Ghost Blowing Lantern II

I saw that although Ding Sitian had inhaled only a limited amount of the locust poison, her current condition is relatively stable, she can walk and move, and she is still conscious, but the early symptoms of the poisoning have appeared after all. If you go out from the mountain pass on the north side of Baiyan Cave, you will be there. The uninhabited desert edge is further away from the pastoral area. Even if there is no such detour, without horses, there will be no time to send her to the hospital. Moreover, if the poison she is poisoned takes effect in a shorter period of time, it will not be possible. What to do? Furthermore, who can guarantee that this journey will be safe and without any glitches?

I frowned, looked at the map, and immediately made up my mind: "The Jin-scaled Cockroach was specially raised by the Japs Research Institute. They were conducting research to treat soldiers injured by Cockroach poison on the Pacific battlefield. There may be an antidote serum in this research institute. This possibility is very high. It is difficult to find relief without taking three risks. I think the only way to save my life is to take this gamble and go to the main research institute. Lou to find the antidote.”

In the end, both Fatty and Lao Yangpi agreed to the plan. It was simply unrealistic to hope that she would be sent to the hospital for treatment. Ding Sitian was completely relieved to entrust her life to us. This seemed risky, but there was really no change. There are so many choices, and the best choice is often the one made when there is no choice.

In order not to put too much psychological pressure on Ding Sitian, I didn't act too hasty. After confirming the route, I continued to move forward at the normal speed. Anyway, I saw from the map that the distance to the main research building was not that far, so the speed No matter how slow it is, there is still time. If there is no antidote such as serum in the research building, then everything will be over. I am faintly afraid in my heart, always thinking about what if there is no antidote? And who among us can recognize what the antidote looks like? In the end, I simply stopped thinking about it. Damn it, I won’t cry until I see the coffin, and I won’t give up until I reach the Yellow River.

Not long after, we entered a very open underground waterway. There were many interconnected cement pipes here. The fat man who was walking in front to clear the way suddenly stepped on something. He raised his foot in the black water with a curse, and a few pipes were exposed from the sewage. There were rotten dead bones, and a shoe was still hanging under half of the leg bone. I was about to take a closer look, but in the dark, I noticed that the cement pipe we were in suddenly started to rotate.

Judging from the map of the institute drawn by the Russians, the huge underground drainage facility is actually an artificially diverted underground river. It is precisely because a large amount of groundwater was dug out of the valley of Baiyan Grottoes that it cannot be built due to the geological environment. The water diversion canal can only be led out of the mountain using spider web-like drainage pipes. Otherwise, groundwater will flood the area above our heads, and this secret research facility will not be built at its current location.

But now the underground drainage channels are about to dry up, leaving only some sewage sludge. It seems that the water sources in the mountains have dried up long ago. The underground water channels are divided into two parts, one part is completely enclosed, and the other half is semi-enclosed. In an emergency It can be used as an evacuation route at all times. If you want to approach the main research building, the nearest route is through the semi-enclosed pipeline area. The environment here is complex and the pipeline network is intertwined like a maze. Without this map, it will be difficult to find the exit smoothly.

We held torches and walked to find a way, and arrived at an open hub area where ditches and pipes were intertwined. The walls here were pitch black, there was a lot of sewage and sludge, and all kinds of mayfly organisms were breeding in the water. It happened to be in the center of the underground waterway. , seeing that they were about to reach their destination, they found many corpses in the black water at the bottom of the pipe. Judging from the fact that those whose clothes had not rotted away, they were probably guards from the Japanese Army's secret research institute. The fat man held his nose and used his feet to poke at the bones that had been buried. When we saw the rotten bones of the dead, we couldn't help but think: "Why are there corpses of Japanese soldiers in this pipe?" When we were about to take a look, we found that the pipe we were in shook violently, and for a moment it seemed like the world was spinning.

But this was just an illusion of the eyes, and there was no feeling of shaking under our feet. We held up the torch and looked up. The four of us were shocked by the sight in front of us. The wall of the pipe one meter away in front of us was covered with black cockroaches. These cockroaches are all black and brown, with wings growing on their backs. They are astonishingly large. They are about three to four centimeters in length. They are one next to another. They are so densely packed that no one can escape. Thousands of them cover the entire wall. , these big cockroaches are probably stimulated by certain components in the sewage. Not only are they half the size of ordinary cockroaches, they can also survive by eating each other's corpses, as well as rats, woodlice and other creatures that enter this sewer. life.

