Soon, Huang Erhei shouted from below, "The power system has long been disconnected. Without electricity, the gantry cannot be raised."
White Ruoxue nervously asked, "What should we do?"
Only to hear Huang Erhei shout from above, "You wait down there. I'll figure something out."
After waiting for a few minutes, there was no response.
Bulldozer wondered, "Oh no, did he just run off by himself?"
Shi Jingxia also said, "Huang Erhei is as notorious as Wei Zhenhai, known for being ruthless. It's very possible."
Hearing this, White Ruoxue became unsettled.
"Grandma."
Grandma Bai said slowly, "Don't worry, Grandma has a good eye for people. Your Uncle Huang won't abandon us."
Sure enough, after more than ten minutes, Huang Erhei's voice came from above.
"Grandma Bai, Snow, get into the gantry."
Upon hearing this, Bulldozer was the first to crawl in, winking and gesturing at me and Shi Jingxia, saying, "Brother, sister-in-law, come in quickly."
White Ruoxue said irritably, "Come out, we'll go up first, then pull you up."
Shi Jingxia snorted, "Don't think I don't know what you're up to. You want to trap us here, don't you?"
"You?" White Ruoxue laughed sarcastically, "Yes, that's right. I want you to die."
"Alright, stop arguing, let's go together."
Grandma Bai looked at me with a strange look.
She walked in, and the others followed suit.
White Ruoxue shouted from above, "Uncle Huang, we're ready."
Then, there was a sound of clattering, and the steel wire rope began to shake, and a dense black mist descended from the sky. The bodies of several people swayed, and the gantry slowly began to rise.
For some reason, the lifting speed fluctuated, sometimes fast, sometimes slow, and we felt dizzy, as if we had just drunk a jug of liquor.
Grandma Bai frowned.
"Uncle Huang, what's going on? My grandma feels a bit nauseous."
"Snow, there's no other way. He's going at this speed, and it's not something I can control."
Hearing this, Bulldozer covered his mouth and laughed lasciviously, while Shi Jingxia grimaced, looking disgusted.
I estimated that it took less than two minutes for us to ascend.
The moment I breathed the fresh air, I felt that the world was so beautiful.
Bulldozer lay on the ground panting heavily, "Wow, I never realized before, the northwest wind is so refreshing."
Suddenly, a strange figure emerged from an abandoned engine room nearby, holding a sickle in his hand, glinting coldly, and walked towards us, frightening everyone.
Bulldozer got up from the ground and pointed his gun at the man, "Hands up, drop the weapon, and talk, which side are you on?"
This guy seemed to be too immersed in the role.
The man quickly dropped the sickle and looked towards Huang Erhei.
Huang Erhei explained that after he came up, he saw this man grazing nearby, and after inquiring, he learned that this man used to be a miner and knew about the manual gravity descent device for the gantry.
So, Huang Erhei paid him a hundred yuan to have him pull us up.
After a long time, I learned that the manual gravity descent device relies on manually adjusting the brake's opening pressure to slowly lower the heavier side's counterweight, exerting a reverse force on the lighter side of the gantry, causing it to ascend slowly.
There's another important point: the manual gravity descent device can only be used once, which means Huang Erhei and White Ruoxue never intended for us to come up in the first place.
Truly ruthless.
"Boss, I don't want the hundred yuan anymore. Let me go, my family..."
As the shepherd was saying this, Huang Erhei waved to him, "A real man never backs down from a fight. Come over here, and I'll give you the money."
The man hesitated for a moment but eventually walked over.
Suddenly, Huang Erhei pointed two fingers at him. The man froze, and then he became motionless, except for his rolling eyes, filled with fear.
Then, he cruelly pushed the shepherd off the gantry well, and there was a dull thud as a lively life vanished in broad daylight.
"Huang Erhei, an extra cut should be made. If he doesn't die from the fall, he'll suffer even more down below," said White Ruoxue.
Shocked by these words, I shuddered.
A few stray goats ran over, bleating incessantly, nibbling at Shi Jingxia's pants leg.
Shi Jingxia trembled, "You're all too cruel."
White Ruoxue clapped her hands, "Kindness doesn't get the job done. For absolute safety, we must eliminate all potential risks."
Bulldozer raised his gun, assuming a vigilant posture.
"Brother, sister-in-law, they're insane. Let's go," said Bulldozer.
The rest of us retreated several meters and swiftly turned onto a dirt road.
After walking for over half an hour, I instructed Bulldozer to discard the M3 submachine gun. Carrying such a thing was too dangerous. Despite his reluctance, Bulldozer complied.
In the tofu shop, we encountered the tofu-selling older sister again.
She was wearing an apron, her large and round buttocks sticking out as she washed soybeans in a tub. Bulldozer reached out a few times from a distance, his expression extremely lecherous yet somehow enjoying it.
"Sister, long time no see, no, it's been ages since we last met," Bulldozer said with a smirk.
The older sister straightened up, wiping the sweat from her forehead with her wrist.
"It's you guys again, here to buy tofu?"
"Yes, yes, to buy tofu. Sister, your tofu smells wonderful."
"Oh, sorry, I don't have any now. I only sell for half a day. Come back tomorrow."
I took out ten yuan and slipped it into the older sister's apron.
"Let's do this, consider this a reservation of ten yuan, we'll come to collect it tomorrow."
"Well, alright, I'll keep it for you then."
Seizing the opportunity, I asked, "Has anyone come out from the mountains?"
The older sister pointed into the distance and said, "Half an hour ago, that green pickup truck came out from the mountains."
I nodded and asked again, "Anyone else?"
"No one else."
"Sister, think carefully."
The older sister scratched her head with her pinky finger, then her eyes lit up suddenly, "Oh yes, yesterday around four in the morning, a thief came to steal tofu. I scared him away."
I followed up, "Did he have anything with him?"
"It seemed like he was carrying half a bag of urea, probably stolen too."
"Where did he go?"
"I don't know about that, but his accent sounded like someone from Baishui County. They speak slightly differently from us, so outsiders can't tell the difference."
"Okay, thanks, sister, get back to your work."
"Don't forget to come pick up your tofu tomorrow. If you're not here by ten, I'll sell it to someone else, no refunds."
After leaving the tofu shop, Shi Jingxia pondered for a moment and said, "The Lei Gong Cauldron is invaluable. Baishui County probably can't handle it. Has Sun Tiedan already taken everything and rushed to the Western Capital City overnight?"
"No, before the Lei Gong Cauldron was unearthed, none of us knew about its existence. This thing is prohibited from trading. Sun Tiedan must find a buyer, and a powerful one at that. With his abilities, he can hardly achieve it. So... if I'm not mistaken, he should be hiding at home."
Shi Jingxia nodded, "That's very likely."
Bulldozer asked, "Brother, what's our next move?"
"To Baishui County, let's go."
Along the way, we hitched a ride on an ancient city brand three-wheeled agricultural vehicle.
The driver asked, "How come you guys are so dark? What brings you here?"
With her hair fluttering in the wind, Shi Jingxia lied loudly, "We're here for tourism but got lost. Sorry for the trouble."
"Tourism? Are you guys donkeys?" chuckled the driver.
I smiled bitterly, "Brother, you're so amusing. We're backpackers, not donkeys, here for an adventure."