Bloody Romance: I, the big troublemaker, Zhong Yuemin!

Chapter 428 Yang Guojun!

"What?!"

The exclamation was almost a shared thought in everyone's hearts. The expressions on everyone's faces froze instantly, filled with astonishment and disbelief, even more astonishing than when they had just faced those humanoid mantises.

Zhang Haiyang nudged Zhong Yuemin with his elbow, leaned close to his ear, and whispered a mixture of schadenfreude and worry in his voice:

"You're doomed, Yuemin! You really went all out, you cracked your future father-in-law's skull open!"

"Get the hell out of here!"

Zhong Yuemin cursed back in a low voice, but looking at the unconscious old man on the ground, he felt a little uneasy.

He steeled himself and knelt down beside Yang Qing, carefully examining the old man by the firelight. His hair and beard were tangled, his face was covered in filth, and his clothes were so tattered they were practically just strips of cloth, making him look no different from a homeless beggar. He tentatively asked:

"Yang Qing, are you... sure you haven't mistaken him for someone else? Is this really your father?"

Yang Qing's eyes reddened. She looked up, glared at him resentfully, and choked out:

"How could I mistake my own father?"

Zhong Yuemin felt a little embarrassed by her gaze, so he coughed and explained:

"Um... I'm sorry, the situation was urgent, I didn't know it was your father, I was a bit heavy-handed, but I don't think I hurt any vital organs."

As he spoke, he and Yang Qing carefully helped her father to a relatively dry wall to sit down. He took off his water bottle and gently poured a few sips of water for the old man.

After a moment, amidst a soft cough, the old man slowly opened his eyes, his gaze somewhat unfocused and confused.

"Dad, you're awake?! Are you alright? It's me, Xiao Qing!" Yang Qing held her father's hand tightly, her voice trembling with tears.

"Xiao Qing...?" Yang Guojun's cloudy eyes gradually focused, and he regained consciousness. Seeing his daughter's face clearly, he was overwhelmed with emotion, his body trembling slightly. He hugged her tightly, his voice hoarse:

"Xiao Qing, is it really you? Dad isn't dreaming, is he?!"

The father and daughter were overjoyed to be reunited after their ordeal.

But soon, Yang Guojun's excitement was replaced by deeper worry. He grabbed his daughter's arm and asked anxiously:

"How did you find your way here? This place is too dangerous!"

Yang Qing quickly explained:

“Dad, after your expedition team lost contact, several other teams sent to look for you also disappeared one after another. I was unwilling to accept this, so I organized this team myself... We went through many twists and turns and experienced many dangers before finally finding this place.”

He then asked in return, "Dad, what exactly happened? Why are you here alone? Where are the rest of the expedition team?"

Upon hearing this, Yang Guojun's face flashed with deep pain and fear. He sighed heavily and was about to say something when he seemed to suddenly remember something extremely important.

He hurriedly pulled an old watch from his tattered inner pocket, and after just one glance, his face turned deathly pale, as if he had seen something extremely terrifying.

"Oh no, oh no!"

He jumped to his feet, ignoring the pain in his head and having no time to explain in detail, his voice filled with terror as he addressed everyone:

"This is not the place to talk. Hurry, come with me! If we're any later, and that 'thing' comes out of the coffin, none of us will survive!"

These words instantly tightened the tense atmosphere that had just eased up!

Some of the female members of the expedition team were so startled that they blurted out:

"A coffin? Professor Yang, that...that coffin chained with iron chains, is there really...a thousand-year-old female ghost inside?"

"It's not a female ghost!"

Yang Guojun's voice trembled with extreme fear, his lips shaking, "It's...it's a thousand times more terrifying than a female ghost..." The words were on the tip of his tongue when, from the dark passageway behind him leading to the main tomb, came a low, muffled roar, like that of an animal.

Upon hearing this, Yang Guojun urged even more urgently:

"Stop asking, hurry up and come with me. If that beast finds us, we'll all die."

Yang Guojun led the way, with the others following closely behind. At the narrowest point of the passageway, there was a hidden door. Yang Guojun groped around in the most confined area of ​​the rock wall, his fingers gripping a crevice almost fused with the rock, and with a forceful pull, he...

With a soft "click," a seemingly intact rock wall twisted inward, revealing a dark, narrow opening that could only be passed through by crawling!

"Hurry, hurry up and go in, everyone keep up!" Yang Guojun's voice was tense. He took the lead, bending down and crawling in. The others did not dare to slack off and filed in one after another, their movements hurried but trying their best to remain quiet.

"Roar, roar, roar!" A continuous low roar came from the main tomb, which was chilling and made one's back sweat.

Zhang Haiyang was the second to last. Before slipping through the hidden door, he couldn't help but glance back at the deep passageway. His usual roguish air was replaced by an unprecedented solemnity as he muttered a curse under his breath:

"Damn it... what the hell was that thing living in that coffin?!"

Without further hesitation, he quickly shrank back and slipped into the hidden door.

Zhong Yuemin was the last to enter. The hidden door closed, revealing a narrow, sloping passage. The group crawled for dozens of meters on their hands and feet until they were suddenly greeted by a bright and enclosed cave of about ten square meters.

In one corner of the cave, tattered clothes were laid out, forming a makeshift bed. A candle burned quietly in an empty tin can, casting a flickering light that barely dispelled the darkness. Beside it lay a pile of dry firewood, gathered from who-knows-where.

Looking at these extremely simple signs of survival, Yang Qing felt a lump in her throat.

"Dad...have you been hiding here all this time?"

Yang Guojun nodded wearily, leaning against the rock wall, his sallow face still showing signs of shock.

"We're trapped here... unable to escape, and powerless to resist." Taking a deep breath, she began to recount that nightmarish experience:

"When our expedition team first entered the canyon, things went smoothly until one night when we were camping on the Gobi Desert... In the middle of the night, we were suddenly surrounded and attacked by a large pack of wolves." Pain appeared in his eyes. "Several people died... We could only run for our lives, and in our panic, we stumbled into the depths of the Gobi Desert."

"Later, we discovered a lake... Everyone was thirsty and exhausted, almost collapsing. Seeing the water was like seeing a savior; we all jumped in to drink and cool off..." His voice trembled slightly.

"But who could have imagined... that a huge whirlpool suddenly appeared in the center of the lake, with astonishing power. We didn't even have time to react before we were...we were completely sucked in..."

Upon hearing this, Zhong Yuemin's eyes sharpened, and he interjected:

"Professor Yang, did you also encounter those...human-shaped praying mantises in the underground river below?"

"Yep!"

Yang Guojun nodded vigorously, his face showing even greater fear.

"These things have scythe-like forelimbs... We barely managed to escape their pursuit, some died, some scattered, and finally a few of us stumbled into this tomb."