Chapter 054: The Terrifying Camping Video

After the intense flash of electrical light, Li Tianque felt a wave of dizziness sweep over him, with glittering spots lingering in his vision each time he blinked.

The strange stone creature had already thudded onto the ground, lying on its back and facing the sky.

Li Tianque at last saw its true form clearly. The monster resembled one of those so-called “living fossils” depicted in science books—horseshoe crabs, the inspiration for the alien larva in the film "Alien." Yet the creature before him bore a solid, rocky shell on its back; perhaps it could be called a "rock crab."

Beneath its shell, countless soft tentacles protruded, now all stiffened by the electrical shock. At the very center of its underside was a suction-cup-like mouth, lined with curved, milky teeth—not particularly sharp, but packed so closely together that if they wriggled en masse, it would still be terrifying.

The portly man who had just escaped danger finally shed the heavy burden from his face and greedily gulped air. Though his head still spun from the electric shock and the corners of his mouth twitched, he couldn’t help but curse, muttering, "Damn it, what rotten luck! If only I’d known a fart could save me, I’d have let loose a few more!"

Li Tianque felt a wave of embarrassment; so the strange bleating noise he’d heard earlier, reminiscent of a goat, had actually been the man's fart—and it was that sound which had drawn him here.

"Brother... how are you feeling now? Can you move?" Li Tianque asked.

"Yeah, I’ll be fine. Just need some medicine. By the way, thanks, man! My name’s Bi Youqian, member of the Vanguard Rescue Team. What should I call you?"

"I’m Li Tianque. I came up the mountain to save people too. Best not to move for now—let me help you."

"Nah, looks like we're in the same line of work. No wonder you’re so professional. Don’t worry, buddy, it’s just a minor injury—I’ll handle it myself."

As he spoke, Bi pulled a medical kit from the half-man-high mountaineering pack at his back. Li Tianque now saw that the man’s face was covered in the sticky slime left by the rock crab, and his lips were swollen, looking like sausages—no wonder his speech sounded indistinct.

While Bi applied medicine, Li Tianque asked, "How did you end up trapped here?"

"Don’t even mention it. Like I said, I’m part of the rescue team. During this mission, I got separated from my teammates and wandered here by accident. I happened to need to pee, so I went to the crack in the rocks ahead. Just as I was enjoying myself, this thing suddenly jumped me—nearly suffocated me! Luckily, I kept resisting with my teeth bared. This thing even tried to give me a snake’s kiss. Shameless creature!"

Bi punctuated his words with a hard kick to the rock crab. Already half-dead from the electric shock, the creature burst and was truly finished.

"So you’re with the rescue team… You should hurry down the mountain; your teammates must have all withdrawn by now."

"Yeah, I’ll head back. Damn rotten luck. But this little critter’s quite interesting—I’ll take it with me. Maybe it’s a new species; who knows, I might win a Nobel Prize for science!"

"Uh, there’s no such Nobel Prize, and… you can’t take the rock crab."

"What monkey? This thing’s a monkey? Doesn’t matter what it is—it nearly killed me, so I’m definitely taking it!" Bi retorted gruffly.

Li Tianque recalled how Wu Miaoran had previously incapacitated the soldiers, clearly unwilling to let any clues about the nuclear insects be made public. Though she hadn’t explicitly told him to be cautious, he knew he should be careful.

"Brother, I saved your life—you owe me at least a thank you, right?"

Bi paused, looked at Li Tianque, then at the dead rock crab, and muttered, "So what are you getting at? I’ve rescued so many people as a volunteer—never asked for payment. Why are you so materialistic?"

"Hey, I’m not asking for money! You rescue people as your duty; I’m not in your line of work—I saved you out of justice. You can’t morally blackmail me. And don’t worry, what I want is simple—just don’t take this thing. Destroy it or toss it in the well if you must!"

With that, Li Tianque snatched the rock crab from the ground.

