Chapter 108: Ghost Signal

According to common sense, finding this "Snake River" is not difficult, but plans cannot keep up with changes; the vegetation below the mountain is too thick to find the riverbed, so we can only grope slowly forward along the edge of Zhelong Mountain.

Only now did I realize that in this damned place, the "Sixteen-Character Yin-Yang Wind and Sand Secret Technique" is completely useless; to discern terrain and qi, one must clearly see the composition of mountains and rivers, but in this area, the mountaintops are all clouds and mist, while the foot of the mountain is filled with all kinds of trees and vines, as if a thick layer of green mud had been smeared over the surface of mountains and rivers, then covered with a cotton sack, leaving no point of leverage.

The jungle below the cliffs is even harder to traverse; after entering, not a single butterfly is seen, only various sizes of mosquitoes and poisonous ants, and there is no path; looking from above, it's all green, but upon entering, one finds the vines are overly luxuriant, almost no place to stand, so we have to use entrenching tools and machetes to hack out a road by force, while also carefully avoiding those mosquitoes and poisonous ants; the hardship is truly unbearable.

As the sun had already set behind the mountain, the earth was gradually swallowed by darkness, the primeval forest covered with a layer of black gauze, and from our resting point until now, we have not gone very far.

It seems impossible to find the "Snake River" before dark, so we must first temporarily find a relatively safe place to spend the night; the night in the forest is full of danger, and moreover, due to being between great mountains and rivers, the atmospheric pressure changes greatly, the forest edge is hot by day and cold by night; by night, although it won't get too cold here, the body is damp and prone to illness; going deep into the dense forest, we actually don't need to worry about this, so we must find a place with not too many mosquitoes and slightly dry, light a campfire, and then we can spend the night.

Finally, under two large trees, we found a sufficiently flat large blue stone; after shining a flashlight on it, there were no snakes or scorpions nearby; the three of us were exhausted, so we hastily took out fuel and lit a fire, surrounding it with small stones; due to the overly humid air, we had to take some fire to dry the blue stone, baking dry the moss and moisture in the stone crevices, then laying out the sleeping bags to prevent moisture from seeping into the bones and causing illness during sleep.

Shirley Yang went to the nearby spring and brought back some water; after filtration, it could be drunk; I set up a small camping pot to boil water, then cooked the noodles bought from Caiyun Guesthouse in the camping pot; no seasoning was added, lest the food's aroma attract animals; in the cooked noodles, I randomly soaked a few pieces of Yunnan bait cakes as dinner, because I still didn't know how long we would have to walk in the valley, so I was reluctant to take out the canned food to eat.

Pangzi kept complaining that the food quality was too poor, his mouth almost tasteless like a bird's; speaking of birds, he casually grabbed the "Sword Might" to prepare to hunt some game, but it was already pitch black, so he had to give up; he sat down again to eat, meanwhile complaining that my cooking was bad and tasteless, yet he ate three large bowls.

After finishing the meal, we decided to take turns sleeping, leaving someone on watch; after all, this primeval forest is full of dangers, who knows what poisonous insects and fierce beasts might come out at night.

The first watch was mine; I held the "Sword Might," filled the 64-style bullets, turned the fire into a dim one, then sat not far from the fire, humming a popular tune to ease drowsiness while staying alert to the dark forest around.

The two large banyan trees opposite me are quite magnificent, typical mixed-growth plants; their trunks are as thick as stone pillars, their crowns drooping heavily, like a cover; the two thick trunks grow like twisted dough, intertwined with each other, wound four or five times, forming a rare husband-and-wife tree; many unnamed giant flowers and other plants grow on the trunks; these plants attached to the "husband-and-wife old banyan tree" trunks are all seeds unintentionally attached by forest animals to the bark, or in the trunk's cracks, thus sprouting, growing, flowering, and bearing fruit; this old banyan tree mixed with many kinds of flowers and trees has actually grown over 50 kinds of plants on a single tree, like a large, colorful, variegated flower basket in the forest.

I was gazing intently when Shirley Yang lying in the sleeping bag suddenly spoke to me: "These two trees won't live much longer; there are too many parasitic plants on the two banyan trees; the old banyan tree absorbs nutrients insufficiently; now the middle part of this tree is mostly hollow; at most, in another three to five years, this tree will wither and die; some things, when they reach their most beautiful stage, are actually not far from destruction."

I sensed there was more in her words; on the surface she spoke of trees, as if she were talking about the curse we obtained from the Ghost Cave on our backs; I didn't want to mention these dampening matters, so I said to Shirley Yang: "The night is already deep; why aren't you sleeping yet? Is it that as soon as you close your eyes, you think of my towering figure, so you toss and turn, unable to sleep?"