These cockroaches were originally lurking and motionless, slowly biting each other. At this time, a small number of them were alerted by the firelight and footsteps. They immediately jumped up quickly, and a chain reaction occurred in an instant. The cockroaches in the entire pipeline seemed to The boiling water rushed around aimlessly, and the pipe wall turned into a flowing black tide. Many of them fell from the pipe wall, and a layer of water immediately fell on our heads and shoulders.

I wanted to call everyone to run back, but not only was there no one else to care about at this time, but no one dared to open their mouths to speak. The large and small cockroaches that were squeezed out almost crushed the torches, and they fell on people and crawled everywhere. , maybe a few of them will get into your mouth if you open your mouth, and small cockroaches will get through any cracks, and they can't stand getting into the ears and nose. It can crawl along the ears and into the human brain, so everyone has to fight hard to drop them on the head and shoulders. of cockroaches dusted off.

The cockroaches jumped so fast that we had nowhere to run, so we had to use the torches in our hands to drive them away, hoping that these cockroaches would disperse quickly. Everyone calmed down and returned from the black tide formed by the large group of cockroaches just now. After regaining consciousness, he tried his best to use all the tools that could be used, and finally used torches to disperse the tide of cockroaches from around him.

After a while, the number of cockroaches in the pipe gradually decreased. I freed my hands to remove the cockroaches from Ding Sitian and Lao Yangpi. The expressions of the four of them changed. They would rather let the evil ghost take away their souls. Not wanting to be buried alive by cockroaches and bitten to death, the fat man said to us: "Let's rush over while the cockroaches are gone..."

Before the fat man finished speaking, he heard Lao Yangpi yelling. His body suddenly sank and was dragged to the ground by something in the sewage. Ding Sitian and I realized something was wrong and reached out to pull him, but we couldn't. The strength of Lao Yangpi was so great that although I grabbed Lao Yangpi's arm, I was pulled by the huge force and staggered on my feet, almost falling into the mud.

Ding Sitian was not as lucky as me. She grabbed the lapel of Lao Sheepskin, trying to stop Lao Sheepskin from being pulled backwards, but her arm strength was limited, and her soles were slippery and she could not stand firmly, so she suddenly slipped to the ground. But she still didn't let go, and she and Lao Yangpi were dragged into the darkness of the sewer. At this time, the fat man had already taken out the Southern Type 14 pistol. I saw that it was difficult to see the target in the dark, and it was easy to accidentally shoot, and with such strength This guy couldn't be younger. He thought about the origin of these corpse bones. It was probably that some people wanted to escape from here when something happened, but when they encountered something deadly, they were all ended up in a smelly ditch. If you want to save people, He couldn't hesitate at all, otherwise he would wait to collect the bodies of those two people, so he pulled out the Kangxi sword and shouted to the fat man: "Don't shoot, throw the torch forward." After saying this, he rushed forward with a sprint.

Lao Yangpi and Ding Sitian's torches fell into the mud and went out when they fell to the ground. In order to save money and start a revolution, we didn't even bother to use the Russian engineer's lighting tube. We just used the furniture and clothes in his room to make a few more torches. It is a simple torch. This torch has advantages and disadvantages. If there are insects, scorpions, and centipedes in the tunnel, you can disperse them from a distance by lighting a torch, and you can judge whether the air quality is harmless to people. However, the disadvantage is that the lighting range is very limited. It's just a few steps in front of you, and you can't see it a little further away.

I held a knife in one hand and a torch in the other and chased after him. I had to let the fat man throw his torch forward as a short-term flare behind me. I used the torch to see the situation more than ten meters ahead before it fell to the ground and extinguished it. As soon as I started, behind me The torch flew out from his shoulders, drawing a low parabola in the dark space, and then fell into the mud in front of the pipe and went out.

