When the oxygen was about to run out, we quietly emerged from the water. Yingying's lips were purple, she was trembling slightly against me, her hair stuck to her cheeks, and she opened her mouth to sneeze, so I quickly gave it to her.
Covering her mouth, tears overflowed from her eyes because she had suppressed the sneeze.
The underground river is still underground, and we are still underground, but the river turns to the left, and the underground channel becomes higher from here. There is more than three feet of space above the water surface, and the river surface has doubled in width.
On the curved rock wall on the right side of the river, there are two roughly carved stone steps. Upward is a square cave entrance. Once you enter the cave entrance, you turn a corner and you can't see what's going on inside.
However, there was a man sitting on the steps inside the cave entrance. He had his legs crossed and was humming. His upper body could not be seen, and a smell of tobacco wafted over.
I signaled Yingying not to move, I had to get rid of this person, but he was clearly humming a tune that I could understand. I hesitated for a moment, but still approached him. Without knowing whether we were the enemy or not, what was wrong and what was wrong.
Each has a half chance of being right. If I don't take action and the other party happens to be an enemy, then the danger to Yingying and I is 100%.
If he screams and we have nowhere to hide or run, they only need three or five people to stand at the entrance of the cave and shoot us with arrows, and we have no chance of getting out alive.
I slowly stood up from the water. If I came out of the water quickly, the water droplets drained from my body would make a sound and alert the other party. Yingying pressed against the rock wall, covering her mouth tightly with one hand, watching me with wide eyes.
One foot had already stepped onto the first stone step, and the water on my leg soaked the surface silently. The man didn't notice that the song in his mouth was humming to an emotional point, so I slowly lifted my other foot out of the water.
Slowly pull it out and the water drips into the water, ringing like a bell!
The man smoked his pipe beside him, stood up slowly, swayed, stepped down, and we were face to face! Suddenly there was a dripping man standing in front of him. He was shocked and opened his mouth, "Ah... uh oh
..." Before he could cry out, I pointed my two fingers on his choked voice. He rolled his eyes, softened, and fell down from the two stone steps.
I pushed his fallen body with my shoulder and dragged him into the water until he was in front of Yingying. He was just knocked unconscious by me. All this happened in the blink of an eye. Yingying had not recovered from her shock.
Come
"Do you know him? Hmm? Do you know him?" I freed up a wet hand and patted her face gently, "Do you know him or not?"
Only then did she regain her composure, take a closer look, shake her head and I asked again, "Can you recognize all of your people?" She pondered my words again and nodded.
I didn't say anything anymore. I grabbed the fainted man's hair and pushed it into the water. He didn't struggle.
When the bubbling stopped, I grabbed her and quietly climbed up the stone steps.
Here is a person we have already dealt with. The terrain is dangerous, which is advantageous. It is easy to defend and difficult to attack. However, it is also very easy to become lazy and lose vigilance due to the dangerous terrain. The person just suffered such a disadvantage.
After going up two or three steps, the passage at the back seems to have been deliberately repaired. It is straight and more than ten steps long. If a person appears on the opposite side of the passage at this time, we will have nowhere to hide.
So she walked very fast, and Yingying was a little out of breath. At the end of the passage, there was a wooden cart leaning against the stone wall. There was nothing in it. There were messy footprints on the ground. There was no one. There was an oil lamp installed on the wall of the cave entrance, making no sound.
The ground is burning
Walking over, a ten-foot-wide pool appeared at our feet. Countless crocodiles were floating silently in the pool. The bumpy crocodile backs made people's scalp numb. Several crocodiles' yellow eyes turned on the water.
A few times, with a nonchalant look, I thought about what would happen if we fell into the water. Cui Yingying also leaned on me and shivered.
A wooden bridge is suspended across the opposite side. Behind the bridge is another gate. If we want to get through, we have to lower the suspension bridge.
"Who! Tell me, who are you?" A voice suddenly sounded from the other side. I quickly pulled her and stood close to the hole. There was no one on the other side, but the question came again:
"Who? Come on, tell me, who are you? I told you to cross the bridge" but no one showed up.
One foot wide, I can jump across by myself, but I can't do it with Yingying. The third question from the opposite side was sounded again without emotion, but the tone gradually became higher, and it seemed that he would not reply again.
, about to scream
Still didn't see anyone, but I couldn't let him scream anymore. What should I do if he attracts people? I put Yingying down here, jumped over the suspended wooden bridge, and landed on the opposite side.
Behind the bridge is a sturdy wooden frame with a wooden wheel on top, and the bridge cables are coiled. A clever lever device is connected to the wooden wheel, leading to a suspended copper pole, on which stands a half-man-high
parrot!
The words just now came from it. It seems that this beast is much more conscientious than the man just now. It hides behind the bridge without being discovered, and asks you questions like that. The timid ones will be scared.
When it saw someone flying down in front of it, it had never encountered such a situation before. Its wings fluttered wildly, and it couldn't form a complete sentence, "Ah... you are..."
A thin copper chain was tied to its feet and connected to the wooden frame. In fear, it could only keep jumping up and down on the copper pole, dodging left and right.
I saw the copper pole being stepped on by it, and it drove the wooden wheel to rotate back and forth randomly, holding the rope and pulling the suspension bridge, and the bridge deck moved up and down.
I grabbed its neck to prevent it from making a sound. The parrot kept struggling in my hands, its two sharp claws scratching in front of me, and it stopped moving after a while.
I pressed my hand on the copper pole again and again. It turned out that if I pressed this end, the suspension bridge would be lowered, and if I pressed that end, the bridge would be raised.
I put the bridge down and waited for Yingying to walk over the bridge by herself, then I lifted the bridge up. But the parrot couldn't stand on the copper pole anyway.
I tried twice, but its head was drooping. I took off the copper chain from its feet and tied it to the parrot's neck. The other end was hung on the wooden shelf. In the darkness, from a distance, it seemed to still be standing there.
, but never speak again
After such a hard time, no one came. Thinking carefully about the journey that Yingying and I just walked, it is indeed shocking. Although it is not long, it is indeed not easy to pass casually.
As we went lower and lower, the road surface became damp, and water bubbled up when we stepped on it. There were two lines of ruts on the wet ground, and there were countless footprints. Finally, two decent doors appeared in front of us.
Because there are doors above, they are all closed, one is wide and the other is narrow. There are heavy footsteps behind the wide door, but there is no movement inside the narrow door.