Shirley Yang said: "If only I could think of you when I close my eyes; now, when I close my eyes, all I see in my mind are the clay figures in the Zhelong Mountain cave; the more I think, the more nauseous I feel, I don't even want to eat, and to this day I still can't sleep."

I yawned and said to Shirley Yang: "Since you can't sleep, you should carry forward the spirit of internationalism and take over my watch; call me when you get tired."

Shirley Yang laughed: "What a beautiful thought; you and Pangzi, once you fall asleep, even thunder couldn't wake you; I can't sleep, and I won't swap watches with you, lest in the second half of the night you pretend to be dead and refuse to get up for watch."

I shook my head and sighed: "You have disappointed me greatly; I thought you had come all the way from America to support our country's four modernizations, and we originally regarded you as Bai Qiu'en to worship; from the depths of my heart, that is, I sincerely believed you are a moral person, a noble person, a beneficial person to the people, one who has given up lowly tastes; I never expected you to be so selfish and self-interested, not caring at least a bit about comrades' feelings; your usual affable demeanor is all a pretense."

Shirley Yang said to me: "You have a way with words, but you just like to talk big; constant boasting is not good; anyway, I can't sleep, so why don't you keep me company with some talk, but you are not allowed to say anything from the quotations again."

The forest was dead silent, not a breath of wind; all animals and plants seemed asleep; only occasionally from afar came a few strange bird calls; I was so drowsy my eyelids were fighting; I glanced at Pangzi sleeping nearby; this guy had his whole head buried in the sleeping bag, snoring loudly, sleeping so soundly it's indescribable; but Shirley Yang stubbornly refused to take watch, so I had to force myself, saying nothing coherent, to chat aimlessly with her.

Somehow, as we chatted, we started talking about the giant pythons and snakes in this forest; I said that before in Beijing, I met a former comrade from a regiment, who told me some rumors about squatting in cat-ear caves on the front line; at that time, the Sino-Vietnamese war had temporarily entered a stalemate phase.

On both sides of the front lines, cat-ear caves were densely distributed; actually, they are infantry anti-charge fortifications; when digging cat-ear caves, they often dug out large pythons from the mountains; they told me the largest python was as thick as the legendary dragon; I didn't believe it then, but now, encountering it in Zhelong Mountain, I know it's not nonsense.

However, most pythons do not actively attack people; they are lazy, sleeping all day; some soldiers in the cat-ear caves were so hot they felt hot even bare-assed, so they had to find a python sleeping in a tree and drag it into the cave; a few people lay on the cool python's body to sleep; needless to say, it's more effective than installing an air conditioner.

Later, that python simply moved into the cat-ear cave and settled there; every day someone fed it canned braised meat; after eating its fill, it slept; later one day, the battle suddenly turned intense, continuous artillery fire blocked our army's military supply transport route; sometimes the artillery hit, sometimes the fortification's position was poor, a barrage covered it, and the entire squad inside was wiped out; artillery pounded for a whole week, leaving not even an ant around the position; the canned braised meat in the cat-ear cave was gone; in a short time, people could still endure, but when the python got hungry, it couldn't help itself; it had grown accustomed to living in the cat-ear cave, daily smelling the soldiers' smoke, and also picked up a smoking habit; no matter how driven away, it wouldn't leave; starving, its eyes turned red, it just wanted to swallow people; finally, we had to shoot it dead, peel off its skin, and place it in the cat-ear cave; mosquitoes and mice dared not enter the cave; one day, Vietnamese agents took advantage of the dark to come and dig out the cave; the on-duty soldier was then dozing off, didn't notice the enemy; the Vietnamese agent planned to throw explosive packs into the cave, but suddenly felt as if wrapped by the python, unable to move, his bones almost crushed by immense force; however, his upper body was clearly empty, nothing there; the next day, the soldiers in the cat-ear cave discovered that piece of python skin

I chatted with Shirley Yang until later, not even knowing what I was saying myself; drowsiness surged and I could no longer resist; unconsciously, I fell asleep holding the "Sword Might."

I don't know how long passed, when I was suddenly gently pushed awake; since leaving the army, I often have nightmares, insomnia all night; after starting the antique business in Beijing, I found spiritual solace, and this slowly improved; I fall asleep as soon as I lie down, and even if I haven't slept enough, thunder couldn't move me.

