Chapter 33: If You Don't Die, You Won't Die
It didn't take long for the four of them to disassemble all the ropes and then make them into two new ropes. During the rope making, the old prostitute specially reminded everyone that we did not have extra safety ropes, so the safety aspect could only be grasped by ourselves.
In order to increase the safety factor, we have resorted to a lot of methods that seem useless, but have to be done. We take out the iron and hard objects in each backpack, put them together, and then fill the backpack with leaves, so that the backpack is full, but it is very light, and it can also play a certain protective role. Once we lose control of the rope when we are descending the cliff, we try to let the backpack hit the ground first to form a soft protective cushion to avoid the body from hitting the hard ground. Of course, this doesn't necessarily work, but we have to.
In fact, each of us knows very well in our hearts that the real safety factor still depends on grasping the rope by ourselves, and no matter how much other aspects are done, it is only additional preventive measures, as for how much effect it can play, no one can guarantee this.
After arranging the ropes, we didn't set off overnight, and we didn't dare to do it. Although I had mixed feelings in my heart, I didn't dare to do such a dangerous thing at night, after all, even during the day, we were not completely sure.
The whole night didn't bring me enough physical replenishment, because I didn't really rest this night. Although there were only four of us and only a short night, we still arranged the vigil in a step-by-step manner.
I don't know if I'm too cautious, or if I'm really thinking too much about the other person, and I always don't dare to go to sleep, always feeling that the other party will take the rope away while we are asleep and sabotage our escape plan this time, so I always kept a high level of vigilance this night. In fact, I don't have to be so nervous at all, after all, there is an old prostitute and Wang Jingang taking turns to keep vigil, so there is nothing to worry about, but I still don't worry.
It was a long night for me, and although nothing happened to me, it was not an easy one. Actually, I wasn't the only one who didn't sleep well, almost everyone didn't sleep well. I don't know what everyone is thinking at the moment, but one thing is for sure, what they're thinking about must be related to going off the cliff tomorrow.
Here, the mobile phone and the walkie-talkie don't work properly, and when I can't sleep, I will fiddle twice, in fact, this is the Nth time in these days. I'm looking forward to being able to call on my phone, which is the only fastest way to contact the outside world, but N attempts have failed. I know it's not a problem with the phone, it's that someone is deliberately blocking the signal here, not wanting us to get in touch with the outside world, or even letting us use the walkie-talkie.
The long night finally passed, and it was not until the dawn that I dared to sleep, and as soon as my eyes were closed, I fell asleep. I don't remember how many nightmares I had in this sleep, but I do remember that the rope appeared in every dream, and maybe it was a dream day and night.
When the sun was already high up, I was woken up by the old prostitute, and I looked at the time It was already past nine o'clock in the morning. We had a bite to eat together, and then we started heading towards the place I had chosen yesterday with my wife.
We didn't communicate along the way, and the atmosphere became very low, and when I got to the top of the mountain, I observed everyone's expressions and found that the expressions of the thin monkeys were particularly unnatural. Although he had deliberately concealed the fear in his heart, he still showed it. I can understand his fear, in fact, I am also afraid in my heart, after all, I used to be a fear of heights, but after going through so much, I learned to disguise myself, no longer let my fear side be exposed to others.
We made a few safety points on the top of the hill to hold the rope securely, and then made some soft treatment on the rocks on the edge of the cliff to prevent the rope from rubbing and breaking on the stones. In fact, the so-called soft treatment is to wrap the edge of the stone with our clothes, so that the rope does not touch the stone directly.
The first one to go down is the skinny monkey, this is the order we made last night, but his way down the cliff is much safer, after all, he has injuries on his body, so we have to use the rope to put him down first, instead of letting him grab the rope himself.
After tying the rope to the thin monkey, the old prostitute said to him: "Hold on to the rope, don't think that it will be okay if you tie it to your body, we can't see the situation below, so you have to keep your balance and avoid hitting the stone wall." ”
The thin monkey nodded and said nothing, but his expression at the moment was particularly nervous.
"It's okay, don't be afraid, the three of us can hold you down." Wang Jingang said to the thin monkey.
"Wait, let me slow down, five minutes, just five minutes."
