Chapter 11 Screaming in Fright
Everyone who heard the scream jumped in fright, even Wu Xiaoye’s expression changed. If at this time, had anyone looked at her hands, they would have noticed her left hand suddenly moved nimbly, quickly forming a few different hand seals. Also, her eyes flitted an intense coldness.
But no one present noticed Wu Xiaoye’s weird hand seals. Their focus was instead on another scream they just heard.
Their faces were a sheet of white, just like it had been painted with a layer of white. In particular, Zhang Zhong, his knees turned limp and almost fell to the ground.
“Could Zhao Lingjun have seen some supernatural things below?” Thought many.
But at the manhole, Zhang Changsheng was instead stunned, and staring blankly down the hole.
Zhang Changsheng had been beside the manhole the whole time, therefore he could clearly hear where the scream originated from. He was definite that the sound came from the sewers, and the echo along with it solidified that.
“The first and second scream were obviously different. The first scream compared to this was much higher pitched. If this scream was from Zhao Lingjun, then where did the first one come from?” Zhang Changsheng wondered.
Zhang Changsheng for no reason, suddenly thought of the ghost in red, with blood dripping from her eyes. He felt absolutely horrified, and goose b.u.mps rose all over his arms. As he was about to ask Zhao Lingjun if he was alright, he heard a bellow from the sewers.
“Zhang Changsheng… … …” Zhao Lingjun’s voice echoed out from the sewer.
“What happened? Are you okay?” Zhang Changsheng quickly replied, puzzled why he sounded so angry.
“MLGBD.” Zhang Changsheng immediately heard another bellow from the sewers. “Why did you pull on the rope for no reason? Don’t you know that it’s painful? I was almost strangled to death by you!”
“Oops. I’m sorry, it wasn’t on purpose.” Zhang Changsheng shouted back with a red face. Zhang Changsheng was suddenly hit with the realization that he had unconsciously jerked the rope when he had heard the first scream.
“It wasn’t on purpose? If it wasn’t on purpose then why did you scream earlier? Do you intend on frightening me to death?” Zhao Lingjun chidded in the pitch black sewer. “Don’t you know how scary it is in here?”
“What? I didn’t scream.” Zhang Changsheng felt a chill creep up his spine.
“If it wasn’t you, then was it a gho…”
Before Zhao Lingjun could finish saying the word ghost, another shrill scream was heard.
This scream was significantly softer than the second scream. But Zhang Changsheng clearly heard it originate from behind him.
Zhang Changsheng turned and saw the “beautiful” Hao Meili with a face full of fright, covering her mouth.
“Manager Hao, are you reenacting that film?” Zhang Changsheng asked amicably. If it was a different person shouting, Zhang Changsheng would have already berated him to the point of crying. But when he saw that it was from Hao Meili, he could only gloomily say, “Don’t you know that you could have scared a person to death?”
“I also didn’t do it on purpose.” Hao Meili patted her chest, and like the aggrieved party, said, “I heard a sploosh, and was startled.”
“So that first scream was also you?” Zhang Changsheng accused.
“I…” Hao Meili stamped her feet and said, “Aiya, don’t you find it very frightening?”
“You…” Zhang Changsheng stared speechlessly at Hao Meili. The sentence ‘There can be nothing more frightening and disgusting than you, Baoya Zhen. A 30 year old aunty dressing up as a pure and innocent 20 year old girl,’ had almost left his mouth before he decide to say “Manager Hao, you should go and do your own things, stop creating havoc here.”
“Then I shall not accompany you guys any longer.” Hao Meili shot a “charming” gaze at Zhang Changsheng and said. “I shall go out to buy things. Tell Xiao Zhao to be careful down there.”
“F*ck. Hypocrite, really a f*cking hypocrite.” Zhang Changsheng depressingly thought.
“Zhang Changsheng, Zhang Changsh…”
At this moment, Zhang Changsheng heard Zhao Lingjun shout for him again.