But this silent night in the forest, although I am drowsy, I faintly feel a hint of unease in my heart; so at this moment, being pushed, I immediately woke up; at this time, the thick cloud layer in the sky had already moved aside, cold moonlight poured down; by moonlight, I saw the arm pushing me; the person who woke me was indeed Shirley Yang; Shirley Yang saw I opened my eyes, immediately put her finger to her lips, making a silencing gesture, indicating I should not speak loudly.

I looked around; Pangzi was still sleeping in the sleeping bag like a dead pig; I don't know when a thin blanket appeared on my body; possibly Shirley Yang saw me talking halfway and then fell asleep, so she covered me with it; at this moment, my brain had just barely awakened from deep sleep, still not very sharp, but immediately I understood: there is a situation.

Only see Shirley Yang has already gripped the **** pistol in her hand, with the other hand pointing at the two intertwined "husband-and-wife trees," then pointing at her own ear, indicating I should listen carefully to the sound in the tree.

I immediately sat up sideways, cocked my ear to listen; although I don't have the "partridge whistle" kind of dog-guard night's wind-assisted ear skill, but in this absolutely silent forest, being close to the large tree, I clearly heard inside the tree a tight burst, then a slow burst of light tapping sounds.

That sound is not loud, but in the black night it seems exceptionally eerie; completely without rhythm; it is absolutely not produced by a woodpecker; such birds do not exist in this forest; moreover, the sound comes from the upper trunk of the tree; could there be something inside the tree

Thinking of this, I can't help but feel a little nervous; legend says the surroundings of the "Xian King's Tomb" have burial pits and sacrificial pits, and also those hanged people doing "guides"; all these have added many terrifying colors to this forest; heaven knows what evil things still lurk in this ancient forest.

I dared not speak out, slowly pulled back the bolt of the "Sword Might" rifle, and hung the carrying bag on my body; the carrying bag contains the black donkey hoof for warding off evil and corpses, plus corpse-binding ropes, glutinous rice, etc.; no matter what situation, having these things, we can fight it out.

At this moment, the muffled tapping sound sounded again, like water droplets, or like tapping an iron plate with a finger, sometimes fast, sometimes slow; I looked toward the source of the sound, but my view was blocked by the flowers and leaves on the tree; I couldn't see clearly above; moonlight filtered through the branches and leaves, flickering unpredictably, making the ghostly aura above even more intimidating.

Shirley Yang whispered in my ear: "Just now you fell asleep; I calmed down and then heard this sound; it seems there is someone inside the tree..."

I also whispered: "Person? How can you be sure it's not an animal?"

She said: "This sound is tiny and strange, and has no pattern; I initially thought it was an animal's sound, but just now I listened carefully and heard a small segment of Morse code signal from within; however, this signal appeared only once just now, then afterward began to become irregular; perhaps because the signal sound is weak, I might have missed part of it."

I was completely at a loss, but my uneasy premonition grew stronger; I softly said to Shirley Yang: "Morse code? Is that the international telegraph code with only two signals, long and short? What content did you hear?"

She said: "Three short, three long, three short, that is dit-dit-dit, dah-dah-dah, dit-dit-dit; translated, it is the internationally used distress signal……SOS."

I said to her: "Don't keep scaring yourself; although Morse code is the most widespread in the world, after all, it is a telegraph code encoded in English; besides a few people like the blind during the Republic of China era who came here, there were only a few stone-quarrying workers who came; they only came out of curiosity, passed through the cave, wandered in the forest edge, then went back; locals are very superstitious, they dare not come to this forest behind Zhelong Mountain, because they fear bumping into ghosts……ghosts."

Saying the last word, I myself felt it was inauspicious; I hastily took a sip, silently murmuring in my heart: "One hundred taboos."

Shirley Yang waved her hand at me, signaling me not to speak, and to listen again carefully; that sound again came from within the tree; this time I heard it clearly, with short and long, indeed three short, three long, plus three short; the short ones urgent, the long ones heavy.

The two banyan trees, due to lush foliage and the darkness, with moonlight directly above, so the upper situation cannot be seen at all; but this scalp-tingling distress signal is clearly coming from above; the strangest thing is that the sound source is inside the upper trunk, not the treetop, as if someone were trapped inside the tree, unable to escape, unable to shout, so they tapped signals with their fingers to seek our help; Shirley Yang had already taken out the wolf-eye from her pack: "I'll go up to look."

I grabbed her and said: "You can't go; look, the moonlight in the sky is tinged red, the forest's demonic mist is thickening; there must be a corpse inside the tree; this sound is exactly the legendary ghost signal."