Chapter 21: The Line Between Life and Death
What spit out of the mouth of the dried corpse not only makes me sick, but also makes me feel uneasy, how can it suddenly spit out a ball of hair-like things after being dead for so many years, it has been dried like bacon.
My mind was a little out of step with the situation, and at the moment when I was surprised and uneasy, the brown hair-like thing in the cadaver's mouth, like a tide, swarmed outward. Clusters of "hair" fell to the ground, and before I could retreat, a clump of "hair" floated down the wind to my feet, followed by the "hair" as if it had suddenly grown eyes, and it flicked on the surface of my feet, whizzing into the gap between my boots and trouser legs.
At this moment, the "hair" seemed to have life and spirituality, becoming as flexible and soft as flowing water, I panicked, raised my foot to pull out this ball of hair, but as soon as I bent over, my ankle suddenly hurt.
The sensation was like a lot of spikes piercing the ankle, not very painful, but with an indescribable tingling itch. I couldn't help but tilt my body and hit the wooden frame. The wooden frame stood on the edge of the crack for I don't know how long, but when I hit it, it knocked me down. Fearing that the crooked wooden frame would fall on me, I ducked to the side, and my body suddenly lost my balance.
"What's wrong with you?" Zhang Momo was running in this direction, she didn't know what was going on, she saw me staggering on the edge of the rift, quickly shouted, and quickened her pace.
I was a little overwhelmed, the edges of the crack were sloping and it was all dry sand, and my feet felt slippery when I stepped on it. My hands and feet fluttered on the ground, but I couldn't grasp where I could borrow my strength.
The overturned wooden frame fell from the edge into the deep valley, and I could hear the clatter of the shelves colliding back and forth on both sides of the deep valley, and the shelves had already shattered before they could fall to the bottom.
All of this actually happened in a moment of lightning, and I flapped back and forth a few times, but I couldn't support it, and my body slid down the arc of the edge into the deep valley.
At this moment, Zhang Momo took a coil of rope from his bag and raised his hand to throw it over. She had already run six or seven meters away from me, and the rope was thrown just right, and I reached out and barely grabbed one end of the rope while most of my body had already slid down.
I felt myself fall suddenly, down a few meters, and Zhang Momo also ran to the edge of the rift, clutching the rope desperately. It was Zhang Momo who arrived in time to pull me back from the ghost gate.
However, before I could catch my breath, I felt bad again. My body of more than 100 catties is now completely suspended in the air, relying on Zhang Momo to pull the rope on it, but the edge of the crack can't find a place to borrow strength, and the ground is so slippery, she obviously can't hold on, my body is still slowly falling, every time it falls, it means that Zhang Momo is also dragged closer to the edge of the deep valley.
In the hurry, I couldn't help but look down, the surface cracks caused by the movement of the earth's crust were very irregular, and there were continuous protrusions on both sides. I don't have a fear of heights, but at this moment, my hands are gripping the rope very tightly, and the fear has drowned out all my emotions.
I can't see the scene above, but I'm still slowly falling, and I estimate that Zhang Momo won't be able to support it for long.
At this time, I was faced with one of the most difficult choices of my life.
I don't want to die, I don't want to, if I didn't want to save my life, I wouldn't have traveled all the way to Danmeng, a place where birds don't. I know very well that as long as Zhang Momo misses now, I will definitely be doomed, and there will be no scum left.
A drowning person will hold on to anything they can, including people, before they die, and then die without letting go. It's not that they mean to drag people into the water, it's just that they can't let go of their strong survival instincts. At this moment, I am on the line of life and death, but I immediately thought of Lao Wang and Ning Kitten.
They all died, and apart from me, there was only Zhang Momo left in the team. I don't want to see the death of my companion again, the pain, it's indescribable.
I'm not a saint, but I have to behave like a saint.
"Let go! Let go! I opened my throat and shouted, "Let go!" ”
Zhang Momo didn't answer, nor did she let go, I didn't need to look at it to know that she must be gritting her teeth and struggling. Judging from what she usually does, this is a very stubborn woman.
In front of me, there are only two ways, either drag Zhang Momo down and the two of them die together, or I let go and die alone.
I don't have room for my mother-in-law, the situation is changing rapidly, and the slightest hesitation will drag her down. I took a breath and let go of my grip on the rope.
"Don't come down to me, you...... Leave Dan Meng ...... immediately."
