The cage in the water dungeon was a mere 1.6 meters in height. Standing at 1.8 meters, I was forced to squat halfway once locked inside. The water reached a depth of 1.5 meters, and with the cage being 1.6 meters high, without struggling to lie on my back, the water would directly flood into my mouth and nostrils.
Nearby, not far from my head, a dead mouse was floating. A horde of flies buzzed around it, and maggots wriggled merrily in and out of the mouse's body. The overpowering stench of decay churned my stomach violently, and the urge to vomit rose rapidly to my throat.
"Ugh..."
"Don't vomit. You have no idea how many flies and maggots you'll draw if you do."
"Furthermore, if you vomit out the food in your stomach, your chances of surviving and getting out of this water dungeon alive will be even slimmer."
Just as I was on the verge of vomiting after a dry heave, a weak female voice emerged from behind me, compelling me to swallow back what had already reached my throat.
With great effort, I slowly turned around. Only then did I spot a long - haired woman huddled in the corner of the adjacent water dungeon.
"Were you just deceived and brought to northern Myanmar in the past two days?" The woman pushed aside the hair hanging in front of her face and seemed to examine me carefully before asking.
I hesitated for a moment and then grunted softly through my nose as a response.
"Just entering the park and you already get to experience being locked in a water dungeon..." The woman left her sentence half - finished, as if she had swallowed the rest.
I had no interest in this woman locked in the water dungeon or her words. At that moment, all I wanted was to end my life with the least amount of suffering possible.
Looking at the foul - smelling and murky water surface, along with the dead mouse and the corpses of unknown insects floating not far away, I couldn't help but think that there must be at least thousands, if not tens of thousands, of toxic bacteria in this pool of water. If I were to gulp down a bellyful of this dirty water, I fear that even Hua Tuo himself would be powerless to save me.
I opened my mouth wide and attempted several times, but the water was just too filthy and disgusting to swallow. Should I use my hand to pull that dead mouse over and eat it? The dead mouse, which had been soaking in this dirty water for an unknown period, likely had far more toxic bacteria in its body than the water itself.
Just as I was contemplating suicide in this way, the woman in the neighboring water prison spoke again.
"Thinking of killing yourself to end it all?"
"I advise you to abandon the idea of poisoning yourself by drinking the water in this water dungeon. Long ago, someone tried it, and no matter how much you drink, you won't die quickly."
The woman's words made me shiver. Thank goodness I hadn't impulsively swallowed some of this dirty water.
"Locked in this hellish place, it's better to die than to live like an animal being whipped and tortured every day."
I looked up at the blue sky and white clouds outside the water dungeon and thought of my parents back in my hometown. Tears once again streamed down my face uncontrollably.
"If you truly want to die, I can assist you." The woman grasped the horizontal bar at the top of the water dungeon, which was thicker than an adult's arm, and struggled to tilt her head up and move a little towards me. She probably wasn't very tall, perhaps just a little over 1.6 meters. It was extremely difficult for her to avoid having the dirty water pour into her mouth and nostrils.
After struggling to move to a place not far from me, the woman continued, "This water won't poison you to death, but it can drown you. If you're truly determined to die, just submerge your head in the water, and I can help you hold it down."
The woman was speaking with great seriousness, and I could tell she truly wanted to help me.
Did I really want to die that much? For some reason, I hesitated at that moment.
Seeing that I didn't respond, the woman slowly pushed aside the long hair covering most of her face and casually tied a ponytail with a strand of hair. It was only then that I got my first glimpse of what the woman looked like.
To say that I saw what she looked like, in fact, I only saw her facial features and outline. Her face was covered in dirt, truly filthy. There wasn't a single inch of clean skin on her entire face. Even though I could only make out her facial features and the outline of her face, I could still tell that she was a beautiful woman.
"You don't want to die. You just think you'll never be able to escape in this lifetime and you don't want to be whipped and tortured like an animal every day, right?" The woman looked into my eyes as if she had already penetrated my heart.
I nodded gently, not denying it.
"I have a suggestion. Do you want to hear it?" The woman's lips curled up slightly. I believe she must have been smiling at that moment.
Before I could open my mouth, the woman continued on her own, "Since you're not even afraid of death, why not take a risk and attempt to escape?"
"Even if you ultimately fail, the worst - case scenario is that you'll be brutally tortured and then killed."
"Moreover, even if it comes to the point where you have to die, you should also leave those scoundrels in northern Myanmar with a memory they'll never forget."
The woman's emotions grew more and more intense as she spoke. The hatred and madness in her eyes made me feel a bit frightened. What she meant by leaving those northern Myanmar scoundrels with an unforgettable memory before dying was probably at least biting off a piece of their flesh alive.
But the woman's words immediately awakened me. Yes, since I'm not even afraid of death, what else do I have to worry about? Why not do everything in my power to try to escape! Even if I fail, the worst that can happen is that I'll be tortured to death by those northern Myanmar bastards.
"You're right. I can't just die so easily. Even if I have to die, I'll take out one or two of those northern Myanmar bastards first!"
At this moment, the first face that came to my mind was Abu's. It was this bastard who squandered my parents' life savings. If there's anyone in this world I want to kill the most, it's definitely Abu. Besides Abu, the person I hate the most is that bitch Zhang Fengfeng. If it weren't for her, I wouldn't have ended up in this situation.
Those two bastards, I'll never let them live an easy life, even if I die.
Seeing that I had taken her words to heart, the woman finally smiled happily and extended her right hand to me, saying, "I'm Yu Xiu, from Hunan Province. What's your name?"
"Li Qiang, from Sichuan Province."
As I briefly introduced myself, I reached out and shook her small hand, and we got to know each other in a simple way.
After that, I started chatting quietly with this woman named Yu Xiu in the water dungeon. When I learned that she had already been tricked into this hellish place for more than two months, I was truly shocked. I had only been here for two days and was already thinking of seeking relief through suicide. I couldn't even imagine how Yu Xiu had survived these past two months. Moreover, she was a woman!
I had witnessed Xie Fangfang's tragic encounter with my own eyes. Just because she complained that the food was bad, she was beaten up by the northern Myanmar bastards who were cooks, and they even dragged her into a low and small building and violated her with several other scoundrels.
There were only Yu Xiu and I locked in this huge water dungeon, which indicated that she was clearly not an easy target either. Otherwise, she wouldn't have been locked here.
In this hellish place, the more reluctant one is to submit, the more torture one will endure, and the more miserable one's fate will be. Although Yu Xiu didn't talk about her experiences over the past two months, I knew that it was a miracle that this woman was still alive.