Chapter 24: The Living and the Dead

"Just dumping them here like this, this job is really..."

"I thought I saw something move just now? Damn, the smell... Ugh—"

"Hurry up, get down the stairs."

Human voices and flashlight beams flickered from afar, tracing the steps toward the waterfront platform, and finally reached Shi Rang.

Shi Rang held his breath, lying face down on the top layer of the pile of corpses.

There was no other way but to play dead.

It was drizzling tonight, and the old industrial zone was pitch black; once a flashlight beam hit, you couldn't see anything beyond its circle. After spending days on the mountain and sliding down the slope, he was covered in filth. He prayed incessantly that he wouldn't be recognized.

The revulsion toward the scent of death was an instinct etched deep into his genes, but the fear of dying was the true root of that instinct.

The men nearby were all vicious criminals from the Blue Group, likely with blood on their hands. If he were exposed, it would all be over!

The light and the sounds of complaining hovered around Shi Rang. He tried his best to keep his breathing shallow, when suddenly, he felt the hand of a dead person pressed against him twitch.

Could it be? Was there someone still alive here?

Before Shi Rang could process this, he felt the owner of that hand being dragged off the pile, rolling as they hit the ground.

"Whoa, this blue outfit is pretty nice. The shoes look like a real designer knock-off."

Was this gruff voice Grey Dog?

Shi Rang estimated the man was two or three steps away.

If Grey Dog was their leader, and if he could just come a little closer...

Suddenly, someone grabbed his arm, yanked him roughly to the side, and threw him onto the cold ground. His head struck the earth with a thud.

A flashlight beam hit Shi Rang’s face.

He did his best to endure the pain and discomfort, feeling the rain drip onto his face from the air, not daring to move a muscle.

"This guy even has money on him?"

The voice came from above him.

Shi Rang’s heart skipped a beat.

There was indeed a bulge in the chest pocket of his jacket; it was his camera.

A hand grabbed the zipper of his jacket.

In the nick of time, Grey Dog barked at his fumbling subordinate:

"What are you doing now? Brother Qiang won't shortchange you once the job is done. Move it! How many times do I have to tell you?"

The underling muttered, patted his stained gloves, and grabbed Shi Rang’s ankles. Another companion grabbed his hands, complained that he was "dead weight," and hauled him up the stairs.

Shi Rang swung back and forth in the air, finally feeling himself being tossed into some kind of container.

A moment later, another corpse was dumped from above, covering him. He struggled to breathe, his face buried in the hair of a dead person, yet he still dared not move.

The men remained nearby, whispering to each other.

"Strange, why are their eyes all staring like that? And their necks... people who suffocated shouldn't look like this."

"Not all of them. The one from before had his eyes closed, right? There was something in his clothes, too—if it weren't for Brother Dog, I would've checked. Damn my luck."

"Let's get down, Brother Dog is going to start yelling."

Footsteps turned away from the excavator and headed into the distance.

Only then did Shi Rang find the opportunity to lift his head and catch a breath.

Filled with fear and apology, he pushed away the corpse pressing down on him and realized he had landed in an excavator bucket.

He felt for the camera stuffed inside his clothes. Fortunately, it was small and hadn't been damaged.

However, another unidentified victim had pinned his leg. The limbs of the dead were tangled together like a vice gripping his ankle, and no matter what he did, he couldn't break free.

Two figures climbed back up from nearby, their outlines particularly distinct against the edge of the flashlight beams.

Shi Rang had to hold his breath and lie back down.

He had completely abandoned the idea of a surprise attack. The information he had memorized surfaced in his mind—the "Blue Signal" controlled a vast territory, dealing not only in smuggling but also in narcotics and arms.

In this desolate, unmonitored area, being discovered meant certain death.

Angie’s premonition had come true; he was indeed doing something foolish, but...

Another heavy weight was dropped onto him.

"I thought I saw something moving here just now."

"Really? You don't think a rat crawled in, do you?"

With a click, a henchman turned on his flashlight, and it seemed he drew a gun at the same moment.

Shi Rang saw the light flickering through the rain curtain from the gaps between arms and clothing, occasionally sweeping over the bucket.

"Where? You're just scaring yourself."

"Hurry up, we're only halfway through."

Once those footsteps faded, Shi Rang used all his remaining strength to keep climbing out.

Shi Rang’s leg was wedged deeper than he had imagined, driven into the depths of the bucket with the weight of at least two people on top of it. He couldn't get it out no matter how he pulled.

He wiped the rain from his forehead and glanced toward the pier platform and the tragedy below him.

In the end, he chose to pull out his camera, snapped a few photos, and threw the camera into the distance, watching it land between two crossed steel beams.

The flash was very conspicuous in the dark, but the henchman, who had been using his flashlight to illuminate the area, didn't notice the flickering in the dark.

After the transport was finished, one of the men climbed into the excavator and drove it deep into the industrial zone.

The world fell into an endless tremor. A few minutes later, Shi Rang felt the bucket tilt, and the next moment, he fell along with the victims into a deep pit.

He landed on his right shoulder, and then was crushed by heavy objects, the air in his lungs forced out.

The mud at the bottom of the pit was damp and soft, with standing water, and the other bodies acted as a buffer for him.

As the excavator drove away, the chance for escape finally arrived. He struggled to lift his head.

The mud was darker than the night sky above. He made out a circular opening, like a newly finished well.

The moment he realized the distance to the ground, a cold sense of despair washed over him.

It was at least five meters deep; he couldn't climb out.

He freed himself from the corpses and carefully probed the edge, but his hands couldn't even reach the middle of the pit.

Digging into the wall of the pit, he felt concrete.

This wasn't a freshly dug hole, but a foundation poured in advance for installing piping equipment.

The chugging of the excavator approached again. Shi Rang looked up, desperately thinking of a way to escape.

His sense of smell had gone numb; he was no longer bothered by the stench of rot. He was soaked through, trembling uncontrollably, and his mind felt frozen. He tried to find the stowaway who had been alive earlier, but there were only corpses around him; perhaps that had been a hallucination born of his fear.

Suddenly, an old fable flashed through his mind—the story of the donkey that fell into a well...

Another black shadow fell from outside the pit. Shi Rang, who had already been hiding against the edge, quickly shook off the pressure, stepped onto someone's back, his foot sinking into the broken bones.

*I'm sorry...*

He stepped onto another person's hand.

*I haven't found her yet; I can't die...*

Immediately after, a large amount of soil rained down.

The soil was mixed with debris of all sizes and hard clumps, forcing Shi Rang to bend down again. Once the bombardment stopped, he stepped on the slippery mud and continued to move upward.

*Not high enough, not high enough...*

Two meters short, still...

A flashlight beam swept across the top of the pit. Someone had arrived.

"How are you guys working? Why did that guy in the blue shirt from the beginning fall into the middle of the path?"

"Maybe he was shaken off the bucket..."

Then came the sound of people rushing to drag the body.

"So incompetent. How am I supposed to recommend you for promotion to the higher-ups? Honestly..."

Grey Dog’s silhouette appeared at the edge of the pit.

The criminal kicked the stray corpse, rolling it toward the edge of the pit. Just as he was about to kick it down, he suddenly froze, his throat emitting a choked sound as if he were being strangled.

The underling next to him peered over, his voice trembling with terror:

"Brother Dog, this... how does this guy... look exactly like you?"