Chapter 104
Chapter 104
With the decision made, there was no more hesitation.
After a brief twenty-minute rest, the group silently and swiftly set out.
The sky remained a dull gray, without the slightest glimmer of light. There was no rain, only an endless, oppressive gloom.
It was impossible to tell whether day or night would come next.
From then on, Wen Lianfeng did not stop to rest again, and no one else raised any objections.
Instead of continuing along the main expressway, they carefully descended through a gap in the guardrail.
The slope was steep and slippery, with loose stones and dead branches constantly catching at their feet. Wu Wujie led the way, using his pointed shovel to clear a path for those behind him by prying aside broken branches and loose rocks.
At the bottom of the slope lay an even broader old highway.
The pavement was cracked, stubborn weeds pushing up through the fissures. There were more abandoned vehicle wrecks here than on the expressway, many of them overturned along the roadside.
Every so often, they passed a deserted farmhouse.
The group quickened their pace along the highway. Wen Lianfeng had a clear objective: get away from the open terrain as quickly as possible.
The journey was unnaturally quiet. Apart from the wind, their footsteps, and their labored breathing, even birdsong was pitifully scarce.
As they continued onward, the terrain gradually leveled out, giving way to vast stretches of abandoned farmland and dried-up irrigation ditches.
They had reached the outskirts of the suburbs.
After walking for who knew how long, they faintly heard the sound of water ahead.
It was not the gentle burble of a mountain stream, but a deeper, muffled rumble. The air also began to grow damp.
“We’re here,” Chu Jingchu said from the front, a trace of relief in her voice.
The group crossed one final stretch of low ground, and the view suddenly opened before them.
A broad river stretched across their path. Its yellowish-brown water churned with foam and debris, while a denser forest covered the opposite bank.
And there, across the river, was their destination: a massive, pitch-black rectangular opening.
It was the entrance to the flood-control culvert.
The sight was even more intimidating than they had imagined. The interior was completely dark, swallowing every trace of light. A cold, damp wind poured endlessly from the opening, biting into their faces.
This was the entrance to the city’s underground pipe network.
Wen Lianfeng stopped about twenty meters from the entrance and motioned for the group to take cover behind several enormous chunks of concrete.
She raised her binoculars and slowly, carefully surveyed the ground around the entrance, the wall above it, and both the upstream and downstream stretches of the river.
Only after observing the area for a full five minutes did she lower the binoculars and say quietly, “There are no signs that anyone has passed through the entrance recently. Get ready to go in. Stay alert.”
She turned to Guan Yuzhen. “Sister Guan, you know the pipe layout. Stay close and guide us.”
Guan Yuzhen nodded silently, took a small flashlight from her backpack, and checked it.
Then she tightened the straps of the two bags she was carrying, took a deep breath, and followed Wen Lianfeng and Chu Jingchu toward the pitch-black entrance.
Qingshui and Song Yunqing followed close behind, while Wu Wujie and Quan Lin brought up the rear.
The closer they came to the entrance, the stronger the cold, damp airflow became.
At last, they stepped inside.
The light vanished in an instant, as though they had crossed into another world. Beams from their flashlights cut through the darkness, but they seemed pitifully weak, illuminating only a small patch ahead and the shallow water flowing around their feet.
The cold enveloped them immediately. It was several degrees colder than the already chilly air outside, and it seeped straight into their bones.
In the enclosed space, the sound of water was amplified beyond measure, becoming an all-encompassing roar. The noise completely overwhelmed Qingshui’s already disordered mind.
The entrance had been only the tip of the iceberg. It was not until they were truly inside that everyone realized just how astonishingly vast the structure was.
“This place… is enormous,” Chu Jingchu couldn’t help murmuring under her breath.
It truly was. Unlike the surface, where danger lurked everywhere but the view was relatively open, this was an entirely new space filled with a crushing sense of oppression.
The darkness robbed them of most visual information. Thunderous echoes interfered with their hearing, while icy standing water and slick ground threatened their balance. And in the boundless darkness ahead, there was no telling what might be hiding.
Guan Yuzhen raised her flashlight and carefully examined the faint numbers on the tunnel wall. After studying them for a while, she pointed in one direction.
“This way.”
She wasn’t speaking loudly, but amid the constant roar, she had to raise her voice slightly so the people behind her could hear. “We’re looking for a branch entrance leading into the city’s underground pipe network. It should be about a kilometer ahead. Watch your step. It’s slippery. Stay near the middle of the walkway and keep away from the edge of the drainage channel. Some sections might be unstable.”
With her leading the way, the group began making their way cautiously through the enormous underground conduit.
Qingshui waded through the bone-chilling water. As soon as they entered this unfamiliar area, the whispers in her mind abruptly vanished, replaced by a buzzing that seemed to come from every direction.
Her mind settled, but her nerves stretched taut.
Song Yunqing walked beside her, her body seemingly even tenser than it had been on the surface. Every so often, she would suddenly whip her head toward some dark corner, as though she had heard something no one else could. Even her breathing had grown rapid.
Her already fragile mental state seemed to be deteriorating further.
After walking on and taking turn after turn, everyone had long since lost all sense of direction. Only Guan Yuzhen’s navigation kept the group from becoming completely lost.
After an unknown amount of time, Guan Yuzhen stopped again. This time, there seemed to be a trace of delight in her voice.
“We… should be inside part of the city’s underground pipe network now.”
She shone her flashlight toward the entrance of a side passage ahead, where several pipes embedded in the wall could just barely be seen. “This connects to the Old District’s drainage system. It’s complicated, but that also means we’re closer to our target area.”
Qingshui felt no joy. Song Yunqing’s condition was getting worse by the second.
Her body was trembling uncontrollably. Qingshui could see her eyes stretched impossibly wide, as though their sockets were about to split.
She looked like an animal trapped inside a transparent box, able to see danger closing in but unable to escape.
Qingshui’s heart sank at the sight. She reached out and took one of Song Yunqing’s icy, trembling hands.
Song Yunqing jolted violently, as though startled by the contact, yet at the same time, she clung to Qingshui like a drowning person grasping their only piece of driftwood.
She turned toward Qingshui like a rusted machine. In the darkness, her eyes glistened with moisture, filled with nothing but abject terror.
Then she said, “I’m… scared.”
At that instant, something like an icy current passed through their clasped hands, and Qingshui suddenly understood exactly what she meant.
She wasn’t afraid of the endless darkness.
She was afraid of Madmen.
There were… Madmen here.
Qingshui slowly turned her head and looked behind them, but there was only darkness.
She couldn’t see a thing.
She looked at Song Yunqing again, then closed her eyes and forced herself to shut out the roar of rushing water, focusing every ounce of her concentration on her senses.
Cold, damp air flooded her nostrils, carrying the stench of rust, sludge, and stagnant water.
And yet…
For the briefest instant, an exceedingly faint, cloying sweetness brushed the edge of her senses like a strand of spider silk.
Were there really… Madmen here?