A hand grabbed Li Changzheng, and his body leaned out, using the other hand to grab the boat's gunwale and pull the boat over. Li Bin was the smallest of the group, and he slowly tried to get on the boat. He found that although the boat was very old, its hull was still sturdy, estimated to accommodate any three people besides Li Changzheng.

"How long does it take for this boat to go around inside?" Li Bin stood on the boat, looking quite majestic.

"Probably less than twenty minutes. Why? Do you want to take a tour inside?" * answered.

"Yes, what do you think? Let's have an underground adventure, shall we?" At this moment, Li Bin seemed like a captain.

"Alright, it must be fun inside!" Li Changzheng said, eager to get on the boat.

"Hey, hold on, you're too heavy. The boat will sink as soon as you get on!" Wu Jianguo quickly pulled him back and said, "Let me go first." He got on the boat.

Then Liu also got on the boat, "Hehe, this boat can only accommodate three at a time. We'll go first, and you three can go next."

"Wait, *, has anyone ever taken this boat for a ride inside?" I interrupted the others on the boat.

"Not really, because not many people know about this, and I accidentally discovered it when I was a child. But some of my friends have seen this boat come back several times." * explained.

"Oh, I see..." I relaxed a bit and thought for a moment before saying to everyone, "Well, let's be cautious. Underground rivers are usually very intricate and complex. If there are many boats like this one in the area, and what you saw was just a coincidence, then it would be very dangerous for us to venture inside."

Everyone thought I made a good point; it did seem risky.

"What should we do then? If there's only this one boat going around here, won't we miss a good opportunity to explore the underground river?" Li Bin was still a bit unwilling to give up.

I thought for a moment and then exclaimed, "I have an idea, actually it's quite simple. Let's conduct an experiment. We'll put a rabbit on the boat, then let the boat drift away. If the returning boat has the rabbit, we can board it and tour the underground river. How about that?"

"You're brilliant, let's do that." Everyone agreed with my proposal. So Li Bin and a few others got off the boat, put a plump wild rabbit on it, and pushed the boat downstream. Soon, the boat disappeared into the darkness.

"Alright, we'll have to wait for about twenty minutes more. The torches probably won't last." * looked at the remaining torches and said, "Liu, let's go out and get some pine branches and pine resin."

After Liu agreed, the two of them went out from the entrance.

I used this time to crouch by the underground river and carefully observe the water. The water looked crystal clear in the torchlight, flowing slowly forward. I scooped up some water with my hand and sniffed it; it had the fresh scent of spring water, indicating it was flowing water. Since it was flowing water, the boat should have drifted downstream from the water source. How could it possibly circle around here? Also, this was in the mountains; how could there be a boat in the mountains? Could there be some mechanism here? I couldn't figure it out and could only wait to see if the boat would return.

Soon, * and Liu came back with plenty of pine branches, and they started a small fire on the ground. The fragrant scent of pine quickly filled the air.

"Look, the boat's coming back!" Li Bin exclaimed excitedly.

Everyone looked upstream and indeed, the boat slowly emerged from the darkness, with the hideous pattern of a beast on the green ring at the bow, just as before. The boat approached them bit by bit.

"Ah! The rabbit... the rabbit... it's gone!" Liu exclaimed.

Sure enough, the boat was empty, with no sign of the rabbit anywhere.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Seeing no rabbit, Li Bin broke out in a cold sweat, thankful that he listened to me and conducted the experiment with the rabbit first. Otherwise, he might have already been lost in the river at this moment, which would have been very dangerous.

also felt a shock and regretted what he had said earlier. He almost sent his best friend to his doom in the underground river. Then, he admired my calm mind, grateful that I prevented a big mistake. Everyone came over and patted my shoulder, saying, "Buddy, you're amazing. Without you, we'd all be in trouble."

"Hehe, it's nothing. We were lucky." I smiled and said, "Changzheng, give me a hand. Let me see if there's any difference between this boat and the one before."

I pulled the boat to the entrance, and everyone found that this boat was exactly the same as the previous one. "It seems that what I said is true. There are quite a few small boats like this in the underground river," * sighed again.

