Before everything goes out

Wang Wang!

Wang Wang Wang!

At the entrance of Shuanghe Village, the barking of dogs could be heard everywhere.

Liu Yongxiao did not take all the dogs with him, but left a small portion of them in the village.

at this time.

The dogs frolicked and played among themselves, scrambling for food in the mud.

Ham sausage, compressed biscuits, or something else entirely.

Food that even the villagers can't afford is now being casually thrown on the ground and generously fed to these stray dogs.

"What happened?"

Among the crowd, Niu Wenbing watched all this with a strange expression.

The rings did indeed arrive.

And just as the villagers who arrived earlier said, the rings that came this time were not bad rings, but good rings.

This time, not only did they not steal anything, they even gave things to them.

Rice, flour, cooking oil, sausages, dried meat, canned fruit...

Beneath the makeshift tents erected in front of the crowd, several large boxes were piled high with various supplies.

"Thank you!"

"You're all good people!"

"May God protect you!"

In front of the boxes, villagers lined up in a long queue to receive the supplies from Huanzi.

He beamed with joy and expressed his gratitude repeatedly.

A man was carrying a full load of things, so full that he accidentally dropped some on the ground. Huanzi thoughtfully picked them up and put them back in his arms.

"Dear fellow villagers, I want to sincerely apologize to you here."

In this festive atmosphere, a peaceful female voice came from the front.

Niu Wenbing didn't queue up to receive the items; instead, he stood at the edge and looked ahead through the crowd.

She was a kind-looking young woman.

Before meeting this woman, he never imagined that the adjectives "kind" and "young" would appear so harmoniously in one woman.

He was wearing a black leather raincoat, and beneath the brim of his hat was a faintly smiling face.

"Previously, it was our mismanagement of the team members that gave them the opportunity to violate discipline and commit crimes in your village."

The woman's voice wasn't loud, but it was extremely penetrating.

Even in the heavy rain, Niu Wenbing could hear clearly without any difficulty.

"However, I hope you understand that this was never my intention. That's why we brought these supplies today to make up for the mistakes they made."

"Don't worry, everyone. Everything here will be given to you for free."

"I understand, this may not mean much to us, but it is a vital guarantee for you to get through this winter."

Niu Wenbing squinted.

He understood what the woman was saying.

But he didn't think there could be such kind people in the world.

Could it be...?

Are these things poisonous?

wrong.

That doesn't make sense.

Under the tent, soldiers were resting and eating and drinking, swallowing the same food that had been delivered to them.

Say.

Not counting the convoy that stopped outside the village, there must have been twenty or thirty people just distributing things at the village entrance.

If you really have designs on them, pulling the trigger twice is easier than poisoning them.

"Brother Niu, what's going on..."

Niu Wenbing turned around.

Lin Wen arrived late, having already settled the children.

"It was the superiors of those previous rings who came to deliver these things to us, saying it was compensation."

As Niu Wenbing spoke, he took a can of Coke from the person next to him.

He was very familiar with that red packaging, but he hadn't seen it for almost ten years.

"Let's line up first, I'll take more for you, since you have a lot of kids."

chapped.

He pulled the tab and took a big gulp of water mixed with rain.

It's crisp and refreshing, and also stimulating.

The taste etched in his memory made him no longer doubt it.

...

...

grunt.

Gudu, Gudu.

Li Fei tilted his head back, drank the water in his stainless steel canteen in one gulp, and then hung it back on his backpack.

Inside the cave, three people and a dog walked briskly forward.

"This place is so big..."

Using the shoulder light on his shoulder, Li Fei curiously looked around.

Once inside, he realized that the cave was completely different from what he had imagined.

From the initial opening that was half a person high, to the later gap that was only one person wide, and then to the passageway that two people could pass side by side.

As they walked, the cave became increasingly spacious.

After turning a few corners and jumping over a few hurdles,

Now, he is walking in a huge underground cave, spacious like an air-raid shelter.

"I never even heard of a place like this in the mountains."

Niu San's voice echoed in the empty cave.

This amazement even made him briefly forget the pain in his right arm.

"My father brought me here when I was very young. They called this place Kongshan back then, but it was bigger than I remember."

That's what She Qingqing said.

After entering the cave, she didn't need to get wet in the rain. She combed all her hair back with her hands, revealing a face with a high nose bridge.

He looks more like a man now.

"Are you sure this dog can lead us back to the village?"

