Fatty dared not speak any more. The three of us stopped moving and listened carefully to the voice on the satellite phone.
After saying "its too dark", the voice paused for a mont and a bunch of rhythmic white noise could be heard, as if the speaker was moving. Soon, I heard the white noise stop and then there was a string of strange sounds.
These sounds were very similar to the sound of the wind or the sound of a door being bolted shut, but I thought that they sounded kind of like a human whimper. Or maybe it was the stretched-out sound of soone weeping.
The sound lasted for about three minutes before the white noise started up again. But it was shorter this ti, and then the voice spoke again.
This ti, he began to say several nas: "Bai Jinyou, Laxi Dongribu, Wang Shixi, Li Xiangdong."
I frowned. I didnt know if these four nas were actually right since I was just going off of what I could hear, but I made sure to rember them anyways since he had started to list them off.
Hearing the nas of these strangers on the satellite phone was almost like we were listening to soone reading an obituary. It was very strange and terrifying.
After saying those four nas, the satellite phone went silent. Fatty couldnt wait any longer and gestured at , telling to hurry up and analyze the situation.
First of all, I was sure that this was a man, but I couldnt tell whether he was talking to himself or other people.
But if he was talking to other people around him, then they werent responding to him.
Why would he want to recite peoples nas? Was he sane? I didnt think so.
There was another long string of white noise, followed by a long silence. The only sound we could hear now was the wind blowing through the air. Fatty was just about to speak when the voice suddenly appeared again.
The voice continued to say even more nas, but there were so many of them that I couldnt rember them all.
He didn't repeat them, so these voices went in one ear and out the other. He probably listed out six or seven more nas before his voice disappeared again.
Fatty was getting a little impatient, but Poker-Face had already co over and forced him to put the satellite phone down. As a result, he had to try his best to endure not answering.
Fatty made a few gestures, which ant that if there was a chance to communicate now and we didnt take it, then we may not have the opportunity later. It would just be better to ask this person directly.
Poker-Face shook his head. I actually wanted to respond as well since the words were so distorted now that I couldn't make any sense of them, but Poker-Face was very determined.
Then, we heard the sound of a whimper mixed in with the white noise. At this ti, I was almost certain that soone was crying.
After that, the person started talking again, but he was still just listing nas.
Only this ti, he said one na in particular.
Wu Xie.
I stared blankly for a mont, but at this ti, I suddenly saw that there was a fourth person among us. He appeared behind Fatty and was looking at from over Fatty's shoulder.
I swear up and down that he was squatting in a strange position. His face was very darkabnormally soand his two eyes were bright, just like an animals eyes at night.
I was so scared that I fell backwards, but when I looked up again, the man was gone. Fatty was startled by my sudden movent and wanted to ask what I was doing, but I quickly stood up, picked up my knife from the side, and inserted it into the belt at my waist. Then I started looking everywhere for that person.
But within the halo of light cast by the bonfire, there wasnt a single person to be found.
I was panicked, full of doubt, and gasping for breath as I recalled the last few minutes. I was absolutely certain that a man had suddenly appeared at that ti. But in the few seconds when I had panicked and fell, he disappeared just as quickly as he had arrived. It was so fast, in fact, that I didn't even see his face clearly. All I saw was that he was abnormally dark.
Fatty wanted to ask what was going on, but Poker-Face put his hand on his arm to stop him, silently asking him not to make a sound. I saw that Poker-Face's expression was very serious, so I tried my best to calm myself down.
What was that just now? If it appeared like that, is it a ghost?
I had heard that it was very easy to encounter paranormal phenona on the grasslands. In fact, one of my friends had gone to the grasslands to take photos for a research project. One night, seven people were playing Zha Jin Hua in the yurt (1) to pass the ti. But as they were playing, the dealer couldnt shake the feeling that the number of cards left over was wrong. After the ga was over, everyone returned the cards to him so that he could reshuffle them. As he did so, he suddenly realized that he had dealt out eight hands just now.
But there were only seven people playing, so why did he deal for eight? After thinking about it carefully, he rembered that there had always been an inconspicuous local who played together with them. But as he looked for this person now, he couldn't find them at all.
What I found most strange at this ti was that things were seriously wrong on this grassland. It was only our first day since we had set off and we had already encountered sothing strange again.
I looked at the darkness around and suddenly felt that the grassland was alive. No, it wasnt the grassland that was alive, but the darkness. It was looking at , ready to tease us.
It was a very strange feeling. I couldnt sense anything in the darkness around , but I felt that sothing was wrong with the darkness as a whole.
The satellite phone was silent for a while and then the white noise appeared again. The sa man ca on again and said the sa words from before, "It's so dark." This ti, his tone had changed and suddenly beca a little more fierce.
Poker-Face imdiately turned the satellite phone off. Fatty was twice as confused as before, but at this ti, I heard a voice co from the darkness outside of our bonfires light, "It's too dark here."
It wasnt from the satellite phone, but from the darkness nearby. Then we heard the white noise again. It was also coming from the darkness, as if a satellite phone was over there.
All three of us imdiately looked in that direction. I didnt even have ti to react before Poker-Face was already walking over there.
****
TN Notes:
(1) Zha Jin Hua is a card ga. Kind of sounds like poker to . Info here. A yurt is a portable, round tent covered with skins or felt. Info here, but if youve seen Long Ballad, its what the Ashile tribe lives in.
****
Probably my top reaction for DMBJ:
Reviews
All reviews (0)