The well in Longtou Village is the entrance, and the well in Longwei Village is the exit. This is the rule of the Dragon-Severing Game set up by the Cao family. It must not be reversed, otherwise one will die in the well, and the descendants of the Cao family will not be spared. This is why even if outsiders guessed correctly that the Holy Well is the entrance and exit, some will mistakenly enter from Longwei Village and die before reaching Duanlong Village. If someone is lucky enough to enter from the well in Longtou Village, but returns and takes the same route, he will still die.
We followed the rope down with fear, but the depth of the well was beyond our expectation. After falling more than 30 meters, the rope stopped, as if the rope was not long enough, so another rope was connected above, and it stopped for more than ten minutes before it started to fall again. After about another 20 meters, we finally reached the bottom of the well!
There was a pool of sewage more than two feet deep below, reaching above the knees. The smell was extremely foul. Shen Bing covered her nose and complained, "It stinks, it stinks. If I had known there was stinky water below, I would not have come down."
It was smelly, but it soaked through my thermal pants, and my legs felt as cold as if I had fallen into an ice cellar. I held Shen Bing's hand tightly, and sent my energy to her, allowing her to barely resist the cold.
She shone the flashlight in a circle and found a round hole on the west side of the well wall, about 1.56 meters high. It was pitch black inside and stretched straight forward. We couldn't help but get excited. This might be the secret passage to Duanlong Village!
The terrain inside was higher than the bottom of the well outside, so there was no trace of water. We hurriedly got in, and kept reaching out to push the water down our legs, not caring about the stink. We basically wiped the water clean, but we couldn't keep our hands. It was so smelly that we both tilted our heads and didn't dare to smell it.
This tunnel is built with bluestone, with moss growing in the cracks and the surface of the stone turning green and black, which shows that it is very old. It took countless people to dig and build this tunnel. Considering the distance between Longtou and Longwei villages, the project was extremely huge. The crude tunnel leading to the foot of Longtou Village is so far away from it that it cannot be compared with it.
Since the cave ceiling was only about 1.56 meters high, we both had to bend over to move forward. The stench on our bodies almost suffocated us. Shen Bing even covered her nose with her hands, and then she screamed. I thought I saw a ghost. It turned out that her hands were so smelly that I was almost scared to death.
After walking a dozen meters, we saw a pile of bones that looked very strange. The bones were broken up and piled up like a bonfire, with more than ten skulls piled up on top, forming a pyramid shape. When we counted, there were exactly twelve skulls, so it goes without saying that there were twelve bones underneath.
This was probably someone the evil spirit had lured down here, and after killing them, they piled up their heads into a mountain, as if to show off their achievements. Damn him, this bastard, made both of us very angry.
We squeezed past the pile of bones, not daring to touch them. It would be a sin to disturb the dead. We turned around and bowed our heads to pray, wishing their souls to rest in peace and to be reincarnated soon. Then we turned around and continued to walk forward. After a dozen meters, there was another pile of bones, and in front of the bones there were three black shadows lying on the ground, as if these three bodies had not decayed and were new.
I was a little puzzled, why there were only three, the number was not enough. Later I walked up to take a closer look, it was Brother Niu and the other three beasts!
Niu Ge was pressed down, with Xiao He Zi and Xiao Liu Lang on top. We squeezed through the pile of corpses and kicked the two bastards on the top. We were sure they were dead. Because the bodies were stiff, you couldn't fake it. But when we were about to step over them, Niu Ge at the bottom suddenly moved and groaned.
Shen Bing screamed, hid behind me in fear, and said in a trembling voice: "Gege... is he dead... or alive?"
I shook my head, I don't know. I kicked the bodies of Xiao Hezi and Xiao Liulang apart, and Niu Ge slowly turned over and exhaled a breath of foul air, looking like he was still alive. I snorted coldly, stretched out my foot and rubbed his stomach hard, making the boy groan "uh" and suddenly opened his eyes.
Shit, it was like a corpse suddenly opening its eyes, it gave me a cold sweat.
"Why are you... Gege... pretending to be dead here?" Shen Bing bravely asked behind me.
When Brother Niu saw the two of us, he was so scared that his purple and blue face turned black. He tried to get up, but he couldn't move after a few squirming. I guess his body was frozen and his blood circulation was blocked, so he couldn't move. This kid has thick skin and flesh, and he was covered by Xiao Liulang and Xiao Hezi as a blanket, so he was able to save his life, but now he is not far from death.
"Please, please, please don't... don't kill me..." Brother Niu said with fear on his face.
I sneered, "Do we need to fight you in your current state? Just let it die here." Shen Bing and I shook our heads, stepped over him, and continued to move forward.
"Save me... I... I'll tell you a secret..." Brother Niu shouted from behind.
I thought to myself, what secrets can you have? It's nothing more than murder and robbery, so I walked away without paying any attention. But women are very curious, Shen Bing pulled me back and said, "Listen to what secrets he has to tell."
If she goes back, I have to go back with her. When I got to her, Shen Bing squatted down and said, "Tell me the secret first, and we'll see if it's worth saving you."
Brother Niu nodded hurriedly, but his head only moved slightly twice. He stammered, "Actually... I know a man named Cao in Duanlong Village... I've also been to Duanlong Village once..."
Hearing this, we both became very interested. We knew nothing about Duanlong Village, so it was a good opportunity for him to tell us about the situation in the village, rather than just barging in blindly. So I squatted down and rubbed a few of his meridian points with my hands, which made his body warm and he could speak without as much effort as at first.
He continued to tell us that the man surnamed Cao was a dark and thin man, who looked like an African. They had encountered him in the case of murder and robbery. But this man was relatively easy to beg, and they paid 20,000 yuan to get the job done. From then on, the place where they killed people and buried them had to be designated by this man. The man surnamed Cao had once said that they would not be allowed to enter the Tieyaziling wooden house without permission, but this time he was drunk and scared by the pointy-headed ghost, so he didn't remember this. When they went in and saw that it was the ghost they had killed before, they immediately fainted.
This man with the surname Cao is called Cao San, and the villagers call him San Ye. Once, he asked the three of them to buy a lot of daily necessities from outside the mountain, follow him in through the tunnel outside the Longtou Village, quietly go down the well in the middle of the night, and go to Duanlong Village along this tunnel. Brother Niu recalled that this village was as beautiful as a paradise. It was freezing cold outside, but it was spring all year round inside, and flowers were blooming everywhere. It was just surrounded by mountains, and the villagers were strictly prohibited from entering and leaving the village, so they lived in poverty. Cao San did not kill the three of them because he had other intentions, which was to make them obedient and continuously provide some daily necessities to the village.
It was also because of their acquaintance with Cao San that the real reason for not killing Su Meihe was for Cao San, not for the bank card with 100,000 yuan in it. However, the money they got was all taken away by Cao San, and turned into daily necessities and transported to Duanlong Village.