Chapter 28.2 The Promised Land
Lin Banxia had seen the sky on many nights.
The sky in his childhood was the most profound in his memory. At that time, there were not so many tall buildings and lights. His house was a dilapidated one-story bungalow. The roof could be climbed on, and when the weather was good, one could lie on it looking up at the night sky.
There was a bright moon in the sky, full of stars. He didn’t know much about the stars, he only knew about the Big Dipper written in the textbook, so he always liked to find the seven stars connected together, and then told his cousin with a smile, “Sister, that is the Big Dipper.” Now that he thought about it, most of the time, he was wrong.
The night sky on the laptop screen in front of Song Qingluo was even more beautiful than what Lin Banxia remembered from his childhood. On the black night sky, the stars were like scattered diamonds, and a bright Milky Way ran through it. It was astonishingly beautiful. Li Su’s voice rang out in this background. He seemed to be laughing very loudly: “The weather is very good today. We are roasting sheep. I don’t know how it tastes.” When the camera panned around, Lin Banxia saw a bonfire and several people sitting around it.
These people had different faces, a mixture of Eastern and Western races, and a sheep was roasting on top of the bonfire. However, Lin Banxia did not see Li Ye among these people.
Li Su seemed to be in a good mood and kept introducing the surrounding environment. As he moved the camera, Lin Banxia also saw their surroundings clearly.
It was an empty wilderness with no buildings, no tall trees, only low shrubs, and the far distant horizon could be seen at a glance.
The wind seemed to be a bit strong, and the bonfire was blown up by a few conspicuous flames. Li Su smiled and said, “I like it here. It’s quiet, empty, and there are no people. You can do whatever you want.” What he said was echoed by the people sitting by the bonfire. They heard him and started to cheer.
Someone spoke fluent Chinese and shouted: “Li Su, do you like it here so much?”
Li Su said: “Yes.”
The man said: “Are you not worried at all?”
Li Su said, “What are you worried about?”
The man said: “Of course I am worried that I will die miserably.”
Li Su was still laughing and didn’t seem to mind what this man said at all. He said, “What you are afraid of is a miserable death?”
The man stopped talking.
Li Su said: “I don’t seem to be that scared.”
Everyone continued to talk, and suddenly someone in the crowd asked in broken Chinese: “Why hasn’t Basha come back yet?” Everyone’s voices suddenly disappeared, and silence spread among the crowd.
Someone asked: “Didn’t she go to the toilet in the bushes nearby?”
The angle of view shook, and it seemed that Li Su stood up and said, “I’ll go take a look.” Then, he and another man walked towards the bushes nearby. For some reason, the atmosphere between them was a little quiet, as if already anticipating what was about to happen.
The bushes were very lush. He searched around inside but couldn’t find the girl named Basha. He whispered: “How long has she been out?”
The man next to him replied: “Half an hour.”
There was another moment of silence.
The man said: “Is she still alive?”
Li Su didn’t speak. He continued to search the bushes with his eyes, and then suddenly shook violently.
“She’s there.” Li Su’s voice suddenly became very soft, as if he was afraid of disturbing something, “Did you see it?”
The man didn’t speak. Lin Banxia could only hear the heavy breathing through the screen. In that breathing, there was a strong sense of fear and despair. Even if he couldn’t see the person, he could still imagine him swallowing his screams back.
The shaking camera stopped, and a black thing appeared on the screen.
Lin Banxia thought it was a shadow at first, but he soon saw the appearance of the thing clearly… It was not a shadow, but a person, a person who had melted. This scene was difficult to describe in words. If he had to say it, it was as if a person’s body has become wax. With the high temperature, it began to slowly deform. The limbs and torso merged into one, and the face, nose and mouth mixed. They were all combined, but even so, Lin Banxia still saw a happy smile on that face – that person, no, it should be the group of things, was smiling. It was smiling more and more happily, as if she was experiencing something extremely happy.
However, in an instant, her body melted into the sand and gravel, gradually flattening out. The man next to Li Su vomited, but Li Su remained motionless. The camera in his hand was extremely stable and did not shake at all.
“That’s Basha’s clothes.” Li Su said, “That’s her.”
The man didn’t answer, and the sound of vomiting continued.
Li Su stepped forward and headed towards the mass, but when he walked up to the thing, Basha had completely melted into the ground, leaving only the clothes she had worn lying on the sand.