But with the flash of light from the fire, I could already see a few steps in front of me. There was a large crack between pipes in the ground. It was nearly one meter in diameter. It was bottomless inside, and several thick pipes poked out from it. The black arthropod claws, covered with black bristles, were dragging Ding Sitian and Lao Yangpi into the large crack in the pipe.

Lao Yangpi lost his center of gravity and fell to the ground. He didn't know whether he was injured or not. He struggled hard to get away, but he couldn't use his strength. The hunting gun was pinned under him. He couldn't fire it even if he wanted to. Ding Sitian was lying on the ground. He grabbed Lao Yangpi's clothes on the ground, gritted his teeth and tried to drag them back, but it was to no avail, even she was quickly pulled in.

I stepped on the dead cockroaches all over the ground, which made a crunching sound as soon as I stepped on them. I rushed closer in three steps and then saw clearly that the thing holding the old sheepskin was a big money string. The money string was much wider than centipedes and centipedes, and There are fewer pairs of legs, but the claws are wider and longer. The body can grow up to two meters long. The deep and wide gap in the drainage pipe is used as a nest by the money string. Because of the fear of fire, it wants to The old sheepskin was dragged to the lower level of the drainage pipe.

I rushed over, and by the light of the fire in my hand, I discovered that the abyss-like crack was lined with human bones, and there were several frighteningly large cockroaches crawling back and forth in the depths. He was so eager to save people that he didn't bother to take a closer look. He swung his long knife and chopped it down, trying to save Lao Yangpi and Ding Sitian by swiping the big money string half-shrunk in the hole into two pieces.

Unexpectedly, the money string moved very fast. My knife was in the air, and it had already pulled the old sheepskin to the entrance of the hole. If the knife had cut hard, not only would it not be able to cut it, but it would chop the old sheepskin into pieces. I saw that something was wrong. I quickly threw the torch into the cave, but the dampness in the cave was too strong, and the torch was extinguished by the moisture in a flash. I fell to the ground in the dark, holding the old sheepskin with my arms, trying to hold the hole open. , but the crack was more than one meter wide, but I didn't expect that the money string was so strong, and the black-haired claws pulled, and half of my body and the old sheep Ding Sitian fell into the hole.

In the chaos, Ding Sitian opened the engineer lighting tube hanging on her chest. In the swaying beam of light, Lao Yangpi supported a dead skeleton with his hands. The rotten bones were stuck in the narrow crack on the side of the pipe wall. He I tried my best to hold on, which slightly slowed down the momentum of the three of us being dragged into the cave. I saw insects swarming in front of my eyes and wanted to chop them with a long knife. However, the terrain was so narrow that it was difficult to do so, so I had to go into the cave. I stretched out my knife and stabbed randomly, and every time I stabbed, a splash of yellow water came out. I was afraid that the insect liquid was poisonous, so I buried my face on the old sheepskin back, but I didn't stop at all in my hands.

Although most of the knives and stabbings hit the money string, they were not deep enough to kill. Moreover, this thing has a very strong vitality. Even if it is cut off a few pieces, it will not die for a while. Ding Sitian was dragged in Finally, he got up at this time, grabbed me and Lao Yangpi and pulled us back with all his strength. Our shoulders and arms were hooked by the insect's feet, and we were restricted in the narrow gap, and our hands and feet couldn't move. Although I was able to hold on to a stalemate without being dragged into the hole by making large movements, it was by no means a long-term solution. It was impossible to escape by myself. I suddenly felt a leg Ding Sitian hugged me and pulled her back, but she was too weak to help. I became impatient and cursed that Fatty Wang for not coming over to help.

Just when we were in a dilemma, we heard someone from behind shouting: "Don't worry, poor lower-middle peasants, I'm bringing you cocktails!" Lao Yangpi and I tried our best to hold on, while using a long knife to block the hook protruding from the hole. , when he heard the shouting from behind, he knew it was the fat man coming up, but what he shouted about to bring cocktails or something, was completely unclear, but at this critical moment, I didn't know what kind of evil moth he was going to do.

