Chapter 16 Section VIII

Following the warden's words, it was as if a gust of wind from the darkness had poured into the depths of the corridor where there had never been any air flow, Zeng Tong's hairs stood on end again, and he agreed with the warden's judgment from the bottom of his heart.The warden didn't know, maybe it was because he treated Zeng Tong well while Hou Feng was very vicious and terrifying, the warden's words carried far more weight in Zeng Tong's heart than Hou Feng's. "Hou Feng is right about one thing," said the warden. "There is no way to explain that a person will wait in the depths of the corridor and follow behind the prisoners trying to escape. If that is the case, this person must be dormant for many years." In the dark, this is unreasonable. But Hou Feng limited this role to the scope of people. People are not allowed, but not people, but it is possible. If he is not, he is the only person who is not a person. Things can be explained."

The warden looked at Zeng Tong, Zeng Tong's cold sweat crawled out from the pores on his forehead, and slid down from the tips of his temple hair.He didn't know how long Zeng Tong could bear such a thing, but, the warden thought, he hoped he could last longer. "And the more absurd question on top of this question is, do you believe that ghosts have logic?" "have no idea." "Of course you don't know. No one can be 100% sure unless they become ghosts themselves. However, I saw a clue." The warden suddenly thought, Hou Feng's absence might not be a bad thing, at least, Zeng Tong can be a A tight-lipped man.He said: "Do you remember? You have been here for more than half a year. When did you start to realize that something was wrong?"

"Something is wrong?" Zeng Tong recalled, "It seems that... on the first day I came here, before entering the Hushan Prison, things were not quite right. On the first day, I saw Lao Shun. I made a strange gesture," he gestured to his eyes with his finger, and rubbed his palm across his throat back and forth, "then, I met a man named Wu Shiyuan, who told me that no one had ever seen Lao Shun before. ; Then, Baiyu and the others said they didn’t know Wu Shiyuan, but Wu Shiyuan said that he was with them... Then, Wu Shiyuan disappeared, and everyone said that there was no such person; then I reported to you, and you said someone Monitor you, and then Hou Feng came, we went to explore the way..."

The warden interrupted his recollection: "And the really terrible and strange thing was when you lost your way, right?" "That's right," Zeng Tong agreed, "That's right. Although there was something wrong with the previous incident, nothing special happened until—" "Until you start thinking you're going out." "Yes, that's right. You were the ones who kept it from me..." "At that time, it was Hou Feng who didn't bother to tell you the truth. I wanted him to tell you the truth, but he wanted to tease you and make your desire for freedom come to naught. This invisible coincidence gave you the truth. I have an answer."

"what is the answer?" "What about the second time? When was the rustling sound you heard?" "It was when Hou Feng and I were studying the map." "What about the third time? You chatted with the crow, and what did you talk about?" "A lot, I chat with him every day to pass the time, he is not like Hou Feng...he is also very willing to chat, it seems no different from usual..." "I asked what you talked about?" Zeng Tong frowned and recalled: "It seems that he talked about the food, he complained, and then he said that he was the boss, and then he talked about what happened five years ago..."

"Did he mention that he wanted to get out of Fushan Prison, or asked Hou Feng to help him get out, or something like that?" "It seems... there is?" "Is there any?!" "Yes," Zeng Tong remembered, "yes, yes! After he said it, I can ask anything. I asked him if he was sure, and he wouldn't answer." The pattern closed, and the warden nodded: "You, do you want to go out?" Zeng Tong hesitated for a moment. Looking at the warden's green uniform, he suddenly remembered that the other party was still a warden. Is this really appropriate?But under the pressure of the warden's sharp gaze, he couldn't help but tell the truth, "I think." He bowed his head.

"By the way," the warden patted him on the shoulder with satisfaction, "There was once a saying in a book: Telling the truth is the only way to free our hearts and minds. You tell the truth, and you yearn for freedom. So you Will get it, today." "what?" "Today, now, let's go out, to breathe the air of freedom," the warden said, "Didn't you ask where and what are we going to do today? Get out! We're going to get out of this damn place of Falcon Hill Prison now, and never come back again. " The warden looked at Zeng Tong's stunned look with satisfaction, and he suddenly smiled: "There are not many opportunities for a warden to lead you out of prison in person, so cherish it."

