Trembling At A High Altitude

The person who was asleep was Li Teng.

Someone had just been murdered, and everyone was as jittery as a frightened bird, with the mere shadow on the wall enough to provoke a scream, yet Li Teng was actually asleep!

How could his heart be this big?

Could it be... that he was the killer? So he wasn't afraid at all?

"He was too tired," Aila defended Li Teng.

"Sleeping at this time is actually quite safe, because everyone else is awake. In this situation, the murderer definitely wouldn't dare to kill again," Yang Shunli analyzed.

Richard didn't make a sound, but his expression wasn't too pleasant.

If he wasn't the ghost, he couldn't possibly know the prison's mission.

But now one thing became clear.

It was that the only person he brought with him that was left was Zeka.

Somehow, it felt somewhat off?

...

When Li Teng woke up, it was already broad daylight.

Looking at the time, it was past nine in the morning.

The rain had stopped outside, and the sun had come out.

Li Teng opened his eyes to find that the others were gone, only Aila was by his side.

"You're finally awake?" said Aila, with a relieved expression.

"Where are they?" Li Teng asked.

"They all went to the vegetable field. That Yang said he would stay with you, but I didn't trust him, so I decided to stay here and watch over you," Aila replied to Li Teng.

"Thank you."

"What are you thanking me for? You've helped me so much, isn't this what I should do?"

"Aren't you worried that I might be the ghost? That you're alone with me?" Li Teng stretched lazily.

"On this island, you're the only person I trust," Aila said with certainty.

"Did anything unusual happen with them after I fell asleep?" Li Teng smiled, changing the subject.

"At first, everyone was scared and kept finding topics to chat about. Then, after an hour or two, one by one, they couldn't hold on anymore and leaned against the wall to sleep. I also dozed off. Later, I was awakened by some noise—it was Yang waking up; he was talking to Mindo.

"I woke up too, but didn't open my eyes.

"Then the others slowly woke up, and after dawn, they said they wanted to go pick vegetables. But you kept sleeping soundly so we couldn't wake you up no matter how loud we were, Yang said he would stay with you, but I didn't trust him…"

Aila told Li Teng everything.

Li Teng nodded without saying anything more.

"Do you have any clue who the ghost is?" Aila asked Li Teng.

"I'm suspecting Richard now, but it's hard to say; let's wait and see," Li Teng shook his head.

Aila glanced at Li Teng… Earlier, he had seemed so certain, it looked like even he could be mistaken! With all this changing, hadn't he actually made up his mind?

"What should we do now?" Aila wondered and asked Li Teng.

"They are picking vegetables, which will probably take some time. How about we go check on Gemma?" Li Teng suggested to Aila.

"Alright," Aila agreed after hesitating for a moment.

The two of them left the yard and headed into the underbrush in another direction.

The place where Gemma was located was only known by the two of them and Richard.

It was a small, unpaved path in the underbrush, about a hundred and fifty meters straight-line distance from the yard, but it required walking more than two hundred meters along a winding path to reach it.

"What do you think the meaning of life is?" Aila suddenly asked Li Teng as they were walking.

Li Teng stopped and glanced at Aila but remained silent.

"Just making small talk!" Aila felt that the look Li Teng gave her was a bit strange.

"The meaning of life is different for everyone, so it cannot be generalized," Li Teng finally answered Aila.

"Then, what do you think the meaning of your life is?" Aila changed her question.

"Well... My life... In living, I can explore more of the world, meet a variety of different people, uncover secrets I don't know about, and resolve some of my own doubts..." Li Teng thought for a moment before answering Aila.

"Secrets? Doubts?"

"Yes, about this world, for instance, don't you want to know what prison is all about?" Li Teng asked Aila.

"I only know that prison is some kind of irresistible Mysterious Power, but it's not something I can investigate, so I don't bother with it," Aila responded to Li Teng.

"Hmm, that's the difference between people. I'm quite interested, so I will try my best to live on. That might be part of the meaning of my life," Li Teng concluded.

"Sigh…" Aila let out a sigh.

