“6th April, rainy.”

“It’s a whole foreign new world beneath the tunnel. What I saw had me both perturbed yet excited… My apologies, just moments ago, I couldn’t hold back my chuckle which seemingly frightened the lady beside me.”

“I guess I’m a little out of sorts, but as an academic, it’s only natural to feel excited when there’s an undiscovered civilization before you, right?”

“It’s the same for the others as well, I could see the gleam in Professor Lin’s eyes. Even though he tried his best to retain his composure and maintain the dignity of a leader, his expression of uncontrollable excitement gave him away.”

“This archaeological operation was initiated by Professor Lin after all, and it’s probably like he’s personally unearthing treasure with a spade to him.”

“In comparison, Professor Zhang appeared to be a little worried.”

“7th April, rainy.”

“I discovered a near-complete book full of words. This means that my research samples have increased a hundred, or even a thousand fold. What a happy yet frustrating event!”

“I could feel my head being flooded with inspiration just from looking at these wonderful pages filled with words. Though I was unable to comprehend their meaning, yet through some strange connection, I could understand the meaning being expressed.”

“I can’t wait to decipher this code that comes from another world.”

“15th April, rainy.”

“Excavation work isn’t progressing smoothly, and with the persistent torrential rain over the past half a month, everyone’s in low spirits.”

“I’m starting to get frightened. Somehow… the 29-person research team has been reduced to half due to deaths and injuries. Everything here is foreign and danger lurks everywhere. I could sense someone tailing us every moment, and it’s as if there’s a pair of eyes staring at us from the darkness.”

“He It... or perhaps ’He’ is more appropriate.”

“Whenever I light up a match in the dark, I can feel ‘his’ breath brushing past my face as the flame flickers.”

“Professor Lin wants us to pick ourselves up. So long as we manage to bring back the things that we discovered here, every single one of us will be remembered in history, just like Columbus… No, we would be greater than Columbus.”

“...Of course, we have to get out of here first. However, our entrance path was sealed by the landslide yesterday. At that moment, one of the female team members went hysterical on the spot… I’ve never practiced medicine or any related discipline, so I couldn’t be certain if she was truly insane. All I recalled was that she was constantly mumbling some muffled words as she kept headbutting the rock that blocked our path with all her might.”

“I witnessed her arm snap, her skull bloodied and smashed inwards. Even so, she persisted to knock herself against the mud-stained rock… till her death.”

“I’ve seen Old Wu again. Just beside the female team member. I turned back as I was about to leave, and he was standing right there facing me with his mouth widened like a pitch black abyss.”

“But thankfully, he didn’t make any infuriating sarcastic remarks this time.”

“20th April, rainy.”

“I suddenly had an idea, an unprecedented one!”

“All those questions that were bothering me were resolved and I could suddenly understand the meaning of those words—thoroughly and completely. It’s as if I’ve become one of them and they were speaking to me… I hid in my tent to study for an entire night and I was so excited that I could hear the subtle vibrations of my mind.”

“When I showed my journal to my colleagues and students, none of them understood and even mocked that I was drawing a talisman… A talisman?!”

Subsequent text on that page was covered with messy and thick strokes of ink, but it was evident that these appeared to be various profanities.

“...Maybe I shouldn’t fault them. I already belong to a whole different world the moment I could understand these.”

“23rd April, rainy.”

“A part of this notebook was drenched by the rain and about three pages have smudged. This is bad, I should have realized it earlier.”

“I don’t have any more additional paper to rewrite those pages. At first, I thought that I would be able to recall the contents of the journal, but to my surprise, I can’t even remember what I had for breakfast today.”

“Being under tremendous pressure for such a long time has affected my perception of time thereby, causing my memory to turn foggy. This was what Professor Zhang told me. She asked me not to think about it and just be relaxed.”

“She is really young and according to the gossip I’m hearing, used to be Professor Lin’s student. There was much to talk about their romance, but right now I can only ramble on in my mind.”

“But this has got nothing to do with her abilities. Professor Zhang is an exceptional psychologist and I’m always inclined to believe what she says.”

30th April, rainy.”

“The endless rain is just so frustrating.”

“The team has already been reduced to five members. Professor Lin, Professor Zhang, Shao Yiwen, a course mate whom I’m not familiar with, and another of Professor Lin’s students, a young lad called Duan Xuemin, and lastly, me.”

“Yiwen’s right arm and a small part of her body was bitten off by those things and she’s bleeding profusely. I watched her organs leak out through her wound and fall to the ground as we ran out of bandages and ointment and could only use our clothes.”

“The unsubsiding high fever has caused her to lose her mind. She’s either unconscious or would blabber gibberish occasionally, although I could clearly understand what she was saying.”

“While tending to her at night, she spoke to me about the time she got baptized and mentioned about playing in church. How she felt warm, how she lost a copy of The Bible that she always kept with her. She started to sob as she talked… This was my first time learning that she was a Christian.”

“At midnight, her eyes widened and she muttered, “God has come”.”

“10th May, sunny.”

“I’m the only person left.”

“This isn’t the best way to put it. To be precise, I strayed away from them. Currently, I’m curled up in a small corner, exhausted and thirsty. There’s this constant bloody stench in my throat and it’s unbearable. I’ve already gone blind and my eyes are in constant pain.”

“Fortunately, we have held out long enough and I’ve made a new discovery. I’ve compiled and organized everything below… Part of the research came from Shao Yiwen, which is worthy of recognition. She’s done an amazing job, a really amazing one.”

“I felt my consciousness beginning to blur. The ground started to shake and elevate, and as I was slipping, I thought I heard the sound of an infant crying.”

“I’ve seen Old Wu again.”

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