Bai Wu sighed. There was no way to dissuade these children with such strong beliefs.
The group continued forward, everyone silent along the way.
A gentle breeze rustled through the treetops, bringing a rustling sound of leaves. Moonlight filtered through the sparse clouds, casting long shadows on the jungle, like a strange sketch.
Their flashlights had been dropped where they had fled earlier, so they could only move forward by the faint moonlight. Bai Wu walked in the front, unable to even determine if he was heading in the right direction, relying solely on his intuition.
In the silent night, only their footsteps could be heard, along with the occasional chirping of insects and the calls of animals. A distant stream shimmered in the moonlight, like a string of silver threads, running through the quiet mountain forest.
The mountains undulated in the darkness, forming a blurred outline.
At that moment, a cold wind blew past, bringing a rustling sound of forest leaves. Suddenly, a night bird cut through the air, emitting a shrill cry, then disappeared into the bushes in the distance.
Bai Wu suddenly became alert, raising his hand to stop the two from continuing forward: “Wait a moment.”
The two became nervous upon hearing this: “What’s wrong?”
[If you see this text, please exit reading mode, or go to the “source webpage” to read normally]
[Please go to the source webpage to read, the following content is automatically replaced to prevent collection] You──I, big──small, more──less, up──down, left──right….
Bai Wu looked to the left rear: “Who’s there! Come out!”
In the darkness, there was a rustling of leaves, followed by a beam of light, the light of a flashlight.
Everyone squinted reflexively.
Bai Wu also squinted, but his eyes quickly adapted to the light. When he saw the person holding the flashlight, he immediately rushed over excitedly: “Cheng Miao! Where have you been! I’ve been looking for you!”
Unlike the Cheng Miao and the girl, the girl looked completely different from when they last met. Now she looked at Cheng Miao with eyes full of worship.
Bai Wu was feeling puzzled when he heard Cheng Miao say: “You ran too fast, we couldn’t keep up. After that sound disappeared, we were completely lost. It wasn’t until that monster appeared and we heard you shouting that we found our way here.
But by the time we got here, you had already run away. We could only search for your traces while taking our chances to see if we could run into you. By the way, I found this where we were originally waiting.”
As Cheng Miao spoke, he handed over something. It was Bai Wu’s phone.
Bai Wu took it: “Thank you.”
Cheng Miao then looked at the boy with glasses and Zhou Xun: “Who are these two?”
“Oh, they are also explorers. This is…” Bai Wu looked at the girl with glasses, suddenly realizing that he hadn’t even asked her name yet.
But the boy reacted and answered, “Guan Xianzhang. My brother was also a victim of the incident two weeks ago, so I came here today to investigate. I hope to find what my brother saw back then. But, are you really Li Xiang’s brother?”
Bai Wu secretly cried out, “Damn it!” He had said earlier that Cheng Miao was Li Xiang’s brother, and now, in his excitement, he had called out Cheng Miao’s name, making Guan Xianzhang suspicious.
Fortunately, Cheng Miao reacted quickly: “Cousin.”
Guan Xianzhang didn’t easily believe him: “Just a cousin, for whom you would go to a place like this.”
“And a policeman.”
The identity of just a cousin was certainly not enough, but adding the identity of a policeman was different.
The image of a policeman being upright and responsible made Guan Xianzhang more willing to believe him: “I see. But I thought the police wouldn’t care about these things.”
“The police are indeed materialistic, so this is just my personal behavior. I hope you won’t reveal this to the outside world after we get out.”
Bai Wu couldn’t help but think, “Great! This way, they won’t specifically investigate the truth of this matter.”
Guan Xianzhang indeed believed this statement: “I understand.”
“We went to the place where you were waiting earlier and made an unexpected discovery. Since you’re all here, follow me.”
He said, walking at the very front, with Bai Wu next to him.
“Did you see that monster?”
“Not only did I see it, but I also saw its true form.”
Bai Wu was shocked: “Ah! How did you escape then?”
Cheng Miao smiled and shook his head, saying nothing more.
Although Bai Wu was puzzled, he didn’t ask anything more, following Cheng Miao to the place where they had been waiting.
Strangely, their scattered flashlights should have been here, but now there was nothing.
Bai Wu asked: “Why did you come here?”
“I want to ask you to take another look at that monster.”
Before everyone could react, they heard Cheng Miao say: “Xiao Ju.”
As soon as he finished speaking, they saw a huge shadow.
Bai Wu had been too chaotic just now and hadn’t had time to see the shadow clearly. Now, looking at it, he felt that the shadow was somewhat abstract, like a very long mouth with a very tall body, like a Tyrannosaurus Rex.
Guan Xianzhang and Zhou Xun were very surprised when they saw the monster, but perhaps because there were more people, they no longer felt the fear they had felt earlier.
After a while, Cheng Miao said: “Okay.”
As soon as he finished speaking, the shadow disappeared into the night sky.
Bai Wu looked at Cheng Miao in surprise: “What’s going on?”
Cheng Miao raised his chin, gesturing towards the girl who walked over.
The girl held out her hand: “I made it with these two things.”
It was a leaf, cut into the shape of a Tyrannosaurus Rex, and a flashlight.
Bai Wu immediately understood: “Using shadows.”
Cheng Miao nodded: “Yes, it’s man-made. Someone used the sound of a flute to attract us all to that place, and then, not far away, used a flashlight to shine on the monster paper-cut they had prepared beforehand. The forest in this place is very sparse, so the shadow can be clearly projected onto the trees.
Finally, they used a loudspeaker to make the sound of a monster walking and a baby crying, in order to scare you.”
Guan Xianzhang quickly discovered the problem: “Wait a moment, where are our flashlights? Why did all our flashlights go out at the same moment?”
Cheng Miao took out a flashlight from his pocket, opened the one in the girl’s hand, and there was a broken wire inside: “This is my flashlight. It suddenly went out when we were looking for you.
When I checked this flashlight at the time, I noticed this wire. I guessed that someone had cut part of it, and in the process of turning on the flashlight, it couldn’t withstand the current and caused a short circuit.”
“But its end is already burned, how do you know that its break was cut off, instead of being caused by aging?”
The one who asked the question was Zhou Xun, who had been silent all along.
Upon hearing this, Cheng Miao said: “Because when we arrived here, all the flashlights were gone. Also, your flashlights went out together. If it was aging, wouldn’t that be too much of a coincidence?”
Bai Wu understood: “So, this person can only be…”
Cheng Miao nodded: “So, won’t you come out yet? Boss.”