"": 200,
"": "",
"": "As the three of them approached, the three figures standing side by side came into view.
The light from the Miner's Lamp fell over them. All three had their heads lowered, thin hemp ropes wound around their necks and extending upward. Their toes pointed down, still some distance above the ground.
They were three hanged corpses!
Luo Bin tilted his head back slightly, looking up from below before he could make out their faces.
Shriveled skin clung to their cheekbones. Their eyelids were open, but their eyeballs had long since sunk into their sockets.
They had died with their eyes open.
Half their tongues protruded from their mouths, likewise shriveled from dehydration.
Yet the damp had covered their bodies in spots of mold, making them look like cured meat left sitting for years.
A man, a woman, and a child. He could just about tell that the adults were in their thirties and the child was seven or eight at most. This family of three had actually hanged themselves underground...
"Scared me into a cold sweat. I thought there were living people down here..." Old Kong wiped away his sweat.
Then a complicated expression crossed his face. "Everywhere has people who can't take it anymore and choose to die. Ah, why bother?"
"If they were sick and knew they were doomed, ending it themselves would be a release, rather than wasting away in misery." Luo Feng scanned their surroundings and reminded Old Kong to look around some more.
Luo Bin stood where he was for a long time before walking around the three corpses and heading farther back.
The old framed lamp gave off very little light, and the three corpses blocked it, making visibility even worse behind them. Still, Luo Bin found a table