Well of Mystery

Because of the angle, Bai Xiuqi had to stand on tiptoe to see the situation in front of him—at the end of the corridor, white water vapor was continuously coming out of a small door that was concealed.But there was still a person standing between Jiang Chenglu and Xiaomen.

No, strictly speaking, it cannot be regarded as a living person.

Bai Xiuqi's eyes widened, and he confirmed that almost [-]% of the skin of that person's body was burnt to black.The remaining part is exposed with blood red muscle and yellow fat.It was leaning against the wall by the door, and in fact, nearly half of its body had already merged with the wall.

"Hush." ​​Jiang Chenglu turned his head and said softly to Bai Xiuqi: "Take your steps lightly and walk over as if nothing happened. Your fear is its power, as long as you pretend you can't see it, it can't break away from the wall to harass you .”

With that said, he had already taken the lead in taking action.Two or three steps to the door.The scorched man raised his head and looked at Jiang Chenglu little by little, but Jiang Chenglu didn't even turn his neck, and pushed the wooden door open with one hand.

More steam gushed out of the door, carrying a strong sulfurous smell.Bai Xiuqi felt a little difficult to breathe, and couldn't see where the burnt man was for a while.

Jiang Chenglu seemed to have already walked into the wooden door, and if he didn't follow, he would be delayed. Thinking of this, Bai Xiuqi no longer hesitated, and walked quickly towards the thick water vapor.

One step, two steps...Suddenly, a grimace that was half bones and half charred emerged from the white mist, and almost stuck to his cheek.

Bai Xiuqi gasped, but fortunately her face remained calm.He told himself not to look sideways, absolutely not to show any fear or surprise, and just took another step forward.

The scorched man obviously also saw Bai Xiuqi, and was trying to break free from the shackles of the wall and move his head closer.Bai Xiuqi could even hear his teeth and bones rattling, and smell the stench of burnt feathers entering his nostrils along the icy air.

But he still didn't turn his head to look at the guy, instead he quickened his pace and walked past it.It wasn't until the moment he walked through the wooden door that he felt his heart beating so fast.

"Be careful." Jiang Chenglu, who was one step ahead, stopped him from moving forward: "There are steps."

The hot steam turned out to be coming from the basement of the house.As the humidity increases further down, Bai Xiuqi may feel uncomfortable.Jiang Chenglu asked him to wait on the steps, first drew a circle around him with chalk, and then walked to the basement alone with confidence.

Bai Xiuqi squatted on the dark basement steps and waited, occasionally turning around to make sure that the charred corpse in the corridor hadn't followed.After about two or three minutes, Jiang Chenglu finally returned.

"It's done, all the peaches and dyes have been put down. The result will be known as soon as tomorrow morning." He patted the white powder left on his hands: "But the smell of rotten eggs under here is unlikely to be Xianquan ,let's go."

In this way, the two returned along the original road, and soon left the hut to join Huayang brothers and sisters again.Jiang Chenglu briefly explained what he saw and heard in the room.Hua Yin said with a happy face that she was lucky that she didn't go in and suffer.

So the four of them continued to walk downhill along the mountain road.Bai Xiuqi remained silent.Jiang Chenglu, who noticed his strangeness, took the initiative to ask the reason.

Only then did Bai Xiuqi express the doubts in his heart——

"Sitting on the steps just now, I began to think. It is said that the fire started to spread from the sulfur processing plant. The buildings here were burned, and so many people were burned to death. Why did the small room we rented Lou is fine? Could it be that the flames will turn around?"

"Maybe." Jiang Chenglu responded half-jokingly: "Maybe Vulcan also knows that there are children there. Respect the old and love the young."

"I'm serious." Bai Xiuqi said with a serious face, "Don't you find it suspicious?"

"It is indeed suspicious."

The person who answered Bai Xiuqi was Hua Yang who was walking in front.He said that he had similar doubts this afternoon, and Uncle Zong's response was to let him go to the night market by the beach.

"He said that there are all kinds of strange legends about this island, and he can't tell them all by himself. Let us go to the night market and ask the staff here to find out."

Therefore, besides "eating" and "playing", this trip to the seaside night market has another more serious purpose.

After the sun disappeared below the sea level, the sky quickly changed from red to purple and finally became a dark navy blue.There are no streetlights on Rosefire Island.But there is an old lighthouse in the southwest of the island, when it is lit, it can barely illuminate the road under its feet.

The camouflage of those bright colors in the daytime has faded away, and Rosefire Island in the dark night begins to show its dark and treacherous side, walking in the empty streets, looking at the death numbers flashing on the wall from time to time.Bai Xiuqi not only has the illusion of walking in the underworld.

Obviously, this depressive atmosphere has more or less affected other people in the same industry.Everyone stopped talking, and walked down the mountain like flying footsteps, and finally saw traces of human activities after five or six minutes.

