When we arrived, we brought climbing ropes in case the steep slope would make descending impossible without them. Though unused earlier, they now came in handy. Pulling out a sixty-meter rope, I tied a knot around a rock and tossed the remaining length outward.
The rope was immediately pulled taut by some force, making a rapid whirring sound as it was drawn in. This saved me quite a bit of effort. Securing myself with a harness, I clipped the safety rope to my waist and the main line, gripping the rope tightly as I stepped out from behind the rock. Despite the strong pull, holding firmly allowed me to resist being dragged away as I slowly ascended the slope, step by step.
The slope wasn't very long—just about fifteen or sixteen meters—before I reached what seemed to be a cave entrance. As I felt flat ground beneath me, I noticed the pulling force had lessened inside the cave, sparking my curiosity. Even stranger, Xiao Xiang's voice calling out to me grew fainter, making me wonder if I had taken a wrong turn.
Following the sound of her voice to the left, I noticed the uneven ground beneath me. Each step produced a crisp crunch, and I occasionally kicked something hard. The cave air was damp and reeked worse than the area outside. The cold, clammy air chilled my wet clothes, clinging to my skin like icy needles, almost freezing me solid.
Yet, as I moved deeper into the cave, the pull weakened until I could manage it without holding onto the rope. However, after another twenty meters, another woman's voice called my name—this time from the opposite direction. It was Xiao Ying's voice, distant yet distinct, just like Xiao Xiang's.
I thought to myself: Xiao Ying knows martial arts; I should prioritize saving Xiao Xiang. But even if Xiao Ying didn't, my decision would have been the same—I'd save Xiao Xiang first. Resolving to press forward, I noticed something unsettling: as I moved closer to Xiao Xiang's voice, it became fainter, while Xiao Ying's voice grew louder.
What was going on? Could this be some kind of ghostly illusion? A chill ran down my spine as I considered the possibility that the voices were mere trickery. I stopped, took out my lighter, and lit it, revealing a horrifying sight beneath my feet—bones!
The chilling sight made my hair stand on end, my body covered in goosebumps. I realized I had been walking on a carpet of bones. No wonder my footsteps had sounded so eerie. After calming myself, I examined the bones closely and realized they weren't human but animal. Their shapes and faces gave them away. Relieved that they weren't human remains, I relaxed slightly.
But my lighter burned too hot, singeing my fingers before the plastic melted and the flame went out. In the brief darkness that followed, out of the corner of my eye, I glimpsed a figure lying to my right.
Could it be one of Xiao Ying or Xiao Xiang? Carefully, I approached the figure, crouched, and reached out to touch it—only to find it stiff with death. This person had been dead for some time.
Certain it wasn't Xiao Ying or Xiao Xiang, I mustered my courage to search the body and found a flashlight in its hand. Though it had no power, I found two spare batteries in its pocket. After replacing them, the flashlight illuminated the cave, filling me with excitement.
Shining the beam on the body's face, I was stunned—it was Mo Xi!
How could this be? She was alive earlier! How could she have died here? My mind raced with confusion and dread. Her body was stiff, indicating she had been dead for at least five days. If that was true, then who was the girl claiming to be Mo Xi?
Turning around, I spotted more bodies. Shining the flashlight further revealed that one belonged to Mu Fenghua, while the others—a woman and three men—were people I recognized from Mo Xi's camera. They were her classmates who had traveled to Henan with her.
I was frozen in disbelief. How could this have happened? I had learned from the ghost girl that spirits couldn't appear in sunlight. If these six souls were already dead, how had they traveled home in broad daylight? How had Mu Fenghua visited Mo Xi? And how had the ghost girl, with her keen sight, failed to discern that they weren't alive?
The more I thought about it, the more unnerved I became. Unable to bear it, I turned and ran deeper into the cave, ignoring the calls of Xiao Xiang and Xiao Ying. Don't call me a coward—if you were in this chilling environment and saw someone alive only to later find their corpse, how would you react?
As I ran, my vision distorted. The bones beneath my feet seemed to transform into withered branches. It hit me: everything I'd seen must have been an illusion. The rapid movement must have disrupted the false images, revealing the truth.
Just as I thought this, I tripped and fell hard. Frustrated, I looked to see what had tripped me—a corpse!
I swallowed hard. This couldn't be another illusion. The flashlight I'd taken from Mo Xi's body was real, proving her body was real. And this corpse had physically tripped me—it couldn't be fake.
I didn't dare examine it closely. Just as I tried to get up and keep running, the corpse moved!
Terrified, I scrambled to my feet. The corpse rose too, and we both screamed, running in opposite directions.
"Wait—Wang Lin! Stop!"
Hearing this command jolted me back to my senses. It was Xiao Ying. Trembling, I turned the flashlight toward her face. Her hair and eyelashes were damp, and though her face was pale, it still had a healthy flush—proof she was alive.
The flashlight's beam blinded her momentarily. Shielding her eyes, she slowly lowered her hand as I lowered the light. We stared at each other for a moment, then burst into relieved laughter—an expression of raw, heartfelt joy at surviving.
"I'm so glad you're alive!" Xiao Ying said, visibly emotional.
I nodded. "Me too." In that moment, I realized she felt like family to me. Despite all her lies, I couldn't bring myself to hate her. Seeing her alive made me genuinely happy.
"Did you see the others?" she asked, walking closer.
"No. How did you end up here?"
"I don't know. I was pulled in by some force and lost consciousness. I woke up when someone kicked me." Her face was full of confusion.
"Then they must have been pulled in too. Let's look around for them," I said, walking ahead while shining the flashlight.
Suddenly, the beam landed on something horrifying—a furry face emerging from the ground, about twenty meters away. Half the face was human, the other half... a cat.