"No! This is the same boat as before. Look, what are these red spots?" I squatted on the boat, pointing at some red spots scattered on the gunwale, and said loudly.

hurried over, saw some red spots scattered on the gunwale, pinched one with his hand, smelled it, and immediately changed his expression.

"This is... rabbit blood..."

Before he finished speaking, a very low voice came from the darkness in the distance, followed by the sound of splashing water coming from upstream.

"Oh no, run!" I shouted sternly. The sudden change threw everyone into panic. Li Changzheng was frozen in place until I jumped off the boat and shouted again to run. Only then did he start to move his heavy body and run outside. Before leaving, he even remembered to pick up another rabbit from the ground.

So, everyone rushed out one after another, running for their lives. I was the last one. As I was about to run out, I heard the sound of water splashing from deep inside.

Outside, there were green mountains and trees, with birds singing and fragrant flowers. The midday sun in August shone brightly in the sky, and a few white clouds floated in the blue sky, everything was so beautiful. While the outside was like paradise, the inside felt like hell. Life is like this; many people live in paradise without realizing it, only to wake up to the beauty of life when they accidentally enter hell.

At this moment, the six of us brothers were sitting scattered on the grass in front of the entrance, gasping for breath.

"Ah... why did we run? Did you see something terrifying?" Li Changzheng panted while patting his bulging belly, lying half-lying on the ground, exhausted, still holding the rabbit in his right hand.

"There wasn't anything we saw, but judging from the sound of the water splitting, there must be a very large creature swimming past." Since I had been practicing breath holding, I didn't run out of breath after running out, "And, the rabbit we put on the boat must have been eaten by that thing. It probably likes the smell of blood."

"Yeah, I also heard a very low sound, but I don't know what it was." * added.

"Yeah, I heard it too."

I continued, "But one thing is certain, through our experiment, we can prove that the underground river here is a loop waterway. I think there should be a larger underground river inside, and this loop waterway may be a vortex generated by the impact of the underground river nearby. As for what that thing is, it's hard to imagine."

Li Bin, Liu, and Wu Jianguo looked at each other, feeling very scared. If it weren't for me reminding them, they might have already become food for that thing. They were thankful for the rabbit.

"Let's seal this place up. It could be dangerous for other kids to come in!" After resting for a while, several of us used stones to seal the entrance.

"Sigh, there's only one rabbit left. It's not enough for dinner!" Li Changzheng sighed as he looked at the rabbit in his hand.

"Besides eating, do you know anything else? Don't worry, it's still early. We'll probably catch more on the way back." * laughed.

Although we had a scare, the few of us now had something to boast about. Excitedly, we began our journey back. Not far into the journey, we spotted a large grey rabbit crouching in the grass. * immediately gestured, and everyone stopped. Since the distance wasn't far, Li Changzheng whispered, "*, let me shoot it. I haven't shot anything today." * looked at the distance and saw it was close enough, so he gave the gun to Changzheng.

Li Changzheng was the largest in the group, and he held the gun as if he knew what he was doing. After a bang, instead of hearing the rabbit fall, it quickly darted into the grass on the hilltop.

"You're a lucky devil! You couldn't even hit it at such close range," someone teased, and everyone burst into laughter.

"Hmm?" I suddenly stared at the grave behind the tombstone, walked over, and carefully examined it. "*, is this Mr. Zhang's grave?" * came over and looked at the tombstone engraved with "Zhang Qingshan's Tomb." "Yes, you see, this whole area is their family's graveyard. This Zhang Qingshan was Mr. Zhang's father, and behind him is his grandfather's grave. They've been here for generations. How did you know?"

"Hehe, Mr. Zhang had an accident when he was digging this grave, right? Wasn't there a heavy rain before that?"

"Yes, that was the first rain, very heavy. You were still using my umbrella to go home from school at that time."

"Hehe, that's it. Look, the northwest corner of this grave has collapsed, probably washed away by the water next to it. And look at the water hole in the southeast corner. Water represents Ren, and the southeast corner represents the Xun Palace. When Ren falls into the Xun Palace, it indicates punishment by water. It means the owner of this grave will suffer leg injuries. And the northwest represents Qian, which represents the male head of the household. Now it's been washed away by water, so Mr. Zhang must have died! I said, looking at everyone's bewildered faces, like they were looking at aliens.