Chapter 155 Bottomless Pit
Pipa stood at the half-closed doorway.
The surroundings were quiet, and he couldn't help but slow his breathing, but his heartbeat still pounded like a drum.
—It was Lan who brought the loquats here.
Just like a few days ago, the other party led him through the dimly lit passageways of the dungeon, winding around as if there was no end in sight.
Actually, it didn't take long to get there.
Pipa thought Lan would go in with him, or at least watch from the doorway.
But Lan said that more people would be coming later.
"We can't be rude to our guests."
Since Lan had said that, Pipa had no way to refute it, but a sense of loss suddenly arose in her heart.
It was as if Lan chose the former over herself, thus abandoning herself.
Pipa knew he shouldn't think that way. He had never been so dependent on others before—it was just different this time.
The loquat had no idea what it was about to see.
After that, what will become of them...?
And orchid.
In Pipa's heart, Lan was actually somewhat different from the others.
Like Li Xiao in the past, although her relationship with her family was not very good, she was often surrounded by people, and had people like Mr. Ajiu taking care of her.
Later, although the entire princess's residence was reduced to ashes in the fire, at least her cousin Shen Yun was there to help, so nothing too serious happened.
As for the lingering charm...
Shen Yun will be getting married soon, and the woman he is about to marry is the devoted eldest daughter of the Lu family. With such a beautiful wife by his side, his career will be bright.
Before the Lan family fell into ruin, Young Master Lan had family and close friends by his side.
Later, he ended up at the Flower Moon Pavilion, where he earned the trust of the manager through his own skills, practiced medicine, and gained a genuine reputation...
Today, it is even more exceptionally prestigious.
Even without loquats, there are still many people and things around them that deserve their attention and care.
Only Lan seemed to always be quietly waiting for his visit in that dark room.
Over time, loquat gradually developed some misconceptions.
It was as if Lan needed him.
It was as if no one but him would ever enter that house shrouded in the long, dark night again.
But then, dawn broke.
Just like what the other person said when they whispered his name in Pipa's ear this morning.
As dawn breaks, the dream must end; all good things must come to an end. Each person must compose themselves, go their separate ways, and seek their own path.
“If you want to go back, I’ve marked the way. Follow those marks, and when you get there, knock on the wall; someone will be waiting for you there.”
Before leaving, Lan said this.
Looking at that smiling face, indistinct in the darkness, Pipa couldn't help but ask, "And you? Will you wait for me there?"
Lan did not speak.
But the silence itself seemed to have already told everything invisibly.
The loquat then stood still, unable to take another step forward.
He realized he couldn't be so greedy. He couldn't force others to walk the path he had chosen.
The boy secretly hid his clenched hands behind his back and smiled slightly, looking up at the sky.
"I know, you can go now. Aren't there still guests waiting to be entertained outside?"
He paused, then added, "Actually, waiting like this is rather pointless. One person is uncertain, and the other is always worried; in the end, neither side can find peace—"
The cool touch on his face made the boy suddenly shut his mouth.
Lan suddenly reached out and gently pinched his face, I don't know where she learned that from.
"You're not that old, but you speak with the air of an old man." The young man said with a smile, his voice softening before suddenly becoming serious. "But you do look rather cute."
Pipa was taken aback, feeling as if she had heard these words somewhere before.
I racked my brains but couldn't remember it for a while.
He simply watched as the figure slowly moved away, retreating into the depths of darkness, until it completely disappeared from his sight.
—Finally, he was the only one left.
Pipa took a deep breath, turned around, and pushed open the slightly ajar door.
Instantly, a chilling aura swept over us.
Amidst the shimmering pearls filling the room, the most striking feature was the enormous ice coffin placed in the center.
The coffin lid wasn't closed, so Pipa immediately saw the person lying inside. They were wearing a red wedding dress identical to the one in her dream, but unlike in the dream, it wasn't torn and tattered.
Pipa walked over slowly, her legs seeming to have their own thoughts.
Until he reached the coffin and stood still.
Holding onto the edge of the coffin, he looked down, holding his breath and staring intently.
