PS: PS: On the first day of the Year of the Goat, it's time for everyone to greet the New Year. Then wash it and go to work. I really envy my classmates who celebrate the New Year at home.

At this time, my stomach rang uncontrollably. As if it could be contagious, I heard a chain reaction in my ears that kept ringing grunts. Laotians, Vietnamese, Americans, all responded to me with the gurgling sound of their stomachs.

I said to Jack, "Fill your stomach first, we need the strength to deal with the next trouble." ”

"No problem." Jack regained his composure. "We were still talking about that. Since you want to consider yourself a benefactor and want to continue to be the boss, then you decide. Do we have a full meal or do we keep the food supply for two days? ”

My brain was a little short-circuited for a while, and I asked puzzledly: "The food is all with you, and your backpack has not been lost, so we should be guaranteed food for a week." ”

"Yes, we see backpacks as important as life." Jack said this, and glanced at me and the Laotians out of the corner of his eye. The meaning is obvious, condemning us for irresponsible loss of our backpacks. "But we lost a man. Sadly, he has most of our food in his backpack. ”

I know he's talking about Ah Xiang. In this environment, the loss of food is devastating.

I thought about it, and it didn't feel like I was in a desperate situation. He said to Jack, "If there is water, there should be living things." We can't starve to death. ”

Jack was silent for a moment, and I felt that the two people who were baking the clothes were also silent for a moment, even though the two of them had not spoken, but at that moment. I felt the silence on their part.

"There is no life here. At least not here, maybe downstream, who knows, hopefully there is. There was some helplessness in Jack's tone.

"How is this possible?" I asked, surprised. "There's living water, there's the right temperature, and even if there's no sunlight, it's going to survive and adapt to the dark."

"Want to know why?" Jack looked at me inquiringly. But without waiting for me to answer, he continued: "I can show you there, and you will see it at a glance." Not too far, but I can't take you to the heart, and. We need to fill our stomachs first. I also don't have the strength to lead the way hungry. ”

With that, Jack took a backpack from his side, unzipped it, and poured out all the contents inside. "All the food is here. Do you eat a full meal or two days? Jack's tone was a little teasing.

I'll take a look. There really aren't many things. Let go of eating. The five of us will be able to eat it all in one meal. I'm not God, and I don't want to decide for everyone. I divided the food into five portions and looked at all the people. Again, the other four were looking at me.

"One for each person. Take it yourself. Decide for yourself how much to eat and how much to keep. I recommend not eating it all at once, of course, just advice. "After dividing it into five portions, the amount of each serving looks even more pitiful.

Jack stuffed a small pile of food in front of him into his jacket pocket, and two pockets were fit, and he couldn't fill it yet. Jack tore open a bag of packaged food, took a bite of the compressed food inside, sighed and said, "I really miss Ah Xiang." ”

I glanced at Jack with disdain, you miss the food in his backpack, I believe it.

Jack's words caused a person to cry, it was Ah San.

I handed him a portion of food and patted him on the shoulder as a sign of comfort. Ah San took the food and was even more sad. "He still owes me money."

Depend on. When I heard this, I immediately turned my head and sat down. I felt that these two Vietnamese people would not have too deep feelings, Ah San was more afraid of Ah Xiang, and he would not be more touched by Ah Xiang's death than me. Now it is clear that what hurts him is his money, not Ah Xiang's life.

I also ate a little food, and the food was too little, so I could only keep myself hungry and couldn't stand it, and I didn't dare to eat more. The little thing in my stomach couldn't provide enough energy, but it gave me some energy and my senses gradually returned to normal.

The noise I hear in my ears all the time is the sound of water. We were in a cave, the sound of water in an almost confined environment and the sound of water on the surface sounded very different, not the crisp sound of the noise, the sound was a little muffled, as if there were stones rolling in the water, the sound was rumbling.

I pulled a piece of wood from the fire to take a closer look at my surroundings, and I pulled out a piece of wood, which was only a few inches long. I threw it back and smoked a few more in quick succession, all of them small, short pieces of wood.

I glanced at Jack, who was concentrating like a dog licking the compressed food scraps off clean food bags. Although I thought it was strange that they had chopped the wood so carefully into smaller pieces, I didn't bother him to lick it. Maybe they were trying to start the fire for convenience, so it makes sense.

I held a piece of firewood, stood up, and walked first in the direction of the sound of the water. Fortunately, my clothes are dry and I am wearing them, otherwise it would be a bit embarrassing to walk around with my bare ass. After walking seven or eight steps, we saw the water, which was very powerful, but the water was about a foot below the surface of the ground under our feet. It seems to be an underground river channel, seven or eight meters wide.

I frowned the moment I saw the water. The water was clear in the firelight, probably because of the depth, and I couldn't see the bottom. But there was a great view of the water, and there were a lot of wood chips floating on the water, the largest of which was like the firewood in my hand, less than half a foot long.

I squatted down lightly and put my hand into the water, which was slightly cold, the temperature I was familiar with, and the rain that had gathered in the valley. I spread my fingers apart, like a rake to strain the water through, and soon I had a handful of sawdust in my hand. The stubble of the sawdust is very new and has a fresh smell that is clearly not dead wood.

I watched for a while, threw the sawdust back into the water and walked upstream along the riverbank.

The banks of the river are not straight, there are obvious traces of water erosion, there are no sharp edges and corners, and all the protrusions are very smooth and washed by the current. There are also traces of water erosion on the banks of the river, and it seems that the great water that almost killed us this time is not the largest in this valley, for there used to be much greater water, and there was a great water that did not reach the bank under my feet. The lower part of the river bank has traces of being hollowed out by the flowing water, and I can't estimate how much the river bank has been hollowed out, at least the river bank under my feet is empty, and I feel the sound of water flowing under my feet and the slight vibration caused by it.

The river bank shrank sharply at one point, and the width of the river channel did not change much, but the relatively flat space of the river bank narrowed here and quickly disappeared. Further upstream, there are no banks on either side of the water that can be passed, and on both sides above the surface of the water are some stalactites with strange shapes.

I have now roughly figured out that the flat land on the bank of the river we are on is a natural cave recessed into the embankment. The width of the underground river has not changed much here.

From here I left the water and walked into this cave and saw such a spectacle. (To be continued......)