"Weng Chenglin, what are you hesitating for?" Li Bai shouted. "There's something right behind you!"
Li Bai sounded sincere, but Weng Chenglin knew he didn't deserve that concern. He had a pretty good idea what Li Bai was like. Shouting his head off near the Place of Buried Alive was practically asking to die.
Weng Chenglin made up his mind to finish the task first. He tried to steady his trembling hand, picked up the food box from the ground, lowered his head to avoid looking at the opening of the cave ahead, and walked forward with the utmost respect.
"Cough, cough, cough."
The next second, Weng Chenglin's raised foot abruptly stopped. A bout of coughing came from the cave in front of him. From the sound of it, someone inside was an old man, deathly ill and near the end.
Slowly, Weng Chenglin's eyes reddened. He knew that voice all too well. It was his own father, who had contracted silicosis after working in the mines for years. Unlike Yao Shunyu's parents, who had long since passed away, Weng Chenglin's father was still alive.
As the coughs grew more familiar, Weng Chenglin was momentarily dazed. He knew something was wrong with this place. It seemed to have some power that warped reality, and that was what had trapped them here.
Maybe—maybe that strange power really had brought his father to the Place of Buried Alive. At the thought of his old father huddled in a cramped, cold, damp space, starving and freezing, Weng Chenglin's heart nearly broke.
"Cough, cough... Son, is... is that you?"
At last, a full voice came from inside the cave. It was broken and halting, with frequent pauses to gasp for breath, as if he would suffocate if he couldn't catch his breath.
"W-where is