That fateful morning, Yi Yun
had gone mountain climbing with two good friends. Among them was a pretty babe,
so it was naturally a splendid event.
It was common for young people
to seek thrills and Yi Yun was no exception. Being a goody two-shoes and
climbing mountain paths already cleared by others was meaningless: they chose
an isolated barren mountain.
They discovered a cave when
they reached the halfway point.
The babe that came with them
spontaneously got excited, and insisted on entering. However, the moment they
entered something unexpected happened.
Yi Yun found a rectangular
purple crystal in the cave — one that looked like a crystal card from a science-fiction
movie. As soon as he discovered, and, out of curiosity, touched the purple
crystal, the walls started to rumble and the cave collapsed!
It was hard to describe what
emotions were going through Yi Yun as he saw several tons of rock smashing
downwards. If one had to use a phrase to describe it, it’d be, “Only when dying
does one truly know what dying is.”
He was still young, healthy and
good-looking. And he was still a virgin…
He was supposed to have a
tremendously bright life ahead of him, but it was all about to disappear.
The sadness and hopelessness
from knowing this was stifling.
The boulders did not smash into
Yi Yun, but had instead sealed off the exit.
The situation of being buried
alive in such a tight space in the mountains, without food, water, and with
limited air made it crystal clear to Yi Yun that this place would probably be
his grave.
Yi Yun stared blankly at the
thick mountain wall. Under his phone’s flashlight illumination, the thick rock
wall resembled the faces of devils. It was cold to the touch and the coldness
seeped into Yi Yun’s heart bit by bit, weighing it down.
He didn’t have the slightest
clue where his climbing partners had disappeared. They were all grouped closely
when they entered the cave. Yet once the cave collapsed, the two of them who
should have been trapped with him, had mysteriously…disappeared.
It was as if they had never
entered together with Yi Yun. Yi Yun still remembered clearly that half a
minute before the cave collapsed, he had heard behind him the babe that was
with them say how she was afraid that there would be snakes in the cave.
How could two breathing people
just disappear suddenly?
How did a perfectly good cave
just collapse?
It really was a hopeless
situation here in the cave. There was no signal on his phone, and the fate of
his two friends was uncertain. Yi Yun didn’t want to sit idly by while waiting
for death. He even thought about digging a way out–if the blockage was small,
there would be a glimmer of hope by digging.
When a person confronts Death,
he can exhibit extremely strong motivation and fighting spirit; everything,
even something with the tiniest sliver of hope, would be tested.
Yi Yun acted immediately, but
digging with his bare hands wouldn’t do. He had not brought any tools, like a
dagger, with him. But, at that moment, Yi Yun had a stroke of brilliance, he
remembered the crystal card.
It looked like a small shovel,
so, although it was small, and didn’t have a handle, digging with it was much
better than digging with his bare hands.
Turning his head to the
mysterious crystal card, Yi Yun suddenly had a thought; upon careful
recollection, the cave had collapsed the moment he touched that card.
How could it be this
coincidental?
And the biggest mystery was
that both his friends had vanished into thin air.
A series of inexplicable
phenomena combined together filled Yi Yun’s head with questions, that is, could
everything that happened today be due to this crystal card?
He looked at the purple crystal
card, it was slightly bulging. On an extremely stable piece of rock, it sat
there nicely, while emitting a faint glow.
Yi Yun hesitated for a moment
before switching off his phone’s flashlight. He realized that despite the pitch
black darkness of the cave, he could still see by the purple card’s faint glow.
In this moment he understood
that this crystal card wasn’t made of amethyst because crystals do not glow.
However, in the natural world, there are some minerals that were able glow due
to traces of radioactive elements.
But in his current situation Yi
Yun couldn’t care less about the possibility of radioactivity harming his body
and picked up the purple crystal card to examine it. If the collapse was due to
this crystal card, could it possibly be his ticket to survival?
Yi Yun knew that there wasn’t
much hope, but at Death’s door, he had to try everything as a last resort.
The crystal card was cool to
the touch, with a coldness that seemed to meander through the blood vessels in
his arm, all the way to his heart. The card itself was purple throughout and
slightly larger than an adult’s hand, but no thicker than one’s palm. On one
side of the card, there appeared to be mysterious engravings. They seemed
unnatural, as if carved by human hand.
Who could have carved it? Could
these engravings be some ancient symbol, or a mysterious language?
Or could it be
extraterrestrial, something from the stars?
With such strange happenings,
Yi Yun’s brain started filling with questions. He was sure the cave collapse
had something to do with the crystal card. There was no earthquake, how could
the cave just suddenly collapse?
With the crystal card in hand,
Yi Yun realized that the crystal card’s edges were as sharp as a blade, this
ignited hope within him; he could conserve energy by digging with this.
Yi Yun stopped hesitating, and
with the crystal card in hand, walked towards the rock wall of unknown
thickness.
Gripping the edge of the
crystal card with both his hands, he shoved it down with strength, and
something inconceivable happened. The originally firm and stout rock was sliced
apart like tofu by this palm-sized crystal card. Yi Yun, who had used too much
strength on the rock that showed no resistance, hit his head onto the wall.
Yi Yun was dumbfounded, he
couldn’t care less that he had scraped his forehead while he stared blankly at
the purple crystal card in his hand. After the initial shock passed he
experienced jubilation.
This was pretty much a light
saber from a science fiction movie.
At that moment, he didn’t have
the mood to examine how this card could be that sharp, but focused on digging
his way out.
Grabbing the crystal card
firmly with both hands, Yi Yun started digging a hole like a mole. The crystal
card moved without resistance, and could even easily cut through granite.