There is an aroma blown by the sea breeze, which is the attractive aroma emitted by the seafood after being stir-fried in the oil pan.No need to say anything more, everyone followed Xiangxiang and walked a few steps in unison, and heard the noise of the street market.

Although the size of the island and the number of permanent residents are far inferior to other coastal areas, the night market on Rose Fire Island is still very impressive.On the about 50-meter-long street, there are seats and benches on the open beach on one side, and various stalls on the other side.Food and drink are essential, and some people even set up stalls to sell small handicrafts made of snail shells and shellfish.After walking a few steps, Huayin pestered her elder brother to buy some necklaces made of giant clams and crushed coral for herself.Although she was not satisfied with the craftsmanship of the jewelry, she decided to take them back and use them as materials for the dolls they made in the future.

Perhaps because most of the island is familiar faces, the appearance of Bai Xiuqi and the others has obviously become a novelty on this street.Whether it is a street vendor or a passer-by who came to have a leisure time, they all watched them secretly. Of course, this kind of scrutiny did not have any malice.

The night market, which was less than 50 meters away, soon came to the end. The four of them had a brief discussion. Of course, in the end, they mainly obeyed Huayin's request and sat down at a stall selling freshly cut oysters.

Today, oysters are hardly a rarity even in inland cities.But the completely fresh oysters that have not been refrigerated can only be tasted by the sea.After choosing oysters, ask the master to cut them open with a knife on the spot, stack them one by one on the plate, and ask for a lemon grown by the island fruit farmer, a bowl of special dipping sauce directly blended with sea water and other seasonings, and dip the oysters with a spoon. Drizzle the ingredients into the oyster shell, then lift the oyster up and swallow it in one bite, feeling the salty, fresh and slightly bitter ocean, the sour and astringent fragrance of lemon and the smooth and sweet oyster colliding in the mouth wonderfully, a feeling of happiness But born.

"Boss, fifty more!" Jiang Chenglu waved his hand.

"Know the goods!" The boss gave a thumbs up.

Of course, it’s not enough to just eat oysters. After that, they ordered more than a dozen dishes and ordered a case of beer.The heroic spirit attracted a lot of onlookers.Bai Xiuqi saw that the opportunity was rare, so he simply greeted everyone not to be polite, and a few acquaintances actually chatted with them, and among them was Xiao Zhang, the staff member who was in charge of leading them to the hotel this afternoon.

Xiao Zhang can be regarded as an old employee on Rose Fire Island. His hometown is in a small county near Luolong Village. When Huang Xiangyuan had just photographed Rose Fire Island and hadn't figured out what to do with it, Even if Xiao Zhang and a few buddies guard the island, they can be regarded as clear about the affairs here.After pushing the cups and changing the cups, Bai Xiuqi immediately lost no time to ask him about the past that happened on Rose Fire Island decades ago.

As soon as this matter was mentioned, Xiao Zhang's eyes lit up.Obviously, in the boring island life, this legendary past is often used by them as an after-dinner conversation, so there is almost no need to think at this moment, just open your mouth.

"Do you know that when the sulfur factory on Rose Fire Island caught fire, there were 1000, 87 people on the island, and only 23 escaped in the end. Sixteen of them were children, and among the remaining seven adults, three One died from severe burns, two went crazy, and one of the remaining two is our Boss Huang."

Xiao Zhang is only in his early twenties this year, so of course it is impossible for him to have any memory of the disaster that year.All he knew was what he told Boss Huang bit by bit when he was with Boss Huang all these years at the dinner table, on the ship, and in all kinds of garbage time suitable for nostalgia.To some extent, it should be regarded as the memoir of Boss Huang.

And this memoir is a bit long.

Back then, Boss Huang was only in his early twenties. Like Xiao Zhang now, he was a young man "doing odd jobs" on Rose Fire Island.What he did was to transport the goods between Rose Fire Island and the mainland. The goods he transported were all public goods. Of course, he also secretly carried some private goods and sold them secretly to make a little money.

In the era of the planned economy, almost everything was purchased by tickets. Eggs had egg tickets, rice had rice tickets, and even the milk powder that children ate had nutrition tickets and milk powder tickets.When the supply cannot meet the demand, black market dealers like Huang Xiangyuan become a beacon of hope. He has boasted more than once how the people on Rose Fire Island waited for him to bring back the supplies they urgently needed from the land. .

It is precisely because of Huang Xiangyuan's special semi-public sideline that he was able to make friends with all kinds of people on Rose Fire Island.From the guards of the labor reform mines, to the reform-through-labor prisoners with a little savings, to the person in charge of the sulfur mine manager, and the head of the sulfur processing plant.

According to Huang Xiangyuan's recollection, the matter started from there.