The next few minutes are something I will never forget in my life.

In the pitch-black waterway, there were no monsters, no terrifying things. Although my main consciousness didn’t want to admit it, my subconscious clearly knew that I would inevitably die in a very short time—real, tangible death, and this time there was no escape.

The horror of this feeling is beyond words.

I suddenly regretted all the decisions I had made before. On one hand, I wanted to tell myself not to give up, to fight until the last moment, but deep down, I was completely desperate, and my mind was uncontrollably flooded with various thoughts. I started to drift off, thinking about what would happen if I surfaced at that moment, or how my family would react if I died. Regret and fear left my mind in chaos.

The oxygen gauge had long since shown zero, and I couldn’t tell when I would suffocate. I could only make my last efforts while waiting for that moment to arrive.

At the last critical moment, I almost began to look forward to the feeling of suffocation gradually creeping in. As the available oxygen dwindled, everything felt elongated. Fear made me cry uncontrollably; I couldn’t calm down, and only one thought occupied my mind: I am going to die.

Soon, the oxygen was completely exhausted. I kept trying to inhale from the breathing tube, but there was nothing left. Holding my last breath, I pushed it to the limit, and in intense pain, I instinctively gasped for air, a wave of sour choking sensation surged into my lungs, and my whole body convulsed.

This was underwater; I had no second breath to expel the water from my lungs. After a few coughs, that sour numbness spread throughout my lungs, and I felt as if my chest was about to explode.

I can’t describe the feelings that followed, nor do I know how long I struggled. Gradually, these sensations faded away, the surroundings quieted down, the light in front of me slowly shrank, and I heard some strange sounds in my ears, as if someone was talking, or perhaps it was the sound of water.

In the next moment, everything went dark.

At that moment, I thought I was dead, with no chance of turning back. I didn’t die at the hands of a zongzi (sticky rice dumpling), but rather drowned. My grandfather was right: since dying at the hands of a zongzi is still death, drowning is also death. Why fear a zongzi and not fear water? Humans are truly ironic creatures.

Fortunately, the final feeling of calmness was quite nice. If everyone could die with such peace and tranquility, then there would be no need to fear death itself; rather, it is the time before death that is more difficult to endure.

When I woke up again, I initially felt a sense of surprise, but for a long time, my ability to think was not functioning, so I couldn’t comprehend this surprise and had no idea what it meant.

Gradually, gradually, my consciousness began to recover.

The first thing that came to me was pain. Intense pain first appeared in my hands, then slowly spread, eventually reaching my lungs. It felt as if there was a wire mesh in my lungs; every breath made me feel like I was about to die again.

I focused all my energy on resisting the pain, and I don’t know how long it took before I realized I had adapted to it. Then, other sensations gradually revived.

Everything I had experienced before began to surface in my mind: returning from Fangchenggang, the dive, the strange blue light in the ancient village at the bottom of the lake, the peculiar Han-style ancient building, the iron figurines, the well, the final suffocation… bit by bit, it all came back to me. I was then struck by a strange thought: I should have undoubtedly died then; how did I wake up again?

For a moment, it felt like those events were a dream. Perhaps I had been asleep here all along, and the drowning was just a nightmare. But the pain all over my body reminded me that this was impossible; I must have been saved for some reason.

I tried to move my hand and found it extremely difficult, but I could feel the dampness around me, as if I were lying on a wet rock. My ears and eyes began to respond; I heard sounds nearby, gradually becoming clearer. Someone was humming a tune, and…

It was the voice of the胖子 (Fatty)!

The singing was incredibly off-key, but I felt a surge of excitement. I immediately tried to turn my head to look, only to cry out in pain.

The singing stopped abruptly, and Fatty exclaimed, “You’re awake! You’re awake!” Suddenly, everything brightened, and a chubby face covered in stubble appeared before me. At the same time, I saw the 闷油瓶 (Muffled Oil Bottle) standing behind Fatty, holding a torch.

I looked at these two fools, initially unable to believe my eyes. Fatty started to speak, but my mind couldn’t quite grasp what he was saying. Still, I was clearly aware that this was not an illusion; I was really seeing them! A flood of mixed emotions rushed over me—fear, hope, worry—all the intense feelings I had previously held were finally released. I didn’t know how to express it; tears wanted to flow, but I couldn’t help but laugh instead.

Having gone through so much, feeling an intense panic in utter solitude, the despair of brushing against death, and then discovering that I was safe—this overwhelming joy could drive a person mad. Yet my mixed feelings weren’t just about that; what I was really thinking was: no matter what the situation was now, I was finally with them again, and I was no longer alone! That feeling was incredible!

Laughing while twitching must have looked very strange. Fatty clearly thought I had lost my mind; he immediately helped me up, and without a word, slapped me twice across the face. His big hands then pounded my back with force as he said, “Breathe! Breathe! Deep breaths!”

His strikes were heavy, and my head buzzed. The chaotic emotions I had lost control of were suddenly wiped away. After another hard hit, I suddenly felt a wave of nausea and started to vomit and cough, not even knowing what I was bringing up.

