Chapter 12: Living Thing
Looking at this group of kids, Zhang Wenda’s sense of adult responsibility wouldn’t allow him to just sit around and wait to die. He had to find a way out.
"Hey! Fatty, Glasses, you guys wait for me here! I’m going to see if I can find another exit," Zhang Wenda said, wiping the sweat from his face with one hand.
Right now, he was more afraid of waiting here to die than he was of breaking the teacher’s rules.
However, the others clearly didn’t think the same way.
"Haozi, don’t go! We have to listen to the teacher! Teacher Rabbit will come save us!"
"Yeah, you have to follow the rules, Zhang Wenda!"
"Keep waiting? If we wait any longer, we won’t be waiting for rescue, we’ll be waiting for death. I’d rather die trying than die waiting!"
With that, Zhang Wenda stepped out of the circle of paper and walked resolutely into the pitch-black Youth Palace.
"You all wait here and don’t run off. Whether I find a way or Teacher Rabbit’s plan works out, you’ll survive!"
At this moment, the entire floor of the Youth Palace began to grow uneven, and walking on it felt like traversing a mountain path.
Zhang Wenda wasn’t just wandering around aimlessly. He first went to a window in the corridor and tried to pull it open, but no matter how much force he used, it wouldn’t budge.
Reaching out, he scraped a slogan off the windowpane. Zhang Wenda shone his flashlight through the glass and discovered that the outside was nothing but dirt. They were clearly underground; even if he dug his way out, there would be nowhere to go.
Since he couldn’t get out through the corridor, Zhang Wenda could only try to find an exit through the other classrooms. The first one he checked was the Go room.
Zhang Wenda cautiously opened the door and shone his flashlight inside. His beam landed on the blackboard, and in its light, he saw black game pieces arranged in long strips all over the desks and walls.
At that moment, the old wooden desks and stools began to flow like liquid, turning the entire room into a bizarre spectacle.
Ignoring everything else, Zhang Wenda saw there was no exit, closed the door, and moved on to the next room: the calligraphy room.
As soon as he pushed the door open, he saw the center of the calligraphy classroom collapsing. Desks and chairs were falling into a circular pit that had opened up.
A single glance from afar was enough for Zhang Wenda to know that pit wasn’t an exit. The wooden desks and chairs that fell in were being pulverized with a continuous, sizzling crunch. If he fell in, he would likely meet the same fate.
’What the hell is with this damn place? It’s a complete mess.’ His expression worsening, Zhang Wenda prepared to close the door again.
However, in the split second before the door closed, his flashlight beam suddenly landed on a blue glow in the darkness.
It was a cat, a little black cat about the size of two adult palms. It had a single, large blue eye and was hunched over by the blackboard, eating colored chalk.
Zhang Wenda froze for a moment upon seeing the cat. Although it only had one eye, it was definitely, positively a cat, not some bizarre monster.
Zhang Wenda saw the Black Cat, and naturally, the Black Cat saw Zhang Wenda. It paused for a second, slurped the chalk into its mouth, and started running quickly toward him.
This startled Zhang Wenda, who hurriedly slammed the calligraphy room door shut. Soon, the sound of claws scratching at the door, accompanied by constant meowing, came from the other side.
He wasn’t about to interact with a creature of unknown origin. After pulling out a rope and tying the door securely from the outside, he headed for the next door: the model aircraft room.
But just as he pushed open the door to the model aircraft room, a cloud of black gas billowed out, enveloping Zhang Wenda’s face.
The instant the gas touched his skin, excruciating pain enveloped Zhang Wenda’s entire body. It was the pain of suffocation, the pain of tearing flesh, and the pain of despair.
Zhang Wenda forced himself to slam the door shut and staggered back a few steps. Only after he was out of the cloud of gas did the pain recede like a tide.
’Pain... Could this be... gaseous pain?’
Zhang Wenda watched the dissipating pain with lingering fear. The model aircraft room seemed to be related to emotions—either joy or pain. It looked like there was no exit in there.
"Meow~~" A sudden meow from behind sent a chill down Zhang Wenda’s spine. He whipped his head around to see the same cat from before, sitting a short distance away and licking its paws.
It showed no intention of attacking Zhang Wenda. Instead, its eye watched him with curiosity.
Zhang Wenda was certain that what he saw in the cat’s eye was indeed curiosity. This little fellow seemed smarter than other cats.
"Can you understand me? Do you know where the door is?" Zhang Wenda asked.
The cat said nothing. Clearly, it couldn’t speak.
"Can’t you get out either? Then I guess we’re on the same team now. How about we try to find a way out together?" Zhang Wenda attempted to communicate again.
Then, Zhang Wenda watched as the Black Cat stood up and stretched. It looked left and right, then agilely leaped onto the wall, kicked off a nearby oil painting, and used the momentum to dangle from the ceiling and lick a lightbulb.
Afterward, it jumped down in a series of figure-eights, landing in front of Zhang Wenda. It chewed on something while looking at him expectantly.
Zhang Wenda was a bit baffled. ’What does that mean? Are you trying to prove you have strong teeth? That you can jump high?’
"MEOW!!" The Black Cat meowed angrily, seemingly annoyed at Zhang Wenda’s lack of understanding.
"Meow!" the Black Cat cried, and then leaped toward a nearby window.
In the beam of his flashlight, Zhang Wenda saw the dirt outside the window.
"I know, we’re underground. So what?"
The Black Cat didn’t say anything, just tilted its head toward the dirt again.
As Zhang Wenda got closer to the window and looked again, more carefully this time, he saw that the dirt was slowly moving upward. The Youth Palace was gradually sinking!!
Before Zhang Wenda could recover from his shock, the view outside the window suddenly cleared, revealing a massive underground cavern.
The long beam of Zhang Wenda’s flashlight cut diagonally across the cavern, landing on a plastic cloud that was part of a rainbow.
Immediately after, a faint and distorted song drifted in from the cavern outside, muffled by the glass.
"Want to tell you quickly... used the crayons you gave... to draw a picture, sent by express mail... want to tell you quickly... how much I’m thinking of you... no matter how long the road is, it’s not..."
At that moment, a chill ran through Zhang Wenda. This was the same song he had heard when he first entered the Youth Palace. On the other side... on the other side of the cavern, there was another Youth Palace!
Suddenly, Zhang Wenda saw that, accompanied by a tremor, the entire underground cavern began to fill with dust. The distant rainbow and its plastic clouds started to move as well.
Zhang Wenda quickly turned the beam of his flashlight to its maximum setting and aimed it forcefully in that direction.
Then, through the thick dust, Zhang Wenda could only make out a massive, blurry silhouette, like that of a giant fish, slowly sinking into the ground. It was moving.
The sight left Zhang Wenda’s mouth completely dry. Although he couldn’t see it clearly, Zhang Wenda knew that was the Youth Palace—a Youth Palace just like his. The entire Youth Palace... was alive!!