The strange story of Huai'an Inn

The coastline is winding and rugged, taking advantage of the ebb tide to waddle across the reef shoals covered with oyster shells and barnacles. In front of you, you can faintly see many strange boulders standing in the shallow water, spreading to the vicinity of the cliffs.

They are like countless silent giants wearing black cloaks. They are staggered and straddled at the junction of the ocean and land, covering all the scenery in front of them.

Chong Liu's footsteps paused for a while, and he said to Zhu Helan, "When you get here, you must follow me closely."

Zhu Helan laughed softly, "Why do you feel that I have always said this to you?"

"When I get here, I'm the boss." Chong Liu said with a smirk.

Zhu Helan suddenly had an idea, he untied a long hair band, grabbed Chong Liu's right hand, tied the band to his wrist, and tied the other end to his own wrist, "This way I won't separated from you."

Chong Liu looked at the headband connecting his and the shopkeeper's hands, and smiled silly, "Then why don't you just hold hands?"

"I'm afraid you'll be shy." The shopkeeper looked at him solemnly.

Chong Liu began to walk towards the stone forest, quietly rolling his eyes.

"Hey, remember what I said?" The shopkeeper tugged at the strap on his hand.

Chong Liu pretended to be nonchalant, "What?"

"What will happen if you roll my eyes again?"

Chong Liu blushed inexplicably, and refused to answer.

In the end, Zhu Helan poked his shoulder with his hand from behind, "You don't remember what your boss said?"

"I didn't roll my eyes."

"I've seen it all." Zhu Helan clicked his tongue, "It's not a good habit to lie."

Walking through the stone formation, all the scenes in the front, back, left and right soon look similar.Stepping on the sea water, the shoes and trousers were soaked, and the head was inexplicably dizzy.

But Chong Liu walked very smoothly in it, and even in the end, it seemed as if those stones recognized him and made way for him on purpose.

Zhu Helan noticed that some stones had traces of being cut by weapons.

"What will happen if you get lost here?" Zhu Helan asked curiously.

Chong Liudao, "To be honest... I don't know... Some people who came in accidentally, I would take them out when I saw them. If they came in on purpose... They disappeared in the end and never went out again." Chong Liu thought After thinking about it, he said, "I'm afraid it was taken away by the sea after the high tide."

Walking out of the stone formation, I found that the coastline was sunken inward.In front of him was a steep cliff that seemed to have nowhere to enter, but Chong Liu still strode forward, but after turning around a protruding rock, he could see a narrow gap that only one person could pass through.

The gap was so dark that it looked like a crack, and it was impossible to think of it as an entrance.

As soon as Chong Liu took two steps inside, he heard Zhu Helan, who loved cleanliness, let out a bit of disgust.

"Are you afraid of ruining your clothes?" Chong Liu teased.

"It's so narrow, you used to come in like this every time?"

"I used to be small, and this gap is wide enough for me," he said, avoiding a rock protrusion expertly.Suddenly remembered that the shopkeeper didn't know about this invisible obstacle, and hurriedly reminded, "Ah, be careful..."

"Ah!" With a bang, it still hit...

Chong Liu held back his laughter, listening to the shopkeeper curse in some ancient language.

The cave was dark, save for a pale light illuminating the opening.But Chong Liu seemed to be able to see things in the dark, touching a place.When his hand touched something, that thing seemed to recognize him, emitting a faint light.

A bead the size of a fist.

One after another, more similar beads embedded in the wall lit up, pushing toward the depths of the cave, lighting up a narrow corridor along the way.

Zhu Helan looked at the beads in amazement, "This is...the Pearl of the South China Sea?"

Chong Liu nodded, "That's right, the mucus secreted by sea lantern mussels has the property of emitting light, and the pearls produced can be used for lighting."

"Pearls produced by ordinary sea lantern mussels...can't recognize people. They don't light up just because you touch them. These are filthy pearls." Zhu Helan looked at the dome composed of secret water-like light colors in admiration , "There are so many, even ordinary South China Sea night pearls are hard to get, let alone dirty ones... where did you get them?"

"I don't know, they've been here since I was sensible." Chong Liu slid his hand over the beads on the wall in a normal way.They seem to be able to sense his touch, subtly changing light and dark.

"My master has a lot of strange things. I didn't think it was strange when I was a child, but I started to feel a little strange when I went out. But I didn't know why until I entered the Huai'an Inn..."

Even though they had already left the stone forest, the two of them still hadn't loosened the tie on their wrists.They walked towards the depths of the cave stepping on the pearl light one after the other, a damp and decaying ancient tomb-like smell fluttered on their faces along with the faint wind.

The further you go in, the quieter it becomes.

"Doesn't your master live here? Why does it feel like no one has been here for a long time?" Zhu Helan asked in a low voice unconsciously.

Chong Liu was also a little nervous, and replied uncertainly, "When I left, Master had been very inactive...Maybe he was still sleeping..."

