Chapter 1: The Legend of Mandrill
Jiang Xian looked deeply at the hole above his head and did not speak for a long time.
The cave was rugged and uneven, with a narrow path winding down from the cave entrance, surrounded by clover. A broken rope hung down like a dead snake, part of it curled on the ground, and a broken kerosene lamp was buried in the clover.
He was about 24 years old, very handsome, not the kind of handsome man that you would find in Japan or Korea. He was masculine. His face had sharp lines, sword-like eyebrows, and a nose that looked like a gallbladder. He was gently fiddling with a dice in his hand, a square dice. It was neither gold nor jade. It was about an inch in size.
Next to him, a man with the rank of second-level police inspector was staring at his every move, smoking sullenly. As soon as Jiang Xiangang put down the rope, he immediately put out his cigarette and asked anxiously, "Xiao Jiang, what's the situation?"
The man was about fifty years old, with a square face, thick eyebrows and big eyes. Without waiting for Jiang Xian to speak, he immediately said, "You know, if the case wasn't so weird, I would never bother you!"
"It happened suddenly. Deputy County Magistrate Li, who is in charge of police affairs, is expected to be promoted. I have already told all units to work hard before the end of the year and not to let anything go wrong. The county magistrate and the secretary are keeping an eye on me. Your uncle Ma... I really have no choice!"
"Uncle Ma, there's no need to say this." Jiang Xian shook his head and said, "In our lineage, everyone dies at the age of 25. I don't even know what my father looks like. You can remember the friendship between my father and me in the TV University and have been caring for us all these years. We don't need to say so much."
He suddenly laughed: "A few years ago, I thought I was special and wanted to give it a try, but..."
He smiled and shook his head and said nothing more.
"I'm exhausted. I have only a few months left, so I plan to take a good rest." After a few seconds, he smiled with relief. Then his expression became serious, and he said in a deep voice: "Uncle Ma, how did you decide this case?"
Director Ma gritted his teeth and said, "It should be a case of wild animals injuring people. The family of the missing person claims that they want to see the person alive or dead. But... I can't report it at all!"
Jiang Xian nodded: "It's right not to report it rashly."
"This case...is not that simple." He squatted down, picked up the rope, and shook it towards Director Ma: "I've read the file. The missing person is Liu Dazhu, nicknamed Er Ganzi. He was a villager of Niu Village. He disappeared here at around 8:30 last night. According to the file, there should be a large amount of blood at the scene."
"Although a heavy rain last night washed away most of the traces. However... although the bloodstains can be washed away, there are some things that cannot be washed away."
He pointed to the broken end of the rope and said to Director Ma, "This is a brown rope. Three fingers wide is considered very thick. It is very tough and even fierce beasts like tigers and wolves find it difficult to bite it open."
"But... first, according to the villagers' reports, the rope broke after being pulled several times. This means it didn't hold out for long. It also means... the bite force of the creature on the other end of the rope is amazing."
"Secondly, look at this fracture."
He showed the broken end of the rope to Director Ma: "It's very smooth, with a slight curve. This is completely different from beasts like tigers and wolves. This shows that the other party has incisors. In biology, only one species has this kind of bite mark."
"What is it?" Director Ma asked puzzledly.
Jiang Xian narrowed his eyes slightly: "Primate."
Director Ma shook his head in disbelief: "You mean... an ape or a monkey bit through the rope? This... is impossible, right?"
A rope that even tigers and wolves find difficult to bite through was bitten through by gorillas or monkeys?
"If the gorilla or monkey is big enough, it is not impossible. Incisors are better at biting through this kind of rope than the interlaced canine teeth of tigers and wolves." Jiang Xian frowned slightly, looking at the cave entrance above and said, "According to the villagers' report , the creature they saw is said to have silver hair all over its body - this is similar to primates that have not fully evolved. Let's not talk about whether it has this kind of fur color. Just according to the villagers' oral description, the other party is at least three meters long. As far as I know, no primate can grow that big. Especially... the other party grows in a cave."
The faint sound of human voices and footsteps coming from the cave entrance made the cave seem particularly quiet. Director Ma put his hands behind his back, paced quickly, and gritted his teeth and said, "All incidents of wild animals injuring people must be reported in detail. This is why I can't report it at all. Now it's just missing! There is no medical examination and no body. If I dare to report the wild animal attack now, I will be derelict in my duty!"
