Chapter 791: In the Pit
“Is someone out there?!”
Qi Xia listened carefully to the aged voice. It didn’t seem to be coming from within the alley, but rather from somewhere farther away.
But how could such a distant voice come from this narrow alley that was only a few dozen meters long?
“I heard footsteps!” the voice called out. “If someone’s there, please answer… I’m not a bad person! Is anyone there?”
Qi Xia glanced coldly at the black bead on his forehead and said softly, “Yes.”
*Bang.*
The black bead shattered the moment Qi Xia spoke.
He had intended to take the opportunity to leave, but curiosity about what lay deeper in the alley got the better of him. After a few seconds of thought, he stepped forward one step at a time.
He had barely walked halfway when a crunching sound came from underfoot, as if he had stepped on something.
Qi Xia carefully moved his foot, then crouched down to pick up the object and look at it.
It was a thigh bone, already brittle.
What struck him as strange was that the owner of these bones appeared to have been dead for a long time, and there was even faint traces of dirt on them.
“Young man?” the aged voice came again, faintly. “Come a little closer—be careful!”
Qi Xia thought for a moment, then looked up at the bead above his head. A new idea suddenly came to him.
“Be careful of what?” Qi Xia asked.
As he spoke, the black bead above his head flew off, disappearing into the darkness without a trace.
“Be careful of the big pit!” the old man answered. “If you walk a little further, there’s a pit! Watch out, don’t fall in!”
“A pit?”
Qi Xia casually tossed the bone fragment aside and used his foot to test the ground ahead.
The walls on both sides of the alley were very high, almost completely blocking out the light. Qi Xia had to keep slowing his pace while quickly pondering the other party’s motives.
Was this old man luring people in to kill them?
But why choose such a hidden alley?
If not for following the map into this narrow path, it was unlikely that anyone would normally pass through an alley so dark they couldn’t see their hand in front of their face.
“Where are you?” Qi Xia asked.
“Come a little closer!” the old man said. “Come help me!”
“Help?”
Qi Xia took another five or six steps. The stone road beneath his feet felt covered in sand and soil, making a rustling sound with every step.
After another three or five steps, the ground suddenly gave way under his probing foot. He tested left and right and realized there was indeed a large pit in the darkness ahead, blocking the entire width of the alley.
If the old man hadn’t warned him, he would have fallen in.
“Are you here?” the old man called out again. “Over here!”
Only then did Qi Xia realize the old man’s voice was coming from inside the pit.
He slowly crouched down and peered into the hole below. Before looking, he had braced himself for anything, but the scene inside the pit turned out to be nothing special.
An old man covered in dust stood in a hole more than three meters deep. In his left hand he held a shovel, and in his right hand he raised a kerosene lamp that was about to burn out. He was straining to look up.
The light from the kerosene lamp was almost gone, barely concentrated in the pit and unable to shine out.
“Is it a young man?” the old man asked. “Can you see me down here?”
Qi Xia paused for a moment, then said coldly, “What are you doing down there?”
“It’s a long story…” the old man said. “Anyway, I was digging a pit, and now it’s too deep for me to get out… Can you help me?”
“Digging a pit…?”
Qi Xia frowned and looked at the pit before him. It was about two meters wide and three or four meters deep. If this old man had really dug it himself, it must have taken a long time.
“I can get you out,” Qi Xia said. “But you have to tell me why you were digging.”
“I was afraid you wouldn’t ask!” the old man said happily. “I think I’ve discovered something incredible! Pull me up, and I’ll tell you right away! Lucky someone came before the lamp burned out—otherwise, I really wouldn’t know how to get out!”
Qi Xia nodded. He couldn’t sense any danger from the other party, so he agreed.
This old man seemed different from Wei Yang; his mind was clear.
A sane person digging a pit in a dark alley—Qi Xia was very curious about his motives.
“Hand me the shovel,” Qi Xia said.
“Huh? Why?”
“It’s not within reach. I’ll use the shovel to pull you up,” Qi Xia said. “Otherwise, how can I rescue you with my bare hands?”
The old man gripped his shovel and thought for a long time. The shovel in his hand seemed like a weapon for self-defense, not something he could easily give up. But after careful consideration, there really was no other good option.
“Young man, I’ll be straight with you…” the old man said seriously. “I’ve discovered the ‘big secret’ of this place! As soon as you pull me up, I’ll share it with you!”
“‘Big secret’…?” Qi Xia raised an eyebrow. He felt this trip had been worthwhile. “Don’t worry. If I wanted to kill you, I could just start filling the pit with dirt. I wouldn’t go to all this trouble.”
“Uh…” The old man nodded after a moment. “That makes sense… Hang on!”
The old man bent down, took off his clothes, wrapped something in them, and tucked the bundle under his arm.
After finishing, he looked up and slowly raised the shovel toward Qi Xia.
“I’ll trouble you, young man!”
Qi Xia took a deep breath, crouched down, and grasped the shovel. With combined effort, the old man pulled on the shovel while stepping on the edges of the pit, climbing out.
Although the pit wasn’t deep, it still took quite a bit of effort.
Though the old man looked sturdy, he insisted on using only one arm, forcing Qi Xia to steady the shovel with all his strength to haul the old man, who looked no heavier than a hundred pounds, out of the hole.
Qi Xia tossed the shovel aside and said, “Alright, time to show me your ‘big secret.’”
The old man panted on the ground for a while, then raised the kerosene lamp to his face and looked at Qi Xia.
“Young man, why are you so rude?” the old man asked.
“I saved you. Do I need to be polite?” Qi Xia replied.
“Heh, fair enough.” The old man mysteriously took the bundled clothes from under his arm and shook them in front of Qi Xia. “What’s wrapped in here is the ‘big secret’!”
“Oh?” Qi Xia’s expression remained flat. “What is it?”
The old man placed the bundle on the ground and set the kerosene lamp beside it.
Only then did Qi Xia notice that there were quite a few fragments of human bones scattered nearby. The one he had stepped on earlier was just one of them.
What puzzled him even more was that these bones looked as if they had just been dug up.
The old man carefully unfolded the cloth bundle on the ground, as if presenting a rare treasure to Qi Xia.
“Young man… you’re lucky to have met me here…”
Qi Xia looked at the contents of the bundle by the dim light and saw that it was a dirty skull.