Chapter 246: Chase

At that moment, I had no idea how he could be so sure that person was Wenjin. When I looked over, that person's face was completely covered in mud—I couldn't even tell if it was a man or a woman. But there was no time to think too much about it. Panzi shouted, "Go help!" and all of us charged into the water right behind Poker-face.

A few steps in, we hit mud. There was a layer of water plants under the swamp. I wasn't wearing shoes, and the sensation of the greasy mud and water plants scraping against my feet felt like countless strands of hair wrapping around them—it was truly horrifying. After a few splashing steps into deeper water, we swung our arms and started swimming.

Poker-face swam extremely fast; in the blink of an eye he reached the vicinity of that person. The water level there seemed shallow, and he struggled to stand up from the water. Then Panzi also crawled up, followed by me and Fatty. When my feet touched the bottom again, I found it was a shoal, but I couldn't tell what was underwater—it felt like some huge rocks protruding from the swamp mud.

At this point, that person was only six or seven meters away. I looked at him from close range, my heart pounding, extremely nervous.

Wenjin was a key figure; all along she had seemed like a concept from legends and photos, and now she appeared before me—I didn't even know if it was really her. However, only Fatty was holding the miner's lamp, and he had just steadied himself and hadn't recovered yet. The light swayed back and forth, so I couldn't clearly see the situation ahead.

Poker-face had already charged forward, appearing unusually anxious—completely unlike his usual demeanor. I watched as he almost touched that person, but at that moment, the person suddenly turned, ducked into the water, and fled toward the depths of the swamp.

We all panicked and shouted, but that person swam incredibly fast. After a few splashes, he entered the darkness beyond the swamp and suddenly vanished. Poker-face lunged forward trying to grab him, but he was still a beat too slow.

It looked like only an arm's length away, but movement in the swamp is very inconvenient. Sometimes you feel you can touch something, but you just can't reach it.

But Poker-face was no pushover after all. Seeing his grab miss, he immediately dove into the water as well, following the ripples that hadn't yet settled on the surface, and chased after the person. In an instant, he too was swallowed by the darkness.

I thought, this won't do, and pulled my feet to follow, but was immediately grabbed by Panzi ahead of me. The underwater terrain was uneven; with that tug I fell, swallowing several mouthfuls of water. When I stood up, Panzi immediately said to me, "Don't chase, we can't catch up."

After choking a few times, I calmed down. Steadying myself, I looked and saw the swamp behind was pitch dark. We were half a beat too slow; once we went in, we would definitely see nothing and have no way to pursue. Many times, half a beat too slow means losing all opportunities. Now we could only hope that Poker-face could catch her.

Exhausted, panting, and looking at each other, Fatty asked in confusion, "Damn, why did she run? Don't you guys know her? Was she scared off by us?"

I thought of that person's appearance and said to myself, who knows who scared whom. Panzi asked me, "Was that really Wenjin?"

How could I see clearly? I shook my head and said I didn't know. In that situation, I had no idea how Poker-face had judged it. Just now, from the moment we saw that person to when he shouted, it was only an instant—his eyes were too fast. However, come to think of it, there shouldn't be anyone else in this place. Seeing that one person easily made us think of Wenjin. But if it really was her, why would she run? Didn't she lead us here? "What do we do now?" Fatty asked us. "That young guy didn't even take the miner's lamp. In that jungle it's almost absolute darkness. Will he be okay chasing like that? Maybe we should go back, get the gear, and go in to support him?" I thought to myself, no one could say for sure. Panzi said from the side, "Probably not. That young guy isn't like us. I believe he knows what he's doing. Besides, going in now might not be helpful; we might even need him to save us."

I recalled the way Poker-face had charged toward that person earlier—it didn't look like he had himself under control. Come to think of it, I always felt that after entering this rainforest, Poker-face seemed to have undergone some change, but I really couldn't put my finger on what was different.

We waited there for a while, but Poker-face didn't come back. Our bodies had barely dried off, and now they were all wrinkled from soaking again. Ever since we came in, we'd almost never been dry, and now I felt uncomfortable all over.

Fatty said, "Let's not wait in the water. Let's go to the shore. There are snakes in the water here. Although snakes don't usually attack people in water, that type of snake is too bizarre. Staying here is still dangerous."

If he hadn't mentioned it, I really would have forgotten about the snakes. Our lower bodies were all in the water, which was dark; we couldn't see underwater at all. Hearing that still made my skin crawl, so I agreed and turned to swim back to our starting point.

After getting ashore, Fatty shook his chest, rubbing off the mud while looking at the snake tracks around where our packs had been. I sat by the campfire, recovering a little. At that moment, my mind was in chaos. On one hand, I was a bit worried about Poker-face—he just charged into the swamp like that; thinking about it, it was really reckless, and I didn't know if he could get out. On the other hand, this whole series of events made me very uneasy.

A Ning's death was actually a beginning, but at the time it was more shock. Now thinking about it, what was that pheasant-necked snake doing climbing up while we were sleeping? At almost the same time, a person appeared in the swamp. So many things happening at once before we even entered the swamp—it was really unlucky. This place, before even entering, gave an extreme sense of danger, and this feeling was even different from the danger I'd felt before. I had a feeling that this time, something big might happen.

This might also have something to do with Poker-face's abnormality. Although I didn't want to think that way, for some reason, this time by Poker-face's side I didn't have the calming feeling I used to have; instead, I felt even more unsettled.

At this moment, recalling the earlier decision to come here, I regretted it terribly.

After Panzi finished dealing with his clothes, he came to remind me. I also took off my clothes to dry them by the fire. Meanwhile, we made the flames bigger so that Poker-face could see our location when he returned. Fatty said something inauspicious: "This little fire looks like a spirit-summoning lamp. Don't go attracting wandering ghosts from the swamp." Panzi cursed at him immediately.

But what Fatty said made sense; it really did look like that. Feeling uneasy, I turned on the miner's lamp again and lined them up on the rocks to make it brighter. Carrying the lamp, I walked over to A Ning's body, intending to place it by her head. But when I walked over and looked, I suddenly realized something was wrong. Looking again, my mind went blank.

A Ning's body had actually disappeared, leaving only an empty sleeping bag.