Chapter 25: Eating (Requesting Collections and Recommendations)

This coffin had us suppressed and terrified to the extreme. At that final moment, Fatty seemed intent on venting all his depression, yet who could have guessed the outcome would be like this.

Peanut called everyone to quickly drag the equipment over, away from the poisonous mist in the tunnel. As for me, I cautiously approached Fatty's side.

Raising my head to gaze at the pitch-black vaulted ceiling and seeing nothing afterward, I asked Fatty, "Hey, are you okay?"

Fatty slowly lowered his head. "Nothing."

"Nothing? Why are your legs trembling?" Fatty must have been terrified earlier, but his reaction was already quite good. For an ordinary person, that one face-to-face would at least have scared them into fainting.

Then, I lowered my voice and asked, "Eh, what did that face look like? I felt it was pitch black—could it be some big monkey?"

Fatty glared at me. "Kid, stop asking."

"Hey, you..."

I felt depressed and wanted to scold him, but Fatty suddenly pulled me to the side. He glared at the few people nearby, then whispered in my ear, "Hey, we can't continue walking this way. We need to quickly find a way out."

Fatty's suggestion at this time was very much in line with my own thoughts. Up until now, I had almost no drive to continue walking either. The dangers inside the ancient tomb were secondary; the key was the words Professor Zhang had said earlier, which clearly told us that Professor Chen and the others came here not to rescue people.

Actually, my and Fatty's motivations weren't pure either. Fatty wanted to help Professor Chen with one favor and incidentally take some funerary artifacts out. As for me, most of it was because Peanut was here that I followed along; secondly, it was because I was bored and my brain had short-circuited, wanting to come out in the scorching heat to see the sights.

But now, the situation was: Professor Chen and the others' secret about hiding something from me and Fatty seemed even greater.

That is to say, these people's minds might be even more meticulous than Fatty's. They had definitely called Fatty over for some reason. Continuing to walk? Who knew if it was just leading them into a trap.

Thinking about it, I said, "Then what should we do? Just confront them directly?"

"Tsk, are you raised eating a balance scale? Right now, let's not worry about anything else. Let's keep walking forward first. I'll scout ahead to see if there's a place we can lose them. Pay attention to my movements at any time; I'll give you signals later."

"Then what about Peanut?"

"Don't worry about him. Last time in that ghost place, he could get out by himself. I think this one can't stop him either." Fatty glanced over there and said, "Also, that little brother is from the same family as Professor Chen. If we end up falling out with Professor Chen in the end, who will he help then?"

Indeed, the situation was very unfavorable for me and Fatty, so I decided to make a quick getaway. However, Fatty finding Peanut this time was a complete coincidence, and I don't know if we'll have such good luck next time. Thinking about it, if I and Fatty successfully leave, I could also wait above for Peanut to come out.

"You two are there whispering about something?" Zhuge Xuan suddenly looked at us. "Hurry over and move the stuff."

Now, the end of the tunnel was filled with purple poisonous mist. Although there were no signs of it spreading towards us, it was better to stay as far away as possible. No matter what happened afterward, after the giant-eyed coffin disappeared, at least we could sit down and have a meal.

"Oh." I responded and prepared to go help. But suddenly, I felt that those people in front of me seemed... off.

"What are you looking at?" Fatty asked me.

I ignored Fatty. "Yeah, that's just Peanut, his uncle Professor Chen, Zhuge Xuan, and those two brothers, right?" But even so, I felt very uncomfortable inside.

Fatty thought I was torturing myself again and didn't pay attention, going to help drag the equipment to the side.

Finally, I couldn't see anything strange either, so I walked over when they were almost done packing.

Several people sat down one after another and started eating the packaged compressed biscuits.

At this time, Professor Chen suddenly said to Peanut, "Zixiang, your reaction just now was very agile."

Peanut's expression became somewhat stiff. He mumbled something but didn't explain much. The reactions and actions he showed earlier were hard for people who hadn't seen the ground to do, so it was no wonder Professor Chen suspected.

However, they were family after all, so suspecting was a bit excessive. Zhuge Xuan, who was aside, kept staring at Peanut, seemingly paying attention to some details in his movements.

"Eh ya." Suddenly someone called out. Looking over, it was Zhang Yadong. "These compressed biscuits are good; there seems to be meat inside. Mmm, ah, mmm, Professor, next time let's still go there to buy supplies."

This guy didn't know if his brain was sick; he could even taste the flavor while chewing compressed biscuits. Professor Chen nodded slightly at Zhang Yadong as a perfunctory acknowledgment. But looking at Zhang Yadong, that feeling of extreme discomfort suddenly appeared again in my heart.

Zhang Yadong was fine, why did I have this feeling?

I carefully observed Zhang Yadong, then turned my gaze to Zhang Yazhi, who was with his back to us.

Upon seeing that, the mouth that had just bitten into the compressed biscuit froze.

Recalling the scene I saw earlier, they were all dragging equipment, bodies bent over. Despite discovering the abnormality, I hadn't immediately found the issue.

But now, with Zhang Yadong and his younger brother Zhang Yazhi sitting back to back eating, that abnormality was completely exposed before my eyes.

I had no good impression of these two brothers, but I still knew their basic appearance features. Although Zhang Yadong and Zhang Yazhi weren't identical twins, their height and looks were very similar. What made me uncomfortable was that now, Zhang Yazhi seemed much shorter and his figure much slimmer.

Previously, Zhang Yazhi had already been scared silly by Yang Lang in the coffin, so being haggard was understandable. But suddenly becoming shorter? It probably didn't happen that often.

Looking at the figure with his back to me, cold sweat suddenly broke out on my forehead.

"Zhang Yazhi." I called him.

Everyone was surprised and looked at me.

Zhang Yazhi seemed not to have heard me calling, continuing to slowly eat the compressed biscuits. This reaction made me even more uneasy, so I called again.

"Zhang Yazhi."

He still didn't react.

Although others thought it was abrupt to call Zhang Yazhi like that, they had also noticed the abnormality in Zhang Yazhi's reaction.

Zhang Yadong glared at me displeasedly and turned around to say, "Yazhi, are you okay?"

For some reason, the position of Zhang Yazhi was in the shadow of the flashlight, so we could only see his back of the head. His neck was moving slightly, looking like he was eating.

Suddenly, everyone fell silent. I saw Zhang Yadong's brows furrow tighter and tighter. Perhaps he had also noticed that Zhang Yazhi's back now looked too thin and too short. Without turning back, I knew Fatty was probably preparing to draw his gun at this moment.

"Yazhi, Yazhi..."

Zhang Yadong called his brother's name while reaching out to pat Zhang Yazhi's shoulder.

However, just as Zhang Yadong's hand was about to place on Zhang Yazhi's shoulder, the incident occurred.