Three people were inhaling cold air directly, and it took me a long time to recover before I dared to go and have a look.
When I looked closely, I couldn't tell if it was the psychological pressure caused by the situation in front of me or the truly terrifying deformity of the face, but my fear became even more intense, until it reached a point where I felt like I was suffocating.
"That should indeed be a face of something "human-like" that has been deformed due to buildup. The most prominent features are its hooked nose and abnormally high forehead. It is unclear whether these features were caused by the buildup or if this creature originally looked as grotesque. If it is the former, then the person is surely already dead and their brain tissue has likely all been shattered."
However, the only thing that relieved me was that there was no trace of Yuan Xile's features on this ghostly face.
For a long time at that moment, we all looked at each other, unsure what to say to each other. This situation was beyond our understanding.
Later on, it was Ma who first understood what was going on. He stood up and went to pull out the rope and iron triangular hook from his backpack. Then he started dismantling the long writing desk. We immediately understood his intention: he wanted to make a hook to retrieve the "thing" inside.
Unfortunately, the writing desk is very sturdy, with welding measures at the bottom, and we tried for a long time but could not loosen it.
Several people searched for a long time, and finally the deputy team leader found a small finger-thick wire welded to the wall, whose purpose was unknown. We forcibly removed it and bent the end into a hook. Several people squatted down and tried to use the hook.
"That was a scene of confusion and chaos. The deputy squad leader was injured and unable to squat too hard. In the end, I helped illuminate with a flashlight while Ma worked on the operation in the sea."
"He lay on the ground while I shone the flashlight. In reality, the horse didn't want to comply, but had to obey the command. His lips trembled and we advised him to be cautious, knowing there was no way he could be. The three of us lay there, watching as the hook drew closer and closer."
The process took less than half a minute, but it felt like we had been staring at it all day. By the time the hook was about to touch the face of that "thing", my eyes were hurting.
At the moment just before the hook was about to touch the thing, we had already prepared for any possible reactions, including if the thing suddenly "moved" or if we had to dodge it. However, in reality, when our hook touched it, it didn't move at all.
"Then, no matter how we played with it, it didn't respond. Moreover, Ma Zaihai said that it felt soft and not right to the touch. Finally, he forcefully stabbed the hook into the neck groove of that thing, hooked its head, and pulled it out."
There was almost no resistance, and the thing was pulled away. My heart suddenly accelerated, and several people stood up at the same time, ready to retreat in case of an inexplicable horror.
The first thing that came out was the brain, white in color. Then came the body, and I saw something similar to hands and feet. In that instant, my mind went blank and I felt that this thing was so strange that I couldn't understand it. It felt like being pulled out, and my body went limp like a boneless invertebrate. My heart suddenly skipped a beat, and the next second, my throat choked because I suddenly realized what this thing was.
What was dragged out from the ventilation duct was not a monster, but a peculiar rubber suit. The rubber on top of the suit appeared to be from the Japanese era, and the twisted face we saw was actually a crushed poisonous mask on top of a helmet-like mask. Looking from the front, the forehead was tall and eerie. The suit and helmet were one piece, and it was a shape unlike anything I had ever seen before. Surely, it was not just for gas mask purposes.
The horse used an iron hook to poke at the clothes in the sea. There was nothing inside, and he breathed a sigh of relief. He wanted to curse someone, but then remembered what the deputy leader had said and kept his mouth shut.
"The deputy squad leader's expression was still very solemn. Ma Hai wanted to go and check it out, but he was held back. The deputy squad leader said, "Don't move for now."
"I actually thought the same. When Ma Zhuhai saw our expressions, he felt that something was wrong but didn't make a move. We gathered around the clothes to ease our emotions. During this time, Ma Zhuhai used an iron hook to fiddle with the clothes and shone a flashlight on them, poking at them."
"This situation reminds me of a time when a golden thread snake crawled into my clothes. My mother also used a bamboo stick to beat the clothes and remove the snake. However, at that time, the clothes did not have any reaction. No matter how hard we beat them, we didn't find anything suspicious."
Finally, Ma took the clothes and flipped them over the sea. I saw that the place where the rubber coat was attached to the helmet was already damaged, probably made by Ma's hook. The chest of the clothes had also decayed, possibly sticking to the bottom wall of the ventilation duct and torn apart by us. It can be seen that the inside of the clothes was empty.
We all breathed a sigh of relief, it was a false alarm.
The horse was pulling the rubber coat apart piece by piece on the sea, and soon it was torn into pieces, indeed leaving nothing behind.
"The deputy team leader said it was strange. Who put this thing inside and for what purpose? As he spoke, Ma crouched down again and used a flashlight to shine on the ventilation duct."