After the thin monkey finished speaking, none of us answered, he wanted to take five minutes to adjust himself, which is normal, so no one will object. I once had the same experience, once I went to bungee jumping with a few friends in Shijiazhuang, I was not going to go, after all, I was afraid of heights, this self-knowledge is still there, but they said that it was the best way to treat fear of heights, so I followed. At that time, I didn't feel any fear when I watched them jump below, but when I was standing high in the air and about to jump down, I couldn't open my legs, and I was terrified. Even though I knew that I wouldn't do anything when I jumped, I still didn't dare. I think the feeling in the heart of the skinny monkey now is probably more frightened than I was at the time, after all, this is a cliff, not a place for bungee jumping.
Watching the thin monkey adjusting his breathing, I was also adjusting, I kept reminding myself that I was the boss of the company, I was the head of the Fa Qiu Men, no matter how difficult it was, I had to grit my teeth and get through.
After five minutes, all three of us looked at the skinny monkey, who was still not ready to go on, he looked at us and said, "Can I go down the second time, you can give me a sample first." ”
"Yes, but you need to familiarize yourself with the environment first." As she spoke, the old prostitute pulled the thin monkey by the collar, dragged the thin monkey directly to the edge of the cliff, and then let the thin monkey look down.
The thin monkey was already scared, but was pulled over by the old prostitute to look down, and instantly sat down on the ground. When the old prostitute saw the thin monkey sitting on the ground, she glanced at me and Wang Jingang, and we immediately understood and squeezed the rope in our hands.
Seeing that Wang Jingang and I were all ready, the old prostitute said to the thin monkey: "Look at it this way, you can't see it clearly, go down and see it clearly." ”
After speaking, the old prostitute pushed the thin monkey down. When the old prostitute just pushed the thin monkey, the thin monkey was still shouting: "Don't, don't, don't ......" but before his body could react, he was already pushed down, and then we heard several screams one after another.
When the thin monkey stopped barking below, the old prostitute shouted, "Hold on to the rope, keep your balance, and we'll start to put you down." ”
It was really not difficult for three people to drag one, and at first we could still communicate with the thin monkey, but as the distance got farther and farther away, the communication between us was gone. We were on top, and we could only put the rope down at a uniform speed little by little. Of course, the gravity of the rope is also a criterion for us to judge whether the skinny monkey is safe.
Twenty minutes later, the rope was coming to an end, but the gravity on the Skinny Monkey's side hadn't changed, which meant he wasn't there yet.
Looking at the rope with only a few meters left, I was a little anxious, if the last few meters were put down, and the thin monkey still did not reach the bottom of the cliff, then our plan would be considered a miscarriage, and it also proved that the old prostitute had made a mistake in judging the height of the cliff.
Just as we were slowly putting the last few meters of rope, the gravity of the rope suddenly changed, and there was no gravity all of a sudden. I tugged the rope up twice, and there was no gravity at all.
The skinny monkey is the end, this is the result we are most looking forward to.
After a while, the rope was pulled three times, which was the code we had set up earlier. Once the skinny monkey is safely on the ground, empty his backpack and tie it to the rope, he pulls the rope up three more times and we pull his empty backpack up. This serves two purposes, one is to know that he has arrived safely, and the other is to pack our original equipment with his empty back.
After dragging the thin monkey's empty backpack up, we used his backpack to put all the gear down in two parts, and then I was the second to go down. This is a temporary change of plan, not the order made last night, according to last night's formulation, the second should be Wang Jingang down, and I am the third. But Wang Jingang and the old prostitute made a temporary decision and decided not to let me take the risk on my own, saying that they would also let me go down like a skinny monkey.
Originally, I refused, but when I stood on the edge of a cliff, that fear made a choice for me, and I agreed to their advice.
The speed at which I came down was faster than that of the thin monkey, it only took more than ten minutes, I don't know if it was the old prostitute and Wang Jingang who ran out of strength, or they were deliberately retaining their physical strength, and they actually let me down so fast. This feeling is very bad, there is a feeling of swinging in the sky, I only dare to look at the parallel high cliffs, I dare not look down at all.