Bi scratched his head and sighed, "Fine, I guess you did save my life. I’ll let you have your way. But don’t waste it—such a specimen is too precious to throw away. Take it back."

"Understood. You’d best get down the mountain soon—it’s dangerous here," Li Tianque said.

"You’re not leaving?" Bi looked at him in surprise. "You said you’re here to rescue someone—who?"

"It’s a long story. We’re with the police. A couple reported their child missing on the mountain, so we came up with the special operations team to investigate. We found clues by the well—my teammate went down to investigate!"

"Down the well? Someone actually went down that ancient well?" Bi pointed at the old well behind Li Tianque, his face pale.

"Yes, what's the matter?"

"What’s the matter? You actually dared go down that well—you’ve got a death wish!"

"Is there something wrong with it?" Li Tianque glanced at the well behind him, puzzled.

"There’s plenty wrong—it’s haunted!"

"Haunted..."

Bi’s words made Li Tianque feel the chill at his back intensify, seeping into his bones. Yet he felt no real fear about ghosts now—rather, he found the idea intriguing.

Through history, haunted well stories abound. There’s the tale of the king in Journey to the West, the famous Sadako from horror films, the Imperial Concubine’s well in the Forbidden City, and so on.

"Yes, haunted. Listen, buddy, this is a true story—you can still find it online!"

Li Tianque’s neck tingled from the wind, so he turned up his collar. "Alright, stop teasing—tell me."

Bi continued applying medicine, lowering his voice mysteriously. "Okay, but don’t be scared when you hear this!

It happened about a year ago. Some backpackers came to Gashi Mountain for wilderness camping, setting up their tents on the slope not far from this well—right above us, in fact."

Li Tianque followed Bi’s gesture and saw the spot where the strange stone-man had been found earlier. Bi went on:

"They pitched their tents, ate, drank, lit a bonfire, played murder mystery games—the atmosphere was lively. Would’ve been fine if they’d just stuck to that, but someone wanted to spice things up. One girl decided to film a short dance video for social media, using a trendy soundtrack.

Nothing odd about that, but when they finished recording and played the video back, they discovered something terrifying! In the video, on the mountainside behind them, several dark human figures suddenly appeared.

These silhouettes hung from the wall, limp like hanged corpses, arms dangling, bodies weak, clothes torn. Their bodies were abnormally long, faces indistinct, and they all emitted eerie, cackling laughter, louder than the music.

The group was petrified, replayed the video, and this time the laughter was clearer and the ghastly figures still swayed in the background, even more unsettling. Some wanted to delete the video out of fear, but others, emboldened by numbers, wanted to investigate.

After some debate, the braver ones prevailed and climbed to the spot above us to see for themselves. But no matter how long they searched, they couldn’t find the phantom figures on the rock face, nor the source of the laughter. After a while, spooked, they decided to pack up and leave—when suddenly a girl heard a strange noise nearby. This time, it wasn’t laughter, but the sound of splashing water, coming from below the slope!

The group hurried toward the noise—and guess what happened?"

"What was it? Did the well spray water?" Li Tianque asked.

"No, stranger than that! They came to the well at the foot of the slope and, in the pale moonlight, saw a horrifying sight—a long-haired woman, naked, bathing by the old well, scooping water to wash herself!

The group was stunned—how could a woman suddenly appear, bathing at the well in the wilderness at that hour? The more they thought, the more uncanny it seemed. Facing such a bizarre, terrifying scene, they didn’t dare approach, hesitating whether to run.

But the long-haired woman noticed them. Instead of panic, she turned and smiled at them, then suddenly leapt and plunged into the well.

Startled, the group rushed to save her, but when they reached the well and looked down, the water’s surface was perfectly calm, without a ripple. The stone platform was bone dry, not at all as if it had held water.

Then, the cackling laughter from the video echoed again. They looked up to see mist had crept in, and within it drifted many hunched, ghostly figures. The whole group was petrified, fleeing in terror, leaving their tents behind..."

(End of chapter)