endless route.

Chapter 18 18. The Legend of the Fairy Demon 【For further reading】

The three of them searched for the whole day. Except for the town of La Maine at the bottom of the mountain, they went to all the places they could go, and even went back to the abandoned mine twice to search.

They walked west for a long time through the railway track mine on the third floor, but in the end it was a dead end. A pile of abandoned mine carts were piled up in the corner of the rock wall. The rock wall had just been half-mined, and there were densely drilled holes on the wall.

It is impossible for people to pass.

And the direction is not due northwest.

The three went to the Rift Valley cave to investigate again.

Zheng Yun searched carefully with a telescope, but there was no way to go there, and the other side of the rift valley was completely primitive, and there was no passage that anyone could drill into.

There is no trace of construction on the wall opposite the entire rift valley, there is no bridge on the thick white mist below, the iron staircase has only seven floors, and there is no downward passage.

The average span of the rift valley is more than 50 meters, and it is almost impossible to swing through it with rock climbing tools.

Thinking about the past can only go to the bottom.

Hu Ruihua tied a mountaineering manuscript to the climbing rope and threw it into the white mist, trying to see how deep the rift was through the length of the rope.

Just one meter into the white mist, the climbing pick fell into the underground river with the sound of entering water, and then, the excess rope was washed eastward by the water.

The speed of the water is not fast, but it is almost impossible for people to swim retrograde to the west. One is because of the low temperature, and the other is because the river is completely covered by thick white mist.

Zheng Yun's expression changed.

He dreamed last night that there was an underground river under the white mist, but he didn't expect it to be true.

Leaving aside whether the nightmare is true or not, the others definitely did not come from here, because Zheng Yun himself doubted whether he could do it, let alone Damona.

Damona suffered from hypothermia yesterday, but can swim against the current today?Or hang across the river with ropes?
So this way doesn't work either.

So far, the three roads have been ruled out. Damona didn't go up from the top of the mountain, didn't go through the rail mine, and didn't go through the rift cave.

Hu Ruihua suspects that there are other entrances to this abandoned mine, or that there are other abandoned mines around the abandoned mine.

His guess is very reasonable, this mining area is very large, there can't be only one mine, maybe Damona went to another abandoned mine.

So they went up to climb the mountain again, explored northwestward through the rainforest, walked two kilometers in one breath, and found no trace of mining.

The thread is broken again.

ten hours.

no progress.

Liu Minghuzi and the others seemed to have evaporated from the world, the off-road vehicle could not be found, and there was no sign of anyone.

when it gets dark.

Everyone went down the mountain and returned to the car.

Hu Ruihua set up a bonfire in front of the abandoned mine building, and the three of them stared at the jumping flames, without saying a word, looking tired, and not in the mood to eat.

It was not found on the first day.

It's really hard to say.

"Maybe they just drove around to find some healing supplies for Damona, and they're back at the hotel now?" Song Wan broke the silence.

Her guess is also justified.

Although a few people left without saying goodbye, if it was just a trivial matter like buying medicine, it was indeed possible not to wake up Zheng Yun and Hu Ruihua.

"Let's go back and have a look. If they don't go back, I'll drive overnight to contact support." Hu Ruihua wiped his face with mineral water.

"it is good."

Zheng Yun nodded.

The three got on the car, and the off-road vehicle turned around and headed southeast after passing through the town of La Maine.

The town is as it always has been.

After taking a deep look into the town, the off-road vehicle left at night and headed towards the small town in the south.

ten minutes later.

The three returned to the town hotel.

As soon as he arrived at the door of the hotel, Hu Ruihua sighed deeply, because the two cars were not there.

I went in and looked around.

Sure enough, there was no one there, even the things from the morning were still in place, and no one came back.

This small town has long been abandoned. The houses on half a street were converted into hotels by outsiders. It is a common family hotel model in the West. A family or several families live in a house together, and they take care of themselves.

This kind of hotel does not have a front desk at all, and there is basically no doorman. The operator lives at the entrance of the town, and will come to clean up when the time is up.

The main road to and from the outside world has been cut off in the past few days. Yesterday they were blocked for a long time and could only take a shortcut on the mountain road, but similarly, the trucks inside could not get out.

So there are many guests in the hotel.

But it is impossible to have a satellite phone in this kind of place. A satellite phone is not a mobile phone. It is bigger than a suitcase. Even renting a set of equipment is extremely expensive.

The three discussed briefly, and Hu Ruihua drove south overnight to call for someone, while Zheng Yun and Song Wan investigated nearby to see if there were any witnesses.

