Whenever I think that I might die here, I feel like a deflated ball, collapsing to the ground, with tears streaming endlessly down my face. I think pessimistically, since we're all going to die, let me just sit and wait for death. I don't want to move anymore, nor do I want to look for any glimmer of hope. Just let me sit here and wait to die.\When Xiao Hei saw me like this, he could only watch me in silence.\After a while, Xiao Hei said to me, "Stop crying."\"We're all going to die, can't I even cry?" I wiped my tears, my throat dry from having cried just now.\"No, I heard a sound." Xiao Hei quickly explained, placing his finger on his lips to make a shushing gesture.\I immediately stopped choking back my sobs and pricked up my ears to listen to the surrounding sounds. Could it be that the cannibals from before had come out? My chest tightened, and I felt a surge of air trapped in my chest, neither going up nor down, making me uncomfortable.\After a while, I also heard a strange sound. At first, it sounded like the noise from an air vent—a low humming. Listening more closely, it felt like a low-frequency engine, humming. If one didn't listen carefully, they might think it was their own tinnitus or an auditory illusion, especially in such a closed basement where tinnitus is more likely to occur.\I slowly stood up from the ground and looked around. This place had been abandoned for a long time and had been out of power, so how could there be any air conditioning or engine sounds?\If it's not air conditioning or an engine, then where exactly is that sound coming from? I looked at Xiao Hei, and he was looking at me too, certainly sharing the same uncertainty.\Xiao Hei opened his mouth, but hesitated as he looked at me.\I impatiently asked him, "Did you think of something? Speak up."\Xiao Hei nodded: "Could that sound be from the air conditioning?"\"It sounds quite similar, but there's no power here, so there can't be any air conditioning," I said.\"Hmm, so maybe it's not the air conditioning, but the sound of the wind entering through the vents from outside. Think about it, this is a basement, so when it was built, they should have left one or two ventilation openings to keep the air flowing; otherwise, if the power went out, everyone in the basement would suffocate," Xiao Hei explained.\"So…?" I couldn't understand his meaning. At this point, I had already lost the ability to think."So, if there's a ventilation shaft, we can just climb out through it!" Xiao Hei said excitedly: "I don't dare open any doors anymore. A-Ming is dead, Jianzi is dead—I can't risk opening doors to find an exit. I'm afraid the next one to die will be me. But if there's a ventilation shaft, we won't need to open doors to find a way out. We can just climb out through it."
Hearing Xiao Hei's words, I felt instantly encouraged. He was right—if we could find a ventilation shaft, the two of us could be saved!
"What are we waiting for? Let's go find it quickly." I wiped my tears and went with Xiao Hei to search for the source of the sound. I firmly believed that as long as we could locate the source of the sound, we could find the ventilation shaft.
Xiao Hei and I raised our flashlights high, since the ventilation shaft should be above us. So, we walked along while shining the flashlight on the ceiling.
The buzzing sound grew closer and clearer, and my heart raced, because we were almost able to leave this haunted place.
Excited as I was, I suddenly noticed that the low humming sound had changed—it wasn't the wind! Realizing this, my steps abruptly halted.
Xiao Hei was stunned for a moment and looked at me in confusion: "What's wrong?"
"That's not the sound of wind," I whispered fearfully. "We... we can't get out."
"What are you talking about?" Xiao Hei shouted angrily, scolding me: "Why can't we get out? Don't talk nonsense."
"Listen…" I said, pointing at a door. "The sound seems to be coming from there."
Xiao Hei pressed his lips together and tilted his ear to listen. His expression gradually darkened, and his lips turned pale. When he finally understood the sound, his mouth slightly opened, letting out an "ah ah!"
"Th-that is…" Xiao Hei pointed at the door and asked me: "The sound of chanting?"
"Yes." I nodded. The sound was like chanting in a funeral home, so low it seemed like it was coming from a broken radio, and the more you listened, the more chilling it became.
Goosebumps crawled all over my arms and my scalp went numb. Xiao Hei and I stood in the corridor, frozen in place, too afraid to make any noise that might alert the evil spirit in that room.No one knew how much time had passed. Xiao Hei didn't know where he found the courage to fight. He raised his hand and shone the light toward the door of that ward. The door was tightly shut, looking no different from other wards, except that there was a sign on the door. There were words on the sign, but because it was so old, the handwriting was a bit blurry, so if you stood too far away, you wouldn't be able to see it clearly. Xiao Hei leaned forward slightly, squinting to see the words on the sign. I patted his shoulder, and he sprang up, turning around in terror as he looked at me: "You scared me to death." "Sorry, I was just thinking...... Do you want to get closer and take a look?" I was also very curious about what that sign said. Maybe if I knew, I could solve the mystery here. The two of us pushed each other, pressing close to each other's arms. Suddenly, I stepped on a puddle of water, which made me curious, so I shone my flashlight down to my feet. Only then did I realize that blood was constantly gushing from the door crack of this ward. The bright red liquid kept seeping from under the door, and in no time, it covered the area beneath our shoes. Seeing this, the two of us were terrified and immediately stepped back, but the blood kept gushing out, and the area of the stain kept expanding. No matter how we retreated, it always caught up to us. "How could this happen?" My scalp tingled instantly, and even my spine felt cold. "N-I don't know." Xiao Hei grabbed his face in confusion, feeling completely uneasy. This patch of blood came so suddenly. Looking at Xiao Hei, I couldn't help but feel nervous, because his behavior had become a bit chaotic, as if he was terrified and a bit confused. "Xiao Hei." I called out to him, hoping he could calm down, but that call startled him again, and he twitched all over. He stared at me, but only for three seconds. His gaze lost focus, staring at me distractedly for a moment, then he started scratching at me like he was itching all over, scratching at his hair one moment, then his pants. His appearance startled me. I took a step back, afraid he was possessed by something. If he was possessed by a ghost, what should I do? My heart was pounding with alarm bells, not knowing how to handle the situation before me.I could never bring myself to knock Xiao Hei unconscious; he was my only companion. But if he were really possessed by a ghost, he might do something crazy, like... kill me.
