Chapter 358: Stones Here

"Why do you say that?" I asked in confusion, but as soon as I finished, I understood what Poker-face meant.

In a certain sense, our situation was the same as those human shadows trapped in the stone—only their space was smaller, confined in the rock, like those strange fish that lived in the stone. But one thing was certain: if we were discovered years later, we definitely wouldn't be bouncing around alive.

Thinking of that sent a chill through me, and I said, "There is still some difference, though. At least we have this much space to move around, and we're still alive. As long as you're alive, there are infinite possibilities."

Poker-face said calmly, "That's not what I meant."

I let out an "Ah," a little surprised. I'd always felt a kind of unspoken understanding with them, but here, I couldn't quite keep up with his thinking. He seemed to be ahead of me by a lot.

I asked, "Do you have some idea? Just say it directly."

He looked at me. "Have you ever thought about it—if this place hadn't been dug into a mining pit, what would our situation be right now?"

I thought for a moment, feeling a bit slow in the head, and still didn't get what he meant, but Fatty's face immediately went pale. He cursed, "Holy shit!"

Then I understood too, and the skin on the back of my neck crawled.

If this wasn't a mine pit, then what would it be? This would just be rock face, the interior of the mountain. If we'd been brought here in the same inexplicable way, then right now we would be embedded in the rock wall, exactly like those shadows.

I shuddered. What kind of feeling would that be? Waking up to find myself embedded deep in a mountain's rock wall, unable to move, having to stay that way until death—that's too horrifying.

Poker-face said, "Looking at it the other way, maybe us being alive right now is pure coincidence."

I nodded silently. This strange occurrence might be some kind of mysterious phenomenon in the mountain, and it probably wasn't the first time it happened here. Even if no one had dug the mine pit back then, the same thing would have happened, and our situation would be even more bizarre.

Fatty swallowed his saliva, staring at those human shadows, and said, "So these are our predecessors? Victims who encountered the same thing before?"

"That's only one possibility," Poker-face said. "But I'd rather believe it."

I understood what he meant. If this was a strange natural phenomenon, then his earlier inference might be wrong, and no matter how bad our situation was, at least we would be temporarily safe.

Fatty then asked, "Tianzhen, you've read a lot. Figure it out—what do you think is going on? If it's like what Xiao Ge said, what could be the case?"

I gave a wry smile. "Reading more books is useless for this kind of thing. If you try to explain it with stuff you learn from books, it's a concept from physics—we might have fallen into a crack between two spaces and gotten stuffed from one place to another. But in reality, that's impossible. Even if you actually entered a naturally formed space crack, the place you reappear would be another universe. The probability of appearing in the same region is infinitesimally close to zero."

There are legends about this kind of thing all over the world, at very special locations like the Bermuda Triangle. But I didn't believe this was the case here. The way Fatty and Poker-face lost consciousness at the bottom of the lake didn't seem like they were dealt with by a "natural phenomenon"; it was too much like someone had set a trap. So I very much agreed with Poker-face's earlier view: the force that brought us here definitely had meaning and purpose.

Fatty wasn't convinced, though. He said, "Probability infinitesimally close to zero isn't the same as zero."

I said, "If you use science to explain it, that's the only explanation. If it's not that, then the situation we're facing is in an entirely different category."

Fatty fell into thought and muttered to himself, "Is there any such thing in the legends left by our ancestors?"

I thought for a moment. I'd never seen any record of human shadows appearing in rock in any notebook novel I'd read. Of course, maybe I just haven't read widely enough.

Fatty continued, "Legend says that in the mountains near Liu Bowen's tomb, someone walked for only one day, but came out over a hundred kilometers from where they entered, as if they'd been instantly transported from one place to another. They called this phenomenon 'Mountain Ghost Carry'—they thought they were being carried on a mountain ghost's back, so they didn't know how far they'd traveled. Some also called it 'Mountain Walking,' saying the mountain itself was walking. Do you think something like that could be happening here, only in a different direction?"

I shook my head. That explanation didn't hold. They were on the surface of the mountain; we're inside the mountain. It's not about being carried or walked—we've been swallowed by the mountain. Besides, there's one particularly puzzling detail: this mine tunnel is sealed, with no collapse anywhere around it. But originally this tunnel must have had an entrance—where did it go? Even if it was a very special natural phenomenon like "Mountain Ghost Carry" or "Mountain Walking," the entrance wouldn't just disappear.

What happened here is far more complicated, and it carries a very strange feeling.