Watching Hu Ruihua leave, Zheng Yun looked sideways at Song Wan: "If you are tired, go back to bed first."

"Not very tired, I can speak French, I can help you ask." Song Wan shook her head and continued to insist.

Zheng Yun did not refuse, and took her around to ask questions. The drivers here were all locals, most of whom were dark-colored, and they all spoke French.

They are all working for the company, and they are not in a hurry if the fruit cannot get out, and they are easy to communicate with.

The two asked around.

The house next door was home to six or seven truck drivers. One of them saw Liu Ming and the others set off, and said that they were excited.

"It was probably in the morning. I got up to go to the toilet. It was still dark. They seemed to be talking about the gold mine. They should have come here to pan for gold."

Song Wan translated each sentence word by word.

"Any other information? How many women are there in the team?" Zheng Yun asked immediately.

The other party Ula Ula talked for a long time.

After listening, Song Wan translated to Zheng Yun:
"He said there were two, one of them was white, the other was Chinese, they were together, they left after getting in the car, and they were carrying a lot of weapons, and the conversation was in Chinese, which he couldn't understand."

"Chinese? Then why did he know that Liu Ming's conversation with them was related to the gold mine?" Zheng Yun frowned.

He didn't pay attention to this question just now, because although the truck driver can't speak English, he probably knows the English of the word "gold mine". If Liu Ming and the others communicate in English, he may hear one or two words and introduce them.

But Liu Ming and the others communicate in Chinese, so how did this local who can't even speak English hear the word "gold mine"?He understands Chinese?
Song Wan translated and asked.

The driver said a lot of Ula Ula.

"He said he didn't understand Chinese, but he knew the pronunciation of the word "gold mine". In the local language of this place, the pronunciation of gold mine is "Jinkuan" in Chinese, not "Mingdou" in French .”

Song Wan's expression suddenly changed while she was talking. After translating, she said to Zheng Yun: "Brother Zheng, this kind of phenomenon usually means that ancient people from the East came here in the early days of colonization, and they had a deep influence."

"Ask him where he lives and what Chinese words he knows." Zheng Yun nodded and continued to ask.

He roughly understood Song Wan's meaning. Language is the proof of history and has deep research value.

Especially where there is no historical record.

During the period of great maritime colonization, many Western countries used people to occupy land. Wherever the ship sailed, they threw down some colored slaves as colonists, and threw them away along the way to divide the ownership of these areas.

If a place is starved of resources, without any good things, and the western countries don't choose to develop them, then they will never come back.

The colored slaves who were thrown into these places would live in a closed environment, and sometimes they would not see outsiders for two or three hundred years, and their language was also closed.

In this case, if the ancient Orientals came and had a great impact, this would happen and change the local language environment.

This is not important.

Not much help in finding Liu Ming.

But Zheng Yun still asked, because all the places where the ancient Westerners were unwilling to come because of lack of resources, but the ancient Easterners had been and had an impact.

Most of it is related to 'fairy gods'.

My adoptive father once told many similar stories, and some people even used this method to find ruins or treasures left by the ancients, which can be regarded as another way.

Because it is impossible for ancient Easterners to wander around places without resources for no reason, their vision is higher than that of Westerners, and they can't see these poor mountains and rivers at all.

Even if they come, it will be a mighty fleet, and they will leave after a round of exploration. It is impossible to communicate with the local "barbarians", let alone teach Chinese.

Unless the 'feng shui' is good.

Or there may be 'fairies and ghosts'.

These godly things are the only reason why the ancients stayed in the poor mountains and rivers.

Song Wan translated and asked.

The other party also gave an answer.

"He said that he is a native of the southern coast, and many daily expressions are pronounced in Chinese, such as wood, bridge, tea, bowl, boat, and fishing net."

"He said that there is still the word life, as well as immortals and monsters, which are left like preaching."

Song Wan's tone fluctuated, she looked sideways at Zheng Yun, her clear eyes widened, her small mouth opened round, and only then did she understand Zheng Yun's purpose for asking these words.

She had taken linguistics as an elective, and although Zheng Yun didn't explain it to her, she knew what it meant.

Zheng Yun's pupils contracted.

He can basically infer that the ancients should have discovered the 'immortal' and 'monster' in this place.

They sent local people to help them cut down trees and build bridges, and gave back their wages, as well as gold and silver property. So they taught the local people how to make bowls, boats, and fishing nets, and also taught them to go fishing.

Using these technologies as wages and letting local people work for them is a very "benevolent" deal, which is in line with the style of the ancient Orientals.

(End of this chapter)