He rubbed his brows with a headache, and suddenly said, "Could it be that he remembered it wrongly? There was such a heavy rainstorm yesterday, with thunder and lightning... and there are mostly forests here. Maybe he saw some tree projections?"
“Oh, I’m not mistaken!!” Before he finished speaking, a face covered with ravines poked out from the cave entrance above. The other party seemed to be still immersed in the nightmare of last night. He spoke in half-baked Mandarin with gritted teeth: “That’s a mandrill… a mandrill!!”
As soon as he saw the rope in the hole, he stepped back as if he had been electrocuted, and said in a trembling voice: "There... is a ghost here... there is a ghost!"
"Who is he?" Jiang Xian asked.
"One of the people who reported the case." Director Ma breathed a sigh of relief and continued, "This pit is called Wowokeng. Wowo here means cotton shoes. It is named because the pit mouth looks like cotton shoes. According to local legend, Wowokeng is also called Tiger's Mouth and Hungry Ghost's Mouth. Because... there have been more than one cases of livestock disappearances here. All of them happened around Wowokeng. The villagers here have been taught since childhood not to go into the pit."
Jiang Xian glanced at the ground and nodded slightly: "Sheep like to eat clover, so it's not surprising that they walk down here... Hasn't anyone reported it before?"
"Of course there are." Director Ma chuckled, "I checked it out. There have been reports of cases since the 1970s. But... Xiao Jiang, this is a branch of the Qinling Mountains. There are many tigers, leopards, bears and bears in the mountains. Even if we report the case, we won't be able to find them. And... this is the first time someone has gone missing!"
Jiang Xian shook his head: "Uncle Ma, prepare for a comprehensive search. Have you received the approval for the use of firearms? The 24 hours since the disappearance are the golden rescue period. You don't have much time left."
"Fuck!" Uncle Ma cursed in a low voice, took out a cigarette fiercely, and bit it in his mouth. But he didn't light it, and his teeth almost bit the cigarette holder flat. He said in a deep voice: "Is there anything else I should pay attention to? This case is weird from the inside out, and I always feel uneasy."
"Don't worry, I'll go with you." Jiang Xian pondered for a few seconds and said, "Also, prepare three days of travel, a total of six days of reserve supplies for the round trip."
Director Ma was surprised and asked, "Do we need to go so far?"
Jiang Xian looked extremely solemn: "Uncle Ma, this cave... is not simple."
"First of all, there must be a built-in space inside, at least 20 to 30 meters. Hundreds of meters is also possible. At the same time, there may be other exits. Otherwise, it is impossible to explain the living space problem of such a huge carnivorous beast."
"Second." Jiang Xian raised his second finger: "This should be a karst funnel-shaped landform."
"Karst funnel?"
"It's a tiankeng." Seeing his bewildered face, Jiang Xian shook his head and said, "Uncle Ma, you are not an expert in this area, and you don't understand the magic of this landform. Don't underestimate any tiankeng. The reason why it can form a funnel landform means... maybe there was a volcanic crater with violent eruptions nearby. Maybe there was an underground river underneath. No matter which possibility it is, it means that the space inside may be very large. Of course, it is possible. Most tiankengs are not big inside, but we have to prepare for the worst."
Director Ma's expression finally turned ugly.
He understood what Jiang Xian meant. The police station in Foping County was facing an underground maze of unknown size and possibly extremely complex terrain! There was also an unknown huge carnivorous beast staying in the maze. And they were responsible for bringing out a living person or a corpse from it... It was so difficult that it made people's scalps numb just thinking about it!
"Damn it!" He cursed, then turned and walked to the rock wall of the cave, grabbed the rope, and breathed a long sigh of relief: "Xiao Jiang, go up and rest for a while. Our police team will set out in half an hour."
The first 24 hours of disappearance are the golden rescue time, and they must race against time!
Jiang Xian shook his head: "I haven't been to a place like this for a long time. Let me familiarize myself with it. Leave the gun to me. Also, call two helpers and let them familiarize themselves with the situation together."
Director Ma nodded, and soon he was pulled up by the rope. When the sun bathed his body again, he couldn't help but let out a long sigh.
That pothole...gives me a creepy feeling.
It was like...something was quietly staring at him from the depths of darkness, making his scalp tingle.
On the ground, the isolation belt had been set up early. It was stretched over a wide area, and outside the isolation belt, villagers were standing sparsely. Only two villagers stood inside the isolation belt.
"There are ghosts... There are ghosts down there ..." A middle-aged man in a short coat stared at the entrance of the cave in a trance, muttering to himself, "It's going to kill people... The evil ghosts are coming out... They are coming out again..."