The warden believed in his own judgment, Zeng Tong's inner fear prompted him to accept his arrangement, and he couldn't help believing his words about the escape.After a period of analysis, Zeng Tong should have followed him out of the Fushan Prison impatiently, without carefully considering what he said later, which happened to be the key point.Even though he just claimed that telling the truth makes people free physically and mentally, but unfortunately, that in itself is a lie. The two continued to walk forward, and the familiar sense of fear returned to Zeng Tong's heart.One after another, the oil lamps were left behind, and they continued to move forward to the front dimly illuminated by the next oil lamp.Walk past it, and then move forward, there is another oil lamp.Oil lamps are getting rarer and rarer. It can be seen that the people who arranged them saved materials in inaccessible places.So between the two oil lamps, there was almost complete darkness.Zeng Tong never remembered that he had walked such a long way when he came here. Perhaps, it was the fear of the corridor and the eager desire for freedom that prolong the feeling of time.There seem to be infinitely many oil lamps, and the corridor seems to be infinitely long, climbing uphill for a while, going downhill for a while, straight for a while, and curved for a while.Countless times, Zeng Tong's doubts about whether the warden was lost, and the anxiety about whether he would never be able to get out like the arrival time, surfaced in Zeng Tong's mind.Every time he turned a corner, he expected that the door leading to the outside of the corridor would be in front of him, but every time, he was disappointed.Fortunately, the warden was by his side.The smile on the corner of the warden's mouth made him dispel the idea of ​​not getting out countless times.Zeng Tong knows that he is the warden, he is the master here, he is the god in this gloomy prison full of evil and conspiracy, if he wants to do something, nothing can stop him.Even if he wanted to escape with him, it would be a success.

For some reason, Zeng Tong used the word "escape" in his heart without even realizing it. At the same time, the warden became anxious. What he expected never happened.He even began to check whether his reasoning was correct.The corridor is not smooth, it is rough and rough, barely able to accommodate two people walking side by side.Every time there is a change in the shadow, the warden shifts the focus of his sight to it.But there are too many shadows, the protrusions on the corridor wall all have a shadow, and they all change length and shape as Zeng Tong and himself walk.As he walked, the warden suddenly had an absurd feeling: this corridor is alive.But he quickly shook his head again. Compared with his own deduction, this is actually a very similar idea, not so absurd.

The two walked farther and farther, and the warden looked back from time to time, so that Zeng Tong would do the same thing with him from time to time.The warden is unwilling to explain anything to Zeng Tongduo. If he thinks someone is following him, let him think so.The warden thought, even if he explained it to him, he might not feel much at ease.Slowly, the warden's pace slowed down, and a voice in his heart told him: "Come soon, come soon..." Turning a corner, the darkness of chaos rushed towards us.The darkness was so pure and thick that the warden and Zeng Tong smelled a breath of death at the same time, stretched out its withered claws, and wrapped them around their necks.The warden looked at the darkness that was within reach, and the uncontrollable cold air rose from the bottom of his heart, flowed, and finally converged on all parts of his body that were exposed to the air, and merged with the coldness in the evil atmosphere, and slowly regained consciousness. Slips down the collar and flows up the cuffs.You don't need to look to know that Zeng Tong's hands are also shaking, because the place where the oil lamp he holds can't reach his beard is shaking constantly.