As he walked, Zhu Helan suddenly opened up in front of him, which caught Zhu Helan a little off guard.

He originally thought Chong Liu described a simple cave with one or two caves, but this...

If it weren't for the light of the South China Sea night pearl embedded in the rock walls in all directions, it would be difficult to see how high the cave is.Those huge stalagmites hang down like upside-down knives, as if they are about to fall down at any moment and poke a few holes in people's bodies.

In the huge space, traces of some people's activities can be seen.Some simple tables and chairs made of stone or wood, and a firepit built of stones.But everything was covered with a thick layer of dust.

Chong Liu wiped the dust with his hands, visibly nervous.

How long has the master not been out?

He hurriedly walked to a narrow passage deeper, jumped over several interlocking rocks, and several cave entrances appeared.

It seems... there is an extremely complex cave system hidden here.Zhu Helan could feel the faint flowing wind and hear the sound of water flowing.

Is there a dark river?

How many layers of caves are there?

"Liu'er, have you been to all the caves here?"

Chong Liu shook his head, "There are some holes, Master forbids me to go in."

"He banned you, so you really haven't been there?" Zhu Helan glanced at him suspiciously.

Chong Liu scratched his head in embarrassment, "I was very obedient when I was young. And...the connection between me and Master was also strong at that time, he knew where I went."

If there are some caves that Liu'er has never entered...

Are they really safe?

Zhu Helan frowned slightly, he always felt a little uneasy.After all... the perception conveyed by his master to Chong Liu is dangerous.

While thinking about it, they had already entered another cave from the road on the left.

A small pool of water appeared here, the water reflected a faint phosphorescence in the sparse pearly light, and some strange flowers with translucent petals grew in clusters.There are two stone doors at the end of the cave.

"Master's is this one." Chongliu pointed to the one on the right.

"So the room on the left belongs to you?" Zhu Helan observed the door that had been sealed for eight years with great interest.It seems that there is a mechanism behind the door, otherwise the heavy six in childhood should not be able to push it.

I don't know what it was like when Chong Liu was a child?

"The door doesn't seem to have been opened yet." Chong Liu was already standing in front of his master's door while speaking.There were some chessboard-like vertical and horizontal lines engraved on the stone, but Chong Liu poked his fingertips into those grooves and scratched a few times.There was a hoarse and dry roar from the stone, and the earth seemed to tremble slightly.

The stone door opened slowly.A gust of wind with the smell of decaying miasma suddenly rushed out, causing Chong Liu to take a few steps back, covering his mouth and nose with his sleeve.

Things aren't going well...

The room was pitch black, not even a night pearl.An unresolved silence hangs in the air, giving goosebumps.

"Master?" Chong Liu poked his head into the darkness and called tentatively.

No one responded.In the frozen darkness, there was not even any rustling sound.

Not even the sound of breathing.

Chongliu's heart rose to his throat, and he felt a sense of fear.He hastily turned around and clasped a night pearl on the nearest wall.Seeing this, Zhu Helan also helped to pick one from another position.

After all, the light of a luminous pearl is not as good as a candle, and it can only illuminate one step ahead in the darkness.Chong Liu groped, avoiding the suitcases and hangers by the wall, and searched for the bed.

In the candlelight, I saw a pair of shoes first.

Master's shoes, neatly placed by the bed, were full of dust.It was as if he hadn't gotten up since the last time he went to bed.

Immediately afterwards, there was a rotten and blackened bedding, which seemed to have been randomly thrown on the bed.

The bed was empty.It looks like it has been empty for a long time.

What about Master?

At this moment, Zhu Helan patted Chong Liu on the shoulder.He turned around, only to see the shopkeeper holding the Ye Mingzhu high up, squinting his eyes and looking somewhere in the sky, hesitantly said, "That...isn't it?"

Chong Liu looked in the direction his light illuminated.

In the darkness, the cave rises above the sloping upwards, and is illuminated by light.

He could see the stones protruding and criss-crossing, almost like the remains formed by the petrification of the corpses that died in ancient times, and they were inexplicably messy and disorderly.He saw remnants of hands, remnants of intestines, remnants of ears...the positions were all wrong, as if they had wandered away randomly.

But then, he saw a face half embedded in the stone.The face was a stone-like bluish-gray, but there was still something alive about it.

Even though he was trapped in the wall, Zhu Helan could still tell that the brows and eyebrows on that face were a little bit similar to Chong Liu's.

If the owner of this face stood in front of them intact, it would not be surprising to be said to be Chong Liu's biological father.

But... the face was now on the wall, embedded in a strange organ that seemed to have been fossilized over thousands of years.That scene was weird and terrifying.

Chong Liu was dumbfounded, staring blankly at that face.He took a few steps forward, stepped on the bed, and stretched out his trembling hands to approach the face.

"Master...Master?"

And at this moment, on the face that had almost merged with the rock, the eyelid of the left eye moved suddenly and slowly opened.