“May 17th, 9:18 pm.” Li Su’s voice was still the same as before. It was somewhat similar to Song Qingluo, gentle and calm. “This is the third team member who died.”
The video went black.
Lin Banxia looked at Song Qingluo and said, “What happened after that? What happened after that?” Today is May 20th, which means this video was sent three days ago.
“After sending this video, Li Su’s team disappeared.” Song Qingluo said, “We have not been contacted yet.”
Lin Banxia said: “Isn’t Li Ye his partner? Why isn’t he by his side?”
Song Qingluo said: “The relationship between the two of them is complicated and it’s a long story.”
Lin Banxia thought for a while: “Where is this place? You want to go there, right?”
Song Qingluo said: “In Russia, the flight tickets are scheduled for tomorrow night.”
Lin Banxia thought for a while and asked, “Can I go with?” He tentatively said, “You showed me this video to invite me to go with, right?”
“That’s right.” Song Qingluo said, “But I have to tell you, the risk factor of this mission may be very high… You have to think carefully.”
Lin Banxia thought for a moment and whispered: “As for the air ticket, will it be reimbursed or not?”
Song Qingluo: “…All meals, accommodation and air tickets are included.”
Lin Banxia: “But I don’t have a Russian visa.”
“Special channel, no visa required.” Song Qingluo also joked to himself, “After all, you are going there to die, so they have to be more tolerant.”
Lin Banxia: “Go, go, go, I haven’t been abroad yet.”
Song Qingluo: “It’s very dangerous.”
Lin Banxia said honestly: “I’m not afraid of danger.”
Song Qingluo: “…”
Lin Banxia: “I’m afraid of poverty.”
Song Qingluo wondered. Lin Banxia, aren’t you too pragmatic?
Lin Banxia didn’t realize it. After happily urging Song Qingluo to sign the agreement, he told Ji Leshui that he was going to travel with Song Qingluo again.
Ji Leshui was still addicted to playing with Little Cave. When he heard that Lin Banxia was going on a trip, he showed a jealous expression and said sourly: “Why do you want to go out with the boss again and you don’t even take me with you. “
Lin Banxia said: “Next time, I will take you with me next time. Didn’t you have a lot of fun playing with Little Cave these days?”
Ji Leshui saw through Lin Banxia’s perfunctory attitude and said angrily: “Happiness is my business, and my Little Cave also advises me to go out more and make more friends. If I didn’t have no money, who wouldn’t want to travel!?”
Lin Banxia patted him on the shoulder and said, “Buddy, I understand.”
It’s useless to understand. Ji Leshui, the screaming chicken, was destined to be unable to enjoy the fun of ‘travel’ with them.
This trip was a bit urgent. Lin Banxia had no time to read the Russian travel guide, so he was taken away by Song Qingluo. He was also quite unfamiliar with this country. His only impression was that two hundred Russians beat up a thousand people in the news from the British. It sounded a bit funny, but it was enough to prove that they are truly a fighting nation.
He hurriedly asked for leave from work, hurriedly packed his luggage, and finally was hurriedly carried to the airport by Song Qingluo. Originally, Lin Banxia thought that he and Song Qingluo were going alone, but who knew that he would also see Li Ye at the airport.
Li Ye was tall, nearly two meters tall, and stood out among the crowd. He was staring down at his mobile phone, and his green eyes revealed a certain indifference that was incompatible with others. You could tell at first glance that he was a difficult person to get along with. To a certain extent, he was quite similar to Song Qingluo.
Song Qingluo stepped forward to greet Li Ye. He looked up at Song Qingluo and Lin Banxia, responded, and said, “Let’s go.”
So, Song Qingluo turned around and left.
This was Lin Banxia’s first time flying. On the way here, he even went to Zhihu[1.] to see what he could do to look like it wasn’t his first time flying. However, the content he found was of no use at all, because after Song Qingluo contacted the staff, he went directly to the special channel without even passing the security check.
They were on a chartered flight, and there were only three of them on board. Lin Banxia chose a seat by the window after boarding and looked out curiously. Song Qingluo and Li Ye started discussing. Song Qingluo asked Li Ye for information. Li Ye spread his hands and said, “No.”
“No? What does ‘no’ mean?” Song Qingluo frowned.
