Lying flat on the cold, slippery roof of the cable car, Chen Yexun’s heart was still hammering against his ribs.
His arms trembled uncontrollably, drained of strength from the brutal exertion.
He kept his eyes locked on the heavily warped wooden chair leg wedged deep into the pulley gap, terrified it would burst free at any second.
Naturally, whatever could go wrong did.
Less than ten seconds after the car stabilized, a rapid series of electronic beeps—*beep-beep-beep!*—echoed from the mechanical housing below!
Immediately after, the jammed traction pulley gave a dull groan, forced by some motor to jerk and sputter back to life!
The cable car began to slide forward in fitful lurches!
“Fuck!” Chen Yexun’s pupils shrank.
He cursed under his breath as realization struck.
The control room!
Some lunatic in the control room on the opposite bank or back at the base station was overriding the system!
Ignoring the agony in his arms, he threw his entire body back onto the wooden leg, using his weight and strength to pin down the piece of wood as the relentless mechanical force pushed it outward.
Shoulders dug in, every ounce of power pressed down!
*SCREECH—!!* A sickening screech of grinding metal and splintering wood exploded through the air!
Caught between forward inertia and Chen Yexun’s desperate resistance, the cable car rocked violently, threatening to pitch off the line at any moment!
Under Chen Yexun’s bloodshot, all-out pressure, the pulley jammed once more.
The cable car shuddered to an agonizing halt.
He lay collapsed on the roof, gasping for air, cold sweat completely soaking his back.
That was a hair’s breadth from disaster!
If he had hesitated for a second or retreated into the cabin earlier, they would already be delivered right into the lunatics’ twisted carnival.
Before he could even catch his breath— *Beep-beep-beep!* That death-knell electronic tone chirped again from below!
The lunatic in the control room was having a field day, or the system was endlessly auto-rebooting!
*Damn it!* Chen Yexun threw himself onto the chair leg once more.
This time, however, the battered piece of wood finally reached its breaking point.
Under the terrifying crushing force of the pulley and Chen Yexun’s counter-pressure— *BANG!!!* With a deafening crack, the section wedged deepest into the pulley burst into a cloud of splinters and fragments!
Stripped of its only obstacle, the traction pulley spun at high speed!
The cable car shot forward as if launched from a catapult, hurtling down the line toward the madness of the platform just meters away!
The sheer momentum nearly flung Chen Yexun into the abyss.
He clung to a raised weld seam on the roof with a single hand, his body swinging wildly in midair!
*It’s over!* Fierce wind and manic laughter roared in his ears as his heart plummeted.
Less than twenty meters from the platform—he could already see the excitement wrinkled onto the lead maniac’s face and the yellow of his teeth!
There was no time, no way left to stop it!
“Yexun!
What’s happening up there?!” Li Chengyu’s tearful, panic-stricken voice cried out from inside the cabin.
The violent shaking and sudden acceleration felt like the end of the world.
Wind whipped Chen Yexun’s eyes nearly shut.
He roared down with everything he had: “The wood snapped!
It’s useless!
Get ready to jump!” Inside the cabin, dead silence fell.
Chen Yexun could easily picture the sheer, unadulterated despair on Li Chengyu’s and the woman’s faces.
Jump, and they’d drop into a bottomless gorge of jagged rocks and pitch-black forest—slim odds of survival.
Don’t jump, and in a matter of seconds they’d be delivered straight to a living hell, where a far worse fate awaited.
Oddly enough, Chen Yexun felt a strange sense of calm.
Death?
Maybe he should have died long ago.
Ever since the day years ago when he helped his parents dispose of that cold corpse for the first time, his soul had been filthy, rotten to the core.
Dying here by falling or being torn apart might be a relief—a long-overdue…
atonement?
The maniacal laughter from the opposite side was deafening now, the figures of the madmen almost within reach!
He could practically smell the thick, stomach-churning stench of blood and madness!
Just as Chen Yexun closed his eyes and prepared to let go, surrendering to the void— *SNAP!* Suddenly!
All ambient light—the hanging “lanterns” on the opposite platform, the faint remnants of light in the shrine, even the cable car’s own dim indicator LEDs—vanished in an instant, accompanied by a sound like a master circuit breaker tripping!
The world plunged into absolute darkness!
At the exact same moment, the desperate hum and rushing glide of the cable car ground to a sudden halt!
