Chapter 6: The Strange Old Man

  "Tianyu, Tianyu, what's wrong with you?"

  I slowly opened my eyes, it's all because I'm too weak, can't take a punch.

  "Alright, strong son, no worries, thanks a lot just now."

  "We're good friends, of course I'll help you, sorry I came too late." No wonder, Qiangzi helped me find my glasses, he really understands me.

  My glasses are really sturdy, today they were hit by a door, jumped off the building and fell again, but nothing happened to them.

  After putting on glasses, things in front of me gradually became clear.

  The onlookers have all left.

  I said to Qiangzi: "They will definitely bother you, you must be careful."

  "Go ahead, I've had enough of them. If it were one on one, I wouldn't be afraid of them at all! You really went all out, the hooligan was knocked unconscious by you and sent to the hospital. These stupid teachers, when they see students fighting, they run faster than rabbits, can't count on them at all."

  I slowly got up, and my whole body ached all over.

  "No need to attend class anymore, I'll send you back."

  "It's okay, you go to class, be careful of Ah Fei and them, I think I'll just go out for a walk by myself."

  "I'm worried about you being like this."

  "It's okay, I can handle it myself, you go back."

  Jingqiang saw me persisting, knew I wasn't in a good mood, didn't force it, and went back to class on his own.

  I limped out of the school gate, now I can't go back to my uncle's house, if my uncle finds out that I was fighting in school, it will be troublesome.

  Where are you going?

  What's the point? Anyway, wherever I go, I still can't go home.

  It just so happened that a bus was passing by, someone got off, and I got on.

  Only after getting on the car and asking around did I find out that we were going to Lianhua Mountain, a large mountain in the suburbs that is one of our local tourist scenic spots. It's said that during World War II, the Japanese established a secret base there, but it's unknown what it was used for - it can be confirmed that it wasn't for manufacturing poison gas. After Japan's defeat in the war, they had people secretly destroy the base.

  The base was very secretive and wasn't discovered by the government until more than a year after Japan's surrender, but from the remaining things, it is unclear what the Japanese were doing there.

  The terrain of Lianhua Mountain is treacherous, with lush vegetation and a wide variety of species. Add to that the mysterious Japanese military base, and many people go there for sightseeing. Of course, in summer, even more people go. The people sitting on the bus are probably all going there to play. I didn't know there were so many idle people.

  As it wasn't far away, the car soon arrived at Lianhua Mountain.

  As soon as we got off the bus, many tour guides rushed up.

  "Do you want a tour guide service? It's very cheap."

  "Our company's tour guide service is considerate and reasonably priced, do you need the service?"

  Nothing is easy to do nowadays. It's like being a tout on a hot day. But in this way, there is also an advantage - no one comes to bother me.

  To be honest, I had heard of Lianhua Mountain base before, but I really hadn't been here.

  I took a look at the navigation map of a tourist attraction, and it turned out that the base was in a deep place in the mountains. No wonder, it's not surprising that it was a secret point that wasn't discovered until a year after Japan surrendered.

  My body still hurts, thinking about being beaten makes me furious, but fortunately I hanged the bandit, don't know how badly he was injured, hope he didn't become an idiot or a vegetable, otherwise I'd have to serve him for everything in the future.

  Let you little kid go wild, I'll play with you till you're dead tired.

  Thinking of this, I feel a bit more at peace in my heart.

  It's just past two in the afternoon, let's go to the base and have some fun. What's the point of sightseeing? Let's see what those little Japanese devils were researching back then. Who knows, maybe I'll figure it out and cause a stir.

  I took out all the money in my pocket, more than 200 yuan. My family gives me more than 1,000 yuan as pocket money every semester. This 200-plus yuan was just withdrawn from the bank by me.

  I don't know if the bandits will extort money from me for medical expenses.

  Mom's, it's all spent, let you cheat and fail, can't kill me anyway.

  Take a cable car to the base. Taking a cable car is not expensive, it only cost 60 yuan and took more than ten minutes to arrive at the edge of the base.

  After getting off the cable car, I saw that there weren't many people touring around the base.

  No wonder it's called a base, but there's no sign of the base anymore. There is a large open space here, surrounded by high mountains. The open space has six large caves around it, I don't know if they were formed naturally or dug out by the Japanese. Judging from their symmetrical distribution, it's more likely that they were dug out by the Japanese, as nature wouldn't be so meticulous.

  There are many trees planted in front of the cave, and to enter the cave, you must go from behind the trees. Because it has become a tourist attraction, it is easy to see that there is a cave around, otherwise, it would be impossible to find out that there is a cave on the empty ground.

  I saw that several other caves had many people in front of them, but there was only one cave near the west side with no one at all. What's going on? Why didn't anyone enter this cave?

  The fewer people there are, the more curious I become.

  I walked towards that cave, just as I reached the entrance, a staff member with an ID card around his neck came over: "Hey, wait, you can't go in."

  "Can't come in? Why?"

  "Listen to me, this really can't be allowed in, we just made the rules."

  Just made up? What a joke, it's obviously to stop me.

  "Why can't I get in? Why did you let others go through?"

  "Right, you can go through other holes, this one doesn't look good."

  "Those are just nice? I'm interested in this one." As I was about to walk inside.

  "Hey, you with glasses, looking like an intellectual, how come you're so stubborn? This is the rule."

  As soon as I heard him say that I wear glasses, I got angry. It's all because of these lousy glasses that I ended up with my head stuck in a wintergreen bush today.

  "What's wrong with wearing glasses? I'm really not a cultured person, I just don't like listening to advice, what's wrong?"

  "You're just a kid, how can you be so stubborn? Listen to me, whether you want to or not. There's danger in there, two people have already gone missing consecutively. I won't let you go in no matter what today, if something happens we can't afford to take responsibility."

  What? Has someone gone missing inside?

  "Little donor, may I approach and speak with you?"

  A voice sounded not far from me.

  I turned around and saw an old man with a thin build sitting on a rock not far away, his eyes closed. The old man was bald, had sparse eyebrows, a pointed mouth and sunken cheeks, looking quite elderly, probably over 80 years old. His body looked still strong, sitting up straight, wearing very shabby clothes, draped in an old tattered cloak, the fabric seemed to be from the old days, his two legs were covered under the cloak, neither like a monk nor a Taoist priest, but rather comical.

  I took a look around and there weren't many people to begin with. It seemed like I was the only one who could be considered a small donor.

  "Are you calling me, old man?" Although the old man didn't look very pleasant, I had cultivated good virtues of respecting the elderly and loving the young since childhood, and it was hard to change.

  "That's right."

  The old man spoke briefly.

  What's going on? I was just about to go over there. That staff member grabbed me all of a sudden.

  There are many people watching, but the votes are too few. Big brothers and sisters, Xīng Hún's heart is broken. Give newcomers some encouragement, spend two seconds of time, cast a precious vote. For Xīng Hún, it's a great achievement. If you have votes, just throw them, and beat Xīng Hún to pieces.