Li Fei looked at the bracelet with some unease.

After entering the cave, a low signal indicator lit up on the bracelet, and the map went out.

Without a map, and having already taken several detours, the cave's terrain was complicated. He worried that getting lost in the cave would be more troublesome than getting lost in the mountains.

but.

Now that we're already here, we have no choice but to trust Er Tong.

As one of Liu Yongxiao's two closest dogs, he felt that Ertong's abilities were probably greater than he had imagined.

"Also, based on what you just said, do you know what Tai Sui is?"

While on the road, Li Fei asked about She Qingqing.

"have no idea."

"Then why did you say it brought us in to find Tai Sui?"

"All I know is that my father said that the Tai Sui is not on the ground, but underground, and it is probably in this cave."

"Does Snake Uncle know what Tai Sui is?"

"Yeah, but he's tight-lipped; he won't even tell me."

You didn't even tell your daughter?

Li Fei frowned slightly, quickening his pace out of curiosity.

Not only him, but even Niu San next to him was looking at the darkness ahead with excitement.

Tai Sui.

Over the years, the villagers of Shuanghe Village have eaten a lot of Tai Sui meat. To put it bluntly, without Tai Sui, they would not have survived the most difficult years.

I'm about to see the truth about Tai Sui, and I'm quite excited.

"My brother said that Tai Sui is some kind of mutated animal, maybe a very large mountain cannon, or maybe something else."

Niu San said this.

After walking for a while, Li Fei was once again amazed by the sheer size of this underground world, which far exceeded the scale of an air-raid shelter.

Then, after turning a corner, he suddenly stopped.

"Listen, can you hear the sound of water?"

At Li Fei's prompting, the three of them changed their expressions slightly.

Look ahead.

In the darkness, the faint sound of water could be heard.

"Where did the water come from?"

"Is it a river?"

"Yes, an underground river."

"That's true. I've heard the older generation mention that there's an underground river in our mountains, but no one has ever come here."

"Want some water?"

"Never mind, there are no fish or shrimp in it, and the water might be poisonous."

"So what is Tai Sui? A mutated, giant fat fish?"

"Possibly."

As they spoke, the three of them walked briskly behind Er Tong.

really.

Follow the sound of water, and soon an underground river will appear on one side of the cave.

Judging by its size, it's even wider than the one on the ground.

Walking along the river, the sound of water is loud, and the mist hits your face.

Li Fei shone his flashlight into the river. The water was crystal clear, with no fish or shrimp, and he could see the stones at the bottom of the riverbed at a glance.

The color is strange, and the texture is smooth.

Only then did he realize that this was how Shuanghe Village got its name...

One river is on the ground, and the other is underground, which is why he couldn't find the second river before.

We walked for another half hour.

After rounding a bend in the river, the sound of the water gradually diminished.

Looking into the river again with the flashlight, the current had indeed slowed down...

wrong.

It's not a problem with the flow rate.

Li Fei frowned slightly and beckoned the two to stop by the river.

Shining a flashlight on the river and looking into it, the once clear and transparent water became much murky. If you looked closely, you could see strands of something floating downstream, like hair.

"What is this? Seaweed?"

"have no idea."

"Let's follow Er Tong, it shouldn't be far."

Keep going.

The terrain inside the cave is flat, making it much easier to walk than in the deep mountains.

If this road really leads to the village, then what used to be a half-day journey through the mountains can now be completed in just two hours.

soon.

As the group ventured deeper, the texture of the river continued to change.

From clear to murky, and then to viscous.

Each time Li Fei shone his flashlight on the riverbed, the river's viscosity increased, and the sound of the flowing water decreased.

Until now, the sound of water has completely stopped, and what flows in the river is no longer water. Those hair-like fibers have accumulated and condensed into something between liquid and solid.

It resembles flowing metallic mercury, but its texture is clearer and coarser.

It's neither like water nor like metal.

"Like meat."

Li Fei's eyes trembled as he thought of something.

Looking at the enormous thing wriggling in the riverbed, he and the other two exchanged glances and slowly realized what was happening.

Tai Sui.

Tai Sui is not an animal, but a river.

A mutated underground river.

This is the secret Liu Yongxiao kept hidden, the source of Lin Wen's children's nutrition, and the food they constantly eat.

"I remember now."

She Qingqing stood by the river, staring intently at the writhing riverbed.

"I heard it on the walkie-talkies of the ringers; they call it..."

"A chimera of consciousness."

...