After I finished throwing up, I struggled to turn my head to look at them. My vision became clearer, and the various sounds around me gained more depth.

“How are you feeling? Still uncomfortable?” I heard Fatty ask.

I was afraid he would hit me again, so I quickly waved my hand but couldn’t speak.

He clearly sighed in relief and said, “Thank God, you woke up. Damn it! I thought you were definitely going to end up a vegetable this time; that would have been a huge burden for me.”

“What exactly happened? How did I not die?” I instinctively asked.

“You’ll have to ask King Yama about that,” Fatty replied, helping me lean against the stone wall and telling me to relax.

I was already quite clear-headed and looked at them again. After two weeks of not seeing each other, both of them looked as if they had been working as laborers in a coal mine, wearing only their underwear, looking very disheveled, with unkempt beards, and they had lost quite a bit of weight. What relieved me was that, despite their disheveled appearance, they looked healthy and clearly weren’t injured.

Turning my head to look around, I saw a small bonfire flickering in the distance, illuminating the surroundings. This was a flat cave that had been dug out, roughly thirty square meters in size. I could stand up and touch the ceiling with my head. Water was seeping from everywhere, like it was raining, and the ground was all wet. The rocks showed a beautiful mix of dark green colors under the light of the exploration lamp. On the other side, there was a narrow, half-person-high opening that looked like it had been cut out with a knife; I had no idea where it led.

“Damn! Where is this place? What happened to you? I was worried sick, thought you guys were dead!” I cursed.

The fat guy grinned and said, “This is a long story. I was worried you wouldn’t be able to find us. So, did you find us because you saw my communicator?”

Just mentioning that “communicator” made me furious; I felt like I could strangle the fat guy, but I was too weak to do anything, so I just cursed, “Your communicator is so damn unprofessional, it almost got me killed!”

“Hey! Just finding that thing was already a miracle,” the fat guy replied. “Quick, tell me how you ended up here?”

Hearing that made me even angrier; I thought, how would I know? “I don’t know, didn’t you guys rescue me?”

The fat guy, who had been very excited, suddenly froze at my words. “We rescued you?”

“Yes!” I then recounted how I found that giant salamander and subsequently fell into the well.

The fat guy showed a strange expression after hearing this and turned to look at the silent oil bottle, who was sitting on a rock behind him, his expression unreadable.

I asked in confusion, “What’s wrong? Is there a problem? Didn’t you rescue me?”

The fat guy slowly shook his head. “You don’t know how you got here at all?”

I was puzzled. “Know what?” Seeing their expressions, I suddenly felt something was off and immediately asked, “What’s going on? Did something happen to me?”

The fat guy slumped down on the ground, cursing under his breath, as if he had been hit hard, and sighed, “If you don’t know, we know even less.”

I couldn’t help but feel angry and shouted, “What the hell is going on? What kind of riddle are you playing? Just tell me!”

The fat guy gestured for me to ask the silent oil bottle. I looked at him, and he said, “About five hours ago, you appeared in the place where you’re now lying, deeply unconscious, with almost no awareness. We performed basic first aid on you, and then, after five hours, you woke up.”

I waited for the silent oil bottle to continue, but he fell silent.

“That’s it?” I asked in surprise.

“That’s it,” he replied in a low voice.

“You didn’t say how you rescued me,” I said.

The fat guy looked at me, “You didn’t catch the main point; we didn’t rescue you at all. Five hours ago, you appeared in the place where you’re now lying.” He emphasized each word, “Appeared, which means that there was nothing there before, and suddenly you were just lying there.”

I frowned, taking some time to understand what he meant, and asked, “Are you saying that I appeared here on my own?”

The chubby guy nodded. “I was with the little brother in another cave, which is drier. But I would come here periodically to fetch water. When I suddenly found another person in this cave, I was scared half to death, but your chubby self recognized you right away. I called the little brother, and together we rescued you. You had already stopped breathing at that time, so if we’re looking for someone to save you, I, your chubby master, still qualify for a guest appearance. Later, worried that you might have some fractures, we didn’t dare to move you and just waited here for you to wake up.”

Looking at the chubby guy, I knew he wasn’t making this up, and I fell into deep thought.

This was truly an unexpected turn of events. I had thought that after losing consciousness, I would have some kind of adventure, only to be discovered in time by the chubby guy and the little brother, and then rescued. But now it seemed that wasn’t the case. However, it was impossible for me to have arrived here by myself while unconscious, nor could I have teleported here. What was going on?

Could it be that someone else saved me? Did someone else bring me here?

That was an abandoned well path at the bottom of the lake; it was unlikely anyone would just happen to pass by. This meant someone must have been following me.

I shared my thoughts with the chubby guy and asked if he had noticed any signs of this, but he and the little brother had no reaction, seemingly disagreeing.

The chubby guy gave a wry smile, patted me on the back, and exclaimed loudly, “Damn it! That’s impossible. If someone could bring you here, then hell, it definitely wouldn’t be a ‘human.'”

“Why not?” I asked.

He smiled bitterly again and said, “Can you stand up? Let me take you for a walk around this cave, and you’ll see where the problem lies.”