“All the people must enter the passage”, Wu Jian made up his mind and quickly carried me on his back, running toward the passage. Yan’er was unwilling to move and was finally dragged away by Sister Hua and a mysterious person.
The long shirt man knew his situation was dire. After letting out a terrible noise, his whole lower body fell from the platform and he rolled away toward the beast whose body was still in the fog.
The great power knocked the beast off the cliff along with the long shirt man.
“No!” Yan’er’s face was covered with tears, she rushed madly toward the cliff. At this moment, the mysterious man with Sister Hua suddenly raised his hands and hit Yan’er’s neck hard. Yan’er’s head immediately drooped as if she had become soft.
When the rest of the group entered the passage, a huge triangular head appeared on the edge of the platform. It saw us hiding in the passageway and made a loud roar. The huge mouthpiece of the rickshaw, like a petal, split into four pieces, revealing a few tiny circles of teeth inside. A python-like tongue struck out about 7 or 8 meters, flying in the air.
But as the old man had said, as soon as we entered the passageway, it would be safe. The fierce beast showed ferocity on the platform for a while and then slowly backed into the cliff.
Wu Jian exhaled a loud sigh of relief and then helped me check my body. Luckily, most of my injuries were only skin deep. Although they looked serious, there was no damage to my bones. After a simple hemostasis and bandage, I was all right.
Yan’er was still unconscious. Wu Jian examined everyone in detail, and then sat on the outermost side of the passage, “Let's take a break here and wait for the long shirt man.”
Everyone just nodded, although nobody knew whether the long shirt man would come back.
After a simple meal, Yan’er woke up and looked at us first. After discovering that the long shirt man wasn’t there, she gave the mysterious man a hard look, got up and stumbled to go out.
The mysterious man got up with the intention to stop her. Yan’er stared at the mysterious man, without speaking, just staring. The mysterious man also pretended not to see her, standing there, without any intention to make way.
Sister Hua stood up and walked between the two of them, saying, “Yan’er, don't be impulsive. You can't save the long shirt man, even if you go now. What’s more, maybe you will put yourself in danger.”
When Yan’er looked towards Sister Hua and was about to speak, Sister Hua interrupted her by raising a hand, “When the fair wind comes, we can all recover. At least, before the next fair wind comes, we can use our abilities and then we can save the long shirt man.”
Time went by little by little and no one knew when the wind would come. Yan’er looked very irritable, either sitting down or walking back and forth in the passage, as if her left and right hands seemed to be competing with each other.
I also felt very sad in my heart because saving me caused the long shirt man’s disappearance. Although no one said anything, I felt just like I was being pressed by a boulder, breathless.
At this moment, I hoped I could just knock my head against the wall of the passageway and die. Then I could become a ghost to help the long shirt man.
An undetectable breeze blew by, the bodies of Sister Hua, Yan’er and the others blurred slightly and then recovered. Yan’er was very happy and as she was about to head out right away, Sister Hua stopped her.
“Sister Hua, we have recovered”, her voice was loud and her tone was stiff.
“I know. We must go together”, Sister Hua nodded to Yan’er.
“Where are we going together?” a faint voice sounded. All of us turned our heads and looked at the speaker. It was the long shirt man! Although he looked bleak, he did not seem to have any serious problems.
Yan’er stood still. Then she jumped on him, hugged him, and began to cry. The long shirt man reached out his hand out to stop Yan’er, saying, “I am Okay. I am very lucky. After the beast died, the fair wind came, blowing me straight to the platform. The old man didn't tell us the truth. We can also recover on the platform.”
I felt very glad and was secretly also very impressed by the luck of the long shirt man. Anyway, it was a good thing that we all didn’t die. It really was a good thing.
Yan’er cried for a long time and the long shirt man's hand stroked her back. Sister Hua coughed and we knew that we could set off. By this time, Yan’er had woken up and pushed long shirt man away, with some tear stains still on her face, “You are molesting me! Since you didn’t die, let’s go. You go first.”
The long shirt man had no choice but to stand up, he smiled to me with embarrassment and then walked to the front. Wu Jian followed closely behind. Because I was hurt, Huang Xiaolong helped me walk behind the team. When Yan’er passed us, I could clearly hear what she said.
“These men. Damn it. I let the long shirt man led the way. I never said I should go in the front. The long shirt man gets really hurt.”
Huang Xiaolong and I looked at each other, revealing a bit of embarrassment. Ah, why do these women always say yes but mean no?
This passage was no different from the one we went through last time, it was even the same size, except that there were no glowing bugs. I thought if I saw the glowing bugs again, I would refuse to enter the passage, even if I was beaten to death.
I don't know how long we walked. Then we came to a fork with three common passages, and there was a symbol above each fork. The symbols looked the same, but the colors were different, they were red, black and gold.
“The black one is the passage to Hades that Great-Grandpa mentioned.” Huang Xiaolong Helped me walk over there and address the people who stopped at the fork.
Wu Jian nodded, “It should be. But besides this, there are two others. Which way are we going?”
“Whatever.”, As Huang Xiaolong said this, he seemed very decisive. However, in my eyes, he wasn't willing to take responsibility for his wrong choice.
Wu Jian said, “It’s up to you. I made the wrong choice last time.”
“It's not your fault”, the long shirt man was very generous and then took a look at the symbol above the passageway, saying, “Why don’t we choose the gold one. The red one looks a little bloody.”
Everyone stayed silent and the long shirt man just shrugged, “That’s it.”
“OK”, Wu Jian agreed first.
Huang Xiaolong didn’t say anything. Sister Hua said some words to the mysterious man and then also agreed.
With the long shirt man leading the way, we walked into the golden passageway.
“Somebody seems to have visited this passage not long ago”, the long shirt man said, pointing to the still visible footprints on the ground.
Wu Jian used the only torch to show the footprint and then he seemed to find something else. He crouched down and looked carefully at the footprints on the ground.
Huang Xiaolong and I also stepped forward and had a look at the footprints. We looked for a while but found nothing wrong.