The compass needle fluctuated slightly, like a watch with a loose mainspring, moving back and forth, but the amplitude was very small. Zhang Wenbin tried several times, and the maximum reaction was just this much, so he had to give up.

  "Is it no good?" I asked him.

  He shook his head and sighed: "It doesn't make sense, this compass can ask about life and death, what does this turn mean, could it be that even the heavens don't know?"

  I could only comfort him by saying: "Don't think too much about it, this place isn't bad either. If all else fails, the few of us can hit the road together."

  Later, I told Fatso that if we didn't die and could still hold on, it was like the ancestral tomb had smoke rising from it. At that time, all of us were like withered leaves hanging from a branch, and no one knew when they would fall off. Reality is far more cruel than imagination, to what extent? Not having food was a small matter, but down there it was like an ice cellar, because due to the lack of heat supply, people got colder the more they slept. In order to keep warm, we could only get up and run in place, but running would consume physical strength, so at that time there were two choices: either die of starvation first or freeze to death first...

  We were trapped for three whole days and nights!

  It's hard for me to recall how the remaining cake was distributed, it was our only remaining food, water was available, that small pool of water in front, it could temporarily quench our thirst by gulping down a few mouthfuls, perhaps not long after, it would carry our corpses drifting to who knows where.

  It was about the fourth day, according to calculations, outside time was around 8 o'clock in the morning. I and Pangzi were squeezed together, dazed and confused Pangzi shouted that he was hungry. I whispered: "If you're hungry, get up and drink a couple of mouthfuls, fill your belly and it'll be fine."

  Fatso was probably starving too, these two days we were hungry and could only drink water, when walking the stomach would make "gurgling" sounds, water can't fill hunger, the more you drink the emptier your stomach gets. Fatso even got dysentery from drinking too much, yesterday he started having diarrhea, in these two days he has visibly lost a lot of weight, and when walking he's a bit unsteady, I was dazed and only heard a "ah!" sound, by the time I got up again, there was no sign of Fatso...

  The water surface on that pond was still rippling, and I could imagine the scene where the hungry and dizzy fat boy fell headfirst.

  "Fatty!" I yelled at the top of my lungs by the water's edge, expecting him to pop out of the water the next moment and tease me, saying "Little Xia, you haven't taken a bath in days, come on down for a soak..."

  But this is just my imagination, the fat boy is gone, he fell into the water...

  Cha Wenbin fell silent... For a man like him who values loyalty and responsibility, we were brought here by him, so he should take us back. Even if he can't take us back, the first person to get into trouble should be him, not us.

  He quietly picked up things on the ground, I turned back to look at him, but he was looking down at his feet...

  "Where are you going?" Actually, I already know the answer, is there anywhere else to go besides here?

  "I'll go first." He lowered his head and said: "No matter if it's life or death, I have to try anyway."

  "Are you crazy?" I blocked his way, stretching out my arm horizontally: "Don't go to your death, one is already gone, I don't want to be left alone here waiting for death."

  "This is for you." Cha Wenbin handed me my grandfather's compass: "This belongs to your family, it's time to return it to you."

  I pushed it away, saying: "I'm not a Taoist priest, what would I want with this?"

  He looked at me sincerely and said: "Stay, just in case there's still hope."

  I grabbed his clothes and shouted in a high-pitched voice: "Why don't we wait together since there's hope?"

  Cha Wenbin asked me back: "I'll go take a look, what if the fatty is waiting for me to rescue him downstairs? If we give up on him like this, will he still have any hope?"

  "You know, he's gone!" I pulled his arm, I knew it was hard to convince the person in front of me, but I really didn't want to watch him die.

  "When alive, one must see people; when dead, one must see a corpse." He said that and with a forceful swing of his arm, he rushed towards the edge of the pond and left. I looked at his back, unable to bear looking straight at him. I thought, well, since it's come to this, let's jump together then.

  I clearly saw him sprinting, his body slightly leaning forward. When I thought I was about to hear a loud "bang", I instead heard Zhang Wenbin shouting: "Xiao Yi, come over quickly!"

  "What about the water?" I stared with wide eyes, hardly believing that there wasn't a single drop of water in the pond now. Only the aquatic plants and ripples on both sides proved that just a few seconds ago it was still full of water. At this moment, I raised my head to take a look at the compass in my hand, its pointer jumping constantly. I hastily handed it over to Cha Wenbin, saying "Look at this."

  Zha Wenbin held the compass and gently turned it, I only heard a faint "click", as if some part had coupled, the pointer now pointed to the bright red "life" character, and the sharp head corresponding to this character was pointing directly at that dry well.

  He looked at me with a sudden gleam of hope and said: "There's a way out, it's down below!"

  "What's going on?" I was shocked, where is the water in here?

  "What's the time now?" he asked me.

  I raised my hand and looked at my watch: "8:45"

  "It's the effect of the tide, it won't last more than three minutes, the water will soon rise again. If we're going to leave, let's hurry." Zhang Wenbin turned his head and said to me: "Fatso might still be alive!"

