Daomu Biji: Restart

My eyes swept over everyone's faces; they were all very inconspicuous. Without knowing Xiao Hua's logic, I knew that I would never figure out if there was an extra person or not.

Jin Xingsan was still looking at me eagerly, so I asked him softly, "Did you take a group photo before you set off?"

Jin Xingsan took out his cell phone and showed it to me. I saw that they did have a group photo, but there were too many people in the team and their heads were densely packed together. Moreover, these people had changed after experiencing so many hardships, so I asked Jin Xingsan to mark where everyone was in the group photo.

As he went to do this and communicate with his men, Fatty squatted down next to me and looked at my cigarettes. I pulled one out for him and watched as he lit it, took a puff, and exhaled the smoke into the void, "Mr. Naïve, if I was replaced, would you be able to tell right away?"

Instead of answering him, I just gave him a pat. "What the hell is going on here?” He continued to ask. “What's this bee man’s purpose? Is this thing a ghost or an evil spirit?"

"Fatty, you can't automatically assume that the Little Brother who just appeared is the bee man," I said to him. "What the Mongolian sister wrote in her notes is different from what happened just now."

"You mean, that fake Little Brother wasn’t a bee man?"

I wasn’t sure, but my intuition seemed to think so. I honestly didn’t believe that things here were so simple. As I looked at the void in front of me, there seemed to be some power in the darkness that was making me feel cold all over.

When Jin Xingsan handed me the marked photo and I compared the faces in front of me with those in the photo, I knew that it was useless. Everyone had identified themselves, but the correlation between the people in the photo and those in front of me wasn’t so absolute. The number of people in the team here was only a fraction of the people in the group photo. If the bee man found someone with a relatively similar appearance to himself, then it would be difficult for me to see through it.

I asked some basic questions, such as how many people were in the team, and they all stuck out their arms, revealing a number "13" that had been written on them. Obviously, Xiao Hua's measures were very comprehensive, so I was a little relieved.

I looked up again, but still didn’t see any signs of anyone coming back. At this time, Jin Xingsan handed me a radio, which everyone in their team was apparently equipped with.

"Why didn't you take it out just now?" When I asked him this, everyone’s expressions immediately changed.

"You’ll know when you use it," Jin Xingsan said.

I turned the radio on and tried calling Xiao Hua.

Everyone was looking at me; the cliff was very quiet.

I called several times, but there was no response.

As I looked at Jin Xingsan, hoping that he would explain what was going on, I noticed that everyone's expressions were a little scared. At this time, a response suddenly came from the radio.

"This is Urmei. Where are you?" It was the voice of a woman with an accent.

I stared blankly for a moment—who’s Urmei? —and then asked into the radio, "Xiao Hua?"

"I’m from the Urmei team. I need to return to the team. Where are you? Can you use your flashlight to show me the way?" That same voice came over the radio again.

I looked back at Jin Xingsan, but he was staring blankly at the radio without explaining anything.

"It's dark here. I really think I can float when I jump," the voice on the radio suddenly said.

"Don't worry about this voice," Jin Xingsan said. "This is the channel we used to communicate with the other teams before. The transmission has been playing in a loop here. Even if you call Master Hua directly, the transmissions can be superimposed."

As I looked at Jin Xingsan in wonder, a man with thick glasses behind him said, "The cliff here seems to have trapped the radio signals, which causes them to play in a loop."

"Are you serious?" I asked.

At this time, a strange voice came from the radio again. It was the same woman. "There is one more person in our team. Jin Xingsan, do you copy? It’s really strange. He said you sent him here. He followed you into the team in Ulaanbaatar. His name is Deng Pujing. Is that true? I need to verify it."