A vibrant red wedding gown was neatly laid out inside the frosty white, translucent coffin. On the soft, smooth silk, lay a familiar face.
"Finally, we met." Pipa murmured, feeling a sense of peace and relief.
Yu Qingzhou lay there, her eyes closed, her face pale.
Only a dark red mark remained between her lips, like bloodstains that hadn't been wiped away.
Although it looks lifelike, it is undoubtedly a dead person. A closer look reveals the mottled wounds beneath the powder.
I could still faintly smell a strange fragrance, probably some preservative spices.
I smelled a similar scent on Lan Yunzhi, so it must have been picked up here.
It must be said, the person who restored the body was truly skilled.
Even the elasticity of the skin has been well preserved. When you first touch it, apart from being a little cold, it is not much different from a living person.
Pipa's gaze shifted from Yu Qingzhou's face to the hand revealing the wide sleeves, the fingers clearly defined and even slightly curved.
However, he also noticed a relatively new wound on his wrist, where the cut was clearer than in other places.
—I don't know how it happened.
Even though it wasn't on her own body, Pipa still couldn't help but frown.
Finally, Pipa focused his gaze on Yu Qingzhou's chest, where, in his memory, there had once been a large hole.
Now it has become a flat area.
Pipa withdrew her hands, which were numb from the cold, and turned her head to the side, pressing her ear against the surface, wanting to see if she could make any other discoveries.
And that's when the change happened.
Pipa, who was clinging to the coffin wall and trying to lean forward, suddenly lost her balance and fell uncontrollably into the ice coffin.
With a series of cracking sounds, the seemingly sturdy ice coffin suddenly cracked open from the bottom, and spiderweb-shaped cracks quickly spread beneath the two people.
Oh no, is it going to crack?
An ominous thought flashed through Pipa's mind. Before he could react, the coffin lid beneath him collapsed with a loud bang.
Before Pipa could even be surprised, she was swept away by the feeling of weightlessness and plummeted straight into the darkness below.
Of course, it wasn't just the loquats that fell; the body of Yu Qingzhou, which he had accidentally crushed beneath him, also fell down.
The instinct to save himself made Pipa subconsciously want to grab onto something, but unfortunately, the closest person to him at that time was Yu Qingzhou.
So it turned into Pipa hugging Yu Qingzhou as they fell down together.
I don't know what the people who built the basement were thinking, digging such a bottomless pit underneath.
It's impossible to tell the difference between calling them loquats and digging holes; who's more insane, the person digging the hole or the person placing the coffin?
And also...
This pit is way too deep, it's practically a bottomless pit.
Moreover, their descent speed was far too slow.
It was as if they were not in the void, but slowly descending into the bottomless sea.
So much so that Pipa even had time to recall that she seemed to have had similar dreams more than once.
It was just a silent darkness.
The difference is that in that dream, the loquat was all alone.
Although they are not exactly two people now, at least they are not alone anymore.
but--
Pipa suddenly thought of something not so good.
If they continue to fall endlessly like this, without the ice coffin and regular preservation, won't Yu Qingzhou's body gradually rot away...?
Although Pipa has seen many dead people, they are mostly relatively fresh corpses.
I once heard Young Master Lan mention a method of cultivation.
There have been practitioners of this method who went to observe the corpses of the dead, contemplating the nine stages of their transformation: from swelling to bruising, to skin decay, to blood splattering, to thick rot, to being devoured by insects, to disintegration, and finally to a pile of white bones, which were then completely burned by a raging fire into a handful of ash.
It is said that those who can persevere to the end without falling into madness will naturally understand the principle of the non-duality of form and emptiness, extinguish their attachment to the physical body, and break free from ego.
However, many more people don't persevere to the end and give up halfway.
Among them, witnessing the horrific decay of the flesh deepened their fear of death itself, leading to constant anxiety and ultimately, a considerable number of them descended into madness.
This shows that the process of corpse decomposition must be horrific.
Pipa didn't know that Yu Qingzhou's body would go through several steps of decomposition.
But he can't just let go and abandon the other party because of such a possibility.
