fallen in?"
"How could he not have seen such a big well? He's not blind." Xiao Sanzi frowned, his face full of doubt.
Old Pao scratched his head and said, "The area is overgrown with weeds, and everyone was in such a panic at the time. Maybe Akai just wasn't paying attention and stepped into a hole and fell down."
Ah Wei muttered quietly, "It's also possible that he suddenly needed to pee and was looking for a secluded spot when he accidentally stepped out of position."
I turned to look at Da Niu and the others, thinking that they were familiar with this area and should know something.
They looked at each other, their faces blank, and none of them could explain it.
At this moment, Awei stammered, "This...this well, someone died here before."
"Don't talk nonsense, how come we've never heard of it?" the old man immediately retorted.
Ah Wei swallowed hard and asked, "Have you forgotten what my grandfather did when he was alive?"
Full of questions, I whispered to the youngest son beside me, "What does his grandfather do?"
Xiao Sanzi leaned close to my ear and whispered an explanation.
“Awei’s grandfather used to be a fortune teller. Before he turned sixty, he was crazy all the time. Then, I don’t know how, he suddenly became enlightened. After that, people in the village would ask him to help with weddings and funerals. He became very famous. But he has been dead for many years.”
I said "Oh," and walked towards the edge of the dry well, intending to look down to see if Kai had fallen in.
"Don't look!"
When he saw me walk to the edge of the dry well and prepare to look down, Ah Wei was so frightened that he shouted and quickly grabbed me with his hand.
I jolted, stopped in my tracks, and turned around to ask, "Why?"
Ah Wei's face was deathly pale, and his lips trembled.
“I heard my grandfather say that someone really died here. Do you know about the woman who died in a red wedding dress, like Yunfei from Heji, who was pregnant?”
My heart skipped a beat, and the memory of Yunfei was still vivid in my mind.
When I saw Ji Yunfei's coffin being paraded through the streets, Qian Laoguan told me about it.
Looking at Xiao Sanzi, Lao Pao, Da Niu, and the others, they all nodded in agreement, clearly having heard of it as well.
Ah Wei swallowed hard and continued, "That woman's husband died here, according to my grandfather."
"The man's death was very strange. In the middle of the night, people would hear him crying by the well. His voice was very mournful. Many people heard it, but no one knew what he was crying about."
"Later, someone felt something was wrong, so they went to my grandfather. After my grandfather came to see it, he said there was a wronged spirit in the well, and that a ritual had to be performed to seal the well, otherwise the man would come back."
"Who knew that the day after they were preparing to seal the well, the man jumped in and drowned. Everyone tried to pull him out, but his body was incredibly heavy, and they couldn't get him out no matter what they did."
Ah Wei paused for a moment, then continued, "Later, the police were called, and the fire department arrived with professional equipment. One of the firefighters went down and died. Then, for some reason, the well was sealed up."
Ah Wei finished speaking in one breath, his expression filled with fear.
Da Niu stared at the well and questioned, "Where was it sealed? There's no sign of it being sealed at all."
Ah Wei shrugged helplessly and said, "I don't know. I just heard from my grandfather that the well was sealed and that it was filled with resentment. You must not look down."
The young man, curious, asked, "What will happen if we watch it?"
Ah Wei shuddered violently: "Watching this will cause trouble. You might see the person who fell into the well back then watching you from below, trying to pull you into their place. Someone didn't believe in such things before and secretly came to watch, and as a result, they fell seriously ill and died within a few days."
Hearing Ah Wei's words, the surrounding air seemed to freeze instantly, and everyone's breathing sounded exceptionally heavy.
Everyone looked at each other, and no one dared to take another step closer to that dry well.
It felt as if a pair of pale hands could reach out from the well at any moment and drag us into an endless abyss of darkness.
Gazing at that dry well, I pondered to myself.
Did Ah Kai really just accidentally slip and fall in?
Or perhaps, when he walked to the dry well, he glanced down out of curiosity and was pulled down by the unknown "thing" in the well?
But according to what Da Niu said before, A Kai was just muttering that his shoes had stepped on something and bent down to clean it. How did he end up at the well?
Could it be...?
My heart skipped a beat. Could it be that he, like me before, had fallen into a hallucination and wandered into this place in a daze?
We rushed over anxiously after hearing Akai's scream.
But after hearing what Awei had said, everyone was like wilted eggplants, and no one had the courage to confirm whether Akai was really in the dry well.
Xiao Sanzi frowned deeply: "Could Akai really be inside? If he is, why did he suddenly go silent? Could it be..."
Old Pao spat, his face full of complaints: "It's all this lousy place's fault, it's really weird. What if something happens to Ah Kai!"
Ah Wei panicked and muttered under his breath, "Could we be hallucinating again? This voice is fake, and Ah Kai isn't even here?"
"Ah Wei, it's all your fault! Why did you have to say all this stuff?"
"Maybe Kai fell from that height and was knocked unconscious."
I tried to guess, knowing in my heart that wells are usually dug quite deep to get water, so it's not impossible to fall in and get knocked unconscious.
Just as everyone was discussing whether to shout at the well to see if there would be a response.
Da Niu suddenly seemed possessed and cursed, "It's just a dry well, why are you making such a fuss about it? What's the big deal!"
Before he finished speaking, he rushed to the dry well like a gust of wind, lowered his head, and looked down into the well.
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