On the road ahead, there are no more oil lamps on the wall.Or, there is an oil lamp, but it is not lit. The warden said, "How long have we been walking?" "Less than half an hour." "How far have we traveled?" "..." "Is it as far as last time?" "It feels far from it." The warden stopped talking, he looked at Zeng Tong, and Zeng Tong also looked at the warden.The two stared at each other in silence for a long time.In the silent corridor, there were only the sounds of the two people breathing more and more quickly and their hearts beating faster and faster. Then, they all turned their heads to look at the ground behind them. On the ground, are their shadows.Since the light source Zeng Tong held was very close to them, their shadows seemed to be squashed by an invisible hand, making them short and fat. The warden looked at his own shadow, and he found strangely that although Zeng Tong was closer to the light source than himself, Zeng Tong's shadow was longer than his own. No, it's not just that.The shadow is still changing, growing longer. Zeng Tong's shadow slowly elongated, as if a person who was squatting on the ground slowly stood up.Suddenly, it raised its hand and shook it! The light changed in an instant, it was Zeng Tong who had been robbed of all his strength and composure by fear, he opened his mouth distortedly, but couldn't make a sound.He was about to lose his grip on the oil lamp, he let go of his hand, and leaned towards the corridor wall in a state of embarrassment.The oil lamp fell to the ground like in slow motion.At this moment, the warden grabbed the oil lamp that was about to fall with an unimaginable speed, and his hands were full of lamp oil.But the wick is still burning, and the light source is still there.He held up the oil lamp. The weird shadow was gone, but the warden's shadow was still short. Zeng Tong was leaning against the wall of the corridor, and his shadow was pulled obliquely on the wall of the corridor.The warden stood in the middle of the corridor with Zeng Tong, who was about to be paralyzed, in a rude manner like Hou Feng, and observed carefully again. There is nothing unusual about Shadow. The warden looked at Zeng Tong. Zeng Tong's nose was opened and closed ridiculously, and his mouth was wide open, breathing in the already turbid air deep in the corridor.The warden was not in a hurry, he held up the oil lamp, and started to walk around in a way that made Zeng Tong feel creepy, but kept his eyes on the ground, observing his own shadow.And the shadow circling around Zeng Tong.He was walking around Zeng Tong, and Zeng Tong's shadow was also walking around Zeng Tong. He found that he could never catch up with Zeng Tong's shadow, and there was always a Zeng Tong between him and Zeng Tong's shadow.This moved the warden's heart.He looked up at Zeng Tong, Zeng Tong's breathing had gradually subsided a lot.At the beginning when the warden walked around him, he only thought that the warden was crazy, but as the warden looked at the ground, he quickly understood the warden's purpose.He also began to observe the shadow circling around him.When the warden walked to the right, he turned his head to the left, followed the moving shadow to the right, then twisted his neck to look to the left, and repeated this until his head on the sore neck began to feel dizzy. The warden stopped, and he handed the oil lamp to Zeng Tong. "Did you see it just now?" he asked. Zeng Tong nodded, he was almost drenched in his own cold sweat. The warden said, "What did you see?" Zeng Tong slowly raised his right hand with difficulty, and his shadow on the ground also slowly stretched out his right hand, pointing in one direction. Following the direction of the hand, the warden raised his head, looking at the dark corridor with no oil lamp and no end in sight.Then, he turned his head and looked at Zeng Tong who was still shivering.he laughed. "Go on, where will it be?" He asked with a smile. Zeng Tong shook his head speechlessly. The warden said: "Go forward and go back to the original place. This is what we need to be told. Also, I am sorry to inform you that we probably don't have to think about going out today." "Many times, people only believe what they see with their own eyes, and more often, people only believe what they want to let themselves see. Therefore, in fact, people only believe what they want to believe, and they don't believe in what they don't want to happen. , no matter how factual it is, there is an instinctive rejection." The warden led the way with an oil lamp, while Zeng Tong walked side by side with him.His fragile nerves prevented him from having the courage to walk behind the warden alone, for fear that the darkness behind the warden would drag him into the dark depths at any time—when the warden wasn't paying attention.In fact, even if he was walking beside the warden, he would look back from time to time to observe his own shadow. The warden didn't know the way, he just walked casually, because he knew that if he got lost, he knew that there would be marks on the corridor arm to remind him, and that was definitely not left by Hou Feng.He knew that Zeng Tong must be wondering why he didn't feel scared, because he didn't have time, and he had to stuff things into Zeng Tong's mind.Since Hou Feng came in, his sense of urgency has been superimposed in the form of acceleration.Today, Hou Feng refused to act with him, which proved this point even more.As he spoke, he organized his thoughts, trying to use a detailed narrative that Zeng Tong could understand. "...Look behind us," the warden stopped, turned and pointed to the darkness behind, then turned and pointed