Chapter 16
"Ah!" Wu Fan let out a desperate scream.
His mother was the last image that came to his mind. No matter if he had to die, but what would happen to her with her mental issues? And his sister, who had to give up her studies to care for their mother and no longer had money to pay for her tuition, what would she do?
In that moment, he suddenly felt the ground give way beneath him, and his body plummeted quickly.
It felt as though he was falling into an endless abyss, the sound of the wind whistling in his ears, but everything was engulfed in darkness.
Instinctively, he stretched out his arms, hoping to stop his fall.
However, Wu Fan eventually gave in to despair. With a dull thud, he felt his body jerked by excruciating pain, then everything went black.
"Oh my God, what's happening? Is there really a hole here?" The four men above exchanged incredulous looks.
They had thought that with their four knives, they would tear Wu Fan to pieces. Never had they imagined that he would slip so quickly, causing their blades to collide with each other, nearly injuring themselves.
"Did we hit him?" one of them asked, confused.
"It seems not. Just when the knives were about to hit his head, he fell!"
"So he's not dead? What are we going to tell Meng Ge?"
"Don't worry. We didn't hear any falling sounds. This hole must be over a hundred meters deep, otherwise, we would have heard something, right? So it's certain he's dead!" The leader pulled out his phone and illuminated the dark entrance of the hole.
"Yes, that makes sense. Look, there are some stones over there. If we throw them, we can find out how deep it is. And even if he's not dead, these stones might kill him!" suggested another man, pointing to some nearby stones.
"Exactly, let's hurry up and bring them and throw them!"
They found three stones, each weighing over a hundred kilos. It took all four men to lift one.
They brought one over and, counting "One, two, three!", they threw it into the hole.
"Boom!" Half a minute later, they heard a faint impact sound.
"Haha, he's definitely dead!" the leader laughed in satisfaction.
They repeated the process with the other two stones.
After three minutes without any noise, they found some brush and covered the narrow entrance of the hole before returning to report.
"He's definitely dead. It's a hidden hole in a mountain far from the village. He fell in accidentally. The heavy stones we threw took half a minute to echo. This hole is like a well; even if he didn't kill himself, he'll never get out. Haha!" The leader returned to Lei Meng, proud of his success.
"Good, good, good work!" Lei Meng was satisfied, happy to have finally solved the problem.
He took out a stack of bills and tossed it to the leader. "Take this, relax. Don't tell anyone, keep it to yourself!"
A day passed, and night fell.
Villager Liu Tiansheng, after having dinner, went to Wu Fan's house to discuss his future plans.
"What are you doing?" he asked, seeing Meng Jiangmei wandering in the yard with an oil lamp, calling out, "Where are you? Where are you?"
"You're Buddha, aren't you? I have a son named Sun Wukong. This morning, he left with his nine-pronged hoe to find his wife Chang'e, and he hasn't returned. I have to find him, there are no immortal peaches left at home!" replied Meng Jiangmei, lost in her madness.
"Ah!" Liu Tiansheng's heart tightened. Could it be that Wu Fan hadn't come back? Despite her apparent madness, it was clear that Meng Jiangmei still kept her son in her memory.