When I came down, I saw that the cliff was not what I thought before, and there were many cliff coffins on the cliff here, but I didn't pay much attention to these cliff coffins at the moment, just hoping to reach the ground safely as soon as possible.
It wasn't until I came down that I saw that there were hundreds of cliff coffins on the entire cliff wall, and it seemed that this was a group of cliff burials.
Cliff burial, also known as hanging coffin burial, is a special burial custom of ethnic minorities living in the south in ancient China, and is considered to be a great miracle in the history of world culture. The burial method is to use natural rock crevices or artificial wooden stakes to suspend the coffin on the cliff, or to place the coffin in a natural or artificially hewn cave. The burial place of the hanging coffin burial is selected on the cliff high rock, its burial tools are mostly boat coffins, the length is 2-3 meters, the width is about half a meter, the shape is like a boat, it is divided into three parts: head, tail and warehouse, the head and tail are cocked, the warehouse is the coffin, and the corpse is placed.
It's not uncommon to see a cliff coffin in this kind of place, so I didn't pay much attention to it, after all, there were still two people on the cliff who hadn't come down, so my eyes kept on Wang Jingang, who was the third one who came down.
The process of coming down was extremely difficult, and I felt my heart beat when I saw it. I suddenly felt very glad that they had changed their minds and were going to put me down, and if I had been allowed to use the rope to get down, I really didn't know if I would have reached the ground safely.
It took Wang Jingang nearly an hour to get down to the ground. I saw that he was sweating all over his head, and of course he stopped a few times in the middle of the process, but that doesn't mean it's a break, and it's often more difficult to stop than to move down.
The last one to come down was the old prostitute, watching him go down the rope, I pinched the cold sweat for him. However, the speed of the old prostitute is not slow, it is faster than Wang Jingang, I don't know if he is a master and bold, or he has done this before, I always feel that his movements using the rope are particularly coordinated.
Just when everyone thought that the old prostitute would soon go down to the ground, he did something that we all did not expect.
He stopped when he descended to the cliff coffin, and was dragging the rope to the side, as if trying to move sideways.
I looked in the direction of the old prostitute's swing, hoping to see what he wanted to do, and soon I found that there was a cliff coffin in the direction of the old prostitute's swing. There is still some distance between the cliff coffin and the old prostitute, and there are two cliff coffins in between, so I think the old prostitute swings horizontally, and she should go to this cliff coffin.
I took a closer look, only to find that there was something on the lid of the cliff coffin, I don't know if it was integrated with the coffin lid, it didn't look very big, but it was too high from the ground to see what it was.
"Brother prostitute, what are you doing, is it going to open the coffin and get something?" Skinny Monkey said, standing aside.
I watched the old prostitute swinging on the cliff, I really don't know what to say about him, even if he is bold, he will not do it so hard. What's more, our top priority now is to get out of here as soon as possible, not to make a coffin here.
I shouted a few words to the old prostitute in mid-air, telling him to hurry down, I don't know if he didn't hear it, or if he heard it and pretended not to hear it, he actually swung to the cliff coffin, and dragged the stone pile that supported the bottom of the cliff coffin. Of course, it's not a stone pile, I can't see it here, maybe it's a wooden pile, but I think it should be a stone pile, because the old prostitute is now standing on it, if it is wooden, it must have corroded, and it is impossible to stop the old prostitute.
I saw the old prostitute tie the rope to herself, and then she moved the things on top of the cliff coffin. After he moved a few times, the upper body of the whole person began to poke into the cliff coffin.
When I saw the old prostitute probing into the cliff coffin, I felt strange, thinking that he had opened the coffin? Definitely not, because I watched his every move, he only moved the things on the cliff coffin, and he didn't move the coffin lid at all.
Could it be that the coffin lid is so corroded that it collapses with a slight touch? No, the contents of the coffin lid are still there, and if the coffin lid collapses, the contents of the coffin lid should also collapse in, but it is clear that the thing is still on the coffin lid.
I was wondering what the old prostitute was looking at, and I saw the old prostitute turn into the cliff coffin in an instant, and the whole person couldn't see, only the rope was moving.
This scene really scared us, the process of the old prostitute turning into it was so fast, we didn't see him make any movements at all, it didn't feel like he was turning into it by himself, it was more like he was being dragged in by something.