to the front, "Look ahead, what can you see? It's endless darkness and endless darkness. There are endless unknowns. And we, thanks to this oil lamp," the warden played with the oil lamp in his hand. The oil in the oil lamp just now was not enough, so he took another one. "We are one in the center of this dark and terrifying world. A small center of warmth and light. However, even so, the place we are in is not dark, for example—" The Warden stretched out his foot and tapped the ground, and his shadow did the same.It seems that two people are touching each other with their toes, "This shadow. The shadow is dark, it is no different from the darkness that surrounds us. You are afraid of the shadow, but have you ever thought that all the darkness, is there any difference?" Could it be composed of countless shadows? And our shadow is just a small part separated from them, and will eventually return to its proper place?" Seeing Zeng Tong's bewildered face, the warden knew that he was talking too deeply, so he said, "I can tell by the way you don't understand. Ghost, do you know? Ghost! This fucking prison There are ghosts here!" "What... what?" The warden looked at the panic in Zeng Tong's eyes with satisfaction. He knew that he had already planted the seeds of his insanity in Zeng Tong's heart. What he had to do now was to water and fertilize the seeds: " Yes, there are ghosts in this prison! Remember I asked you just now, do ghosts speak logic? Or in another popular way, do ghosts appear regularly? Can the signs of ghosts be speculated and judged in advance? ?Now we have the answer, yes! Remember what I asked you to recall just now? When did strange things happen every time? Is there a day? Is there a night? It’s easy to distinguish between day and night? Every time a strange thing happens, there is a premise, which is to talk about going out! Talk about jailbreak, or go out freely! Every time we want to go out, or talk about going out, or study how to get out, strange things happen What is that? A shadow? It shows you the way? It seems that it has a good impression of you, and it can't bear to leave you alone in the maze-like corridors, and finally die of exhaustion, thirst and starvation?" Zeng Tong stared at the warden's face, he suddenly found that the warden who usually spoke harshly, but most of the time was plain and kind, was gone!At this moment, the demeanor of the warden and Hou Feng are so similar, and their natures are so crazy!He found out that the warden at the moment is not the warden. Could it be that he was disguised by Hou Feng? The warden continued: "No! No, that's a warning, Zeng Tong. That's a warning! It's a warning to us not to think about going out! Just like before, it showed us the way? It just wanted to drive us away. It was just sent to the original place. That day Hou Feng wanted to tease you, but unexpectedly made you believe that we would escape from prison, so it appeared! Today, I succeeded in making you believe that we will go out, so it appeared again!" "You mean, we can't get out..." "That's right, it doesn't want us to go out! Do you know what this place is? Think about the corridor we walked through, who would build the prison like this? We walked here today, and walked a few miles, but we We are still circling in the tunnel, and according to the route map we used to explore the last time, each of us drew differently! Today I deliberately took it to find the roads we have walked, but I can’t find it! The original marked roads didn't exist at all, maybe they never existed! You know? If there were so many corridors, I would just hit the wall and die! We never lost our way at all, and we never lost our way. It is in this prison There is some kind of evil that prevents us from going out! After all, we are just going around in circles in the belly of the mountain! I saw your drawing the other day, which made me believe it even more." The warden said, digging A piece of paper was produced, which was the memory of Zeng Tong and Hou Feng's last trip to explore the road. "See here?" The warden pointed to a route, which was a cross: "You drew an intersection here, it seems that you have walked in all four directions of this intersection, right? You were lost at that time, didn't you? Do you remember that you walked in four directions at an intersection?" "No... I was very confused..." "No, Zeng Tong! If you go through a crossroads, you cross the two vertical directions, for example, this is south and north, but you find that you are in the east again, then you will What to do? Would you take that western intersection? No, you wouldn’t, you’d hit back wherever you came from, that’s what every lost person thinks! We all think, it’s the middle from south to north There is nothing wrong with the direction, but there is something wrong somewhere in the middle of going from north to east for no reason. Before you verify this problem, you will never touch the west direction, because you know that it will increase things even more. The complexity of the problem made it even more difficult to solve! When you came back, although you said in horror that you had met a ghost, I knew very well that you did not lose your sanity, that you did not go that way! " "That is how the matter?" "Because you didn't return the same way! You repassed from below or above! Do you understand? These passages are not on a plane, they are three-dimensional! These passages do not have only one exit, it may have countless exits , countless loops, countless dead end and living end, but more likely, it has no exit! Tell me, does building such a corridor conform to the logic of building a prison?" "No, it