Chapter 791: The Pit

“Is there someone outside?!”

Qi Xia carefully listened to the elderly voice, feeling that it didn’t seem to come from the hutong, as if it was from a farther place.

How could such a narrow hutong, only a few dozen meters long, produce a voice that sounded so distant?

“I hear footsteps!” the voice called out. “If anyone’s there, please respond… I’m not a bad person! Is someone there?”

Qi Xia glanced coldly at the black bead on his forehead and softly replied, “Yes.”

Bang.

The black bead shattered the moment Qi Xia spoke.

He had intended to leave, but curiosity about the depths of the hutong got the better of him, so after a few seconds of thought, he slowly moved forward.

He hadn’t gone far when his feet made a cracking sound, as if he had stepped on something.

Qi Xia cautiously shifted his foot and squatted down to pick up the object on the ground for a closer look.

It was a brittle thigh bone.

What struck him as odd was that the owner of these bones appeared to have been dead for a long time, with faint traces of dirt still on them.

“Young man?” the elderly voice echoed faintly again. “Come a bit closer, but be careful!”

Qi Xia pondered for a moment, glanced at the bead above his head, and suddenly had a new idea.

“Careful of what?” Qi Xia asked.

As soon as he spoke, the black bead on his head flew off into the darkness, disappearing from sight.

“Careful of the big pit!” the old man replied. “Keep walking forward—there’s a pit! Make sure you don’t fall in!”

“A pit?”

Qi Xia tossed the bone fragment in his hand onto the ground and cautiously probed ahead with his foot.

The walls on both sides of the hutong were very high, almost completely blocking out the light, so Qi Xia had to slow his pace while quickly thinking about the old man’s intentions.

Was this old man luring people in to kill them?

Why choose such a secluded hutong?

If not for following the map into this alley, no one would reasonably pass through such a pitch-black hutong.

“Where are you?” Qi Xia asked.

“Come a bit farther!” the old man said. “Come help me!”

“Help?”

Qi Xia took another five or six steps, feeling that the stone path underfoot was now covered in sand, making a rustling sound with each step.

After three or five more steps, his probing foot suddenly met empty air. He tested left and right and realized there was indeed a large pit ahead, stretching completely across the hutong and invisible in the dark.

Without the old man’s warning, he would have fallen in.

“Have you come?” the old man called again. “Over here!”

Only then did Qi Xia realize the old man’s voice was coming from inside the pit.

He slowly squatted down and peered into the depths, having mentally prepared himself for anything, but the scene below was surprisingly ordinary.

An old man covered in dust stood in a pit about three meters deep. In his left hand, he held an iron shovel, and in his right, a kerosene lamp that was nearly burned out. He was straining to look up.

The light from the kerosene lamp was about to fade completely, confined to the pit and unable to spread.

“Is that a young man up there?” the old man asked. “Can you see me down here?”

Qi Xia paused before responding coldly, “What are you doing down there?”

“It’s a long story…” the old man said. “Basically, I was digging a pit, and now it’s too deep to get out. Could you help me out?”

“Digging a pit…?”

Qi Xia furrowed his brow and examined the pit in front of him, which was roughly two meters wide and three or four meters deep. If the old man had dug it himself, it must have taken a long time.

“I can get you out,” Qi Xia said, “but you have to tell me why you’re digging the pit.”

“I was hoping you’d ask!” the old man said excitedly. “I think I’ve uncovered something amazing! Pull me up quick, and I’ll tell you all about it! Good thing someone came before the lamp burned out—I had no idea how I’d get out otherwise!”

Qi Xia nodded. He couldn’t sense any danger from the old man, so he agreed.

This old man seemed different from Wei Yang—his mind was clear.

What could motivate a sane person to dig a pit in the dark depths of a hutong? Qi Xia was curious.

“Hand me the iron shovel,” Qi Xia said.

“Ah? Why?”

“The reach isn’t enough—I’ll use the iron shovel to pull you up,” Qi Xia explained. “Otherwise, how can I rescue you with my bare hands?”

The old man gripped his iron shovel for a long time, as if it were his only means of self-defense and he didn’t want to let go easily. But after thinking it over, he realized there was no better option.

“Young man, I’ll say this upfront…” the old man said seriously. “I’ve discovered the ‘big secret’ of this place! If you pull me up, I’ll share it with you!”

“‘Big secret’…?” Qi Xia raised an eyebrow, feeling that coming here had been worthwhile. “Don’t worry—if I wanted to kill you, I could just fill in the pit. No need for all this trouble.”

“Uh…” The old man nodded. “That makes sense… Just a moment!”

The old man bent down, removed his clothes, wrapped something in them, and tucked the bundle under his arm.

Once he was done packing, he looked up toward Qi Xia and slowly raised the iron shovel.

“Thanks for the help, young man!”

Qi Xia took a deep breath, squatted down, and grasped the iron shovel. With both of them pulling together, the old man clung to the shovel and climbed up the edge of the pit step by step.

Though the pit wasn’t deep, it still took quite an effort.

The old man looked sturdy, but he insisted on using only one hand, forcing Qi Xia to exert all his strength to steady the shovel and haul up the man, who couldn’t weigh more than a hundred pounds.

Qi Xia tossed the iron shovel aside and said, “Alright, show me your ‘big secret’.”

The old man panted on the ground for a while before holding the kerosene lamp up to his face and looking at Qi Xia.

“Why are you so rude, young man?” the old man asked.

“I saved you—do I need to be polite?” Qi Xia replied.

“Hey, fair point.” The old man mysteriously pulled the bundle from under his arm and waved it in front of Qi Xia. “This is wrapped in here—the ‘big secret’!”

“Oh?” Qi Xia said expressionlessly, puzzled. “What is it?”

The old man placed the clothes on the ground and set the kerosene lamp beside it.

Only then did Qi Xia notice that there were quite a few fragments of human skeletons scattered around— what he had stepped on earlier was just one of them.

What puzzled him even more was that these bone fragments looked as if they had been recently unearthed.

The old man carefully unwrapped the bundle on the ground, as if presenting a priceless treasure to Qi Xia.

“Young man… running into me here must be your good luck…”

In the dim light, Qi Xia looked at the contents of the bundle and saw that it was a dirty skull.