Chen Ge had steeled himself mentally—no matter what happened, he would not open his eyes.
His body was swallowed by darkness. The clamor in his ears gradually faded, as though he were wandering alone in the depths of the ocean.
The loneliness of being severed from the world, the fear of the unknown, the confusion surrounding the destination.
All manner of emotions surged through him, like the tentacles of some sea monster slowly tightening around his body.
"I've experienced this kind of loneliness many times. And so that it won't happen in reality in the future, I have to push forward this time."
Chen Ge murmured to himself—he wasn't sure if he was saying it aloud for someone else's benefit or simply encouraging himself.
After walking a dozen meters, his palm found empty air. On his third attempt, the fork in the tunnel finally appeared again.
Without hesitation, he entered the side passage.
The temperature plummeted. Chen Ge had no way of knowing whether his choice was correct. He had never been a particularly clever person. The fact that he'd made it this far was thanks to his sharp instincts, his decisive temperament, and the nerve he'd honed ever since childhood.
Feeling the damp, slippery wall under his fingertips, Chen Ge emptied his mind and thought of nothing.
The only sound in his ears was his own footsteps. But gradually, those footsteps—once set to a steady rhythm—became muddled. Something was following behind him.
"Don't look. Don't think."
If you can't see it, it doesn't exist. If you can't conceive of it, it isn't real.
Chen Ge comforted himself. He wasn't going to be rattled.
More and more footsteps began to appear in the silent tunnel—it seemed he wasn't the only one here.
At first, those footsteps sounded only behind him. But slowly, they spread to every direction except the wall side, until footsteps surrounded him on all sides.
Chen Ge's curiosity was gnawing at him like a cat scratching at his insides, but he still didn't remove his makeshift "blindfold."
Having been through as much as he had, Chen Ge possessed a strong ability to adapt. He quickly reined himself in and grew accustomed to the sound of those footsteps.
He kept telling himself that whatever was making those footsteps had no intention of harming him. At least judging by the current situation, they seemed to be simply heading the same way he was.
"Could I already be on a path that only ghosts can find?" After only a few seconds, Chen Ge noticed another problem.
Aside from the footsteps, a new sound had appeared in the tunnel—the sound of wheels rolling over obstacles.
"A vehicle just passed me?" At this moment, there was only one vehicle in the tunnel—the taxi the driver had brought in. "Who started the car? The driver didn't disappear?"
The driver who'd brought Chen Ge to the Eastern Suburbs was just a random person he'd flagged down on the street. To suggest any connection between him and the Eastern Suburbs tunnel would be far-fetched. The probability was negligible.
"It shouldn't be the driver. Is something else driving?" Chen Ge was about to follow this line of thought further when something even more inconceivable happened.
He clearly heard the roar of an engine—more than one vehicle drove past him.
"What on earth is going on?"
With his eyes covered, Chen Ge had no idea what was happening around him. He could only rely on his hearing.
The footsteps around him gradually quickened. Those things seemed to be running toward some particular direction.
"Is something even more terrifying chasing them? Or has whatever was drawing them forward finally appeared?" Chen Ge didn't know whether he should run along with them. Blinded as he was, his mobility was severely limited.
After a moment of hesitation, he maintained his pace, kept his nerves on high alert, and used every remaining sense at his disposal to take in this "world."
"The damp, slippery feeling on the wall is gone. All that's left is a cold chill, and the surface feels much smoother—as though someone has trimmed it." Chen Ge desperately wanted to remove his blindfold to look. He'd noticed that ever since entering the fork, something had changed about the world.
The tunnel on this side of the fork and the tunnel on the other side led to two entirely different worlds.
As he continued forward, the tunnel grew more lively. He could faintly hear voices speaking. The further he walked, the louder they became.
What struck Chen Ge as strange was that although those voices were loud and grating, he still couldn't make out a single word of what they were saying. All he could perceive were the emotions contained within them—anxiety, fury, laced with a thread of panic.
