"Whew-"

Luo Zhen looked at the broken tunnel in front of him and exhaled deeply.

Yes, he came after all.

It's 10 a.m., 72 hours after the disappearance of my son and father-in-law, and the best time to be rescued has passed. But he can't stop trying, no matter what, I'm afraid this is the beginning of everything, and maybe the end of everything.

He had a whole backpack with some necessary caving equipment and water, and even if he was unfortunate enough to be trapped in it, it would be okay to last for three days.

Just as he was about to leave, his phone rang suddenly.

"Zhen, I finally got a search warrant today! I have checked it just now, and the house is really empty, but there is a lot of domestic garbage, and it can be seen that more than one person has been in the house. Judging from the ** degree of food residues, people have been coming here one after another in the past two months. ”

As soon as the phone was connected, Lao Zhuang crackled and said a long list.

"After Skynet video analysis, we suspect that these children and elderly people slipped on the trucks parked in the community at the nearby logistics station at night and left, but this is just an inference, and it is not clear how they did it, but only this can explain why these people can disappear out of thin air, there are ** on the front and back doors of this broken community, but they were not seen out at all."

Luo Zhen listened to him silently before he said, "Can you track the whereabouts of these trucks?" ”

Lao Zhuang replied, "It's difficult, there are more than a dozen trucks coming and going to the logistics station every night, driving to all parts of the country, and I don't know which one it is, this workload... Enough choke! But I'll still follow, don't worry! ”

"Is there a truck that will pass by the Shibei Cave Scenic Area? Or, if there is a branch near the scenic spot, help me check. Luo Zhen suddenly asked.

Lao Zhuang Qi said: "Do you have any clues?" ”

"Help me check it, I can't tell for a while." Luo Zhen said.

Lao Zhuang on the other end of the phone was silent for a moment and said, "Okay, I'll arrange it later." Where have you been? Originally, I went to the office to look for you, but I didn't see anyone, are you home? ”

"Lao Zhuang," Luo Zhen's tone suddenly became a little solemn, "Please do your best to help me find my son and old father, thank you!" ”

Before Lao Zhuang could speak, Luo Zhen hung up the phone.

He looked at the somewhat gloomy sky and made his way towards the tunnel.

…

Although it was daytime, the cave was extremely dark, but fortunately it was relatively dry, not as cold as Huang Zhen described that night.

Luo Zhen turned on the flashlight, and after walking for about ten minutes, a fork in the road appeared on the right side of the road.

The white crevice did not appear, could it be because the ghost did not dare to appear during the day?

Luo Zhen was a little helpless, if he had to wait until midnight, wouldn't he have to stay here for more than ten hours, it would be too boring. After thinking about it, he planned to explore the two caves, and there was nothing else to do anyway.

He first walked straight, but he didn't go far before he found that the road was blocked, as if there had been a landslide here before, and a huge mountain rock fell, cutting off the cave, otherwise, maybe it would be connected with the karst cave in the scenic area.

Luo Zhen had no choice but to go back and enter the fork hole.

The fork hole slopes down, the ground is rugged and difficult to walk, and you can also see some food waste bags along the way, which shows that someone has been here, perhaps left by those old man's cave exploration live broadcasters.

After going down for about 100 meters, the road turned to the left, and after walking a little more, the slope suddenly became very steep, almost 80 degrees from the ground, like a cliff, but not too high, probably less than three meters.

Luo Zhen looked below, and the space became wider, and it seemed to be a cave hall that was not too big. However, due to the obstruction of the cave walls on both sides, he could not see the whole picture of the cave hall, and he did not know if there was a passage inside.

Can't go down?

He looked left and right, and soon saw that there was a protruding rock on the left wall of the cave, which seemed to be a natural tether pier, and there were two loops of rope around it, but it was obviously rotten and broke when he pulled it. He tried the tether pier, but it was also very strong, and he prepared a climbing rope in his bag, and the length was completely sufficient.

Without thinking about it for too long, Luo Zhen wrapped the rope around the tether pier, and then slid down the rope neatly.

As soon as he arrived at the cave hall, Luo Zhen felt that the temperature had dropped significantly by one or two degrees.

He looked around, and the cave hall was about twenty square meters in size, and there seemed to be something painted on the walls on all four sides.

If you look closer, you can see that there are many crooked and oblique orthographs, which are concentrated in the middle and lower parts of the cave wall. When I looked down again, there were a lot of broken stones walking in the corner, almost one or two corners were polished off, and it must have been written by the person who carved the letter. However, judging from the handwriting, it seems that it was carved by a different person.

Luo Zhen couldn't help but feel a little strange, who is it?

He circled around the cave hall for another week, and only then did he realize that on the opposite side of the steep slope, there was a corridor parallel to the wall of the cave hall, and the two sides extended a considerable distance to the left and right, and it was impossible to see from a distance.

Luo Zhen began to feel that this place did not look like a completely natural cave, at least it must have been artificially reconstructed, and it was clear that people had lived here.

Standing at the entrance of the corridor, he was a little hesitant to walk in.

Just then, he heard some movement at the end of the corridor on the left, a whining sound, like someone crying.

Luo Zhen's heart sank, he grinded his fists, and finally took a step.

Walking dozens of meters away, Luo Zhen began to be shocked. This seemingly simple corridor is actually dotted with many rooms, or caves, on the left and right. The caves vary in size and seem to have been dug by hand, but they are all rudimentary.

A confined space with nothing in it, only a cold and stale smell.

Well, that's it... Old Man's Cave?

As he walked, Luo Zhen became more and more frightened, those poor old men in the past ended their lives in such a cold place?

The orthography on the wall outside is some old man counting down his life? That steep slope is the barrier that separates them from the rest of the world?

What a desperate process it must be!

The whining sound was still echoing, but Luo Zhen was not so scared, and his heart was very uncomfortable.

This cold, empty place, a symbol of isolation and despair, is like a terrible prison of death!

A flash of lightning suddenly flashed through Luo Zhen's mind, prison?

In the eternal youth of Hepai, the lyrics -

“… I left this rotting prison and gnawed in the darkness to grow my own fruit..."

Could it be that this is the place where the rotten prison is pointed?

The one who left this prison... Be...?

Luo Zhen had already reached the end of the corridor at this time, but he had not yet found the source of the whining sound, he had to walk to the other end, when he returned to the cave hall, his head naturally glanced to the right, and he saw a small figure standing under the steep slope of eighty degrees.

The little boy was staring blankly at the passage on the steep slope, and suddenly turned his head to Luo Zhen and said-

"Uncle, can you help me up?"