With that thought, I endured the searing pain, untied the two bamboo lanterns, pulled out their stoppers, and hurled them toward the blasted-open hole. The hole had only held a faint glow of fire, but once doused with the kerosene filling the bamboo tubes, it erupted in a blaze, black smoke spiraling out to engulf the sinkhole completely, a familiar scent of charring filling my nostrils.

Man Niao Niao was indeed formidable; in mere minutes, he had fashioned a flamethrower from the bamboo lanterns. For him and me, making such a thing was trivial, something we’d grown bored of in our childhood. The method was simple: drill a hole in the sealed end of a bamboo section, wrap some rags around a stick to mimic a bicycle pump, and the flamethrower was complete.

The flamethrower Man Niao Niao was using, of course, held not water, but a full tube of kerosene.

I was overjoyed and signaled Man Niao Niao to fire upon the hole. Gritting his teeth, Man Niao Niao aimed and sprayed with all his might. The fire in the hole roared skyward, the smoke growing thicker by the moment.

All wasps fear fire, and the Mosquito King Wasps dwelling in the earthen mound were no exception. Scorched by the intensifying flames, they abandoned their mates and offspring, wishing only for an extra pair of wings, and swarmed out of the mound in a frantic frenzy, buzzing aimlessly around the structure. Seeing this, Man Niao Niao grew even more brazen, his hands never stopping, continuously spraying kerosene onto the swarm. The fuel ignited instantly, and the blaze grew more ferocious.

Perhaps because the Wasp Queen had not yet appeared, the initial soldiers and generals that emerged were quite committed to the principle of “no abandonment.” Knowing fire was their natural nemesis, they were reluctant to leave. This stirred a pang of pity in me; such a perfect home, such a peaceful environment, utterly devastated by the fire Man Niao Niao and I unleashed.

Controlling the blaze was now impossible. We didn't know what composed the interior of the earthen mound, but the fire grew stronger. Smoke billowed from the very spots where the Mosquito King Wasps had emerged, transforming the mound into something indistinguishable from a burning lime kiln.

Amidst the flames, the Wasp Queen struggled out of the blasted hole. Her wings were long gone, exposing half her body as she glared at me with venom once more. I clasped my hands together in a gesture of apology, silently praying, “Forgive me; we shall never meet again.” I turned to walk into the cavern, only to hear a loud boom from the earthen mound. Turning back, I saw that the interior had been burned hollow, the structure could no longer hold, and it was collapsing into the sinkhole with a thunderous roar.

Amidst the crumbling of the mound, by the light of the remaining fire, I saw numerous millstone-sized honeycomb clusters haphazardly clinging to piles of white bones. Newly hatched larvae, not yet fully formed, struggled to emerge from the honeycomb cells, dotting the scene densely. The bones, however, were already fragmented, making it impossible to tell if they were animal or human. Interspersed with the skeletal remains were bits of rotten wood and planks, perhaps debris that had fallen and accumulated there over time.

I had initially felt guilt about destroying the Mosquito King Wasps’ nest, but seeing the bones shifted my perspective. The mound was so tall and vast, the accumulation of bones so great—surely, some of these were the remains of our Tujia ancestors. Given the conditions back then, retreating safely from the Nitre Cave and the Sky Ladder would not have been easy. This sinkhole must have claimed countless lives. Those who died here without a proper burial now had their remains serving as the foundation for a wasp nest—what profound tragedy. By burning the mound now, we could only hope their spirits might finally find peace.

Upon seeing the bones, Ji Ye’s face turned pale and sorrowful. He pulled out spirit paper and three sticks of incense from his basket, lit them, and kowtowed respectfully three times at the cave entrance.

Fortunately, the great fire hadn’t wiped out the entire wasp swarm. Though countless Mosquito King Wasps perished, some survivors remained, likely enough to ensure propagation. As for the remnant Skeleton Bats, they had already fled their countless crevices in the rock walls, disappearing without a trace, having been choked by the dense smoke when the fire started.

At this moment, I should have been able to catch my breath, but the burning agony consuming my head and face drove me nearly mad.

Qin Bing’er scurried to my side. Seeing my head swollen like a winter melon, tears immediately streamed from her eyes. Although my eyes were swollen almost shut, I could vaguely make out that she was unharmed, which brought me significant relief.