doesn't match." "Yes, it does not conform to the logic of building a prison, and does not conform to the financial and material resources that a prison should have when it is built. Hou Feng also said that whether it is mining or war preparations, there are sufficient reasons for not being established. Even the emperor's mausoleum is absolutely There is no such complex design to prevent tomb robbery. So, everything points to one conclusion-it is not man-made." A chill hit Zeng Tong's face after another, partly from the warden's analysis, and partly from the warden's expression.Zeng Tong was used to the warden's expressionless face, and all of a sudden, the various expressions on the warden's face: excitement, eagerness, all became ferocious and distorted.He continued: "So, my conclusion is that no matter which direction I go, eventually I will circle back to where I started, circle back to where we started, and walk back to our cell! That, our grave! Remember ? You said, you saw Lao Shun? The first day you came to prison?" Zeng Tong nodded, and the warden suddenly roared: "That's not Lao Shun at all. There was only one person who was released from prison that day, and that day was the day when the former warden retired! That person is the former warden!" "what?" "Later, the so-called warden you saw was just a guard, acting for the warden's affairs. After I came and explained the situation, he resigned. Then, he miraculously evaporated in the Falcon Mountain Prison; and , the Wu Shiyuan you know has disappeared inexplicably, and everyone refuses to admit his existence; and the number of prisoners observed by Hou Feng, it shows that the people in Hushan Prison have been disappearing inexplicably. Where are they going? Go? Can they go out?" "...Why, no one admits that they have seen Lao Shun?" The warden patted Zeng Tong on the shoulder: "This is the focus of the problem. They have many reasons not to recognize this person. Look, we have been walking, and the distance we have traveled may have exceeded the distance we explored last time, but I have both I didn't find a road that was the same as last time, and I didn't find the direction of this road. You see how correct I am, haha," the warden made a creepy haha, "I'll tell you where they went. They were buried in the ground! They died in the passages from which they could never get out! They wanted to get out of here! Therefore, they must die! The evil spirit of this prison swallowed them, they were swallowed in the belly of the earth !" "yes?" "If the earth does not lie, we shall not see them again." "But, if they appear again..." Zeng Tong suddenly thought of Lao Shun, and Wu Shiyuan, who was so strange and frightening. The warden gave Zeng Tong a meaningful look, and said again: "There is one thing that you must be very curious about. When I first talked to Hou Feng that day, I showed him something and convinced him to let him participate in it." Come in, want to know what it is?" The warden took out the notebook from under the belt: "That is the diary written by my predecessor in boredom. You may very much want to know the contents. Even Hou Feng has only seen some fragments. However, before I hand it over to you, you must promise me one thing." "whats the matter?" "No matter what happens, no matter what you see, or even what happens to me, you can't give this notebook to anyone else you think you can trust. Can you?" Zeng Tong nodded speechlessly, he took the notebook, and the warden suddenly said: "Actually, this is to make you safer, because this notebook," he paused, his face suddenly became very strange, " There is a vicious curse in this notebook!" ah? ! "Ah—" A scream so sharp that the heart constricted penetrated the thick corridor wall and came from an unknown space.Immediately afterwards, there was a "bang" gunshot. The warden and Zeng Tong looked at each other, and the warden said: "Remember what I said, quickly put away the notebook, there are some problems I have no time to tell you now, but Hou Feng should be able to find out - it seems that we We're almost home." As he spoke, Zeng Tong also ran to keep up. Unbeknownst to the warden, the shot was not coming from the pistol he had expected.In his calculations, Hou Feng was a huge variable. What he still doesn't know is that Zeng Tong beside him is not as stupid as he imagined.In fact, when Zeng Tong was running with the warden, he suddenly realized a serious problem: Why didn't everyone escape? At the same time, Yu Xuejun walked in the other direction of the prison.He had a faint feeling that something seemed to happen tonight.The screams and gunfire confirmed his thoughts.He ran in the direction of the screams and gunshots.In that direction, Hou Feng grinned grimly at Ma Xuan, who was faceless, and said, "The warden is not the warden! The warden is a fake!" Meanwhile, in Baiyu's cell, three of Baiyu's brothers surrounded him, waiting for him to answer a question.After a long time, Bai Yu asked Xiao Cui: "What do you think?" "Damn it!" Xiao Cui pursed his lips and let out a word, his slender eyes flashed fiercely. The roar of the guards slowly came from a distance, and the sound of hurried footsteps was getting closer.The prisoners in the cell jumped out of bed one after another, crowded their heads into the small ventilation window, trying to figure out what happened.Since everyone's heads are very hard, it is inevitable that there will be some confusion in the process of crowding each other's heads. In the darkness, an atmosphere of turmoil flows through every corridor of Falcon Mountain Prison, as if awakening the long-sleeping evil.That is the movement of evil.