7. - The new tunnel

Another hour until we go over to the cave. I like the thought of it now even less than before anyway. Just now I had been watching Han and Rin. Rin gave Han a filled out check with a high amount of money. And when I say high, I mean he paid more for himself and his wife than what all of us together, paid.

Let me explain.Every single one of us, whether from our group, or our friends' groups from abroad, had to pay 30,000 yuan, per person. And that didn't include the equipment, or the overnight stays, or the flight. So when I say this is for so few days, a very expensive vacation, I mean it.

And there were so many zeros on the check that I can legitimately say Rin paid more than all of us combined. Why is he doing this? Is it really just to prove to his wife that there is no little girl in the cave? If so, why doesn't he pay as much as we do? But so immensely more?

My brother, who also overheard this, is of course not worried at all. He just said, "You know that money has more weight than some concern of a few group members who are acting like a whining little kid just because of some scary stories."

He tried to sound funny about it, but it was anything than funny. I finally said, "I'm not acting like a whining little kid. I'm just reserving the right to be skeptical when there's so much money involved. It has nothing to do with the scary stories. Just think what a lot of coincidences there were. Their car breaks down at the parking lot of our cars. They are wandering around in the forest and find, purely by chance, the way, almost to the cave and that, where the forest is so huge. They are looking for some girl who supposedly ran into the forest, met us, forget their actual vacation plans and pay a huge sum to accompany us to the cave."

"Yibo, sometimes there are such coincidences. And I saw their car and the right rear tire actually has a flat. Besides, what do you expect? Han isn't doing all this because he wants our friendship. He only sees the money. And when someone puts a fat check like that in front of him, he grabs it. He doesn't send those people away again, but looks forward to cashing that check."

Of course, I am aware of all this. But that still doesn't explain why Rin pays so much money. And I'm more and more surprised how relaxed my brother is about all this. He doesn't worry a bit. He doesn't question anything and almost acts as if it's completely normal.

I would have liked to tell Zhan about it. But he's been with Yanli and Missy the whole time. We all had to get up at 8 am and now it's 11 am. But Zhan hasn't spent a minute alone with me yet. Is he already fed up with me? Is he also annoyed that I question everything?

In the meantime, however, I am no longer completely alone. Because Leni and Meng Yao also have more and more doubts. I overheard them talking to my brother and complaining to him about their displeasure. Meng Yao also said that he didn't recognize Hai Kuan at all. And my brother said, "Of course I am different here. After all, we are in a completely different surrounding here. But I am not the only one who has changed. Look at my little brother. He is usually always brave and strong. But for days, he's been so consumed by his fear that something might happen, that he can't even really enjoy having a boyfriend now, too."

Meng Yao shook his head and replied, "You're wrong about that. Yibo spent the whole day with Zhan yesterday and they looked very happy. He just, well, makes up his own mind and prefers to be cautious."

"Mhm, because caution is better than indulgence." Leni added.

I might have listened a little longer, but eventually Zhan came to me. He hugged me from behind and asked me in a whisper if we wanted to walk to our spot for a bit before we left later. Our place where we spent almost the whole day together yesterday.

*~*~*

I'm writing this separately now, because it's important to me in a different way.

I believe, as long and as far back as I can remember, I have never wanted anything or anyone as much as I wanted Zhan.

This feeling inside me is indescribable. I barely know him and it seems like we've been together our whole lives. And even though things have been and are going so fast with us, I feel like it's not fast enough all the time.

Oh how I wished until just now that he and I were somewhere nice, alone, and could just focus on us.

I would have loved to rip his clothes off and explore his body inside and outside. That's how attracted I am to him. And it's not like he doesn't feel this lust too.

Because even yesterday when we were mostly for ourselves, we were lying on a sleeping mat in the woods and clearly feeling each other's lust. And if we had not been here in the forest at that moment, then probably not our underwear would have become dirty from the many high points that we both had.

Inside me, this crazy urge to want to get closer to Zhan in any way is so damn strong that it's hard for me to hold back. I want him and I know he wants it too. But as long as we're in this creepy forest, it's not going to happen. And that doesn't make things any better.

Mhhh, somehow it also feels like we just belong together. Like a long time ago our fates were linked together.

