"Have you ever seen a cave like this?" asked Ye Zhenzhen.

"Well, it's on the mountain. Li Dazhu pointed to the mountain upstream of the banyan forest and said with certainty.

"You take us to find it!" Ye Zhenzhen ordered.

Li Dazhu hesitated, "You want to go to the cave?"

Thinking that Li Dazhu wanted to take the opportunity to increase the price, Ye Zhenzhen hurriedly promised, "You will be our guide and go back to give you more money." ”

Li Dazhu waved his hand, "This time it's not a matter of money, that cave is really dangerous, the last time I went was when I was sixteen years old, I walked around in it for four days before I came out, more than twenty years have passed, who knows what the situation is inside? Even if I can find it and take you in, I'm afraid that there will be no return, and no amount of money will be useless." ”

"Are you worried about danger in the cave?"

"It's like a big labyrinth inside the cave, and there must be danger. Li Dazhu still didn't want to go.

"In this way, you take us to the entrance of the cave, and you wait for us at the entrance. ”

Li Dazhu struggled in his heart, and in the end, the temptation of money prevailed and began to compromise, "Okay, I'll take you over." ”

——

As a guide, Li Dazhu took Zhen Zhen and Alex through the banyan forest in the valley to find the foot of the mountain at the end of the valley.

The mountain is steep, and the slopes are densely covered with green vegetation, tall trees, low shrubs, and vines......

Li Dazhu climbed from the valley to the foot of the mountain with his hands and feet, the sound of the rushing water getting closer and closer, stepping on the mossy rocks, and opening the branches full of pothos vines, everyone saw a small waterfall.

The water of the waterfall comes from seepage water from the mountain, and the water flow is not large, and it floats down from mid-air and emits bursts of mist.

Behind the waterfall you can vaguely see a cave, the entrance of the cave is three or four meters high, five or six meters wide, there is a large stream of water on one side of the hole, and the water from the waterfall on the mountain converges in the pool outside the cave entrance, and finally flows into the valley, forming a small river flowing through the banyan forest.

Li Dazhu stood at the edge of the waterhole under the cave waterfall and introduced: "This is the karst cave I said, the water flow on one side is the underground dark river in the mountain, and the waterfall in front of the cave, sometimes big and sometimes small, in the rainy season, the waterfall is very large, the cave behind is not visible at all, now it's okay, you can vaguely see the shape of the cave." ”

Li Dazhu took two more steps towards the entrance of the cave, and the mist from the waterfall fell on his face, wet, "Enter from this side, it's dark inside, and there are many forks in the road, you bring a flashlight, just go in and have a look, don't go too deep, you will get lost." ”

Li Dazhu stopped, stood at the entrance of the cave and stopped walking inside.

Zhen Zhen and Alex passed in front of Li Dazhu and followed the rocks at the foot of the mountain into the cave.

The light around the cave entrance was still bright, and Zhen Zhen carefully observed the surroundings of the cave entrance to see if there were any clues related to Nan Zhiqiao.

The outer part of the cave entrance, because it is relatively humid and covered with moss, the cave entrance has become relatively dry inward, and there is an obvious friction mark on the rock surface where the dark river water meets the cave floor, and the traces are clear and dry, as if left by the impact of a heavy object.

Zhen Zhen leaned over to check, in addition to the marks left by the impact of the heavy object, there were traces of human trampling on the moss around her.

Identify the footprints on the moss, the footprints are chaotic and overlapping, carefully distinguish, there are at least four people's footprints, judging from the size of the footprints, they are all men's footprints, and the sole style is like a hard-soled shoe such as military boots.

Alex leaned over to Zhen Zhen's side, staring at the footprints on the moss, and analyzed, "Someone has been here, and it's been in the last few days. ”

Ye Zhenzhen pinched a small piece of brown dirt on the moss with her hand, the soil had dried up, "This cave is full of rocks, there is no mud, only this moss has dry mud lumps. ”

Alex looked at the soles of his feet, he had just walked all the way from the valley into the cave, and his shoes were stained with a lot of mud, and the color of the dirt was the same as the color of the dried mud on the moss, "It was left by the soles of the shoes of the group who came in before." ”

Ye Zhenzhen: "This shows that a group of people entered this cave from the valley a few days ago, because of the rain, the footprints on the outside were washed away by the rain, but there were traces in the cave. ”

Alex was slightly excited, "Li Dazhu once said that people from the surrounding villages rarely come over, and it is very likely that these footprints were left by the group that kidnapped Nan Zhiqiao. ”

"Let's go, continue to look in the cave. ”

The two walked into the cave, the deeper they went, the darker the light became, and the cave became bigger and bigger, turned on the flashlight, followed the footprints on the ground, and after chasing more than 50 meters, the footprints gradually blurred and disappeared by the dark river on the side wall of the cave.

The dark river in the cave is two or three meters wide and flows quietly against the side wall of the cave.

Alex used a flashlight to shine around, everywhere the light went, there were mountains and rocks, and the strange-shaped stones were the biggest feature in the cave, "The footprints disappeared by the dark river, they couldn't have jumped into the dark river, right?"

Vera picks up a fist-sized rock on the shore and throws it into the dark river.

With a "plop", the stone sank to the bottom of the river without making any splashes.

"The river was deep, at least not thigh-high, and they must have gotten on the boat from here. Zhen Zhen analyzed.

"Boat?!Sister Zhenzhen, you said there is a boat in this cave?"

"Well, judging from the current clues, it is so, the gang entered this cave from outside the valley a few days ago, and after coming here, they got into a boat in the dark river, and they could find out where they had gone along this dark river. ”

Alex felt that Zhen Zhen's analysis was reasonable, and it was not difficult for those who dared to kidnap Nan Zhiqiao to prepare a small boat in a remote valley cave in the rainforest, but what did they want to bring Nan Zhiqiao here for?

Alex knew in his heart that the road ahead must be dangerous, and he had to be vigilant.

The two of them now have no boat, so they can only walk along the dark river to the depths of the cave.

The further you go in, the wider the river becomes, and after walking for about a kilometer, a faint light suddenly appears in the depths of the cave, and further on, the light gets stronger and stronger.

When I walked to the end of the light, a huge oval-shaped sinkhole appeared in front of me.

There is a circular hole in the top of the sinkhole, and when viewed from the bottom, the whole sinkhole looks like a huge inverted funnel, narrow at the top and wide at the bottom, where the water of the dark river also divides into several tributaries.

To be precise, the water of different tributaries collects from all over the place in the bottom of this sinkhole, and then forms a large dark river from here, which flows out of the cave along the river channel and into the valley outside the cave.

Vera and Alex stood beside the huge waterhole at the bottom of the sinkhole, looking up to see the blue sky beyond the sky, and then looking down at the surface of the waterhole, the reflection of the sky swaying with the current.

Alex counted the small tributaries around the waterhole, there were more than twenty large and small, each tributary flowed out of the cave of different sizes, Alex sighed: "So many tributaries, so many caves, it is really a labyrinth, which tributary will the gang go from?"