“Is something wrong?” Zhang Changsheng quickly replied while holding his breath and crouching over the hole.
“Throw the flashlight down.” Zhang Changsheng saw a dark shadow at the bottom of the sewer reply to him.
“Then make sure you are securely tied to the rope.”
“If I ask you to throw it, quickly throw it. MLGBD.” Zhang Lingjun yelled. “If you don’t hurry up, I will be killed by the f*cking stench.
“… F*ck. I asked for the flashlight, why did you throw a lousy old slipper. Do you want to kill me?”
“Sorry! I only wanted to test if you could catch it.”
“F*ck you upside down. If you keep on blurting c.r.a.p, when i come up… F*ck, I haven’t even finished my sentence and you threw it.”
By the time Zhao Lingjun received the flashlight, he was already on the verge of collapsing from the rotting stench.
Zhao Lingjun really regretted not asking that stupid Fatty for a gas mask earlier. As a bonus he could have seen the Hengha Er Jiang scramble to find one.
Zhao Lingjun’s mask, could not stop the stench from pervading his nose. The sewer’s stench was so bad, it was like overnight food that turned sour. In addition, his face mask had already gotten damp from just a short moment in the sewer.
The feeling of the damp mask, to Zhao Lingjun, was akin of plastering Hao Meili’s used sanitary pad on his face.
A long time ago, a cla.s.smate of his once said that when one’s concentration was at its peak, the person would disregard a part of his five senses, and feel nothing.
At the time his cla.s.smate cited an example. When a group of fans were barbecuing while watching a brilliant game. One guy so entranced by the game, did not even feel his finger get burned, even after a large blister formed.
At the time, Zhao Lingjun thought that it was utter nonsense. He thought that if it was true, then when a guy was undergoing surgery, general anesthesia was not required, showing him a fantastic A film would suffice.
But right now, Zhao Lingjun felt that what his cla.s.smate said at the time had some truth in it.
Because, normally if Zhao Lingjun thought of Hao Meili’s sanitary pads, he would have already been puking up bile.
But, even when feeling that his facemask turned into her sanitary napkin, he still has not puked.
This was because, the feeling coming from his soles compared to the mask, was worse.
When climbing down the ladder, Zhao Lingjun had already noticed that the sewer’s four walls were made of concrete.
Using his flashlight, he took a second look at it under the light.
Zhao Lingjun found that there were different tunnels on two of the sides. One side had many different tunnels less than a meter in diameter scattered across it. The other, had only one large tunnel, and bending over slightly would suffice.
He realized that this sewer was the hub for the network of sewers underground.
Everyday the sewage from the complex would first go through those black and slimy tunnels before reaching this hub. After which they would enter the bigger tunnel and go straight to sewage treatment plant.
Zhao Lingjun was glad that the complex also had a blackout and their water supply cut-off today.
Because, if the water supply was not shut off, the majority of pipes would still be working and spewing out filth. Thankfully it was shut off, and the job became much easier. Zhao Lingjun felt that all he had to do was to just crawl, find the clogged pipe and unclog it.
But when he stepped on the ground earlier, he knew that he had been counting his chickens before they hatched.
He had been expecting to be able to step on the concrete at the bottom, and even if there was some sludge that was not washed away, it would not be too thick and wearing rubber boots would suffice.
But when he stepped, he knew that he was wrong, very wrong.
He heard a sploosh sound when he stepped. After that his feet sank like in quicksand.
If his reaction was not that fast, his other leg would also have stepped off the ladder and onto the sludge losing his balance and falling face first into the filth.
The sound that Hao Meili had heard, was exactly this sound that Zhao Lingjun made when he first stepped into the sludge.
When both of his feet were deep in the sludge, Zhao Lingjun realised that his rubber boots was not enough and felt like there were countless loaches squirming inside it.
His first realization when first reaching the bottom, was that what he saw from the ladder was not concrete but instead sludge.
His second realization was that the sludge was deeper than it seemed, deeper than profound feelings of love.