"Are you sighing because you feel lost and unsure of where to go after completing your revenge?" Li Teng glanced at Aila.

"You must have a Mind Reading Technique," Aila said with a smile.

Li Teng smiled as well. He didn't have any Mind Reading Technique; it was just that after living for over a thousand years and seeing all sorts of joys and sorrows in the world, he could easily infer what a person was thinking or feeling during a certain period from their experiences.

Aila was originally a housewife, with her husband and children being the center of her life.

They were the entire meaning of her existence.

Unfortunately, one day, her scumbag husband and his mistress suddenly killed her and her children.

Upon learning the truth, she was fixated on getting revenge.

She had already brutally killed the mistress, and with Li Teng's help, the act of killing her worthless husband was just a thought away, ready to happen at any moment.

Therefore, she began to ponder the meaning of living on, what comes after.

Because she realized that once she had her revenge, she would lose all her support.

Many novels with vengeance as the main theme come to an abrupt end after the protagonist completes their revenge; that's the reason.

Because after that, the authors don't know what to write.

Life is the same.

The moment of revenge is indeed thrilling, but after taking revenge, people often become bewildered.

It's terrifying for a person who lives for an obsession to lose it.

Li Teng could help Aila seek justice and righteousness, but once she had obtained them, what came next was not something he could plan for her.

He didn't have that much responsibility towards her.

...

Gemma was no longer in the place she had been.

Only the Animal Trap remained, and even the bloodstains on it had been washed away by the rain.

It seemed Richard had moved the body to avoid exposing his crime.

Or he might have buried the body somewhere.

But none of that mattered anymore.

"Why did you bring me to see Gemma?" Aila asked Li Teng.

"Nothing much, just looking for an excuse to take a walk and have a chat. It gets a bit stuffy staying in the yard all the time," Li Teng replied to Aila.

"Sigh…" Aila sighed again.

After aimlessly wandering around nearby for a while, they started heading back.

When they returned to the yard, the other people had already come back with their bundles of vegetables.

Since Li Teng and Aila hadn't picked any vegetables, the task of washing and cooking the vegetables fell on them.

After breakfast, everyone headed to the dock together again.

The yacht was still nowhere to be seen.

And there was still no cell phone signal.

"The reason for no cell signal is probably that the island's communication facilities were struck by lightning and damaged," Zeka speculated.

"That damned yacht company, their tourists have been missing for several days, don't they know to come and look for them?" Richard was very angry.

"Yes! If we're missing, the company should also call the police, and after reporting, by checking our schedule, they should be able to find out that we came to this island. But why hasn't any rescue come?" Zeka cautiously supported Richard's questioning.

Apart from the two of them, Li Teng and his group remained silent throughout.

The four people from prison were very clear that all of this was just according to the task arrangements, intentionally trapping them on the island.

Therefore, complaints were utterly meaningless.

With no yachts at the dock, everyone could only return to the courtyard to start another boring day.

To prevent the murderer from killing again, the six of them did not separate much for the whole day.

Although the day was long and boring, time still ticked away, minute by minute, into the afternoon, and then nightfall.

It had become completely dark.

Nighttime brought fear.

To Richard and Zeka, the reason for their fear was the sense that there was a killer among them, not knowing when they might strike again.

As for Yang Shunli's group, they were even more aware than Richard and Zeka that each day someone would surely die—a one-eighth chance the first day, one-seventh the second day, and today, a one-sixth chance.

With someone dying each day, the killer's identity— that of the Ghost—would gradually be revealed.

The question was whether one would last until then.

Considering that the murderer (Ghost) might kill again after dark, everyone took turns sleeping during the morning and afternoon, staying fully awake and gathered in the stone house at the center at night.

In the center of the stone house was a half-burnt candle.

The group found a pack of candles in the stone house—more than a dozen. Four had already been used, and the burning half was the fifth.

Although lighting several candles would have made the stone house brighter, considering the uncertainty of when they could escape and the feeble sense of security that the dim candlelight provided in the darkness, everyone agreed to light only one at a time.

Around ten o'clock at night, the half-burnt candle was nearing its end.