Pipa then realized that, given the current situation, even if they let go, they would probably fall together at the same speed.
So ultimately, whether you let go or not isn't that important.
And to be optimistic, perhaps before Yu Qingzhou, who is already dead, has even had a chance to decompose, I, a living person, might die first due to lack of food and water.
In that way, the two corpses would keep each other company in this bottomless pit.
It's still uncertain who will turn into bones first...
Pipa, trying to find humor in her own thoughts, was amused by her own idea and chuckled out loud.
It was only when I came to my senses that I might not even live to see the day I become a corpse; I might go insane.
Thinking this to himself, Pipa couldn't help but hug Yu Qingzhou tighter, perhaps because it was the only thing he could hold onto right now...
None of the anticipated possibilities occurred.
Because they actually reached the bottom.
The moment her legs touched the ground, Pipa thought she was hallucinating, until a sudden pain shot through her waist.
Pipa was startled awake from her daze.
He sat up and carefully lifted Yu Qingzhou's body and placed it aside.
—Just before touching the ground, Pipa subconsciously shifted its body, using itself as a cushion to cushion Yu Qingzhou's body.
Firstly, Yu Qingzhou's body might not be able to withstand a heavy fall.
Secondly, the loquat had already crushed the other person once when it fell into the coffin.
This transfer is fair.
Pipa briefly examined Yu Qingzhou's body and was slightly relieved to find that he hadn't lost any arms or legs as in her dream.
Instead, they began to observe their own surroundings.
It appears to be an underground cave.
Looking up at the spot where I fell, the faint light was almost negligible.
Now, there's no way I can go back on my own.
Not to mention, there was also a completely immobile corpse.
Pipa remembered what Lan had said before: there would always be someone waiting for him to return outside the wall.
I forgot to ask one more question: if I don't go back, will the people waiting outside come looking for me?
Pipa sighed inwardly.
Thinking about all that nonsense right now is pointless. It's better to think about what to do next.
Should they wait for rescue on the spot, or look around for other possible exit routes?
As for why they didn't just obediently wait to die...
Although he had considered ending it all, he didn't want to die in such an unclear and ambiguous way.
Pipa got up from the ground, rubbing his sore lower back, and looked at the spot where he had landed. The light wasn't very good, so he could only vaguely make out a blurry outline, like a protruding strip.
I touched the loquat again; its slightly rough skin and root-like branches felt strangely familiar…
Something suddenly popped into my mind.
Like tree roots—
That's right, and it must be a very large tree to have such a thick and massive root system.
Where there are tree roots, there will naturally be a tree. A place where such a large tree can grow... might have a water source, or even a direct outlet to the outside world.
After exploring for a while, Pipa determined the direction from which the tree roots were extending and decided to go and take a look for himself.
Before setting off, Pipa hesitated again, wondering whether she should bring Yu Qingzhou along.
As a corpse that had been dead for a long time, Yu Qingzhou was no longer as heavy as other corpses, but he was still quite heavy.
You could tell from the pressure you felt when you landed that even if it wasn't the weight of a standard adult male, it was definitely about the same as yours when you landed.
If you were to carry them on your back, it certainly wouldn't be easy.
But if we just leave the other person there...
Pipa looked around at the pitch blackness; apart from a sliver of light overhead, everything was hidden in the unfathomable darkness…
Perhaps it was psychological, but he always felt that the darkness was not pure, as if something unspeakable was hidden in the shadows.
It just so happened that at this moment, I don't know if it was the loquat's imagination or what.
He distinctly heard a soft rustling sound coming suddenly from behind him. The sound... how to describe it? It was like something with a hard outer shell crawling along the ground.
Upon hearing the sound, Pipa felt a chill run down her spine.
He was now completely worried about leaving Yu Qingzhou here alone.
What if, by some carelessness, Yu Qingzhou's painstakingly preserved body were devoured by some unknown snake, insect, or rodent...? Then again, who knows what those things taste like? What if they prefer live prey?
With that in mind, Pipa stopped dawdling.
He bent down and carefully but decisively hoisted the person onto his back, then began to grope his way towards the other side of the darkness.
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