Chapter 11 Screaming in Fright (2/2)

“… F*ck. I asked for the flashlight, why did you throw a lousy old slipper. Do you want to kill me?”

“Sorry! I only wanted to test if you could catch it.”

“F*ck you upside down. If you keep on blurting c.r.a.p, when i come up… F*ck, I haven’t even finished my sentence and you threw it.”

By the time Zhao Lingjun received the flashlight, he was already on the verge of collapsing from the rotting stench.

Zhao Lingjun really regretted not asking that stupid Fatty for a gas mask earlier. As a bonus he could have seen the Hengha Er Jiang scramble to find one.

Zhao Lingjun’s mask, could not stop the stench from pervading his nose. The sewer’s stench was so bad, it was like overnight food that turned sour. In addition, his face mask had already gotten damp from just a short moment in the sewer.

The feeling of the damp mask, to Zhao Lingjun, was akin of plastering Hao Meili’s used sanitary pad on his face.

A long time ago, a cla.s.smate of his once said that when one’s concentration was at its peak, the person would disregard a part of his five senses, and feel nothing.

At the time his cla.s.smate cited an example. When a group of fans were barbecuing while watching a brilliant game. One guy so entranced by the game, did not even feel his finger get burned, even after a large blister formed.

At the time, Zhao Lingjun thought that it was utter nonsense. He thought that if it was true, then when a guy was undergoing surgery, general anesthesia was not required, showing him a fantastic A film would suffice.

But right now, Zhao Lingjun felt that what his cla.s.smate said at the time had some truth in it.

Because, normally if Zhao Lingjun thought of Hao Meili’s sanitary pads, he would have already been puking up bile.

But, even when feeling that his facemask turned into her sanitary napkin, he still has not puked.

This was because, the feeling coming from his soles compared to the mask, was worse.

When climbing down the ladder, Zhao Lingjun had already noticed that the sewer’s four walls were made of concrete.

Using his flashlight, he took a second look at it under the light.

Zhao Lingjun found that there were different tunnels on two of the sides. One side had many different tunnels less than a meter in diameter scattered across it. The other, had only one large tunnel, and bending over slightly would suffice.

He realized that this sewer was the hub for the network of sewers underground.

Everyday the sewage from the complex would first go through those black and slimy tunnels before reaching this hub. After which they would enter the bigger tunnel and go straight to sewage treatment plant.

Zhao Lingjun was glad that the complex also had a blackout and their water supply cut-off today.

Because, if the water supply was not shut off, the majority of pipes would still be working and spewing out filth. Thankfully it was shut off, and the job became much easier. Zhao Lingjun felt that all he had to do was to just crawl, find the clogged pipe and unclog it.

But when he stepped on the ground earlier, he knew that he had been counting his chickens before they hatched.

He had been expecting to be able to step on the concrete at the bottom, and even if there was some sludge that was not washed away, it would not be too thick and wearing rubber boots would suffice.

But when he stepped, he knew that he was wrong, very wrong.

He heard a sploosh sound when he stepped. After that his feet sank like in quicksand.

If his reaction was not that fast, his other leg would also have stepped off the ladder and onto the sludge losing his balance and falling face first into the filth.

The sound that Hao Meili had heard, was exactly this sound that Zhao Lingjun made when he first stepped into the sludge.

When both of his feet were deep in the sludge, Zhao Lingjun realised that his rubber boots was not enough and felt like there were countless loaches squirming inside it.

His first realization when first reaching the bottom, was that what he saw from the ladder was not concrete but instead sludge.

His second realization was that the sludge was deeper than it seemed, deeper than profound feelings of love.

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