As soon as I finished shouting these words, both of my hands were released at the same time, and the whole person fell towards the depths of the rift. When I let go of the rope, I was actually determined to die, but my instinct drove me to grab my hands in front of me. Without any external force, the body will slide freely, and in the blink of an eye, there will be no place to die.
Lian Chengfeng...... Lian Chengfeng......"
Faintly, I could still hear Zhang Momo desperately calling my name on it, but I couldn't respond to her.
When people are falling rapidly, their minds go blank and they can't see anything. I don't know how deep I fell, but my waving hands suddenly touched something, and my palms tightened immediately. But the fall was so fierce, the inertia was too great, and the things caught in my hands could not stop the downward trend.
However, this trend finally slowed down, and immediately after, my feet felt like I was stepping on something, and as soon as my body fell, my two arms were directly hugged in desperation.
This time, my body actually stopped, and I gasped for breath for at least two or three seconds before my vision returned to normal. The moment my eyes could see clearly, my scalp went numb again, because I saw that what I was holding was a dried corpse hanging from the cliff.
The dried corpse has a rope tied around its waist, a specially treated rope that guarantees immortality for a long time. It's hard for me to describe the feeling of holding a dried corpse, the whole face of the dried corpse has collapsed skin and bones, the eye sockets and mouth are like holes embedded in the face, disgusting to death, and mad to death. But I didn't dare to move, because I could feel that the dried corpse hanging on the cliff had suddenly borne my weight of more than 100 catties, and it was already crumbling, and maybe if I moved casually, the dried corpse would fall off the cliff.
I immediately held my breath and quickly looked to both sides to see if there was anything else I could borrow. At this glance, my heart seemed to be touched by something, and it was indescribably uncomfortable.
As far as the eye can see, you can see the dried corpses hanging on the cliff one by one, each of them tied with some kind of special rope, and if you think about it with your heels, you can know that these dried corpses must have been deliberately hung here.
My vision was limited, but I could see about fifteen or sixteen dried corpses. My head was dizzy, and my heart was full of doubts, who was hanging so many dried corpses here? What's the purpose of hanging the corpses here? Hanging a dried corpse on such an almost 90-degree vertical cliff is actually a laborious and dangerous thing to do, and no one would do it if it were not imperative.
I still don't dare to move, the whole person seems to have grown on the body of the dried corpse, and now I don't have time to think about why these dried corpses are hanging here, the most important thing is to find a way to get out. I looked down and saw that through the continuous bulges on the cliff, there should still be at least twenty meters or so from the valley floor.
The rope from which the dried corpse was hung was fastened to a steel drill driven into a crack in the rock of the cliff, which was the thickness of a thumb and should be able to bear a certain weight. I can't climb back to the top now, so I have to find a way to go down to the bottom and then find a way up. Fortunately, my small backpack was still there, and there was a 20-meter climbing rope in it, which was specially used for emergency use.
I gently and slowly freed one hand and took the rope out of the small backpack, at this time, I could not hear Zhang Momo's shout, I guess, with her character, must look for the way down from above, and then look for me. I didn't dare to make a sound, because the dried corpse in my arms was a little overwhelmed, and I could even hear the clicking of bones breaking in the corpse's body.
I held my breath and little by little I reached out and wound the rope around the steel drill. Tying a knot in a rope would be a simple thing in normal times, but it's very difficult for me at the moment.
I finally made two loops of the rope around the steel drill, and was about to find a way to tie a dead knot, when my eyes suddenly froze.
On the cliff where the dried corpses were hung, there were small holes of large and small irregularities, some of which could be more than ten centimeters in diameter, and some of which could only reach into one finger. ”
As soon as I saw this brown "hair", the slight pain but tingling sensation on my ankle rushed straight to the top door, I wasn't sure what it was, but at least I could tell that it was definitely not a good thing.
After this "hair" came out of the small hole, clumps of hair came out one after another from the large and small holes around it. A cold sweat oozed from my forehead, and before I had time to think about it, two clumps of hair slowly appeared from the eyes and mouth of the dried corpse I was holding.
I was startled, and suddenly a thought occurred to me, these tan "hairs" seemed to be living things.
At the same time, an even more terrifying thought involuntarily came to mind, if my judgment was correct, then these dried corpses hanging on the cliffs should be used to raise these "hair".