  This waterfall is only about three or four meters vertically, similar to a pen holder, with the top and bottom roughly the same width. I slid down along the two sides of the smooth stone, my only point of leverage being those water plants. Cha Wenbin was about one body length away from me, and after walking down for more than two meters, he shouted at me: "Hurry up, I've found a way out!"

  On my back, there is a circular hole with a diameter of more than one meter. Next to the hole stands a stele covered in moss, and the characters on it are already indistinguishable. I slowly move towards that direction by grasping at water grass, and I can clearly hear the sound of "whooshing" coming from less than a meter below my feet in the water.

  Cha Wenbin stood at the entrance of the circular hole and shouted: "Hurry up, the water will rise again soon!"

  When I grasped that inscription with one hand, a voice in my heart told me: "You're saved!"

  That was a tombstone, no doubt about it. This must be the main entrance to the entire mausoleum. The tunnel behind it is obviously the passageway. Walking through the passageway would lead us out into the blue sky. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to admire the tombstone because the water below had already started rising again. Whether or not this was a passageway, it was now our only hope. One minute later, this place too would be submerged under water.

  The mud underfoot, the gravel on both sides, I used all my strength to rush out, and I don't know how far I ran. When I faced the gusts of cold wind blowing towards me, I knew that I could continue to live...

  The exit was a pile of rubble, and as I pulled away the rocks and weeds, I caught a whiff of the long-awaited fresh air that filled the air, and it felt incredibly refreshing. Just as I was about to shout, Cha Wenbin covered my mouth with his hand and dragged me into the nearby bushes. As I looked up, I realized that we were only 20 or 30 meters away from the small guardhouse, and even squatting here, we could clearly hear their conversation.

  The surroundings of the mine have started to bustle, with many workers in overalls going in and out, and a cargo ship loaded with half coal ash is moored by the river.

  "There." Zha Wenbin gave me a wink, the riverbank on both sides were reeds, we crouched down and slowly approached the boat along the reed clump, taking advantage of the opponent's inattention to jump into the back cabin under a piece of oilcloth. After waiting for not too long, the boat started, going out very far, I and Zha Wenbin slipped off the boat one after another and swam ashore with all our might.

  Everyone says that if you don't die from a great calamity, you will have good fortune afterwards. Two people, frozen stiff like ice pops, supported each other as they made their way through field after field of rice paddies, found a farmhouse to get some fire and asked them to buy some old clothes, I ate three big bowls of rice before stopping...

  Pangzi still hasn't shown up, so Cha Wenbin and I can only go home to look for people. Yuan Xiaobai had already left, leaving only a phone number. For several days there was no news, and the family was getting anxious, also inquiring everywhere. It was roughly on the third day that my dad came back saying someone in the neighboring county found a man who fell into the water on the sandy beach by the river.

  When I and Zha Wenbin arrived, the person had already been sent to the hospital. On the hospital bed, there was a person with tubes all over his body. Looking at that round and round figure, who else could it be if not Fatzi?

  At that time, the fat man was still in a deep coma. The doctor said it was already a miracle to be alive after a long period of hypoxia and low temperature. After asking around, the local medical conditions were limited, saying that they could only look at the fat man's own fate, just because of this sentence, I almost didn't smash that hospital.

  The fat man was discovered by a local child in a village downstream of Zhuangyuan Village. The child thought it was a dead body when he found the fat man by the river and shouted to go back home to report to his parents. When people came over, they still had breath, so they pulled out a tractor and sent him directly to the county hospital.

  Fat boy was left with only his underwear at the time, and all the clothes on his body were gone. Later, it turned out that if Fat Boy hadn't taken off his clothes in time, he would have drowned to death. The only clue was that Fat Boy was holding a golden hairpin tightly in his hand at the time, and the guy lay in the hospital for three days, and no one could pry open the fist on his hand.

  So when the doctor said he was afraid that his brain would be damaged and might become a vegetable, I only replied: "No way, this son of a bitch's brain is still useful, until death he will know how to hold onto his treasure, it's definitely fine."

  If there are conditions, send it to a large hospital. This is the advice given by the doctor at that time. I rushed home to find the phone number left by Yuan Xiaobai, and after making a call, the other end said to hurry up to Shanghai. I packed my bags overnight and sent Baozi to Shanghai.

  It turned out to be a big family, and the next morning, a team of experts arrived. By noon, they informed us that surgery was needed, saying that the fatty's brain had suffered a severe impact and required craniotomy. The fatty is a lone wolf, with no parents above him and children below him, so I ended up signing the surgical consent form.

  At 4 pm, the doctor announced that the operation was successful and said that the situation was good, and he would wake up tomorrow. My brother Cha Wenbin and I finally breathed a sigh of relief, but we were also exhausted. That night, both of us started to have a high fever and were hospitalized together, which can be considered as accompanying Fatzi for companionship...