BXBX NOVEL Chapter 71: Micro
“Are you kidding me? Do you want to go back in there for real?” Ming Yi was shocked by their decision as he saw their bumping fists. “Are you crazy? It is all dark in here, and it will be even worse in the jungle. We almost got killed when the Sun was up, and what if the millipedes didn’t leave?”
“Then we’ll just run back.” Chang laughed, “I just need to make sure that he was not left behind. Although we didn’t know each other for long, we have been through rough times, I can’t and I will not abandon my friend.”
“Well, I guess everyone thinks differently. Whatever, but I just won’t go with you.” Ming Yi sighed. It was a long sigh mixed with pity and praise. “I am not scared, but I am just not obligated to go back in there with you. In fact, it is my courtesy to let you go. Our mission was to protect Mr. Li to Zhengzhou safely. Now that you are leaving, even if I get to the institute, we will still fail our mission. Who knows what our punishment is going to be? Of course the institute have no idea on what is going on here, but getting there without Mr. Li is not making me better off.”
“Therefore, it’d be a great loss for me if you go!” Ming Yi sighed again deliberately loud.
“Don’t worry, we’ll come out alive. And... could you do me a huge favor?” Chang was almost begging as he handed Jing to Ming Yi, “She is one of ours. Can you please take care of her for me? Trust me, If we get out from there safely, we’ll certainly come back to you.”
“Of course I believe in you, you can risk your lives for someone lost in the jungle without knowing if he is dead or not, you won’t abandon this one for sure.” Ming Yi took Jing who was still in coma.
“Where do we meet if you come back?”
“There.” Chang pointed at the direction of north east, spoke “If you keep going along the road, you’ll see the campus of North China University of Water Conservancy and Electric Power, do you know that school?”
“I’ve heard of it before, it isn’t that far from here.” Ming Yi nodded.
“Just go there and wait for us, it should be relatively safer in the college campus. If we come out alive, then we’ll go there immediately.” Chang lingered beside Jing, “Please, please take care of her, if we don’t come back, then she...”
Chang paused, he rephrased his words “Then...please just don’t give up on her, she is useful.”
He firmly pressed on Ming Yi’s shoulder to show his determination. He took a deep breath and looked in to Qing Shui’s eyes and asked, “Shall we?”
“Let’s go.”
The duo waved to Ming Yi saying goodbye and again they entered the jungle of fear.
Both Chang and Qing Shui walked in quick steps, and as the path gradually became covered with thick grass, the trees became taller and denser by their sides. The green world welcomed them with a taste of horror.
“It is getting too dark in here, your vision must be limited too.” Qing Shui slowed down after stepping into the lushness that they had been trying to running away from, “How far can you see now?”
“Not too far.” Chang tried hard to estimate, “6 or 7 meters maybe? It reduced half of what I can see in the morning, what about you?”
“Less than a meter!” Qing Shui spoke against Chang’s ears “I can’t even see your face if I am a few steps back!”
“No way...that’s almost blind. Chang looked at Qing Shui, “Follow me tightly.”
“I will.” Qing Shui answered.
They walked shoulder to shoulder, and returned to where they almost got trapped by the millipedes. It wasn’t too far away from the edge of the jungle here, but there was almost no trace of any of the troop to be found; the power of nature erased the marks of the previous tragedy.
All the millipedes were gone and so was Pangzi, Dr. Huang, and the others.
The night in the jungle seemed serene.
“There is nothing left.” Chang looked around and said.
“There must be something! I bet at least one person in the troop was taken away by the millipedes, just search for clothes or backpack pieces.” Qing Shui squatted down, trying to find some clues with his poor vision.
“Okay.” Chang also squatted down, carefully searched for traces.
Five minutes after, their effort seemed to have paid off.
“There is a piece of cloth torn apart.” Chang lifted that cloth with a slim branch.
“The millipede must have eaten this person, leaving the clothes behind in this mess.” Qing Shui carefully took that piece of cloth that was soaked with blood and flesh, and he shook off the small insects that were foraging on the cloth.
“Wait, there are some messy footprints over there.” Chang literally lying on his stomach trying to search, “They don’t look like they came from the same person, I am just not sure if there are some that belong to Pangzi.”
“Where? Let me see.” Qing Shui went closer.
“There.” Chang pointed at the messy footprints.
“Wait, there are some belong to him!” Qing Shui examined and measurements of those footprints, and he then pointed at 2 of them confidently “They are Pangzi’s for sure!”
“No way...how can you tell them apart?” Chang kept his eyes wide open in order to tell the differences between the footprints, but failed. “They seem the same to me, how do you know they are Pangzi’s?”
“It’s a natural thing for me. A difference of millimeter to me is probably as obvious as a meter difference in your eyes. And those footprints are more than one millimeters in difference, I just can’t ignore that. I can’t be wrong.” Qing Shui followed the footprints as he reasoned.
“But how? Can you even remember the size of our shoes? That’s a little creepy to me.” Chang hurried up. He found the footprints and now it was Qing Shui’s turn to tell them apart. They groped forward along the marks.
“Well, don’t you remember my ability? It falls into the cognitive category, but more precisely, I am extremely good at information collection and memory analysis. I simply can’t forget anything I’ve seen.” Qing Shui didn’t stop as he spoke, “It seems like he was in panic. He took huge steps and they are all over the place. There must’ve been a millipede that hunted him.”
“I hope he fled...” Chang walked on the other side of the footprints, and after about 50 meters, Qing Shui no longer needed to distinguish the footprints. There was only one kind left here, and it was Pangzi’s.
“He ran pretty far away from where we were.” Qing Shui kept chasing after the footprints and murmured to himself, “This doesn’t look right though.”
“Really...” Chang was only able to say one word until his body became stiff and rigid all of a sudden. He was stuck in a weird posture floating in the air and tilted forward, as if he was a marionette. He was frozen.
“Hey, what happened?” Qing Shui became attentive immediately with a knife in his hand.