I had a hunch just based on the general clues we had seen so far, but when Poker-Face put it into words, I suddenly felt my heart clench.
Fatty and I looked at Poker-Face and I asked, "What changes do you an?"
"Tired," he said as he glanced down at my shadow, which looked completely worn out and exhausted.
I glanced at Fatty, who nodded, "Of course Im tired. Why, I just thought that I was the only one who felt this way."
"But why didn't I notice?" I asked him.
"I thought that I was just getting old, so I had to try and hide it, Fatty said. But if you felt the sa way, Little Brother, then I guess Im not getting old after all.
Poker-Face nodded and Fatty and I exchanged a look before giving each other a high-five. Great, its not a problem with us. But is it really a problem with this grassland? Is this grassland really sucking our spirits away?
Poker-Face shook his head and then pointed to his watch.
"What do you an?"
"When the satellite phone rang and we went into the darkness to find the sound, about one night passed before we got back on our horses and left the area." Poker-Face phrased this as a statent, but he seed to be asking a question as he looked up ahead.
I nodded, but at this ti, I suddenly realized sothing and imdiately looked at my watch.
In fact, we usually didnt pay any attention to the date and just looked at the ti.
I looked at the date and imdiately broke out in a cold sweat. "When did we enter the grassland?" I asked Fatty.
"On the third, he said. So it should be the seventh. Right?"
Fatty finally seed to understand and looked at his watch.
"Shit!" He swore so loudly that it startled the horses.
Today should have been the seventh, but the ti on my watch showed that it was already the tenth.
I looked at Poker-Face and he nodded.
"When we camped yesterday, it was the sixth. So today should be the seventh, right?" Fatty looked at . "Why is it suddenly the tenth?"
I checked Fatty's watch against mine and found that they were both working just fine. I was always quick to accept whatever strange incidents occurred, so I turned my focus on analyzing what might have happened. I thought of all kinds of possibilities, which had breaking out in a cold sweat.
At first, I couldn't believe it. Was it possible that last night, the ti we had experienced was different from what we had originally thought? So instead of twelve hours, it had actually been three whole days? That was seventy-two hours.
So that's why I'm so tired today! The three of us haven't slept for seventy-two hours!
But was this theory correct? I tried hard not to believe it, but I could tell just by looking at Fatty's expression that this was the most likely possibility.
But as far as I could rember, only one night had passed.
After thinking about it, I imdiately turned on the GPS and began observing the map very carefully. I soon discovered that we were very far away from Jin Wantang's camp. According to how far we had traveled yesterday, we shouldve only been a days ride away from Jin Wantangs camp. But now that wasnt the case. This definitely wasnt a distance you could walk in a day.
I suddenly thought of the small grove that had magically appeared last night.
"That grove didn't suddenly appear," I said to Fatty. "When we camped and suddenly heard the satellite phone ring, a whole day had passed."
"So when we rushed into the grassland, shot the flares, and saw the grove, another day had already passed!" Fatty buried his face in his hands, "Fuck! Fuck!"
"As it turns out, weve been on the road the whole ti but have no mory of the middle part of the journey. So when we set up camp, we were actually already by the edge of that forest. We thought that only one day had passed, but it was actually three days." I suddenly had so doubts and said, "Wait a minute. Lets not jump to conclusions. Let see if I can figure it out."
"Dont worry about it. What you said is right," Fatty said. "Thats probably exactly what happened." He then looked at Poker-Face, "Little Brother, is this how you felt before? Like your ti has been stolen? You woke up and thought that it was still the sa day, but in fact, a long ti had passed."
Poker-Face didn't answer. I patted Fatty and sighed in my heart. I honestly never imagined that we would be able to feel the sa as Poker-Face. Of course, our situation couldnt compare to his since the ti he had lost was calculated in years. But I never thought that losing ti would feel so creepy.
We had lost that huge chunk of ti in the middle of our journey. What did we do during that ti? Did we simply keep moving? Were we being controlled or were our mories erased along the way?
My whole body was covered in a cold sweat, this whole thing is really strange.
"Shen Qianjue knows," Poker-Face said.
Of course she knew. She had contacted us from outside the grassland, after all. She must have been unable to contact us and waited for several days. When I thought of this, I suddenly had a flash of inspiration and turned on my cell phone to listen to the recording from earlier. I listened carefully to the strange voice and realized that I couldnt bla them for having reservations. I couldnt even bla her partner for thinking that I was dead.
That was my fucking voice!
I hadnt noticed before because the voice was so hoarse that the tone was no longer audible. Moreover, that voices pronunciation was completely different from mine. Although it sounded like my voice, that persons pronunciation habits werent the sa as mine.
During those days that we had lost, I had apparently been hoarsely telling Shen Qianjue to go back to the grassland. But the thing was, the speaker wasnt .
"Weve been possessed," Fatty said. "Damn it, soones possessed us."
I glanced at Poker-Face. He can get possessed?
I suddenly understood why the Zhang family had considered this area so taboo. The things that had happened here were completely different from what we had encountered before. Not only was this a magical domain, but it also had sothing to do with mory.
Just as I was thinking this, a river valley appeared right in front of us. It appeared that we were starting to enter the area where the Sea of Black Lights was.
****
I'm over here like "Ti Warp!!"
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