Chapter 1 Who?

"Who?" Li Bai looked at the clay figures nearby, momentarily dazed.

Zhang Yuanzhao looked at Li Bai with some worry, "Girl, what's wrong?"

Li Bai suddenly looked at Zhang Yuanzhao, and asked nervously, "Didn't you hear it? Someone… someone just called my name."

"No, this old man didn't hear anything." Zhang Yuanzhao also became nervous upon hearing this.

At that moment, Li Bai dared not delay any longer. She steeled her heart and walked towards the well. Since the clue pointed to water, then this well might also be key.

Li Bai had a conjecture in her heart, perhaps the real exit was hidden in the well.

But as the two of them carefully inspected the well, they realized that it was just an ordinary underground well. Li Bai stretched the lantern into the well as much as possible. There were no footholds on the bare well walls inside, and the dark, glossy well water was very deep.

"Girl, this well is deep, be careful not to fall in." Zhang Yuanzhao reminded.

Li Bai reached out and tore off the only remaining well rope tied to the wooden windlass. The well rope was longer than she thought. She tied one end of the well rope around her waist, and the other end was firmly tied to the wooden windlass for drawing water. "I'll go down and take a look, you watch the rope."

Zhang Yuanzhao was stunned for a moment, then immediately stopped her, "Absolutely not, girl, how can this old man watch you go down? If anyone goes, it'll be me!"

This was not just talk. Zhang Yuanzhao seemed to have a natural sense of trust in Li Bai. He took the rope from Li Bai's waist, tied it tightly around himself, and then stuck the lantern pole in his waistband. After preparing, he spat twice into his palms, grabbed the well rope, and was about to go down. But just as his body was about to disappear into the well, Zhang Yuanzhao suddenly stopped, then looked at Li Bai with a complex expression.

"Don't worry, I will definitely wait for you to come out." Li Bai promised Zhang Yuanzhao with extreme seriousness, "If you don't believe me, I can tie the other end of the rope to myself."

"No, no, girl, you misunderstood. This old man… this old man wanted to tell you, if… if I encounter trouble down there, girl, you just leave, don't worry about me."

Looking at Zhang Yuanzhao's honest face, Li Bai's heart was severely shocked. "Why… why are you so good to me?"

Zhang Yuanzhao smiled with a complicated expression and did not answer. He let go of the rope, and his body disappeared into the well little by little. Li Bai lay on the wellhead and said to the bottom, "Remember, I'm not going anywhere, I'll wait for you to come up here, be careful."

Li Bai could see that Zhang Yuanzhao's relaxation was feigned. He was afraid, and the hand clutching the well rope was trembling, but he still unhesitatingly took the well rope to perform this seemingly dangerous task in her place.

"Girl, there are no other openings below, only water." Soon after, Zhang Yuanzhao's slightly distorted voice came from the well.

"Splash!"

Accompanied by a splash of water, Li Bai's nerves suddenly tensed, but the next second Zhang Yuanzhao's voice rang out again, this time with doubt in his voice, "Girl, this well water seems… seems not very deep. I dropped a mud clod, the sound of the water is not right."

Immediately afterwards, Li Bai heard the "swishing" sound of Zhang Yuanzhao playing with the water, but before she could remind him, Zhang Yuanzhao's scream suddenly erupted.

"There's something under the water!" Zhang Yuanzhao was so frightened that he dropped the lantern and climbed upwards desperately.

After hearing this, Li Bai immediately went to pull the rope. Soon, Zhang Yuanzhao, his lower body soaked, tumbled out of the well.

After confirming that nothing was following behind Zhang Yuanzhao, Li Bai breathed a sigh of relief and looked at Zhang Yuanzhao and asked, "What did you see?"

Zhang Yuanzhao, a strong man, was so frightened that his face was pale, and cold sweat kept breaking out on his forehead. "Bones! There are bones all under the well!"

Li Bai was also taken aback when she heard this, "What kind of bones?"

Zhang Yuanzhao swallowed, trembling and hugging himself tightly, "Very small, very thin, looks like… the bones of infants."

Li Bai immediately turned around to look at the clay figures near the passage. It seemed that these infants were hatched from the clay figures, but… but why did they all die in the well?

"Are you sure there is no exit below?" Li Bai confirmed with Zhang Yuanzhao again.

"No, there are bones all below, those bones..." Speaking of this, Zhang Yuanzhao suddenly stopped, then his mouth opened slightly, and he looked at Li Bai's back with extreme fear.

When she turned her head, Li Bai was also stunned. The Zhusheng Niangniang (Goddess of Birth) statue, which had been standing by the wall not long ago, had moved again without anyone noticing. This time, it had moved one-third of the distance towards the entrance of the cave.

"Not good!" Li Bai immediately realized that before long, the Zhusheng Niangniang (Goddess of Birth) would block the passage for them to leave, and then the two of them would be doomed.

However, analyzing from the Zhusheng Niangniang (Goddess of Birth)'s actions, that strange passage was very likely the only way to leave this place.

Without hesitation, the two immediately approached the passage, and Zhang Yuanzhao seemed to have thought of something. Before leaving, he actually coiled the well rope into a ball and carried it on his shoulder.

During this process, the Zhusheng Niangniang (Goddess of Birth) did not move at all, and just as Li Bai was about to enter the cave, that strange calling sound appeared again.

"Li Bai..."

This time Li Bai heard it very clearly. The other party was weak, as if they were about to die in the next second.

"Who?" Li Bai immediately looked in the direction the voice came from. The light there was very poor, and she could only see a dozen vague outlines of clay figures.

"Girl, I… I heard it this time too." Zhang Yuanzhao looked at the clay figures with a nervous expression.

They probably wouldn't be able to escape if they didn't figure out what was going on. Li Bai carried the lantern and cautiously approached the clay figures in the dark.

These clay figures were made much worse. Some of them didn't even have facial outlines carved. They looked more like a thick layer of mud was directly applied to the corpse.

Just as Li Bai was examining them one by one with the lantern--

"Li… Bai…"

This time, Li Bai trembled all over. She heard it very clearly. The voice came from the clay figure, the clay figure against the wall!

And what was even weirder was that she actually heard a trace of familiarity in the voice.

"Hu Jingyi!" Zhang Yuanzhao's reaction was even stronger than Li Bai's, "This is Hu Jingyi's voice!"

Hu Jingyi was the painting teacher who disappeared on the first night, and was undoubtedly captured by the Zhusheng Niangniang (Goddess of Birth).

Li Bai walked forward quickly, and soon felt two holes under the clay figure's rough nose, with slight breathing inside.

"The person is still alive, he... he is not dead yet!" Li Bai was also shocked by the discovery in front of her.

Just as Li Bai was planning to smash the outer layer of mud to rescue the person, Zhang Yuanzhao immediately stopped her, "That won't work, dry mud will tear off his skin too! Use water, pour water!"