Man Niao Niao’s buttocks were swollen into two spheres the size of watermelons, embodying half the essence of the term “fat posterior.” Logically, he should have been preoccupied with his own condition, yet upon seeing me, his true nature resurfaced. He pointed at me and burst into laughter. “Ying Ying is too greedy (slang for gluttonous)! You’ve got two giant ciba stuck in your mouth and haven’t finished eating. Tsk tsk… Your eyes, slit by that razor grass, what’s the best word to describe them? Ah… ‘Bright and full of spirit’ should fit perfectly! Haha… Ouch!”

That “Ouch” was because I landed a kick squarely on his backside, making him wince in pain. When my foot connected, I felt the soft, fleshy impact. His cheekbones quivered slightly from the blow, looking far better than Sister Furong’s, by the way. I wanted to retort, but to my dismay, I could only manage a few muffled "Mmmph" sounds.

“You two little cowards, stop fooling around,” Ji Ye spoke up. “I just tested it; this bat guano is indeed the best cure for wasp venom. The Old Boss was right: where there’s a venomous snake, there must be an antidote herb within three steps. This bat guano, though foul-smelling, works fast on wasp venom. Look, the stings on me have already subsided, and Miss Qin and Hua’er’s venom is treated the same way.”

No wonder Hua’er and Qin Bing’er were fine. It meant that while Man Niao Niao and I were burning the mound, Ji Ye had already applied the Skeleton Bat guano to cure their stings.

Hearing this, Man Niao Niao was ecstatic. Forsaking all pretense, he bolted toward a corner, dropped his trousers, and sat down hard on the ground. As he ran, I caught a glimpse of his backside swinging wildly side to side, resembling a hesitant duck.

I wanted to laugh but couldn’t. Then, a chill ran through me: if bat guano was the cure, didn’t that mean my entire head and face would be smeared with it? That was something I absolutely could not accept. In Anle Cave, I had already ingested lacquer, kerosene, and strong liquor; my sense of smell was already fragile. If my mouth and skin were to be coated in stinking bat guano as well… this was beyond cruel!

Ji Ye was oblivious to my thoughts. He scooped up a handful of bat guano from the ground, ready to smear it on my head. I sprang up from the ground like a released spring, darted to the cave mouth, and looked back at him with narrowed eyes, signaling that if he tried to use the guano on me, I would jump into the sinkhole.

Ji Ye and Qin Bing’er were stunned, looking utterly lost. Man Niao Niao pulled up his trousers and returned, saw my stance, let out an "Yi," and solemnly nodded. “That’s right. Smearing bat crap on your mouth would indeed be disgusting. If it were me, I’d rather die to prove my point—Brother An, you should try something else!”

I was immensely grateful. The scoundrel Man Niao Niao had finally uttered something sensible!

“Technically, fresh meme is the fastest cure for wasp venom,” Ji Ye interjected. “The problem is, where are we going to find fresh meme now?” Meme means milk. When I was gathering firewood and herding cattle as a boy, I got stung more than once or twice. Every time I wailed in agony, my mother would take me to find nursing sisters to beg for milk. The sisters were frank and open-minded. Finding a bowl troublesome, they’d chuckle, pull out their startlingly white, taut “bunnies,” shove them close to my sting site, and squeeze hard. A stream of hot, slightly metallic milk would spray out. I remember most clearly when I was ten and got stung on the lip by a nest of dog-shit wasps; my mouth swelled just like now. My mother found a sister to ask for milk. That sister was very beautiful, her two “bunnies” as tender and white as tofu. She showed no hesitation, stuffed her ** directly into my mouth, squeezed hard, and flooded my mouth with warm, sweet, fishy milk. I was so ashamed my face turned crimson. The sister chuckled, teasing, “Only my man and son have tasted these two rabbits before; you’re the third! When you grow up to be a man, you must remember how good they were to you!” I was so mortified I wanted to tuck my head between my legs. I held the milk in my mouth, too ashamed to spit it out, utterly humiliated.

—Stop! Now is not the time for reminiscing about pleasant memories!