Yi Yun felt excited. He had
picked up a treasure!
If he could make it out alive,
this card could change his life, and it could even have alien technology
embedded within it!
Yi Yun didn’t know how long he
had been digging, and he wasn’t sure if it was an illusion, but whenever he
felt exhausted, the crystal card in his hands would emit a coolness,
rejuvenating a tiny bit of strength within him, allowing him to continue
digging without rest.
It was not possible to know the
time in the cave, but Yi Yun was motivated by his thirst for survival to keep
moving forward without rest.
His cell phone was already out
of battery, and he had totally lost his sense of time. Three days? Five days?
Seven days?
Yi Yun didn’t realize that even
without a single morsel of food or water, he had miraculously not died; it was
as if the crystal card’s energy had prolonged his life.
If he were to look back at the
path he had dug, Yi Yun would have discovered how long it was, but Yi Yun did
not pay attention to that as his sight was already blurred.
Unable to see clearly ahead,
unable to see the rock, he could only feel the crystal card emitting a
refreshing coolness in his hands.
He was slowly losing his
senses, but kept digging with perseverance and tenacity. Finally, at a certain
moment, he realized a glimmer in front of his eyes, as if he had seen a light
passing through a crack in the soil that illuminated his face.
Just like when a pail of water
was splashed on an unconscious person, Yi Yun was suddenly wide awake!
Light!
There’s light!
Yi Yun had never ever
appreciated that light could be so beautiful; he couldn’t control his tears as
all the energy he previously lost flooded back into his body. He gritted his
teeth and dug crazily.
Finally!
Yi Yun was blinded by the
bright rays that shone down on him, as he struggled to keep his eyes open.
He had managed to climb out!
“I’ve succeeded!”
“I survived!”
Yi Yun wanted to shout out loud
for without experiencing the darkness, or knowing how to appreciate the light
or knowing what Death is about, it was hard to understand the sanguinity of
life.
Yi Yun lied on the ground — taking
huge gasps of air — as he looked at the blue skies and white clouds. He had
never felt that the blue sky was any prettier.
Although his body was extremely
tired, hungry and thirsty, Yi Yun didn’t rest for long as he gritted his teeth
and got up, trying to contact his two friends.
Yi Yun may have escaped Death,
but he didn’t know what had happened to his friends.
But…his cell phone was out of
battery.
Yi Yun glanced around, hoping
to see signs of life, but with just a glance, Yi Yun was dumbfounded.
How…How could this be?
Yi Yun clearly remembered that
while climbing a mountain, he was buried alive in a cave, and climbed out of
the mountainside alone.
But, Yi Yun was located in a
vast expanse, and although there were mountains around, the distance to them
would have ran a horse to its death; Yi Yun could not believe he had dug such a
long tunnel.
Surrounding him were several
mounds, and a wooden stick up from each mound. On the wooden sticks were gruff
words of an unknown origin written using charcoal…
Could this be a…graveyard?
Yi Yun was dumbfounded, how did
he appear among so many tombstones?! Having escaped Death once, Yi Yun’s mental
resilience was now much stronger, so although he was faced with an illogical
situation, he could still calm down and examine the tombstones carefully.
These tombstones totally didn’t
look like they came from a modern cemetery. In a modern city’s cemetery, all of
the tombstones were made of either marble or granite and ordered neatly.
But the tombstone in front of
him…even a rural tombstone would be much better than this.
Wait…
Yi Yun suddenly discovered
something, as he lowered his head to take a look. The “tunnel” he had just
climbed out was still there, and he was situated in front of a mound. And by
the side of the mound, a wooden plank was used as a tombstone.
On the wooden plank were weird
words, but for some unknown reason, Yi Yun had a spark in his mind, and could
read all the words. noveltranslationweb.blogspot.com
It read—”Beloved brother, Grave
of Yi Yun”.
And on the side wrote four
words—”Elder Sister Jiang Xiaorou”.
Yi…Yi Yun’s…grave!?
Yi Yun was totally stupefied,
he had clearly been buried alive in a cave on a barren mountain, but now he had
dug his way out of a tomb, and it was even his!
What sort of worldly joke is
this!
Also, the words were neither in
Chinese, nor in English, so how did he know all these weird words?
This must be a dream, right…
Yes, it must be a dream. This
dream sure feels real…as if…Yi Yun looked at his surroundings, and felt
diffident, it’s too real!
He pinched himself hard, and
the result was…pain.
Another pinch and it still
hurt!
“It’s not a dream?”
“This shit really isn’t a
dream?”
Yi Yun felt lost, could someone
tell him what was happening?
Yi Yun was cursing in his
heart.
Could he have already died when
he was buried alive in the cave, and when he dug himself out, all the digging
was just an illusion before his death?
But…the two words “beloved
brother”, what did it mean? He didn’t have an elder sister. If a person had to
be pointed out, it was someone who lived in another city whom he had infrequent
interactions. He did not meet his cousin much, so why would she erect a
tombstone for him!?
If the tombstone’s “Yi Yun” was
someone else with the same first and last name as himself, it was still
impossible. How could such a coincidence happen, with him climbing out of a
grave of someone with the same first and last name “Yi Yun”?
Yi Yun felt extremely confused.
At that moment, he looked on in a daze as a girl dressed in rags while carrying
a basket walked towards him along a tiny village path…
Translator: CKtalon
Editor: CKtalon
Source:
webnovel.com
Translator: CKtalon
Editor: CKtalon
Source:
webnovel.com
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