Xu Shuhan was momentarily stunned. What did he mean by not needing them to knock it over? If they were just lifting the lid to investigate, it shouldn’t cause any major changes, right?
Ling Mo walked over to the barrel, circled it, and said, “Looks like Mad Xuan noticed it too… But because he noticed, he was even more convinced that I might actually be trapped down here…”
“See the dust on the lid? I believe when Mad Xuan dug down, he must have directly pierced through the ‘floor,’ and wouldn’t have bothered to clean it up afterward…” He bent down, picked up a plastic pipe from beside the barrel, and waved it. “There are a lot of renovation materials like this in the building. To support a carpet like that, you just need to fix both ends and then prop it up underneath with this pipe.”
“So there’s only a thin layer of dust on the lid, and it’s from the places where it was fixed. If we look carefully, I’m sure we can find quite a few nails…” Ling Mo leaned the plastic pipe against the wall.
“I don’t get it… Even if we know how they set up the trap…”
Xu Shuhan started to ask, but Ling Mo answered, “Tang Hao mentioned that their way of luring us in was through people… Although he didn’t mention this trap, once you add that in, it’s not hard to figure out.”
“You mean…” Xu Shuhan furrowed her brow, then suddenly brightened up, “The decoy would choose to fall with us?”
“Exactly! So the barrel would be knocked over by the decoy at the first moment,” Ling Mo nodded.
“But… that means he’s doomed too! People like that wouldn’t sacrifice themselves for unrelated people, even if they’re in the same team…” Xu Shuhan still couldn’t wrap her head around it.
“Of course not,” Ling Mo turned and shone the flashlight into the depths, “So there must be another exit here. This is another thing Tang Hao hid. If I hadn’t come down myself, I wouldn’t know until now… They plotted deeply, and that’s why they always believed they would succeed. I used to think they wanted to sneak in through the Rosen Company, but I didn’t notice this major flaw… As for Tang Hao, he’s probably still thinking about getting out alive and leaving us to die here.”
“I see! Yuwen Xuan realized this, so he went in… But there are monsters here too, so… there must be a fork inside!” Xu Shuhan said, then showed a hint of worry again.
“As long as there’s a way, we won’t die. But before we go in, we need to deal with this thing first.” Ling Mo pointed at the barrel of blood.
A few seconds later, Ling Mo and Xu Shuhan followed the flashlight beam inside.
Behind them, the blue barrel had completely disappeared…
“I didn’t expect the main body to come in too… But if we can find another exit nearby, maybe we can find a way to meet up with Xia Na and the others… It’s a pity the psychic tentacle can’t extend too far, and I can’t sense Xia Na and the others’ positions… What on earth are those mucus components made of!”
Ling Mo was thinking when the flashlight suddenly shone on a mark ahead.
“It’s left by Yuwen Xuan!”
Besides him, no one else would burn such a mark on the wall…
A charred arrow pointed to the left, while the right led to another concrete tunnel. But when they shone the flashlight inside, they found the end was sealed long ago, covered in moss. Ling Mo even probed with a tentacle and found it couldn’t be opened, so he gave up.
“This way,” Ling Mo said, glancing at the arrow and quickening his pace, “What’s the meaning of this arrow…”
“…He probably knew you’d come down, right? Maybe he left the arrow to remind you,” Xu Shuhan whispered.
“That’s why he’s called a madman…” Ling Mo replied, speechless.
The two fell silent again, focusing on moving forward.
Xu Shuhan followed behind, occasionally glancing at Ling Mo’s back. The road beneath them gradually changed from damp concrete to uneven silt. Strange marks began to appear in some places. To her shock, they even found half a skeleton lying slanted in the silt… The skeleton’s arm still had a woman’s gold chain hanging from it, standing out starkly against the dark silt. ɽ𝙖𝐍ổ₿ÈⱾ
After hesitating several times, Xu Shuhan finally couldn’t help but ask, “Ling Mo…”
“Hmm?”
“Do you know something? About this place?” Xu Shuhan asked uncertainly, then hastily added, “I feel like… you’re not concerned about what kind of environment this is… Ah, sorry! You’re worried about Yuwen Xuan, right? I didn’t mean to pry…”
As she babbled, she heard Ling Mo say, “I do know some things, but not everything. If there’s anything important along the way, I’ll let you know in advance, don’t worry.”
“Huh? He admitted it?” Xu Shuhan was startled, pressing a hand to her chest.
Even when she was human, she had noticed Ling Mo had many secrets… After becoming a zombie, although she knew one of the biggest ones, she still didn’t know much about Ling Mo himself. But conversely, Ling Mo seemed to know her inside out… This contrast made Xu Shuhan feel quite complicated when facing Ling Mo…
“But I didn’t expect him to actually tell me! Although he didn’t directly spill his secrets, at least he didn’t ignore my question! Is it because I’m not human anymore? Because I’m a zombie, he considers me one of his own… No, no, that’s too much, maybe he’s just less guarded around me…”
Xu Shuhan was lost in thought when Ling Mo suddenly grabbed her.
Before she could react, her mouth was covered by a hand, and her body was dragged into a corner.
“Mmm…”
“Shh.” Ling Mo’s low voice came from beside her ear. It was then she realized the flashlight had been turned off at some point…
“Up ahead, there’s something,” Ling Mo whispered.
Feeling Ling Mo’s breath lightly on her ear, Xu Shuhan tensed up completely. After hearing Ling Mo’s explanation, she rolled her eyes amidst her racing heart, “I’m not scared! But… why did he have to cover my mouth!”
“I really want to bite…”