Man Niao Niao nodded, his eyes fixed on Qin Bing’er’s chest. “How about this, Bing’er… you… you… you squeeze some meme out for him?” Qin Bing’er didn’t know what meme was, but seeing Man Niao Niao’s eyes brazenly fixed on her forbidden area, her pretty face flushed deep red. “What… what are you trying to do?”

The moment Man Niao Niao’s eyes landed on Qin Bing’er’s chest, I knew the trick he was planning. I cursed him internally: You’ve read some books, but you’re still ignorant! How could a girl have milk? A moment ago, you were speaking sense, and now you’re spouting foul nonsense!

Ji Ye glared fiercely at Man Niao Niao and roared, “Nonsense! Shut your damned mouth!” Man Niao Niao stuck his neck out and retorted, “Then what do we do? Brother Ying is truly… like a whip made of dog shit—can’t smell it, can’t wield it… I don’t care anymore; it’s not me who’s hurting. Ouch, my butt feels so comfortable now!”

Seeing Man Niao Niao walk away, I thought a miracle had occurred! Unexpectedly, he spun around like a whirlwind, grabbed a handful of bat guano, dashed toward me with lightning speed, clamped both arms around my head, and smeared the handful of foul matter onto my face and head with the swiftness of a flash. I couldn’t dodge, and held tight by Man Niao Niao, I couldn’t break free, nearly fainting from shock.

Man Niao Niao didn’t care. One smear wasn’t enough; he stooped, grabbed another handful from the ground, and plastered it over my head, the stench shamelessly assaulting and overwhelming every one of my senses.

Qin Bing’er and Ji Ye were frozen, staring blankly as Man Niao Niao worked. Only Hua’er, my good brother, seeing Man Niao Niao holding my head, rushed forward and tried to bite his foot. Man Niao Niao was quick; he stomped his foot hard on the ground and shouted, “You dare bite me! I’m curing your big brother!”

The rage and regret I felt were immense; I cursed the vanished Mosquito King Wasps until they were a bloody pulp and their souls unsettled. You sting the wrong place—sting the mouth when you should sting the butt, and sting the butt when you should sting the mouth—you have no sense of right and wrong! Burning you all alive was your just deserts!

Only when my entire head was smeared did Man Niao Niao release me, jumping quickly to the side. Seeing me reach for my shirt to wipe my face, he glared, pointing fiercely, “You dare! Watch out, or I’ll fix you!” Since the deed was done, and knowing I was no match for him currently, I suppressed the stench and the surging anger in my chest. I shot Man Niao Niao a furious look, clamped my mouth shut, pinched my nostrils with two fingers, and waited for the Skeleton Bat guano to dissolve the venom on my head.

Although the bat guano smelled atrocious, it felt cool applied to the skin, perfectly counteracting the fiery pain. Gradually, the moist, sticky guano began to dry, my tense facial skin slowly relaxed, and the pain diminished step by step.

When the last trace of pain vanished, the guano on my head and face had finally dried. I pinched it, and it fell to the ground. My lips deflated, my eyes opened, and I finally looked like myself again.

Seeing I was restored, Man Niao Niao hopped behind Qin Bing’er, bowing and scraping toward me with a roguish grin. “Pal, you can’t hit a smiling face. Don’t blame me; I did it for your own good… With your temper, hard as the stones in a latrine, trying to persuade you to voluntarily use bat dung for detox was almost as hard as forcing a duck onto a perch… Bing’er, I’m sorry. Telling you to squeeze meme was just to distract him. Do you think I’m really that ignorant?”

Qin Bing’er blushed, giving Man Niao Niao a sharp look. “You… forget it. As long as Ying Ying is well, I’m relieved!” Her sincerity stirred my emotions deeply. I shot Man Niao Niao a look and snarled, “Light up a smoke!” Man Niao Niao hastily pulled the cigarette case from his pouch, his face pained. “Only one left. How about… we split it? You take the part with the filter tip!” Fearing I’d take it all, he quickly broke the cigarette in two and respectfully handed me the filtered end, diligently lighting it for me. After taking a couple of puffs, I asked him, “Is your butt better?”

“It’s cured, sir!” Man Niao Niao’s reply made me laugh through my tears.