Carried forward briefly by sheer remaining inertia, the car groaned heavily and came to a dead, quiet stop in the wind and rain.
It hung just a few meters short of the platform that had abruptly fallen dead silent.
Power outage?!
Chen Yexun snapped his eyes open, staring in disbelief at the sudden stillness.
The violent shock of surviving against all odds left him momentarily dazed.
He touched his face, his arms, confirming he was still real.
The dizzying shift from absolute doom to sudden salvation brought a bizarre, almost surreal comfort…
even a hint of morbid excitement.
Wasting no time, he carefully held onto the edge of the cabin, hoisted his pack, and dragged himself back through the shattered window into the interior.
Inside, Li Chengyu and the woman were still huddled on the floor, slumping against the walls.
Both were deathly pale with hollow eyes, as if their souls hadn’t yet returned from the abyss of terror.
Their faces were a mix of disbelief and blank relief.
Li Chengyu looked up numbly at Chen Yexun, his voice wispy as smoke: “We…
we survived?” It was as if he were trying to verify an impossible dream.
Chen Yexun leaned against the cold wall and nodded slowly, his voice raspy.
“It…
seems so.” “Sob…
*sob-sob…*” Hearing this, the woman seemed to finally find an outlet.
She buried her face in her hands and burst into stifled, shuddering sobs, her shoulders shaking violently with post-traumatic relief.
Chen Yexun didn’t stop to comfort them.
The blackout hadn’t dampened his vigilance in the slightest.
He stood up, crept over to the cracked front window, and strained his eyes to peer toward the nearby platform.
Through the mist, the shadowy figures of the lunatics were vaguely visible.
They seemed just as stunned by the sudden blackout.
After a brief silence, a commotion erupted on the platform—completely different from their previous jovial frenzy!
This wasn’t excited howling anymore; it was a violent, erratic rage, the fury of beasts whose “game” had been ruined!
Chen Yexun could see the dark figures pacing agitatedly, shoving and snapping at one another!
They let out feral roars and curses!
Dozens of bloodshot eyes turned in unison toward the cable car hanging just meters away.
The malice and hunger in their gazes threatened to devour the three passengers whole!
A torrent of filthy, vile obscenities spewed forth like venom.
Chen Yexun felt a wave of intense dread.
Though the cable car had stopped, they were far from safe.
They had merely traded one dead end for a far more horrifying trap—suspended right at the maniacs’ front door.
He pulled back, wanting to check what was left in his backpack.
But as soon as his hand touched the bottom of the bag, his heart sank.
He pulled the pack in front of him, inspecting it in the meager light.
His pulse jumped!
Embedded deep into the bottom of the backpack was an exceptionally sharp hatchet!
The blade was sunk almost entirely into the fabric, and the exposed metal was smeared with thick, dark red blood and bits of shredded flesh!
It was one of the weapons thrown from the platform earlier!
Chen Yexun grabbed the relatively clean handle and yanked hard!
*Clang.* The hatchet pulled free, dragging along several sliced-open cans of yellow peaches and a sticky mess of syrup.
By pure coincidence, those heavy metal cans had caught the blade and absorbed most of the impact.
Otherwise, the hatchet would have cleaved straight through the bag and into his spine.
Dumb luck.
Yet before he could even warm up to this unexpected prize— *THUMP!
THUMP!
THUMP!* The outer hull and windows of the cable car were hit again!
After their brief confusion, the maniacs outside had resumed throwing things at them!
“They just don’t stop!” Chen Yexun cursed quietly, instinctively moving to block the window gap with the battered backpack.
But the sound of the impacts this time was strange…
It wasn’t the sharp crack of hard objects, but a series of dull, wet *splats*.
And where were they getting all this stuff?
Hadn’t they thrown almost everything earlier?
Chen Yexun frowned, raising his head with extreme caution to look at the impacted glass.
In the dim light, he saw irregular splotches of dark, reddish-black goo exploding against the already shattered glass, slowly oozing down…
A second later, a sickening stench of blood—mixed with an indescribable, greasy rankness—flooded through the broken window into the cabin!
Chen Yexun understood instantly.
An icy chill surged from his soles straight to the crown of his head.
What they were throwing…
Weren’t tools anymore.
They were…
fresh internal organs.
Organs ripped fresh from their earlier “toys.”