Daomu Biji: A Thousand Faces

Black Glasses was standing motionless, but Ah Tou could feel him slowly touching her thigh.

She didn’t know what his intentions were and her innate disgust of skinship made her whole body break out in goosebumps, but she was rational enough to know that Black Glasses wouldn’t take advantage of her under the present situation. Then, she immediately realized that Black Glasses was writing on her thigh.

Ah Tou almost threw up in disgust, but she had no choice but to feel what he was writing. Black Glasses slowly wrote one word on her thigh: “RUN”. It took her a moment to figure out that it was written in English. She was just about to ask how to run in such a narrow space when she immediately saw the flashlight beam point up at her from below. A portion of the tunnel ledge and wall, as well as Black Glasses’ three fingers, were suddenly illuminated. His fingers were backlit, so she could only see their silhouette, but she saw him lower one, which meant that he was only holding two up now. Then, he lowered another one so that he was only holding one finger up. 

Three, two, one!

It was a countdown. Black Glasses instantly lowered that last finger and yelled, “Hold onto me tightly!” Ah Tou reflexively wrapped her arms around Black Glasses’ neck just as he took off from the tunnel ledge and jumped down, immediately landing in front of Long Immortal. 

Ah Tou saw that horrible, strange face again, but Long Immortal was so startled by their sudden appearance that he shrank back a little. Then, Black Glasses immediately began running wildly, constantly adjusting his posture in the narrow, dark tunnels.

It was pitch black in front of Ah Tou, but she felt that Black Glasses didn’t slow down at all. Instead, he seemed to be moving in the darkness at full speed. She didn’t dare let go of him for fear that she would hit the tunnel walls.

“You'll get lost!” Ah Tou would’ve had to stop every time she met a fork in the path and turned on her lighter to memorize the way, but if she were to pass an intersection in the dark without memorizing anything, she would easily get lost. 

“I can see the way!" Black Glasses yelled.

"Liang Yanyan!" Ah Tou shouted. She came all the way down here to save her, so why had she been caught by someone and was running away now? Running away meant that her efforts in getting this far down had all been done in vain.

As she was just finishing her thought, they both saw a flash of light appear behind them. Ah Tou immediately looked back. In the distant darkness, it was almost as if a train was chasing them. The light was moving very fast and was almost about to reach them. 

“She asked me to bring you up!”

"Where is she?”

“She's a goner!” Black Glasses immediately rolled into a tunnel and began moving in various directions, playing hide and seek in the tunnels. The light behind them followed for a couple of intersections but was quickly thrown off. Black Glasses, who was sweating all over by this point, eventually found a fork in the tunnel where he could stop and rest.

"How can she be a goner?” Ah Tou asked him anxiously.

"Because this place is going to collapse?"

“What?”

"Long Immortal is destroying this underground structure because we found him. He needs to destroy evidence of his own existence."

"Then that means we have to save her even more!"

The light, which had been moving further away, immediately turned back at the sound of her loud voice. Black Glasses heaved a long sigh, put Ah Tou on his back again, and continued running. Ah Tou knew that they’d be in big trouble if she were to scream again, but she was too worried about Liang Yanyan to remain quiet. So, she lowered her voice and said, "I came all the way here. I have to save her!"

"She gave me all of her commission and asked me to save you."

"How much do you need? I'll do whatever I can to pay you the amount. Let’s go and save her.” 

"What a joke. I’ve checked your background. You're even poorer than I am." Black Glasses grabbed her butt and asked, “Do you have health insurance?”

“What?”

Black Glasses lifted her ass, pushing her whole body up high so that she bumped directly into a rock on the upper edge of the tunnel. Since they were traveling at a high speed, her vision went black and she immediately passed out. 

——

The chauffeur later explained that when Black Glasses carried Ah Tou to the village entrance, the two were completely covered in mud. When they turned back to look, they saw the ground beneath the whole village—as well as the village houses—starting to collapse. It appeared that the ground had been hollowed out by someone and the whole underground structure was destroyed. 

Liang Yanyan was still underground, so Black Glasses immediately called an excavator team to come over. When Ah Tou woke up again, she found herself in a hospital. She was too tired to stay awake and didn’t remain conscious for long before falling back into a coma.

But during that very short period of time when she was conscious, she was especially surprised. All she remembered was that she had told Black Glasses she would do whatever she could to pay him. What had made her say such a thing?

****