Bite Your Fingertips

44th -【I promised you】

Chu Yu propped his hand on the cold rock wall of the cave, walked back cautiously, and urged, “Rep, Rep, quick quick quick, make a sound, it’ll be good for me to hear some noises to determine your position.”

There wasn’t a trace of light around and Chu Yu felt a little scared—

Will I bump into a fucking ghost in the next second?

“School Flower, I’m here.”

 “Fuck! What did I step on?”

“Fuck! School Flower, you stepped on my calf! Your level of sound localization isn’t so good!”    

“Ah? This is your calf? I thought I stepped on something else, scared me to death.”

Chu Yu breathed a sigh of relief, fumbled around, and sat down against the rock wall. “I went to the entrance of the cave to take a look just now and it was tightly blocked. We definitely won’t be able to push it open with only the two of us.”

Regarding the situation just now, Zhang Yueshan still had lingering fears. He stumbled on his words, “Earlier… did we encounter a mountain landslide?”         

Speaking out loud the last two words, Zhang Yueshan’s heart was still beating fiercely. 

He’d only seen landslides in books and videos before, but seeing it this time with his own eyes made him realize how horrible it truly was. 

Looking back now, Zhang Yueshan felt that he was merely a millimeter away from his death moments ago.

“It should be a landslide. The rolling rocks and soil blocked the cave entrance in one go. We definitely can’t get out with just the two of us, unless we suddenly awaken some power, gain super-strength, or are able to attract thunder and lightning so we could blast the cave’s mouth open.”

After finishing his feigned relaxed speech, Chu Yu opened his mouth. Unable to utter a sound, he simply went quiet again.

Thinking of the scene earlier when countless gravel and soil came tumbling down like a waterfall from above, Chu Yu couldn’t help but once again look in the direction of the cave entrance.  

Neither of them spoke.

“Sorry.”

Hearing Zhang Yueshan apologize, Chu Yu was puzzled. “Why suddenly say sorry to me?”          

“I shouldn’t have dragged you out to find some wild matsutake when it was raining heavily.” Zhang Yueshan wiped his face. “If it weren’t- if it weren’t for me insisting on searching for wild matsutake, you wouldn’t have come out with me. If we hadn’t come out, we wouldn’t have run into a landslide at all, and then we wouldn’t be trapped in this cave, unable to leave…”

With limited vision, hearing would become sensitive, therefore Chu Yu could hear Zhang Yueshan’s voice shaking. 

This won’t do.

“Class Rep, even if what you say makes sense, you can’t think that way. Your motive was good from the start, foraging wild matsutake then returning to make soup so everyone could try it together. Besides, what’s with that ‘only if’ nonsense, how could anyone know that there’d be an accident the first thing they went out tomorrow? One can’t really tell when it comes to accidents and whatnot. I could be walking on the street and a flower pot could smash my brain into blooming outta my head, am I right? You’re not a god. Similarly, you had no idea there’d be a sudden landslide prior to going out.”   

“Chu Yu, don’t comfort me.” Zhang Yueshan smiled bitterly as he spoke faster and faster, “If it weren’t for me… if it weren’t for me running up the mountain on a rainy day on a whim; no, if it wasn’t for me setting up the celebration party in this villa, there’d be no such thing taking place. Basically—”   

“Class Rep.”   

Chu Yu interrupted Zhang Yueshan.

The relaxed tone he’d deliberately assumed vanished, Chu Yu’s voice was very soft yet also very serious. “Class Rep, with our current situation, you’re afraid, and I too am afraid. But is being afraid useful right now? It’s useless. You blame yourself over and over again, but it’s of no help apart from aggravating your fear and negative emotions. Plus, talking so much even wastes oxygen.”  

Zhang Yueshan fell silent.      

Chu Yu clenched his fists, hiding his trembling fingertips into the palm of his hands. He even purposely pinched his palms with his nails, using the tingling pain to try calming his voice. 

“First things first, my phone is missing, it’s probably buried. How about yours?”

“Mine’s also missing.”  

“Then second thing, are you hurt?”

“No.” Zhang Yueshan took a deep breath. “The rain was too heavy, didn’t we just stand at the entrance of the cave to take shelter from it? The surroundings began to shake and there was a sound nearing. At that time, you pulled me and we ran a few steps into the cave together, then we fell. I should only have some injuries on my lower back which was scratched by a sharp stone on the ground. There’s no bleeding at the moment and it doesn’t hurt.”      

“That’s good. But back then we fell down because it was shaking too hard, I couldn’t stand firmly, and when I fell I twisted my ankle.”

Zhang Yueshan had always thought that Chu Yu was a little delicate. He didn’t expect that Chu Yu could hide any indication that he had a painfully sprained ankle. He anxiously asked, “Is it serious?”       

“It hurts, but the bones should be fine.”

