The Lost Tomb : Sea Of Sands

Chapter 117: Fleeing Cockroaches

Black Glasses' face was covered in sweat as he stared at Su Wan, who was quivering and pulling a bug the size of a fingernail out of his lower abdominal muscles.

The bug was dead, but its barbed leg was inserted deeply in his muscle. When they were pulled out, they hooked into more than a dozen muscle fibers, which was enough to show their strength.

The bugs wouldn't cause him to bleed too much if they weren't deep in his muscles, but there were too many of them. If every bug opened a wound, then Black Glasses would quickly turn into a honeycomb, so he taught Su Wan the method for cutting under the skin. After entering from a wound, he moved the blade under the skin to cut out all the surrounding insects.

Of course, there was no endoscopic equipment, and the bugs that were caught often pulled out a chunk of his flesh. This kind of operation was similar to liposuction, and without anesthesia, it was easy to suffer cardiopulmonary failure.

As a result, it wasn't long before Su Wan saw Black Glasses curl his lip from the intolerable pain and say: "It's ok, don't do it anymore. They'll be absorbed by my body after a while."

Su Wan breathed a sigh of relief when he heard these words, and completely collapsed on the ground. His hands were full of blood, and the bloody pile of bugs on the ground that had been caught made him sick. For the first time in his life, he felt that it was a relief to do things halfway sometimes.

"In terms of not being in a respected position, you're really the most outstanding person I've ever met."

Previously, he had thought it was ridiculous that some people felt dizzy or vomited at the sight of blood, but now he felt like he could empathize.

Black Glasses trembled and asked him, "Do you have any bandages?"

Su Wan pulled out a bag the size of an SLR camera from his pack and took out a roll of bandages.

"You really brought a lot of things with you. What do you think of your life? Did you draw lots for storage bags when you were young?" Black Glasses looked at his finished cigarette and threw it aside in frustration.

"I couldn't say." Su Wan replied as he took out another cluster of underwear-like things from his small bag and shook it: "Sure enough, it's wise to put everything in a waterproof bag. Nothing here is wet."

"What's this?" Black Glasses immediately started laughing upon discovering that it was an adult diaper.

"Do you want to use it? It's very inconvenient to go to the bathroom now." Su Wan then pulled out a pack of cigarettes from a small pocket: "The last treasure."

"Whoever has cigarettes is a Bodhisattva."

The two men sat side by side against the wall, as Black Glasses tied his wound tightly with the bandages. His face gradually took on color as he smoked a cigarette.

Except for some parts of his limbs, the bugs that were in the more dangerous parts of his body had been dug out. At least he didn't have to bear the risk of his internal organs becoming infected. The bugs in his limbs could cause inflammation, but the risk of amputation was negligible now.

"Why did you lie to her?" After a moment of silence, Su Wan asked the question again. "What the hell is going on here?"

"You've really persevered." Black Glasses blew out a smoke ring and watched it float in the air. "She has her own path to follow, and we have ours. You should worry about yourself more." He gathered all his strength, started to stand up, and then took two stumbling steps.

It was really a heavy loss. Why did he encounter such tragic consequences every time he tried to emulate Lei Feng [1] and do good deeds, while doing unethical things often made him a lot more money? Was he being cheated by partnering up with Xie Yuchen and Wu Xie?

He found it very interesting. He seldom completely ignored the details and promised others he'd do something. If he was part of a certain plan, then he had to know every aspect very well— not only his part, but the others' parts as well

This was the only time he was doing something he knew almost nothing about, and the only reason was: "You just have to trust him."

He hoped doing this wasn't a stupid decision. If this thing failed, then he would blacken the Wu family's and Xie Yuchen's credit himself.

"Come on, let's go find that other classmate of yours. He should have completed his mission. We have to clean up the battlefield and wait until everyone arrives."

"Mission?"

"In a good plan, everyone is useful and no one is useless." He walked out of the door, gasped for breath, and then pointed in one direction. It was different from Liang Wan's, but not the way they had come before.

He tried to move, but the pain made his vision go black, and he had to readjust his strength. He took a few deep breaths, and said to Su Wan, "Now we have two tasks: the first is to get out alive; the second is to rescue the others if possible. They're going to start cleaning the room, and we're all cockroaches in the corner right now. We'll be trampled to death and instantly swept away. The farce is coming to an end, so if you don't want to die, don't stop for a single second."

Su Wan went up to help him, and the two men went out. They had only walked about a dozen paces when Su Wan asked, "Have you ever seen a cockroach walking so slowly? Even if you say don't stop for a moment, I don't think it's very useful." Black Glasses gave a wry smile, and then Su Wan asked, "Is the other classmate Li Cu or Brother Yang? What's his mission?"

Black Glasses replied that it was the tree, not the fruit [2]. Yang Hao's mission was to prepare a way out for them in advance.

"Yang Hao has the floor plan of all the exits here, and will mark them at the same time. Of course, he doesn't know that." Black Glasses put away the glow stick, took out a spray bottle from his belt, and then started spraying all around them, revealing strange traces of light particles on the tunnel floor.

They were bloodstains that were glowing strangely. The amount of blood was very small, like a very distant star seen in the night sky, but it was still very clear in the dark.

"Ammonia Luminol reaction?" Su Wan asked, "Is he hurt?" (Note: Luminol is a relatively stable chemical reagent that can identify blood stains that have been scrubbed off for a long time.)

"You're a really good student. It's ironic that China's exam-oriented education can also play a role if it meets someone who can actually practice what they learned [3]. It seems that the difference between people has a bigger influence on the effectiveness of education rather than the actual means." Black Glasses continued: "Before he jumped into the pool, he had four very small injuries to his blood vessels. The blood can't be stopped without professional treatment, but the amount won't be fatal in a short period of time. The clothes on his body are very absorbent and dripping, so the blood can't be stopped completely." He made a gesture: "This blood will lead us to the place where he escaped to, and save us from wasting time searching."

"How could he have a floor plan, and how could he abandon us and get out?" Su Wan wondered.

Black Glasses said, "How do you think he and Liang Wan escaped into the pool?"

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Notes:

[1] Mentioned back in "Tibetan Sea Flower". Lei Feng (1940-1962), made into a model of selflessness, modesty, and dedication to the Party by propaganda from 1963 onwards.

[2] You know, since Li Cu is called Pear, and the Yang in Yang Hao's name can mean poplar (tree).

[3] He means that exam-oriented education often creates students who know how to get high scores on paper. However, they don't know how to practice the knowledge they've learned in real life. Su Wan is different.