Chapter 130: Change Course, Change Course—or Get Ready To Be Fish Food!
Long? Spines on its head? And a dorsal fin? What is that thing? Lin Yan’s eyes widened, his shallow knowledge base failing to conjure any “fish” that fit the conditions: “This thing… a brook lamprey with a dorsal fin? Did it mutate?”
Wu Xie’s hands were covered in blood and the foul-smelling stagnant water. He could only stop to bandage himself. He looked back the way they came: “Should we go up first?”
Lao Yang shone his flashlight deeper into the stone path: “Th-there are steps there, it looks like it’s possible—possible to go up!”
They had already passed the previous corner and had been dragged several meters inward by this strange fish. They could barely see two steps above the water surface in the flashlight’s beam.
Wu Xie looked ahead and found that the steps were only about ten meters away, even closer than the way out. Plus, his hand was injured and needed to be treated as soon as possible. It would be better to get to a dry place quickly, which was much better than wading through the stagnant water and climbing out of the cave.
Seeing a clean spot, Lin Yan eagerly put down the large thing in his hand and walked towards it.
So, as the few people walked over, they completely didn’t expect to forget something.
They didn’t realize that as they passed one by one over the dead fish that was gradually sinking to the bottom, ripples stirred in the water. The cloudy eyes on the huge head covered in fangs, though still vacant, were actually quietly following them, swimming towards the direction of the steps.
He hadn’t felt it when fighting the fish, but as soon as he relaxed, the stagnant water, which had been at the bottom for who knows how long, mixed with the smell of blood, made Wu Xie almost vomit.
He finally managed to reach the dry ground along the steps and, the first thing he did, used his other good hand to take off his raincoat and throw it aside, taking deep breaths of air that didn’t smell as bad: “Holy shit, this is too smelly!”
Lin Yan followed him up and also threw his clothes into a corner, finding a spot far from the water to sit down: “Indeed, what the hell was that thing, there was so much blood!”
He turned his head and saw Lao Yang walking towards them, quickly extending his hand to stop him: “Wait, don’t come over yet! Deal with your clothes first!”
Pitiful Lao Yang froze in place. He originally wanted to say that they were all used to the smell, but subconsciously smelled his own forearm, and was so stimulated that he rolled his eyes and almost dry-heaved. It really was smelly!
Wu Xie, lying there catching his breath, finally had enough strength to sit up. He rummaged through his backpack for some bandaging supplies. Seeing Lao Yang’s pitiful gaze, he felt a pang of sympathy and said righteously: “Lin Yan is right, Lao Yang, get yourself sorted out before you come over. We finally have a place that smells a little better, don’t come over and contaminate it.”
Lao Yang froze in place again, feeling wronged. His inner monologue was exploding: Aren’t you two not much better off yourselves? Is it okay to dislike me this much?
After Wu Xie carefully cleaned his wound, he and Lin Yan started a bonfire with some rotten wood from a corner—don’t dwell on why there’s rotten wood here. This mine has been dug for several dynasties, so leaving some scraps here isn’t unreasonable, is it?
Fortunately, to prevent accidents, everyone had a set of spare clothes in their backpacks. Luckily, the backpacks had good waterproofing. Only the equipment on the outside was a bit wet, but the spare clothes in the middle were still dry. After Lao Yang took off his wet clothes and changed into the dry ones, he finally got permission from the other two to sit by the bonfire.
“It’s—it’s so damn cold here!” Lao Yang sighed as he sat down, placing his backpack by the bonfire to dry. Hearing him say that, Wu Xie shivered: “Tell me about it. When we go out later, do we have to go back through here? There won’t be another big thing coming out of the water, will there?!”
As he spoke, he suddenly remembered something and looked at Lin Yan with a resentful gaze: “Lin Yan, maybe you really shouldn’t talk next time. Remember what you said earlier? Look at that thing, does it look like something we could catch and eat?”
Wu Xie pointed at the water with one finger. Lin Yan looked at the spot where the big thing had sunk and felt a little guilty. How was he supposed to know that a casual joke would actually bring out a fish? Wait, wait, was something missing? Where did Xiao Bai Jiang go?
Just as Lin Yan realized Xiao Bai Jiang was missing, the area where they had climbed up suddenly churned with water, and a ferocious fish head lunged towards them!
Lao Yang immediately grabbed his backpack, leaped over the bonfire to their side. Wu Xie also retrieved his dagger, not caring about the stabbing pain as the dagger pressed against his wound. Lin Yan also stood up immediately, adopting a defensive posture. But what they didn’t expect was that the fish only came up with its head and then stopped moving?
After being on guard for several seconds, the fish showed no more movement. Wu Xie dared to slowly lower his dagger: “Death throes?”
Lao Yang examined the ferocious but motionless fish head: “It—it looks like it?”
Lin Yan let out a long sigh, dropped his guard, and carefully observed the fish head.
Before this large fish had been hiding underwater, Wu Xie had roughly gauged its length. When he tried to look at its head, he was cut by its protruding fangs. Only then did they see that the upper third of its body, on its head, was wide open, with a mouth as large as a washbasin, full of jagged, sharp teeth. One could imagine that if bitten, there would likely be no bones left.
The strange, large fish’s forehead and half its body were covered in cuts made by Wu Xie and Lin Yan. They estimated that if it had a brain, it would have been mashed into paste by now. For it to still persist in chasing them to the shore, it was likely because it harbored immense resentment towards them. It made sense; this fish had lived here for who knows how long, and finally grew this large, only to be repeatedly stabbed to death by them today. It would be strange if it *didn’t* harbor resentment!
Lao Yang’s voice, tinged with surprise and a hint of awe, called out, “This, this couldn’t be a fish spirit, could it?”
“What fish spirit? This is a Huchen. They naturally grow this large!” Wu Xie rolled his eyes, interrupting Lao Yang’s impending superstitious ramblings. “Speaking of which, this fish being two and a half meters isn’t considered small, but aren’t these things supposed to live in freshwater? How did it end up here?”
Lin Yan, recalling Wu Xie’s “luck” in some respects, shivered involuntarily. A possibility emerged in his mind: “Wu Xie, what if someone was keeping this thing down here, and with the recent heavy rains, the water level rose, and it just swam up with the current?”
Wu Xie glanced at him, thinking this possibility wasn’t just plausible, but absolutely likely: “Then, if that’s the case… could there be more than one of these things?”
Recalling the Huchen’s typically one to two-meter length, and then looking at the mouth full of sharp teeth charging towards them, the three of them simultaneously shuddered and blurted out in unison: “Change routes, change routes! I don’t believe that—that any mine would have no other—other exits!”
“Yes, yes, change routes! Maybe the group that came down before us could find other exits!”
“Change, change, must change! If a few more of these show up, we’ll all be left here as fish food!”
Just then, the three, whose attention was no longer on the Huchen, failed to notice that the fish’s back was bulging, as if something was trying to break out!
PS: Yesterday wasn’t an intentional skip; I really couldn’t get up due to side effects. I’m better now, so here’s yesterday’s update!
