Chapter 270
Chapter 270
My eyes flew open to complete darkness.
Panic made me stretch out both hands and feel my surroundings.
My fingers soon touched hard stone. The space was cramped and narrow, too small for me to lie down fully.
Delight surged through me. This was the pit Seventh Master and I had fallen into. I had escaped the Ghost Wall.
“Cough, cough.”
Seventh Master’s weak coughing came from beside me.
He was right there.
“Seventh Master, are you all right?”
“No.”
His voice was extremely faint. “Take me to a hospital. I need… emergency treatment.”
I looked up to judge the height of the pit. It was more than two meters deep, impossible to climb with my hands alone. Then I checked its width.
Fortunately, it was narrow enough for me to brace my legs against both sides and work my way out.
I hurriedly lifted Seventh Master onto my back again, planted my hands and feet against the walls, and slowly inched upward.
If I had been alone, the climb would have been easy. But Seventh Master was a large man and far too heavy. As I wriggled upward, my arms and legs began trembling.
His injuries were severe, and he had to reach a hospital as quickly as possible. I forced myself all the way to the top. When I raised my head, daylight had already arrived, with the blazing sun directly overhead.
I rested for one minute and did not dare wait any longer. With Seventh Master on my back, I ran out of the unfinished hotel.
Under the broad daylight, much of the construction site’s yin energy had dissipated. Bathed in sunlight, I did not even feel the heat. It was as though I had returned from another lifetime.
Too dangerous.
That trip had been fucking terrifying!
I carried Seventh Master out of the construction site. Beyond the gate, Assistant He and several Bodyguards paced back and forth beneath parasols, clearly frantic.
When they saw me emerge with Seventh Master on my back, the group nearly jumped into the air.
“They’re out! They’re out!”
“What happened? What’s wrong with the master? Is he all right?”
Assistant He went pale when he saw Seventh Master hanging limply over my back, completely unconscious.
“Assistant He, hurry! We need to get him to a hospital!”
Seventh Master had fallen silent, and fear began to grip me too.
Before coming here, Seventh Master and I had both calculated danger and cast an inauspicious hexagram. I was terrified that the hexagram had foretold certain death.
The group frantically lifted Seventh Master into Assistant He’s car. I climbed into the front passenger seat.
The car sped toward the nearest hospital.
On the way, Assistant He’s voice trembled. “Mr. Chen, we thought something had happened to both of you. But we’re ordinary people. No one dared go inside. When you didn’t come out on time the night before last, I called Boss Lin. He waited outside the construction site all night.”
“He came again yesterday during the day, then waited another full night. He said I had to call him the instant you came out. Once we get the master to the hospital, I’ll call him.”
I had been physically and mentally exhausted, but his words jolted me upright in my seat.
“What do you mean, the night before last?”
“Didn’t we only go inside last night? Isn’t this the next day?”
My voice rose as I questioned him.
Assistant He glanced back at me, his face full of surprise. “Mr. Chen, you went in the night before last. Don’t you know how long you were inside? Check the time. You entered on the first, and today is noon on the third.”
I hurriedly took out my phone. It really was the third!
Seventh Master and I had been inside that long?
No, that was not right. We had lost all sense of time inside the Ghost Wall, but we still could not have been there for so long. At most, ten or twelve hours had passed. It should only have been noon the next day.
How had it become noon on the third day?
Fear rose inside me again. I could not shake the feeling that something was wrong.
“Mr. Chen, did you lose consciousness while you were inside?” Assistant He asked.
I froze, then nodded.
“That explains it. People don’t know how long they’re unconscious. You may have been out for a long time and simply lost all memory of the interval,” Assistant He reminded me.
That was certainly possible, but the body did not lie.
If I had been unconscious that long, my mouth would have been parched, and hunger would have left me too weak to move. How could I have carried Seventh Master and climbed out of that pit?
In fact, I was only somewhat tired.
Before I could solve the puzzle, the car reached the hospital.
Several Bodyguards hurriedly carried Seventh Master out and rushed him to the emergency room. I followed while Assistant He called Boss Lin after getting out of the car.
Only after Seventh Master entered the emergency room did I relax slightly, though I remained deeply worried.
But once he was inside the hospital, his life was in the doctors’ hands.
I sat in the corridor, took out my phone, and checked the time again.
It really was the third, one in the afternoon.
Only then did I notice my missed calls. There were more than thirty, all from Song Xiaotian and Meng Yifan.
I immediately called Song Xiaotian back.
He answered at once. I heard his voice almost immediately. “It’s Chen Mo’s number. He’s calling. Hello, is this Chen Mo?”
“Brother Tian, it’s me.”
“Holy shit! Where the hell have you been? We called you so many times! Why didn’t you answer? What were you doing?”
Song Xiaotian sounded extremely anxious. He probably knew Seventh Master and I had come to investigate a case and called to make sure we were safe. When we failed to answer more than thirty calls, he and Meng Yifan must have gone frantic.
“Something happened to Seventh Master and me.”
I kept it brief. “This case is extremely dangerous. I’m fine and wasn’t injured, but Seventh Master is badly hurt. He’s receiving emergency treatment at a hospital right now.”
Song Xiaotian sucked in a sharp breath. After two seconds of silence, he said, “Send us your location now. We’ll be there soon.”
I asked, “Aren’t you in Qiongzhou?”
Song Xiaotian said, “We left already. After you didn’t answer more than a dozen calls, we booked flights to Lincheng. We’re at a hotel here now.”
Warmth spread through my chest.
Brothers. True brothers.
When they could not reach me by phone, they flew straight here.
I gave him the hospital’s address and said we could talk after they arrived.
I also heard a woman speaking in the background. The voice sounded familiar. It was Pan Xiaorou.
Hearing her shocked me.
The inauspicious hexagram, Four Appearances of Brother Yao, had indicated two men and two women. One of those women really did represent Pan Xiaorou.
Divination truly was like a revelation from the gods.
What I wanted to know was how Pan Xiaorou had found Song Xiaotian and Meng Yifan in Qiongzhou when the two of them had left at a moment’s notice.