I ignored him, walked to the cave mouth with the cigarette, and shone my flashlight. I could only vaguely see scattered embers of fire in the sinkhole where the mound had collapsed. Below the cavern was a sheer, knife-cut cliff face with nowhere to set foot. Although there were other caves on the cliff, they were too far away; unless we had wings, getting to the bottom of the sinkhole via those caves was impossible.

When I returned to the cavern, Ji Ye was puffing on his “blasting tube” of coarse tobacco. Smelling the pungent smoke, I realized the brilliance of Albert Einstein’s “Theory of Relativity”—the foul odor of the Skeleton Bat guano was diluted by the tobacco smoke, making it far less intense.

I illuminated the cavern with my flashlight. It seemed quite deep, about as tall as a person, with wet rock walls. It twisted and turned into the pitch black, and waves of foul odor surged out, making my throat feel constricted, sour, and dry.

“Damn it all, this is like a sow trying to cross a threshold—stuck between moving forward and back,” I cursed loudly, turning to Ji Ye. “What do you think we should do?”

Ji Ye extinguished his smoke against the rock wall, put the remaining half in his pouch, and said, “In my opinion, we should rest before making further plans. Blast it all, in all my years, I’ve never seen such bizarre creatures, nor did I ever imagine we’d fall into a sinkhole that way… and land on a wasp nest… I also have a few corn cakes, would you like some? Damn it, I was smart to wrap the cakes in plastic, or they’d be a soggy mess from the subterranean river!”

Qin Bing’er and I shook our heads. Although we were hungry, in such a stinking place, we had no appetite. Man Niao Niao, with his tougher nerves, had already snatched a corn cake and was devouring it whole, mumbling incoherently, “Damn it all… uh… I didn’t expect it either. Even less did I expect Ying Ying to use that method… uh… to fly into this cave.”

“Tch!” I scoffed. “You haven’t seen much. There are countless strange creatures in this world. I saw online that there are men-faced spiders, pig-headed frogs, transparent fish, and so on. Who says Anle Cave can’t have Skeleton Bats and Mosquito King Wasps? Maybe Anle Cave is simply the sanctuary for all sorts of uncommon beasts.”

“Then why did the Skeleton Bats all fly to the grain cave? Why did we feel sleepy after smelling that strange fragrance? And why didn’t we break our necks when we fell? What’s the deal with the Mosquito King Wasps?” Man Niao Niao swallowed the last bite of his cake, his eyes bulging like dice, filled with a thirst for knowledge.

“This… this…” The string of questions left me reeling. I didn’t know the answers either, but seeing Man Niao Niao in his earnest state, I couldn’t admit defeat. “This… I think it might be like this,” I said solemnly. “Look, the large and small caves on this rock wall are the roosts for the Skeleton Bats, and the earthen mound is the habitat for the Mosquito King Wasps…”

“Nonsense!” Man Niao Niao grumbled.

I glared at him. “The Skeleton Bats and the Mosquito King Wasps must keep each other in check. You can see that from how the bats dared not approach the mound. Similarly, if we hadn’t burned the wasps’ nest and enraged the Queen, the swarm probably wouldn’t have flown into the cave, because when we fell onto the mound, we saw no wasps. It was only when I used the firecrackers to kill the bats that the swarm, sensing the blood, emerged from the mound to feed on the dead bats…”

“Right, how did you think of making firecrackers?” Qin Bing’er interrupted, curious.

“Heh heh, well… actually, I figured bats navigate by sound waves. We couldn’t hear each other speak, so I guessed the sound waves emitted by the bats were masking our voices. This situation shouldn’t usually happen, but because there were so many bats in such a confined space, the superposition of their ultrasonic waves might have caused this result. I thought, if bats rely on sound waves for location, what would happen if we created a massive sound feedback for them?… It turned out to be a lucky shot, a blind squirrel finding a nut, but it worked.” Truthfully, I wasn’t sure if that was the exact science, but the process was hazy, yet the result achieved what I intended.

“As for why we didn’t die when we fell,” I continued, “the reason is simple: there were too many bats, packed too tightly, like quicksand, so our descent speed naturally wasn’t fast, and we didn’t fall to our deaths. However, I am still curious about that strange fragrance the bats stirred up!”

“Perhaps it’s a poison!” Ji Ye suddenly interjected.