I drew in a sharp, cold breath and dared not think any further.
Xiao Hei suddenly stopped moving, and he turned to look behind him, as if he had heard some sound. I was terrified by his actions. Even though I hadn't heard anything strange, I still shone my flashlight in the direction of his gaze.
In the darkness, there was nothing—nothing except the dim, elongated corridor. I thought Xiao Hei might have misheard something because his nerves were too tense; he was only scaring himself. Although I thought this, I was still infected by his panic, and I couldn't help feeling jittery.
The sound of chanting continued in our ears, low and resembling the sobbing of a woman hiding under the quilt. Coupled with the fact that the floor was covered in a pool of blood, my heart unconsciously trembled.
"Ah───!" Xiao Hei suddenly screamed, a heart-wrenching yell. He shrank in fear, eyes fixed straight ahead. It felt as if he had seen some terrifying scene, yet I couldn't see anything. The corridor ahead was empty.
Could it be that Xiao Hei saw something I couldn't? I became dizzy and quickly asked him, "What's wrong! What's going on, Xiao Hei!"
Xiao Hei didn't respond; it was as if he couldn't hear me. He just continued screaming, curled up in panic, clutching his head and crying out, but his gaze remained fixed in the same direction.
He definitely saw something!
"Xiao Hei," I called him again.
Xiao Hei still didn't respond, or perhaps he was no longer able to. The immense fear had long exceeded what his mind could bear.
I anxiously kept stepping back, worried that whatever Xiao Hei saw might come after me too.
After a while, I had put four or five meters of distance between us. My palms were sweating, and even my back was drenched in cold sweat. I felt like I had lost all body heat, like sitting in a pool of icy water, my whole body cold as if I were a corpse.
My eyes darted around, trying to see what Xiao Hei was seeing, but I couldn't. I saw nothing.The more I was in a situation where I couldn't see, the more terrified I became, as if a blind person had lost their cane. I felt danger all around me.
"Ah!" Suddenly, I saw a mass of black shadow fly swiftly from the other end of the corridor. It looked like a large cloud of black mist, and inside the mist were several grimacing faces — some male, some female. Each face twisted and contorted, screaming like a ghost, none resembling human form. It seemed like an evil spirit formed from immense resentment had gathered into this cloud of black mist.
I finally saw what Little Black was afraid of.
As soon as I saw the black mist, I screamed in fear.
Boom! The black mist was right in front of us and then enveloped Little Black before my eyes. Little Black waved his arms hard, trying to disperse the mist, but the black mist only contracted more tightly around him.
I was so scared I couldn't move, didn't dare call out to Little Black, and didn't dare go pull him out of the mist.
Little Black's body kept retreating, finally reaching the wall. He had nowhere left to go.
A terrifying thought formed in my mind: once this black mist took Little Black away, their next target would be me!
I shivered immediately but was helpless. I had nowhere to hide and could only stand there to wait for death. Tears welled up in my eyes as I watched the black mist entwine with Little Black, knowing that the way Little Black would die would be the way I would die soon.
The grimacing faces inside the black mist howled out horrendous cries — some crying, some screaming, some moaning, and some roaring in anger.
Suddenly, the black mist swirled upward like a whirlwind, pulling Little Black into midair, then quickly receding to the end of the corridor.
Little Black shouted: "No! Save me────!" His voice faded farther and farther away, as if coming from several hundred meters away.
I could feel that Little Black was being taken to another world, a distant world not belonging to the human realm.
Little Black was carried away from my sight by a mass of black mist. I stood there dazed and shocked. In that moment, I felt utterly surrounded by despair.
Having lost all my companions and with no way out, I remembered a line from a movie — "Those who die earlier are the happiest." Now, I was the only one left alive, and could only wait alone to be slaughtered by the evil spirits.My legs suddenly went weak, and I fell to the ground. Just as my mind went completely blank, my eyes were struck by a dazzling light, so bright that I couldn't open them. After a while, I saw several black figures swaying within the light. Seeing this, I instinctively knew that my time had come. "Ah!" I screamed loudly, unable to control myself. Even as my throat grew dry and bled from shouting, I continued to scream nearly madly. If I didn't do this, I feared I would truly go insane. Perhaps I clung to the faint hope that I was already crazy, so maybe I wouldn't be so terrified of death. "Ah…" I grabbed my face, crying and shouting while looking at the black silhouettes in front of me. At that moment, my voice drowned out everything, overpowering the chanting of scriptures and the wails of spirits. I don't know how long passed before I realized a familiar voice had been calling me: "Hu Zhenghao, Hu Zhenghao!" I looked ahead in a daze, my pupils gradually adjusting to the light. Only then did I see clearly that the black figures were actually my friends from the army. They had switched on a searchlight, illuminating the entire basement, and then walked toward me with puzzled faces. They had come to save me! Seeing them, I wished I could immediately crawl to their feet.
