Chapter 284: Videotape

"What reason?" Under the warmth of the campfire, my fatigue gradually lessened, and the pain from my injuries surged, leaving no part of me without ache. However, I didn't pay attention to that discomfort; my focus was on Third Uncle beside the campfire.

Under the firelight, Third Uncle looked grim. He exhaled a large puff of smoke before continuing, "If I told you, would you believe me?"

He looked at me, and I was speechless. Obviously, it was impossible for me to believe him. Earlier in the hospital, I had sworn to trust him absolutely, but I broke my promise, and yet Third Uncle hadn't told the truth either. The game between us seemed to have entered a dead loop. Under these circumstances, any explanation from Third Uncle was futile.

He laughed hoarsely and said, "If I wanted to deceive you, I would have a reason to do so, and I would inevitably keep it up until the very end. I figured you wouldn't believe me anyway, so rather than waste my energy, let's wait until we find her, and you can ask her yourself." I let out a long sigh and suddenly felt an enormous distance between myself and this uncle who had once been so close to me. I couldn't control myself and said, "Third Uncle, I really don't want it to be like this. I want to go back to the time when you said one thing and I never said another. But now, I really can't see through you. Can't we just bicker one more time? Please give in to your nephew."

Third Uncle looked at me, lit another cigarette, and said, "Nephew, this is the last time, I promise. I'm too tired. This time, it really is the last time."

The two of us exchanged bitter smiles and said nothing. I felt terrible inside, unable to describe the feeling. It was as if an unbreakable dead knot was stuck in my heart, and it wasn't made of hemp rope, but of steel rebar.

After a moment of silence, Third Uncle said to me, "Actually, I've told you many times—the depths of this matter are too deep, and too many secrets are involved. Even I don't clearly understand what's going on, so your Third Uncle can actually quite understand your feelings."

I thought to myself: You understand jack shit. Even if you know very little, you definitely know more than me. The positions we occupy in this matter are completely different. You are at the center of things, while I, no matter how I put it, am only watching from the outside, unable even to find the door in.

But further talk was useless. Even so, I had come this far. I looked at the pitch-black underground pool outside and didn't want to think about these things anymore. Anyway, I had already followed him; unless he killed me, I would follow him to the end.

After drinking a few mouthfuls of chili tea to ward off the dampness, the sprained places on me began to act up. As I rubbed them, I changed the subject: "By the way, Third Uncle, what was the content of the videotape Aunt Wenjin sent you?"

Third Uncle stood up, asked me to move aside, and took out his laptop from his luggage: "I can't describe it. See for yourself."

Of course I wanted to see it, but I didn't expect Third Uncle to be so proactive. He put the laptop on his backpack and opened it. It turned out he had transferred the contents of the videotape onto a disk.

"I had a guy convert the videotape into a file; it cost three hundred yuan. I watched it many times myself and couldn't make out anything. Don't get your hopes up." As he spoke, he had already opened the file. "Battery's about to die. You'll have to make do."

The player popped up on the screen. I looked around at the environment and suddenly felt the situation was a bit strange. What place was this, and here I was watching a laptop? Indeed, the nature of exploration had changed with the times.

Third Uncle clearly didn't want to watch it again. He gave me the computer and walked away, as if someone on the side had found something and asked him to take a look. Black Blind came over and sat behind me, as if preparing to watch a movie.

This guy made me very uncomfortable. I glanced at him, but he didn't care at all. When I looked at him, he looked back at me.

I had no choice. I sighed inwardly, "What kind of person is this?" and had to shift to a more comfortable position, hit play, and began to carefully watch the screen.

After playing, first there was darkness, then from the speakers came a very noisy sound, very familiar yet unrecognizable. After listening for a while, I realized it was the sound of water.

The screen was black, with not even the slightest change in light or shadow. But the sound of water from the speakers told us that the content was playing. Mixed with distant muffled thunder, it could be imagined that when this videotape was shot, it must have been next to a swift current or near a small waterfall. Perhaps because the lens cap wasn't removed or a rain cover was blocking it, nothing was captured on screen.

