The dragon is alive

Chapter 1 Adventure
In the cloudless sky, the scorching sun hung and scorched the earth, and the cicadas on the trees made shrill calls.

The story takes place in a small mountain village. Now is the summer vacation that countless students in Huaxia are looking forward to, and it is also a difficult day for all walks of life to wait for the scores after the entrance examination.Six teenagers in short-sleeved clothes walked slowly through the weeds with flashlights, candles, ropes and some tools in their hands.

What they are going to do is very common for children living in mountain villages, that is, cave exploration that they may have done in childhood.In the vortex of this mountain village, there is a natural cave.The locals call it the Dragon Cave. Of course, it is not the place where the legendary dragon lives, but a naturally formed cave.

Because the cave communicates with a well below the village, the well is also called the Dragon Well by the locals, and the water in the well has never completely dried up.

I heard from some old people in the village that the well almost dried up in a severe drought year.At that time, the village organized a group of people to go down the well to investigate. After going down the well, they entered a sloping passage and walked in the passage for more than half an hour.Finally found groundwater, and they also found a vertical hole.Everyone guessed that this hole could lead to the ground, and one of the village names said that this hole might be connected to the dragon hole in the whirlpool. In the end, they didn't check whether the hole was connected to the dragon hole.

If you want to find out, you must first climb a straight stone wall, and you don't know how far it is from the ground, and whether it is dangerous.The locals have never explored the depths of the Dragon Cave, and this is all their guesswork. They are not sure that they can reach this place even if they descend from the Dragon Cave.So they went back the same way and tried to find a way to get water here.

The wellhead is actually not far from the underground water source. The people looking for the water source are not familiar with the road inside, and it is also difficult to walk. In some places, only one person can even pass through, and sometimes they have to climb over, so they only spent half an hour. Hours to get to where there is water.Later, they roughly measured the distance, and it was only two to three thousand meters away, which happened to be about the same distance as Longdong from here.In this way, they are even more sure that the dragon cave is connected with this well.Afterwards, the villagers chipped in to buy some water pipes, leading the groundwater inside to the mouth of the well for the villagers to eat, and thus survived the severe drought year.

Six children are going to explore this dragon cave today. The oldest of them is only 16 years old, and the youngest is only ten years old.While walking in the grass, one of the children said, "Brother Long, if my parents find out, will they hit me?".

"If you are afraid, don't go. Even if you are beaten, I will go to see it. I always hear what the old people say, and I don't know if it is true or not. They also say that you can see the underground water source when you go down to the Dragon Cave. Longjing is connected, I'm going to verify it today," the man named Longge replied.

"Brother Long, I'm not afraid. I will follow you all the time. I don't know if there is any danger down there. Why don't we just go down a little bit? No one in the village has ever gone down to the bottom. I heard that they are only in a large space. I played there, and said that the ground there is full of sand, and there are white stalagmites on the top of the head, so we will come up after playing there?" another child said.

Brother Long continued: "No, this time I'm going to the entrance of the small cave that no one in the village dares to go. I heard from those who have gone down that cave that you can see the underground water source. You can hear the sound of water when you throw it in. I’m going to check it out myself this time. You see, I’ve brought a bottle with me. This time I’m going to get some groundwater in it and let others see it.” Said Long Ge Man, took out a small soda glass bottle and shook it.

The child who was afraid of being beaten by his parents said, "Brother Long, do you really want to go down? If Uncle Yang finds out, you will definitely be beaten."

Brother Long thought for a while and said to the other five people: "You must not mention this matter to the adults at home. If anyone dares to file a complaint, I will beat him every time I see him."

Several children said that they had come to the entrance of the Dragon Cave, and the one called Longge said, "Luo Bing, you are the youngest, so don't go down. But you have to guard at the entrance of this cave, in case we have something to do down there, You can get someone to help. Everyone else get ready and we're going down."

He tied the rope he brought to a tree next to the entrance of the cave, and Brother Long was the first to pull the rope and start going down the cave.The diameter of the hole is about three meters, extending obliquely downwards, and you can land five or six meters down the hole.There are handrails or stones on the wall of the hole, but in case of falling, a rope is the only way to be safe.

Five people descended into the cave one after another, and what they saw was an underground stone chamber.It is about ten meters wide and extends down obliquely, with a slope of about [-] degrees. "Brother Long, we brought a flashlight, why do we need candles?" a person who came down asked.

"You don't understand this. The book says that there may be suffocating gas in this kind of natural cave. You can know the existence of these gases by bringing a candle," said Brother Long.

"Then how do you know there is such a gas?".

"As long as the lit candles are extinguished, we have to retreat as quickly as possible, understand?" Several people nodded after listening to Brother Long's words, and then turned on the flashlight.Brother Long, who was walking in front, lit a candle. To be on the safe side, the one who was walking second also replaced it with a candle, and put the flashlight away in case of emergency.Brother Long is also equipped with a spare flashlight. It can be seen that he is well prepared for this expedition.

The road in this stone room is not smooth at all, it is full of rough stones on the ground, so be careful when walking, otherwise you may be hit by the rough stones on the ground if you fall.After walking obliquely down for about [-] meters, there was no road ahead, but a small hole appeared on the stone wall. The diameter of the hole was about one meter, and it was also one meter high from the ground.The hole does not extend flat, but upwards, but with a small slope.But it is still a bit difficult to go up alone, and you have to step on the shoulders of your companions to climb into the cave.

It was Brother Long who went up first, and then pulled the people behind him up one by one.The entrance of the cave went up first, and after walking five or six meters, the entrance of the cave began to expand, and there was no slope, extending forward flatly.Continuing to move forward, the flat road began to slope downward again. After walking another 30 meters on the road with a slope of more than 20 degrees, I finally came to a huge stone chamber.The length and width are at least more than 20 meters, and the height varies from high to low. The high place is seven or eight meters, and the short place is only more than one meter.

There is no rocky pavement like the one just came down here, and the ground is a layer of sand.There are also many white stalactites on the top of the head, some of which are still dripping.This is the underground hall where those who have come down from the village tell them they can play.Several people excitedly held the lights in their hands and looked around.

"Brother Long, it's so beautiful inside. Look at those stalactites are still dripping water." It was a thirteen or fourteen-year-old child who spoke, and he probably knew the name of the stalactites from a textbook.

"Okay, everyone just walk around here, if you see a stalactite that can be taken down, knock it down, remember to be gentle, don't knock them down, I'll go find the small hole," said Long Ge.

"Brother Long, do you really want to go down? Let's just play here for a while, and then take some stalactites out. No one has ever been down there, what if there is danger?"

"Don't worry, didn't I bring the rope with me? I'll put the rope on my body later and put it down a little bit. It's no problem. If you are afraid, just play here, and I'll go down and have a look by myself."

After hearing Brother Long's words, several people began to hesitate, and finally decided unanimously that the four of them would stay here, and Brother Long would go down alone. This way, there was also a support, and in case something happened, someone could go out and ask for help.

(End of this chapter)