Thinking of that, I recalled what Pan Ma had said—that there was a demon in this lake. At that moment, I kind of believed it. It seemed like only a demon could do something so bizarre. Even if there wasn't a demon, I felt this mountain or lake was definitely not ordinary.

The moisture gradually evaporated, and the shadows slowly faded until they were hard to see. I used my foot to erase the "iron figurine" I had drawn on the ground earlier. Then I pondered for a while longer but still came up with nothing.

The rock face returned to its original state, but our feeling had changed. Knowing that behind the rock, just five or six punches deep, there was something embedded inside gave me a strong sense of being watched, unsettling my mind. That feeling hadn't been there before—it was obviously psychological, but I couldn't shake it.

The three of us were all silent, lost in thought, occasionally breaking the silence only when Fatty blurted out an idea, which I always shot down.

I thought of many possibilities, but none of them were solid. Finally, I started going over the things I'd thought about earlier, all over again from the beginning, including every detail, to see if anything else could be gleaned.

As Fatty had said, the purpose of those iron figurines was to seal these shadows. So the archaeological team's motive could be explained—they were looking for fragments of the remains of these shadows. But I had no idea what use those things were to them.

When the miners were mining jade and dug up these human shadows, it was certain that the mining didn't stop. Their craving for jade made them keep digging while making offerings to the Thunder King.

Then, at some point, someone left a message in front of the Thunder King's statue.

Judging by the content of the message and the condition of the human shadows in the rock wall, his instructions clearly hadn't been carried out. Probably after he left, the mining stopped. There were many possible reasons for the cessation: war, disaster, or maybe the mine entrance simply vanished inexplicably. Or even—maybe the miners encountered the same situation we did, and there might not be just one mine pit here; they might be trapped elsewhere. Any possibility could be true. The only thing certain was that the story of the jade mine ended right there.

After that, came our story.

At first glance, it seemed very clear and reasonable, but when you thought about it carefully, you found a contradiction that was hard to spot. The contradiction came from reverse thinking: what if none of the mining activities had ever happened? Then what would have happened here? If no one had dug for jade, there would be no mine pit, so would Fatty and Poker-face still have encountered something underwater?

If the mining never happened, then the place we're in now would be solid rock. If the force that brought us here is a natural phenomenon, then even if this were solid rock, the same thing would happen, because the force itself is natural—we're just victims of a strange phenomenon.

But on the other hand, what if it's not a natural phenomenon? If this mine pit didn't exist, would this incident still happen?

I felt it probably wouldn't. Because both Poker-face and I believed there was some kind of consciousness behind this, and its goal certainly wasn't to kill us. Behind the act of bringing us here, there must be some yet-unknown purpose, and the prerequisite for achieving it was this pit. If we were trapped to death, that would be the same as being killed, which would be meaningless for "it." Based on this reasoning, breaking it down, we could first know that this consciousness knew about the existence of this mine pit. On the other hand, the mine pit wasn't planned; its existence here was accidental, which also proves one point: the mysterious purpose of that consciousness arose after the mine pit was formed. The mine pit came first, then the purpose. That made things seem forced and hard to explain.

Suppose this force, let's call it a demon, one day while wandering around suddenly discovered that a mining pit had appeared here. After studying it, it found it could be used, so it conceived a purpose, and then used some means to capture us and trap us here to achieve that purpose…

If that’s how it happened, then no matter how you look at it, its purpose wouldn’t be anything legitimate. Moreover, this kind of behavior has a clear beginning, development, and conclusion—it’s methodical, with strong intent and operability, almost completely consistent with human thinking. I don’t deny that there might be some mysterious forces in the world, but I believe such forces must be transcendent and not so utilitarian and shallow.

But if this force is not a demon but a human, then it’s different.

There is someone who knew about this mining pit, discovered it could be used, and designed a scheme to knock Fatty and Poker-face unconscious at the bottom of the lake using some method, then brought them here in a very clever way in order to carry out his plan. This sounds very reasonable; not only would we not think this person is unreliable, but we would also think that if he went to so much trouble, there must be a bigger conspiracy.

A philosopher once said: “When all impossibilities have been eliminated, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.” This is exactly why I’ve always found this matter strange. Being in the middle of it, I smell a strong whiff of “conspiracy.”

In other words, for all we know, we might just be trapped in a conspiracy set by a “person.” It’s just that this conspiracy is too clever to understand. I looked at Poker-face; he must have realized this long ago. That’s why he didn’t bother to participate in our hypotheses, but he hasn’t taken any further action because, in the end, it’s just a feeling, impossible to confirm.