The woman from before now stood inside the archway, her umbrella gone, with both hands wrapped around the porcelain vase.
At this moment, Xue Liangliang was surprised to find that upon arriving under this archway, not only had the pulling force of the water flow disappeared, but so had the previous horrifying sensation of suffocation.
He immediately began to breathe deeply, but although he kept performing this action, he could not achieve the desired effect.
His mouth and nose felt blocked, with no fresh air entering.
Suddenly, he realized that what had changed was only his feeling, and not the reality before his eyes.
He was still at the bottom of the river.
But how could this be possible?
He could swim, having spent his childhood in Anhui playing in the water with his friends, and even in college, he would occasionally join his classmates for a few vigorous laps in a swimming pool.
But he did not believe his swimming abilities were so extraordinary. He had been under water for so long that he had far surpassed his limit for holding his breath.
Touching below his ears, his skin was as it always had been—no gills had grown.
He even turned to look behind him and further off into the distance, wondering if he might have already drowned and that his current self was just...
Xue Liangliang clutched his head forcefully, trying to force himself to calm down. The techniques that worked so well during exams and while reviewing design proposals were now ineffective.
His heart was still racing, his body still thrashing, and his teeth couldn’t stop chattering.
He was afraid—afraid of this underwater environment, afraid of the archway, and afraid of the woman holding the porcelain vase within it. He desperately wanted to escape from here, assuming that was possible.
At that moment, the woman moved; she began to walk inward.
Xue Liangliang didn’t move; he dared not step into the archway, nor dared to actively explore the small town.
However, as the woman created a distance between him and her, the terrible feeling of suffocation returned.
Xue Liangliang stumbled forward a few quick steps, and the suffocation disappeared once more.
He understood that the feeling came back if he got too far away from the woman.
The woman continued to walk ahead, and Xue Liangliang had no choice but to follow her into the archway.
He had no choice; for someone who had just experienced desperate suffocation, to go back and endure it again would be even more unbearable.
There was seemingly no connection between him and the woman, yet it felt as though there was an invisible chain, one end held in the woman’s hand, the other circled around his own neck.
Behind the archway, there were more than thirty steps descending.
Xue Liangliang couldn’t help feeling puzzled; normally, unless the specific topography called for it, most ancient villages with archways would not opt for a pattern that led downward right at the entrance.
Ancients preferred to elevate the terrain slightly, with the archway set lower and the ground behind rising, creating a more commanding presence.
Yet here, not only had they not elevated the ground, but they had deliberately carved it down—and significantly so.
No wonder when he had looked toward the town from the outside, the buildings had a hazy appearance, because half of them were actually obscured, with only their upper halves visible.
Additionally, the steps were oddly shaped; typically, the edges would be smooth and flat, with the central majority designed for people to walk upon, but here, the center was a vast smooth surface, and the steps one was meant to walk on were on the narrow sides, not just narrow and small, but also very steep.
While descending, Xue Liangliang sometimes even had to sidestep, as if the people who walked here all had bound feet.
After descending the steps to flat ground, a stone brick path that wasn’t very spacious and felt a bit claustrophobic came into view.
Moreover, these stone bricks were not laid flat; they were all set on end, with the smaller surface facing upward. Not only would this use up more bricks, but it would also increase the amount of labor required.
Additionally, due to the erosion of time, even well-made ancient road surfaces would be uneven, and here, the peculiar brickwork design made it impossible to find a stable landing for the sole of the foot.
With each step, only a small portion of the foot could find purchase, while the rest remained unsupported. One had to tread extra carefully—giving little attention would risk twisting an ankle and falling.
Fortunately, the woman holding the porcelain vase wasn’t moving too fast, so Xue Liangliang could keep up.
After somewhat adjusting to the road conditions, Xue Liangliang began to observe the residences on both sides.
The layout of the residences was compact, overall embodying the architectural style of the Jiangnan water towns, with white walls and gray tiles.
Every residence had a recess roughly half a meter wide between the door and the road, covered by a slab of stone, which was probably meant to be a drainage channel.
Xue Liangliang couldn’t understand the point of building drainage channels at the bottom of a river... unless the town had submerged into the river later on.
At the entrance of each dwelling on the left side, there was a niche with a candle burning inside, emitting a faint green light.
Initially, the doors of the residences he saw upon entry were all closed, but soon Xue Liangliang saw ones that were left open, their interiors pitch-black and indistinct.
An uncomfortable feeling emerged in Xue Liangliang’s mind, not from inner fear or pressure, but from something illogical, especially after seeing the doors of these residences.
After thinking for a moment, he finally realized it was because there were no thresholds below these doors.