The sound of water continued, sometimes distant, sometimes near; the camera was likely moving.

At about five minutes in, I heard sounds besides the water—the gasping of several people and the sound of footsteps treading on piles of stones. It was chaotic and slow; it was clear that several people were hobbling along. But these sounds only appeared briefly and then vanished, leaving only the water sounds again.

I was a bit surprised. The first tape I received in Jilin contained footage of Huo Ling combing her hair in the basement of that eerie sanatorium in Golmud.

The second tape was brought by A Ning, and it showed a person whose appearance was extremely similar to mine, crawling in the lobby of that Golmud sanatorium.

I thought the third tape would at least contain content from that sanatorium, but now it seemed to have been shot outdoors.

I immediately recalled the scene after the heavy rain when we arrived—swift streams appearing in the jungle. Could this be recording the moment when Wenjin's team entered the canyon back then? That would be important information.

I continued listening. Next, it was still the sound of water, sometimes distant, sometimes near, as if the camera was moving again.

The two tapes I watched before were like this, very tedious, so I knew what to expect and wasn't impatient. What surprised me was that Black Blind beside me was actually watching with great interest.

After patiently listening for about twenty more minutes, the water sound gradually subsided, from that noisy torrent to the kind of water sound heard from inside a house in the distance. At the same time, the breathing sounds of several people reappeared, this time much clearer, mixed with some buzzing. It felt like they had found a place away from the water, a rather enclosed space.

Then we heard the first human voice in the entire videotape. It was a woman's voice, seemingly exhausted, panting as she said, "Where is this? Have we gotten out?"

No one answered her. All around were sounds of gasping and the thud of objects being placed on the ground. The screen remained black, which was frustrating, but since we couldn't fast forward through the audio, we had to endure and concentrate.

For a long time after the woman spoke, there were only sounds of gear being set down, coughing, and sighing. Much later, another man spoke, not answering her, but asking someone else, "Got any cigarettes?"

The voice was very distant, like background noise, and if I didn't listen carefully, I couldn't understand it. What left a deep impression on me was that this person's voice had a Southern Min accent.

No one answered him either, and we didn't know if he got the cigarette. But then we heard a loud sound of metal hitting the ground, followed by the man who had asked for a cigarette cursing, "Careful."

Then there was silence, as if the camera was moved outward, or the person holding the camera had gone back near the swift current, and the water sound grew louder again. But in a few minutes, it returned to normal. The voice that had asked for a cigarette said, "Where exactly are we going?"

No one answered him. Everything remained the same; the progress bar jumped forward bit by bit, and the screen stayed black.

I watched patiently as time ticked by. Gradually, even I began to feel impatient. Just as I couldn't stand it and wanted to drag the progress bar forward a bit, Black Blind beside me held my hand down.

I was puzzled, thinking what was he doing, when suddenly the speakers emitted relatively coherent speech. It was a person with a very heavy Northwestern accent, apparently startled, yelling: "Listen, there's a sound! Those things are coming again!"

Then there was a commotion, followed by the person with the Southern Min accent hissing in a low voice: "Everyone, don't make a sound!"

These people seemed well-trained. As soon as the accent finished, the entire speaker suddenly fell silent, and all human voices disappeared instantly into the background water sound. In that stillness, I heard that there was indeed an unusual sound in the water, but it was mixed in with the water

My nerves instantly tensed up. I hurriedly leaned close to the speaker, feeling that I had definitely heard that strange sound somewhere before.

Sure enough, the sound grew closer and closer, and the more I listened, the more it felt familiar. As I kept listening, my body began to tremble involuntarily. A numbing, bone-chilling sensation erupted directly from my pores.

I remembered what this sound was.

This was the horn sound that had echoed from the depths of the underground canyon before Poker-face entered that great bronze door.