Zeka took out a new candle, preparing to replace the one that was about to burn out as he approached its small flame.

Unexpectedly, the wick of the candle that was almost spent suddenly collapsed and then went out.

But the new candle in Zeka's hand was not ignited.

"What the hell? Why's it dark?" Richard's voice.

"My phone's dead; who still has battery? Turn on a flashlight to find some matches," Yang Shunli's voice.

A light appeared next to Li Teng; it was Aila who had turned on her phone's flashlight.

After the phone's flashlight lit up, Gemma and Yang Shunli let out screams, one after another.

"Shit!"

Then came Richard's curse.

"Ah!" A look of terror appeared on Aila's face as well.

Zeka, who had just stood up with the new candle intent on lighting it, was now lying on the ground in the center of the stone house.

A ghastly wound was visible on his neck, spanning his throat and arteries, with blood spouting profusely from his gaping arterial vein.

In the very instant he had stood up to light the candle, the murderer (Ghost) had struck, killing him!

No murder weapon was found at the scene.

However, the Ghost didn't need a weapon to kill—Ghost Claws were much sharper than any knife a human could wield.

"Why are you so calm? You're the killer, right?" Richard suddenly turned his suspicious gaze towards Li Teng.

After the cellphone flashlight had been turned on, of the five people still alive, four had let out shrieks or cries of alarm, all except for Li Teng, who was sitting there without moving, looking very calm.

"You suspect me as the murderer? Ha, I suspect you're the murderer! How about this, let the three of them vote to see who they think is the murderer between us two?" Li Teng said with a mocking expression, looking at Richard.

"You four are in this together! Hmph!" Richard was not the least bit foolish.

Li Teng didn't feel like saying anything more to him and closed his eyes, appearing ready to fall asleep.

...

The fourth day.

"Last night, who killed Zeka?" Aila whispered to Li Teng.

"Richard was the closest to him," Li Teng replied to Aila.

"Why would he kill Zeka?" Aila asked again.

"Maybe Zeka knew something?" Li Teng guessed.

"In the first three days, all who died were Richard's people," Aila considered thoughtfully.

"Have you thought of something?" Li Teng asked.

"Nothing much, I'm just thinking, his people are almost all gone, next it's our turn, the four of us— who will be the first to go?"

"Hard to say. According to the rules, the ghost must kill one each day, but can only kill one. We'll see if it's Richard who gets it today— anyhow, with every day that passes, every person fewer, the chances of the ghost revealing their identity increases."

The two discussed for a while but still could not come to a conclusion.

Richard seemed to realize that Miss Song didn't have that sort of interest in him, and after he killed Gemma, she hadn't shown any further signs of affection towards him, making him feel like he had fallen into some sort of conspiracy.

After Zeka's death, Richard became very wary of the four from the Song Family and stopped chatting with them.

Since Li Teng was always with Aila, Yang Shunli and Mindo also gradually grew closer.

However, this did match the setting of the mission plot.

After all, Li Teng was Aila's bodyguard, and Mindo was Yang Shunli's assistant.

...

Darkness fell again.

To avoid a repeat of Zeka's tragedy from the previous night, they reminded each other to change the candles before they burned out tonight.

But who would change the candles became a big problem.

Zeka had been killed the night before while changing candles.

Who knows if tonight the person changing the candles would be killed too?

In the end, Li Teng stood up and changed the candles.

The candle didn't go out, and he didn't get killed.

Richard, however, became even more suspicious of Li Teng.

Time slowly reached 11:50 PM.

"Everyone stay alert! Keep watch over each other! All five of us are still alive! If one person dies each day, the next ten minutes are critical!" Yang Shunli was very afraid, but he also loudly reminded everyone.

Because of Richard, this 'outsider', Yang Shunli didn't want to mention the rule about the ghost having to kill one person every day.

Everyone sitting against the wall now watched each other with eagle eyes.

Another five minutes passed.

And at that moment...

A strange wind suddenly blew through the door crack.

It precisely snuffed out the candle.

The stone house was plunged into total darkness.