Seeing Director Ma coming out of the pit, he raised his head tremblingly and asked in a trembling voice, "Leader, what's going on?"
"Don't worry, fellow villagers." Director Ma said sincerely, "We will start the rescue immediately in half an hour."
"Only half an hour left?!" the man said in despair, "We reported the case after eight o'clock at night! It's been more than ten hours now! I already said it was a mandrill, a mandrill! You just need to go into the cave with your guns! It's not difficult at all! What are you doing here, making a fuss?!"
"There is an evil ghost down there..."
"Every few years, when it gets hungry... it will climb up and eat people..."
His voice became weaker and weaker, and he finally held his head, his body shaking. Director Ma sighed, patted his shoulder, and walked to the police officers.
"Be prepared." He looked at everyone seriously and said in a deep voice, "Once the supplies arrive, prepare to go down the cave immediately! Everyone, please record it with Xiao Wang. We will not withdraw until we see anyone or a dead body!"
"yes!"
………………………………
The cave became quiet as two policemen were lowering down the rope. Jiang Xian carefully looked around the cave again to make sure there were no other findings. His eyes finally fell on the kerosene lamp that had fallen into the grass.
He picked it up gently and looked at it carefully.
This is an old-fashioned kerosene lamp, which was commonly used in rural areas without electricity in the early days of liberation and in the 1960s and 1970s. During the planned economy period, kerosene had to be purchased from supply and marketing cooperatives with tickets.
However, it is now very rare. The kerosene lamp , is an old-fashioned kerosene lamp.
It was gourd-shaped, thin in the middle and thick at both ends, and the lamp wall was covered with cracks. It was obvious that the situation was critical at the time. Er Ganzi was pulled hard and had no hands to hold the kerosene lamp. The lamp slipped out of his hand and hit the stone wall, but was not damaged.
"Hmm?" Just as his hand touched the lamp holder, his brows suddenly frowned.
The lamp holder was not smooth, but covered with tiny bumps. He looked carefully and suddenly found that these bumps... were actually words!
After years of erosion, it is no longer clear, but its original appearance can still be vaguely recognized.
"This is... Qin Xiaozhuan?"
He looked at the lamp in his hand with surprise. Qin Xiaozhuan was the official language of the Qin Dynasty. It was very distinctive and easy to recognize. However, he never expected that in a small mountain village that was almost secluded from the world, the base of an old kerosene lamp would be engraved with Qin Xiaozhuan!
"Whether it's from the Qin or Han dynasty, it's worth a lot..." He turned the lamp over with great interest, revealing the bottom of the lamp base. However, before he finished speaking, his voice suddenly stopped. Then he looked at the base in disbelief.
Right in the center of the base, there is a lifelike butterfly carved.
Instead of using black spots to outline the butterfly shape, use lines to outline the hollow butterfly shape, with two layers in total.
"This is..." His mind buzzed and his lips felt dry.
He lowered his head and quickly pulled open his camouflage uniform. Right on his chest, there was a patch that looked exactly like the butterfly mark, very clear!
"Black Death Butterfly Curse..." He only felt his throat getting hot. This moment came too suddenly, and he even felt his brain go blank for a moment.
This name, like a maggot on the tarsal bone, has been with them for thousands of years. Along with the curse of the Black Death Butterfly is the terrible hyperamnesia. All of them will inexplicably have a Black Death Butterfly patch on their chest, for more than two thousand years, without exception!
No one knows why it appears.
No one has been able to crack its puzzle.
No matter which hospital you go to, you will be told that there is nothing wrong with your body. But... on the day of turning 25, anyone with this mark will definitely die!
In order to solve this problem, his master, great master, and great master… batches of predecessors traveled all over the country and read various ancient books. But no one succeeded. They had never even seen the same pattern.
He tried hard. He didn't want to accept his fate. He went to the best hospitals in China and even went to southern Yunnan, Jianzhou, and Tubo many times to look for clues. But...
It's useless.
He is already 24 years old.
December 18th was his 25th birthday, and he only had five months left to live.
He once thought that this was the end of his life.
However, when he let go of all his reluctance and prepared to face the outcome calmly , no one expected that the deadlock that had lasted for more than two thousand years would actually begin to loosen!
"Where... does this lead to?" He put down the kerosene lamp in astonishment and stared at the passage in a trance.
There, it was pitch black and bottomless.