Chu Yu was usually very afraid of pain, but at present, spraining an ankle and the accompanying pain was basically nothing. 

Chu Yu continued questioning, “What are you carrying on your body?”         

Influenced by Chu Yu’s attitude and emotions, Zhang Yueshan also gradually calmed down.

He enumerated one by one. “I carried a bag when we went out, but there’s only two bottles of mineral water, a bottle of fruit juice, a packet of biscuits, and two chocolates in it. Oh right, there’s also a rechargeable small flashlight. This is my school bag. Before the monthly exams, the lights in the dormitory would shut off at night so I’d use a flashlight to read. As a result, this has always been stuffed into my bag and never taken out.”   

The two took out the flashlight first.       

The moment the switch was turned on, there was finally no longer just darkness before them.

With the light, they could clearly see each other’s faces. Chu Yu smiled, Zhang Yueshan was startled, but also smiled.   

With the flashlight shining, Chu Yu looked down at his sprained ankle.

“It’s swollen a bit badly but it’s not serious. It won’t be disabled.”   

Touching the white plastic switch, Chu Yu asked, “Class Rep, how long can your flashlight last?”

Zhang Yueshan recalled. “When I bought it, it was written on the package that the strong light could last for seven hours and the night light for fifty hours.”    

“Fifty hours? Awesome! I like this flashlight. Quick quick quick, let’s turn off the strong light and turn on the night light instead!”        

“Okay!”    

The night light was a small bulb attached to the tail of the flashlight and covered with a blue plastic cover. The light wasn’t strong, but at least there was light. 

Both of them heaved a sigh of relief.     

Chu Yu also enumerated and stated, “I don’t have a lot of things on my body. There are a few fruit candies in my pocket, and three packets of biscuits, all handed to me by Dream-Ge yesterday, which I didn’t eat and left in the bag.”

He counted with his fingers. “Two bottles of 550 mL mineral water, one bottle of 300 mL juice, four packets of biscuits, two chocolates, six fruit candies, and a flashlight. We have to rely on these and persist until someone comes to rescue us.”

Zhang Yueshan said no more demoralizing words. “We definitely can.”

“Mm, yeah, we definitely can.”

Chu Yu sat cross-legged on the ground, hand guarding his injured ankle while looking towards the depths of the cave.    

“Class Rep, say… should we walk further inside and assess the situation?”        

Chu Yu added, “The protagonists in comics are commonly trapped in caves and will all find mechas, magic swords, or gates to another world inside the deepest part of the cave.”    

Zhang Yueshan also stared at the pitch-black depths of the cave. “The protagonists of martial arts novels will find peerless secret books on martial arts.”  

Chu Yu questioned, “Go or not?”

“Go, we’re just sitting anyway.”      

Zhang Yueshan still remembered Chu Yu’s sprained foot. “Why don’t I go and see while you, School Flower, wait for me here?”  

“No.”

Chu Yu stood up with the help of the rock wall. “There’s just the two of us, let’s go together. We’ll cooperate somehow.”

Another reason I can’t mention is that I heard two ghost stories last night, I’m scared!

Zhang Yueshan supported Chu Yu while holding a flashlight in his other hand and carefully walked deeper into the cave.

However, they had yet to walk far when they met a dead end.

Chu Yu sighed. “Sure enough, we’re both mortals. There’s no magic circle leading to another world, and no martial arts secret book.”

The two walked back.

After two steps, Chu Yu suddenly stopped and inclined his head to ask Zhang Yueshan, “Class Rep, do you… feel anything?”

“What?” Zhang Yueshan carefully felt around and suddenly caught on. “There’s wind!”

“Yeah, I also feel like it’s windy.”   

The two of them lay on the rock wall for a long time before they felt a hint of a different air current from a big stone. 

Zhang Yueshan was pleasantly surprised. “Although this stone is too thick for us to push away, if there’s wind, no matter where it blows, we’ll never suffocate to death due to lack of oxygen!”

“Correct.”     

The two returned to the place not far from the cave’s entrance and sat there again.

It was quiet inside the cave, even one’s heartbeat could be heard.          

After sitting for a while, Zhang Yueshan, who was staring at the faint light of the flashlight, asked, “School Flower, how long do you think it’ll take for people outside to discover that we’re in danger? No one knows where we went, which direction we were headed, or which way we took.”

“Soon. Lu Shi will figure it out.”

Because of the blood-sucking event after Lu Shi’s 3,000-meter run, Chu Yu’s blood meal time had been adjusted to this morning.

If Lu Shi couldn’t wait for him to come back before noon, he’d definitely know that he hadn’t returned.   

“Yes, Lu-Shen will definitely figure it out, definitely will.”    

Zhang Yueshan didn’t question this inexplicable sentence, but rather firmly believed it.

People always subconsciously grabbed onto that little hope.

Behold everybody, the raw count of this chapter. Therefore, you’ll be seeing three parts in total.