"What's happening outside?"
Chen Ge didn't stop walking. Though he was still inside the tunnel, the situation outside had completely changed.
Footsteps, screams, car horns, the sounds of tires and engines—this tunnel seemed still very much in use.
"If the tunnel hadn't been sealed off, it would probably be just as lively, wouldn't it?"
Chen Ge didn't know where he was right now, but one thing he was certain of: everything he was experiencing had to be connected to the true owner of the Bailong Cave Tunnel. There was a very high probability that whoever it was had deliberately led him here.
The noise around him grew louder and louder. All manner of sounds flooded into Chen Ge's mind, making it impossible for him to figure out what exactly was going on.
All he knew was that every one of those footsteps belonged to someone moving in the same direction, and every vehicle was heading the same way.
"Why are they moving forward?" Questions piled up one after another. While Chen Ge was mulling them over, a different sound entered his left ear.
The surroundings were too noisy. He couldn't hear it clearly—only that it was a child's voice, clear but broken, as though the child were hurt.
Chen Ge followed the "crowd" a few more steps forward, and the child's voice came again.
"That's not right..."
This time Chen Ge stopped in his tracks. He'd noticed something very strange—that child's voice was coming from behind and to the left.
While every "person" and vehicle was rushing forward, the source of that voice had stayed put, not moving at all.
Someone else might not have caught this at all, but Chen Ge was different. To break free of this situation, he'd been keeping his nerves stretched taut, constantly watching his surroundings.
He didn't dare speak, for fear of revealing how different he was from the "people" around him.
"Help me, please help my mother..."
After an interval of a few seconds, the voice appeared again—still from the same spot.
"That's odd. I can hear so many sounds, but this faint voice is the one I can hear most clearly." He could feel the desperation in those words—a sensation hard to describe, deeply unsettling. Just hearing it made his heart ache.
Turning around, Chen Ge had no idea what dangers might be approaching from behind in the tunnel. Instinct drew him closer to that voice.
Shuffling his feet bit by bit, he groped his way forward like a blind man.
He was getting closer to the child's voice, but just then, someone bumped against his shoulder. A person shouted at him frantically.
The voice was loud, telling him to get away immediately—as though staying here would cost him his life.
"These might be the spirits who entered the tunnel with me earlier. They're fleeing in a panic right now, which means what's chasing them is very likely the tunnel's owner!" Chen Ge's way of thinking was completely different from the "people" in the tunnel. He knew exactly who he was—he was bait, waiting for the tunnel's owner to reveal itself.
It was an extremely risky move, but it was the simplest way Chen Ge could think of to break the deadlock. He had always been straightforward in his approach, and that was simply his style.
The "people" in the tunnel clearly misunderstood his intentions. The sounds around him grew sharper and clearer—they urged him to leave, warning him that if he stayed any longer, he would truly die!
Despite their pleas, Chen Ge didn't budge. Before long, his ears caught yet another new sound—something like liquid leaking, dripping drip-drip-drip, very close to him.
Seeing that Chen Ge refused to leave, those who had been urging him abandoned him and departed on their own. The tunnel fell silent once more.
The chaotic footsteps vanished. The sound of tires crushing debris disappeared. The car horns faded into the distance. It was as though the tunnel had been completely abandoned by the "people."
"Help me, please help my mother..."
From a spot near the wall, the child's voice came again. Chen Ge groped his way over and slowly crouched down.
His eyes were covered and he couldn't see. He didn't dare speak either, afraid of inviting some unknown consequence.
After pausing for a few seconds, Chen Ge extended his unprotected hand toward the source of the sound.
His fingertips touched something cold and liquid. Chen Ge was all too familiar with that sensation.
"It seems to be blood."
He pressed gently, and his five fingers closed around a slender arm.
"I'm stuck in the car window. Go save my mother first—she's in the driver's seat!"