Chapter 136: In A Tv Drama, Someone Like You Wouldn’t Last Ten Minutes!
As they walked forward, they could already hear the gradually increasing sound of flowing water. If their guess was correct, it should be the underground river that had flooded the mine.
Lin Yan and Wu Xie hurried over and discovered that the terrain suddenly opened up, with a wide river channel appearing in front of them. The mine tunnel, which had only been wide enough for two people side by side, suddenly expanded into a large cave, and even strong airflow could be felt at the cave entrance.
They were stunned by this space as big as a basketball court. After coming back to their senses, they shone their flashlights into the depths of the dark current to look for Lao Yang’s figure.
“Lao Yang!”
The terrain here would create an echo, so they didn’t dare call out Lao Yang’s name too loudly, lest the people behind them detect the movement. After walking a few steps into the water, they spotted a figure in the underground river channel on the left, which should be Lao Yang.
“Lao Yang, why aren’t you responding?”
While softly calling out to Lao Yang, Wu Xie walked toward the left, but he did not expect a hand to pat his shoulder: “I-I’m right here. I was just looking at the path and didn’t notice you two had arrived.”
Wu Xie was startled and spun around instantly. The flashlight beam shone on Lao Yang’s face, nearly blinding his eyes: “What the hell are you doing! M-My eyes are about to go blind!”
Lao Yang jumped in anger, his voice getting louder. Lin Yan felt the situation was bad; they had only taken ten or twenty minutes to come down, and if they delayed here any longer, the people behind would probably catch up.
He quickly stepped forward: “Enough, stop wasting time. If we delay any more, the people behind will catch up! Lao Yang, didn’t you scout the path? Where is it?”
But Lao Yang’s attention was on the first half of his sentence: “People behind? We have a tail behind us—?”
Lin Yan shook his head: “Can’t really call it a tail. It seems like we were tracking them first. But now everyone has the same destination, so stop talking nonsense. If you don’t want to get shot full of holes, lead the way! They’ll probably catch up in a few minutes.”
Wu Xie also said: “Yeah, where’s the path? Also, don’t you feel the ground under your feet getting hotter? I feel like I’m standing in a hot spring.”
Wu Xie didn’t mention it before, but now they noticed. The water temperature, which had only been slightly warm, had now become like a hot spring, even gradually starting to scald. It couldn’t help but make them suspect that if they delayed any longer, it might turn into an iron pot—ah no, an underground river stewing themselves.
Lao Yang snapped back to attention and ignored the tail behind them. He hurriedly ran ahead, bent down, and groped around in the river: “There are two iron chains here. Just follow them!” The ground under their feet was getting hotter, so they didn’t dare delay any longer and hurriedly followed behind Lao Yang, feeling their way along the iron chains.
Suddenly, the little white zombie that had been in Lin Yan’s arms jumped onto his head and kept making “Ying Ying Ying” sounds toward the back. Lin Yan’s heart skipped a beat; could the people behind have already caught up?
Before he could overthink it, a massive splash erupted from the water behind him, sending him stumbling forward and nearly losing his grip on the iron chain. Wu Xie wasn’t so lucky; the water flow beside him hit the rock wall and surged back, sweeping him entirely into the water! But he also turned misfortune into fortune, thus avoiding being hit directly by the falling splash.
Lin Yan had just steadied himself when the splash from above hit him squarely. Except for his head and back, which were protected by the little white zombie and the backpack, his shoulders and the arm not in the water were scalded with a jolt: “Fuck, this can’t be lava, can it?”
After the brief scalding came extreme pain and numbness. If he couldn’t still move, he would have thought his hand was cooked!
After this wave of hot water fell, the temperature of the surrounding water flow seemed to rise as well. This time it was a proper hot spring. Seeing the situation was bad, Lao Yang lay in the water to avoid it. He climbed up now, wiped the water from his face, and shouted at him and the still-dazed Wu Xie: “W-What the hell are you still standing there for? H-Hurry and swim! This is an intermittent hot spring, the kind that can scald people to death! If you don’t want to die, h-hurry and follow!”
Without waiting for their response, he dove down with a plunge. Wu Xie and Lin Yan could only see a head floating on the water speeding ahead.
While they were dazed, a gunshot rang out from behind, and a voice said: “Don’t move! Turn around slowly. Don’t try any tricks with us, my gun here doesn’t have eyes!”
Lin Yan and Wu Xie exchanged a glance, both having the same thought in their minds: “We’re done for! The group behind has caught up!”
They turned back with ugly expressions and saw several people appearing at the cave entrance position, with the familiar “Uncle Tai” prominently among them. The one holding the gun at them was indeed a strong and burly man with a knife scar on his face, clearly a tough guy. Behind him were a young man and a somewhat portly middle-aged man, both now looking at them with cruel smiles.
Uncle Tai turned his head to ask another young man: “Master Liang, how do we proceed next?”
Wu Xie and Lin Yan had originally thought Uncle Tai, as the leader, was the central figure of this team. Hearing this, they realized that this Master Liang might not be simple. But for some reason, the other few people from when they entered the mountain were gone, leaving only these four.
That Master Liang wore glasses and looked scholarly and weak, no wonder he was called “Master.” Hearing Uncle Tai’s question, Master Liang smiled and lifted his chin toward them: “The guide is gone, but aren’t they still here? It sounds like those two have over a decade of friendship. I don’t believe that guide doesn’t care about his companion’s life!”
Hearing this, the others all laughed, while Lin Yan and Wu Xie looked grim. Damn, these people had indeed been hiding in the shadows all along; who knew how much they’d overheard!
With a gun pointed at him, Wu Xie couldn’t move easily and involuntarily glanced at Lin Yan with his eyes: What now?
Lin Yan glanced at him and subtly nodded his chin toward the spot where the water column had erupted before. It was now like a spring eye constantly bubbling water, filling the surroundings with white steam, and the scalding water temperature was spreading toward them: See this? It depends on whether this spring is powerful enough. If it erupts once more, we’ll swim toward Lao Yang’s direction! By then, they’ll be too busy with their own problems to bother with us.
Wu Xie nodded slightly and refocused his attention on the few people, though his peripheral vision kept watching that spring eye.
Seeing the two of them exchanging glances, the gunman got annoyed: “Damn it, right in front of me, what are you two signaling about? Don’t try any funny business. Get up! Put your hands where I can see them, or my gun here won’t just be for show!”
Damn, if they had a gun in hand, would they put up with this? Wu Xie gritted his teeth inwardly. Unfortunately, the gun from before was with Lao Yang, and now Lao Yang had swum off to who knows where! Lin Yan found it somewhat amusing to watch this posturing scarred man, thinking this was standard extra dialogue. In a TV drama, this guy probably wouldn’t last ten minutes!
Hearing this, Master Liang smiled faintly: “Alright, don’t be so rough with the kids. How can you scare them like that?”
Kids? Wu Xie and Lin Yan looked at Master Liang and realized that although his face was well-maintained, he actually didn’t seem that young. His real age was probably in the thirties or forties, no wonder he spoke so maturely.
Uncle Tai jerked his chin at them: “Er Mazi, invite the two kids up for a chat!”
The big guy pointing the gun at them nodded: “Got it, Uncle Tai!”