It turned out that the fat man also knew that it was difficult to kill the money string immediately with guns and knives. He turned on the engineer light tube tied to his chest, and while catching up from behind, he took the bottle of liquor that had come out of the Russian bag from his bag. He took it out, randomly stuffed a handful of pills into it, plugged the mouth of the bottle with the cotton socks that came out, lit it and handed it to Ding Sixian, then he picked up Lao Yangpi and I's belts and pulled our fronts. Half of the body was pulled out of the hole.

A piece of the money string was also taken out of the cave. When it saw the food in its mouth, it went out again. It was unwilling to give up and was about to drag it back again. At this time, the Wangba box in the fat man's hand fired twice, hitting it hard. Shrinking, Ding Sitian saw the opportunity and smashed the burning spirit into the hole. The wine the Russian drank felt like a knife in his mouth. The alcohol concentration was extremely high, and some chemicals were put in it. The pills may have also acted as a combustion accelerant. Suddenly, flames rose, and the cracks in the drainage pipes became a sea of ​​​​fire. Cockroaches, money strings and other objects were burned in a mess. I don’t know how many squirmed and died in the flames. Down.

The Molotov cocktails made by Fatty were the ones we used when the rebels fought and the Red Guards launched attacks. However, spirits were hard to find at that time. Most people used gasoline or industrial alcohol instead, and added combustion aids. The formula was also adapted to local conditions. , catch up with what to use, this kind of Molotov cocktail composed of a mixture of various burning substances was first widely used in the Soviet-Finnish War and World War II. It is called the Molotov cocktail. I looked at myself and Lao Sheepskin. There were some scratches on the skin and a few bruises on the body, but nothing serious. At this time, my mind went blank, and there was no thought of fear anymore.

I looked at the burning cave under the crack. The fire gradually dimmed, and the cockroaches that had not been burned began to crawl in and out of the crack again. It made people feel numb. No one wanted to linger any longer, so the four of them started to talk to each other. We continued to move deeper with support. This underground waterway was full of dangers. We were worried that there were other dangers in the underground waterway. There was an exit near the sign on the map that could lead to the ground. It was already very close to the research building. So I walked towards it at a faster pace. Even if I took a slightly detour, I didn't want to take a shortcut in the drainage pipe where there were more and more woodlice and cockroaches.

At the corner of the drainage pipe, there were iron ladders embedded in the cement wall. The fat man climbed up first and pushed open the cement cover. It was already dark outside, and then Ding Sitian also climbed up the iron ladder. , the old sheepskin god was preparing for the third one to go up without hesitation. I saw that his expression was sad, but it did not seem to be because he had just been frightened. He was usually taciturn and always looked like he had experienced many vicissitudes of life and was worried. When he was free, he was not He smoked a pot and sang sour songs from his hometown. After entering this hundred-eye cave, he often sighed. Sometimes he finally managed to cheer up, but soon he became depressed. I thought to myself that he might have learned about that year. The truth about what happened to his brother Yang Erdan turned out to be that he was killed by the Japanese here, and due to the constraints of superstitious thoughts, he did not dare to go out to save people, so he has never forgotten it to this day. Comparing his feelings can also understand his feelings, especially The corpse cremator may have burned the corpse of his own brother. How could it not make people worried when the scene evokes emotions?

So in order to express my sympathy, when Lao Yangpi climbed up the iron ladder, I patted Lao Yangpi on the shoulder and comforted him: "I understand your mood. I don't think too much about your brother. After all, they are all Things are in the past, people still have to be open-minded, and we have to look forward to everything."

Lao Yangpi probably saw that I was young, so he was very surprised to say such a thing. As he climbed up, he asked me: "Does your son know what I am thinking? I am the only brother. Your son has a lot of people at home." How many brothers?”

I thought to myself that I was the only child in my family. Unlike the big socialist families that were popular at the time, I had no other biological brothers and sisters. However, I couldn’t say that, so I said to Lao Yangpi: "You have to think like this, the whole world will suffer." Everyone is our class brother."

As I was talking, I climbed up the shaft. It was already getting dark outside. Both Fatty and Ding Sitian turned off the engineer lighting tubes, but they and Lao Yangpi looked around. Everyone had different expressions on their faces, and I followed suit. When they looked at it, they couldn't help but be startled. Why did this place look so familiar?

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