*~*~*

We've been in the cave for three hours and Han just realized something incredible. There is a new tunnel! I don't know if that's true or if he's just saying that to creep us out even more, but I hope no one gets the idea of wanting to explore this tunnel.

Getting into the cave was a bit tricky. The hole we had to crawl in through is maybe 50 inches high and wide. First we had to push our backpacks through it before we crawled into the cave.

Because of a few bats, so there are animals in the forest after all, the smell of their urine, in the front entrance area has been almost unbearable. Han gave us masks for mouth and nose, but they helped almost not at all. Fortunately, the bats are few and only in a small part of the cave.

The first tunnel took us pretty far down. The further down we got, the cooler it got. Strange thing is, everywhere you can feel a breeze. So maybe there is more than one entrance/exit.

After about an hour of several short and long tunnels, stones blocking the way and having to climb over them, we reached a huge cave. In it there is even a small lake!

Han warned us immediately that the water of the lake is ice cold and unfortunately not drinkable, because of some bacteria. We tried to see the bottom of the lake with our flashlights, but failed. Han himself doesn't know how deep the lake is, he guesses around 50 to 100 meters deep.

After a short break, we continued. More tunnels, tiny holes through which we had to crawl and amazingly, my brother, in each tunnel and at each hole left a bend light. There he seems to be a bit scared after all, unlike what he claimed.

Whenever I thought of caves, I usually had the gold mines in mind. However, this cave is not a gold mine, there are no rails or materials left behind to mine the gold.

Oh yes, one more thing about the new tunnel. Han said it wasn't there two weeks ago when he was last here. And after taking a look inside, he is sure that it was man-made. At the latest now we should rather see that we get out of here. Because nobody knows who made the tunnel and why!

*~*~*

There was a long discussion about what we should do now. Some wanted to get out of the cave, others wanted to continue. In the end it was a vote and that means we are still in the cave and not only that, we also followed the new tunnel!

Han said that because of my brother's bending lights, we would find our way back without a problem. Well, I guess that's true. As long as no one gets this idea to remove our bend lights. After all, there is still the question in the room, or now rather in the cave, who built the tunnel and whether the person or persons, are still here somewhere.

To Rin and May I must say, the two behave more and more strangely. They light up every corner. They also examined the large cave room with the lake in detail. They even rummaged in the dirt and found a few scraps of cloth, which they then also looked at very closely.

This is just my own theory, but could it be that May's deceased daughter is one of the missing? And that they are only here because they are looking for her?

Because when I look at their behavior like that, it kind of makes sense. I also told Zhan about my theory and he also thinks it's possible.

Our friends from abroad are very quiet all the time. They don't look like they are enjoying this. They also almost all voted in unison against going further into the cave and wanted out. But just almost all of them. 5 out of 8 were in favor of ending the cave tour.

*~*~*

For 6 hours in the cave. I wonder how many more bend lights my brother has? Is the tunnel really as new as Han claims? If so, who could create such a long tunnel, with so many other passages, in just 2 weeks? Are we still talking about humans here? Or any aliens, because I would believe that. Alien vs. Predator proves it. They burned a hole in a super thick layer of ice with a laser, which reached down to a pyramid. And they only needed one try!

Okay, that was an attempt to be funny.

But seriously. Who, after all, even with today's techniques, could have created such a long tunnel in such a short time, with several branches leading into other, supposedly new tunnels?

Is that part of the tour, perhaps? So that the creep factor is as high as possible and the customer then thinks that it was worth spending so much money?

The breeze can still be felt, even here in the supposedly new section of the cave.

*~*~*

The young woman from Poland, who had been feeling bad for a few days, has disappeared!

We found another large cave room and Han suggested that we take a long break here. We should all rest for a few hours because we have been down here in the cave for almost 8 hours. We may have even gone through several miles of tunnels.

The women didn't want to go any further either, because they were totally exhausted. And not only them.

We all then set up a rest area for ourselves and were even able to fall asleep, so tired we were. But then we were awakened by a scream and realized that the young woman from Poland was gone.

Han and the members of the group from Poland are now looking for her. It is unclear what happened, why she went away from the group and where she is right now. The echoes here in the cave are so strong that she could be anywhere. I hope nothing happened to her. More about that later. I need to calm down first, my heart is still racing.