“It’s literal.” Li Ye said, “The situation was only reported on May 8th. Two days later, Li Su led a team to enter. Currently, we only know the approximate size of the area, and we don’t know anything else about it.”
Song Qingluo said: “Then there must be more than one video of Li Su.”
“No, there is only one copy.” Li Ye said, “There is no other information.”
Song Qingluo was silent.
Lin Banxia listened in confusion but was too embarrassed to ask questions. In the end, Song Qingluo asked Li Ye to explain the matter in detail, and Lin Banxia finally understood the general outline of the whole matter.
In early May, a large vacuum area appeared in the central region of Russia’s West Siberian Plain, and people and animals disappeared inside. Because Russia is vast and sparsely populated, they didn’t know exactly when this situation started. In short, it was not discovered until early May, and the opportunity for discovery was two policemen on duty. One of them entered the area and lost contact. The other person saw that the situation was not good and chose to report to his superiors. Only then was the strangeness in this area discovered.
For at least two months, residents in the area had no contact with the outside world, including communication. They seemed to have disappeared inexplicably. The police also sent some people in to investigate in the early stage. Soon, they discovered that something was wrong. All the people who went in were missing, and the electronic equipment failed. Even if they agreed on a time to come out, they could not come out. No one who went in came out.
Those people suddenly disappeared into this empty wilderness.
After noticing such anomalies, the officials quickly took other actions, so on May 10, Li Su led a team into the area. Before he disappeared, he sent the horrific video that Lin Banxia saw. After that, he completely lost contact with the outside world.
No one knew how Li Su sent this video, but it seemed to be the only thing he could do.
It could be seen from the video that the dead girl Basha was already the third team member to die. It was hard to imagine what happened to them inside.
However, it seemed that everyone who went inside narrowly escaped death.
After Li Ye finished explaining the situation, he glanced at Lin Banxia. Lin Banxia did not frown or show any nervousness, and even showed interest in his eyes, as if he was listening to someone else’s stories. This is an interesting person, Li Ye thought.
“You speak Chinese really well.” Lin Banxia sighed after listening to Li Ye’s description, “How long have you been in China?”
“Eight years.” If you just listened to the accent, Li Ye seemed like a pure Chinese.
“Oh.” Lin Banxia said, “That is really a long time.”
Li Ye said: “Yeah.”
He didn’t talk much, being even more silent than Song Qingluo.
Song Qingluo said: “Is there anything else you want to know?”
Lin Banxia said: “No.” He was not very professional about these things. He only had a general understanding of the situation after listening to Li Ye’s description. Moreover, it seemed that whether he knew these things or not, it seemed that no one knew what was going on.
It took about eight hours to fly to Russia from their city, and there was a five-hour time difference, so it was almost four o’clock in the afternoon when they get there. Lin Banxia fell asleep midway and was finally woken up by Song Qingluo.
“Are we there?” He was a little dazed from sleeping.
“We’re here.” Song Qingluo said.
After picking up their luggage, the three of them got off the plane and met with the escort outside the airport. They were met by two locals, a man and a woman, who did not speak Chinese at all. The silent Li Ye was forced to act as an interpreter and gave a brief introduction to both parties.
Their names were like a long list, but Lin Banxia only remembered the abbreviations: the man was Sergey, and the woman was Irina.
Their trip to Russia started from here.
The author has something to say:
Lin Banxia: Only a small cave can soothe a frightened chicken.
Ji Leshui: Only a small Song can comfort a single dog.
Song Qingluo: Is it the nature of human beings to hurt each other?
Translator’s comments:
1. Zhihu is a forum website where questions are created, answered, edited, and organized by its users.
Hey guys, I’m the translator for this novel. If you have any questions or thoughts feel free to comment and I’ll do my best to answer everything. If you notice any inconsistencies or errors, drop a comment and I will fix it. Thanks so much for reading Phantom Skeleton Painting, I hope that everyone enjoys the novel. If you are interested in fluffy BL novels, consider giving the other novels that I am translating a try. They are ‘I’m Really a Dragon’ and ‘The Leader’s Warpet Hamster’. New chapters released everyday.
If anyone is interested or able, please consider supporting me on Patreon or donating on Ko-fi. There you will have access to advanced chapters as well as polls to choose new novels to translate. I will also do 6 extra chapters for that week every time I accumulate $30 in donations on Ko-fi.
Anyway…if anyone is interested, I would love to have you onboard.
